I finally got my thoughts and ideas together to write this new chapter. This is where the real story begins, with the main character Maradil. This chapter will tell about some of his background and the beginning of his journey. In the story, sometimes when I refer to someone as a man or woman I'm referring to their gender, not their race. In some instances in the story, the race of Men will be referred to as humans to avoid confusion. I DO NOT OWN THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
It was a seemingly ordinary morning in the Elven enclave of Aradale, in the forested land of Bornodir. Maradil was just getting up out of bed. After he got out of bed he went to do what he usually did when he got up. Maradil was a Maldir, a race of half elf and half human beings, which some people called Melves. Most of the Maldir in Lower Earth lived with the elves of Bornodir, but a few were scattered in various places throughout Lower Earth. The Maldir were similar to the elves; they embraced the culture of the elves and had similar ideals, but acted more like humans, but they were not prone to be greedy or corrupt like them. The Maldir were also known for their very long life-spans, living over many centuries. Maradil was a slender-looking man with emerald-green eyes and long black hair tied into a ponytail; most of the Maldir were known for having night-black hair. Today was going to be an important day for him. He would be beginning a journey to a neighboring land as part of a task he had been given. He was surprised that they had even considered him for it. Here at the enclave of Aradale, Maradil was known for having somewhat of a bad reputation.
When he was a baby, Maradil's parents had died from a plague. Since then, he had been raised by two adoptive parents. These two were not spouses though; they were two separate people he had seen as parents. His adoptive mother Awenrith had raised him since he was a baby until about when he was a teenager. Maradil had been very attached to her and saw her as his real mother, even referring to her as such. Awenrith was known for being very attractive and had raised her adopted son with love. Then one day she unexpectedly disappeared. She had left to somewhere without even telling Maradil and nobody seemed to know where she had gone. Maradil greatly missed Awenrith and tried to find someone else.
Eventually her presence had faded out of the memories of most of the people at the enclave and Maradil found another parent, Auril. Auril became like a father to Maradil and he adopted him as his son. Auril taught Maradil many skills and many things necessary for a man to know to survive in the world. Then one day when Maradil was a young man himself, Auril too had disappeared, gone to an unknown place like Awenrith. Maradil had always wanted Awenrith and Auril to meet, seeing as they had similar personalities, but he noticed that they had always never seemed to be in the same place at the same time, no matter what. He also noticed that they looked similar and had the same green eyes, wondering if they were related. For the first time Maradil began to feel sadness. But Maradil still had one person left, his older brother Haladir, whom he had looked up to and grown up with.
Eventually Haladir had been sent off to battle to defend Bornodir against one of the raging orc hordes from Terakia, which lay to the far east of Bornodir. He didn't come back and Maradil was told that he had been killed in battle, the person who told him had witnessed it. The brother that Maradil had loved and cherished was now gone, as was the last person that he had cared about. His personality began to change, he no longer found peace in all the simple things in life, instead choosing to reject them and showed great apathy, aloofness, and uncaring towards things like love, happiness, and family. It actually made him feel better letting go of emotions like that; it made him feel free, not being chained down by anything. But Maradil was not completely emotionless, he could feel things like joy, pride, affection and attachment, but never love.
Maradil had made very few friends throughout the years; he had met some people who were similar to him and sympathized with him. His two friends would be coming with him on his journey. First he went to go see one of them, Darzul. Darzul was a Cauladir, or as some people called them, Grey Orcs. But they looked nothing like orcs, instead they looked more like elves or humans, but with a light-grayish skin tone. Similar to the Maldir, they too had long life spans like theirs. Darzul had come from a small kingdom near the land of Uracania in the distant south, which was the land where most of the Cauladir came from. His father Varil, had been the king of a small and distant kingdom near Uracania.
One day the inevitable happened; the tiny kingdom was invaded by Terak-hai orcs, a viscous sub-race of orcs that destroyed everything in their path, originating from the land of Terakia. They stormed throughout the town and slaughtered many. His father Varil fell in battle trying to defend the castle and his family and they never got a chance to recover his body. Darzul, being a child at the time, fled with his mother and the rest of his family, along with all of the surviving Cauladir from the town. Ever since that day, Darzul had a deep hatred for the Terak-hai orcs and promised that he would kill them wherever he saw them. After fleeing, they eventually ended up in the enclave of Aradale. Not only Elves and Maldir lived in Aradale, but also refugees from many different lands who had lost their homes for various reasons and the elves accepted them with kindness. There as a child Darzul met Maradil and the two quickly formed a friendship, having been through similar events and experiencing similar losses.
