Chapter One: The Sin-Queen
"From splendor he fell through arrogance to contempt for all things save himself, a spirit wasteful and pitiless. Understanding he turned to subtlety in perverting to his own will all that he would use, until he became a liar without shame. He began with the desire of Light, but when he could not possess it for himself alone, he descended through fire and wrath into a great burning, down into Darkness. And darkness he used most in his evil works upon Arda, and filled it with fear for all living things.
…...Morgoth, the Dark Enemy of the World.
Among those of his servants that have names the greatest was that spirit whom the Eldar called Sauron, or Gorthaur the Cruel. Sauron was become now a sorcerer of dreadful power, master of shadows and of phantoms, foul in wisdom, cruel in strength, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; his dominion was torment."
The Founding of the Kingdom of Moriquendi
Not alone in his fall was Sauron in service to the Dark One, Morgoth. Once, Melkor had been his name. 'He who arises in might.' Yet in his fall he brought nothing but hate, death, cruelty and will to destroy all creation, to usurp it with his own will, his own life, and with his own divinity. In doing this, the Dark One would need allies, who would be but servants to his will and power. Chief among them was Sauron. Once Mairon and a servant in service to the great Valar smith Aulë.
For when he became Sauron, he alone of the many Maiar spirits who fell with Morgoth would stand tall and indeed take onto himself the title once held by Morgoth as Dark Lord. This was not to say there were no others who had fallen, or those of great power as Sauron. Indeed chief in name was Gothmog, Lord of the Balrogs. Rivaled in rank alone by Sauron himself. The Balrogs, all of them great fire spirits once, of the Maiar, who swore allegiance to Morgoth and forsook old ties, and old oaths. For the power, and the glory the Dark One could, and did promise to offer in return for fealty.
Yet even more of the Maiar fell. Many now called 'rauco.' Demon in the tongue of Quenya. Unspoken, and ill remembered in the minds of Men or Dwarves, and hardly a thought in the memories of the Orc-kind remains the name Vóriselyë. The name is old indeed. Its meaning, like the name itself, lost on those without the memory or wisdom to know it. Yet even this name is not as crucial as that of Úcarëtári.
Born of Quenya in speech once more, the name means 'sin-queen' in the common tongue of men. A Maiar born into creation by the almighty power of Eru, Vóriselyë became a patron to the Valar, Varda. Vóriselyë took up the form of what she chose as was blessed to all Maiar. A fair and beautiful woman. Hair of shining gold weaved with silver that shone bright in reverence, or some would say out of jealousy of the sparkling beauty of Varda. Her skin was fair and unblemished in vision, and so perfect that it seemed to glitter itself before any mortal who lay eyes upon her. As all Maiar seemed to mortals or even elves, she seemed perfect beyond compare save for the indescribably beauty of the Valar, and her lady Varda chief among them all.
Her eyes took the hue of glistening gray. Like the stars of her lady Varda they would sparkle, and with emotion fluctuate in glittering majesty. Her eyes were known among the Valar and Maiar as those which could bring lesser creatures to heel. Be it by their beauty or by the subtle power to stall that which moved before her, it mattered little. The piercing gaze given to her was matched by few, but certainly outdone by many chiefly being the Valar, and those of the Dark Power that was to come.
In respect to her condition, as a servant to her mighty mistress and lady of the stars, Vóriselyë was a dutiful student and watcher of her lady's magics, and art in forming the heavens above Arda for when mortal men, elves, and all children of Eru would be brought forth from nothingness into the world. Unlike her brethren Maiar, Mairon, Vóriselyë saw the world as a beautiful creation weaved by the Valar for Eru's simple creations to rejoice and be content. Something to be maintained, and kept in peace and beautiful for all to see and take delight in her lady's works and that of the fellow Valar.
Mairon, later Sauron, saw the universe in turmoil. A chaotic misshapen ugly thing that did not show any sign or respect for order and peace. The beautiful chaos in the eyes of Vóriselyë was foul anarchy in the eyes of Mairon. Yet, still Mairon endured his thoughts and visions of chaos for the sake of his master Aulë, and of Ilúvatar.
It was for both of them the same, however, when birthed into the world came forth Eru Ilúvatar's first children. The Elves. So graceful and perfect, or as close to such as lesser beings of some measure of mortality could be. Yet so prideful and arrogant. Wasteful in their pride, arrogant in their perfection, they were born of the world and came across to the shores of Valinor from the continent that would be Middle-Earth.
Then came man, the most arrogant, yet least perfect, the most blind and yet greedy, the most incapable, but most lusting. Barbaric hordes that were born of the Flame Eternal rose and given time would wage war.
So then too would the elves wage the first mortal war. They would seek to return jewels taken by Morgoth, the Silmarils, and to achieve this goal, slay their kin, and mar their memory and birth for many thousands of years. Then too came the third children of Ilúvatar. The mistaken creatures born of Aulë in his impatience, and made of the rock, the dwarves. Thinking himself mistaken, and seeking to undo the creation of the creatures, Aulë struck them down with his mighty hammer, and pounded them to the ground, yet Eru spared them. In adoption of these creatures as his third children, the One made them sleep only to awaken after men, and to remain 'halved,' by Aulë's strike against them.
So too then were dwarves born into Arda, and so too would they come under the power of greed, death, and war. So too would they mar the planet in its chaos.
Thus it can be said that Mairon became Sauron, to dominate the wills and minds of those mortal beings and lesser creatures to make them orderly and fix the One's mistake of the chaos that overtook them. Whilst Vóriselyë chose to become Úcarëtári to bring low those ravenous creatures that tore and broke, and soiled her lady's creation. The blissful chaos born into the universe by the One was being sullied by his lesser children, and so they needed either be destroyed, or made to be orderly as her fellow Maiar felt they should be.
And so, when Melkor, became known to the world as Morgoth, those of Valinor, and of the great mass of Maiar spirits, then found their ranks added to by his most powerful servant and spy for some time, Mairon, and a sorceress of terrible power and magic, Vóriselyë.
The great war began between Morgoth and the elves began. The War of the Great Jewels. And from within this conflict, was born many smaller ones, making this more of a period in time, wrought with war and stained in crimson blood, that smelled of metal born of that vital fluid that gave and maintained life spilling like oceans onto dirt and grass. Tens of thousands of elves, men, dwarves, and Morgoth's foul creatures, the orcs, died. Millions indeed fell and rose in might, along with trolls, and the terrible creatures known as dragons, like Ancalagon the great and mightiest of all serpents. These creatures born of darkness and mockery to life, rose and fell as did all who flooded to the side of Morgoth and of his enemies. Cities were razed, men of great renown, elves and dwarves were hewn, and waylaid. Hearts were broken, and families destroyed. Morgoth and his terrible wrath for the utter marring and destruction of Eru's creations came to bear against the combined peoples of Arda.
Gothmog led the Balrogs into battle and slew much of men and elves. Bodies burned and broken fell before them. Sauron, lieutenant of Angband commanded his master's forces in many things. Sauron became sire to the rise of the terrible beasts known as vampires and werewolves and unleashed these terrible hordes along with those of his masters creation. The trolls, dragons, orcs, all these creatures a direct mockery of those creations made by Eru. All of them in the eyes of both Sauron and Úcarëtári, disgusting and beneath them. Nonetheless, the foul creatures had their uses.
Vóriselyë gained her name, as 'Sin-Queen,' by unleashing the arcane, and greatly hidden powers of her lady Varda upon those who stood against Morgoth. Her beauty among the Maiar a great asset as it was used to sway the feeble weak minds and hearts of mortal men, and trick unsuspecting elves, or even awe the mighty and proud dwarves that came before her. The beauty of the sin-queen was a power over the men she came to understand. Visions and illusions of women were born of Vóriselyë's magic. The natural lust and dirtiness of Ilúvatar's creations used to break them down, make them weak, and give into cravings and baser simplistic lust. They satiated nothing, as nothing was actually born of the sorceress's illusions. Yet whole camps of men, who caved to lust, and to violence born of delusion and illusion by the powerful Maiar hidden among them, whispering smoothly and tantalizingly in their ears. Great feasts that satiated their gluttony, and vision blotted with gold, gems, and rubies that were not but could be, and in the hearts of men they lusted. Their greed knew no bounds for the visions of power prosperity and lust Úcarëtári imparted onto men, elves and dwarves. Elves proved impossible to twist to her will, but their pride led them to undertake battle against her and her faithful hordes of greed and worship. Many companies of elves came upon her in hope and waged war onto her and her house under the banner of the Dark One, and a great many she laid low, or captured to be taken before Morgoth and twisted and tortured to his will.
