#ondonórë blogging

[anghraine]

I love how, in the book, Denethor, Boromir, and Faramir all have reservations about Aragorn initially, but the specific ways they have them also reflect their own personalities and ways of thinking.

Denethor's position: the heirs of Isildur do not have a claim to the crown under Gondorian legal precedent, which I represent as Steward of the House of Anárion. They also kind of suck in general and have nothing to offer Gondor to back up their sketchy birthright.

Boromir's position: okay, so you're heir of Isildur, and therefore of Elendil, I get it, that's cool and all, but do you have Elendil's muscles? Because what we need are great warriors who will help my people fight the war for our existence.

Faramir's position: yes, it would be nice to have a king again, if said king was noble and not a dumbass like so many of the previous kings were. But we're not going to hand the kingdom over to any rando who strolls in with a sword. We'll need actual proof he should be king.

#anghraine babbles #ondonórë blogging #húrinionath #legendarium blogging #legendarium fanwank #denethor #boromir #faramir

[anghraine]

On the one hand, I absolutely love the high tragedy of Denethor's arc in the book, think it's amazingly well-written, and that he is one of the most complex and fascinating characters that Tolkien ever wrote.

On the other, there's part of me that's also a little frustrated by how much it has to happen because Tolkien kind of wrote himself into a corner with the Ruling Stewards. He's insistent on a few things about them:

Their initial rise to power as perma-regents of Gondor was squeaky-clean. Mardil was a paragon of virtue, he tried to prevent Eärnur from getting himself killed, there were no clear successors, and retaining the regency prevented another Kinstrife and created a stable institution that would hold Gondor together for 900+ years after the failure of the kings.

They are a high Númenórean family descended from Elendil, even if they're not formally of the line of Elendil (for unknown reasons, but most likely because they're descended through women).

Denethor is notably very similar to Aragorn, in intellect, wisdom, stature, ability, even appearance. He is a towering and respected figure, and he and his sons are highly popular with their people (even with children).

Denethor's military tactics in the book are very good, and UT says Sauron hoped Denethor would be less prepared than he actually was.

Denethor is proud, unbending, and personally dislikes and distrusts Aragorn. He thinks Gandalf is using him against Sauron for now while planning for Aragorn to take power later (this is filtered through his pride but ... um, is he wrong?).

Faramir, now Denethor's last heir, is a fantastic if reluctant warrior and captain, a super special Númenórean throwback, and a thoughtful, intelligent, and wise person who is humbler than Denethor, but also established as wary about Aragorn.

Gondor formally rejected the claim of Aragorn's family before the Ruling Stewardship even existed.

What all this means is that Denethor, if alive, is someone who will never willingly give way to Aragorn. Denethor has legal precedent on his side, he is himself a perfectly good ruler from a long-standing, stable, legitimate ruling family and a highly capable military leader in war, he is liked by his people, and he even has a viable heir regardless of the personal strain between him and Faramir.

There's just no reason for Aragorn to take power that Denethor, as written, would find remotely persuasive. But Denethor is also too noble and capable and special for a power grab on Aragorn's side to feel right, esp given how destructive it would be in the middle of a war (as Aragorn acknowledges!). Despite the sparkly kingliness and mystical airs, this is fundamentally a dynastic dispute between two different houses descended from Elendil, based on the minutia of Gondorian and Númenórean law and precedent, and a fight over that is ... not the kind of story this is.

Denethor has to be driven to self-destruction by the plot so that Aragorn's rise can happen. It simply would not occur if Denethor was alive and in his right mind. Faramir has to be mystically healed by Aragorn so that his reservations will dissolve and he will voluntarily remove himself from the picture in a way that doesn't feel bad.

And both scenes are fantastic, and make sense for the characters. But I do feel that they kind of get steamrollered by the plot to make way for Aragorn.

The thing that makes that doubly fascinating, though, is that Tolkien didn't have to prop the House of the Stewards up so thoroughly. He could have written a version where the Stewards are inadequate or really sketchy or simply can't be compared to Aragorn's greatness and it's clear why they should be replaced by him and his house. Tolkien could have made this a lot easier for himself! And I do respect the more difficult and nuanced approach Tolkien took with the Stewards by making them genuinely impressive and noble and capable in their own right and not just cardboard-cutouts for Aragorn to kick over.

But, well.

