Disclaimer: I do not own any of Tolkien's work or his characters, I only play with them. The only things I do own are the original characters and original events. This is a work in progress.
Frankly, I'm doing this for my own experimental purposes; I wish to see if it's even possible to create an original, female, non mary-sue character within the Tolkien universe who interacts on a decent level with the main characters without canon-raping them to death. Of course, it's been done before and well, but not often. Please review away, and most importantly, be honest in your reviews. I firmly believe that only through such constructive criticism may one aim to become a better writer, especially considering I have never written something so long, nor seeking to cover so many characters over such a tumultuous period of time.
Background: Just to give you a little background to this story, according to canon, Denethor had two older, unnamed sisters (Appendixes in LoTR). Hence, I have created names for them and a timeline for their lives, which hopefully will not interfere with canon too much. I have also created other OCs, who are involved in their lives. The protagonist in this fic is the granddaughter of Denethor's oldest (by 13 years) sister. However, some of the chapters will not include this protagonist at all since fic is supposed to focus on the story itself.
My OC is the granddaughter of Denethor's oldest sister, Immenor, who, according to the timeline I created, was born in 2917 when Ecthelion II was 31. Ecthelion's second daughter, Aerinor, is born in 2924 but dies unmarried and childless of illness in 2952. Of course Denethor is born in 2930 according to canon. Since Denethor married late (2976 at the age of 46), and is a full 13 years younger than Immenor, one could safely assume she has time to marry (2954 to Heliath at the age of 37) and have children (a daughter Aerineth in 2954, and a son, Hanieth in 2959), who in turn marry (Aerineth to Ingaron in 2982 at the age of 28. Hanieth never marries) and have children. Aerineth has a child in 2988 at the age of 34 named Finduireth, but dies in childbirth. Of course Boromir and Faramir's mother, Finduilas dies in 2988 as well. Finduireth's father, Ingaron, dies the following year, 2989, in a skirmish with the Orcs of Mordor on the borders of Dol Amroth.
That same year, Immenor and Heliath, Finduireth's grandparents, move into Denethor's household to raise Finduireth, who is 5 years younger than Faramir (born 2983 according to canon) and 10 years younger than Boromir (born 2978 according to canon). Finduireth cannot move into her uncle Hanieth's (remember him? He is Immenor's second child) household since he remains too busy as an Ithilien Ranger. However, Hanieth still visits his niece as much as possible (for he gets along quite well with his uncle, Denethor) until he is killed in 3004 in Ithilien at the age of 45 in a border skirmish with the Uruks of Mordor. In 2991, Heliath, Finduireth's grandfather, dies at the age of 87. In 2992, Immenor dies of grief at the age of 74. Since Finduireth is without parents, grandparents, or her uncle, Denethor takes her in, raising her as one of his own. Hence Finduireth, the protagonist of this fic, is Denethor's grand-niece.
I'm sorry, was that previous paragraph confusing as hell? Because it sure was for me, which is terrible considering I wrote the damn thing. So below, you will find a linear timeline of events. Some are canon, some are created by me out of necessity but hopefully do not interfere with canon.
2886 – Ecthelion II born
2904 – Heliath born
2917 – Immenor, Denethor's oldest sister born
2924 – Aerinor, Denethor's other older sister born
2930 – Denethor II born
2950 – Finduilas of Dol Amroth born
2951 – Mount Doom bursts into flame
2952 – Aerinor dies of sickness
2954 – Immenor marries Heliath, a commoner lieutenant to the new Captain of the White Tower, Denethor, against her father's wishes. Denethor is friends with and supports Heliath's marriage to Immenor. Immenor loves Heliath greatly and is openly defiant of her father, going so far as moving to Dol Amroth, where her husband offers his services to the Prince Adrahil, Prince Imrahil's father. Becomes lieutenant-commander of forces, for he is quickly shown to contain a talent for strategy
2954 – Aerineth, daughter of Immenor and Heliath born in Dol Amroth
2955 – Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth born
2957 – 2980 – Aragorn, a.k.a. Thorongil serves in disguise to both Thengel of Rohan and Ecthelion II of Gondor
2958 – Ethelion, under counsel from Thorongil, forgives Immenor for her choice of marrying Heliath and has Heliath promoted to Lieutenant-Commander under Denethor, Captain of the White Tower, making Heliath the 4th most powerful commander in the city under the Steward, Thorongil, and then Denethor. A pregnant Immenor, Heliath and their child, Aerineth, move back to Minas Tirith
2959 – Hanieth, son of Immenor and Heliath born in Minas Tirith
2976 – Denethor II marries Findulas of Dol Amroth
2978 – Boromir, son of Denethor II born
2982 – Aerineth, daughter of Immenor and Heliath, marries Ingaron, Captain of the Rangers of Ithilien
2983 – Faramir, son of Denethor born
2984 – Denethor II becomes Steward after death of his father, the Steward Ecthelion II
2988 – Finduireth born. Aerineth dies in childbirth
2988 – Finduilas dies
2989 – Ingaron dies in Orc skirmish on border of Dol Amroth. Finduireth moves into the household of Denethor with her grandparents, Immenor and Heliath. Becomes friends with her cousins, Borormir and Faramir
2991 – Heliath dies of natural causes late in the year
2992 – Immenor dies of grief over her husband in March. Finduireth is adopted by Denethor and lives as sister to Boromir and Faramir from this point on. Cannot live with uncle Hamieth since he is never home and always fighting in Ithilien, though he does see her often whenever he's visiting Minas Tirith.
3004 – Hanieth, aged 45 and uncle to Finduireth, dies in one of the border skirmishes with the Uruks of Mordor in Ithilien in Gondor's attempt to retake it. He was childless and wifeless, similar to his cousin Boromir, in that he loved war games and battle and proved valiant.
3018 - June 20: Sauron attacks Osgiliath. Boromir and Faramir hold the bridge until it is destroyed, then swim to safety with two others.
-July 4: Boromir sets out from Minas Tirith to Rivendell.
-October 25 – Council of Elrond
Finduireth will have NO romantic entanglements with any of the Fellowship. She will also not interfere with the relationship establishment between Eowyn and Faramir or set them up, nor heal them. That's Aragorn's job after all.
There will be no Denethor bashing. I happen to like the guy, thank you very much, and see him as tragic hero rather than the batshit crazy mofo the movie falsely portrayed him as. Faramir's relationship with his father will not be anything like the craziness it was in the movie (frankly, I think the movies, especially RoTK, made it a bit too obvious and over-the-top), but more similar to the book. In fact all relationships will be based on the cannon of the book rather than the movies.
Boromir will NOT be made into some crazy villain-from-hell. I also happen to like the guy a lot, think he's a pretty noble sort and find him fascinating. Essentially, the character of Finduireth is created in order to bear witness to the madness and decay Gondor is steadily falling into around her.
Also, I have lost my beta reader after these first chapters, so if anyone would be interested in beta-ing, please dash off an email to me.
Whew! I hope that explains the background of this fic without being overly long. And of course, lastly and most importantly, thank you for taking time to read my fic. I hope you enjoy it