#of if you have any eldritch peredhel thoughts for this au

[thesummerestsolstice]

Alright part 2 of the summary for my Faustian Bargain AU– where Elrond willingly becomes Sauron's prisoner so he'll release Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor.

Elrond's plan is fairly simple. Earendil patrols the Void to ensure Morgoth doesn't escape, Sauron doesn't know about this, therefore, if Elrond times it right, Earendil will realize Sauron is in the Void trying to free Morgoth, get the Valar, and detain him.

There's a few possible hitches with this plan. First, Elrond needs to make sure Sauron doesn't enter the Void until the right time. He also needs to keep the information about Earendil away from Sauron– which is somewhat difficult considering Sauron's habit of picking through other people's thoughts.

Also, this should go without saying, but if Sauron manages to free Morgoth before he can be captured, they're all basically dead anyway.

But there's another problem. See, Sauron was quick to agree that he wouldn't torture Elrond while Elrond was in captivity. Elrond assumed that Sauron agreed because he was desperate. The truth is, Sauron never really wanted to torture Elrond.

He just wanted to run a few tests, what with Elrond being an unprecedented mix of three different species. Specifically, he wanted to know if there was any way to fully bring out Elrond's Maiarin power– and maybe get rid of some of his more human aspects (the need to sleep, susceptibility to disease, all that).

Technically, performing unethical magical experiments on someone isn't torture. Elrond is still not having a great time.

Especially when it looks like some of Sauron's tests might actually be working, and Elrond has to confront the fact that when– or if– he gets out, he might not be the same half-elf he was before.

#cw: unethical magical experimentation #silmarillion #silm au #elrond #elrond peredhel #sauron #annatar #eldritch peredhel #VERY eldritch #please tell me if you guys are interested in seeing this become a full fic/if you want me to post more about it #of if you have any eldritch peredhel thoughts for this au

[southaway]

Hi! I just found your corrupted elven ringbearers and just wanted to say how much I love them! The Círdan and Elrond designs are giving me life, I want to eat them<3

Do you have any more info on that au you're willing to share? Perfectly fine if not, I'm just curious and your art scratches my brain in the best way<3

Hey, thanks for the ask, I'm always happy to answer questions about my art!

( I realized after I wrote this up how long this ended up being, sorry in advance)

I wish I had an interesting answer here, but honestly, I haven't thought it out too much. I was rereading the books last year and the idea of the Elven Ring bearers having to keep the rings hidden so they didn't fall under Sauron's thrall kind of stuck with me. I thought it'd be fun to play with what that could look like.

I'm not much of a writer, unfortunately, and I haven't thought too much about it besides some of the aesthetic choices I made. I can talk about the design decisions I made, if that's worth anything.

Galadriel is probably the most basic in concept for me, I wanted to play visually with being underwater and being kind of distant and above everything. The eyes were an attempt to play with idea of foresight

For Olorin I was thinking that everything that was Gandalf was burned away and kind of playing with a Balrog theme. I think as a Maia he's the most dangerous and the most powerful of the group. We see in the books Gandalf is definitely very proud, he knows how powerful and intelligent he is, you could potentially end up with another Sauron

For Cirdan I just had this thought of burning from inside. He's put up with so much, accepted so much pain and grief and disappointment that I feel like that would be the source of the flame, that it would just burst out. And then I kind of went with a dragon theme to match the Balrog theme (Olorin was drawn first)

Elrond was the first I conceptualized and the first I drew. The idea of the wings were what sparked everything. His mother got wings so he gets them, but more. Biblically accurate Elrond. I just wanted to kind of mess with the themes I always do with him so stars, and blues. But now instead of being a show of his lineage it's the void consuming him. Really wanted to play into the Eldritch Peredhel concept I've seen bounce around tumblr

And this final one is a bit of a spoiler. It's going up tomorrow, but I'm sure with the inclusion of Cirdan, Gil Galad isn't a suprise.

For Gil-Galad I wanted to play with the concept of air in a different way. He's dead, he's barely there. Just a memory of what was, twisted.

This ended up being WAY longer than I meant! I think a lot about design choices when I'm drawing, but don't usually end up saying much about them when I post. It was fun to talk about it!

If anyone has any other thoughts or additions to the AU I'd love to hear or see it!

#southaway asks #tolkien #ringbearer au