#anghraine babbles #long post #legendarium blogging #legendarium fanwank #húrinionath #denethor #faramir #mardil voronwë #etc #ondonórë blogging

[anghraine]

I have, you know, once or twice or a million times mentioned that Tolkien repeatedly described the Stewards as descendants of Anárion who couldn't inherit the crown of Gondor for never-explained reasons.

#anghraine babbles #poll nonsense #húrinionath #gondor #ondonórë blogging #lord of the rings #jrr tolkien #legendarium blogging

[anghraine]

Just thinking about book!Boromir's final words being about the Gondorian people:

He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again. 'Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.'

And Aragorn assures him that "Few have gained such a victory" because Boromir has conquered—conquered the hold of the Ring on him, going out as himself, repenting and heroic, true to his innermost values and priorities (i.e. his care for the hobbits and love for his people!!). And Boromir's smile in response is the last thing he does.

;_;

#[redacted tangent] #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #ondonórë blogging #lord of the rings #jrr tolkien #boromir #húrinionath

[anghraine]

I was just thinking about how Tolkien gradually establishes that there are quite a lot of people in Gondor. In ROTK, he even specifies where they live (Belfalas, Lebennin, etc), but we don't see those places except in general descriptions/songs, and most of those people are defending the regions they live in and thus offstage.

It's easy to kind of forget that the Minas Tirith scenes are happening in a pretty big country with a large population (and that the weight Boromir felt in leading Gondor's defense wasn't just about the inhabitants of Minas Tirith, but a whole damn country with what would have to be over a million people, likely well over that). Even when people are talking about how the outlying forces that arrive to help defend the city are only a tenth of the fiefs' actual forces, I think it's something that often doesn't sink in.

So (for me, anyway), there's something both unexpected and really satisfying when book!Aragorn uses the dead to secure the armies of Gondor and then those offstage southern Gondorians we keep hearing about show up to lift the siege of Minas Tirith. We knew they were out there, but it wasn't real until they come leaping off the ships at the Pelennor.

I've talked before about why I like that Aragorn uses the army of the dead to liberate the southern Gondorians, but I do think there's something very effective about Aragorn arriving at the head of an overwhelmingly Gondorian army he convinced to follow him and saving Gondor that way—through providing very real assistance to the people he means to rule, inspiring them to follow him, and those people being necessary and critical to saving their country. It'd feel a lot more deus ex machina, too, if Tolkien hadn't reminded us that they were out there multiple times. But he does set it up in a kind of unobtrusive way, so I really enjoy how it winds out.

#the catalogue of incoming troops is such an interesting visual way of setting the rest of gondor up too #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #long post #aragorn #gondor #ondonórë blogging #anghraine's meta #boromir

[anghraine]

I'm definitely a Stewardist Gondor stan, something that is not news to most of my followers, and I have my gripes with Aragorn's rise to power there, which is also not news. But there are some things I like about how book Aragorn conducts himself wrt Gondor, so credit where it's due:

He risks everything to take the Paths of the Dead and pass through Lebennin, liberating slaves of the Corsairs and the coastal peoples of Gondor. He convinces the southern Gondorians to accept him and a large number follow him to the Pelennor. Thus, Aragorn's role in the victory at the Pelennor is dependent on his leadership of a largely Gondorian army.

He doesn't immediately present himself as ~the chosen king~ or whatever, but actively works to avoid destructive civil strife in Gondor by presenting himself only as captain of the Dúnedain of the North.

The first thing Aragorn does in the city is heal Denethor's heir, the foremost potential obstacle to his accession to the kingship, and he approaches Faramir with respect and compassion.

After healing Faramir, Éowyn, and Merry, he proceeds to heal the suffering soldiers of Gondor, again gaining Gondorian acceptance and acclaim through his actions instead of relying solely on a birthright claim—but this time, as renewer as well as warlord.

Even after gathering his armies and riding out to Mordor, Aragorn initially doesn't refer to himself as a king, only switching when it's suggested by a Gondorian prince.

His coronation follows the Gondorian custom in which the Steward asks the Gondorians present if they will accept Aragorn as king, and only proceeds once he's been accepted by them. There's no sign of a political maneuver here in terms of only selecting people who will agree or whatnot—Aragorn has had to genuinely earn the respect and love of Gondor's people.

