#leonys of rohan

[rohirric-hunter]

It occurs to me that I never actually shared my writing playlist for Léonys of Rohan, so here it is. A little commentary on the songs under the cut.

Happily Ever After -- He is We Vol. I is sort of skimmed over in Léonys of Rohan, and honestly the truth is that outside of certain very traumatic moments Léonys and Hathellang both regarded it as a there-and-back-again-esque sort of holiday-type adventure, and this song was chosen to reflect that, while also suggesting that things might get much darker. There’s also a bit of a joke involved because the singer directly addresses a theoretical “author” a couple of times, and Léonys can be... talkative.

In My Arms -- Plumb This song is about Lady Hackberry, raising kids and dealing with them growing up and finding their own way in the world. (This was probably a more intense issue with Léonys than any of the other kids she raised, as none of the others had a strong identity tied to somewhere so far away.)

The Banishment of Éomer -- Howard Shore I definitely wanted a song that directly referenced Rohan on the playlist. (It’s a writing playlist, it doesn’t need to be subtle.) I picked this one because I like the way it plays up the Rohan theme in a magnificent and heroic way at the beginning, with some dark themes mixed in throughout, before eventually being overtaken by the Isengard theme and sort of battling against it until almost fading away entirely at the end.

The Fixer -- Brent Morgan After Isengard, Léonys’ strong identity as Léonys of Rohan kind of crumbles, leaving her drifting and unsure of how to direct herself without the motivation that’s driven her since she was a child. One of her strengths is that she concerns herself with others’ wellbeing, but with no grounding identity this becomes in many ways unhealthy and turns into a weakness.

Stand in the Rain -- Superchick Something snaps in Léonys after she kills Lheu Brenin. It’s very likely that after rescuing Lothrandir she would have simply given up on everything if it wasn’t for the forward momentum of her previous convictions that sent her stumbling into the Rohirric weapontake, where she just kind of follows along with what everyone else is doing, just barely managing to keep moving.

The Grey -- Icon for Hire This track references a lot of the same themes as the previous one. The reason I chose to include both is because this one specifically talks about a certain difficulty in going home, and Léonys probably knew before Helm’s Deep that she was eventually going to accept Bree as her home, but was unwilling to admit it, and unsure if she would be able to face that truth. Meanwhile Stand in the Rain references rain, which turned into a fairly powerful recurring theme in the story.

The Siege of the City of Kings -- A. R. Rahman, Christopher Nightingale and Värttinä This is the only music about the Battle of the Pelennor Fields that really Gets It. I don’t make the rules.

Meet Me on the Battlefield -- SVRCINA I listened to this on repeat for ten hours straight while writing Part Eight in a manic fit much like the kind they show in movies when the writer is hit by sudden and irresistible inspiration, like there was some kind of Extant Truth using me as an implement in some fruitless quest to document a universal constant. It was ethereal and exquisite. I think about the experience every day and I both desire and fear it. I promise no drugs were involved.

Darkest Hour -- Christopher Hanson IDK this song ends up on all my writing playlists sooner or later. It’s good.

This Time Around -- Adele McAllister This song is a personality anchor for Léonys. Also I can’t have a LotR-related playlist without even a little Adele McAllister. It’s just not the done thing.

For the Dancing and the Dreaming -- The Hound and the Fox There’s a very delicate back and forth between Léonys and Hathellang during the proposal scene in Part Nine. The Thing they’d never really addressed about their relationship was that Léonys had always planned on eventually returning to Rohan but Hathellang had no desire to live anywhere except for Bree-land, and that scene took it to a breaking point, where someone had to give, and the crux of the thing was that they both chose each other over their other motivations (in a somewhat humorously incompatible way). So there’s a little back and forth and this song embodies it well.

Rain -- Simply Three This song Feels the way I wanted Part Nine to Feel.