Men could not deny her, and when their lusts went unfulfilled, and their illusions taken from them, and all pleasure lost on these mortal men they bowed before her, threw their arms to the soil and begged for their joy to be returned so total was their reverence for the fulfillment of their baser instincts did Úcarëtári come to power. For Morgoth she wove her terribly enticing dance, and brought unto him hundreds and then thousands of men to fight alongside the orcs, trolls, and dragons born of his foul evil fire. From the depths of Utumno, and to the halls of Angband she gave her lord great measure of servants and followers. All of them taken by greed, and chasing after lust. Appetites needed fulfilling to buy their loyalty, but when their minds came onto visions of power, glory they fell into stupor and lounged in satiation. Only when striped of their need did they fight furiously and ravenously. All in attempt to regain that sense of power, and then one day to attain such great power and glory in the real realm. Thus Úcarëtári gave onto these men great greed, and ambition, and spoke sweetly in their ears of their dreams being awarded onto them, should they but bow, and serve at the mighty boots of Morgoth.
Her power was mighty, and the sound of her voice was tantalizing and soothing. Lulling men and dwarf into complacency, whilst elves fought to differentiate between her words of honey and venomous intent. The glittering of stars seemed to follow in her footsteps. Garrisons fell as she came upon them wielding nothing but her raised hand. Before her coming like great thunder crack, explosions of glittering light. Men fell to their knees and fell dead, whilst others were thrown back. Bones were broken, muscles torn, and bodies smashed under her natural power. Furious winds, and pounding rain, the skies darkening and air sapping from about them followed. Her command of the elements and power of the sorcerer followed in her wake.
Sorcery and black magic, gifted to her by her many years under her lady Varda and by her natural grace as a lesser Ainur, but an Ainur she was, all the same. Many times did she and Sauron work in cooperation to bring about horrifying experiments and projects to impress their lord Morgoth. Orcs, and foul little Goblins were taken by both and used as fodder to improve and make stronger. Many hundreds of Morgoth's legions died to serve their purposes of testing their arcane magics and sorcery, and by the end result the orcs had grown taller, stronger, but still they fell in droves, but so did they rise in double the amount. Their hatred fueled by lust, and lust fueled by wanton greed, for deep within them all light was shut out by the great shadow of the sorcerers of Morgoth, and the Dark One himself.
Much into the mysteries and past of the elves did Úcarëtári delve into. A great interest in serpents and other reptiles of the Earth did follow in her wake. Before Morgoth did she come and offer up some of her warped creations. Creatures that were once lizards and slithering serpents made into disgusting creatures to snap, bite, and gnash against the enemies. But, Morgoth tossed them aside in disgust and haughty pride. His dragons were the pinnacle of war and mockery of Ilúvatar's creations, that Morgoth found these experiments cheap imitations of his power, and imagination. It was in this embarrassment, and anger did she grow more bold, and hateful. Soon the queen of sin had come to be beneath but Gothmog, Sauron and the Balrogs and greater dragons of the mighty force of Morgoth. Her wrath and anger, frustration and will for domination clouded her mind, so once full of nothing but the glittering of stars and their natural beauty. For then her mind was filled with contempt, disgust and loathing.
Then came the 'War of Wrath,' and thus came to an end Morgoth's reign. Taken, pulled asunder and passed into the void. The Valar had come with their mighty host and broke the armies of Morgoth. The great dragons were destroyed in nearly their entirety and scattered. All Balrogs found were eliminated, Gothmog lay dead and smote, and all else that survived the great sundering of Morgoth's forces fled into the south, as the great north of the continent was ruined, the war having made it a barren wasteland bitten endlessly by the freezing cold of death. An everlasting reminder of the great death and many dead that lay within these lost lands, as all life left that sought to remain within the lands of Middle-Earth followed south to take up houses, make seats of power and forge kingdoms.
All lieutenants of the Dark One were hunted down and slain, all Maiar who came up upon Morgoth were destroyed or imprisoned forever like their master was. Save two. Sauron and Úcarëtári remained free to roam the continent, and became lost to the Valar and those who sought them out. Both would leave from their alliance, now that their master was undone, save one last meeting at the closing of the First Age.
The great cold passed over him, but it did little to affect him. His form was mighty and tall with great blackened hair flowing long and loosely whilst whipping in the great howling winds. The winter season had begun here, in these northern lands. Once more lands to the west remained, but were now undone, and beneath the seas. The might great disaster of his time was done, and over. His master taken beyond the Door of Night into the void for all time. Or, so the Valar decreed it to be.
Now standing alone in what remained of what had been an even mightier and grand land, Sauron grimly frowned. He checked the sun in the sky as the clouds of the great cold of Morgoth brought more to gray the skies and hide the land from its heat. The midday was close to ending, and he had other places to be. For the lieutenant of Angband had no time to waste. His meeting with Eönwë had not gone as...he would have liked, and now the servant of Morgoth wished nothing more than to do as he had before, hide, and hide quickly whilst the host from the west continued to search for Morgoth's greatest servants. He knew, as he stared with cold and emotionless gray eyes outwards that they were to look for him, now that he refused to face Valinor's judgments. Sauron sought to leave, and ponder his future, but he had been summoned. Here on the edges of the remainder of the world to the south and what remained of Middle-Earth he stood tall and waiting with the nipping cold doing little to affect the Maiar. His brow furrowed and eyes grow narrow as anger began to rise within him.
"She is late." He intoned lowly and in slight irritation. All around him was great winter and snow, all life seemingly having fled from the cold wrought by the War of Wrath. No life, no animals, no trees, and only the distant sight of mountains reaching toward the skies met his eyes. It was now him in a barren wasteland waiting for Úcarëtári to meet with him. It was, in his mind to be their last and he wished it over with quickly.
The wind whispered dark tidings, and whipped through his black hair. He turned around and allowed his fair features to look out forward as her figure formed before him. Úcarëtári chose often to stay in her free form. Indiscernible and all but air before the eyesight of men and other lesser creatures, save for the most powerful of elves perhaps. She came before him wearing a heavy cloak, and with her visage changed from that of her original appearance under her lady Varda.
Her hair once golden, lined with glittering silver now had become wholly gray and white. Almost deathly stricken of color, or so it seemed. Her face was ever fair and beautiful. The image of beauty and grace that Sauron expected a servant of Varda to have about them. Her eyes still glittered with what seemed like stars twinkling in the great distance. Yet their color had changed from cloudy gray and into a fiery display of power. Where a mortal would look for the blue, brown or green of the eyes, her now seemed to flame and fluctuate from a radiant golden to a fiery orange that gave it an 'unnatural' effect of a swirling flame. Why Úcarëtári took these complex forms he knew not. Sauron preferred simplicity and thus presented himself as the tall, proud, beautiful Maiar man that he knew himself to be. Nonetheless, she approached. A heavy cowl over her head as she seemed to imitate a mortal female human covering herself from the nipping frost of the cold. Sauron knew she felt no such cold. He once more knew not why she did such things and seemed to imitate the actions of Eru's children. Only that she did.
"My lord Sauron." Úcarëtári curtsied gracefully before him. Sauron bowed his head in greeting.
"Why have you summoned me here Úcarëtári. The Valar sends their host to sweep these lands and look for those such as us. The name and loyalty to our master is now our warrant for capture or worse." She nodded, and clasped one hand gracefully in the other before herself.
