Calrein
Apr 7, 2018 10:52:40 GMT -5
Post by Calrein on Apr 7, 2018 10:52:40 GMT -5
.The Facade.
Character Name: Calrein
Name Meaning: radiant track
Age: 3340 years
Date of Birth: S.A. 3114
Died: 2941 T. A. (at the Battle of the Five Armies)
Returned to Middle Earth: 3010 T.A.
Race: Sindarin Elf, Falathrim of the Teleri
Residence: just returning to Middle Earth, will be taking up residence again in Mirkwood
Profession: warrior/soldier/guard (was his prior role, we'll see what happens second time around)
Appearance: Calrein is handsome, with dark hair falling to about his shoulders, and dark grey eyes, like storm clouds. In his past life, he wore the garb of a soldier, for that was his life primarily, until he met his true love. He did not come from a family that held any particular prestige, so his garb was not anything especially fine or fancy. He always dressed in a utilitarian fashion, in the simple garb of a man of arms, and armor when necessary or prudent. His expression was open, amiable, and direct - he had the look of an honest elf who would be forthright, yet also he tended to smile more than frown. He was a merry person for the most part, one who radiated optimism and inspired his fellows to think and feel positive, regardless of any plight or risk they faced. since his return from the Halls of Mandos, his expression is far more clouded, with confusion and concern, for lack of his memory. He smiles less, and seems more uncertain of himself than ever he was.
Personality: (before death) generally - optimistic, positive in outlook, actively tried to inspire others to be and do their best, courageous, protective, loyal, dutiful, merry, dedicated, responsible, intelligent, resourceful, adaptable; also sometimes bossy, overly blunt, lacking tact, competitive, stubborn, sensitive to criticism, restless if not given something to do, oddly blind to others motivations/easily taken in by those he looks upon with friendship (perhaps arrogantly gullible? couldn't understand why someone might hate his guts?)
(upon return from Mandos) - he is a completely blank slate
.The Blood.
Parents: Thornindir and Caladhen
Sibling(s): Gladhwen
Brother-in-law Ethuilion
Nieces: Merilwen, Uilosiel
Spouse: n/a
Children: n/a
History:
Calreain is descended from the Teleri – the third and last group of eldar called to leave Middle Earth, after much of the North had been ravaged and destroyed by Morgoth. Osse, a Maia of the Sea, convinced a few of the Teleri not to travel West with Ulmo. Those who stayed and settled on the coast of Beliriand came to be known as the Falathrim, the first builders and sailors of ships in Middle Earth.
His grandfather was born in Eglarest. This was a great walled elven city, the southern most of the two Havens of the Falas, built at the mouth of the River Nenning on the west coast of Beleriand. The Havens were built by Cirdan, leader of the Falathrim. The two havens were both taken by Morgoth in F.A. 473. Calrein’s grandfather and father fled to the Isle of Balar with Cirdan and those others of his followers who survived. Finally they removed once more to Lindon, and the Grey Havens, when it was built in S.A. 1. Mithlond, it is called, in Sindarin.
Many elves of different ancestry and clans sought refuge in Mithlond. Due in large part to the presence of the Noldor, who were not looked upon as friends by the others, some of the Sindarin elves left. Some travelled to the Greenwood or Lothlorien. Calreain’s parents did so, and this is how Calrein wound up being born and raised in the Greenwood. He was born in S.A. 3114.
His father, Thornindir, was an armorer, and as such brought skills that were welcomed by the King of the Woodland elves. He was newly married, to another Teleri, the lively and lovely Caladhen. They settled in to life away from the shores of Falas, under the forest canopy of the Greenwood. They were not the only one of their kind to have moved east once again. It was a bittersweet parting from the sea for both of them, but Caladhen made sure to keep her husband distracted from any wistfulness with her many amusing tales and anecdotes, and longer accounts of the epic struggles of their ancestors and kin. She had a sharp memory and a keen wit and she could make him laugh, easily, and long. Eventually, the time came for them to create new life, and she brought forth first a son, Calrein. In due course, he was joined by a sister, Gladhwen. The two were comely and energetic, and Thornindir’s home was filled with joy.