In the Rain -- Jeremy Zag, Noam Kaniel, and Alain Garcia Léonys at the end of Part Ten, thinking about and looking forward to her future. A fun bit of trivia about this scene is that I intentionally chose wording that reflected wording in Part One: “And you remember, distantly, like a small window at the end of a very long hall, clear and yet beyond reach, green grass covering gentle rolling hills dotted with sparse trees beneath an iridescent blue sky.“ “Blue creeps across the sky, bright and clean and iridescent, and you smile to yourself as you take in the land, green grass covering gentle, rolling hills dotted with sparse trees.” The idea behind this was to hint at a little hidden detail; Léonys doesn’t remember Rohan from when she was a child at all. Her fond memories are based almost entirely off of descriptions, and faint memories of the fields south of Bree, sort of suggesting from the start that she would always end up considering that her home in the end.

I See the Light -- Brent Morgan This is really just a bonus track. It was the original inspiration for the proposal scene, but as I understood better how that scene would play out it was eventually replaced with The Dancing and the Dreaming. However I still have a soft spot for it so it stayed in the playlist. Also I didn’t want to leave the playlist at thirteen tracks (a notoriously unlucky number).

#leonys of rohan #i know i have tags for this sort of thing but i dont remember what they are #oh well

[rohirric-hunter]

Then go somewhere else, bestie

#lotro #alternatively: helena when shes done hearing leonys going on about rohan

[rohirric-hunter]

I'll have to see if I can pull funny out of this and successfully circumvent the Uncomfortable but situation: Leonys, recently engaged, traveling across Gondor with her fiance in the service of the King, starts randomly asking around about Eomer, king of Rohan (since Lothiriel is insistent that you don't tell anyone it's her asking). This isn't surprising at first, given her Whole Deal, until the questions become a little bit too obviously besotted. This is also not surprising, given her Whole Deal, but it is a bit scandalous. After all, her fiance is right there.

#lotro #to be very clear hathellang absolutely knows why shes asking the questions and is not even a little bit concerned #i would never consider shoving a half-baked infidelity misunderstanding arc in there #they make me sick #the potential comedy comes from both of them trying desperately to convince people who arent in the loop and dont know them that well #that honestly really theres NOTHING happening there its all FINE #while also protecting lothiriels privacy #but again its something ill have to experiment with to see if i can make it work #i dont know why im feeling the urge to dump my entire writing process all over tumblr this evening #this is it if anyones curious #1. i could pull a parallel/foil out of that #2. heres a potentially funny situation that might arise from that #3. lots and lots of thinking about that situation to decide if i really want to do it #this is like dangerous territory #it comes very close to one of my Rules #when i realized that leonys of rohan was going to be pretty romance focused i immediately established some Rules #one of them was absolutely no shitty stupid misunderstanding arcs #because theyre shitty and stupid and i hate them #and also i think they destroy a lot of romance in other media. like it could be a perfectly decent romance #but then they throw in some contrived misunderstanding arc where one of them thinks the other one is cheating or something #and it pulls back the curtain and reveals that actually they dont even fucking like each other #so yeah. number 2 on the Rule list and for a good reason #but its probably fine since the problem with that comes with one member of the couple thinking that #and it would all be external

[rohirric-hunter]

.

#theres gotta be something great i can do with leonys and lothiriels little 'bring me stories about the hot king of rohan' questline #aside from the obvious the thing is that leonys just has a very awkward relationship with eomer #that tends to happen when the first time you meet someone is them #walking in on the tail end of you stabbing someone in the back 14 times in a row #while crying and screaming #(also i honestly dont think eomer knew anything at all about leonys aside from that #until it came up in the course of dealing with all the stuff theoden didnt get to. #'violated a banishment oh hurray another one of those okay who is it this time? what? her? huh' #'was this before or after the battle at helms deep out of curiosity? no reason no reason' #i mean he doesnt have a problem with it exactly but. well. meltdowns involving knives are never pretty.) #anyway i just think it would be funny and possibly poignant to have this situation where leonys has to deal with #someone else seeing eomer through EXTREMELY different eyes

[rohirric-hunter]

Hathellang and Nakasi weren't the only unbelievably perfect character foils this expansion threw into my lap re: my OCs either, just the most striking.