"I've heard that you met with Eönwë. Please enlighten me to what the herald of Manwë would have words to speak with thee my lord? Did you come forth and bow to his boot and beg for forgiveness, and thus surrender onto him all sense of what cause you have fought for in the last five hundred years of this age?" She accused in a tone that would seem to a mortal a calm and soothing one. Yet her eyes hid not her anger, and paranoia. Sauron cast a glare and crossed his arms over his own simplistic cowl as it kept hidden a simple set of armor he kept upon himself beneath.
"You accuse so openly my ladyÚcarëtári. Do not think that since our master has found himself brought low in his defeat that you may demand a meeting like this, and present yourself my better. Gothmog is dead, the dragons all but seen cleansed of this world, and the Balrogs gone. The armies of our master fade, and servants lay dead, or imprisoned. I alone stand here with you, his last free followers, and you know as well as I that you may never contend with my power Úcarëtári. I was his lieutenant, and now I am all that remains." She bowed her head and relented. A sweet smile crept onto her features.
"Then you did not indeed rejoin the ranks of those too blinded by the Valar to see the truth in Morgoth's words. This is good news indeed! I had for a moment thought summoning you here to be a mistake. An ambush of the host ready to come forth and make me low, and buy for yourself freedom of persecution of your 'crimes.'" She smiled. Sauron grumbled lowly and averted his gaze. The visions of him indeed coming before Eönwë and kneeling, asking, all but begging for forgiveness now made him feel a fool, and disgusted with himself. A great vile feeling indeed as the Maiar knew that begging and plea for forgiveness had come not from ill will, but from honest regret.
"Then why then did you come forth? If such a worry lay on your mind indeed of my betrayal?"
"It was uncertain my lord." She bowed her head once more and kept her composure of that of some queen or princess as she addressed court members. Grace and political niceties spouting forth from her maw. Sauron was no fool. She had become a conniving and cunning dark servant in service to Morgoth, and she was never to shake your hand, save for the condition that a dagger rest within the other waiting to pierce flesh and spill blood.
"As I said, I was uncertain. I needed to know if I alone stood in memory and true to our lords teachings, or if one yet remained in the world who felt as I did."
"How did we feel then Úcarëtári?" Sauron asked returning full gaze down onto her. She stepped forward
"That we are right. It was a mistake to give this world to the children. It was perfection, it was freedom, and it deserved reverence. It was his mistakes that spilt blood onto the grasslands, and hills. It were his creations that waged war, pillaged cities, and killed kin."
"Some would disagree with that tale." He threw back at her. Her lips curled into a sneer and her face turned to that of ire and wrath.
"I care not for others and their views. For I have the greatest of certainty where all others are weak in their convictions or obligations! I am right, and I know myself to be right! As do you, unless you admit to your fear and stand before me to impart your regret?" He let his lips curl into his own frown.
"Of course not." He paced to his right some, and then looked back to her as the howling winds of the lands swept about both of the dark Maiar.
"There is little time. The enemy makes their move to root out what remainder there is of Morgoth's force. Like it or not my lady Úcarëtári, we are alone, and we must not be seen together. We must, if we are to survive we must part and never unite again. There is no power that may contend with our enemy...for now."
"Then the fight has failed, and we are to remain frightened fugitives in a world we watched shaped and even aided in giving its wonder?" She seethed with a powerful air of rage in her voice as it exploded into the air like the explosive maw of a volcano. Sauron raised one hand up and motioned her to keep calm.
"There is none left with the ability to contend with the host. Let them retreat into the west and take with them what elves are drained of love and light of this world, and return to Valinor. If the struggle for dominance and the shaping of this world is to continue, then we must part. Perhaps we can, in time unite once more, but that would be from a long time from now indeed. Now is the time of hiding and regaining of strength. To find places to set up and build into power. To come into it and wage our own wars. The Dark Lord is gone." Sauron paced once more before he paused and took a moment to let the thoughts flood his mind. And then so turned toward her.
"I am now the Dark Lord. A Dark Lord of nothing, no army, no home, no lands, and no ally save one." Úcarëtári eyed him and nodded.
"Survival then is our goal, and the gaining of power to in days to come take this Middle-earth, and make it our own. To build up an orderly society of the children and make them to be perfection as the world they inhabit is." He said as incentive and spoke to her vision of the realms natural state.
"It is fitting, my lord." She spoke with a voice of honey once more. "That one with your power take up the mantle. You and I both know how obsessed, and weak our lord had become in his marring of the world, and imparting of his powers into it. I and you both understand that you stand here before me stronger than he had been when captured." She bowed in seeming humility and reverence. Sauron let his emotions go unseen. He was no fool. She had grown to hate their master, seeing him as a flawed but necessary power to face the host of Valinor and their corrupted ways. Their lord had humiliated her, and her desire to ascend her powers to those that matched his. Her beasts, and creatures were paled in comparison to a dragon indeed, but Sauron had seen the crude use in her deformed creatures that shared the blood of the serpents and lizards of the world. How one who saw the world as being naturally perfect as molded by the Valar, could take these naturally perfect creatures and mar them as she did in her dungeons and labs, Sauron knew not. Though he did understand hypocrisy and its uses when the time called for it.
"It matters little." He waved her off. "We must take our parting from one another. I shall retreat east. I will make myself scarce until the time has come for my revelation to our enemies. I expect nothing, no oath of service or fealty, and no understanding of your aid coming forth for me. Save one." He motioned his hand up. She cocked her head to the side and awaited him to speak.
"You leave here understanding that there is but room for one Dark Lord. You seek no power for yourself, and contend not, with my own bid and right to rule. If then you find yourself incapable, then let us battle, and see as to whom deserves the right, the power, and the glory for themselves in these perilous days." He offered and presented himself as one Maiar ready to do battle. His spirit flared and power ignited before her. Its might and presence making her reel and retract from her closeness to his form. Úcarëtári, backed away and her eyes flared, the fire behind them swirling and glittering stars in the far distance of those eyes flashed. She looked her fellow Maiar from bottom to top and eyed him and the great power he had always held within.
She knew she could not contend. So she bowed her head low.
"I relent to your terms, my lord Sauron. What would you have of me then?" She begged of him. He laid down his arms and returned to a state of calm and coolness.
"Retreat into the far places of the world, await my victory and then be free to wander the world under my rule. Do not contend and do not seek a kingdom or allies to wage war. This world can ill afford two of us fighting one another for power and the forces of the men, or elves at once. It is time now, Úcarëtári, once Vóriselyë, servant to both Varda and Morgoth, for you to retreat and make a simple home for yourself. Perhaps once more in your freedom from the thoughts and visions of war, you may gaze up into the stars and dance in their beauty, as you had when you had first come to Morgoth." Sauron offered, as his mind flashed with the naïve Maiar indeed dancing under the night of Middle-Earth even before the coming of the sun, and basking in the beauty of the stars. Some of which she had aided her lady in bringing to hang above the world.
Her features twisted to one of distant anger. The memories that Sauron let come to him also fell into her mind. It was a memory of foolishness, and naivety even before the Dark One. She had learned quickly that in coming before Morgoth to serve she would have to be undone in her ways, and be remade in his. Freedom and bliss beneath the twinkling stars as her feet felt the grass and songs of Valinor played within her mind were but a distant and fading memory. Now within her heart was malice, and anger. Hate and loathing. Will, and the right to dominance. Now, it was, like all other things, being stripped of herself by Sauron. One with which she could not contend with. He had always been stronger. Úcarëtári was still learning, and thus her hands curled into fists, but she bit her tongue and squashed her pride.
There was nothing left, and thus so she hid in great contempt from him an errant tear that wished to leak itself forth. It was the sign of weakness. The Dark one would be ashamed.
She let her eyes, as they cooled meet his once more. She nodded.
"I accept your terms, Sauron, lord of Middle-Earth. I then go now, and shall not impede, nor interject myself before you and your plans." She curtsied as her voice carried barely audible beneath her tone a great sadness and defeat. Sauron could hear and sense it, but he did not acknowledge it. Now was his time, and a contender for the lineage of Morgoth was at minimum and inconvenience, and at most a great tragedy that would tear apart all ambition to bring the world low, and to kneel.
