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eachdraidh
May. 26th, 2014 05:40 pm( PLAYER INFORMATION )
- ★ NAME: Kira
- ★ AGE: 26
- ★ TIMEZONE: CET
- ★ CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
narwa
- ★ CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: N/A
( CHARACTER INFORMATION )
- ★ NAME: Curufinwë "Fëanor" Fëanáro (Finwion/Þerindion)
((While in the history of Middle Earth he is typically referred to as Fëanor, he died before making substantial contact with those that spoke the language from which it is derived: Fëanor is the Sindarized (not Sindarin, that would be Faenor) version of his Quenyan mothername, and the Noldor only encountered the Sindar of Mithrim shortly before his passing (so while he would be aware of them existing, being probably friendly and a significantly different elvish language, that would be about it. And there is no reason why he should have spoken to a Sinda in the Halls; since the Sindarized/Sindarin Noldorin names only appeared in the context of them speaking Sindarin (as they felt that mixing languages was icky), that would mean that the thought of changing his name that way would have never occurred to him). He himself used his mothername Fëanáro in life. His character tag would be Fëanor as that is what he is usually referred to, but he would not call himself by that name.
Finwion and Þerindion are his patronymic and matronymic; while they would probably not come up, those would be relevant should he ever require a last name for whatever reason (considering that this is Fëanor he would probably use both just to make a point).))
- ★ AGE: mid-3000s
((It's a bit hard to tell, since
A. while the years of Middle Earth and Arda as a whole would later come to resemble closely those of our earth, they did not yet while Fëanor lived. He was born during the years of the trees (when the illumination of Valinor would come from two trees whose light waned and grew over the course of a different time-span than moon and sun take to complete their daily runs; and then the number of days in a year worked differently too), which were much longer than years of moon and sun; they ended a relatively short while prior to his death, and the years of moon and sun only started either concurrently with or shortly after his death. So one has to do some conversion here.
B. we encounter the question here if you should continue counting while someone is "dead", i.e. in the halls of Mandos, waiting to be reembodied (which Fëanor will not be until the end of days).
It's also not terribly important, especially in his case: Elves appear ageless, which translates to perhaps a human late-twenties, and Fëanor's fëa is still burning brighter than any other elf's so it's not like he has noticeably spiritually aged yet, either.))
- ★ CANON & CANON POINT: Tolkien's Middle Earth Compendium; primarily the Silmarillion. Fëanor will be coming from after his death, roughly 130 FA / first century of the siege.
((While I for the most part use the Silmarillion, the Silm is a compilation of J.R.R.'s wastebasket of drafts, rewrites and fragments done by his son, and at some points his editorial choices are debatable. One of those is the decision on which version of the fate of Fëanor's two youngest sons he included in the published book. I'm drawing from a different version of J.R.R's writings here, where Amrod perished in the burning of the ships at Losgar, while Amras lived until the third kinslaying.))
((Elves, men and dwarves go to the Halls of Mandos/Namo, or Halls of Waiting, after their physical death in Arda (= earth); they are located on the western shore of the undying lands, that is the part of Arda where under normal circumstances only immortal beings might walk. For elves, the halls function as a hospital, retirement home, therapy center and prison in one, depending on personal circumstances. Unlike dwarves, who stay until the second music (when the world will end and be rebuilt), and men, who after a short while in the Halls depart them to go we-know-not-where, elves (in almost all cases) have two options: To either stay in the halls or, once they are sufficiently healed/corrected, return to a bodily existence outside of the halls, though they are usually restricted to a certain area of the world after this.
In the halls, people have no bodies. Those spiritual-only persons can still meet and communicate, though they have to specifically seek each other out for that, and that usually happens only between those tho were very close in their physical lives. The halls of the walls are covered with tapestries narrating history outside of the halls, woven by Vairë, Mandos's wife, and her handmaidens. Outside of remaining inside the halls, nothing is demanded of the spirits of the dead. Elves may accept to be "corrected, instructed, strengthened, or comforted", but they also may refuse such interventions - the stronger the will and the worse the deeds that they did, the longer such refusal usually lasts. They may strive to be re-embodied or not - those weary of living mind find the peace of the halls more enticing than the world of the living. But all in all, outside of personal development, nothing happens in the halls of Mandos. There is no history being made here.))
- ★ CANON INFORMATION: Tolkien Gateway, Wikia, Wikipedia, AskMiddleEarth, Writer's guild
Fëanor is not only a character of superlatives, he's also a character of many firsts.
First elf to be born in Valinor. Probably the first person with a fëa on Arda to be born and not created by Eru. (His parents had been awoken along with all other elves in the East of Middle Earth, the eastern of the two main landmasses of Arda. When the Valar noticed their awakening, they at length sent one of their own to check this out. Three elves were brought to their realm of Valinor on the western, other main landmass of Arda. Upon their return, they took up the title of high kinds and led those who would follow them westwards. Along the way, their host was diminished by elves staying behind for various reasons, though some continued their journey later on. But a number of elves still made it to Valinor: The Vanyar, the Noldor and a part of the Teleri. (note: Naming is making politics, also and especially among elves. I'm (almost consequently, with the expection of Þerindë and Melkor/Morgoth because those names are plot points in Fëanor's lifetime) using the names that are commonly used in canon and fandom for the sake of easy reference, but that does not mean that they are unproblematic, in use at the time of the history in question happening, or that they would have been used by those that are counted towards the groups in question or carry those names. See Fëanor's own name (don't even let me get started on Thingol's ban of Quenya). Vanyar and Teleri are both names given from the viewpoint of the Noldor.) The Vanyar basically moved in with the Valar, the Noldor built their own capital, Tirion upon Tuna, and the Teleri remained at the coast and had ships this will be important. King of the Noldor was Finwë. He was married with Miriel Þerindë, and after a while they had a child together: Fëanor. While the in-universe description of it is complicated, we can assume that Miriel had a heavy case of post-partum depression, which eventually led her to depart from her body and go to the Halls of Mandos, refusing to return from there. Which means that)
His mom was the first elf to die in Valinor. (At a time when her son was still very young. So his earliest childhood was spent with a completely unresponsive mother and a grief-ridden father who would spend much time next to his wife('s body). During and after this time, Finwë directed all his affection towards his son, and their bond grew very strong. But there was a problem: Finwë really wanted more than one child. The problem was that since Miriel could technically still have returned to Finwë's side, he could not marry again; remarriage for an elf is due to their practical immortality (possible reembodiment even after a physical death) always polygamy, and that is strictly prohibited. The Valar discussed the situation at length and offered a solution: If Miriel promised to never seek to be reembodied, Finwë would be allowed to remarry himself. Miriel promised, and thus we have, years later: )
His dad was the first and only elf to ever remarry. (This went not over well with his son. Between his father's love now being split up into him and his new wife Indis, and later his half-siblings, and the arrangement meaning that Miriel was now really truly dead for good and he could never see her again unless he should die himself (and even then it'd not be the same), he never liked his step-mom. His relationship with his half-siblings was never filled with love either. It was at this time more a living apart from them and avoiding them more than what would be usual for elven relatives than truly negative behaviour or even hostility.
