Elves:
(if you wish to be Elven I ask that you have ears. If you don't then I wil give you three weeks to buy them after you join. what I mean is if you really don't have the gold at the moment tell me and you can join as an elf but you have to get the ears within three weeks.)
The elves had been given the Choice of whether or not to leave Middle Earth and go to the Undying Lands. Those who went on the journy were named the Eldar, and those who stayed were named the Avari, "the Unwilling".
These are the many Elven races. From here you may decide your charaters heritage and origin. There is nothing that says two tribes cannot interbreed. Be creative. You can also use whatever history or peoples from here as sub characters. (you know those people who you control for a brief period of time and use for a convorsation or a mini plot)
Dark elves: they are not evil as some would percieve. They are said to be dark elves because they never saw the Undying Lands. There were different races of the "dark elves" or the Moriquendi. the Moriquendi were counted a lesser people than the High Elves of Eldamar (Vanyar, Noldor, Teleri). Yet by the reconing of Men these Dark elves were magical and briliant beings. For they were immune to pestilence and aged not with the passage of time. Their eyes always shone with the light of the stars. In the first years of Sun it was these Elves who taught all Men speech and many other arts and skills.
Avari:at a time all elves lived in the East of Middle Earth near Orocarni, the Mountains of the East on the shore of Helcar, the Inland Sea. But in time the summons of the Valar (like angels) came and all the elves had to make a choice between starlight and the promise of eternal light. Those who chose starlight where named the Avari.
The Avari became a less powerful people, for their land became Barbarous with Dark Powers and evil races, and so the elves dwindled and hid themselves. They became as shadows and sprites that mortal eyes could not percive. They lived always close to the wooded land, built no cities and had no kings. Later in the years of Sun, the Avari were named Silvan or Wood-elves, and some of them wandered westwards and became involved in the great affairs of their Eldar kindred under whom they grew prosperous and strong.
Silvan: (Of Lothlorien and Mirkwood) In the ages that followed the Rising of the Sun and the Moon, many of the gentle Wood-elves of the East drifted westwards. In the years of Sun these were nemed Silvan elves, for most of them lived in forests; they were a tribal people who built no cities and had no kings. In the years that followed the First Age of Sun, however, the numbers and lands of the Noldorin and Sindarin Elves had dwindled and to swell their kingdoms these High Elves took Silvan Elves as their subjects. In this way the Silvan Elves learned much of the High Elven language and culture, and many of the skills that had come from the Undying Lands. For a time the Silvan Elves grew strong and prosperous under these lords. The greatest power and beauty were to be found in the Silvan Elves Whom Celeborn and Galadriel ruled in the Golden Wood of Lothlorien.
These elves where the Galadhrim, "tree-people".
It is also told how in Greenwood the Great (later it was named Mirkwood) there was the Woodland Kingdom of the Sindar lord Thranduil. The concealed city of the Silvan Elves of Thranduil was beautiful and magical, for it was the diminished image of the ancient Sindar relm of Menegroth-once the fairest city of Middle-earth (it was in a cave and the walls were carved by the dwarves to look as a forest, filled with trees and stone animals) But a part of its beauty had lived on and withstood the dark invasions of the Third Age.
Sindar:In the beginning they were part of the Teleri and their king was the High King of the Teleri. In those first years he was named Elwe Singollo and he was the tallest of the elves. His hair was silver and he alone of the Teleri was taken to the Undying Lands to experience the light of the Trees of the Valar.
When Elwe was brought back to his people to tell then of what awaited them in the Undying Lands no one was more eager to reach the light than he. Many of the Teleri were lost on that journey, but Elwe always urged them on, until they came at last to Beleriand beyond the blue mountains.
In Beleriand for a time they made camp near the River Gelion in a wood. In this place, according to Elven-lore, Elwe Singollo entered the Wood of Nan Elmoth and fell under a timeless spell. His people searched for him, but as years passed many gave up hope and gave the kingship over to Olwe, his brother, and they resumed their Journey to the west. But many others would have no other king and would not leave that place. So these people remained in Beleriand and called themselves the Eglath, the "forsaken", and thereafter they were divided from the Teleri.
In time, the Eglath had their reward, for Elwe Singlollo returned from the Wood of Nan Elmoth but the great change that had occured in him amazed his people. With him came the source of his enchantment: Melian the Maia, Elwe's queen and wife, a handmaid to the powers that made the trees. And Ages before the coming of the Sun these two, with much help from the dwarves, built a great city named Menegroth (thousand caves).