"Where do you intend to retreat then too?" Sauron asked as she turned to leave him with a heavy heart. She turned back upon him and feigned a sweet and kindly smile.
"That would be telling my lord." She looked up toward the clouded skies, and saw only faintly the shine of the sun.
"I think I shall wander the Orocarni, or Red Mountains as some of the Elves and Dwarves born there by Eru know them. See the Wild Wood, and the hidden glory of that forgotten land. To Hildórien then I shall go and see the birthplace of Men. To the might East Sea, I shall point my home. Never to trouble myself with the dealings of Men, Elves, dwarves and those who oppose them." She spoke, her eyes distant and all light gone from them. Her words of wonder, and of the great mysteries those parts of Middle-earth held seeming dull and lifeless coming forth from her mouth. It was because she now understood, that her time, and her life, save for the menial will to continue existing, was at an end and would be devoid of ambition, power, and of ability to partake in the battles to come against the enemies that heralded from Valinor.
"When Middle-Earth becomes a dominion under my banner, you need not fear for your life Úcarëtári. For when that time comes, you may freely wander these lands, and take bliss in my new world, and its new order." Sauron offered, and Úcarëtári bowed her head one last time. She turned from him once more, and with a gust of wind she disappeared from his sight. Leaving him to stand in the cold of the ruined north lands of Middle-earth, and thus he turned his sight toward the south.
For there was much work in need of doing, many plans to be laid down, and a great coming of malice and war to be heralded. The time of Morgoth had passed, now was the time of Sauron.
(679 years into the Second Age, South Hildórien)
The world was passing her by. Indeed Úcarëtári had stared outward toward the south of the world and watched the seas ever clash against the shores of Hildórien. It had been nearly four-hundred years since she had last laid her eyes upon a mortal man, an elf or dwarf. Animals still grazed and passed through these lands in total freedom, and indeed the lack of anything living in this region of the world let her remember some semblance of the purity and grace of this world and its making. When the nights would come and the glittering stars weaved and laid down by her lady Varda so many years ago, she would look to them and wander what the world was having down to it in the west.
Ill whispers were along the wind, and death was surely befalling the great realms beyond. She knew Sauron was no fool, and no Maiar to be so lightly contended with. For there were now none in the world to face him that were not forced to remain in Valinor. Those who had not come to serve the Valar and were still within the great presence from before the shaping of this world would not come, they would not now come and sacrifice their symphony and music to aid against the growing darkness when they did not even come for the darkness that followed Morgoth. The world, could burn beneath Sauron, and no aid would come, for Morgoth was all they seemed to care to cease as a threat.
Or so, Úcarëtári would let herself think, and her mind wander. She could hear no song, no music had been heard in centuries of nothingness. She heard no voices, and when she would think she had she would force herself under pained heart to stay and sit here at the shore wand watch the waters waves crash and slam the shores. For she knew she was hearing but the wind, or her mad mind creating falsities for her to chase.
So she would sit, she would bring her knees up to her face and wrap her hands around her legs and steadily rock herself into a lull as the east ocean remained her constant companion. Lost to her was the world, the tidings and fairings of king, men, peasant, lord, war chief, and healer. All these things lost to her now, ad only her power remained her constant. She would constantly phase into a new form for herself. Not wishing to become stuck in a one singular form as some Maiar like the Balrogs had. Simple things like hair color, eye color, then skin tone, from greatly fair to but a shade darker and then lighter once again. For she would maintain her power, her freedom or what was left of it in her time of loneliness.
Often she would now contemplate her path and choices in life. The Great War so long passed and but a memory of her mind. She now wondered if she was fated to fall with Morgoth and wage war and turn men to lust greed and war, or if she had a choice to do so in the first place. If so then, had she made the wrong choice? Certainly she never thought as so! But, then the shroud of doubt would fall onto her thoughts. She would question killing one man, then his company, then the garrison. Unleashing orcs, and goblins, or even heralding dragon fire to waylay a city. Were these things destined by the One? Or was he looking down on her even now? Shame in his eyes, and joy taken within his heart at her low state and pathetic life. For she was now alone, now more than ever.
So lonely had she been several hundred years prior, that she had ventured one last journey to the far north along the Red Mountains, and through the Wild Wood. Ancient buildings old and beyond decay that whispered of ancient evils even before her time she found. Bones so old and brittle that a touch would set them to dust. A great and ancient memory of Utumno, and the earlier years of Morgoth's ambitions. But, in the end the cold and death of the north could offer her nothing and she felt compelled to not go west but return down south and into Hildórien she returned.
"There is nothing. Nothing for me here, and nothing for me in Valinor. No one awaiting and my name forgotten. An ancient vile whisper, and curse on the tongues of elves maybe, but all memories destroyed along with my ambition. Laid low, and nothing from the fall of he who took the greatest leap into darkness, I am broken." She spoke to herself, for there were none else to listen and hear her words.
"A relic of hate, and artifact of evil. Darkness is all, but yet it fills me with nothing. No ambition to undertake, and goal to be had. I sit alone and lost yet easily found. Bring to me an enemy who may smite me down and make me dead along the shore, so the seas may carry me into death and nothingness. Yet it will never come, for your wrath and your damnation knows no bounds!" She howled to the skies and a great crack of thunder sounded out for miles. Should a living creature be near it would scatter in terror. Had men or a man alone been there they would hear an ancient fury now kept like a weak fire only lit with errant winds of anger and loathing.
So she rose to a full stand in her fury as the sea rolled and twisted in her anger. She stepped forward and let her free feet feel the sand as it molded around her below, and soon she felt the waters splash across her legs and up to her knees. The simple clothing she wore now becoming wet and freely moving with the winds, as a terrible storm in the heavens was called before her. Her eyes a great heat and fiery once again with wild fury.
"Then so let the oceans twist in my terrible rage, and free me of my impotent wrath!" Like a charged bolt of lightning that cracked and smoldered the air, she phased into the winds and flew upwards into the storm that gathered with her terrible power. Thunder cracked and winds whirled as storm clouds were forced together and a mighty flurry of clouds rolling faster than naturally intended whirled about and sent a grave crack after crack of power and wrath. The heavens twisted, the thunder roared and dark power long since held within was once more unleashed as Úcarëtári sought to fill the air, and thus the free winds and vast openness made by the Valar with her cruelty!
The skies howled and the seas below were shipped up into a great storm as the clouds run out in fury and in her ancient wrath. Tied, defeated, and apathetic to the ways of the world now Úcarëtári had not unleashed her power and its wrath for some time now. Conserving it, and even on a deep level fearing either Sauron or those from Valinor would hear her call and power, and seek to destroy her. Only now did she throw worry to the wayside and unleash a pent up hate that made the skies crackle and crash with fury that whipped up the skies and the seas. Her spirit flew high into the air, perhaps higher than ever before and she came into the heart of a cloud as it gathered into it moisture to let fall back to the ground in rain. Darkness flooded off from her in great waves and into the sky! The sun was blocked from her and the shoreline of Middle-earth itself faded from sight as she closed her eyes, even in her pure spiritual form she wished to see nothing. Smell feel, hear, but not see. Everything fell from sight and darkness took her and she let her spirit roam the skies, in total freedom once more! The terrible storm following and growing stronger as she weaved her way through the clouds and skies.
Úcarëtári did this for so long that soon time faded from her mind. So much of it had already been wasted on nothingness and despair. Now she wanted to simply be free in the sky and let her fury explode forth!
'Let Sauron, Eönwë, Manwë, or even Eru himself come and strike me down! For in this moment I care not! For in this moment I am truly free!'
Her voice a terrible echoing rumble that overcame thunder and lightning whipping ocean and howling winds, as it flew outward all about the ocean that her spirit took flight to and let herself be free within. The clouds rumbled and winds howled, thunder clapped and rain began to fall to the ground as the formless, faceless, but free spirit moved through the clouds. Hidden from the sky, sun, and stars. Hidden from all things save for the terrible storm that now stretched from the shores of Hildórien and out into the east sea.
