Tyranny of Family by LadyBrooke

[ladybrooke]

B2MeM Prompt and Path: Tyranny - Purple Path
Format: Ficlet
Genre: Drama
Rating: General
Warnings: N/A
Characters: OCs, Finarfin, Orodreth
Pairings: N/A
Creator’s Notes (optional): It doesn't need to be read to understand this, but the main character in this is the same one from my SWG February challenge story Obsidian to Cut.
Summary: The Valar can force one the Tatyar Avari to the court of the Noldor, but they cannot make them accept the Noldor as their leaders.

Finarfin's advisors can yell all they want, he will not bow to their King, no matter who he is related to.

“I will not submit to a tyrannical form of government, no matter what the Valar say or who the King is,” he said.

He could see the advisors to Arafinwë shift in their seats, and Orodreth shift in his seat as he leaned forward, frowning as though he didn’t have all the information he needed to solve a riddle. Perhaps there was hope for one of them, at least.

“The rules of the Valar are absolute in this matter,” said one of the advisors. He looked rather like a weasel, except that was unfair to weasels. At least they killed poisonous snakes.

“And you’ll note that I was unwilling to submit to them. Your own name for us makes that clear. It is hardly my fault that they decided to force me to be reborn in this forsaken land, anyways.” Orodreth was still looking at him, and he smirked. Orodreth raised an eyebrow, nudged one of his cousins (Argon, he thought, though he was less certain about that), and started whispering back and forth.

“You do not get to choose which rules you obey and which you do not,” the advisor said.

“Because they are tyrants, yes, we’ve gone over that already.” Really, he was starting to understand why most of his grandchildren acted like they did. If his son had been anything like this as their father, they were
probably ready to throw themselves into the ocean to get away from it.

“No, because they are the Valar, and-”

“That is enough, I think. I doubt we could resolve this issue, even if we discussed it for years on end,”
Arafinwë finally spoke. “However, I believe my son and nephew have a matter of interest that they wish to discuss.”

Orodreth finally spoke, after a brief round of arguments whispered with his cousin. “We were merely wondering if you were related to any of the Noldor.”

Perhaps there was hope for some of them, unless Ingwë had told them.

Though, if Ingwë had told them, he also would have told Arafinwë and the rest, so at least these two had listened.

He looked at the advisors and smiled. “I believe my son adopted the name Finwë after he became the leader of those who wished to go on the March.”

Orodreth leaned back in his chair, unsurprised, while Arafinwë just sat there blinking.

The advisors were on their feet arguing now – and was that Mahtan in the background, laughing?

It was. Good to know all of the ones his son’s age weren’t dead and stuck in the Halls, some of them would probably have to vouch for him.


End Note: He’s definitely a grumpy old elf, though I can see why. Also, I really need to figure out how to reconstruct him a name from all six words we know from the various Avari dialects. I don’t want to call him by some Quenya name, it seems insulting.

And yes, there’s a reason half of the characters are known by their names from Valinor and the others in Sindarin. Politics of language is fun.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

What an interesting OC point of view.

[ladybrooke]

Thank you!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Hose, water, drink ... so clearly expressed and what a zinger at the end. LOL

- Erulisse (one L)

[ladybrooke]

Exactly :P Thank you!

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

This is such an interesting fic with lots of ideas.

I really like your Orodreth character!

I loved the line about weasels. And the inclusion of Mahtan, laughing! :)

[ladybrooke]

Thank you!

Orodreth is probably my favorite of the Noldor, so I'm glad you like him here. :D

Mahtan's role in Valinor is to laugh at the chaos, so not everybody is overreacting.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, Orodreth knows what he's doing, doesn't he? Good to see your unnamed Avarin character gets a chance to break out of the stupid circular arguments... and how! :D

[ladybrooke]

Orodreth, in my fanon, lasts as long as he does because he's cunning and intelligent in a way his brothers aren't - Finrod trusts people wholeheartedly, Orodreth picks apart their lives to figure out if he should trust them. The only time he doesn't is Turin, and that really does not turn out well.