#lotro #unfortunately several ocs have started being very chatty #about things that sort of hinge on my theory that im obsessed with #like dont get me wrong i am so so confident that i have hit the nail right on the head #but at the same time i dont want to be making plans until i have confirmation #on the bright side if it turns out i am right i can slam like five different character arcs down and go #its rough because of various things not least of which is more characters #but. man this is scratching the same storytelling itch that got me going on leonys of rohan #i suppose if im wrong i can always just au it #like when has that stopped me before #im not wrong tho

[rohirric-hunter]

I am once again reminded that the Wind Will Set Me Racing 'verse is a Boromir Lives AU.

#lotro #i keep forgetting that #long story that i dont much feel like getting into now but i feel like he needs to be involved in the umbar questline #in order for me to do the thing that i want to with his story #but i am not finding a boromir shaped hole anywhere in my plans #well i mean there are a couple but there are also the Problems #i am starting to wonder if all this hassle is really worth the one scene i needed him for in leonys of rohan #what if i had him trip on a brick and break his neck #that was a JOKE i do not write character lives aus just to kill them again later #thats a Rule #it doesnt matter if it was “”“”“”worth it“”“”“” i made my bed and now i get to sleep in it #it will be made to work

[rohirric-hunter]

The vote is IN and the biggest and pettiest divergence from LotRO canon is going into the LorCU; namely a complete redesign of Barad-dur and serious alterations to several questlines to alter the way it fits into the story.

It's my AU and I get to decide which Us we're A-ing; also all my ideas about Barad-dur fuck severely and are objectively better than what they did in the game.

#lotro #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #i mean its fine in game i guess but it didnt at all live up to my expectations #and i just have cool ideas about barad dur and where else am i gonna be able to work them into a fanfic

[rohirric-hunter]

I am starting to run into difficulties to do with the fact that LotRO is an MMO (constantly updating continuous story always leading to new regions and expansions) and I wrote two characters whose character arcs are (and always were) going to take them back home where they will settle down and live quite happily in relative peace with only intermittent adventures.

#lotro #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #the black book and the trials of the dwarves stuff were both very much like. leading into eventual adventures #the first game-assigned pc character trait ive had to totally reject is the 'wants to keep adventuring' one because they dont #they really dont #honestly before the new gondor stuff drops im going to have to actually pick a new pc to assign future questlines to as a general rule #i really did not want to send leonys and hathellang to gundabad that shook things up bad #but there were just too many things that lined up in that direction #including the fact that years and years ago i casually threw in a detail #that the bow that leonys used after her original broke in angmar #that she thought was of angmarim make since she took it from them #was actually stolen from gundabad #like random detail that i wasnt going to do anything with but it does add a fitting endcap to the story i think #as for the angmar stuff yes it will be leonys and hathellangs purview but i think i shall heavily au #push it back a few years at least #for various reasons #not least because #the very first time writing fanfic about leonys occurred to me i was in angmar #it wasnt like. a retelling of the plot of the game i was thinking about it was like. 'post canon' stuff #or what was post canon then #but it fit in real well with the angmar stuff #general shape of the idea is that (since a lot of the rangers who were in angmar went with the gc and died) #leonys would be an important resource as a hunter and guide who had been to even the worst parts of angmar #and thus would be involved in some efforts to like. shut down its eventual obvious resurgence #which would happen when the cultists there had to come to terms with the fact that everything they stood for was gone #plot beyond that janky and open ended; 2.5 scenes and vibe

[rohirric-hunter]

In terms of Hathellang and his personality also... I don't fully understand him, genuinely. He's very much one of those characters who lives in my head and tells me what he's going to do and I don't get him.

Like, so when I was doing the Epic quest building up to Pelennor and I found out that Derufin and Duilin told people about Gothmog's invulnerability, I was mad, the Leonys muse was spitting mad, and the Hathellang muse was like, "Oh. That sucks. I get it, though. Like, I wish they hadn't done that, but I understand. I'm not mad."

