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heget
Heget's Heresies on Her 'Hood
(my one over-arching vice is alliteration)
(Read this for spoilers about heget's hypothetical hood, hints of what content she's making for her game, background information of a general historical nature, and if you need to ace a test tomorrow over Tolkien)
another piece from this artist, of an appropriate chapter
Okay, we are finally going to paddle back across the sea to Beleriand and the eastern continent. Again, this is really my Downtown sub-neighborhood. It's Downtown for two simple reasons. First of all, remember how the western continent of Aman has the Two Trees illuminating everything? Yep, nothing like that on the other side of the world. Perpetual starlight. How exactly the Valar enable photosynthesis to work I can only say 'magic'. And when you load a Downtown hood it starts off at night, so perfect. (Again, going have to fudge photos until I can cue the rise of sun and moon.) The second reason involves vampires and werewolves. Mainly that the text mentions them in Beleriand and nowhere else.
Correggio: You need some art?
- I was lacking in visuals that reflected my vision of this group, so som High and Northern Renaissance artists pitched in some portraiture, so just imagine pointy ears on everyone, and you get then idea of what my next massive clothing project is.
Now I have two maps to show. First is Beleriand itself, the area of Middle-earth where most of the exciting action happens during the First Age.
Now here's why you don't see Mordor or anything you'd recognized from the movies on that map.
Notice how most of it is now under water? That is not Global Warming, but why when the Ainur start wrestling it out in the War of Wrath things like whole landmasses get broken. Should I start a tally of how many of my sub-hoods I'll have to pretend to stop playing once I reach a certain point because the land itself is supposed to be destroyed?
As long as I don't get a Fiery Ball of Death I'll be good.
- BonnieLaurel over that the Keep made the perfect terrain map for me.
Also, look how far north Beleriand is. The estimates are the majority of where the action takes place in Beleriand is at latitudes north of the Shire, so we know the seasonal temperatures are not going to be ridiculously balmy. If we take the evidence of tobacco cultivation (that's my answer to what pipe-weed is and I'll pull out the parrying daggers) to put the Shire at Mid-Atlantic Seaboard temperatures, thus allowing for the winter blizzards and also I'm more or less familiar with it, then Beleriand is definitely averaging cool to really cold temperatures, with only the lower end of the Bay of Balar getting that warmer Mediterranean feel. Let's not go into the logistics of no sun yet because my head needs to remain intact. And looking at canon- once the Noldor Exiles finally cross that polar ice cap land-bridge, they step foot in northern Beleriand at the far northwestern corner. And to keep watch on the Big Bad's fortress to the north of the map (the published version always cuts off right below where it is) men had to be able to endure the 'cold and long wanderings'. And those three areas at the top are plains with no mention of trees, though the area right under it, Dorthonion or Taur-nu-Fuin, was described with pines trees and deep tarns. In other words, Scotland.
So fur trim and warm layers in the fall and winter for these folk.
Titian's Vincenzo Mosti. Remove the beard and make him a creepy elf = Maeglin's clothes
Once, you understand, we get seasons...
In the beginning the group living in Beleriand, as discussed in the lecture story, is the remaining majority of Teleri. And the Avari far to the east, but we are ignoring them.
Most elves in Middle-earth are the wandering subjects of Elwë, now called Elu Thingol. The isolation from the other elves mean that the language has adapted and changed. The new language is called Sindarian, after the new name for Thingol's elves, the Sindar. (Sindar means Grey Elves or Elves of the Twilight, and aside from his silver-gray hair, Elwë -now Elu in the new language and the lack of an accent mark makes it so much easier to type- has that second name for his habit of wearing a gray cloak. Thingol means Greymantle. Most of his elves will wear them- if I had a good cloak or mantle mesh... And yes, you should be picturing the cloaks from Lothlórien portrayed in the movies, because same thing.) This is the elven language you read in Lord of the Rings, and the one -with some small exceptions- characters speak when speaking 'elvish'. I'll be referring to these elves as the Sindar to differentiate from the group under Elu's brother, Olwë, back in Aman.
Cranach the Elder - Christoph Von Scheurl
a.k.a. that is an awesome outfit, can Elu borrow it?
