I burn, I freeze; I am never warm. I am rigid.

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 RIFTER APPLICATION

Name: Kate
Age: 20
Contact: pr0ph3t
Other Characters: none at this time.
Interests: The difference between Tolkien elves and their Thedosian Elvhen counterparts, relating to issues of oppression, class, religion, and so on and so forth. Also, am huge DA nerd and ought to put that to use.


Name: Thranduil (Oropherion, the Elvenking, etc)
Canon/OC: Tolkien Legendarium 
Canon Point: Third Age 2945 
Journal: rowancrowned 
Age:  ~7000, give or take a few years.

Canon World

Tolkien’s universe—Eä—begins with song. Eru Ilúvatar, the One, the undisputed (except by Melkor and Sauron) creator of the world, sings existence into being with the help of his Ainur. Chief among the Ainur are the thirteen Valar, born first and directly from his mind. One of the Valar, Melkor, wasn’t pleased with Eru’s plan for the world. Twice, he sung in disharmony with the great music, and twice, Eru merely changed the theme around it. When Melkor tried again, Eru rebuked him.

Melkor’s disharmony disturbed some elements of Eru’s design, and allowed evil into the world. Like mold, so thank Melkor for cheese.

Meanwhile, all the Ainur go down to Arda and make it ready for the first Children of Ilúvatar, the elves. Melkor literally smashes a bunch of mountains, the Valar fix it, Melkor does more things, the Valar patch it up—until the Valar eventually stop trying to protect the whole supercontinent, and King Solomon the landmass. Melkor 'gets' the right half, from then named Middle-earth, the Valar get Aman, the left half, ‘the blessed realm’. Unfortunately, the elves, who the Valar are super excited to meet, wake up on the right half. Melkor finds them first, steals some away, and through torture and selective breeding, turns them into Orcs.

The Valar find the remaining newly-wakened elves, and persuade a majority to come to Aman. Many elves do not complete the journey, but the intent to complete it or how far they get sets up their social class.

Fast-forward a couple thousand years. Due to some debate over intellectual property rights, a bunch of elves leave the blessed realm and come back to Middle-earth. The Valar finally get around to making a non-pole based light source, and promptly curse the elves who ditched Aman—the Noldor—who proceed to mess up Melkor pretty good, and caused him to be banished into the Void, but not without great personal cost. Sauron, his lieutenant, escapes this fate.

Now, after Middle-Earth has been around for Melkor and Sauron to fuss with, it is not nearly as pretty as Aman. Sauron comes to a Noldor smith named Celebrimbor, pretending to be an Ainur, and offers him a way to heal Middle-earth. How? Rings.

Specifically, nineteen rings— of which Sauron had a hand in creating seventeen. Nine for mortal men and seven for dwarves, and one that he forged in secret as a super control ring. One might even say he made it to become lord of all the rings. Celebrimbor created three rings that Sauron did not know about— for elves.

Sauron’s plan for world domination does not go as intended—the elves are able to hold out and resist him, even pulling to gather together for a last alliance to seemingly defeat him. Only seemingly. Many, many years later, a fellowship forms to finally destroy the One Ring, but Thranduil is taken from before this time. 