(Probably a large part of the reason why he ended up in Minas Tirith for the battle. If he's gonna be so level-headed and mature about it, then he can just be the one to deal with it.)

But then when Isildur started making tasteless comments about Gothmog -- who Hathellang loathes and has zero sympathy for no matter who he used to be -- Leonys was like, "Maybe he shouldn't say it but he's not unjustified," and I was like, "I disagree but I wouldn't tell him to his face," and Hathellang was like, "Can you take a ghost by the lapels and shake them until the stupid falls out? Let's find out!"

(Attitude-wise. He does not attempt to shake Isildur by the lapels.)

#the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #i dont know if something happened that made him a little more opinionated #Things sure are Happening in mordor thats for sure #or if he genuinely honestly feels so much stronger about this #*takes oc gently by the shoulders* please explain yourself to me #oc: you literally invented me

[rohirric-hunter]

Question I just thought of: does Léonys actually speak Rohirric at all?

Léonys spoke a little Rohirric as a young child, but being raised in an environment where no one else spoke it I think she forgot most of it, except for a few words that she most likely forgot the meanings of, and certainly didn't know how to spell. She likely asked Éogar to teach her, but he's busy, and before long she was busy, and as they don't live especially close to each other I don't think that went anywhere.

The thing is, Léonys is good at picking up new languages. I think that over the course of her adventures she picks up a fair bit of Sindarin, a little bit of Black Speech, and a fair bit more of the language the Uch-lûth speak. (Dunlending clans, I imagine, do not all speak the same language or even variations on the same language, but rather a number of different tongues with common roots in what was perhaps once a unified language. These languages may also have been intentionally estranged from their sibling tongues in an effort to keep a clan's secrets from the others, especially with Saruman's meddling and setting the clans against each other.) She also picks up a handful of words from the Falcon Clan, although I believe after the Unpleasantness with them she ends up using them as curse words, if at all.

But to the question at hand -- Léonys knows very little Rohirric. By the time she enters Rohan she is in a very bad headspace and not really learning. She knows a number of greetings and such that she learned from the Rohirrim in the Gravenwood, but mostly speaks Westron during her time in Rohan, limiting her communication to only other people who speak Westron.

I think she learns a little, post-war. Although she has decided to return to Bree, she doesn't entirely abandon her heritage in Rohan, and likely seeks out someone to teach her; however by this point the skill is not one of practical use, so it doesn't stick as well as the other languages she knows. I think she retains some greetings, anything she learned from Théodred, and one other thing: since "Léonys" is not an actual Rohirric name I think at some point she talks to someone who hazards a guess at what her given name might have been, coming up with three or four possibilities. (Most likely including Léofa, her actual given name. Yes, this is the same name as the little girl from the Glittering Caves. This is a complete coincidence, as I came up with Léonys' given name before I did that instance, but I like it so I'm keeping it.) She doesn't change her name, but these possibilities are a connection to her parents, so I think she keeps them close to her heart.

After the war, she may return to Rohan once (although I am not 100% on this), but throughout her life I believe she will have contact with Dunlendings of one description or another, so the ties to that language are a lot stronger.

Eventually one of her children will move to Rohan, I think, and I believe this direct link will cause her to learn a bit more, enough to be at least conversational. But that won't be for years and years.

#lotro #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #thanks for the ask friend 3 #okay i meant to type <3 but my keyboard had other ideas #anyhow i actually only finished working a lot of this out a couple of weeks ago #the game simplifies a lot of the lingual complication present in lotr (for obvious reasons) #so in terms of storytelling theres a bit of reverse engineering going on trying to figure out how realistically characters communicate #my opinions on dunlending language is also subject to change because i dont know a lot about how languages evolve #in societies structured like that #most of my studies in lingual history focused on the big western languages that were tied to regions and kingdoms and all

[rohirric-hunter]