His argument ends that circular argument at least. I have the feeling a new one starts about how much respect he's due as Finwë's father. :P

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Though to be fair, Túrin doesn't mean evil (so if Orodreth picks up on people's intentions and ambitions rather than their fate, he can't really be blamed for trusting him), which makes the whole thing even more sad.

Haha, true! I hope they're not going to offer him that crown, I don't see that going well. XD

[ladybrooke]

Yeah, Orodreth does not have magical or non-magical powers of knowing the future...so he couldn't know, he's just kicking himself for not having all the facts about exactly how far Morgoth would go to mess with Túrin and how little Túrin knows about Noldorin alliances, the defense of cities, etc.

Lol, I think offering him the crown is the last thing most of them (except possibly Orodreth, who just wants to topple the current laws) want.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure nobody would want that (including himself), but it's certainly an option that should be discussed (perhaps Orodreth can bring it up just to see everybody panic). I mean, if the sons of Finwe are the "natural" heirs to his crown, then clearly his father also has some kind of claim. (That's an interesting issue anyway -- does inheritance work both ways? I mean, if Finarfin is king but Finwe or even Fingolfin are reembodied, does he have to return the kingship? It doesn't seem to be a terribly practical arrangement with an immortal/potentially returning-from-the-dead people. I suppose they'll have to find some solution for that eventually!)

[ladybrooke]

Orodreth will bring it up to watch everybody panic at a time and place that best helps Orodreth. :P (So right when he needs a distraction from what he's doing).

Inheritance among the elves when it comes to what happens when somebody is reborn is a really interesting thing to ponder. It's easier, I suppose, for some groups - as long as Olwë doesn't try to claim to be king over the Sindar, Silvan, Avari, etc, it seems clear the Elu would take kingship of the Sindar (other than Dior, we see no other King of all Sindar), Denethor would be King of the Nandor (they have no other king ever after his death), and the rest of the Silvan and Avari would probably stick to their own rulers, with perhaps a slight grouping of alliances and among the Sindar tolerance of princes leading their own realms (Cirdan rules his lands while Thingol was King, so I suspect Thingol would tolerate smaller realms). There doesn't seem to be the same importance in having only one high king but also disagreements over who that should be among the other groups - it's a distinctly Noldorin problem, in many ways. :P

I suspect it's also one that everybody involved disagrees over the solution - would Turgon accept Finarfin? Possibly, but Fingon would probably only accept him if the Fëanorions weren't completely ostracized, and I can't see that happening in Valinor among the nonrebellious. So does Namo just keep everybody until they accept Finarfin as King, or do they argue about it once they're reborn? Does Finarfin abdicate because he's sick and tired of ruling, so hey bro, now that you're back I need you to take care of this?

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

other than Dior, we see no other King of all Sindar

Well, that works as long as the dead stay dead and the realms stay lost, but if the Sindar recreate a kingdom for the reborn, you suddenly have a lot of contenders for a potential Sindarin throne - even if you only count male descendants. Depending on order of rebirth (I guess?), Eluréd and Elurín would be qualified - as Elrond would be, and accordingly his sons, should they choose the Elvish side of the family. And if you allow for ruling queens, Elwing never even dies (although she seems to prefer solitude and occasionally thinks she's a bird. ;))

I expect there would be a lot less animosity about the matter in any such scenario, though; Dior probably wouldn't mind yielding to his sons or letting them serve as regents, and I suspect Elrond doesn't necessarily want a throne. But the Noldor are contentious.

