Erelith Rhîwhên Môrelen

Her hair swept across the front of her brow, white and shining against the moonlight; dancing as it played across the slender features of her face. A pair of dark eyes stared back at him, deeper and more fierce than he imagined the seas to be. Her mouth neither curved upward in greeting, nor down, but rather was set across her face as if etched in stone. Her appearance was neither old nor young to him, for she was of elvenkin and ageless, but knew that she could be no more in years than he. Across her face was written memories of things both glad and sorrowful. Surely if she beheld the evil of her father he might have seen such a trace of this wickedness, but for all his efforts he could find nothing but innocence.

Family – She is the first child of Meren Môrelen, she never discovers the birth of her younger brother Almarean. Her mother Élaine was thought to have died from the severity of her wounds at the hands of her father during her second pregnancy. Eventually, she finds refuge in the Sedryn House and finds the four brothers kindred spirits. Of this house, Erelith also bears a daughter, Thurinae, whom she sents to the far reaches of the Northlands for her safekeeping.

Race – Erelith knows she is of the Moriquendë elves, but unrevealed to her is in fact that she is not a pure-blooded immortal. While Maeve’s family was pure elvish, Maeldun was mortal. This was enough to ensue a fued over the potential loss of the Grace of the Eldar. Added to this was the fact that Maeldun’s side were descendants of the great Beornings, a skin-changer. After it was revealed the pair secretly wed, Aine (Maeve’s mother) put a curse on the Môrelen House that any born would surely go mad if they discovered their feral side. Even if they didn’t, she assured that the pain caused by the couple would be tenfold if their house was to procreate.

History – Born during a harsh blizzard in the beginning of the month of December. (This is the source of her birth name, given to her by her mother. Rhîwhên means simply, winter’s child.) For many of her first years it was spent on the run with Élaine, and the unexplained absence of her father. Around the (in mortal terms) age of five, her mother was thought to be murdered by the hand of Meren. Even though the small child fled from the scene, she was soon recaptured into her father’s hands. He makes to dispose of her as well, but she shows a certain potential upon their first meeting that reflects his own demeanor and spares her life. Misleadingly, he attempts to win over his young daughter’s trust. During this time he retreats to Amon Lanc where he instructs her in the Black Speech, and touches the surface to her potential. Even in her later years, she still retains her ability to communicate telepathically. Roughly, at age ten, Erelith becomes aware enough to see through her father’s truth and lies. Night terrors begin to plague her with the memories of Meren’s immoral acts she’s been witness to. Erelith begins to plot her escape from the stronghold of Amon Lanc, all the while adapting to Meren’s games. It takes her another five years to make a break for her freedom. Her father sends his hounds after her and drags her into imprisonment. Meren realizes his daughter as a potiential threat for a couple reasons: 1. Firstly, she knows the inner workings of Amon Lanc. 2. She’s around fifteen to sixteen (again, in mortal terms) and developing. He is threatened by her potential for developing her grandfather’s skin-changing abilities. If she does, he knows his daughter will be uncontrollable without her loyalty. He also sees that she’s adapted to his trickery, and can equally play along just as well, if not better. He fears his own demise. For this, he keeps his daughter securely locked down until she chooses to ally with her father. Even then, he forces Erelith to demonstrate her newfound devotion by branding herself with his mark; the mark of their house. Her name is no longer Rhîwhên at this point, but Erelith. In later years she keeps this name above all to remind Meren of the child he created, the child who will be his downfall. At the arrival of her nineteenth year, Erelith makes a sucessful escape from the stronghold. Unfortunately, this ensues a huge siege on the northern Moriquendë lands in Mirkwood, and causes the death of Varinus, among several others. The hunt for her is unsucessful, but she doesn’t escape without her share of wounds. Erelith finds safekeeping behind the stone walls of the Sedryn House soon after, learning language, lore, and more instruction in the use of both blade and bow. Phaedrus conceals her identity after her recovery, naming her Erestel, meaning "trusted one." Her known languages are: Black Speech, Sindarin, and the Common Tongue. However, she finds it hard not to retreat to using her means of mental communication more often. When she does speak, it is usually some harsh truth, or words of great importance. Erelith is a little socially inept due to the little interaction she has had overall with others. She’ll often conceal her emotions, though she’s hardly the best at that. To go along with it, Erelith’s one hell of an awful liar as well. Erelith is also stubborn to the core, refusing to admit to help even if the situation is dire. (This is where Varsis usually comes in for the saving.)

Edit: Erelith is often relentless in war, and fights as if she were her enemies: quickly, and without mercy. Though her frame is slender, she views herself as strong, both physically and emotionally. She enjoys the victories of life, but has a hard time with admitting her defeats and mistakes. Her most common downfalls are her stubborn nature, and her temperment. As much as she chooses to deny her likeness to Meren, her heart knows this as truth.

Wow, drastically different- you can say that again! She's almost a completely different person ;) But I suppose I sort of like this Erelith better, because, well, she's unusual. It makes her all the more interesting. Are you going to be letting the Erelith in the current Amon Lanc begin to mould into this new personality? (are we gunna justify this as a change in her in the process of their journey, or should Tîwele just pretend this Erelith has been the Erelith she's met and known all along and ignore those 'changes'?)

I think she'll simply meld into the character I've written for her, but Tiwele should treat her as this character I've written, with the huge refinements in histories I've made. Check my first post again, I edited it.