#he's so much more eärnil than arvedui adjkfakjdf #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #long post #aragorn #legendarium fanwank #ondonórë blogging

[anghraine]

Tolkien's aside about how only descendants of the royal family such as the Stewards were free to use Quenya names in Gondor is interesting in multiple ways, but it reinforces an implication that was always pretty clear but often overlooked: the royal family could and did have descendants who were not considered royalty themselves.

We know this because the Stewards are, explicitly, not royal and not considered valid heirs of the line of Elendil, but they are descendants of Elendil and Elros, and this is part of why King Minardil granted the Stewardship to his kinsman Húrin of Emyn Arnen.

We don't know when or how Húrin's house (whatever it was previously called) split off from the royal house, but we do know it happened. Ergo, the listed members of the royal houses are not the only descendants of Elros in Third Age Middle-earth. (The Stewards, while clearly an important family, seem unlikely to be the only ones in this situation.)

The descendants of Elros as a group do seem to form a relatively select group within the Dúnedain (Tolkien notes that some Dúnedain are bearded, but not descendants of Elros such as Aragorn and Denethor, so not all Dúnedain are Elrosian). Aragorn's descent from Elros is special—but it's not as special as it's often treated.

And now I'm just thinking of how Elros's scattered Third Age descendants could never know him, but they could look up at Eärendil in the sky and wonder if he can see them, if he knows them, if he cares.

#anghraine babbles #team dúnedain #legendarium blogging #ondonórë blogging #húrinionath #húrin of emyn arnen #anghraine's headcanons #eärendil #elros tar minyatur

[anghraine]

It's kind of funny that Tolkien's various expansions on Gondorian Dúnedain, esp the Stewards, make the whole "alas for modern multiracial Gondor, the blood of Númenor is spent :(" thing just seem more and more ludicrously detached from reality.

The Council of Elrond, talking in front of Boromir: Gondor has been weakened through interracial marriage, there are no real Númenóreans left there, it's so sad

Boromir, after a lifetime of putting up with eldritch Númenórean shit from his father, uncle, and brother:

#anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #legendarium fanwank #ondonórë blogging #no my grudge over this will never die #boromir

[anghraine]

I've recently seen various pieces of Gondor-related art that depict it in vivid colors rather than always dominated by black/white/grey/brown, and it's really cool.

Black and white are important to Gondorian iconography (the White Tower, the white banner of the Stewards, the black flag with the White Tree), for sure. But it's a fairly wealthy and powerful multi-millennia-old nation in a Mediterranean climate ruled by one(1) remarkably consistent and stable dynasty for over 900 years. The RL aesthetic influences were the Byzantine Empire, ancient Egypt, and (most broadly) Italy. I've always imagined that there'd be plenty that's rich and vibrant, so it's been cool to see more Gondorian imagery with vivid colors like blue and gold, bright lighting, etc.

#gondorians not from dol amroth in vivid blues YES THANK YOU #anghraine babbles #ondonórë blogging #legendarium blogging

[anghraine]

The whole succession question if Denethor was still alive fascinates me! I know it’s not the story Tolkien wanted to tell, but the politics are so interesting to think about.

Right?

I know a lot of it is a byproduct of Tolkien needing a good enough reason that no heir of Isildur ever succeeded in claiming the throne before LOTR (over the course of literally thousands of years), and to give Aragorn a real challenge to overcome. So there has to be some political complications with his claim to the throne going on in the background, even while Tolkien wasn't really writing the sort of story where Aragorn would have to seriously navigate the weird political situation with any arguments beyond his innate kingliness + machinations of the plot.

But the question of Denethor surviving and what that would mean for Aragorn, Faramir, Denethor himself, Gondor and Arnor, etc has just fascinated me for years.

#you are talking about this #respuestas #nice things people say to me #legendarium blogging #húrinionath #denethor #aragorn #ondonórë blogging

[anghraine]

I saw a post about Denethor that was like "I think he's actually a really good leader, tactically, and making a lot of good decisions. It's not his fault that he can't compare to people like Elves and Númenóreans in the book."

Damn, so near, and yet so far.

#dudebro tolkien fandom is SO weird about gondorian dúnedain #anghraine babbles #legendarium fanwank #legendarium blogging #ondonórë blogging #denethor #húrinionath

[anghraine]

Most of us in Tolkien fandom (at least in these parts) have a profound affection for some passingly mentioned female character we know almost nothing about.

Today's for me: Rían of Gondor, daughter of the Steward Barahir, sister of the Steward Dior, and mother of the Steward Denethor I (not to be confused with Boromir and Faramir's father, Denethor II).