From an early age, Calrein was quite naturally encouraged by his father to learn the armorer’s craft. He would accompany his father to the forge, and assist him, when he was still but a child. As he grew in knowledge and strength, he was taught to wield the hammer, and work the metal, and displayed a skill commensurate with his age. However, his mother’s influence too did he feel at work in his blood. At night, he would sit mesmerized by her tales of battle and strife, of valor and bravery, and also of love – for kith and kin as well as between men and women. He was entranced and nurtured by the belief that there was merit in fighting to protect that which you loved, and when he hefted the weapons that his father created, he felt the song of the sword singing in his veins.
It may have been a disappointment to Thornindir to see his son grow more enamored of the soldier’s art than the armorer’s craft. But if so, he was a tolerant father who made no protest and did not try to dissuade his child from the pursuit of his true vocation. Weapons there were aplenty with which Calrein could practice. When he was old enough, he sought permission to join the guard of the Woodland Realm, and it was granted. Thornindir had a good reputation among the soldiers that often enough carried his work in their hands. They welcomed his son, and thus Calrein began his own journey to adulthood.
If Calrein was seeking the life his mother’s stories had painted in his mind, he was not to be disappointed in his choice of professions. Ever was Sauron and his dark force present in Middle Earth, and ever did Man and Elf alike seek to oppose him. Calrein never lacked for opportunity to hone his skills, now with bow as well as sword and spear, against the seemingly never ending encroachment of the enemy upon the Woodland Realm. He was guard and he was scout; he was escort and he was warrior. At times of uneasy peace, he might be seen about the halls of the King, or at the gates. He had time to spend with his parents, and sister. Other times, though, he might be gone for a month, two months, or more, off on some duty handed him by one the King’s captains. Calrein earned, year by year, the reputation as a skilled man at arms. He was reliable, resilient, and resourceful – the kind of comrade a soldier needs and appreciates. Ever one to volunteer first for the reckless or hazardous missions, he was neither foolhardy nor one to seek glory. Well liked, well respected, he remained humble throughout the years leading up to the fall of the dark lord.
In S.A. 3430, the Last Alliance formed. Sauron had been contending with the elves over the mastery of Middle Earth for 1200 years. He attacked Gondor in 3429. Elendil formed an alliance with Gil-Galad, and they met at Amon Sul and marched to Imladris, where they camped for three years to prepare for war. They then crossed the Misty Mountains and were reinforced with kin from Lothlorien and the Greenwood, also joined by the dwarves of khazad dum. This is how Calrein came to join the forces that fought against Suaron. In S.A. 3434, the allied forces won the Battle of Dagorlad, breached the Morannon and came into Mordor to besiege Barad dur. The siege lasted seven years. Ultimately Sauron was defeated, and the one ring cut from his finger. Gil-Galad and Elendil both died in the fighting. But Calrein survived and returned home to the Greenwood. A new age had begun, and peace held sway over Middle Earth, but only for a short while.
A new age had begun, an age of true peace, and Calrein settled into a life less fraught with strife. His parents wondered if he would think of a wife and children, but he was very young, and there seemed to be time aplenty to set his feet upon such a path. Calrein was content with his life as a soldier, even when there was less soldiering to do. Centuries passed, and millennia as well, his younger sister marrying before him, to a fellow soldier. How could Gladhwen not have noticed the ready smile and bold, bright manner of Ethuilion? Just as Calrein’s best friend could hardly fail to notice the merry, effervescent young woman, who reminded all so much of her mother? Calrein was pleased beyond measure that his brother in arms had become his true brother. But when his sister teased that soon it would be his turn to wed, Calrein merely smiled indulgently. He seemed a man married to his sword and likely to remain so.