"Good morning Darzul." Maradil said to him. "Today's when we leave on another adventure."
"Yeah." Darzul responded back. "I can't wait."
"By the way, where's Barin?" Maradil asked in return.
"He's probably still rolling around in bed."
"At this time? Doesn't he know that we have to leave in a few hours?"
"I guess we'd better go wake him up or he'll get mad at us for not giving him time to prepare."
"Alright, let's go."
The second of Maradil's two friends was Barin the Dwarf. Barin was descended from a line of dwarves that had escaped the destruction of the great dwarven city Asgrothir by the Terak-kai about a thousand years ago. Asgrothir had been located in the far south near Nazoth and Uracania. His family had gone to the coastal region of Nazoth and there he had grown up with the Sea Dwarves, dwarves who loved sailing and fishing, as well as the usual things a dwarf loved. Since he had been raised alongside the Sea Dwarves, he had learned many skills such as sailing, fishing, navigating, and almost anything involving the sea. Barin had moved away from Nazoth in search of adventure and had ended up in Aradale. He met Maradil and Darzul and befriended them, telling them tales of how he had gone on adventures, which fascinated them and made them a bit jealous that he had gone on adventures at the same young age as them.
They grew up together until they were adults. Barin was known for being the humorous one of the group and often joked when the mood was right. Barin began to have a habit of sometimes drinking too much, which led to him doing very stupid and dangerous things. There was one unforgettable incident at the wedding feast for a lord's daughter, where Barin had done something incredibly foolish. He had gotten into a drinking contest and began to drink ale from the ale pump of the keg while laying down. He then became a party animal and got to thinking when he saw the bonfire. He wondered what would happen if he were to fart on the large bonfire?
So he did it, and instead of a small explosion, it created a large fireball that came into contact with one of the curtains hanging from the window. The curtains caught fire and quickly the whole roof made of wood was on fire. The feast hall had burned down, but fortunately nobody was hurt. But ever since that day many people were angry with Barin, but the lord had forgiven him since he had been drunk, and the lord also had a habit of drinking and had once done something similar. People became very careful to make sure that they did not give Barin too much beer or ale, not wanting something like that to happen again. Since then, the bards sung of that day in the tale of Barin's Blunder. Barin then learned to drink in moderation and the times when he was drunk decreased, but nevertheless he still loved beer, ale, or any kind of alcoholic drink. From then on, Maradil and Darzul jokingly gave Barin the title of Barin the Blunderous.
"There you are Barin." said Maradil seeing Barin walking down the hallway. "Come on, we're going to be late."
"What, you think I've forgotten? said the dwarf. "You know that I love adventuring just as much as you two. I wouldn't miss this for anything."
"Well then, lets start packing and make preparations." said Darzul.
The expression on Maradil's face often looked like one of sadness, but that was not the truth. He was actually joyful, fun-loving, reckless, and sometimes mischievous on the inside. The one thing that he, Darzul, and Barin loved most of all was adventure; they just couldn't get enough of it. When one adventure ended Maradil was afraid of going back to idleness, and that made him depressed. When the fun of it had ended and there was nothing left to do, that's when he felt true sadness. But that was never a problem because he and his two friends were always going on adventures to many places all over Lower Earth; he lived for adventure. But their adventures would often get them into trouble and often caused trouble for the people of Aradale, on top of them screwing things up as well.
Maradil had gotten a bad reputation mostly from how he usually screwed things up or failed the tasks the elf leaders had given him. Maradil also had a bad habit of either losing or breaking his weapons, which seemed to have spread to Darzul and Barin as well. This was the reason why the elf smiths refused to make Maradil any weapons. He would go through so many weapons, so Maradil would mostly just use what he found or picked up during his adventures, or what he, although crudely, made himself. Maradil and his friends were also very skilled in combat, Maradil having learned how to fight with a sword from his brother Haladir, who had been a soldier before he had died. Maradil preferred to sometimes wield two weapons, one in each hand, while Darzul often preferred two handed weapons, mostly a spear, and Barin often wielded an axe and his shield. They had also learned many survival skills and had the skills of hunters as well.
They had finished packing and preparing and were heading towards the gates of Aradale where they were to meet the elf leaders who would inform them of their task and send them off. They reached the gate in a matter of minutes and there they saw the elf leaders and a few of the people Maradil, Darzul, and Barin were commonly acquainted with. Also there was the wizard Caron the Silver, who was the head of a wizard council that resided in Aradale. That council also had a small number of apprentices, who they trained. But they were very few and hard to come by and the wizards only taught those who they thought were worthy. Caron had been like a grandfather figure to Maradil and had told him and his friends many stories when they were children. Caron had many old friends throughout Lower Earth and was often well informed about many things. Caron had been to many far away places, even some they had never heard of before. Maradil had tried to learn some of the magical arts from Caron, but he had found it too complicated and preferred to use melee weapons instead.