It was in this freedom that Úcarëtári finally began to laugh. A seemingly terrible and fear inspiring crackle of laughter that would bring lower men to heel and shake in fear before the terrible might of the echoing and deeply thunderous expression of dark mirth. Until at last a sense of tire came over the formless spirit and incarnation of Úcarëtári.
Her spirit now went low and receded from the clouds and electrified freedom she had undertaken for herself. After hundreds of years of nothingness, but staring outward into the nothingness. She lowered herself and let her spirit come back down toward the mighty ocean and its terrible waves now shaken up and stirred by the storm raging overhead made by the free Maiar.
Úcarëtári found land. She now tired from her expression of power lowered down and found her spirit floating to the soil beneath. As she landed, she took onto herself a humanistic form once again. Hair long and flowing white and weaved with silver, with eyes of a tranquil glittering blue, face fair and especially perfect in its glow. With a simple dress of white and glittering silver or gold weaved into its fabric, or so it would seem.
She came to land herself securely to the ground, and turned herself to face the storm she had whipped up in her unleashed bout of wrath and fury as she felt her rage subside and calm return to her for the first time in hundreds of years. The blackened clouds sounded out in great fury and thunder rocked the seas. Yet Úcarëtári found herself intrigued and even in a state of confusion.
For the storm passed off away from her toward the north. She had known herself to have driven the powerful storm made of her anger north to fall across Hildórien and then further north until it faded and died out over the lands of Middle-Earth. Only now, did she with widened eyes and confusion racking her head did she note how the storm indeed moved north as she inspected the skies about her. So she turned herself south away from the shore.
Then before her did she see a great sight. One she had never before seen. For many miles beyond her vision she found might trees all about her and beyond the sands of the shore. She had never seen such trees before in Hildórien! To her right there lay a valley beyond the shore of great golden grass that rose up and spread about the land. It went far beyond and her vision let her see to green grass beyond.
"I have never seen...this place." She uttered and turned back to the storm as it continued on slowly north. Then as contemplation and thought took hold of her mind she turned back south.
"What lay south to Hildórien but the Hither Lands? What coast can you tread onto so near to the coast of Hildórien?" She asked herself and took steps forward deeper into the shore and then up into the grassy lands where the trees towered above. She fell under the shadow of the trees and circled about herself as they had grown tall and mighty with no sign of marring and even the touch of life.
"When he marred the Earth, the lands were broken." Úcarëtári knew her lord Morgoth had done so. The world had been forever change when he had undone the world as it had been so long ago and destroyed the perfect symmetry of the Earth. The world known as Endor, had been broken and then waylaid. Her mind flushed with thoughts and she sifted through memory as she knew there was something within that spoke of memory deeply seeded and old of a place such as this. Her mind reeling from the discovery as she moved about and deeper into this untouched forest.
"South Land...Dark Land, Hyarmenor! The continent stricken forth from Endor and torn from it! My lord you tore from the lands themselves a part of what it had been and made the world...imperfect." She intoned in a gasp as the awe of being on piece of land, a whole new continent to her, that was so far as she had seen untouched by the wars of men, elves, orcs, and Ainur. It was so unnecessary, and unimportant that none had tread here at least in thousands of years. Before the First Age had even began and in the times of the lamps of the world.
She smiled and felt a swelling of joy come through her as the perfection and beauty about her made her mind and heart light with mirth! Her eyes twinkled in her mirth and let her take in the surroundings of the mighty lands. Her feet glided across the grass, a chirping of birds perhaps common about the Earth, but in this moment lovely and new to her ears sounded, and the creaking of tree limbs, and wisp of the wind through the leaves brought nothing but unguided joy.
She paused in time next to a tree. It was ancient and hadn't been touched in a great deal by the chopping materials of any children of Ilúvatar. No marring had been done upon it and in its glory it stood hundreds of feet high. Truly an ancient forest like that of the Wild Wood in Hildórien. Úcarëtári took in a mighty breath of air, and laid her forehead onto the tree and felt the pulse of life within this forest around her. All thoughts of war and trial, leaving her in this moment. Darkness and light mattered not to her as she was within the perfect chaos of life without interference by those of will, desire, and greed.
"Broken by the marring you were from Middle-Earth and the way it had been at creation. Yet untouched by the wars and by the death and greed of those on Middle-earth you are. In this way you are perfection, and you are beautiful." She intoned further as a smile never passed from her lips and the winds around the forests met her and passed a great cooling breeze over her shoulders and hair. Green, orange and yellow leaves fell about as the semblance of Fall fell across the land. Her feet came upon them and a distant memory of the endless perfection and beauty that was Valinor came to mind and memory. For here in this moment there was peace.
A rustling of the trees passed her ears, and she paid no mind. Then a snapping of twigs, and her eyes burst open. The rustle continued forth unseen and near to her, and suddenly her face fell into hatred and despair. She turned to glance over her left shoulder. Her power flooding forth from her in a low tremble as it passed through and about the trees. An ancient power that emanated from her, had so far left these lands be and now the trees and winds rumbled and shook before her terrible might as the shadow of the Sin-Queen echoed forth.
Her eyes, glittering and fiery with her wrath scanned the forest. For in the distance she had heard the skittering and would not be disturbed, nor would she allow for these pristine lands to be marred by that of life. It was hers to be in glory in and joy, never to be shared among others!
Then she caught it, a sharp and quick movement from a tree to another. Her teeth became bared and her eyes flashed with terrible power as she sent forth from herself a great energetic and electrifying pulse of power. It flew outward and creaked the trees and thrust them in the direction of her exploding power. A sharp cry sounded out and a figure was seen from behind the tree. It flew back and hit against a further tree away. Úcarëtári snarled in darkened might and exploded forward as she phased back into a formless mass. It came before the creature she let her internal fire shine outward as the formless mass roared like a mountain of fire before the creature.
It threw its arms up and screamed in terror, as it shook with that same fear and horror. Úcarëtári let her mass remain a fiery representation of her internal hate and wrath before the creature. She could now see with clearer vision that it was manly in appearance. Long hair, well groomed, and incredibly straight flowed down his back. Gray and even deathly white like her own chosen hair it was colored. It was male, and it bore a fair visage, not like her own perfection and beauty, but like that of an...she then saw its pointed ears, and knew it to be Elf-kind.
"Speak wretched Elf! For you stare now into the visage of Úcarëtári!" Her voice with an echoing boom demanded as an underlying snarl more like that of a great dragon burst forth and made her voice and speech ugly and that which would bore into one's ears. The eff lowered his arms and shakily looked to her with confusion now mingling with the fear evident along his features. She was a vision of floating and freely hanging fire in the sky that only showed through a dark mass, and heart that signified a being within the great flames of hate.
He opened his mouth and flowing forth came a language new to her ears, but within it syllables, and inflections that were familiar. She felt confusion pass her as she would hear the ancient elvish Quendi, the primordial common Eldarian tongue. Within it she could hear the makings of Quenya spit forth in very basic forms of what was now the common elven tongue of the Ñoldor elves.
"Do you speak in the tongue of Men, elf-kind?" She asked and her voice changed easily to the most recent memory of mannish speech she knew. The elf went wide eyed and nodded.
"You speak in odd inflection oh powerful one! But, yes I know that speech!" he replied as his voice shook with fear and terror. It was then that Úcarëtári took notice of the finely made bow in his right hand with an exquisite sword sheathed at his belt. A fine cloak of brown that hid him among the trees was upon his person with simple clothing covered in dirt and mud upon him.
"Had you then the intention of striking me with your arrows, little elf?! A poor choice of enemy you have made, and in your foolishness you coma upon a mighty foe!" Her fiery nature exploded outward and rumbled the woods, but the elf dropped the bow and threw his hands up in surrender, before he jumped up and kneeled to her strength and might.
"Forgive me oh powerful spirit of flame! I knew not whom I had fallen upon. My eyes deceived me, and thought you one who would seek invasion." He pleaded his case, and Úcarëtári felt the prod of curiosity spike through her mind. Her form calmed, and the fires retracted into her visage, as she took on a far more natural and fair form. It was herself in the form of a humanoid figure that was entirely light, and bright with the glittering white of a Maiar spirit. The glittering of starlight flowed around and sparkled in and out of existence about her divine form.