Other key differences between the Sindar and the elves of Aman -different alphabet altogether. In Aman the elvish script was called Tengwar, invented by Rúmil, and improved on by Fëanor. It looks like elvish cursive and once I saw a picture of the professor's regular handwriting it dawned on me that his handwriting has a similar shape. (I weep in shame at how pretty his handwriting was.) In Beleriand, however, writing information down wasn't big among the elves. It's easy to keep an oral tradition when your members are immortal. Plus as the book points out, when everything is peaceful you don't bother making records of how everything is. Only after it's all gone to hell you do start recalling all the nice things that are now gone. There was a form of written language, the Cirth, invented by the resident court bard and genius Daeron. Ironically it wasn't popular among his people, but the Dwarves thought it absolutely awesome. So, Dwarf runes - not invented by a Dwarf. And yes, the runes look a lot like the angular runes of our world (which the first editions of The Hobbit used.) I need more parchment and book recolors so I can have the right font for both neighborhoods.
Sindar school rooms look like this
As for whether a certain culture would store written material in scrolls instead of books, I'm think of taking some of the hanging wall scrolls and making matching freestanding deco. There's a mesh by hriveresse and one fixed by Yuxi on my list. I think either the Sindar or my early dwarves would be the likely candidates. Not everything of my neighborhood is set in stone or decided yet.
Now, another difference is that with the sole exception of Elu as the only elf in Beleriand who did go to Aman and see the Two Trees, all Sindar elves and those born post-Tree Death will have these eyes or the original Pooklet set that they are an expansion of. They have the same sclera and shape as the other set and are also very pretty, but while it has enough catch-lights and bright colors (and a very large range of shades to facilitate exact customization) to work for my elves, the overall look is less sparkly lights than the other set. Moriquendi versus Calaquendi.
I have a few eye sets by curiousb that I'm trying out for my humans. Yes, I want them and the dwarves to use different eye sets. Everyone (which the exception of the Balrogs) uses the same skin tones sets, but race/species is in the eye.
Elf Kindergarden lessons, everyone!
The key thing with the Sindar is this: they develop mostly independently of Aman. Once the fragment of the Teleri population under Olwë decide that they are tired of waiting for Elu to reappear (see Silmarillion or lecture for more info), the elves of Middle-earth are on their own. The only friendly Ainur they are in contact with -aside from Ossë visiting the coast- is Melian, Thingol's Queen. The elves are wandering the star-lit forests of Beleriand, coming in contact with the dwarves and basically forgotten by everyone in Aman. So the root culture is the same, but they developed their own paths.
Grey cloak, gray elves, illumination from lamps strung in underground cave palaces... They aren't going to have the bright and tacky colors of the Noldor. In fact, lots of dark grays and elegant black. Now again, if our default fantasy is the Middle Ages and center of the Sindar culture is the court of Menegroth- the Thousand Caves, a large underground palace where "under the lordship of Thingol and the teaching of Melian they became the fairest and the most wise and skilful of all the Elves of Middle-earth", we can again bump up our timeline. The court of Menegroth in Doriath (will use this terms as analogous to name of country and its capital city, though not a perfect analogy) was the center of a sort of elven Renaissance. Except the knowledge is divine knowledge coming just from Melian, a Maiar a.k.a. a lesser Ainur that was in the area because she was impatient to meet elves. Which she did, and fell in love with one, and gave herself an elven form and married him and born a child...
Titian's The Beauty is basically my Melian.
I vow to recreate that outfit for the Sims, because my Queen of the Sindar needs to wear this.
So what's more or less between the High Medieval Period and Tudor but the look of the Italian Renaissance. And all those lovely oil paintings and frescoes had convinced me that the clothing of that period is very pretty. The Mio Juliet meshes are well and good, but to give myself more play I'm going to steal the sleeves and combine them with Cynnix's sleeves and other dresses to give more gown options. My perfect tunics will help handle men.
St. Catherine & St. Barbara by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Now there are some divisions among the Teleri-root elves in Beleriand. Only the elves living inside the magical protective border of Doriath set by Melian are truly 'Iathrim' or Sindar of Doriath- and shall be our default. But the Sindar who stayed to the north around the big gray misty lake are Mithrim. Which are like the poor country cousins, and for them I can churn out lots of dresses from the hundreds of Cranach paintings of Judith with the head of Holofernes. Yes, there is a distinct fashion labeled as such because of the volume of the fad for a painting of a chick with a sword and a severed head. The terrible part of me is wondering what subject matter in Gondor would have made artists paint the same elf chick over and over again. Or would there be in the Fourth Age entire art galleries worth of serenely smiling "Eowyn with Head of Fell Beast"?
See, lots of variations on "Sassiest lady to ever chop off a dude's head"
Also along the coast of Beleriand would be some sea loving Teleri who didn't take the jaunt across the sea and fall under the leadership of Cirdan the Shipwright. Yay, a name from Lord of the Rings! But aside from a seafood diet -and more estuary than ocean-going- and some beach houses (I'm seeing primarily wood, on stilts) the shore-folk of Círdan aren't going to differ greatly from Doriath.
