Please Read the AN at the end!
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In the beginning there was nothing or rather, the One and His Music.
Eru, His name is. Though most known to mortals and those of the Eldar as Illuvatar.
And He made first the Ainur, that were the offspring of His thought.
He spoke to them and sang His Theme and they resounded in turn. Though for a long while, they each sang alone or few together. Many hearkened unto them but only understood the part of Him that came.
In the understanding of their brothers and sisters, they slowly grew in their curiosity.
The Ainur continued to listen and to sing in ever increasing harmony.
And it came to pass that He called them all together and declared unto them a mighty theme. He revealed to them things greater and more wonderful than ever yet revealed and the glory of its Beginning and the splendor of its End amazed the Ainur.
So they bowed before Eru and were silent.
And He bade unto them. 'Of the Theme that I have declared to you, I will now that make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled in each of you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this Theme. And from each of you their own thoughts and devices, if they will. But I will sit and hearken and be glad that through you great beauty shall be wakened unto song.'
Then the voices of the Ainur, like unto harps and strings and lutes, and pipes and trumpets and viols and organs and unto untold countless choirs singing with words, began to fashioning the Theme of Him in a Great Music.
And a sound arose of endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond into the abyssal depths and unto the heavenly heights. The places of the dwelling of Illuvatar were filled to overflowing and echoed within his His halls and into the Void.
Never since have the Ainur made any music like this music. Thought it has been said that greater still shall be made before Illuvatar by the Choirs of the Ainur and the Children of Illuvatar at the End of Days.
But now Iluvatar sat and listened. And for a great while it seemed good to him for in the music there were no flaws.
As the Theme progressed however, it came into the hear of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were his own and not of the accord nor harmony of his brothers and sisters.
For Melkor sought to increase the power and glory of the part assigned.
To Melkor, among the Ainur, had been given the greatest of gifts of power and knowledge and had a share in all the gifts of his kin.
He had gone often alone into the Void places seeking the Imperishable Flame for desire grew hot within him to bring into Being things of his own.
Yet in the shadow of the abyss, he drew curious eyes in their multitudes and remained ignorant of the watchful gazes cast upon him.
And it seemed to him that Iluvatar took no thought for the Void and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with Iluvatar.
But being alone he had begun to conceive thoughts of his own that were not aligned with those of his kin.
Some of those thoughts he now wove into his Music. And straightaway Discord arose about him and many that sang near him grew despondent, their thoughts disturbed and their harmonies and music faltered and broken.
Though some began to attune their Music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first.
The the Discord of Melkor spread ever wider and the melodies which had been heard before floundered in a sea of turbulent and crashing sound.
Still, Iluvatar sat and listened until it seemed that about His throne there was a raging storm of dark waters and noises that made war upon one another in an endless wrath that would not be assuaged.
Iluvatar arose and the Ainur perceived that He smiled and He raised His left hand. A new Theme. One to grow within the storm, like yet unlike the previous Theme. It gathered power and had new beauty. But the Discord of Melkor rose in uproar and contended with it.
And again there was a war of sound more violent before.
Many of the Ainur were dismayed and sang no longer and Melkor held the mastery.
Then again, Iluvatar rose.
And the Ainur perceived that His countenance was stern and He lifted up His right hand and beheld a third Theme amid the confusion. And it was unlike the other for it was at first soft and sweet, a mere rippling and gentle breeze against the overwhelming cacophony and the Ainur had thought that it would drown in the turmoil.
But it would not be quenched and itself took power and strength and it seemed that there were now two Musics progressing at once before the seat of Eru and they were at utter variance.
From one was deep and wide and beautiful but slow and filled with immeasurable sorrow from which its beauty chiefly came.
The other had achieved a unity of its own but it was loud and vain and endlessly repeated and it had little harmony and was little more than a storm of discordant notes and a clamorous union of trumpets braying upon those few notes and it was determined to drown the other Music by the violence of its voice.
In the midst of this strife whereat the halls of Iluvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved.
