Deep in the southern reaches of middle earth, past the great desert and the land of Umbar there is a kingdom that has never heard of the great river Andûin or even the wrath of Sauron. It is the kingdom of Nelfimeir, the last kingdom of the elves. They don't do war with the other kingdoms or even the orcs around them (which are peaceful!), until now.
They have a surprisingly large army for a peaceful kingdom. They are more like the elves of Rivendell and Lothlorien then of Mirkwood. They are the only ones that remember the valor of old, but of the old wars with Morgoth they have no memory. They have no knowledge of the Istari (wizards), for they were not sent anyone even though there are plenty left (the valor only sent three to the other peoples of middle earth, Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast).
The day on which our story starts is a great day for Nelfimeir. It is a day of friendship and laughter. It is the day of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the city of Melkor (yes, named after the god who would later become Morgoth, but like I said they only remember him as Melkor.) a city where elves and dwarves live in harmony.
The main character in our story is not an elf or a dwarf he is actually a man, a man of the Dunedain distantly related to Aragorn son of Arathorn, and his name is Farthorn. He was an ambassador from Gondor, he came on a ship since it was too dangerous to go through the great desert because of the pirates of Umbar and the men of the Harad.
He was on his way to the main citadel when the first attack came. About 50 or 60 balrogs rose up from the mines outside the city and started battering the city walls. Farthorn started to run towards the citadel. The guards saw him coming and they opened the gates. He ran straight to the throne room.
Before he could say anything the king told him to get to the armory. The king knew that Farthorn was not only an ambassador from Gondor, but also a great warrior of Minas Tirith, a general in the king's army. Farthorn ran as fast as he could, but he was knocked out by a hard hit on the head with a Balrog whip.