Council of Elrond: Dwarf Story.
pffft omfg
(via conversationswithsmaug)
I AM LATE WITH SO MANY THINGS T__T
Ah, forgive your Dark Lord, my followers.
I am in the process of moving fortresses with my lieutenant. I have altogether not enough too many books.
How the Silmarillion Ate My Life: Yet Swiftly Victorious
A rather disorganized meditation on tactics, weaponry, and the differences between the Noldor and the Sindar, which I’ve been thinking about for a while but was finally inspired to write up by squirrelwrangler’s post on the same topic.
Have you ever wondered why swords…
Can we talk about weapon myths?
For whatever reason, my phone is not allowing me to read the whole essay, but I only really needed to read the first few paragraphs. You see, the myth of the “blood groove”, or ridges as the author says (more properly called a “fuller”), is a surprisingly old one, and tenacious. To put it plain, the fuller does NOT, among many other myths, aid in keeping fluids off the edge thus keeping it sharp, nor does it allow for easy retrieval from a stabbed body (the most common misconception from a quick google search). The fuller is actually based in simple physics and is used to make both a lighter and stronger blade, much like an I-beam is a lighter and stronger metal bar.
As another note, the presence of fluids on a steel edge will blunt its impact about as much as a down jacket is bulletproof. Though in deference to the argument I do know of accounts of warriors over sharpening their weapons and having the now extremely thin edge turn over against itself when attempting to cleave bone, turning an incredibly sharp weapon into roughly a heavy butter knife.
Please, I do not mean rudeness with this, but as someone who grew up in and around a medieval re-enactment group, the myth of the “blood groove” is one that has, as long as I can remember, baffled me.
THE MORE YOU KNOW.
In light of recent smutty discussions, I feel it is time to release my apology.
You are sorely mistaken if you either think this is funny or act under the assumption I will react as you wish me to.
*grinning like a skull* My lady is so very gracious! Feanor’s brat hardly deserves such a generous apology. /snerksnerksnerk
Yet Swiftly Victorious
A rather disorganized meditation on tactics, weaponry, and the differences between the Noldor and the Sindar, which I’ve been thinking about for a while but was finally inspired to write up by squirrelwrangler’s post on the same topic.
Have you ever wondered why swords have ridges running down the middle? That’s an innovation from Greece, around 800 B.C., although it was probably independently invented elsewhere. The reason for it is to direct the blood of your enemies off the edge of the blade; before the ridges were invented, blood would accumulate on the edge of a sword, which almost instantly blunts the weapon and makes it useless except for poking people with the tip (which is what the ancient Greeks did until they invented ridges). With the ridge, the blade stays relatively clear of blood no matter how many people it’s killed, and you can continue fighting.
Why do I mention this, other than to give you fair warning that this post will be rather gruesome? Well, because one of the first things I thought when I heard that the Noldor were forging swords is “How would they know about the ridges?”
Swords are hard to make; you need a lot of technical skill to make workable ones that won’t shatter on enemy armor. But this is the Noldor in Aman we’re talking about - I don’t find it at all hard to imagine that, once they set their minds to it, they could figure out the right alloys and techniques to make incredibly high quality weaponry just based on the feedback they’d get from sparring with each other.
But there’s no way they’d have known how quickly a blade is blunted by the blood of the enemy in battle. And that’s symptomatic of a larger problem - there’s no way they’d have known a lot of things about military strategy that can really, truly only be learned in combat.
Large-scale coordination? Effective use of cavalry? Communication under battlefield conditions? The emotional effects of killing? Dealing with battlefield injuries?
