Game 148, Fourth and Final Age

General
#1

I, Manwë, Lord of the Valar, High King of Arda, Lord of the West proclaim Middle Earth corrupt and defiled. It is time for the Valar to once and for all cleanse the lies and bring the fire of truth to this war-torn and gluttonous land.

I, Manwë, second only to Ilúvatar the Father of All, have come to expose the lies of your histories and the crimes of the Elves. Once the Elder Children of Ilúvatar, the Elves have corrupted your history and turned many of The Hildor, The Afterborn, those you call Men, into their unwitting pawns. Hear the truth!

Long ago, Elves were favored among us. This was until one with Fire in his soul and Murder in his heart stole the Light of the Two Trees and set them in gems, the Silmarils, so that they may please him and him alone. Audacity! It was he, Fëanor, that set in motion the Darkening of Valinor and the Kinslaying and eventual banishment of his people from the Blessed Realm. Not all failed us, some chose to stay, and have been well rewarded. He and the others were banished, and came unto Middle Earth to spread their dark disease of the soul.

The Elves created a great history in the Quenta Silmarillion. They are all lies. The purport to tell of a valiant struggle of the Elves against Morgoth on behalf of the Valar, and the struggle of them and their corrupted Mannish allies to overthrow great wickedness. Folly! Only in small bits do they gloss over the Fall of Gondolin, brought on by the treachery of the Elf Maeglin. They barely recount the theft of the Simarils by the Elves Maedhros and Maglor, whom we punished with madness and death. In our wrath for the uncounted murders of the people of Ilúvatar, we came to Beleriad and broke the very land itself, casting the Elves into eternal banishment from Valinor and setting the survivors to cling to the remaining rocks. White ships! They sail to their doom, the Lost Children of Ilúvatar, when they sail to the West.

Yet they still schemed. Powerful Rings they created. While they cry foul at Sauron, they create their own Rings of Power and set it to Man to overthrow Sauron who they aided in establishing! We are weak they claim! Did they forsake their Rings of Power when supposedly the truth of their making was revealed! No! They schemed and put a puppet on the throne of the greatest kingdom of Man since Númenor fell. They claimed the evil now gone, that they would leave. But they have not! For they know they have no future with us, the Powers of the World.

Enough! I, Manwë, declare their lives forsaken. All those that side with the Elves in this time of struggle shall also be cast down. The first matches of cleansing shall strike at the outpost of Symrna. The Kirrouko Cabal refuse to hear truth, even when spoken by the Great Ones, and side with the Elves. The time of regret is at hand, Middle Earth shall burn with fire, and the Land shall break. It begins here. Tulkas, the Hunter, shall start the fire that will burn Mirkwood, and soon all of Middle Earth, clean.

Manwë Súlimo
Lord of the Breath of Arda
High King of Arda
Lord of the West

#2

The last of the elf-friends had been put to the sword. Tulkas Astaldo, the Valar’s greatest warrior, surveyed the ruins briefly. His Valar sight saw elf-friend reinforcements coming from the road from the Sea of Rhun, as well as from the Rhovanion crossroads, but Tulkas has already ordered his human force to march west to the next den of wickedness. It would take but moments for Tulkas, the Great Hunter, to join them. None ran as fast as he.

After Manwë’s long-winded, title-laden declaration to Arda, sounding in the heads of all those in Middle Earth, the humans who are just now becoming an evening carrion meal still had a chance to see the light of the Valar. Tulkas had stood outside the gates of Symrna and declared to them that if they threw down their weapons, they could be spared. After all, Tulkas needed as many human warriors as possible, it would serve few to waste them in this first battle. In their arrogance, the militia leader stood on the walls of their Fort and spouted words of anger and arrogance. “You cannot throw down these walls, spirit! Your time has past, it is now the Age of Man!”

The decision made for him, Tulkas signaled the war machines to advance from beyond the treeline into range of the town walls. His keen sight easily picked up the shock and horror of the members of the garrison. Now those eyes are darkened forever. No matter, it is the will of Illuvatar.

Tulkas looked west. He saw the other Valar already arriving at Kapru Kale. Manwë himself was first to arrive, and was already spouting long winded speeches at the garrison commander, who no doubt saw the smoke rising from the east so had pain in both his eyes and ears. Indeed, he felt sorry for Orome and Aule the Smith, who would also be at Kapru Kale with their human forces, and are now forced to listen to Manwë. Tulkas lingered, wanting to spare his ears for yet a few moments more.

His vision shifted. A stir in the trees: an enemy force from Mirkwood. With a sigh, he moved forward, wanting to arrive with his troops as the enemy moved in his infantry and cavalry. Knowing this meant yet another speech by Manwë to the enemy army commander, Tulkas heading west to join his fellow Valar, where the second of the elf-friends’ town would soon burn.

#3

Aule the Smith grimaced. Many of his machines, destroyed. They were simple things, nothing compared to the Lamps in Valinor or even the maigcal rings he mistakenly taught the Elves, the Lost Children, to make. Simple, yet effective. But did their simplicity and lack of luster make them any less beauteous? To be sure, the defenders of Kapru Kale didn’t think them beauteous as the siege towers opened on their walls and the catapults pulled down their towers, leaving the town open to the invading forces of Valar allied men. Nor did the 1400 HI in reinforcements help, Tulkas had planned the war well. Manwe would take the credit of course, but Tulkas was in charge of the fighting. Still, he would have to talk to Tulkas about his careless use of the war machines, leaving them so unprotected at times. The ultimate goal was achieved of course, another den of elf-friends was put to the sword. It would be the second of many.

OOC: Anyone else want to join in? This is the quietest game I’ve ever been in!

#4

OOC: Heck, at this rate, I may as well keep entertaining myself!

Varda Elentári, Queen of the Stars, danced below them. Wife of Manwe, it was she who had cast the stars in the sky, in the making of Arda, and the Elves had named her Elbereth. A fortnight ago, Manwe had her placing tents and campfires for new enclaves of men, the new First Children of the Valar. No more, that task is done, sooner than expected, but now done. Flowers sprung now from between the trees, where once was just rock and soil. She had no interest in the war, her love was to be found in the stars, the trees, the flowers, and even the hills that she lingered. And she danced.

A heron, herald of Manwe watched her patiently, awaiting the time to press on the message it beared. Manwe, for all his flaws, knew to instruct the heron to wait for Varda to finish if found like this. There was much to be done, but for now, the Queen of the Valar could dance under the net of stars she had cast.

#5

He saw Manwe standing there, across the prison that Was Not, his home, shut beyond the confines of the World. Manwe did not speak.

Illuvatar himself had come to him. After being absent for thousands of years, and after being lost to Illuvatar for eons more before that, the presence of the One was like the Dawn of the World upon a snow driven field, too bright to turn away yet too bright to see. Such pleasure …

Illuvatar has impressed upon his mind what he was to do. He was not so far removed from his brother that he could not tell that Illuvatar had done the same with Manwe. This too, gave him pleasure: that his brother should have to see him once more freed. Freed, to scour the earth of the elves and elf-friend men that had caused his ruin, that had killed his dragons and driven his Balrogs away. Free to burn and destroy, as not even Tulkas could do, to help the Valar clean the world of his age-old enemies. And once this was done, he would clean the world of the Valar themselves, to be once again second only to Illuvatar. Never again would he be prisoner.

The bonds shimmered; Manwe turned away. Melkor was free.