Of course, peace could never reign forever, and so it was, as always, that strife and worry picked at the borders of the King’s realm in due time. Calrein was not pleased for this. For the sake of his people, he would have seen an age of peace and prosperity and plenty. Yet he was not dismayed for his arm to once again swing the sword, and his mettle to be tested, over and over. He chose to be, and was chosen to be, one of those few who ventured often and long beyond the walls of their citadel, ever in service to the king. He had reason and purpose to venture at times far to the south and the west almost to the lands of the horse lords, or even once to the shores of the great sea, south, to the mouth of the River Running . More often, he accompanied parties of those seeking to leave these troubled lands and take ship for Valinor, escorting them safely to Mithlond. Strongest was the call of his Teleri blood when he looked upon the swan ships and the ocean, and ever did he feel he had left some part of himself behind when once again he rode east.
It was this bond to the sea that lead Calrein to his greatest discovery about himself, and his greatest treasure. In the Woodland Realm he had made the acquaintance of one who had seen the shores of Aman, and fled Alqualonde, in the Years of the Trees. Cairindir he was called, though that was the name he had given himself, once torn from his birthplace and with the loss of his parents. The elder elf touched Calrein through their common love of the sea, and from their friendship, the soldier came to know Cairindir’s granddaughter, Odothel. It was Odothel that taught Calrein the true meaning of love, and that he had been born to love, not just to kill.
She took him by surprise, his heart unprepared for the excesses of joy and rapture the mere existence of another soul could impart. She sang to him, both with her beautiful voice and her beautiful spirit, and together they shared the wonder of the stars and the sea, if for her the latter was only through her grandfather’s influence. They loved, and were it not for Odothel’s mother – who opposed him by reason of his obscure pedigree – they would have married. Calrein, ever honorable, hoped to win the proud woman over, and for this kept the bliss of being wed to his beloved at bay. More fool he. Years wasted, and accompanying Cairindir and his wife to the Grey Haven, Calrein returned to Odothel and proposed that they too should travel West, to finally answer the call of the sea. She consented, and still they tarried, to make parting farewells to family and friends who had no knowledge of their plans. Throughout, Calrein was often still impressed to this duty or that, in service to Thranduil. And so it was that he was called up to bear arms when the King marched on Erebor.
A vow – to finally go West upon his return – was never fulfilled. He fell in battle, at the gates of the ruined dwarf city, and his own journey began, alone, to the Halls of Waiting, there to be meted out his fate. But such was his undying love for Odothel, that Calrein was obdurate beyond compare, refusing to journey on to Aman. He insisted instead that he should be allowed to return to Middle Earth, there to claim his beloved. Mandos equivocated and ultimately referred Calrein to Eru illuvitar to seek this exemption, which was grown quite rare in this age. For reasons known only to himself, Eru Illuvitar granted Calrein’s request, but with one condition. For having the audacity to make such a demand premised upon his assertion that he could and would never forget his love for Odothel, Eru Illuvitar told Calrein that he would return to Middle Earth with no memory of his life before. Perhaps his thought was that, knowing his quest to regain love was doomed from the start, Calrein would see reason and simply go along with the plan set for him, as for all his kin that either died or were slain.
Calrein, however, unexpectedly accepted the offer, even conditioned as it was to assure that the peril he faced in that return could hardly be worth arriving having forgotten entirely his love for Odothel. Calrein thought to trick even Eru himself. Before departing Mandos’ Halls, he wrote on a slip of paper who he was and who he loved, where to find her and how deep and enduring their love was, one for the other. This he secured safe in a pocket of his tunic, where no matter the dangers faced on his journey back, once arrived he would withdraw it, to set his feet on that final path, to bring him back to his true love’s side. How Eru must have grinned to himself to see this poor brave, loyal fool set out, thinking himself clever enough to best the Creator himself.
Needless to say, through trials and tribulations which would have turned a lesser heart aside at many a pass, Calrein fought through, always with the image of Odothel, his beloved, before him, urging him on and breathing hope anew into his spirit. The final leg of his arduous journey was by ship, back to the Grey Haven where he himself had seen many a traveler off. As he went to set foot on the shore, his hand went to his pocket. Withdrawing his precious clue, which he had managed to keep safe throughout his travails, he glanced down upon it, a blank scrap, wiped as clean as his memory, now devoid of any recollection of his former life.