Also, seriously...I need to think of what the heck I'm going to make Ere's animal form. I was talking to someone else about it, and they suggested maybe that she shouldn't have one true form ...but it should be broken, unstable... thought I would run it by you. I'm not sure if I like the idea, but I can't think of anything (as I've said before) she might fit. A bear would not logically work, she's not really brute force like Beorn. I've read elsewhere about a bat and a wolf form, but I'd hardly think those for either of her. Bat...well, yuck! Haha, and a wolf is great, but I don't see her as the "man's best friend" type. She's more of a "I'll do my own thing, thanks." Which is why I came to the conclusion of a cat.. but...I don't know much about that in Tolkien's world. I can assume only that there would be mountain cats, and Northern-land cats (snow kitties). A snow cat might prove interesting, I'm sure Varsis would be like "Wait...when did you ever travel to the north lands?" Ere: "Errrr....uhmmm.............*shifty eyes*" XD. The only other thing I could see her as is a bird/hawk of sorts, but ...well, that's kinda useless! I can't do much with that other than peck Meren's head to annoy him to death. =P As far as the cat idea is concerned, there would be three colors to consider: White, tan-white (cougar), and black (a black cougar). (Black mountain cats are rare, but exist. Heh, did a bit of research.)

Also on a little side note, Elaine (Ere's mommie) doesn't have an elvish name because she wasn't exactly full-elvish herself. Atleast, so I've pondered. I was just working up more of her side of the story, and thought that could be her known alias with mortals, and her elvish would have been Estaríel.

I can just imagine Tîwele muttering to Varsis, 'Well, I've always thought her kind of strange, but since when did she start refusing to talk to me?!' heheh. Though I admit their relationship's never been that great. You should have Erelith's newfound secrecy the source of some cause or other. Maybe it's a coming of age thing... or maybe it's just an Erelith thing :)

Believe it or not, when I was reading up to the bit where you told me about Erelith having an animal form, I immediately thought, 'Ooh, Cat!' And really, it's the right choice. I can picture her like that... stubborn, slightly egocentric, wild and untamed feline... does fit her personality. As for animal colour, I'd go for white/grey speckled with brown or black, symbolically self-explanatory, I suppose.

Estaríel is a nice name. Does it have any meaning behind it? I've always imagined her to be kind of gentle. Somewhere who would have been the perfect mother if she'd been given such a chance. That came undoubtedly from my writing of Almárean's past, but don't know if that picture of Élaine/Estaríel fits in with your 'view'.

Yeah, I'm not sure if it fits in with the view for Ere' either. Never hurts to just throw out random ideas though, most of these are spur of the moment anyways, haha. I do like the Elaine/Estariel names though. *ponders*

Also...I'm impatient with Ere's abilities. Should she have developed them late like I wrote in the non-edited version? I think it'd be more fun to toy with them when she first meets Tiwele & her father, but that's just me (being evil, hehe). It would also really make it so that she's more of a threat to Meren, since she's already developed them so "early". I'm not sure Varsis would know at first, because well...that'd be a lot of stuff to take in during one shot. "Oh hey, I'm Meren's kid...and I'm a skin-changer!" But I think it would be fun to have him discover it accidently, along with Tiwele. I was just roaming over the thought of it, not sure if it's any good or not. Would make more tension between Erelith and Tiwele throughout the story though. Realistically, it'd be a good way to track Tiwele back to Orelinde as well, and she might be more prone to the Morelen curse too, but who knows. At the same time, I'm inclined to not give her those abilities, and let some curious ones (that apply to her form) come about. I think that's probably the best idea, because I can also let her develop as a character that way.

I'm confused. What's this about Tiwele being more likely to be affected by the Morelen curse and tracking her back to Orelinde?
I reckon it's a good idea to have Erelith develop her abilities slower, ie. with regards to the current timeline for the unedited version, that could be around about now- while they're still staying in Rivendell or about to leave the place. That way, she can still pose more of a problem for Meren now (than she already is) and as for Tiwele, she'll probably figure there's more to the mysterious Erelith than even she's suspected. Heheh. Well I suppose you never learn all there is to know about someone by spending a couple of weeks/months travelling with them... everyone has their secrets.

PS. Just remembering the post for the unedited version I started... it began pretty hilarious... XD It's all, 'Come on Varsis, she needs a nudge!' I teased it out more though, but it's still slightly amusing. I just wish this were a parody right now...

Yeah, ignore some of my random babblings. Just thinking aloud, it's one of the oddities about me. I will have her develop with a slower pace. Where's the fun in getting everything all at once? =D

As for tracking her back to the city, she can still do that. Though, it shouldn't be without consequence. ;) (aka, guards)

I still totally confused. What do you mean?
Heheh. I should get around to posting around about soon :) hopefully. I reckon we should really get the show on the road, ie. leave rivendell quick smart (as in, soon) before we get sick of staying there and then suddenly decide to skip about several miles east in the space of a zap. Like we did last time ;)

Oh, the "not without consequence" meant that guards should be patrolling and find her. Or she could track Tiwele to the city sucessfully, but bumps into the guards. This is the edited version I am talking about, by the way. (Then she alerts Varsis, ((dumb move if you ask me! lol)) who tries to come help...) Anyhoo, just thought it might be interesting to explore that route. And of course, Erelith would try her darn best to avoid the topic of Meren. =D (...but that might be hard, considering the whole forearm thingie...)

Man, sometimes the things that run through my head I could do to my characters is downright evil. And yet....I don't feel bad at all. O.o

*insert evil cackle here*