But it is also during these years that Fëanor himself married and had children, and it seems to have been a quite positive family life (though they decidedly did not live in Finwë's house). It was during these years that he invented and created some of the greatest, most powerful, most well-known etc things in Arda, including a commonly used alphabet, the palantiri (that function kind of like Eachdraidh's lockets |D), nifty lamps, and... well, if you're not sure who invented something in Middle Earth, both fandom and Tolkien default to "Fëanor did this" for a reason. His greatest creation, however, were the silmarils, three beautiful jewels that contained the light of the sacred trees inside them, a light that could not be touched by evil... and that could awaken a great lust to possess them within people. Spoiler: This will end badly.
But yeah. There were also issues here. See, the Valar weren't all that united actually and had never been. One of them, Melkor - basically the personified evil and chaos hellbent on domination and destruction - had caused trouble from the beginning, and after a long time of imprisonment had faked being now on the side of the good guys, and got released. LOL. So Fëanor really didn't like the guy (it's actually said that nobody ever hated Melkor more than Fëanor did), but Melkor was really good at spreading rumours, and one of those managed to get Fëanor really riled up. Namely that the Valar were keeping the elves in Valinor and would not allow them to go to Middle Earth because they were A. afraid that the elves could become more powerful than them and B. so the second-born (= humans) could take over the continent in the absence of its "rightful" owners, because they would be easier to control. This was indeed the first time that the elves were told about the secondborn being a thing. He also managed to fill the hearts of the Noldor with pride and a possessiveness and yearning for the wide world that had not been there before. You know what such a rumour means? CIVIL UNREST, Noldor for the first time making weapons, FUN ALL AROUND, and Fëanor was in the midst of it, calling for the Noldor to take up arms and head over to Middle Earth. But he also created the rumour that the Valar, wanting to possess the silmarils themselves, would try to take the position of Fëanor and his house as Finwë's heirs away from them and give it to Fingolfin, the elder of his half-brothers, instead (and a corresponding rumour telling the children of Indis that Fëanor was planning on kicking them out of Tirion. Well, Fingolfin went to Finwë to tell him to restrain Fëanor from creating even more unrest... a move that Fëanor interpreted as Fingolfin trying to usurp his position and lol look what we have:)
He was the first elf to draw a sword on another elf. (In broad public. THIS WAS A GREAT IDEA OBVIOUSLY. What followed was Fëanor being banished from Tirion to Formenos. His sons came with him, his wife didn't.... his father did. So basically the High King and his heir were in exile (with the silmarils) and guess who ruled the Noldor. Could be Fingolfin. WELL THIS SURE BACKFIRED. But not only for Fëanor. Because the council of the Valar that ruled the banishment of Fëanor also discovered the root of his actions; Melkor was exposed as actually having been a little shit all along. Ooooops. So what do you do. Well, Melkor got a spider-monster, Ungoliath, to eat the trees so the world would be filled with darkness... which the other Valar responded to by summoning Fëanor to ask him to hand over the silmarils, because hey, they had the light of the trees still in them, something could be done here. Too bad the silmarils tend to make their owner really greedy. But one could argue that Fëanor's refusal to hand them over wasn't really of any importance because Melkor was busy while everyone else discussed those things, and when Fëanor claimed that he would rather be the first elf killed in Valinor than hand the silms over, Mandos was a cryptic little shit and told him "Nope, you'd not be the first. That is because)
His dad was the first elf to be killed in Valinor. (Because the silmarils were still in Formenos and Melkor had attacked that together with Ungoliath, killed Finwë, and absconded with jewels and partner-in-crime. Over to Middle Earth, by the way, where he still had some minions and a hide to go to. So Fëanor's much beloved father was dead, and after leaving the council and vanishing for a few days in what often is interpreted as a suicidal phase, Fëanor showed up again... in Tirion, calling on the Noldor to head to Middle Earth with him, both for the reasons that he cited before and to avenge his father and get the silmarils back. Or, in other words:)
He was the first elf to rebel against the Valar. (Calling everyone to arms and rushing the whole thing so people would stay overwhelmed by his skills as an orator and not be calmed down by more level-headed people.
THEN. OATH. TERRIBLE IDEA. The basic content is that nothing will keep those that take the oath (Fëanor and his seven sons) away from the silmarils, they'll kill those that are in their way, and the everlasting darkness may claim them if they fail to get them back. Now, elven oaths are incredibly powerful forces, and this one is sworn with the two highest Valar as witnesses and much more to Eru. YEP. AWESOME.
Okay so bad ideas were had, now to the realization. The problem was that there was an ocean and they had to get to the other side... the solution was to ask the Teleri (who had ships, remember?) to help them out here. Just that the king of the Teleri refused, claiming that nope, they were his. Fëanor now is a dumb and instead of trying to solve this with words... uh. It's called the First Kinslaying:)
He instigated and participated in the first time that elves killed other elves. (Not all elves who had joined the treck to Middle Earth participated, and half of those that participated thought the Teleri had attacked first, but fact is, that a lot of elves killed a lot of other elves. In the end, the Noldor took the ships and fled towards the North. Where Mandos showed up and told them that, should they not turn back and accept judgement for their sins, they'd not be allowed back and also everything that they did would turn to shit. This was the point where most of the elves that hadn't participated in the kinslaying turned back, led by the youngest of Fëanor's brothers, Finarfin. The others continued North... basically towards the pole circle. And kept losing ships to attacks.
And at some point realized that they didn't have enough ships for everyone, and the only other option to get over the ocean was near-suicidal... And people got really unhappy with the situation and started saying that this was a bad idea and Fëanor was an idiot and, hey, Fingolfin is kinda cool right? So the ration choice was, of course, to get everyone whom he considered loyal to him, that was all those of his own house, onto the boats and ferry them over to Middle Earth.
AND THEN BURN THE BOATS INSTEAD OD SENDING THEM BACK. Since hey, they hadn't wanted him to lead them anyway, right? (Those that he had left back did take the near-suicidal option to get over, which Fëanor had probably not foreseen and didn't learn of while still alive).
BUT WOW FË COUNT YOUR SONS BEFORE YOU SET THINGS ON FIRE:)
The first Noldo to die in Middle Earth was one of Fëarnor's sons. (Amrod had wanted to go back to Middle Earth, and since no sane person would have thought that Fëanor would not send the ships back to get the rest he snuck onto one of them to be smuggled back and... yeah. Ouch. Congrats Fëanor, you just killed your own son.
Anyway, the Noldor that were now in Middle Earth went soutwards and finally came to Mithrim, where they settled down at the shore of a big lake and encountered the first natives of the area. I mean the Sindar (though communication was hard due to their languages having developed too much to still be understandable to the other, and contacts were careful at first while both sides tried to figure the other out - so Fëanor knows that they exist and seem friendly enough, but not more). But I also mean the other natives, the ones to the east... namely orcs, balrogs, all those nice beings that are chummy with or created by Melkor (who by now was named Morgoth, thanks to Fëanor). That second kind of natives they had a nice battle with that lasted ten days and ended before the Moon rose or Fingolfin's host set foots on the shores of Middle Earth... And also a battle which Fëanor didn't survive. Pursuing the enemy even when they were retreating and up against way too many way too powerful opponents (like. we're talking multiple balrogs at once here) he was injured and died in the arms of his sons, his spirit burning his body when it left it so they couldn't even bury him. In his last words, he made his sons renew their oath and promise to avenge him. Yay.
And it went downhills from there.