"Invasion you say elf? Of whom would invade your lands? For many hundreds of years, beyond time and comprehension to many your lands have been separated from the mainlands. Do you not even know of the great host of life beyond your shores? How and where life abounds in form and nature?" The elf shook his head.
"I know little of what you speak, oh fairest creature. Life beyond our shores we know of this, but we have not ventured forth into the seas. Only of men do we know of from the wilds. Barbarians who lived along the shore and gathered animals to eat from the borders of our woods. Now they are gone, many taken from their lives and laid beneath the ground." Úcarëtári cocked her head, and lowered her figure before the elf who bowed his head in awe.
"You speak of death elf. Tell me, wild men you speak of, how did they die?" He pointed his left hand further to the west.
"On the shores of our lands hosts have come. Sails and ships barring men of armor, and sword. They lay flag into the dirt and claim it theirs with little care for those who were here before. Be them of the men and of our kind they have attacked. They refuse to leave these lands, and speak in a tongue most curiously similar to yours, but different in inflection, oh fairest creature." He bowed head once more. His eyes glittered and were of a wondrous shade of blue, pure and even seeming young. Few elves, had Úcarëtári come upon that were truly young in age or nature.
"You thought me to be of Men, and an invader? Tell me, elf, why would Men in their infinite understanding of the inferiority of women have me with them in their travels to uncharted lands?"
"It is not unheard of, most fair lady." He pointed west again. "They bring women and children with them. They tear down trees, and sunder stone. Towns, and villages apart from the wood they build and lay claim whilst imparting name." Úcarëtári furrowed her brow, and let her vision travel the way the elf man pointed.
"You say then that men have landed on the shores of these lands and have begun colonies?" The elf bowed.
"Yes mistress of light, they come with sword, spear, bow, and shields. We had come before them in wonder and awe. For many cycles of the great light did we think ourselves alone besides the men of these lands. Understanding between us took many cycles, and in those long days, did we finally come to understand and make peace with one another. Then the Men of great armor, ships and sails come. They laid claim. We presented ourselves with awe and sought to understand and treat with them, but then we refused to recognize their claims of territory for their distant lords and Kings. We did not understand they would then let their swords be bloodied with our kin. They call us unknown to them, a title unknown to us they have given, Moriquendi."
Úcarëtári felt her eyes slightly widen. She knew the word well, but had always thought it perhaps a falsity. For she had never seen to one before, or at least heard of one.
"Elves of Darkness they name you then? Those of the elf-kind who were born into the world but never took to the Great Journey west and beheld the two Trees of Valinor? Have your people in stories or tales of others of your kind leaving?" He nodded once.
"A tale of the lost kin exists amongst our eldest. They speak of an ancient time when they were awoken to a world of eternal night and beheld others like them that heard a call and left into the west. My people did not follow, for we did not hear the call as they spoke of. Nor did we believe their call to be a truth. They never returned and we went out in search for them. We know not how, but we came to these lands, and we were lost to what we had known of the world. We made our home, and Kingdom here. Never again to see our kin. Only when the great light broke into the world did we know our kin had perhaps found the source of their call." He weaved his tale for Úcarëtári. She smiled to him and let her hand fall onto his face and smiled sweetly down to him.
"Then indeed the men have discovered a great treasure indeed! For within you they have found your people to be Moriquendi. Your kin indeed survived, and made the journey across the sea to the coast of Valinor. A land beyond here to the greater west. They have since returned to the lands where your kin and you were birthed as well as the men of the world. Middle-Earth. It was where I arrived from my dear Moriquendi." She soothed and let her power flow from her hand into the elf. He visibly relaxed, but remained etched into his face was still the hint of terror.
"Your kin returned to the birth lands, and they made war. They have killed a great many men, and other creatures. They have even killed their fellow elf-kind." The elf looked confused and shocked. The horror of such an action evident on his features.
"Worry not my dear elf. They do not know of your existence. You are but a fable for them, and lost is your kind to them. For if they did know of your existence, they, I fear, would have seen to your utter destruction, and spilling of your blood onto the grasslands of your home. Much more vehemently than even these Men who assault your lands." She lied so sweetly and naturally. The darkness within her heart so easily coming forth and already sending a shock of horror into the little elf's mind. His eyes furrowed and then grew sad.
"You did not take the journey. Thus you are dirty in their eyes, beneath them. As are men, and the other creatures of life in the world. Elves are notorious indeed for their hate of all things less than they, and even those of greater power than them, they see as weaker or undeserving of their presence and power. Their arrogance and pride knows no bounds. Come, and tell me elf, are your kind as arrogant and hateful as they?" he shook his head, his white hair flowing about his shoulders.
"No my lady. We are peaceful. We hold great disdain for violence and pain. When our kin fell before the swords of the Men there was a great weeping and song of lament. It carried for hours, maybe days as we were lost in our grief. For days now we've only just begun to use the weapons of the barbarian men to aid us in our defense. This one I have was personally made. We felt the simplistic nature of the original weapons to be ineffective, so we made finer ones. So far we have only used them in defense of the wood border. The Men have set up a colony along the shore, and have not left in some time. Indeed they have not left since arriving."
Úcarëtári smiled broadly and kindly before him and beckoned him to rise to a stand. The kernel of deception, and a thought of great treachery formed within her mind. The days under the Dark One and her new natural inclinations came forth with smooth ease. She gracefully crouched and snatched up the bow, and let her fingers lace and slide about the wood to the limbs, and then to the string. She smiles and hands the weapon back to the elf who grabbed it and graciously placed it over onto his back.
"Show me then, my little elf friend, show me to your people, and your Kingdom." He looked unsure and even afraid. Úcarëtári smiled sweetly and her form began to turn again. Her eyes took on the pure gray glittering of starlight she had so long ago. Her hair that fell down her back so smoothly and pure in golden yellow with stripes of fiery red falling in segments. Her face took her fair visage and glowed lowly but with a purity that not even an elf could hope to bare.
"You need not fear me elf-kind. You may show your fear before me because of how we met of course. You must understand I had thought you intended to kill me. But I have come here now before you, and have taken a form I hope to calm and give you a sense of kinship." She laid both hands on either side of the elf's face. She let her features become the vision of kindness and soothing calm as she flooded her power through her hands and into the elf, as she let a form of control over his emotions enter him. As she had given men of old visions of lust fulfillment, be it hordes of gold, tables of endless food, or the company of a great many beautiful women to fulfill their every desire, she let the simple sense of calmness enter the elf. She would not bother trying to give the elf such greedy visions of grandeur to take pleasure in. Any elf had no such ability to be corrupted by. So she simply let him feel her calm. And, so he relaxed some more, and a kind of assured calm smile overcame his face.
"I have come to save you and your people. I must have been sent before you for a reason. Little elf." She soothed almost as a mother would a child and he smiled, before bowing his head and checking the woods around them.
"Come then milady. The men may be near. I would not desire for them to be near your fair form. As mighty as you may be." he sweetly spoke, and Úcarëtári nodded and followed after as they went further south away from the shore, and further more from Middle-Earth beyond the ocean.
As she came upon the forest guarded kingdom deep within the woods Úcarëtári took in the great sights before her. A great many elves all with hair of white and eyes of varying blue, green, and gray watched her enter. Her presence was powerful and was sent out for all to feel. She bowed her head from side to side and met them all. They all looked to her in varying degrees of interest and shock. Her visage was odd and awe inspiring for them all. There were a great many elven children about the region, and Úcarëtári found such a sight interesting to take in. Elf children were not a supreme rarity but knowing that all elves were naturally immortal, and to see so many young of them was simply odd, as most elves that walked about to be young were maybe a few decades or a hundred or so years old. To see little children was simply odd.
The houses of these elves were set about the trees hung high and some even within the trees of the great wood. There were buildings built between, upon, and within trees. The elves that seemed as guardsmen wore simple black cloaks with light green armor lined and ribbed with green. They held in their hands spears that seemed simplistic in nature, and lacked the artistic beauty of most weapons of elves like those of the Ñoldor.