History

• YoT ???: born in the later Years of the Trees in Menegroth, in the Kingdom of Doriath. The kingdom is pretty great at this point- the king's wife is one of the Ainur, and the craft she weaves about the city makes it so no evil thing can enter.
• FA 502: dwarves sack the city and kill the elven king, Elu Thingol. His wife, Melian the Maia, flees in grief, and the protections she had woven about the city fall apart, leaving it open to attack. Dior, Thingol's grandson, assumes the kingship.
• FA 506: kinslaying elves sack the city four years after the first sack, looking for a silmaril. The kingdom falls entirely, survivors flee to the Havens of Sirion. Thranduil's mother dies in this attack, if not in the previous one.
• Oropher, Thranduil's father, however, does not go to the Havens and instead takes his household to Greenwood the Great.
• FA 538: the same elves who sacked Doriath sack the refugee-filled Havens. 
• FA 590: first Age ends.
• SA: 100's: Oropher formally assumes kingship over Greenwood the Great, makes his capital at Amon Lanc.
• SA 1600: Rings of Power forged.
• SA 3430: Last Alliance of Elves and Men formed to go get Sauron to Stop. Oropher commits to the cause, takes his army there- and dies. Thranduil takes the kingship, and returns to Greenwood, eleven years later, with one third of the army he arrived with. 
• SA: 3441: Second Age ends.
• TA 800-900: Southern parts of Greenwood start to darken, giant spiders start appearing. Thranduil and his court leave Amon Lanc, both to escape the evil rising in that part of the forest, and to get away from Lothlórien and Galadriel, who are seen as trying to exert too much influence over the kingdom.
• TA 1050: 'the Necromancer' takes up residence in the abandoned capital, large swaths of the southern forest go dark, spiders get bigger. Greenwood renamed 'Mirkwood' for obvious reasons.
• TA 2460: Sauron makes Amon Lanc his headquarters, effectively making it deadly to go anywhere near the old capital.
• TA 2770: Erebor attacked by Smaug.
• TA 2942: Events of 'The Hobbit' begin. Battle of the Five Armies, and so forth- Team 'Good' wins, Erebor reestablished, Bard becomes King of Dale, good things all around. 

Personality

First and foremost, Thranduil is primarily a survivor. He survived two sackings of his birth city at a very young age, and then went on to survive a battle where not only his own father died, but two-thirds of the army they brought with them also perished. He is so deeply affected by this that spends most of the time after the Last Alliance planning for the return of Sauron, unable to even look south without remembering what happened.

This fear and the great loss of life at the Last Alliance makes him both stubborn and viciously protective over elven lives—specifically, the lives of his people. Oropher was not born into being King of the Woodland Realm—the Silvans chose him and his line to rule, and Thranduil by extension after him. Their lives are fully in his hands—and he recognizes the magnitude of his task, performing admirably. He is the second-longest reigning king in Middle-earth, and the only major elven ruler to hold on in the Third Age without a ring of power, despite having the largest kingdom. And all of this with Sauron at his doorstep.

This earns him recognition in Middle-earth—when ‘Elvenking’ is said, it is obvious the speaker is referring to Thranduil. Tolkien even acknowledges him as ‘their greatest King’ (The Hobbit). He is charismatic, witty, spinning turns of phrase that make Bilbo blush.

Nor can anyone doubt he does not love his people, sacrificing for them—his sole weakness is for ‘silver and white gems’ ( The Hobbit ). Though the Silvan elves ‘neither mined nor worked metals or jewels, nor did they bother much with trade or with tilling the earth’ ( The Hobbit ), Thranduil is somehow able to keep them in imported goods, such as Dorwinion wine. While part of his income doubtless comes from taxes on travelers and traders coming through his wood, it makes more sense that he sells part of his store of treasure to keep his kingdom well-stocked, rather than building the horde, as he so longs to do.

His ire, though admirably hot when sparked, only comes when those he rules are threatened. He seeks little interaction with the outside world beyond trade because of a fear of outside influences, both from more benevolent sources, such as Galadriel, and darker ones, such as whatever is living in Amon Lanc. Again, it rises not at personal insult, but at threat to his people, and he is more inclined to forgive than anger. The dwarves stumble upon his elves feasting not once but thrice before he takes serious issue with them.

Thranduil’s identity is bound up with his kingship—his duty to his people must come first before any personal attachments or desires, though not necessarily to the detriment of his own happiness. The quickest way to anger him will always be to harm those under his protection, just as the quickest way to charm him will come from wit or kindness to those selfsame people.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Elf…ness—immortality and a bunch of other sub-powers fall under this. Tolkien elves are immortal in the truest sense—if their body is destroyed, the soul goes to Mandos’ halls, where it sits for a while, overcoming the trauma of their death, and is then reshelled in a form more-or-less identical to the one they left. Elves do not sleep, period, but rather engage in an eyes-open reverie, nor do they truly dream. And while they do need to eat and drink, they do not need to consume either at great quantities to keep themselves alive.  They are immune to all illnesses and most poisons, heal quickly, do not die in childbirth, and will survive unto the end of the world unless felled by sword or sorrow.  They can communicate with plants and animals, to varying degrees of success—Thranduil has a special affinity for speaking with birds, for example. They tend to be taller than most men, and far more beautiful. They learn faster than men, but only initial concepts. Their great mastery over certain subjects comes from the time they are able to devote to them.