She's one of the few named Gondorian women, but we know even less about her than most. We don't know who her husband was. We don't know what she thought or felt or did with regard to anything. All we know is that, while not the Steward herself, she was the first woman the rule of Gondor had ever passed through.

The Stewards committed their rule like a kingship, father to eldest son, and it was the established position of Gondor that its rule couldn't pass through women (see Princess Fíriel!). Perhaps the Stewards or the Council of the time justified changing their policy through the absence of a technical king, but the Stewards received the powers of absent kings from day 1 and were described by Gandalf as more powerful than actual kings like Théoden. The Ruling Stewards passed the Stewardship in exactly the same way as the kings had passed the crown—until Rían and Denethor.

If their excuse was that they weren't really kings, it would be pretty transparently an excuse to let the rule of Gondor pass through a woman's lineage for the first time.

What part did Rían play in this? Did she have to fight to get the White Rod in Denethor's hands? Was she a voluntary participant in the whole thing at all? What was her relationship like with her brother Dior, who passed the Stewardship to her son? Her relationship with Denethor himself? What about the unnamed but presumably existent husband (a kind of fun reversal of the usual "implied but unnamed women," lol)?

I want to knowwww.

#i'm so curious about rían but she barely exists textually ;_; #anghraine babbles #long post #rían daughter of barahir #steward dior #legendarium blogging #steward denethor i #húrinionath #ondonórë blogging #mannnn if the stewards' excuse /was/ that they weren't kings so technically women's lineage could count for the stewardship #it would be kind of incredible tbh—especially when you consider that they're descendants of elendil who aren't in the succession #likely because they're descended through women #oh yeah we're totally not kings. humility is very important. we're so unkingly that lady rían's son can rule gondor :)

[anghraine]

*reheats movie Gondor discourse*

The weirdest defense of the casting of Gondorians in the movies is that it would be too hard to tell the characters apart if Gondorians looked vaguely like Gondorians.

I seem to recall this was actually used to explain the casting, but it's pretty absurd. Gondorians are dark-haired people with a variety of skin tones. The majority of all humanity fits that description. It's not hard to tell most of us apart, even on film. It's only even debatably a problem if you insist on casting people who look somewhat similar, which there was no need to do.

Also making most of the country blond and pale after spending much of the non-Frodo&Sam plot dealing with the blond and pale nation of Rohan, because people with similar coloring can't be told apart, is baffling logic. They bring back the (blond, pale) Elves of Lothlórien to join with the (blond, pale) Rohirrim who then go to battle for (mainly blond and invariably pale) movie Gondor, and yet there was no concern that this might be confusing.

But a nation of people with different ethnic backgrounds and appearances apart from dark hair? Just can't be done.

#anghraine rants #ondonórë blogging #pj critical #legendarium blogging #legendarium fanwank

[anghraine]

I've harped a lot on the Stewards' backstory and its intersection with Elrosian beardlessness per Nature of Middle-earth (and Peoples of Middle-earth and implied in Unfinished Tales). But I think the implications of what we're told are genuinely fascinating in terms of Gondorian culture.

Like, okay:

+ Apparently royal ancestry was essentially required for some very powerful political offices, at least at one point. (Tolkien says Húrin of Emyn Arnen must have been the king's cousin, of royal ancestry, to be given the Stewardship.)

+ Húrin was not, however, a member of the royal house despite being a descendant of Anárion, and his house was not in the succession. The most obvious explanation is that they're descended through a woman. I guess it might be an illegitimate line like the Beauforts (or both), though it doesn't seem like that's much of a thing—but it'd be interesting if the Stewards' refusal to claim the throne was an answer to the Tudors as well as the Stuarts.

+ Royal ancestry doesn't seem as common as it would realistically be after that much time. It's treated as fairly extraordinary (though not as vanishingly rare as I think fandom sometimes treats it) and Tolkien explicitly distinguishes between Dúnedain and Dúnedain of Elvish heritage (esp via Elros).

+ I guess there was an echelon of Gondorian society descended from the royal family that used Quenya names, and only they got to do it. It doesn't seem like it was just the Stewards (before the Ruling Stewardship led to Performative Sindarin) but a whole cultural thing. Okay.