But there is this division between Sindar and Silvan, that is to say between the Grey Elves and the Wood Elves. You say, wait, aren't the Sindar the wood elves like the Lothlorien elves and Legolas from Mirkwood? To which I answer, yes and no. Mixed population, and read the story of Amroth and Nimrodel.
Beleg Strongbow by Brokenmachine86
In short, the Sindar elves were the third tribe elves that made the march towards Aman all the way until their leader Elu gets waylaid, forcing them to wait until he could be found and therefore missing the boat to Aman (Olwë took the not-waiting anymore group on the one-time ferry across). However members of the third group would peel off every time the elves rested on the long journey, deciding that they would rather live in this current area than make the trip all the way to the distant Aman. Collectively they comprise of all the wandering, hunter-gather level, forest and river loving Silvan or Wood Elves. A dude name Dan is the leader of the largest group of deserters, and those elves actually live in what would later become Rohan and Gondor. Most of this largest cohesive group migrates into Beleriand and reunites with the Sindar in Doriath after orc pressures push them west. They are led by Denethor, Dan's son, and the Sindar in Beleriand are overjoyed to be reunited with long-lost kin.
They get less happy when the orcs come.
Green Elves are mostly the same genetic type as the Sindar and Teleri, but as a whole I'll be adjusting the Stretch Skeleton cheat to make them shorter, and body types when I can use them will be slighter of frame. I don't use a whole lots of body types in my game because until recently there weren't a lot of meshes for medieval periods in all the categories I'd want. Still, if I was to generalize, the elves as a whole canonically are rather androgynous between men and women until after elven woman have given birth once or twice, then the curves and gained weight tends to stay. I do imagine some elves -mostly the Noldor- as being more muscular and wider-barreled in the chest, and we have the one mention of Salgant as a heavy and squat elf, though if that remained canon or just how hefty one would have to be for an elf to think one such... My human ladies, however, will be the ones allowed the lovely curvy RenGal shapes (and thus I can joke about how Aegnor was totally staring at your hair, Andreth.)
Pasting the map again, because readers don't have it memorized yet
Now the elves under Denethor are living in Ossiriand- that southeast corner of the map, and they are very low-tech, having no iron or steel weapons, being a wandering forest folk whose leaf-green clothing blends in with their surroundings. They are our wandering hunter-gathers- except it gets tricky when their objections to the newly arriving humans are that the humans are "hewers of trees and hunters of beasts". Which makes you assume that the Green Elves are vegetarians. And most hunter-gathers societies, while using forest-gardens as the low-level and ancient version of agriculture, also need to hunt to survive. And most of the clothing, if wearing any, might be of some woven plant material, but also leather and animal furs would be important. More importantly, such societies tend to be in tropical jungle areas. Ossiriand, where the Green Elves live, might be the warmest part of Beleriand, but it certainly isn't tropical. So how are they staying warm without furs? Note the clothing is 'green as leaves', not 'made of leaves'. So no, my Green Elves won't be in Twikki Island or Castaway clothing. They can have some small bronze and copper tools and weapons, as long as it never gets up to iron or decently protective armor, because the story states that in the first great battle between elves and orcs, the People of Denethor, though valiant, are going be severely outclassed by the iron armor and weapons of the orcs. As in, they die. And what of wood, if they aren't chopping down lots of trees? I hate the lack of logistics when fantasy creators decide to make 'wood elves', because I have problems which how things are supposed to work. At least I have the Sindar elf communities and the dwarves to provide trade to explain away some items.
So what are the Green Elves (when they show themselves) going to look like? Well, I'm making them more sedentary, and they can have the orchard trees and garden plots to provide all food, and the clothing will be woven and dyed with natural bases shades of green. The shapes will be much simpler than the clothing in Doriath, though the Green Elves that move into its protection instead of returning to Ossiriand will pick up the Sindar customs and looks. Also lots of body paint and camouflage. Here is where elves dressed in pre-medieval styles will appear. They aren't going to own dogs or cats, and I'm debating on livestock in general. This is also the group that probably builds homes in the trees, maybe something like the flets or talans that crop up in Lothlorien. Good thing they aren't much for making fires.