But! We are dealing with an elf, so his story is not actually over. He went to the halls of Mandos, and didn't only meet Amrod again but also his parents... who reconciled, and by now there is hesitant talk of possibly switching the promise of never wanting to be re-embodied from Miriel to Finwë. Fëanor himself is still far from accepting any kind of interference of the corrective type, but he has had time to do a good amount of thinking and through following history through the tapestries, he has a rough idea of what is happening over in Middle Earth.)
- ★ PERSONALITY:
Fëanor's circumstances and the people surrounding him both growing up and during his adult life explain a lot about him. They do not excuse him - he had been a grown-ass man for a while when he started to go off his rocker-, and of course everything is a mix of nature and nurture, but that is the reason why the following personality will have a somewhat chronological build-up (the other is that a good number of motivations, personality traits and reactions to things that he has as well as some relationships cannot be described without describing their history). So please bear with me here.
One big point in those circumstances are all the firsts listed above, and what followed from them. His surroundings were simply inexperienced and helpless in a lot of cases, and their reactions were lacking, late or inappropriate because of that; there simply were no precedence cases. That goes for the Valar - when they try to navigate Finwë's request for a second marriage or Fëanor's behavior towards his brother, their misgivings about what outcomes those might cause are among others based in never having had to deal with such questions before, and with having no cases of comparison and experiences with good or bad ways to handle a situation, not even from stories. But it also goes for his parents and the elves around them - never before had a child lost a parent, so the way in which Finwë and the others acted around Fëanor was most likely based on how one would act around one who had lost a spouse or friend, and nobody had any idea how a grieving parent was to behave in particular in relation to their child. The overload of affection that Finwë directed towards his son and then abruptly divided between him and Indis (and later their children) wouldn't have seemed problematic to anyone because they might have considered it normal behavior in such a situation. That it caused a really harmful dependency (or even a type of co-dependency, but this is not an essay on Finwë - point is, when Finwë was killed there is good reason to assume that Fëanor at least intensely toyed with the thought of ending his own life, an action that is in the later Silmarillion reserved for spouses. And his actions after his father's death were by a good deal rooted in grief, though greed, distrust of the Valar, hatred of Morgoth and the "addictive" properties of the silmarils certainly did not help) and would bring forward incredibly problematic character traits including jealousy and a type of abandonment/trust issues (whom I don't trust to be on my side must be against me type) that can at least partly be traced back to Fëanor to an incredible extent seeking Finwë's love and being scared of losing it. The third aspect that influenced him from the outside was Morgoth. It is stated that Morgoth hated him above all, and he was the one who managed to give a negative spin to all personality traits that Fëanor already displayed (like his passion and single-mindedness) and make others surface or develop (like his pride), or even turning good into bad (Fëanor got on well with the Valar before he started to believe the rumours and images that Morgoth had planted).
So daddy-issues, people being insecure in how to deal with Fëanor (and the circumstances surrounding him) both in positive and negative matters and Morgoth were the nurture aspect.
The most important of the aspects that are simply inherently Fëanor is that he sets his mind fully on everything that he does - one could also say that he is obsessive or single-minded if holding ill will, or very focused and passionate if wanting to find nice terms. Fact is that he will complete a deed that he once started and see it through to the bitter end, and make everything else secondary to it or even set it completely aside until he is done. That means that when doing creative work or really with any practical task on his hands, he will work swiftly and not take longer thatn strictly necessary, and shut out everything else. Another side of this aspect is that he will love and hate with all his heart - it is mentioned that nobody has ever hated Morgoth more than him, and considering that Morgoth is basically the personified evil and did really horrible things to some people, that is pretty amazing. But he is also said to have loved his father more than any other person on Arda ever has, more than "the light of Valinor or the [silmarils]", and both of these massive extremes are very enduring and powerful forces within him. A large part of the exodus of the Noldor from Aman, which Fëanor in the end more or less single-handedly causes, is on his side motivated by anguish and grief over his father's death and hatred of Morgoth, and neither one ever leaves him in his life (and there is no reason to believe that it would leave him after, as neither is actually held to be reprehensible by anyone around him and there thus would probably be no word against in in the halls of Mandos).
His relationship with Finwë especially is the root of many other behaviours both inside and outside of relationships. His father's focusing on his only son after Miriel's departure formed a strong bond between them - something not unusual with elves, who typically have very involved parenting styles. But Finwë also was still sad about his wife's departure, and at least subconsciously the child, teenager and finally young adult that Fëanor was must have noticed that. But then Finwë married Indis, and "was glad again". They had a number of children, which was why Finwë had pushed for Miriel to promise to never return in the first place (Miriel had said that the first birth had been so exhausting that she never again wanted to give birth). Two things happened here: Indis was, to Fëanor, the fullfillment of the abandonment of his mother, demonstrating to him that Finwë's love was conditional and that the object of it could be replaced. And he experienced a sudden decrease in attention and affection from his father. This spurred a host of insecurity which would become both a creative and destructive force. Creative because it spurred him on to even greater deeds (because everyone knew that he was a great mind and that the works of his hands were great, including the Valar and himself) so that the expectations of his father would be met; destructive because it caused jealousy to take root in his heart. For a very, very long time (we're talking over two thousand years of the sun here) that was still a fairly small seed, but it was one that was easily nurtured and exploited by Morgoth later on. The insecurity also made Fëanor emotionally focus even more on his father than he already did, and here timing comes in - the remarriage happened at a time where usually one would leave the nest and reform the parent-child relationship from that between a child and and adult to that of two adults. Despite both of them separating even more than usual in their society after that - Fëanor left his father's house completely, and both of them founded a family around the same time (and both had a number of children: Fëanor seven and Finwë four; and as mentioned raising a child is a very intense matter for elves) - they could not let go of each other emotionally (I've talked about Fëanor's side, but Finwë seems to have later on in his life almost defined himself through his son - yeah, that's healthy), and Fëanor was ever oriented towards Finwë, to the point of his father's death ultimatively leading to his own destruction and the destruction of his whole house.
- ★ COURT ALLIANCE:
Fëanor will follow rules until they are in his way. He loves the light and fair and does neither wish for destruction nor like the chaos, but if he feels an injury to any that is his or that he is harmed by a system, he will call to rebellion, and his attempts to preserve a situation that he prefers might be inherently chaotic as well. He will employ almost any means necessary to achieve a goal if he just wants it strongly enough.
While he'll loathe the heck out of his court assignment I have to say... yeah.
Unseelie.
- ★ ABILITIES:
Basically: Look at any part of the other elfs' ability sections, and Fëanor can do it better (the only true exception to this is Luthien because lol Luthien. But she's half-Maia so she doesn't really count, I'd guess). There are only three stipulations to this: Fëanor is a typical Noldo in that he has no particular talent for or interest in music (not that he dislikes it or is completely without talent, but music is just more of a Teleri thing, Noldor usually gravitate towards the crafts); he might have a lot of potential in some areas (like fighting) but little experience with actual combat situations; and lastly, which makes his general prodigy situation kind of problematic, he really lacks that "wisest of all beings" part of the description that elves usually get. He might be intelligent and quick on the uptake, but he lacks the amounts of empathy and patience that wisdom requires.
General elven abilities
* Elven minds are more open than those of the other races. That on the one hand means that they can communicate with, or rather listen to nature - animals, plants and even inanimate objects like rocks. The key is that one needs to pay attention and to be able to correctly interpret what one hears, so while every elf has the basic ability, there are variations regarding what they make of it. The same applies to openness towards other sentient beings (one could call that telepathy or empathy), though there are greater differences between various elves when it comes to that ability (with Galadriel at the upper end). That general openness also makes it harder to lie to an elf, especially to one one is close to. Fëanor's abilities in this sector are average, mostly because he really sucks at the paying attention and listening part.
