#orontor

          In the last days of Númenor, when its people lived under the Shadow of Sauron, there were still some Faithful elf-friends yet remaining upon the Isle of the Gift. These were the Lords of Andúnië and their followers, banished to Rómenna where they could look to the West no longer, but still they kept their faith.            Among these Faithful folk was a young lord named Herendil, the cousin of Isildur and Anárion through their mother Lauriel’s sister. He was born shortly before Sauron’s arrival in Númenor, and had no memory of a time before the rise of the Zigûr. Though his family lived among the Faithful, his mother feared the wrath of the King and sheltered him from the teachings her sister, a loremaster dedicated to preserving their traditions, so dearly loved. But she would not keep Herendil from his kin, and when he stumbled across Lauriel’s writings while on a visit to the house of his elder cousins, Herendil’s eyes were opened to the corruption eating away at the heart of Númenor.            Troubled, Herendil took counsel with his aunt and her husband Elendil, learning of their people’s trials and tribulations. Though at first he was hesitant to believe Zigûr was capable of such evils, he quickly became eager to spread the word to the youth of Rómenna, many of whom had been similarly steered away from the political dangers in which their parents were entangled. Though some mocked him, calling him “Terendul” for his short and slender frame they believed showed his weakness, others were as stirred by these revelations as him. The siblings Almáriel and Poldor, tall and strong youths descended from Narwalótë sister of Númendil, defended Herendil, and Poldor went so far as to call him “Eärendil,” likening him to the famed mariner of old for bringing the difficult truth to light.           As he became more involved with the quiet rebellion among the Faithful, Herendil met the maiden Fíriel, daughter of Orontor. They swiftly fell in love, and when Fíriel’s father left on a mysterious errand with Lord Amandil and two others, Herendil comforted her and spoke to his uncle Elendil, Amandil’s son and now the Lord of the Faithful, asking him to welcome her into his household. For a few uneasy years, Herendil and his friends worked under Elendil’s command to prepare for evacuation of Rómenna when Ar-Pharazôn’s ambitions endangered the Faithful even more.           But of Herendil and his companions, only one would escape the inevitable Downfall of Númenor. As one night Fíriel sang a song of Ilúvatar for her beloved Herendil, she was overheard by one of Pharazôn’s spies who reported her blasphemies to the King. Fíriel was dragged before Zigûr and interrogated, and though she did not give up any information on the doings of the Faithful, she found she was not strong enough to stand in her convictions of Eru and Manwë’s grace and begged forgiveness for her “sins.” Amused by her pleading, Zigûr ordered her to enter the cloisters in the Temple of Melkor, forcing her to become a priestess of Darkness, serving the very evil she had worked against.           Some months later, when Pharazôn’s Great Armament was nearly completed, he sent the King’s Men out across Anadûnê to recruit men for his army. Though many volunteered, a large portion of the soldiers were conscripted by force—especially those among the Faithful of Rómenna. Herendil and Poldor were both drafted against their will, and Herendil in particular refused to go against the Valar. Furious and wishing to make an example of this mutineer, Ar-Pharazôn ordered Herendil to be sacrificed in the Temple of Melkor for his disobedience. Zigûr looked into Herendil’s mind and discovered his connection to the vanished Fíriel, and delighting in his wicked schemes he arranged so Fíriel would make her first sacrifice to Melkor on the very day of Herendil’s death. Thus it was that Fíriel slew the one she most loved, offering his heart to the Dark Vala, and became so entrenched in despair that she made no further efforts at resistance.            Witnessing the awful fate of his friend, Poldor submitted to his conscription and entered Pharazôn’s army. He was among those who sailed to Aman and assailed Valinor, and along with the rest of the Great Armament he was drowned beneath the seas, his spirit held captive in the Caves of the Forgotten until the Dagor Dagorath, when they shall be summoned to fight against Morgoth. His sister Almáriel remained among the Faithful of Elendil’s house and alone of her friends escaped with them to Middle-earth when the great wave came to drown Númenor, for Fíriel could not escape the Temple of Melkor and was consumed along with the wicked.