(Okay, really. The hints about the levels abuse an elven body can handle will be picked up later, but seriously.)
watercolor by Jenny Dolfen
Spirit of Fire realizes that for a supposed genius, he should have made fire-proof armor, or at least not have been stupid enough to separate from everyone and get surrounded by Balrogs (I have NEVER been impressed by anything from Fëanor but the self-destruction)
On armor and weaponry- frankly the Noldor until they get to Beleriand shouldn't have any beyond some theoretical show pieces (Remember, that sword Fëanor used against his brother was something invented only after the Big Bad helps to exasperate tensions and was crafted in a country without violence). They will have technical skill as far as metal-working, yes, but very little in the manner of practical or applicable knowledge. Which is not how it usually works in the real world.
So let's look at the Sindar in Beleriand:
Therefore Thingol took thought for arms, which before his people had not needed, and these at first the Naugrim [Dwarves] smithied for him; for they were greatly skilled in such work, though none among them surpassed the craftsmen of Nogrod, of whom Telchar the smith was greatest in renown. A warlike race of old were all the Naugrim, and they would fight fiercely against whomsoever aggrieved them: servants of Melkor, or Eldar, or Avari, or wild beasts, or not seldom their own kin, Dwarves of other mansions and lordships. Their smithcraft indeed the Sindar soon learned of them; yet in the tempering of steel alone of all crafts the Dwarves were never outmatched even by the Noldor, and in the making of mail of linked rings, which was first contrived by the smiths of Belegost, their work had no rival.
Yeah, you read right. Elven work is at best cheap knockoffs of dwarf armor. With one guy as an exception, and that's because he's as close to a dwarf as an elf could get. (And nope, not a Noldor.) But chain-mail is the common form of body armor for those able to afford it. And Sindar armor will be leather, chain, and that one exception gets magic black armor better than mithril. Plate armor is going to exist only in pieces -except our Big Bad in his huge Tin Tyrant outfit. And the dwarves have helmets with full facemasks. The Noldor will have the most use of plate; the Sindar in light chain, and probably more likely re-enforced gambesons and padded silk and boiled leather because the Grey Elves are our stealthy secret rangers. Can't be clanking around in plate through the dense forest. Buff coats would be the basic level for most human armor, being a protective leather coat that most could afford. However my inner Genghis Khan is telling me that silk vests are the optimum light-weight protection that makes arrow injuries easier to handle.
Elena Kukanova's Melian, which has the right attitude to match my head version, but that's it
Also, Melian as the Byzantine queen controlling and producing the production of silk? Yes, please. Plus that means the intricate woven tapestries of Constantinople in the later Byzantine style with their fanciful roundels that certainly look similar to those elven heraldic devices can be my inspiration for the 'woven hangings' that decorate the walls of Menegroth. Fabrics thus divide between the two sides of the ocean, with linen acceptable for both, but wool and cotton more common on the West and silk as the expensive fabric in the East. Not that it really makes any visual difference in a Sims game.
aautio's various sketches of elven armor and weapons has been very inspiring
More notes on weapons- After some dwarvish intervention they will improve, plus the hundreds of years of fighting orcs and Balrogs will whittle away showy impracticalities and improve the tech. There's bound to be a difference between the initial Noldor and Sindar designs. What weapons we have mentioned by name in the text are mostly swords. Luckily the number of sword meshes are expanding.
Elu had a sword with the neat nickname of 'The King's Ire'. Also was what I've nicknamed in my head the dark twin sisters, the two-infinity-plus-one swords of Middle-earth. Not Narsil. Anglachel and Anguirel, the forged from a falling star piece of iron, black swords with dark hearts forged by our non-Noldor super-smith. Who was the Tony Stark of elvish weapons development, if Tony Stark was a real misanthropic jerk without the charm of a lot of redeeming qualities. But these swords 'could cleave all earth-delved iron', the one speaks aloud to Turin (though that last bit might just be in Turin's head; the guy was pretty crazy-cakes right before his suicide by falling on said sword), and there is some apocryphal reference to the Revelation-like end of days where Turin will come back and use said sword to finally slay the Big Bad. Which, eh, it was able to kill a dragon fine. (Anyone else starting to look askance at Bard's Black Arrow and ponder just what was it really made of?)
Turin with his black sword, by liga-marta
Spears, bows, and axes as secondary weapons fit for most warriors, considering especially with the humans there is no professional standing army. You want dual-purpose weapons, which technically all are but swords. We have quite a few archers- Maglor the second son of Feanor has troops of horse archers, whereas Beleg Strongbow is known for his, you guessed it, large black yew bow. (Which has a name, Belthronding. Naturally.) Sindar elves would have the heavier longbows, the Noldor with lighter horse bows, more or less. As least the elves won't have the issues associated with longbow men, mainly the long years of training and the necessary slow growth yew trees.