But the ages of peace beneath the stars drew to an end; war broke out in Valinor and the Trees of the Valar were destroyed.Melian, however, was a wise queen, gifted with foreknowledge, and she choose to take the Sindar away from the that was to befall the land about them. She cast a powerful spell and wove an enchantment in the Great Forest of Doriath around Menegroth, so that the Sindarin relm became a hidden kingdom. This enchantment was stronger than any citadel's high walls and was named the Girdle of Melian, and no evil could break that spell from without, and all evil was lost before it could enter.
So long as Melian was gueen and Thingol lived, the Sindar were a prosperous and happy people. But when Thingol (Elwe was named this in the Grey-tongue) was drawn into the War of the Jewels and lost his life and his queen went away, the enchantment was broken as where the people.
Nandor / Laiquendi: Of the elves who undertook the Great Journey in search of the Undying Lands there were Three Kindred. The third and largest kindren were the Teleri, and because there people were so numerous their passage was slowest, and those unable or unwilling to complete the Journey were in greater numbers than the other two kindred. The first division recorded in that Journey came when the Teleri halted before the Great River Anduin and, looking beyond, saw the Misty Mountains. This mighty barrier terrified the elves and so, rather than risk crossing the mountains, Lenwe, a lord of the Teleri, led his people away. They went southwards down the Great River and livd in places unknown to others of their kin; they were named the Nandor, "those who turn back". They were a wandering woodland fold and they had no equal ways of woodlore and woodcraft, or in the knowledge of the Kelvar and the Olvar of Middle-earth. They hunted with bows and had weapons made from certain base metals, but they did not know how to forgearms of steel with which to fight the evil creatures that, in later Ages, came out of the North.
For More than two Ages of Starlight the Nandor lived in harmony in the lands of their wanderings, in the Vales of Anduin. Some Crossed over the White Mountains and came into Eriador. They grew wiser in the ways of the forests and waters, but when evil beings attacked them in forests they were unprepared and their numbers began to dwindle.
Many Nandor, practicing their woodcraft, hid as best they could from the lurking terror. However Denethor, (not the steward of Gondor) son of king Lenwe, Gathered many of the Nandor to him and set off once again on the long-abandoned westward march. He sought what kindred he could to aid him, for tales had reached the Nandor of the might of the sindar, led by one who had once been king of all the Teleri, Elwe Singollo, now named Thingol. Denethor crossed the Blue Mountains and entered Beleriand, bringing a great number of the Nandor under the sovereignty of their rightful king once again.
They were welcomed by the Sindar, who protected them, taught them some of the arts of war and granted them Ossiriand, the "land of seven rivers", as their relm. They were called the Nandor no more but Laiquendi and Green-elves because of their love of green cloth so they might be one with the forest in the sight of an enemy, and for their love and knowledge of all that was green and grew. They were second only to the Sheperds of trees, the Ents, as protectors of the Olvar of the forest, and of the Kelvar as well, for the Laiquendi did not hunt the creatures of the woodlands.
So in that Age before the coming of the Sun, they lived happily by rivers and in the forests of Ossiriand, and the sweet singing of the Laiquendi rivalled the melodies of the nightingale.
After some time Melkor's armies of orcs and trolls attacked. Though the Grey-elves and te Laiquendi prevailed, the Laiquendi lord Denethor was slain, and his people would take no new king. They swore that they would never come again into open battle with the Enemy but would always remain under cover of the forest, where they could ambush their foes with darts and arrows.
Ever after, they kept this pledge and became a tribal people, and their enemies were harassed but could not defeat them for the Laiquendi made no cities that the Enemy could find to destroy. These people were as the wind in the trees, which sometimes can be heard but never seen.