* Elven souls are immortal due to being trapped on Arda. Generally, the earlier and closer to Valinor the elf is born, the stronger their soul will shine (-literally: Especially to those close to the dark, elves glow in an otherworldy light). Fëanor has the brightest soul of all elves. What does that mean? Well, basically it makes an elf more powerful ("power" in Tolkien often would be translated with "magic" in other places, just for an idea what I mean here) and stronger and hardier in mind and body.
- Elves can, in a way, be killed, it just is a lot harder than killing a human (the key is basically to make remaining in the body impossible or at least unbearable to the soul so that it chooses to depart - this can not only happen because of a physical injury but also because of grief. This also means that a stronger soul will remain in the body longer than a weaker one, and that a stronger soul's body will recover faster and more completely from wounds than a weaker one's). They don't get sick and need no sleep, and can walk/run for a long time before they need rest - basically their endurance both mentally and physically is just very high. Once elves have reached the prime of their physical state, their bodies don't grow any older anymore. They are ambidextrous and light enough to walk on surfaces that others might sink in, and can be basically soundless when walking about if they want to.
- Elves have healing abilities. Those are diminished by the person killing another being, no matter for what reason, so Fëanor's would be relatively weak since he's killed a good number of beings and people less than two centuries ago, which is a very short time for an elf.
*Elves have heightened senses. They can hear and see things that are much further away or quieter/smaller than what a human could.
*Elves have perfect, eidetic memory.
Fëanor-specific stuff
*While his elven healing abilities are weak, Fëanor has a basic first aid knowledge - between liking to travel around Valinor with a relatively small group of people and having kids around, some of which were rather rambunctious, it was kind of necessary. Nothing super advanced, but he can take care of smaller things and knows what to do with graver injuries until a healer arrives. He'd however be completely clueless with any type of sickness.
*He is the greatest smith that ever lived. Period. There are some crafts where someone might be better than him (nobody beats dwarves at working with stone, for example), but he's the greatest smith and if has single-handedly created some of the most powerful items that have ever existed in Arda; his works is in canon described as "peerless". Though "smithing" is maybe a bit misleading, considering that some of the items that he's created are more akin to jewels (like the palantiri and silmarils) - it might be easier to describe what kind of materials he does not usually work with (which are stone and cloth/thread, the first his wife's and the second his mother's speciality). When crafting, Fëanor does not only make an item, he also does the whole creative process and usually there is power ("magic") in the items that he makes or invents. (It's not really magic proper, as mentioned - I'm unclear on what it exactly is, but will at the moment go with the explanation that it is putting one's will into the item, to be later able to re-access it - which would explain why some few items that were made by elves actually become semi-sentient to the point of speech). It also has to be noted that items made by elves tend to have the ability to hurt and injure those who have evil alignments by touch (or light) alone - though they can be more or less selective in whom they hurt.
*But his creativity is not limited to craftwork. Fëanor is also interested in languages; he's one of the few elves to have learned Valarian (which elves generally consider displeasing to the ears and thus prefer not even to hear) and one of Valinor's most ardent linguists (and, unsurprisingly, his passion carries over into being rather opinionated in discussions of them... you do not want to get into a fight about language with him. You really don't). And in this context he has also invented Tengwar, one of the most widely used scripts in Middle Earth.
Linguistics and languages are a part of what is called "loremaster" in canon, and he is one of the greatest that has ever lived. Judging by what we see being ascribed to their field, a loremaster seems to be a scientist working roughly in the field of humanities, with some more theoretical natural sciences side-trips.
*Fëanor has a lot of potential as a fighter, his primary weapon being the sword. He's one of the mightiest fighters of the elves before the beginning of the First Age, at one point holding himself against multiple balrogs at once for a good amount of time (you know, like the thing that Gandalf battled in Moria). But if you look at it he doesn't actually have all that much battlefield experience, only a good amount of years of sparring (and they most likely had to figure out what even to do with swords by themselves) and one battle against other elves and one battle against Morgoth's forces. So he might be strong and have potential, but in the end would probably still have a hard time holding himself against someone who is used to fighting a sword-user.
He would most likely also able to use other weapons, like bow and knives, after a short learning time, since he knows them from other contexts.
*He can ride.
*He's a great orator, enough to keep people under the spell of his words for multiple days despite not being very conventionally charismatic.
*On a more general note, he is gifted in almost every area, so if he puts his mind on something, he tends to succeed - as long as the "something" is not rooted in the relationship with another person, that is.
- ★ INVENTORY:
A bloodied, burnt, torn, broken and otherwise completely useless set of clothes and armour.
( SAMPLES )
- ★ NETWORK SAMPLE:
[The feed comes on to the sight of a man in simple, practical clothing meant for work in the forges. Or rather, it comes on to the sword in his lap, a fine piece of craftmanship that has barely seen it's finishing touches - a bit of a rush job, one might think, though done by highly skilled hands. Then the locket's camera is adjusted and now shows the person's face. ...And sure, all of this could simply speak of lacking expertise with the device, but those who know him might doubt that reading (after all he did at one point invent items not too different from the lockets). It's meant to send an unspoken message - I come in peace, yet not to those who do not show it themselves, and I am armed.
The elf whose face has now come into view may have been spotted him in the forges or library over the last couple of days, labouring restlessly in the first and spending the necessary waiting times of his work in the latter. He is tall and slender, carrying the trademark otherworldly beauty and pointy ears of his kind. For a moment, there is silence as the dark-haired man sits back and his piercing grey eyes look directly at the onlooker, betraying that he indeed knows very well how they work.
He seems - not furious, but it is the brooding calm beyond that, the taut bowstring waiting after the flurry of action that brought it to this position. Someone does not agree with the company in which he has been brought. Not that he will speak of that yet, as there is a purpose to his being here. Yet...]
I shall not suffer this place for longer than need commands me, filled with gloom and fell creatures as it is. [And he could not care less that the disregard of which those words speak is so plain in words and tone.] Yet even more in need of a speedy answer to my enquiry does it put me.
Has anyone seen my son? [For those who know him, the singular might be curious - there was only one, for a short time, but not for long enough for the boy to grow to an age at which Fëanor could have reasonably been this calm at the thought of him wandering about alone. By the way, this enquiry is also the reason why all of this is video.] He resembles me to a degree, though he does come more after his mother - his hair is of russet colour, and he would likely be taller than most that you have encountered here.
It was said to me that he would be present here, yet I have not yet been able to find him. [And he fears that he was lied to, and that rouses his anger more than anything. But one more, and there lies hope in this words, though it doesn't show.] However as it seems to me that this place draws its "champions" [and there is disregard in his voice; this is not a place that he would want to be called that for] from various places, [He hasn't discerned the times yet, but considering that there are a lot of species that are foreign to him in at least the Unseelie court, the "various places" things is obvious.] I shall likewise be searching for his brothers and mother, as well as all who would count themselves towards the house of Fëanáro.
[*Note: His mother would never have followed an invitation, be it a request for help or in another form, and he would expect it of his father, either; he's not giving Amrod's name because he wouldn't want to go into the topic of "he might have given a different name not because he's shifty but because he has too many and half of them I don't accept".]
- ★ LOG SAMPLE:
with Celegorm and, since the thread is on the short side, here's a little bit with Maglor as well.