When I was divvying up the LotRO main quest among my various alts, I assembled the Moria gang sort of on accident. At first it was just Hathellang, and then Drof got added in because although I'm not entirely sure what her Deal is yet I do know that connection with various tribes of Dwarves is a big part of it. Dahlia was originally meant to be doing the Bingo Boffin questline, but I wasn't getting a story out of that and I thought she might get involved with the Moria questline on her way through, and then she kind of fully detached herself from the Bingo Boffin stuff (which I've decided I'd rather do with a non-hobbit). Then I imagined the three of them in the second hall, and something was missing, and Belharen got added in, and something else was missing, and Ferelin popped into existence (and became the Main Character), and for a while things were good, and then Hithanneth entered the scene (gaining the honorary title of "member of the Moria Gang, despite not actually joining the party until the plot had already taken them to Mirkwood and only setting foot in Moria once).

Anyhow, one day I suddenly realized I had a perfect six, the size of a fellowship; further investigation led me to the realization that I had also inadvertently created quite a balanced team with their classes. A Burglar, a Guardian, a Brawler (Dahlia was originally a Hunter but as soon as the Brawler class was released and I talked to some people about how it played I knew immediately that I'd completely mis-classed her), a Beorning, a Minstrel, and a Warden collectively have quite a good balance of heals, DPS, and tanking that any good fellowship wants (instead of filling it up with all captains and one hunter, like some fellowships I've been part of.)

Anyway, that was a fun realization and contributed to Themes and Things (these being the primary characters that will play a role in Song of Ferelin), but the problem lies in this: While the Moria Gang has all this Balance and the perfect six, Team Grey Company has only five; Léonys the Hunter, Lamegil the Rune-keeper, Pegweneth the Lore-master, Gribli the Champion, and Theorgir the Warden. Which is Fine, Probably, but I want my symmetry to be symmetrical, dammit!

Seriously thinking of fleshing out that idea I had about a Guaredain deserter who gets involved with the epic quest and seeing if she fits in there at all.

#lotro #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #I actually did come up with a real serious name for the verse #the wind will set me racing verse #unfortunately id already been calling it by the meme name for too long #so that's what it is forever now #I want to draw my little guys so baaaasd #*bad

[rohirric-hunter]

So Hathellang has decided that it's not just a Gothmog thing or an Isildur thing, he just doesn't have any patience for kings (or authority figures in general) who refuse to take responsibility for the ways they screwed up.

#the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #and maybe he tends to put the blame on them more heavily than is strictly fair #but at the same time any sort of monarchy is not really a strictly fair system #and tolkien didnt write it to be fair also #the king takes responsibility for things that happened on his watch even if theyre not strictly his fault

[rohirric-hunter]

In a hilarious reversal of roles, Leonys wants to go home and Hathellang has decided he has a stake in all this and has got to see it through

#lotro #genuinely this is so funny #because at the beginning of their story when theyre just setting out from bree #hathellang just wants to finish up whatever task and then go home #and leonys is like 'i started this and ive got to finish it' #but now -- and the pieces fell into place perfectly here -- hathellang and leonys get involved by doing the history of the rohirrim quest #and they meet the others on their scouting trip #and hathellang upon hearing about gorgar and his relationship to mazog is like 'oh i see' #'i regret to announce that this is personal now' #and leonys is like. 'hmmm. was ready to start heading home again.' #'but yeah sure ill follow you on a long impulsive poorly thought out quest to a war in a faraway land that really genuinely has nothing to #do with either of us. love you dearest.' #(hathellang to be fair is somewhat misrepresented in leonys of rohan. or. unfairly represented. incompletely represented?) #(i have some oneshots ive got to finish up and publish)

[rohirric-hunter]

@aurore-parle-de-ses-idees tagged me in a some quantity of sentences to be posted on some day or other challenge. This is jumping off of a document in my files called, "I made a character and I'm not in charge of her backstory and I'm not sure how I feel about that" and super subject to change, as I haven't really done Black Book yet, which is when I will find out more information about Drof's backstory. Also the chronology is subject to change; I have the idea here that Drof left Moria in response to hearing about Sauron's defeat but before the Iron Garrison was destroyed, and I don't know how that pans out chronologically. Because I haven't done Black Book yet.