Another random Beleg, by Gerwell. Oddly enough this is getting closer to what I envision
Also a very common weapon among the march-wardens of Doriath, the dwarves, and the people of Haleth (all trading patterns with strong ties to each other and this make sense) would be large battle-axes. The archaic double-headed Minoan ax by hriveresse in her Titans set works for my mental image, especially for the royal Doriath bodyguards. Also use of the spear Aiglos as a weapon by Gil-galad. And you want to know the third reason, for those reading my elf heraldry post, why I keep Gil-glalad as Fingon's son instead of Orodreth's? Because if he is the kid of Orodreth, that makes Finduilas his sister, and Finduilas died pinned to a tree by an orc spear, and there is no way in all the pits of Angband I am keeping a character with a distinctive weapon under the conditions when the other famous mention of its weapon's classification is in the slaying of a sibling. Most other elven princes are going to use swords, like Fingolfin's Ringil or Turgon's Glamdring. The Big Bad has a giant mace called the Hammer of the Underworld.
Since this is a Sim's game and therefore the only fighting I can really do is Pescado's fight club hack or lots of pose boxes and the crate of throwing axes and the dueling swords, we won't delve into the military tactics and all too much.
Siege war, for all that the First Age from the arrival of the Noldor Exiles until the end of the War of Wrath is one long siege against the Big Bad, has virtually nothing in the matter of siege-craft. No large siege weapons or towers or sappers or long tactics that the terms 'castle' or 'siege' should conjure. Disappointed.
Botticelli's portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
or Galadriel in Doriath, having adopted local fashion...
Some notes on our war-like Noldor Exiles: They are coming to Beleriand in appearance still looking like the Noldor of Aman. They interact and adopt the language and some of the customs of the Sindar. They are fighting a long loosing battle for centuries. The fancy bright colors and jewel-encrusted pieces are going to fall by the wayside, especially after the Big Bad starts knocking off their kingdoms. By the end of the First Age we are going to have most elven characters in late medieval clothing, the simpler Burgundian gowns and front-laced kirtles, men when not permanently attached to their dented and rusted armor in short tunics and hose.
The Hidden City of Gondolin, owing to its isolation from the rest of Beleriand from its founding about 126 years after the Noldor arrive in Beleriand and until its destruction almost 400 years later, is going to more conservative in style and dress. The city was built as the ultimate hidden elf village and as a tribute -that is almost creepy reproduction- of the city of Tirion that the Exiles had left behind. So they are going to preserve a lot of the original Aman-Noldor culture. This is also the one place where the language of Aman, Quenya, would be spoken most. In other places in it only spoken by the Noldor when they're by themselves and on some preserved documents. Elu had decreed that only the Sindar language would be spoken in Beleriand among the elves, banning the language of the Exiles. This was a reaction to that fact that the Noldor Exiles under Fëanor happen to murder the Teleri, steal their priceless Swan Boats to sail to Beleriand, then Fëanor burns the boats to deny his brothers' followers from coming. (They come anyway, crossing a polar ice bridge in a world without a sun or moon, now even more irritated and untrusting of the Fëanorean partisans, having just trudged through a journey even the White Walkers would be saying, "Damn, that's cold.") And then the Exiles lied and kept quiet about that misadventure in kin-slaying, theft, and arson to the Sindar. Elu is already less that pleased with these new arrivals stealing his land without leave, even if they are here to reclaim the territory from the big bad and fight the orcs. Again, this is all actual plot events and this post is long enough without me summarizing character events. Safe to say, there is tension between the elven groups.
If you know the story behind this painting from Jenny Dolfen, it's very appropriate
The early years- first few decades or so, when the Exiles are in Beleriand, as they are still camped around the shores of Lake Mithrim, the Fëanoreans on the north shore and Fingolfin's host on the south, they are living in tents and slowly making ties with the Mithrim Sindar and trying not to shoot at each other. After the factional tensions ease a bit after Maedhros is rescued and the sons of Finarfin get diplomatic leave for the Noldor to settle in the regions of Beleriand that the Sindar no longer dwell, plus the 'Feast of Reuniting' Fingolfin hosts to try and unify everyone, the Exiles spread out. Each build towers and castles and stronghold in their own realm, and thus I get to play with lots of stone castle layouts. Smithies and weapons rooms will get top priorities, and everything from the tents to wall hangings to pillows will have the heraldric devices.
Cranach's Duchess von Mecklenburg
I leave the elves for right now with this final painting. Part Four (and maybe Five) will cover the humans, then I have several sections on Dog Breeds, Cats, Horses, other livestock, and some more esoteric subjects of food, first aid, astrology and astronomy, and any topic that someone suggests to me.