Craft—Tolkien elves wholly object to anything they do being referred to as magic.  Magic/sorcery carries dark connotations in Tolkien’s works, especially any magic that forces someone to do something, or compels anything to go against its nature. Tolkien himself says it best:

“Their ‘magic’ is Art, delivered from its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous reforming of Creation.”

So nothing Thranduil does can go against the laws of this. He specializes in concealment and subterfuge, making a place secure. He is able to refuse entrance to his Halls by mere will, he wraps his entire kingdom in illusion and falsehood, and his forest is so saturated with this that a river therein has the ability to cause temporary memory loss if one touches the water. His works are mental rather than physically—he alters almost nothing of the real world, only perceptions thereof, like Melian the Maia did in his birth city, with her protective girdle.

Marital Ability—Thranduil is seven thousand years old, and has had plenty of time to get good at using a sword. While by no means the best elven swordsman—not even coming close—and due to his poor sight (a result of burns and vision issues stemming from that), no longer an archer, he is still competent enough for an elf, and likely very, very good in the world of Thedas.

Statecraft—He prefers words over violence. While certain things—dark things, orcs, darkspawn, etc—will not be negotiated with, ever, he would rather use his literal millennia of ruling experience to solve a problem (preferably in his favor too) than kill it. He will also never, ever commit violence unto another elf unless in the gravest of circumstances. Kinslaying is the worst sin an elf can commit. 

Weaknesses—Sorrow can literally kill an elf. Thranduil has several personality flaws, mainly his stubbornness, which lead to interpersonal problems. His elfness is also a weakness, especially in Thedas. In Middle-earth, his reputation proceeds him by a huge degree, both because he's Thranduil, and also simply because he's an elf. His council is heeded, he's afforded a great deal of (earned) respect, and that's vastly, vastly different from how he's going to be treated in Thedas. He's a proud person, and to not only be treated as lesser by humans, but to see the state the elvhen are in as a whole is going to make it particularly difficult to him to have any useful relationships with humans. 

Arrival Inventory

• clothes on his back (Robe, coat, pants, tunic, etc. Traveling clothes, basically, suitable for a horseback ride through a dangerous forest to Dale and then a visit with Dale's king.)
• his circlet + his jewelry. (Sorry, no rowan crown! Platinum band set with a white diamond, several rings.)
• two swords and a knife.
• assorted pocket nonsense: some of the coins used in Dale, a few pieces of correspondence, his seal, a particularly pretty acorn, half a piece of lembas.

'Human'ization

See powers! I've spoken with Galadriel's player in relation to nerfing some of his abilities and to get an understanding of how Tolkien elves are treated in this game. The splitting of his fëa/hröa would weaken his illusion and girdling abilities. One of the few bits I take from the movies are his dragon fire scars (received around the time of the Last Alliance) that are quite extensive and covered at all times with a glamour. He's pretty vain, and covering them- or choosing to reveal them- is pretty vital to his pride.

It is important to note he is nowhere near as 'magically' powerful as Galadriel, having neither her age nor her time in Valinor with the Valar themselves to teach her. His tutor for craft/magic was presumably Melian, given the similarities of their craft and their proximity, who was a low-level Maiar. 

Fit

Thranduil is an elf from a world where elves are hot shit. Thedas is a world where elves are shit. The struggle of him working to raise his elvhen cousins- because he will think they're related- to the level they ought to be at, as well as the impact of religion (anything that isn't Eru is against Eru, and therefore comes from Melkor) on Thedosian daily life, is going to be really interesting to me to play out with him. I love throwing Thranduil into political situations with plenty of intrigue, plus exploring the differences between interpretations of elves across various fictional worlds. Fade Rift offers both of those in spades.


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