RobShanti
Explorer
I'm running a game set in Tolkien's Second Age (circa II 1598 - 1599) using the FATE system. I've dedicated a website to the game, if you're interested:
http://robertpetrone.wix.com/fateoftherings
One of the players is playing, as she described it when she first gave me her character concept, "a chick with a horse, an axe and a dream!" We worked together, as is the way with FATE, to develop that a little further:
Her character is the daughter of Azulzîr, a Númenórean (high men from the Tolkien version of Atlantis) who sired a child with a woman named Slanmar, a Gwathuirim Dunlender ("low" hill people, but not the lowest of lows...these riverside dwellers are the precursors to the Rohirrim, Eowyn's people in Lord of the Rings). The PC is, therefore, a Dúnadan (a human descended from the Númenóreans who now lives in Middle-earth, which is like Tolkien's Europe). Her birth story goes like this (straight from her "character" page on the website):
When the Númenóreans returned to Middle-earth, they encountered fair-haired Dunlendings living by the Gwathló river whom they called the "Gwathuirim." Azulzîr of the Númenóreans sired a child with Slanmar, a woman of a Gwathuirim clan that bred horses, the Ar Mhuin.
The union was looked upon with disfavor by the Ar Mhuin clan because they resented the Númenóreans for deforesting their land to feed their nearby riverside citadel Tharbad. Slanmar and Azulzîr were separated by the conflict, and a daughter was subsequently born to Slanmar, Gràinne Ar Mhuin.
The fate of Azulzîr was unknown, even to Slanmar. Shortly after Gràinne was born, the Gwathuirim settlement was flooded and as the Ar Mhuin migrated east, the Gond, a savage clan of Dunlendings of the Enedwaith, attacked the Ar Mhuin, separating Slanmar from her child, and keeping the Dúnadan girl Gràinne as their own. They named the child Djerhul, "tearful," and never spoke of the forgoil, or "straw-headed" Ar Mhuin. Though she grew to a young woman with the Gond, Djerhul never forgot the image of her mother, or the Gwathló River. When she came of age, she slew a fell Warg that killed one of the Gond's warriors and won her freedom.
In episode 1, Djerhul, or Gràinne, as she learned was her birth name, found the Ar Mhuin people again after leaving her Gond captors. She learned that her mother Slanmar had died many years ago "from a broken heart" (after Azulzîr and she had been separated by the conflict between the Númenóreans and the Ar Mhuin, and after Gràinne had been taken away by the Gond). After spending a little time with the Ar Mhuin, Gràinne decided she wanted to venture into the North of Middle-earth to find out what happened to her father.
This is where I want some ideas from you fantasy-loving folks.
My first thought was to have her discover that Azulzîr had become a king...one of the nine kings of men, in fact, who has received a beautiful Ring of Power from the fair smith Annatar (Sauron in fair disguise). I thought a really cool thing could be to have Gràinne have this wonderful reunion with her long-lost father, learning that she is, in fact, a Dúnadan princess, and finding Azulzîr to be a model father and model king...but then watch him slowly become corrupted by the Ring of Power until he falls. (It's a shame that Sauron doesn't actually bring about the Nazgûl until another 250 years...though I may fudge that.)
But that sounds too derivative of Star Wars: mother's dead, father's the right hand of the evil emperor, etc.
Does anyone else have any other really cool ideas as to what fate may have befallen Azulzîr after he and the PC's mother were "separated by the conflict" between the Númenóreans and the Ar Mhuin? What great surprise will the PC find when she "travels to the North" of Middle-earth in search of her father?
Any and all ideas are welcome!
http://robertpetrone.wix.com/fateoftherings
One of the players is playing, as she described it when she first gave me her character concept, "a chick with a horse, an axe and a dream!" We worked together, as is the way with FATE, to develop that a little further:
Her character is the daughter of Azulzîr, a Númenórean (high men from the Tolkien version of Atlantis) who sired a child with a woman named Slanmar, a Gwathuirim Dunlender ("low" hill people, but not the lowest of lows...these riverside dwellers are the precursors to the Rohirrim, Eowyn's people in Lord of the Rings). The PC is, therefore, a Dúnadan (a human descended from the Númenóreans who now lives in Middle-earth, which is like Tolkien's Europe). Her birth story goes like this (straight from her "character" page on the website):
When the Númenóreans returned to Middle-earth, they encountered fair-haired Dunlendings living by the Gwathló river whom they called the "Gwathuirim." Azulzîr of the Númenóreans sired a child with Slanmar, a woman of a Gwathuirim clan that bred horses, the Ar Mhuin.
The union was looked upon with disfavor by the Ar Mhuin clan because they resented the Númenóreans for deforesting their land to feed their nearby riverside citadel Tharbad. Slanmar and Azulzîr were separated by the conflict, and a daughter was subsequently born to Slanmar, Gràinne Ar Mhuin.
The fate of Azulzîr was unknown, even to Slanmar. Shortly after Gràinne was born, the Gwathuirim settlement was flooded and as the Ar Mhuin migrated east, the Gond, a savage clan of Dunlendings of the Enedwaith, attacked the Ar Mhuin, separating Slanmar from her child, and keeping the Dúnadan girl Gràinne as their own. They named the child Djerhul, "tearful," and never spoke of the forgoil, or "straw-headed" Ar Mhuin. Though she grew to a young woman with the Gond, Djerhul never forgot the image of her mother, or the Gwathló River. When she came of age, she slew a fell Warg that killed one of the Gond's warriors and won her freedom.
In episode 1, Djerhul, or Gràinne, as she learned was her birth name, found the Ar Mhuin people again after leaving her Gond captors. She learned that her mother Slanmar had died many years ago "from a broken heart" (after Azulzîr and she had been separated by the conflict between the Númenóreans and the Ar Mhuin, and after Gràinne had been taken away by the Gond). After spending a little time with the Ar Mhuin, Gràinne decided she wanted to venture into the North of Middle-earth to find out what happened to her father.
This is where I want some ideas from you fantasy-loving folks.
My first thought was to have her discover that Azulzîr had become a king...one of the nine kings of men, in fact, who has received a beautiful Ring of Power from the fair smith Annatar (Sauron in fair disguise). I thought a really cool thing could be to have Gràinne have this wonderful reunion with her long-lost father, learning that she is, in fact, a Dúnadan princess, and finding Azulzîr to be a model father and model king...but then watch him slowly become corrupted by the Ring of Power until he falls. (It's a shame that Sauron doesn't actually bring about the Nazgûl until another 250 years...though I may fudge that.)
But that sounds too derivative of Star Wars: mother's dead, father's the right hand of the evil emperor, etc.
Does anyone else have any other really cool ideas as to what fate may have befallen Azulzîr after he and the PC's mother were "separated by the conflict" between the Númenóreans and the Ar Mhuin? What great surprise will the PC find when she "travels to the North" of Middle-earth in search of her father?
Any and all ideas are welcome!