+ UT has this explanation about how the mystique of the Princes of Dol Amroth goes back to one Silvan ancestor and it's really cool even if they weren't descended from Sindar or High Elves. Since it turns out Elrosian Elvish heritage is really persistent, I guess they're not Elrosians? It kind of makes for a fascinating dynamic. (Extra points to Lothíriel of Dol Amroth for naming her firstborn son after Elendil, lol, even if it's not literally in Quenya. Power move tbh.)

+ Buuuut there are definitely some people descended from Elves who just don't inherit it. Tolkien specifically contrasts beardless part-Elves like Aragorn, Boromir, and Faramir with the bearded Théoden and Éomer, but they've got Silvan ancestry too and it just didn't take—I think pretty obviously on the thematic level because they're so aligned with very much non-Elvish Rohan, but it's still suggestive. Is Elfwinë bearded? He's supposed to look like Imrahil ... and what about Eldacar?

+ What are the implications of being bearded or deliberately clean-shaven in Dúnadan society? What do beardless Elrosian Gondorians look like to people like the Rohirrim, for whom beards would normally be a mark of maturity? Do any other Gondorians imitate the beardlessness of the Elrosians? Is that actively discouraged in a sumptuary law kind of way?

I don't know, but I do enjoy how bizarre these people are.

#anghraine babbles #ondonórë blogging #peak problematic faves lol #legendarium blogging #nature of middle earth #húrinionath #húrin of emyn arnen #house of dol amroth #lothíriel #long post

[anghraine]

Speaking of my undying grudge against Arvedui:

What I really think should have happened (in a better but still possible world) upon the deaths of King Ondoher, Prince Artamir, and Prince Faramir of Gondor:

The Council of Gondor, led by the Steward Pelendur, starts deliberations as to how the succession's going to work.

In Arthedain, someone (or some people) manages to talk Arvedui down. His father (the actual heir of Isildur) isn't prepared to attempt a long-shot claim to the crown of Gondor. And since Númenórean succession law followed strict gender-blind primogeniture*, under the old traditions Princess Fíriel would be the heir of Anárion, not her husband. She claims the throne.

In this better world, Pelendur et al actually give her fair consideration. Tradition matters a lot in Gondor. Númenor matters a lot. They don't want a foreign king, but Fíriel is Gondorian. And historically, bypassing royal princesses has not worked out for their people (most obviously with Tar-Míriel, in a subtler way with Princess Silmariën).

But while they don't want a Pharazôn situation, they also don't want a Herucalmo situation or Gondor being subordinate to Arthedain. They accept Princess Fíriel's claim with a number of stipulations that include her return to Minas Anor and strictly limiting the consort's authority.

After various negotiations, an agreement is reached. Fíriel becomes Gondor's first ruling queen and her son Aranarth succeeds her as heir of Anárion (though he is likely known to history by a regnal Quenya name).

The decision to defer to Númenórean law in Gondor would have far-reaching effects, including on the later succession. In my ideal version, the precedent is not understood as "daughters can inherit if there are no sons available" but as "the eldest living child inherits regardless of gender," as happened in Númenor (this is why Tar-Telperiën inherited despite having a brother).

The crowns of both Gondor and Arthedain would eventually fall to Aranarth, son of Fíriel and Arvedui, more or less uniting the kingdoms. I suspect the preservation of Arthedain would be a greater priority for Gondor in this scenario and it would actually be saved (I think the prophecy of Malbeth the Seer suggests that the salvation of Arthedain was possible, though these are not the specific circumstances he saw).

But canonically, Arthedain and Arnor follow strict male-line descent as much as (canon) Gondor (it's a huge deal to the Northern Dúnedain that their kings and chieftains are all heirs in an unbroken male line). If Gondor adopted the Númenórean system while Arthedain stuck to the patrilineal one, the kingdoms would be split apart the first time that the firstborn child of an heir of Fíriel and Arvedui was a girl (rule of Gondor going to the firstborn and rule of Arthedain going to her eldest brother). But it may be that Arthedain's traditions also changed in the AU, in which case it wouldn't be an issue.

This would also mean that the privileging of male-line-only descendants would be way less of a thing, at least in the royal house. The heirship would pass through oldest surviving children regardless of whether they were male or not, so even if the world was still similar enough that the same people even exist by the end of the Third Age, male-line-only heirs would not have seniority in this AU. The heir of Anárion and Isildur by the time of the War of the Ring could easily be ... like, Halbarad.

(Obviously there are all sorts of other consequences, too! But those are the ones that entertain me the most.)