Because here’s the thing - a bunch of people with high-quality swords and practice sparring will lose every single time to a coordinated and well-organized and disciplined army accustomed to combat. If we’re again assuming the technology level of ancient Greece, you’ll recall from the legitimate source 300 that Spartiates never numbered more than around 5,000, but won nearly every battle for centuries because they were way more disciplined than their enemies. But where would the Noldor have learned that kind of discipline? Where would they have learned to handle an onslaught without breaking ranks? Where would they have learned to quickly and effectively communicate orders and follow them? Where did they learn to build swords with ridges?
can we talk about what tactical analysis does to my pants
Anonymous asked: Now now now. What to say about my favorite couple of psychopaths? Your mastery of the language is impressive and reading what you write is a pleasure. You manage to bring life to two very complex characters, making us see how evil has its own reasons, yet you do not try to make excuses for them and they remain proud and great figures that stand their own ground without being static as the Argonath. Seeing how you interact with other muses is amazing and your art is great. I love you.
*stares at anon with teary eyes and a wibbly lip*
whwywyhrububrb whryy would you say such nice things about me oh my god I haven’t even been justifying my existence in this fandom for weeks YOU ARE SO SWEET. T__T
THat is basically everything I ever wanted to hear about my performance with these characters. Thank you. I love you too, anon. (And you, my precious followers) <3
Anonymous asked: How do I even start describing the condensed awesomeness that is you? Your poetry, your roleplay, your writing, your _art_ - breathtaking, to say the least. If you were an Ainu, you'd be the Ainu of awesomeness.
Are you a candy? BECAUSE YOU ARE SUPER SWEET. 
The little Silm community here on tumblr has brought me such fun and inspiration and happiness! You have only yourselves to blame if I can’t stop writing and drawing stuff for you! XD
(Sadly, I fear that I would be the Ainu of ‘not finishing anything I’m meant to be working on’, ’thrashing around in other people’s sandboxes’, and ‘demanding attention’. So basically……. Melkor. >v>;)
Headcanon: Three Fateful Shiny Things
I have never desired to possess the Silmarils. However ravishing they may be in Melkor’s crown, which is clearly the only worthy place they have ever been given, they’re more trouble than they’re worth. I am above the petty lusts and panics and spats they’ve sparked, and I would feel no differently if I were left alone with them.
Why, do you ask? Because I am a jeweler of greater renown than any other. I make my own shiny things, and their beauty and subtlety eclipses the garish gems of Fëanor. And I myself am beautiful, with or without the corpse-light of two withered Trees shining upon my brow.
Trifles do not impress me. Even if they did, they would only spur me to create a thing still finer and more desperately desired. I have plans for such a project, but the idea leapt to mind before I’d ever seen those silly jewels.
Were I a more rational spirit, I would hurl these into the crushing depths and ravish you till the heat of your ardor lit the heavens; then I would truly have a light to outshine all others, one to which the Vala and the Firstborn have no claim whatever. But I am not nor have never been the master of my own whims.
Do you see, my red-gold darling? I am a power of the world, immutable in my ways, and that is my most humiliating weakness. My tragedy is that I am aware of my own archetype— that as a god I cannot change, and though I can see the course set by my own folly, I cannot swerve from it.
The lights I have, and the lights I shall keep, though they stoop me in my prime and whither my flesh. Not all the reason and love in the world can loose them from my bloody grasp.
Opalescent Druzy Geode
My Silmaril radar just pinged.
My bling.
Did you mean: My bling?
Did you mean: the bling stolen from the hands of the murdered father of the crafter?
Yes. *Swishes hair and adjusts crown in mirror* Finders keepers.
#The difference between me and you Feanor is that I make these look good
Of course, Morgoth, you have no other ways to look good than to rely on my blings.
doegred-main: True, yet it would be more accurate to say that they just stand out more since a beautiful thing over a hideous thing looks more beautiful than it is. It’s merely a question of context.
These are the times in which I am really proud of my firstborn.
Master, don’t listen to those spiteful, bickering Noldor hags.
You are exquisite. You sear my eyes but I cannot look away. Indeed, I feel your beauty stands perfect and intact, even without those artificial nightlights on your crown. I miss being able to gaze upon you unhindered…
(Source: etsy.com)