- ★ NAME: Kira
- ★ AGE: 26
- ★ TIMEZONE: CET
- ★ CONTACT:
- ★ CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: N/A
( CHARACTER INFORMATION )
- ★ NAME: Curufinwë "Fëanor" Fëanáro (Finwion/Þerindion)
((While in the history of Middle Earth he is typically referred to as Fëanor, he died before making substantial contact with those that spoke the language from which it is derived: Fëanor is the Sindarized (not Sindarin, that would be Faenor) version of his Quenyan mothername, and the Noldor only encountered the Sindar of Mithrim shortly before his passing (so while he would be aware of them existing, being probably friendly and a significantly different elvish language, that would be about it. And there is no reason why he should have spoken to a Sinda in the Halls; since the Sindarized/Sindarin Noldorin names only appeared in the context of them speaking Sindarin (as they felt that mixing languages was icky), that would mean that the thought of changing his name that way would have never occurred to him). He himself used his mothername Fëanáro in life. His character tag would be Fëanor as that is what he is usually referred to, but he would not call himself by that name.
Finwion and Þerindion are his patronymic and matronymic; while they would probably not come up, those would be relevant should he ever require a last name for whatever reason (considering that this is Fëanor he would probably use both just to make a point).))
- ★ AGE: mid-3000s
((It's a bit hard to tell, since
A. while the years of Middle Earth and Arda as a whole would later come to resemble closely those of our earth, they did not yet while Fëanor lived. He was born during the years of the trees (when the illumination of Valinor would come from two trees whose light waned and grew over the course of a different time-span than moon and sun take to complete their daily runs; and then the number of days in a year worked differently too), which were much longer than years of moon and sun; they ended a relatively short while prior to his death, and the years of moon and sun only started either concurrently with or shortly after his death. So one has to do some conversion here.
B. we encounter the question here if you should continue counting while someone is "dead", i.e. in the halls of Mandos, waiting to be reembodied (which Fëanor will not be until the end of days).
It's also not terribly important, especially in his case: Elves appear ageless, which translates to perhaps a human late-twenties, and Fëanor's fëa is still burning brighter than any other elf's so it's not like he has noticeably spiritually aged yet, either.))
- ★ CANON & CANON POINT: Tolkien's Middle Earth Compendium; primarily the Silmarillion. Fëanor will be coming from after his death, roughly 130 FA / first century of the siege.
((While I for the most part use the Silmarillion, the Silm is a compilation of J.R.R.'s wastebasket of drafts, rewrites and fragments done by his son, and at some points his editorial choices are debatable. One of those is the decision on which version of the fate of Fëanor's two youngest sons he included in the published book. I'm drawing from a different version of J.R.R's writings here, where Amrod perished in the burning of the ships at Losgar, while Amras lived until the third kinslaying.))
((Elves, men and dwarves go to the Halls of Mandos/Namo, or Halls of Waiting, after their physical death in Arda (= earth); they are located on the western shore of the undying lands, that is the part of Arda where under normal circumstances only immortal beings might walk. For elves, the halls function as a hospital, retirement home, therapy center and prison in one, depending on personal circumstances. Unlike dwarves, who stay until the second music (when the world will end and be rebuilt), and men, who after a short while in the Halls depart them to go we-know-not-where, elves (in almost all cases) have two options: To either stay in the halls or, once they are sufficiently healed/corrected, return to a bodily existence outside of the halls, though they are usually restricted to a certain area of the world after this.
In the halls, people have no bodies. Those spiritual-only persons can still meet and communicate, though they have to specifically seek each other out for that, and that usually happens only between those tho were very close in their physical lives. The halls of the walls are covered with tapestries narrating history outside of the halls, woven by Vairë, Mandos's wife, and her handmaidens. Outside of remaining inside the halls, nothing is demanded of the spirits of the dead. Elves may accept to be "corrected, instructed, strengthened, or comforted", but they also may refuse such interventions - the stronger the will and the worse the deeds that they did, the longer such refusal usually lasts. They may strive to be re-embodied or not - those weary of living mind find the peace of the halls more enticing than the world of the living. But all in all, outside of personal development, nothing happens in the halls of Mandos. There is no history being made here.))
- ★ CANON INFORMATION: Tolkien Gateway, Wikia, Wikipedia, AskMiddleEarth, Writer's guild
Fëanor is not only a character of superlatives, he's also a character of many firsts.
First elf to be born in Valinor. Probably the first person with a fëa on Arda to be born and not created by Eru. (His parents had been awoken along with all other elves in the East of Middle Earth, the eastern of the two main landmasses of Arda. When the Valar noticed their awakening, they at length sent one of their own to check this out. Three elves were brought to their realm of Valinor on the western, other main landmass of Arda. Upon their return, they took up the title of high kinds and led those who would follow them westwards. Along the way, their host was diminished by elves staying behind for various reasons, though some continued their journey later on. But a number of elves still made it to Valinor: The Vanyar, the Noldor and a part of the Teleri. (note: Naming is making politics, also and especially among elves. I'm (almost consequently, with the expection of Þerindë and Melkor/Morgoth because those names are plot points in Fëanor's lifetime) using the names that are commonly used in canon and fandom for the sake of easy reference, but that does not mean that they are unproblematic, in use at the time of the history in question happening, or that they would have been used by those that are counted towards the groups in question or carry those names. See Fëanor's own name (don't even let me get started on Thingol's ban of Quenya). Vanyar and Teleri are both names given from the viewpoint of the Noldor.) The Vanyar basically moved in with the Valar, the Noldor built their own capital, Tirion upon Tuna, and the Teleri remained at the coast and had ships this will be important. King of the Noldor was Finwë. He was married with Miriel Þerindë, and after a while they had a child together: Fëanor. While the in-universe description of it is complicated, we can assume that Miriel had a heavy case of post-partum depression, which eventually led her to depart from her body and go to the Halls of Mandos, refusing to return from there. Which means that)
His mom was the first elf to die in Valinor. (At a time when her son was still very young. So his earliest childhood was spent with a completely unresponsive mother and a grief-ridden father who would spend much time next to his wife('s body). During and after this time, Finwë directed all his affection towards his son, and their bond grew very strong. But there was a problem: Finwë really wanted more than one child. The problem was that since Miriel could technically still have returned to Finwë's side, he could not marry again; remarriage for an elf is due to their practical immortality (possible reembodiment even after a physical death) always polygamy, and that is strictly prohibited. The Valar discussed the situation at length and offered a solution: If Miriel promised to never seek to be reembodied, Finwë would be allowed to remarry himself. Miriel promised, and thus we have, years later: )
His dad was the first and only elf to ever remarry. (This went not over well with his son. Between his father's love now being split up into him and his new wife Indis, and later his half-siblings, and the arrangement meaning that Miriel was now really truly dead for good and he could never see her again unless he should die himself (and even then it'd not be the same), he never liked his step-mom. His relationship with his half-siblings was never filled with love either. It was at this time more a living apart from them and avoiding them more than what would be usual for elven relatives than truly negative behaviour or even hostility.
