[piosenniel]

I want to share this passage from Morgoth’s Ring; The Later Quenta Silmarillion (II); “Laws and Customs among the Eldar”; ‘Of Re-birth and other Dooms of Those That Go to Mandos’:

This concerns the fëar (spirits) of those of the Elves who, when their body dies, refuse the call of Mandos to the Halls of Waiting. It gives some precedent for Evil to have overtaken some of the Elves.

If you do plan to use Evil Elves, I would like to see them based along these lines – not Elves who chose to do evil but who made the unfortunate choice to refuse the summons to the Halls of Mandos at their bodies’ death and whose Houseless fëar were then called in by whatever incarnation of Shadow there was at the time. I would also like their number to be limited – though you could perhaps have some of them who have come from the Necromancer at Dol Guldur, or they may have been Houseless spirits who overcame the Elven guard that’s gone missing at the border – taking their bodies as needed and killing the others with the aid of the orcs.

The fëa is single, and in the last impregnable. It cannot be brought to Mandos. It is summoned; and the summons proceeds from authority and is imperative; yet it may be refused. Among those who refused the summons (or rather the invitation) of the Valar to Aman in the first years of the Elves, refusal of the summons to Mandos and the Halls of Waiting is, the elder say, frequent. It was less frequent, however, in ancient days, while Morgoth was in Arda, or his servant Sauron after him. For the fëa unbodied would flee in terror of the Shadow to any refuge - unless it were already committed to the Darkness {its fëa already having answered the summons of Morgoth - my edit} and passed into its dominion. In like manner even of the Eldar some who had become corrupted refused the summons, and then had little power to resist the counter summons of Morgoth.

{There is then a passage on how in these after-days (4th Age and beyond) more and more of the Elves refuse the summons and wander houseless in the world – causing mischief to mankind}.

. . . For the Unbodied, wandering in the world, are those who at the least have refused the door of life and remain in regret and self-pity. Some are filled with bitterness, grief, and envy. Some were enslaved by the Dark Lord and do his work still, though he himself is gone.

. . . Some say that the Houseless desire bodies, though they are not willing to seek them lawfully by submission to the judgment of Mandos. The wicked among them will take bodies, if they can, unlawfully. The peril of communing with them is, therefore, not only the peril of being deluded by fantasies of lies: there is peril also of destruction. For one of the hungry Houseless, if it is admitted to the friendship of the Living, may seek to eject the fëa from its body; and in the contest for the mastery of the body may be gravely injured, even if it is not wrested from its rightful habitant. Or the Houseless may plead for shelter, and if it is admitted, then it will seek to enslave its host and use both his will and his body for its own purposes. It is said that Sauron did these things, and taught his followers how to achieve them . . .

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Now, about the Dwarven Rings of Power:

I’m not sure how you are planning to use them – and how many you are planning to have in the possession of the Evil Elves. One would be preferable as a maximum in my opinion.

They were all under the dominion of the One Ring of Sauron. So Sauron will be aware of their use, even if he does not at the moment have the Ring of Power on his hand. And any who wears one, he can bend to his will and in the end utterly enslave them.

. . . But even if he (Sauron) did not wear it (the One Ring), that power existed and was in ‘rapport’ with himself: he was not ‘diminished’. -- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien; 'Letter #131'

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Tolkien does discuss the powers of the lesser rings in Letter #131, also.

I do want any appearance of unusual or greatly overpowering magical abilities conferred on the wearers of the lesser rings of power. Tolkien states in the same letter as above that the chief power of all the rings alike was:

. . . the prevention of or slowing of ‘decay’ (i.e. ‘change’ viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance – this is more or less an Elvish motive. But they also enhanced the natural powers of the possessor, - thus approaching ‘magic’, a motive easily corrupted into evil, a lust for domination. And finally they had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron (‘the Necromancer’ . . .): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible.

This last power was shown when Frodo slips on the One Ring. So I’m assuming if a lesser ring of power were worn by an Elf, evil or not – he/she would become invisible and see the invisible, shadow world of Sauron.

The 3 Elven rings of power, it is stated in this same letter, did not confer invisibility. And they remained unsullied by Sauron.

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So, a couple of questions here, to consider as you plan the game:

1.) How will you introduce the idea of these evil Elves into the game? Their origin, and how they now fit into your storyline, I think, will need to be documented in the History section that precedes the Storyline section of the Proposal.

2.) How many will you introduce into the game? Will they be carry-along characters or will some one actually play one.

If there are to be evil Elf characters played – then I want them to be done by the game’s planners, so that the other moderator and I can see those character bios and histories prior to putting the Game up as a Discussion Thread. We will require that these characters be very carefully done, and do not stray beyond the bounds that Tolkien crafted for his Elves.

3.) How many Dwarven rings of power will your evil Elves have?

4.) What specific powers do you see being conferred on the wearers? How are their natural Elven powers enhanced.

5.) Since none of this finding of a lesser ring of power or evil Elves is mentioned in the LotR or its Appendices, how are you going to wrap this game up so that such an incident passes out of memory and is not recorded?

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While I have you – I have another request concerning Elven characters. Hair color is preferably dark (black or dark brown) or yellow. Eyes are grey as Tolkien specified (though we will accept variations of grey-blues). No red-haired, green or violet eyed elves from Lothlorien or Mirkwood.

Also, Tolkien’s female Elves do not usually go into battle – so most of your characters will need to be male if they are involved in the battles.

Just some things to consider.

Thanks!

~*~ Pio, Game Moderator