[BOUNTY] - Khione's Bounty

[Cheese 8883]

 

♪♫♪

 

Written by Elwë

in the Deep Cold, Year 229 of the Second Age

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Greetings, and good tidings to my kin, near and far,

 

In this document you shall find the mind and spirit that binds us together as the Almenodrim, this far tradition that has passed from deep history into our present time. Not long before this document was the ancient fortress of Eldalondë rediscovered, and our brothers and sisters returning far abroad to take union in strength again. But the years have been long - our trammels grievous, and the common links that once bound us found frayed and disparate. This is one effort in surely many to come that attempts a binding resolution – an account of our character, and a review of our past. This is as I have remembered - far back into Anthos, and further yet my ancestors still. For who may take full stock of our being, who can turn every page unspoiled, if not Malin the Father himself?

 

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THE NATURE OF THE ELVES

 

The Almenodrim’s perspective on the body of the Elves, and their very nature, finds itself at odds with the rest of their Elven brothers and sisters. It is enough of a difference for even spiritual and religious separation. The Elves of the Almenodrim hold that the Elven body and nature is not merely physical, but qualitatively different and other, possessing a unique role in the Descendants that must be fulfilled now and even into the ending of Time.

Many Elves hold the belief that they are doubly cursed – firstly with the lack of abundant offspring, but more importantly the “curse” of longevity, regarding that the stretch of life only imparts insanity in the end. The Almenodrim see this view as infantile. All events for the Almenodrim are measured in Time, and they see the Beginning as most consequential - telling of their nature, their purpose, and belaying their fate for the future. The Enemy, Iblees, split the four Brothers apart and into separate races - but it was done in vain, as are all things done by the Enemy, for everything in Iblees had found its uttermost source in the One, whom some call the Creator, and nothing can be achieved in His despite. 

 

So it was that the Angelic host beheld the four sons in pity, and redressed their wounds. Not merely to offset this demonic hurt, but to turn their tears into wine, where selfishness and altruism are reconciled into Love. This is our ultimate understanding: that blessings are not understood without grief, that good is not realized without the evil it must triumph over. The Elves of the Almenodrim believe that if it was Man’s destiny to ascend to the Seven Skies, and thus be free of burden and to shape Fate as they will, then it was Elven fate to inherit the earth and adorn it. 

 

We Elves are bound into the circles of the world, and are loath to remove ourselves from it, knowing more and loving more than any other Descendant in the living earth. Where others lust for spoils, We love them not, and where power is praised We are removed. For the haunt of our people is within the world itself, and we take love for things begotten - the incandescence of the stars, the verdant fields, the secrets of gemcraft, the love of breathing things. They are all of themselves alone and set for our habitation, and were not without us in the Beginning.

 

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THE NATURE OF THE WORLD

 

 

The Elven soul endures over the lifespan of the Earth; yet slain we may be, and slain we shall be. This is the necessary separation from the ideal of the One and the practice of life as an Incarnate: that The Elves indeed hold that all things shall work unto the One’s ends, but though evil is an expression of His thought, it is entirely without Himself – pride stripped from glory, ambition stripped from grace. The Elves cannot see whither the story goes, and must confront the reality to which their soul has been embodied. By this their worship of the One is seldom, and secret, done in thought and private – for no solace will pass until the End.

 

But until the End, the Elves have received their charge – gifted by the Angelic host after Iblees’ defeat, confirmed by the One. And they have taken love of the earth, rejoicing in its splendor, arising to make fair things fairer. Malin the Father was lifted above all others, and some among us hold that his very song held the power of creation. In our tongue it is Quetta Laica, or Men Talyina, a linguistic derivative of san’taliyna. Flowers sprung where he ran, and laughter was in his hair, and he is gone for ever. But the Elves of the Almenodrim perceive that it was he who first struck communion with the Earth, learning their secret languages, and passing its magic unto the Elves. 