But it is also during these years that Fëanor himself married and had children, and it seems to have been a quite positive family life (though they decidedly did not live in Finwë's house). It was during these years that he invented and created some of the greatest, most powerful, most well-known etc things in Arda, including a commonly used alphabet, the palantiri (that function kind of like Eachdraidh's lockets |D), nifty lamps, and... well, if you're not sure who invented something in Middle Earth, both fandom and Tolkien default to "Fëanor did this" for a reason. His greatest creation, however, were the silmarils, three beautiful jewels that contained the light of the sacred trees inside them, a light that could not be touched by evil... and that could awaken a great lust to possess them within people. Spoiler: This will end badly.
But yeah. There were also issues here. See, the Valar weren't all that united actually and had never been. One of them, Melkor - basically the personified evil and chaos hellbent on domination and destruction - had caused trouble from the beginning, and after a long time of imprisonment had faked being now on the side of the good guys, and got released. LOL. So Fëanor really didn't like the guy (it's actually said that nobody ever hated Melkor more than Fëanor did), but Melkor was really good at spreading rumours, and one of those managed to get Fëanor really riled up. Namely that the Valar were keeping the elves in Valinor and would not allow them to go to Middle Earth because they were A. afraid that the elves could become more powerful than them and B. so the second-born (= humans) could take over the continent in the absence of its "rightful" owners, because they would be easier to control. This was indeed the first time that the elves were told about the secondborn being a thing. He also managed to fill the hearts of the Noldor with pride and a possessiveness and yearning for the wide world that had not been there before. You know what such a rumour means? CIVIL UNREST, Noldor for the first time making weapons, FUN ALL AROUND, and Fëanor was in the midst of it, calling for the Noldor to take up arms and head over to Middle Earth. But he also created the rumour that the Valar, wanting to possess the silmarils themselves, would try to take the position of Fëanor and his house as Finwë's heirs away from them and give it to Fingolfin, the elder of his half-brothers, instead (and a corresponding rumour telling the children of Indis that Fëanor was planning on kicking them out of Tirion. Well, Fingolfin went to Finwë to tell him to restrain Fëanor from creating even more unrest... a move that Fëanor interpreted as Fingolfin trying to usurp his position and lol look what we have:)
He was the first elf to draw a sword on another elf. (In broad public. THIS WAS A GREAT IDEA OBVIOUSLY. What followed was Fëanor being banished from Tirion to Formenos. His sons came with him, his wife didn't.... his father did. So basically the High King and his heir were in exile (with the silmarils) and guess who ruled the Noldor. Could be Fingolfin. WELL THIS SURE BACKFIRED. But not only for Fëanor. Because the council of the Valar that ruled the banishment of Fëanor also discovered the root of his actions; Melkor was exposed as actually having been a little shit all along. Ooooops. So what do you do. Well, Melkor got a spider-monster, Ungoliath, to eat the trees so the world would be filled with darkness... which the other Valar responded to by summoning Fëanor to ask him to hand over the silmarils, because hey, they had the light of the trees still in them, something could be done here. Too bad the silmarils tend to make their owner really greedy. But one could argue that Fëanor's refusal to hand them over wasn't really of any importance because Melkor was busy while everyone else discussed those things, and when Fëanor claimed that he would rather be the first elf killed in Valinor than hand the silms over, Mandos was a cryptic little shit and told him "Nope, you'd not be the first. That is because)
His dad was the first elf to be killed in Valinor. (Because the silmarils were still in Formenos and Melkor had attacked that together with Ungoliath, killed Finwë, and absconded with jewels and partner-in-crime. Over to Middle Earth, by the way, where he still had some minions and a hide to go to. So Fëanor's much beloved father was dead, and after leaving the council and vanishing for a few days in what often is interpreted as a suicidal phase, Fëanor showed up again... in Tirion, calling on the Noldor to head to Middle Earth with him, both for the reasons that he cited before and to avenge his father and get the silmarils back. Or, in other words:)
He was the first elf to rebel against the Valar. (Calling everyone to arms and rushing the whole thing so people would stay overwhelmed by his skills as an orator and not be calmed down by more level-headed people.
THEN. OATH. TERRIBLE IDEA. The basic content is that nothing will keep those that take the oath (Fëanor and his seven sons) away from the silmarils, they'll kill those that are in their way, and the everlasting darkness may claim them if they fail to get them back. Now, elven oaths are incredibly powerful forces, and this one is sworn with the two highest Valar as witnesses and much more to Eru. YEP. AWESOME.
Okay so bad ideas were had, now to the realization. The problem was that there was an ocean and they had to get to the other side... the solution was to ask the Teleri (who had ships, remember?) to help them out here. Just that the king of the Teleri refused, claiming that nope, they were his. Fëanor now is a dumb and instead of trying to solve this with words... uh. It's called the First Kinslaying:)
He instigated and participated in the first time that elves killed other elves. (Not all elves who had joined the treck to Middle Earth participated, and half of those that participated thought the Teleri had attacked first, but fact is, that a lot of elves killed a lot of other elves. In the end, the Noldor took the ships and fled towards the North. Where Mandos showed up and told them that, should they not turn back and accept judgement for their sins, they'd not be allowed back and also everything that they did would turn to shit. This was the point where most of the elves that hadn't participated in the kinslaying turned back, led by the youngest of Fëanor's brothers, Finarfin. The others continued North... basically towards the pole circle. And kept losing ships to attacks.
And at some point realized that they didn't have enough ships for everyone, and the only other option to get over the ocean was near-suicidal... And people got really unhappy with the situation and started saying that this was a bad idea and Fëanor was an idiot and, hey, Fingolfin is kinda cool right? So the ration choice was, of course, to get everyone whom he considered loyal to him, that was all those of his own house, onto the boats and ferry them over to Middle Earth.
AND THEN BURN THE BOATS INSTEAD OD SENDING THEM BACK. Since hey, they hadn't wanted him to lead them anyway, right? (Those that he had left back did take the near-suicidal option to get over, which Fëanor had probably not foreseen and didn't learn of while still alive).
BUT WOW FË COUNT YOUR SONS BEFORE YOU SET THINGS ON FIRE:)
The first Noldo to die in Middle Earth was one of Fëarnor's sons. (Amrod had wanted to go back to Middle Earth, and since no sane person would have thought that Fëanor would not send the ships back to get the rest he snuck onto one of them to be smuggled back and... yeah. Ouch. Congrats Fëanor, you just killed your own son.
Anyway, the Noldor that were now in Middle Earth went soutwards and finally came to Mithrim, where they settled down at the shore of a big lake and encountered the first natives of the area. I mean the Sindar (though communication was hard due to their languages having developed too much to still be understandable to the other, and contacts were careful at first while both sides tried to figure the other out - so Fëanor knows that they exist and seem friendly enough, but not more). But I also mean the other natives, the ones to the east... namely orcs, balrogs, all those nice beings that are chummy with or created by Melkor (who by now was named Morgoth, thanks to Fëanor). That second kind of natives they had a nice battle with that lasted ten days and ended before the Moon rose or Fingolfin's host set foots on the shores of Middle Earth... And also a battle which Fëanor didn't survive. Pursuing the enemy even when they were retreating and up against way too many way too powerful opponents (like. we're talking multiple balrogs at once here) he was injured and died in the arms of his sons, his spirit burning his body when it left it so they couldn't even bury him. In his last words, he made his sons renew their oath and promise to avenge him. Yay.
And it went downhills from there.
But! We are dealing with an elf, so his story is not actually over. He went to the halls of Mandos, and didn't only meet Amrod again but also his parents... who reconciled, and by now there is hesitant talk of possibly switching the promise of never wanting to be re-embodied from Miriel to Finwë. Fëanor himself is still far from accepting any kind of interference of the corrective type, but he has had time to do a good amount of thinking and through following history through the tapestries, he has a rough idea of what is happening over in Middle Earth.)