---

*To be more specific, Númenórean succession law followed strict gender-blind primogeniture after the (relatively) early king Tar-Aldarion. Aldarion instituted the change to allow his daughter Ancalimë to inherit and (for whatever reason) to give elder children preference over younger ones without regard to gender. Thus, as mentioned above, Tar-Telperiën received the scepter rather than her younger brother Isilmo. Tolkien noted that if Tar-Aldarion's law had been followed from the beginning, the lords of Andúnië would have been the royal family, since their foremother, Princess Silmariën, was the firstborn.

#anghraine babbles #plotbunnies! #ondonórë blogging #legendarium blogging #legendarium fanwank #arvedui critical #fíriel daughter of ondoher #pelendur #númenórë #long post

[anghraine]

I know Space Middle-earth has been done, but thinking Gondor/Númenor thoughts while also vicariously playing Mass Effect with my best friend suddenly got me thinking about LOTR/the Silm in space. More space fantasy than sci-fi, but still.

I've got a lot of ideas, but wrt Númenor specifically, I think it was another planet, part way between Earth and Space Valinor (I think Tol Eressëa is an asteroid or moon or something). Not particularly close as the starship flies. Humans who had fought in their psionic alien pals' epic interstellar war against Space Morgoth were (if willing) brought from Earth to Númenor, a beautiful garden world.

I don't think humans had the technology for FTL travel at the time or access to whatever they'd call hyperspace lanes in this AU. But they did end up developing FTL space travel later and all sorts of wondrous devices that blurred the line between technology and Space Elf magic.

This goes on over a much longer time than in canon, I think, and they functionally become aliens themselves. Some literally are descendants of Space Elves, but regardless of that, they're becoming increasingly like them, esp in regard to physiology and various psionic abilities.

But where Space Elves are immortal, Númenóreans are not, even if they live much longer than their ancestors did, and in their later years, there's a ton of dubious but well-funded immortality research.

They eventually develop their own interstellar empire. They even rediscover Earth in their travels, and although they don't initially realize what it is and Terrans take them for true aliens at first, both soon recognize their kinship. Unfortunately, the end result is that the Númenóreans fold significant portions of Earth into their empire (also as a consequence, Terran humans spread beyond Earth, though it remains their acknowledged homeworld).

The Space Elves have some ancient holdings on Earth as well, I think, and Space Sauron is expanding his empire to all corners, with various bloody clashes until the Númenóreans apparently conquer Sauron's forces and take him as a prisoner back to Númenor. This goes about as well as in canon, and the end result is that Númenor is transformed into a total water world—I'm thinking rather like the one in Interstellar. (Still deciding if the "lanes" to it are destroyed or if you can go to the planet, but will find nothing except watery death.)

The death of the Númenórean high king, his armada, and destruction of the entire capital planet, its infrastructure, and many of its people nearly destroys the power of the surviving Númenóreans and certainly succeeds in breaking it into multiple states, many of which ultimately fall apart. I think there's some further disaster as Elendil's starship fleet escapes Númenor and it gets split up, with Elendil crash-landing on a Númenórean colony and Isildur and Anárion's part of the fleet ending up near Earth.

All three share incredible diplomatic acumen and are able to unite various factions and peoples behind them into two sprawling "quadrants," the Arnor and Gondor quadrants. The Arnor quadrant is the more remote from the Sol system, though a number of Terran groups have long-since settled there, and it does eventually shatter as a Númenórean quadrant under various pressures (the remaining Númenóreans there become helpful spacefarers, essentially).

The Gondor quadrant has a number of struggles—a disastrous civil war in their capital of Osgiliath that leads to relocating the capital to the Sol system, incursions that lead to relinquishing a major system, the loss of Elendil's dynasty. But they're fundamentally holding together at the time that Sauron's old empire reforms. Now they're struggling to survive and to keep Sauron's empire from total conquest of the known galaxy.

#there's a dangerous sort of borderland of contested systems between gondorian and sauronian space #including what used to be a jewel of gondorian space—ithilien #and all sorts of wild scouting and guerrilla missions are carried out there #i thought of having the minas tirith analogue be a different planet than earth #but idk i like the tower of the sun = the planet of the sun #though it's also the name of their actual capital city #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #fic talk #fic talk: space dúnedain #broader than that but that's what got me thinking about it! #ondonórë blogging #númenórë #long post