I have to admit that I don't envision a lot of ostracisation of the Fëanorians once (if!) any of them are reborn; since the nonrebellious supposedly accept the Valar's judgement a lot easier, they would presumably accept that If That Dude Has Been Let Out Of Mandos, That Must Be OK. (I have to admit that it always puzzles me a bit when there is a great deal of enmity towards the Fëanorians, or any other reembodied elf, in fics that deal with rebirth-in-Valinor scenarios. The Prophecy of the North states, "long shall ye [...] yearn for your bodies, and find little pity though all whom ye have slain should entreat for you". This suggests that the Valar (or Námo at the very least) are going to hold their grudge a lot longer than everybody else (since even the Fëanorians' victims would entreat for them before Námo relents, as I read it?). Add to that that a heavy element of Mandos seems to be change and acceptance, and I honestly can't see the Elves in Valinor being openly hostile towards any Fëanorian that eventually is released from Mandos. They probably wouldn't be given positions of power, but neither would they end up as pariahs. With the possible exception of Maglor, if he doesn't die and returns into Noldorin society without the detour through Mandos. But other than that? If they are allowed to return, the Valar must have forgiven them. (Finarfin himself knows how precious that forgiveness is, although he didn't have to die to attain it, so I also see him as a bit more merciful in that manner.) So I can't actually see the nonrebellious not at least trying to accept them.

But yeah, how they deal with the question of rulership continues to be a mystery. Maybe one king rules until he retires and chooses a successor? Maybe they'd switch to a rotational system in which a new king (or queen) is appointed or elected every X years from the vast pool of descendants? Maybe they switch to a parliamentary system, either with a ruling council of princes or wholly based on merit? They have a couple of centuries to figure something out, so I expect they will, but it's fun to speculate just what they'd come up with. :)

[zdenka]

This is a fun piece. I like your OC -- he has a lot of personality. I can't help wondering how the argument turned out!

[ladybrooke]

Thank you! I'm glad you like my OC. Lol, I think the argument continues for years, at least with some of the advisors. :P

[kayleelupin.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Omg. That's hilarious. :D In my-verse, not that I've had cause to bring it up yet, Finwe is the son of Tata and Tatie and among the first born generation of the Tatyar. This makes him about the same age as Ingoldo, Ingwe and Indis (who in my interpretation are Imin and Iminye's children) If Tata turned up Reborn, I imagine no one would dispute *his* claim as leader of the Second Clan, I mean who better than its founder, right? But Oloriel raised some good questions about that...

Personally, though, my inkling would be that no Reborn elf would want to take the High Kingship from whatever king was already in place. They might carve out their own little kingdoms on Tol Eressea or in the southern reaches of Aman or whatnot, but they wouldn't disrupt the High Kingship of their people. (Unless we're talking Finwe or Feanor, who shake things up wherever they go, so who knows with them. I have them safely shut up in Mandos until the Renewing for just that reason.)

[ladybrooke]

;p There's that family relationship here too, though since I've not posted the story yet (or written it, since it exists in the same kind of notes Tolkien made) I still haven't decided for sure if Tata is Finwë's father (here a grumpy old elf) or Finwë's grandfather. I don't know, I think there would be disputes - Tata might be the first one, but Finwë is the one chosen by the Valar, which probably holds sway over a lot of the Noldor who didn't rebel...

Here we come to one of my favorite fandom discussions! The Noldor are my only group that experiences significant political upheavals with each new member of the reborn - they just don't seem to have the togetherness that exemplifies other areas. Where the Sindar never take a king of all of them after Dior (who only seems to have been accepted because he was Thingol's grandson, and otherwise we can suppose they just would have never taken one again) and the Nandor never take one after Denethor dies, but instead only take regional rulers like Amdir, Amroth, & Celeborn and Galadriel in Lothlorien, Oropher & Thranduil in Mirkwood, etc, the Noldor seem to have had a lot of fights even when Finwë was King, let alone later, about who should be in charge. So who knows? I can't picture reborn!Fingon going along with any dissing of his cousin, or Turgon being quite willing to bend to Finarfin (when he just up and left while his own father was King). Though, I don't think they'd challenge the kingship in name, just a lot of the laws and practices.