Iluvatar arose a third time and his face was terrible to behold.
He raised both his hands and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss and higher than the Heavens, pierced both Musics.
And both Musics ceased.
Iluvatar spoke.
'Mighty are the Ainur and mightiest among them Melkor. But that he may know, and all the Ainur that I am Iluvatar. Those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth. That ye may see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no Theme may be played that hat h not its uttermost source in me. Nor can any alter the Music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but Mine Instrument in the devising of things more wonderful which he himself hath not imagined.'
And the Ainur were afraid. And they did not yet comprehend the words that were said to them. And Melkor's voice was filled with shame of which contained a secret anger and hatred and envy.
But Iluvatar arose in splendor and he went forth from the fair regions that he had made for the Ainur and they followed him.
But when they were at the Void, Iluvatar said unto them. 'Behold your Music!' And He showed unto them a vision, bestowing upon them sight where before their was only hearing. Amid they saw a new World made visible to them and it was globed amid the Void and it was contained therein.
And He told them. 'This is your Minstrelsy. And each of you shall find contained therein, amid the design that I set before you, all those things which it may seem that he himself devised or added.'
And many other things Iluvatar spoke unto them at that time. And because of their memory of His words, and the knowledge that each has of the Music that they themselves have made, the Ainur know much of what was and is. Of what is to come, yet few things remained unseen by them. And there are yet a great many things that they cannot see, neither alone nor taking counsel together.
For none but Himself, has Iluvatar revealed all that He has in store.
And yet, amid the mayhem of the clashing and ringing of the Harmonies of Iluvatar and the Discordance of Melkor, indeed the Abyssal Void and the Brightened Heavens were not so idle.
For within each, the Musics of both the One and his Wayward Son, their clashing echoed through Eternity and forthwith into the Darkness and Lightness that pervaded and roiled and coiled within.
There Things stirred from slumbers that no Time could comprehend nor understand and in the waving and clashing songs and Musics of Eru and Melkor these Things came to being.
These Things Saw and Heard the Harmonies of Eru and the Discord of Melkor and grew curious.
But Iluvatar swept those that strayed too close to His Creations away.
For He did not desire anymore corruption of that which Melkor brought with him.
These Things were swept across Eternity and returned to their uncounted slumbers for they did not desire the attention of the One.
For these Things remember the last time they clashed with the One.
But many were still curious and sought to enter the One's Creation and Music and took advantage of the Discord wrought by Melkor.
Nameless Things from the Darkness crawled and slithered and pulled and wracked across the New World. They hid themselves in dark oily pools and deep into the dark earthen caverns as large stones formed and piled around them.
The Light would not be so idle however.
For within came its own beings.
Though unlike the Nameless Things their arrival to the One's Creation was by accident as the Discordance of Melkor shook the foundations of the Imperishable Flame and indeed the Light just as it had shook the foundations and stirred the Nameless Things from the Abyssal Void and Darkness.
And from the Light and the Imperishable Flame fell these few odd curiosities.
And onto this New World.
The man woke with a straining breath. He could feel the cold morning air gnawing on his exposed skin. He strained his head as he looked around, blinking as he did so and getting his eyes to adjust to his surroundings.
Flickering starlight hung in the sky. Innumerable twinkling diamonds that were held in the void above while waves of transparent clouds of reds and blues scoured across them.
Far in the distance he could see a risen pillar and grand and towering mount, upon which a bright golden light sat stalwart and unmoving and blanketed its surrounding area in fiery glow.
At the opposite end, another similar pillar to the previous sat. Though instead of a golden fire, there sat one of deep blue light as if it were one of the twinkling stars in the otherwise clear sky above him. The blue light shone like a wave of water and coated its surroundings in a gloomy and night-lit glow.
All about him, there was a verdant and green vegetation. He could hear the singing of the birds in the air and the rushing and crashing of a river of water. Tall trees, near as tall as the distant pillars of light and stretched far into the sky above where pale white clouds skirted its leaves and branches like smoke would a chimney.