Many elves circled in around herself and the elf man who she had come to learn was named Amshën. Until he came before two guards who greeted him stiffly. Amshën had words with them, but the guards seemed to grow annoyed with him, and ordered him away, at least by the gesture of the speaking one thrusting his spear away from what looked to be a grand tree at the heart of their little forest kingdom that held an opening to its heart. Which she assumed to be the lair of their petty leader. A King undoubtedly.
Amshën threw his hands out in exasperation as the guard nudged him away with a head gesture. Úcarëtári stepped before him and the guard and he grew restless at her nearing to him.
"You know not with whom you trifle with elfling." She coolly informed in the face of the guard who looked to her worriedly and began to shout toward Amshën in their Quendi tongue.
"Address me!" She shouted as her voice became a deep and terrifying baritone and sent all elves nearby into a recoil and reel away from her. Yet never did her grin leave her face. "I am come before you. You can speak in this tongue of men. You may present me thus before your lord. I will have words with him. Save me from your idle words or threats and leave Amshën be. For he above you has sense to not question my commandments." She sweetly intoned as her eyes glittering all the same flared with fire. The guard swallowed before her, and shakily but slowly he moved away from her, the silent guard beside him also moved, but more jumped away. These elves had never been in the presence of a Maiar, and now as the first came before them they found themselves incredibly afraid.
She thanked the guard and had Amshën follow after. The hall within the tree was simple but lovely. Bark finely cut on either side brought a woody and earthy smell into the hall. Glinting holes had been carved along the walls and let the barest of light into the tree that gave it a hue of light that seemed dim but like that of twilight. Globes of crystals lit the room for the most part. It astounded Úcarëtári that they held such magic within them and the knowledge to craft and make use of such things.
Nonetheless she strode forward with grass still beneath her feet. Along the way toward where a simple seat carved from a stump and lined with leafs and freely sprouting branches there was a line of simple guards who seemed very untrained and ill equipped. They all stared with trembling terror as she entered and let her glow burst forth from her figure a little stronger than before and produce a ray of power about her form. She neared to where this little petty king of their sat upon his throne, and took note of him as Amshën followed her almost worriedly.
The King sat forward and his eyes went narrow as he saw her entrance. His eyes were gray and deeply so. White hair fell down his back, and he wore simple silk seeming robes that fell loftily about his slender form. He seemed young to her, and so he should, for she was far older, and far more terrifying than anything here in all the wood or from the shore. She was a goddess among ants.
"Utter forth your name stranger from afar! For I know not whom you are or your dark intention, but enough enemies and death has my kingdom seen of late." He 'greeted' Úcarëtári with a voice that was silky and smooth that held and air of superiority about him. A pomp and presence that she found droll.
"Dark intention? Fair king I know not even your name, let alone do you know mine. Yet, still you jump to the conclusion of ill tidings and will? I am pleased you have chosen to speak in a tongue of understanding, but it is little when all that is beard for my ears to hear are vile accusations of my will or tidings." She greeted back and let her glow spark with a greater light than before.
"I learned the tongue of the these men from those who came to our shores. They sought to force us to kneel before them as they take land, pillage and burn wood, and kill grazing stock. You speak their tongue with oddity, but clearly, you carry yourself gracefully but with a sense of authority as they do. You," he rose to stand from his simple throne. "look a man but seem to be more. So I plead with you to explain why I should think you a friend and not a foe, as every other from beyond our sight and beyond our knowledge has proven. Amshën, the young one, his words were heard to me from outside my hall. He speaks of your terrible power, and of your offer of aid, but every good deed I think draws its own fair share of blood. Especially from those who hold no obligation to aid. Why then should I accept your offer of aid." Úcarëtári curtsied as she came before the throne and smiled sweetly.
"Those who do not accept aid when they clearly are in need of it are perhaps indeed too foolish. For I see around you but men of your little kingdom who have not seen a drop of blood be it their own or another. I see simpletons given spear and sword. I see children wielding weapons as aged elves. You have not slain one man, or am I wrong to think as such?" She questioned. The elf king, looked to a guard and then back to her. She smiled and cocked her head to the side. He seemed to be looking for anyone to aid him in answering.
"Death is not something to be done so easily and undertaken so lightly."
"And yet I have heard only of your kin and the wild men of these lands who gave you no qualms being killed. These men who land at your shores, I believe I I know of the houses they descend from. I think I know what they plan to do, and I am of the lands to the great north of your continent. For beyond you lay lands far older and richer in history and action. War and death are quite common, and you come to learn very soon, is that death and war is the natural state of life. Especially for those like yourself whom are weak and easily picked off by those who seek to colonize that which you claim to be yours but will not die to protect. How very sad indeed." Úcarëtári she shot back. The guards of the hall looked to their king. They too looked for an answer. These invaders, these men had struck awe and terror into them all, and they knew not how to fight.
"I on the other hand have contended with legions of men, led great armies against them, and have seen elves of far greater strength and wisdom than you, fair king, die and kill in great numbers beyond reckoning. I have seen mountains undone, beasts fly, oceans twist and skies burn. I have lived and breathed war for many years, and I only come to your shores by accident. Not because I knew of your existence and sought to make your lands my own, or those of the men. Instead I feel it was fated that I come before you. So that one such as I who wields power beyond your reckoning would make undone the host of men. I shall lead your people out from their stupor of loss and pain of death and be rid of these men." She offered in another sweet and respectful curtsey.
The King stared her way his eyes dancing over her terrifying form. She looked the vision of beauty and grace, but the power that came off her form was that f a terrible power he could feel was ancient and it was vile as it was wrathful. Yet what could he do? His father had since passed the kingdom to him. For when the men had come to the shore and his father greeted them in kindness and greeting, but as they made clear their dark intention to take onto themselves all right to land and power his father made clear that his people would not submit to the dictations of those men. So they slew him, they cut down his court that had followed in a gesture of peace, and humility. They had even killed his mother. Their bodies now lost to them, their souls gone, and a part of his heart cut from him from afar.
So the king sat back into his throne, and he rubbed his hand across his brow. He sighed deeply and then looked back to the source of the answer to all his woes and troubles. She smiled sweetly and she seemed a beacon of light that carried a hidden shadow behind it.
"I would know they name, oh powerful one." She smiled wider.
"I am Úcarëtári, and I am your salvation oh lord of the wood. What be thy name?" he nodded. He knew not what the name meant, for had he, he may not have done as he had. And formed the foundation for the doom of his kingdom, and of the way of his people for all time.
"I am Qúndol, king of these lands. And, I am humbled by your presence. I fear only for the future of my people, and meant no offense be made against thee. Oh mighty spirit." She stepped forward and broadly grinned as her glow grew greater and hot.
"So then you concede to my aid, oh fair King Qúndol?" he looked to his guards and those young elves who stood to the far sides of the hall. They were replacements for their court progenitors, and they silently looked to him with fearful eyes, but for the first time since the coming of the men to their fair shore, he saw what told him what his answer must be. He saw hope.
"I concede to your offer, oh fair Úcarëtári. I implore you to aid us in our hour of need. I beg thee to teach us the ways and art of war."
She let forth her glow and it burned brightly and with a fire she had almost forgotten from her days under the Dark One. As she beamed forth a beautiful smile that would bring any man of lesser will to their knees alone.
"Then let us begin. My fair king."
Thus would be the downfall of the Moriquendi of the forgotten lines of elves, and the fall of the South Land to she who was the Sin-Queen. For there would be fables told in the lands of the mighty Kingdom of Númenor, of the loss of a great expedition fleet. They knew not to where they had sailed, only that they were lost, and never to return.