 

Magic, by reckoning of the Almenodrim, is split in two categories: curwë, arts of skill, craft, communion, and fellowship, and núlë, the exertion of spiritual energy into a lower mode of form, which is the physical world, in an attempt to dominate matter. The former finds its home in love and friendship – it does not coerce, but cooperates, and by mutual bonds a goal is achieved. The latter is inherently diminishing, and results from an urgent desire to shorten the distance between a perceived goal and the desired result. This lust for immediacy withdraws its toll from the Elven fëa, or soul, and is indicative of spiritual taint.

 

Very few “magics” as many understand it today fall under curwë. Troublesome is the Void, and troublesome even yet are many of the Angelic host. If they once freely gave gifts to the Descendants, they now do it not, and in exchange for the oath of the fëa they transmute spiritual power into our lower mode; the masses are ensnared in their umbra, offering themselves as thralls. For no high liege shall suffer Power to depart from Them for ever, and the unwitting exchange overlends the subject on behalf of his Master, who controls his fate. But if the heart of the Elf is courageous and brave, then they shall love freedom the better – taking heed in one another, hearkening to each other's wills, and singing in accordance with all living things.

 

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THE NATURE OF OUR PEOPLE

 

The aspects of Malin, through his sons and the wellspring of his culture, are well present within the Almenodrim today. Sylvaen and his sons carry the fractured personas of the early Elves doubtless, but so do all who acclaim that ancient culture – when the Elves were young and in their power. The many sons of Sylvaen strove in their domains, and in each of their likeness was a special care for the Earth. Where one preferred craftsmanship and smithing, the other minstreling and the wide spaces of the Earth, and through this all domains of the Elven blessing was realized. 

 

The children of Sylvaen grew swift in the young world, and the light of Malin was ever yet on their faces. The world was green. Silver lamps hung from the first spires, and trees were like mountains. Though the world is changed for ever, Elvish memory persists, and in their hearts they hold love for all things which contain a glory hitherto unknown to the rest of all sentient things. In this time all of Malin’s children were at one, and he reigned with a smile. But those times are gone, the world has gone crooked, and we are left. Neither are we blameless, for Sylvaen himself had been ensnared by a spirit of Iblees, its vessel as a sword containing evil, and it bidding him do evil. And ill deeds indeed – the greater part of Elven unity was slaughtered in his home under ambush, and in his monstrous Kinslaying the entirety of our kindred was scattered to the wind. In this the Archdemon dealt a second mortal blow to the people of Malin.

 

No more than two full Elven lives have transpired since the last record of the Elder Days, yet we are now many generations removed, by weapon and by torment and by grief. But even if an Almenodrim were to escape Death, we often refuse to leave the places we love. This marriage to the land is our adornment of the earth. When the worlds change, and have changed since Aegis, they are forsaken and forgotten by mortals. 

 

But the memory of the Elves is keen and mastering, and in their minds they find themselves lost in wakeful potency – the memory of their kin lucid and present.  The Elves of the Almenodrim thus embalm as much as we adorn. We heed the haunt of our ancestors, and love every natural thing that passes from one land to the next, and in this act their memory is never forsaken. This is a sweet curse – that our memory shall never dwindle, and remain in places for ever gone, though the land beneath us grows old and more settled in each passing year. At last when the Earth is old, and the End is near, we shall yearn for the gift of Men and not find it, and only in our memories will unstained colors bloom.

 

Yet some among us believe that there is indeed life beyond Death. By núlë they may be called into eternal service, but better that through communion with the earth they will slip into an evergreen realm. This place we call Elvenhome. But even this respite, by one or the other, is placed within Time, and still approaches the End, and the addressing of all things. By this hope we are reconciled with grief. This we hold that we must go in sorrow, but not in despair, for we are not bound forever to the circles of the world, and beyond them there is more than memory.

 

 

[Cheese 8883]

After some time, the bounty had been taken down from the various notice boards.

 

((OOC: This bounty has been completed irply and the reward was given out :) Thank you!))