          Orontor was a lord of Númenor, one of the Faithful, and a vassal to Lord Amandil of Andúnië. He was a skilled navigator and often guided ships through dangerous waters. His spouse was Anarroina, a cook in Amandil’s household, and together they had two children: first a son, Voronwë, and then much later a daughter, Fíriel.           Voronwë was a fast friend of Amandil’s son Elendil and a mariner even greater than his father. Voronwë’s wife Netilya was a Rómenna-born farmer who passed her love of the earth to her elder daughter Cemniel, while the heart of her younger daughter Ilcanië was turned more toward the sea.           Fíriel was dear friends with Cemniel and Ilcanië, being of age with her nieces rather than her brother; all three were swept up in the youth rebellion against Ar-Pharazôn’s oppressive policies stirred up by Herendil. Cemniel quickly grew close to Isildur, son of Elendil, and when she discovered her pregnancy she and Isildur were wed with great haste so their son Elendur might be born within wedlock. Despite the rushed wedding, Cemniel and Isildur would have many happy years together, though they waited to have more children for several decades after Elendur’s birth.           As the Shadow lengthened over Númenor, Lord Amandil grew more and more concerned for the fate of his fallen people. Determining to seek the aid of the Valar in opposing Ar-Pharazôn’s wicked counselor Zigûr, Amandil passed the leadership of the Faithful to Elendil his son and embarked on a journey into the Uttermost West to beg forgiveness from Manwë for the sins of Númenor. With him he took three companions, including Orontor, who though he was reluctant to leave his spouse and daughter followed his lord into the West, never to return.           Mourning her father’s departure, Fíriel was comforted by her friend Herendil, and soon great love grew between them. Herendil spoke to his maternal uncle Elendil and beseeched him to welcome Fíriel and Anarroina into his household, and for a few years he, Fíriel, and their friends worked under Elendil’s command to prepare for the evacuation of Rómenna should the doom of Númenor become full-wrought. Yet for Herendil and Fíriel, the bitter end came all too soon when one night Fíriel was overheard singing a song of Ilúvatar for her beloved and was dragged before Zigûr to be interrogated. Though her life was spared, she was forced into the priesthood of Melkor, and when Herendil himself was brought to the King’s twisted justice, it was she who wielded the blade that killed him, offering his heart to the Lord of Darkness. Fíriel thought it a mercy when the isle of Elenna was drowned, and herself with it, for at least then she could do no more evil.           Though Orontor’s end was mysterious and Fíriel’s tragic, the rest of their family escaped with Elendil and his sons to Middle-earth. Voronwë and Netilya remained at the side of Elendil, though their daughters were swept away by the waves in the ships of Isildur and Anárion. Eventually they were reunited just in time for the wedding of Ilcanië to Sandor, a shipwright in the service of Isildur. Ilcanië and Cemniel her sister dwelt with their husbands in the city of Minas Ithil, Cemniel bearing Isildur two more sons and Ilcanië one child, a lad named Glanor. Their family would remain tight-knit to the end of their days, with Glanor serving as an ohtar to his uncle Isildur and his mother and aunt at one another’s side through many trials.

          Amandil was the penultimate Lord of Andúnië, though his people had been banished to Rómenna before his birth, and he never saw the western haven that once had been his family’s home. He and his younger brother Elentír were, in their youth, friends with Pharazôn and Míriel, children of the royal house: Amandil and Pharazôn were as close as brothers, and Elentír loved Míriel, though she did not return his feelings.           But as they grew older, the friends drifted apart, and when Pharazôn returned from years of conquest in Middle-earth he betrayed Amandil’s friendship, unlawfully seizing the scepter of Númenor and forcing Míriel into a marriage with him against her will. At this Elentír was grieved, for though Míriel had not accepted his proposal she would have preferred his hand to her cousin’s, and he retreated to Rómenna in sorrow, taking no other wife. Amandil attempted to remain by Pharazôn’s side, but after he refused to bow to the king’s captive-counsellor Zigûr, he was dismissed from the Council of the Scepter and exiled to Rómenna in disgrace.           As Ar-Pharazôn’s power and ambition grew, he prepared to make an assault against Aman itself, deeply troubling his once-friend Amandil. At this time, he surrendered leadership of the Faithful to his son Elendil, counseling him to prepare ships to escape Númenor when the time was right. Amandil then gathered his three closest friends, asking them to accompany him upon a hopeless mission into the Uttermost West: sailing to Aman to seek aid and forgiveness from Manwë before Pharazôn could attack.           One of these companions was his brother Elentír, who accepted without question, for he was yet lost in despair at the fate of Tar-Míriel, and wished to do whatever he could to frustrate Pharazôn’s schemes. Another was Ilmandur, whose family had faithfully served the House of Andúnië for generations, and the last was Orontor, youngest of the group and the best navigator among them. Though Orontor hesitated to leave his children, especially his daughter Fíriel who was only a maiden, his loyalty to Amandil tugged at his conscience until he agreed to guide his lord into the west.            Amandil made preparations for their journey in secret, not wishing for Pharazôn to discover his intentions and bring dire punishment upon his people. When at last the day of their departure arrived, Orontor steered them to the east for as long as the King’s navy could see them, only then circling back around and heading westward. The prayers of their families went with them, but though their task was noble and akin to the voyage of Eärendil, Amandil and his companions were never heard from again, and were presumed to have perished before arriving in the Blessed Lands.