The man could tell that he was clothed simply with only a red stained navy blue shirt and a pair of black pants. His feet were left barren though and absent any footwear.
He pulled himself to the water. That felt like home. It felt natural and right. The grass was soft, luckily and felt like soft snow rather than scraping twigs.
In his weakened and tired state, he simply continued to pull and crawl his way towards the rushing stream, dragging himself across the ground.
He tried to remember what he could.
A memory surfaced, armies of gold and bronze clashed with legions of beast and monster across barren fields of bramble, rock and pale, golden sand.
That was until he was engulfed in a explosion of silver and gold light.
Try as he might though, he couldn't remember much beyond nor before that.
He reached the banks of the river and cast a wary glance around.
Were there any of those beasts or monsters from his vision around?
Not that he could see. Though there were a few animals around. Great deer the size of the boulders beside them with great coats of fur were abound. Few with two pairs of antlers and even fewer still held coats of snow rather than coats of brown.
Skittering up trees and about him were critters of varying sizes and shape, squirrels and mice and other such things were lively and chittering to each other.
Beyond that he could see a cascading fall of pristine and crystalline blue water.
He looked around further and it looked to him like a picturesque scene that someone would draw and paint across a canvas.
Still, his throat was dry and begged him for water.
The man cupped his hands gently and narrowed his eyes at the sight of his palm. They were well-worn and covered in thin and minute scars that, if he hadn't been looking so intently at his hands, would have missed.
He cocked his head at that and blinked as he gazed into the water, bracing himself with his hands against the ledge that overlooked the bank of the stream.
He couldn't feel it before but now that he noticed it, his raven hair was matted. In sweat, water or something else he didn't exactly know. A thin strip of silver lock laid from his crown and against his otherwise black hair.
Orbs of vibrant and sparkling emerald gazed back at him, a thin faded scar across his cheek and one at the bisecting into the top of his right brow. The man palmed his face and felt the tan skin and pulled slightly as if testing if it was actually real.
Luckily it did feel real. At least, as far as he could tell.
Regardless of his tan complexion and from looking at himself from the mirrored waters, the man cupped his hands once again and began to greedily drink from the stream, uncaring of the animals that did the same on the opposite side of it.
After a few long moments, the man began to regain his strength. The crystalline and pure waters rejuvenating him and relaxing him from his previous heightened state.
He reclined against a tall and thick tree, relaxing and taking deep breaths.
Where the hell am I?
Actually…
Who am I?
The man blinked and regarded his surroundings once more. The golden lamp began to din while the deep blue one began to grow brighter.
'A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.'
-Alexander Smith
Hello! And Happy Holidays! I hope you all have/had a great time with your loved ones!
So a couple things to kick off with as I begin this new work! Some of you may know that this is something that has been in my head, on the drawing board and have been working on for quite sometime already. While I have a makeshift plot in the works at the moment nothing is concrete.
Right now, my priority is Of Water and Salt, but I wanted to deviate a little as I was getting sort of burnt out on it. So to get my mind of it for the moment, I decided to write this as a distraction.
Again, Of Water and Salt is my main priority and I don't, at the moment, have a definitive schedule as to when this story will be updated again. (An updated schedule to Of Water and Salt is on the Emerald Library Discord)
Some of you may recognize the first half of this chapter being similar to the beginning of the Silmarillion with some minor deviations and differences but much of it being the same to the lore of creation of Arda, which was done on purpose. I wanted to not only get a feel for how Tolkien wrote and familiarize myself with the direction I wanted to take this.
Regardless I want to hear your thoughts on this. Not much to say other than that since it is the beginning of this work!
The title and summary are subject to change.
On that note, (and as always), you can find me on the Emerald Library Discord! It's a fantastic place to interact with other writers and readers where we just chill and chat about ideas, future works and generally just have a good time!
The link to that is on my profile!
(EDIT: 03/28/2022 – Just editing and cleaning up some things)