Those men who had landed on the great continent but a day from sending word back to Númenor, would in the night hear a rustling in the great wood from where the barbarians and Moriquendi had come from. Then like a shadow of old, a light blinded them and fire seemed to burn in the sky A terrible wind that smelled of ruin and burning flesh swept across their camp and colony. Fell arrows flew through their newborn city. The elves wearing armor black as night and made of steel seeming of an ancient malice their fathers and grandfathers had told stories of came upon them. They seemed changed form the fair and frightful little elves they'd met with before. Their skin had become gray, and the fairness was seeming to leave their bodies. Their eyes grew red with pulsating wrath and hatred. Their hair was now deathly white, and conflicted with their darkened flesh.
A terrible pure light emanated out from the trees. It glowed pure and white and it was beautiful. It was the image of a woman, wearing pure white with gold lined in her silken robes. She held what seemed to be a great shadow of stars behind her and following in her wake as terrible hordes of the Moriquendi were then followed by the most ghastly of sights. Twisted gnarling creatures. They knew not what they were, only that they were hunched over, smaller than dwarves even, but they held snouts of monsters, and claws like daggers.
They came with the elves and the woman of beautiful pure light into the colony. They fell upon women and cleaved them and let their blood spill in great quantity. Their children were gathered up before the mighty sorceress and they were set to a flame. Their screams echoing and erupting forth from their fathers and mothers wails that could never be echoed or repeated in the unbridled pain and horror they bore witness to. For never again would such a wail befall these lands as those of the 'Burning of the Innocent.'
The women who were not cleaved were driven into the sea and the woman of terrible black power set fire to the ships. They burned as kindling for the snarling beasts to jeer and cheer in glory and victory. With the Moriquendi made to watch in silent awe as war and death was brought to them for them to take in, and learn.
The men were cut down in droves and set aflame in kind. Until all that was and all that would have been of the colony of these wicked men that were born of Númenor, was annihilated. Never to be remembered, never to be seen, and soon to be forgotten.
Yet for all her evil, and terrible might the sorceress spared a group of the children of Men. And when they came of age, they would be made to bear and produce more offspring. For the Sin-Queen, or Úcarëtári the Magnificent, as the Moriquendi would know her. Would come to order the construction of a mighty temple atop the ruin of the smote Men. A temple of prayer and reverence to the one true god of all. He who brought war, and the salvation of the Moriquendi. Melkor. It was for this temple the children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and further on, would be kept to produce and reproduce. For Melkor was a kind and loving god, that would bring onto thee power eternal and might. All he would need was the sacrifice of the wicked Men of the Earth. Úcarëtári thus gave onto the Moriquendi, these children so that they would pay for the sins of their forefathers.
In time the line of King Qúndol would end. His son ruled for many hundreds of years after he fell ill with a might dark sickness that went unknown to heal. The son, Màndrol would rise to power and be crowned not by his dead father, but by Úcarëtári. Known as Màndrol the Black, for under him the elves of the wood would cease being the elves of the wood, and would become Moriquendi in name and visage. Their skins turned a gray and would range from light gray and with some it would turn ebony black, but they retained their pristine looks of the elves of old, but far more within them lay the trappings and makings of what Morgoth had done to their kin so long ago. It was the terrible consuming corruption. Màndrol the Black would see his skin become that of light gray and under him thus did his people see loss of fairness, and descent to what Úcarëtári called beautiful darkness. Under Màndrol, the Kingdom took up what they felt to be their dark heritage and thus christened themselves the Kingdom of Moriquendi.
Màndrol would let Úcarëtári the Magnificent conduct all manner of unseen and unheard magic in the bowls of her temple. Where she took many Moriquendi to teach them the dark and arcane magics of Melkor. There in the pits would be born a race of creatures that were perfected from the rabble first used to attack and mutilate the Men who had attacked their shore.
Úcarëtári would laugh, for Morgoth and Sauron had thought her foolish and thought her weak, but she needed time, and knowledge. Much she had learned both from the lady Varda, Morgoth and the great music that shaped the world in the time before time. She would give birth, but not through toil and nature as the children of Ilúvatar, but through sorcery and hate. Through malice and vengeance. Before Màndrol the Black would pass from the world as he boarded one of the first ships constructed for the Kingdom in a might storm that came seemingly from nothing, he would bear witness to Úcarëtári new creatures, whom were ordained her children, and thus grant to her the title of, 'Mother of all Serpents.' The Lócënossë were born, and the Kingdom made to be without a King.
Until then Úcarëtári herself was granted thus by the people of the Kingdom dominion over them all. 'Queen Úcarëtári the Magnificent, Savior of the Kingdom and People of Moriquendi, and Mother of all Serpents.'
The whole of the continent became her domain, and the Kingdom of Moriquendi grew to inhabitant almost the whole of it as well. The South Land became rechristened the continent of Mórenorë. The Dark Land.
And so the Ages would pass. The shadow of the Dark Lord Sauron plagued the lands of Middle-Earth, and many wars would he bring onto these people. So too would he corrupt and twist the lands and people of Númenor. Until Eru Ilúvatar, the One himself, would sink the island beneath the ocean after their mad king under the guidance of the Dark Lord made war and landed a mighty host of men on Valinor itself. Stripped of his fair visage for all time, Sauron would return to Middle-Earth and make war once again. And, with the Ring of Power upon his finger. Until it was taken from him and by prince Isildur.
The One Ring would be lost after the death of the prince in an Orc raid. It would not be found for some time, and then it would go from one hand to another of the races of Hobbit. And it is here, when Frodo Baggins of the Shire, undertakes a journey to the elven city of Imladris and the behest of the wizard Gandalf that the story begins. The story of the return of the Sin-Queen into the lands of Middle-Earth.
For it is the story of one Moriquendi's journey to Middle-earth aboard a single vessel stolen from the harbor of the Kingdom. For she alone now made for Middle-earth, to warn them of the impending coming of the Sin-Queen. And the darkness she would have wrought upon all of Middle-Earth.
This is the tale of the coming of the second Dark Maiar of Morgoth. All the while the dark Lord of Mordor, and self anointed King of all Men, Sauron makes war upon Middle-Earth, as the darkness spread and grows from Isengard, and the coming of the treason of Saruman the White.
This is the beginning of Morgoth's Heirs.
Authors Note IMPORTANT: Greetings folks. SO this is my first and admittedly ambitious story in the Lord of the Rings fanfiction area. I have a crossover but I don't think that counts much as I am more free in that one due to its nature. In this story we will indeed be following the movies as it has been a long time since I read the books, and to be honest i know most readers of LOTR FF are here because of the movies and want more stories in line with the movies. It took me quite a while to gather these names, and try to stitch together a feasible story of another dark entity that knew Sauron from the days of service to Morgoth. I hope you all think she's AT THE LEAST interesting. Otherwise I better quit now while I'm ahead. Xp
The meant of the story will begin in the next chapter, which due to college and real life may take me a while to post but I promise I WILL post and finish this story if enough people show interest. The Moriquendi, dark Land, IE the new continent and most everything except for Úcarëtári herself, and her thus far hidden creatures the Lócënossë ;), are all things Tolkien mentioned, so I'm merely trying to expand and of course add my own whacky ideas. Before anyone says anything I AM NOT NOR WILL I EVER BE nearly as good as Tolkien. Trust me enough people have made me know as much. I just want to write my ideas and share them with the world. If its bad oh well I suck, if it's not then I'm happy. :p
Also, the Moriquendi in their new warped visage under Úcarëtári are simply best described as looking as literal dark elves or even like Drow from like Dungeons and Dragons. Basically for anyone confused the reason their skin has changed but not their beauty is because Úcarëtári has basically corrupted them into being NEAR-Orcs without taking from them what makes them elves, where Morgoth twisted and reshaped elves into the nasty orcs we've all come to know and...'love.' If ANY of this story is confusing to you I apologize as I tried to add a bunch of things from the Silmarillion and other Tolkien sources (thanks LOTR wiki), and I just hope you guys enjoy what I hope to be a fun ride. :)
Also, please point out or excuse any and all grammatical errors. I write late at night when inspiration hits me, and I have a splash of dyslexia that makes me sometimes get things all messed up and spellcheck can only help so much. :p Thanks in advance and PLEASE review. :D
PS: Tolkien is the best and so is Middle-Earth. ;)