***

Hathellang frowns when you tell him that you have agreed to enter Mordor, and before he speaks you admonish him that he will not accompany you, not under any circumstances, not until he has been declared fully recovered by the healers. Privately you think it would be good for him to take some weeks to relearn how to wield a sword, and to handle himself with only one weapon, for you know how heavily he depends upon keeping an enemy occupied with one blade while the other creeps past their defenses to find its mark.

Hathellang frowns less when a swift goat arrives at the city gates, bearing a Dwarf who demands to speak to him in a loud voice. When the two of you arrive, she looks him up and down before commenting, “You’ve lost a hand,” by way of greeting.

Drof is straightforward, and impatient, and has heard a great deal about you, and when you uncomfortably admit that you have never heard her name before in your life, she laughs and remarks that if Hathellang talked about her in the same way he speaks of you, she would be quite concerned, and you aren’t quite certain what that means, but you choose to take it as a complement.

She falls silent, after a few moments, and looks Hathellang in the eye, and very seriously asks, “Is it true? That the Accursed One has been thrown down?”

“It is,” he says, and he smiles, at her. “Much evil yet remains in Mordor, but it is less than it was. Did you come alone?”

“I set out as soon as the news reached us, but others will follow,” she says, and then she turns to you. “And one of the two of you has got to learn to cook, something basic at least!”

“You can already cook, dearest,” Hathellang says, and his grin is wicked. “Tell her about the bear intestines.”

“Lots of nutrients,” you say dutifully, unsure what joke exactly you’re playing out, but willing to play along.

Drof looks aghast, as if you had suggested that drinking poison was good for one’s skin. Then she scowls, and whips around to glare at Hathellang, who does not even try to rearrange his face into a neutral expression. She punches him lightly, and he laughs, and you think that you will like this Dwarf.

#lotro #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #wow tumblr doesnt autosuggest that tag anymore #sad #my writing #anyway drof has a personality and no substance #shes very chatty and wants to get fleshed out but in order to do that i have to do black book #maybe i should give her a valar i have a spare one lying around

[rohirric-hunter]

Big Protagonist Energy can be coaxed out of Hathellang in very small bursts

#i need a tag for rambling about my ocs #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #uhm #leonysposting #yeah that works #anyway it was a several months long process of bribing him with *checks notes* the ability to show off his knowledge of the bree penal code #fun life hack: you dont have to do worldbuilding if you can convince your characters to do it for you

[rohirric-hunter]

81, 114, 159, 164?

81. Does your character look like what others think they should from their reputation?

It very much depends on the character! Leonys does, I think. Being known as "Leonys of Rohan" follows because she is easily identifiable as Rohirric from her physical appearance. As she gets older post-canon, and her reputation evolves, I think she changes to fit it. Drof and Hithanneth also look like one would expect. I think Belharen picks up more of a reputation than she's earned based on how she looks.

Hathellang, Dahlia, and Ferelin probably don't look the way people expect, though.

114. Do any of your characters insist on going by their fullname rather than a nickname?

Hmmm, I don't think it's especially important to anyone. Hathellang and Ferelin have mutually exclusive nicknames, where they refer to each other as "Ferr" and "Hath," which nobody else does, but it's not something they insist on.

(I also don't really give my characters nicknames very often.)

159: Does your character have any tattoos? And are any of them symbolic or significant?

Belharen has tattoos! I assume there's a cultural significance to them, since so many Beornings have them, but I haven't thought about it much. I want to wait until I do some quests in the area to see whether the game has already got something in that department.

I'm also debating giving Drof and my other dwarf Gribli tattoos, but I'm not certain yet.

164: Are any of your characters tinkerers or inventors?

Hathellang is! He actually ends up designing his own prosthetics after he loses his hand, though invention isn't really his go-to. He does improve on existing designs a fair bit, though.

#ask games #the leonys of rohan cinematic universe #thanks friend! <3