- ★ PERSONALITY:
Fëanor's circumstances and the people surrounding him both growing up and during his adult life explain a lot about him. They do not excuse him - he had been a grown-ass man for a while when he started to go off his rocker-, and of course everything is a mix of nature and nurture, but that is the reason why the following personality will have a somewhat chronological build-up (the other is that a good number of motivations, personality traits and reactions to things that he has as well as some relationships cannot be described without describing their history). So please bear with me here.
One big point in those circumstances are all the firsts listed above, and what followed from them. His surroundings were simply inexperienced and helpless in a lot of cases, and their reactions were lacking, late or inappropriate because of that; there simply were no precedence cases. That goes for the Valar - when they try to navigate Finwë's request for a second marriage or Fëanor's behavior towards his brother, their misgivings about what outcomes those might cause are among others based in never having had to deal with such questions before, and with having no cases of comparison and experiences with good or bad ways to handle a situation, not even from stories. But it also goes for his parents and the elves around them - never before had a child lost a parent, so the way in which Finwë and the others acted around Fëanor was most likely based on how one would act around one who had lost a spouse or friend, and nobody had any idea how a grieving parent was to behave in particular in relation to their child. The overload of affection that Finwë directed towards his son and then abruptly divided between him and Indis (and later their children) wouldn't have seemed problematic to anyone because they might have considered it normal behavior in such a situation. That it caused a really harmful dependency (or even a type of co-dependency, but this is not an essay on Finwë - point is, when Finwë was killed there is good reason to assume that Fëanor at least intensely toyed with the thought of ending his own life, an action that is in the later Silmarillion reserved for spouses. And his actions after his father's death were by a good deal rooted in grief, though greed, distrust of the Valar, hatred of Morgoth and the "addictive" properties of the silmarils certainly did not help) and would bring forward incredibly problematic character traits including jealousy and a type of abandonment/trust issues (whom I don't trust to be on my side must be against me type) that can at least partly be traced back to Fëanor to an incredible extent seeking Finwë's love and being scared of losing it. The third aspect that influenced him from the outside was Morgoth. It is stated that Morgoth hated him above all, and he was the one who managed to give a negative spin to all personality traits that Fëanor already displayed (like his passion and single-mindedness) and make others surface or develop (like his pride), or even turning good into bad (Fëanor got on well with the Valar before he started to believe the rumours and images that Morgoth had planted).
So daddy-issues, people being insecure in how to deal with Fëanor (and the circumstances surrounding him) both in positive and negative matters and Morgoth were the nurture aspect.
The most important of the aspects that are simply inherently Fëanor is that he sets his mind fully on everything that he does - one could also say that he is obsessive or single-minded if holding ill will, or very focused and passionate if wanting to find nice terms. Fact is that he will complete a deed that he once started and see it through to the bitter end, and make everything else secondary to it or even set it completely aside until he is done. That means that when doing creative work or really with any practical task on his hands, he will work swiftly and not take longer thatn strictly necessary, and shut out everything else. Another side of this aspect is that he will love and hate with all his heart - it is mentioned that nobody has ever hated Morgoth more than him, and considering that Morgoth is basically the personified evil and did really horrible things to some people, that is pretty amazing. But he is also said to have loved his father more than any other person on Arda ever has, more than "the light of Valinor or the [silmarils]", and both of these massive extremes are very enduring and powerful forces within him. A large part of the exodus of the Noldor from Aman, which Fëanor in the end more or less single-handedly causes, is on his side motivated by anguish and grief over his father's death and hatred of Morgoth, and neither one ever leaves him in his life (and there is no reason to believe that it would leave him after, as neither is actually held to be reprehensible by anyone around him and there thus would probably be no word against in in the halls of Mandos).
His relationship with Finwë especially is the root of many other behaviours both inside and outside of relationships. His father's focusing on his only son after Miriel's departure formed a strong bond between them - something not unusual with elves, who typically have very involved parenting styles. But Finwë also was still sad about his wife's departure, and at least subconsciously the child, teenager and finally young adult that Fëanor was must have noticed that. But then Finwë married Indis, and "was glad again". They had a number of children, which was why Finwë had pushed for Miriel to promise to never return in the first place (Miriel had said that the first birth had been so exhausting that she never again wanted to give birth). Two things happened here: Indis was, to Fëanor, the fullfillment of the abandonment of his mother, demonstrating to him that Finwë's love was conditional and that the object of it could be replaced. And he experienced a sudden decrease in attention and affection from his father. This spurred a host of insecurity which would become both a creative and destructive force. Creative because it spurred him on to even greater deeds (because everyone knew that he was a great mind and that the works of his hands were great, including the Valar and himself) so that the expectations of his father would be met; destructive because it caused jealousy to take root in his heart. For a very, very long time (we're talking over two thousand years of the sun here) that was still a fairly small seed, but it was one that was easily nurtured and exploited by Morgoth later on. The insecurity also made Fëanor emotionally focus even more on his father than he already did, and here timing comes in - the remarriage happened at a time where usually one would leave the nest and reform the parent-child relationship from that between a child and and adult to that of two adults. Despite both of them separating even more than usual in their society after that - Fëanor left his father's house completely, and both of them founded a family around the same time (and both had a number of children: Fëanor seven and Finwë four; and as mentioned raising a child is a very intense matter for elves) - they could not let go of each other emotionally (I've talked about Fëanor's side, but Finwë seems to have later on in his life almost defined himself through his son - yeah, that's healthy), and Fëanor was ever oriented towards Finwë, to the point of his father's death ultimatively leading to his own destruction and the destruction of his whole house.
- ★ COURT ALLIANCE:
Fëanor will follow rules until they are in his way. He loves the light and fair and does neither wish for destruction nor like the chaos, but if he feels an injury to any that is his or that he is harmed by a system, he will call to rebellion, and his attempts to preserve a situation that he prefers might be inherently chaotic as well. He will employ almost any means necessary to achieve a goal if he just wants it strongly enough.
While he'll loathe the heck out of his court assignment I have to say... yeah.
Unseelie.
- ★ ABILITIES:
Basically: Look at any part of the other elfs' ability sections, and Fëanor can do it better (the only true exception to this is Luthien because lol Luthien. But she's half-Maia so she doesn't really count, I'd guess). There are only three stipulations to this: Fëanor is a typical Noldo in that he has no particular talent for or interest in music (not that he dislikes it or is completely without talent, but music is just more of a Teleri thing, Noldor usually gravitate towards the crafts); he might have a lot of potential in some areas (like fighting) but little experience with actual combat situations; and lastly, which makes his general prodigy situation kind of problematic, he really lacks that "wisest of all beings" part of the description that elves usually get. He might be intelligent and quick on the uptake, but he lacks the amounts of empathy and patience that wisdom requires.
General elven abilities
* Elven minds are more open than those of the other races. That on the one hand means that they can communicate with, or rather listen to nature - animals, plants and even inanimate objects like rocks. The key is that one needs to pay attention and to be able to correctly interpret what one hears, so while every elf has the basic ability, there are variations regarding what they make of it. The same applies to openness towards other sentient beings (one could call that telepathy or empathy), though there are greater differences between various elves when it comes to that ability (with Galadriel at the upper end). That general openness also makes it harder to lie to an elf, especially to one one is close to. Fëanor's abilities in this sector are average, mostly because he really sucks at the paying attention and listening part.