Falathrim:The elves of the Falas, lived on the coast lands of Beleriand in the years of Starlight and the First Age of Sun and were ruled by the lord Cirdan. The Falathrim were of the Teleri kindred, but, when Ulmo the Ocen Lord came to the Teleri, Cirdan and his people refused the final journey to the Undying Lands and so were divided from their kindred. The Falathrim lived by the sea for a long time and they were wiset of the sea-folk on Middle-earth. They were the First to build ships in the Mortal Lands. The ships of Cirdan were white and magical and they wer able to make that far journey into the Undying Lands, even after the Change of the World, when Middle-earth and the undying lands were draw apart for ever. Then only the Elf ships of the Falathrim could make that journey.In the First Age of Sun the falathrim were beseiged by Orcs for a time, and later still their havens fell to Morgoth, but they took their ships and sailed to the Isle of Balar, and no power of Morgoth was able to come on the sea, for he greatly feared the ocean lord Ulmo. Later they sailed again to the Guld of Lune un the land of Lindon, the last of the Elf-realms of Beleriand. Here Cirdan build the last Haven of the Elves on Middle-earth. This was called the Grey Havens, and from here the last Elven-ship sailed for ever from the Mortal Lands.
Light Elves:
The tale of the Great Journey tells how most of the Vanyar, Noldor, and Teleri reached the shores of the Undying Lands in the time of the Trees
of Valar. There they dwelt in Eldamar and were tutored by the Powers of Arda, the Valar and their people, the Maiar. The Elves grew wise and noble and learned many skills: the making of jewls and precious metals, the building of majestic cities and the finest arts of music and language. these people were called the Light Elves for they were shining in body
and spirit, and, of all peoples within the Circles of the World, they were the fairest by all accounts.
Vanyar:
Of the Three Kindred of elves who undertook the Great Journey from Middle-earth to the Undying Lands, least is told in the histories that have come to Men of that kindred which is counted first and whose king, Ingwe, is named High Lord over all the Elven peoples. This race is the Vanyar, who are also known as the Fair Elves. They seem golden, for their hair is blondest of all peoples. They are most in accord with the Valar and are much loved by them: the counsel of the Lord of the Valar, Manwe, and vardahis queen is always theirs.
The Vanyar have had little to do with Men. Only once have they returned to Middle-earth and then it was to fight against Morgoth in the War of Wrath, which ended the First Age of Sun. none of the Vanyar stayed on in Middle-earth; all returned to the Undying Lands.What is known of the Vanyar has come to the ears of Men from the Exiles-- the Noldor who retuned to Middle-earth at the time of the Arising of Men. Though they are the least numerous of the Three Kindred the Vanyar are the most wise and valiant. With the Noldor in their first days in the Undyings Lands they built the city of Tirion on the green hill of Tuna. This was a great city with white walls and towers, and tallest of the towers of all the Elves was Mindon Eldalieva, the Tower of Ingwe. From it shone a silver lamp over the Shadowy Seas and in the court of the Tower of Ingwe stood a seedling named Galathilion from the tree Telperion, which flourished woth the elven people.
But after a time, the Vanyar came to love the Light of the Trees still more, for it inspired them to compose songs and poetry which are their chief loves. So it was that they wished to settle where their full power might be seen. Thus Ingwe led his people out if Tirion to the foot of Taniquetil, the Mountain of Manwe, the High Lord of the Valar. Here the Vanyar pledged to stay, and there they have remained though the trees have faded long ago.
Noldor
Of the Eldar who came to the Undying Lands, the Noldor were the Second Kindred. The name Noldor means knowledge, which of above all the Elves they strove to possess. In the years of the Trees of the Valar their king was Finwe, and at that time great was their joy in learning from their tutors, the Valar and the Maiar. So it was that the Noldor became wise people, but they especially excelled in the crafts of Aule, Maker of Mountains. They were first to bring forth the gems that lay in the mountian heart. They gave the stones freely and the mansions of the elves and the Valar glinted woth the gems of the Noldor, and the very beaches and pools of Eldamar, it is said, shone with the scattered light of gems.
To the king of the Noldor and his queen , Miriel, was born a son named Curufinwe, who was called Feanor, which is spirit of fire. Of all craftsmen who learned the skills of Aule,Feanor was mightiest. For he made the magical Elven-gems that were brighter and more magical than earth stones. As well as the Palantiri, or "seeing stones".
Of all the Noldor lords and their children only finarfin's daughter, Galadriel, survived on Middle-earth.
Of all the royal lines of the Noldor few who survived the War of the Jewels could claim direct descent. So it was that Gil-galad, son of Fingon, son of Fingolfin, set up the last Noldor high kingdom in the Mortal Lands. This was Lindon, the last part of Beleriand to remain after the Great Battle. With Gil-galad lived Celebrimbor, son of Curufin, only prince of the House of Feanor to live into the Second Age.