The elf leaders informed them of what they were being sent to do. The land of Kunrude (pronounced Cune-rude) to the east had been at war with a separatist faction within itself. The land of Kunrude was just to the west of Bornodir, and that was the direction that Maradil and his friends would head. He and his friends would travel west until they got out of Bornodir and through the land of Kunrude until they reached Nasatra, the main city of the Kingdom of Kunrude, and where their king lived. Once there, they would meet him and discuss a way to end the war between them and the separatist faction within Kunrude that wants to take control.
The separatist forces in Kunrude are led by a tyrannical warlock known as Vanthar the Black. Vanthar the Black's stronghold was in an old fortress in Kunrude that was well defended, and under him he had an army of men who had joined his cause. Vanthar seemed like just the typical kind of tyrant ruler that one would usually see, but this one wielded great power. The journey through Kunrude would most likely take a while. Kunrude was a vast land filled with hills, rivers, steppes, deserts, plains, and highlands that seemed to stretch on for miles. Most of the inhabitants lived nearer to the western part of Kunrude, closer to the sea.
"Oh, I forgot, those two are coming." Barin said, gesturing towards the two people closest to the gate.
Much to the annoyance of Maradil and his friends, two representatives were being sent with them on their journey. Maradil had already briefly met them a few days ago. One was a human named Jeredia, who was a man from the desert land of Harastan in the far east, and whose ruler there was a distant ally of the King of Kunrude. The second representative joining them was an elf named Pathil. It was never stated where Pathil was from, only that he was from somewhere far in the south-east. This elf though had something mysterious and suspicious about him. Maradil had a knack for sensing these sort of things from people. He wasn't sure if he should trust the elf; almost nothing was known about him and he was always off somewhere where there was nobody around. The elf also almost never showed any emotions, which made him very hard the read, though it was possible he was just hiding them. Jeredia and Pathil then joined them, they were preparing to set out.
The wizard Caron the Silver walked up to Maradil. "Here, take this kit of potions and medicines. I know how you three are always reckless so I thought to make these for you." Caron handed the kit to Maradil and he put it in one of his bags. Maradil, Darzul, and Barin each seemed to have brought along five sags or bags with them that they kept in their backpacks. About two and one half of those bags they each had brought with them were filled with the supplies they had packed. All the rest of the bags, Maradil had said was for "stuff". Though what kind of "stuff" Caron could only imagine; they would often bring back all sorts of things from their adventures.
"Also," Caron whispered to Maradil, "I'm a bit suspicious about that elf Pathil. You probably shouldn't trust him too much. He's one of those elves from the lands far to the east. The elves there are a bit mysterious and strange and not much is known about them. I've spoken with Jeredia and he seems to share my suspicion. I'm pretty sure you can trust Jeredia however. He seems like a good natured person, and if you are unsure of what to do in your objective, you can ask him. He has been well informed about the task." Caron turned around and started to walk away.
"So I'm not the only one with suspicions." Maradil whispered back to Caron.
One of the people in Aradale who watched them leave at the gate, Sarwen, wished Maradil and his friends good luck. She was a friend of his, and one of the few people in the enclave that didn't see them as trouble makers. "Good bye Maradil, Darzul, and Barin," she said "and good luck."
The fellowship of five began walking through the gates and Caron quickly ran over to them. "I almost forgot. One more thing, I must warn you all about something. Lately, many people have been disappearing throughout the countryside of Kunrude and the surrounding lands. I'm pretty sure that it is not Vanthar the Black's doing though. These people are disappearing without a trace. If the same were to happen to you, there may be no finding you in the vast countryside of Kunrude. So be very careful and I suggest, if at all possible, to absolutely not travel at night." Caron then turned to walk back and he wished them luck. Maradil then got a little bit nervous. What would he do without Caron's guidance with them?
Maradil said to Darzul, "The elf leaders are probably glad to get rid of us. We always cause them so much trouble. They probably gave us this task just to send us away to some far away kingdom so we'd be out of their way"
"Yeah," Darzul said back. "But now we get to go on another adventure. This should be fun."
Finally, here is the first chapter of the real story. Throughout the story Maradil and his friends will go on many different adventures. This first adventure of theirs is sort of a way of beginning the story and introducing them as characters. Maradil is supposed to be sort of an anti-hero, or a reluctant-hero type character.