* Elven souls are immortal due to being trapped on Arda. Generally, the earlier and closer to Valinor the elf is born, the stronger their soul will shine (-literally: Especially to those close to the dark, elves glow in an otherworldy light). Fëanor has the brightest soul of all elves. What does that mean? Well, basically it makes an elf more powerful ("power" in Tolkien often would be translated with "magic" in other places, just for an idea what I mean here) and stronger and hardier in mind and body.
- Elves can, in a way, be killed, it just is a lot harder than killing a human (the key is basically to make remaining in the body impossible or at least unbearable to the soul so that it chooses to depart - this can not only happen because of a physical injury but also because of grief. This also means that a stronger soul will remain in the body longer than a weaker one, and that a stronger soul's body will recover faster and more completely from wounds than a weaker one's). They don't get sick and need no sleep, and can walk/run for a long time before they need rest - basically their endurance both mentally and physically is just very high. Once elves have reached the prime of their physical state, their bodies don't grow any older anymore. They are ambidextrous and light enough to walk on surfaces that others might sink in, and can be basically soundless when walking about if they want to.
- Elves have healing abilities. Those are diminished by the person killing another being, no matter for what reason, so Fëanor's would be relatively weak since he's killed a good number of beings and people less than two centuries ago, which is a very short time for an elf.
*Elves have heightened senses. They can hear and see things that are much further away or quieter/smaller than what a human could.
*Elves have perfect, eidetic memory.
Fëanor-specific stuff
*While his elven healing abilities are weak, Fëanor has a basic first aid knowledge - between liking to travel around Valinor with a relatively small group of people and having kids around, some of which were rather rambunctious, it was kind of necessary. Nothing super advanced, but he can take care of smaller things and knows what to do with graver injuries until a healer arrives. He'd however be completely clueless with any type of sickness.
*He is the greatest smith that ever lived. Period. There are some crafts where someone might be better than him (nobody beats dwarves at working with stone, for example), but he's the greatest smith and if has single-handedly created some of the most powerful items that have ever existed in Arda; his works is in canon described as "peerless". Though "smithing" is maybe a bit misleading, considering that some of the items that he's created are more akin to jewels (like the palantiri and silmarils) - it might be easier to describe what kind of materials he does not usually work with (which are stone and cloth/thread, the first his wife's and the second his mother's speciality). When crafting, Fëanor does not only make an item, he also does the whole creative process and usually there is power ("magic") in the items that he makes or invents. (It's not really magic proper, as mentioned - I'm unclear on what it exactly is, but will at the moment go with the explanation that it is putting one's will into the item, to be later able to re-access it - which would explain why some few items that were made by elves actually become semi-sentient to the point of speech). It also has to be noted that items made by elves tend to have the ability to hurt and injure those who have evil alignments by touch (or light) alone - though they can be more or less selective in whom they hurt.
*But his creativity is not limited to craftwork. Fëanor is also interested in languages; he's one of the few elves to have learned Valarian (which elves generally consider displeasing to the ears and thus prefer not even to hear) and one of Valinor's most ardent linguists (and, unsurprisingly, his passion carries over into being rather opinionated in discussions of them... you do not want to get into a fight about language with him. You really don't). And in this context he has also invented Tengwar, one of the most widely used scripts in Middle Earth.
Linguistics and languages are a part of what is called "loremaster" in canon, and he is one of the greatest that has ever lived. Judging by what we see being ascribed to their field, a loremaster seems to be a scientist working roughly in the field of humanities, with some more theoretical natural sciences side-trips.
*Fëanor has a lot of potential as a fighter, his primary weapon being the sword. He's one of the mightiest fighters of the elves before the beginning of the First Age, at one point holding himself against multiple balrogs at once for a good amount of time (you know, like the thing that Gandalf battled in Moria). But if you look at it he doesn't actually have all that much battlefield experience, only a good amount of years of sparring (and they most likely had to figure out what even to do with swords by themselves) and one battle against other elves and one battle against Morgoth's forces. So he might be strong and have potential, but in the end would probably still have a hard time holding himself against someone who is used to fighting a sword-user.
He would most likely also able to use other weapons, like bow and knives, after a short learning time, since he knows them from other contexts.
*He can ride.
*He's a great orator, enough to keep people under the spell of his words for multiple days despite not being very conventionally charismatic.
*On a more general note, he is gifted in almost every area, so if he puts his mind on something, he tends to succeed - as long as the "something" is not rooted in the relationship with another person, that is.
- ★ INVENTORY:
A bloodied, burnt, torn, broken and otherwise completely useless set of clothes and armour.
( SAMPLES )
- ★ NETWORK SAMPLE:
[The feed comes on to the sight of a man in simple, practical clothing meant for work in the forges. Or rather, it comes on to the sword in his lap, a fine piece of craftmanship that has barely seen it's finishing touches - a bit of a rush job, one might think, though done by highly skilled hands. Then the locket's camera is adjusted and now shows the person's face. ...And sure, all of this could simply speak of lacking expertise with the device, but those who know him might doubt that reading (after all he did at one point invent items not too different from the lockets). It's meant to send an unspoken message - I come in peace, yet not to those who do not show it themselves, and I am armed.
The elf whose face has now come into view may have been spotted him in the forges or library over the last couple of days, labouring restlessly in the first and spending the necessary waiting times of his work in the latter. He is tall and slender, carrying the trademark otherworldly beauty and pointy ears of his kind. For a moment, there is silence as the dark-haired man sits back and his piercing grey eyes look directly at the onlooker, betraying that he indeed knows very well how they work.
He seems - not furious, but it is the brooding calm beyond that, the taut bowstring waiting after the flurry of action that brought it to this position. Someone does not agree with the company in which he has been brought. Not that he will speak of that yet, as there is a purpose to his being here. Yet...]
I shall not suffer this place for longer than need commands me, filled with gloom and fell creatures as it is. [And he could not care less that the disregard of which those words speak is so plain in words and tone.] Yet even more in need of a speedy answer to my enquiry does it put me.
Has anyone seen my son? [For those who know him, the singular might be curious - there was only one, for a short time, but not for long enough for the boy to grow to an age at which Fëanor could have reasonably been this calm at the thought of him wandering about alone. By the way, this enquiry is also the reason why all of this is video.] He resembles me to a degree, though he does come more after his mother - his hair is of russet colour, and he would likely be taller than most that you have encountered here.
It was said to me that he would be present here, yet I have not yet been able to find him. [And he fears that he was lied to, and that rouses his anger more than anything. But one more, and there lies hope in this words, though it doesn't show.] However as it seems to me that this place draws its "champions" [and there is disregard in his voice; this is not a place that he would want to be called that for] from various places, [He hasn't discerned the times yet, but considering that there are a lot of species that are foreign to him in at least the Unseelie court, the "various places" things is obvious.] I shall likewise be searching for his brothers and mother, as well as all who would count themselves towards the house of Fëanáro.
[*Note: His mother would never have followed an invitation, be it a request for help or in another form, and he would expect it of his father, either; he's not giving Amrod's name because he wouldn't want to go into the topic of "he might have given a different name not because he's shifty but because he has too many and half of them I don't accept".]
- ★ LOG SAMPLE:
with Celegorm and, since the thread is on the short side, here's a little bit with Maglor as well.