Lid at 04:46, 5 March 2009

2009-03-05T04:46:36Z

New page

hi lid. please change accordingly:

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+ghelp isilrim:

Archetypes: Isilrim

Origins

The Isilrim are descendent of a lesser branch of the House of Beor: that born of Bereth, daughter of Bregolas, the third and last Lord of Ladros within Dorthonion, in service to Finrod Felagund of the High Elves. Theirs within the Land of Gift were the fertile lands about the hill Oromet in the western promontory of Andustar, upon which Tar-Ministir’s tower was raised. But the first true Isilrim by name was Solitar the Smith; for it was he who from this tower witnessed a falling star crash into the moonlit waters west of Numenor, and, taking such as portent, decided to remove his line in name from the royal house, into which his peoples had twice married. From its ore he forged the blade Inalantadil, heirloom to his people, which he named the Isilrim, ‘the People of the Moon’. (For more, see +ghelp isilrim3.)

Occupations

The Isilrim are, almost to a man, Knights of the Order of the Swan. Some of their number are also regarded as great smiths and builders. Indeed, much of the ore and stone of Gondor was cut from the mountains of Dor-en-Ernil by their hands; it is only fitting that they have a proclivity for shaping what they have cut. Further, given their sense of history, the Isilrim claim a number of historians among them, as well as scholars of lore. Some of the Isilrim remaining in the valley of Dolwinion are known too to be expert vintners.

For further information about the house, type '+ghelp isilrim2'.
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+ghelp isilrim2:

Personality

The Isilrim are of dual repute within Gondor. Many find them odd, criticizing their cleaving to customs long past as affectedly anachronistic. Others, likely those of similar mind, esteem them among the truest of folk. Whatever the case, their persons are known to often bear a certain pride at their heritage, evidenced perhaps most prominently by their tendency to treat such as a guiding form for their own lives and behavior. The consequences of shaping life under an ideal are surely manifest within them: they are largely an aloof and stoic folk, with a proven penchant for lapsing into long periods of brooding; and are, furthermore, adherents to strict virtues which may sometimes blind them, though which also fashion them among the finest of arbiters. In service to this judgment is their wrath, of the same nature as its master; for it too, though seldom incurred, is cold and terrible.

In recent years, it has been whispered that a mighty Doom and dark fate is upon the Isilrim, for the noblest and highest of its Lords oft fall in their youth, slain by the Shadow or gripped by madness. The detractors of the Isilrim are here not reticent to insist that such Doom has been self-wrought: the early deaths of their warriors bred by their eager ideals, and the infamous madness of the Isilrim part to their stoicism.

Values

The virtues of the Isilrim speak primarily of Truth and Justice. Verily, such is even their motto: Truth and Justice. All else, companionship and honor included, is decidedly subordinate to these, when indeed not contradicted by these. Needless to say, lies are not the business of the Isilrim; it is thus their custom to follow their oaths with a prayer to the West, so as to affirm the weight of their words.

Yet this is not the only custom the Isilrim are wed to. Their males, for instance, are given blade by the Lord Isilrim upon reaching twenty-five, the age at which a youth of Numenor was first considered a man.

For the history of the house, type '+ghelp isilrim3'.

+ghelp isilrim3:
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HISTORY:

The Isilrim are of rare origin within the realm of Gondor. For it is said that they are able to trace their roots deep within the history of the world, even that they were birthed with the first Awakening of Men, residing thereafter in the northern lands of Dorthonion within Beleriand, though their fealty was to Finrod Felagund of Nargothrond and his brothers. Ere the Downfall they were held upon the Isle of Gift as lords of fertile lands about the hill of Oromet in Andustar, whereupon Tar-Ministir the sixth King of Numenor erected his tower to observe the coming of the Firstborn's ships; for the mother of this King, wife to Isilmo, is said to have hailed from these lands and their peoples. Yet for many of those years they did not bear the name of the Isilrim; nor was Isilmo's wife the first of their number to marry into Numenor's royal line. They existed rather under a lesser line of the House of Beor, eldest among the Houses of the Edain, as descendent from Bereth daughter of Bregolas, third and last Lord of Ladros. Thus ranked too Erendis, daughter of Beregar and Queen to Tar-Aldarion the Mariner, as one of their number. Such has proved of little pride for the Isilrim, however, whether in this day or in Erendis': that Queen’s reticence of odd quality against the greater of the House, many of whom are said to have even served among Tar-Aldarion's Mariners.

Solitar was their Lord when strife overcame Numenor, and akin to Tar-Ministir the Sixth King, he bore a great love for the seas and the Eldar afar. He was hence entrusted as Steward of Tar-Ministir's tower upon Oromet as it fell into disrepair, the Hador Kings then fain heedless of the possibility of the Firstborn's sails appearing again from the West. But one night, from the crown of this tower, Solitar witnessed a falling star crash into the moonlit waters west of Numenor, and he sailed out to retrieve it. With the ore he forged the sword Inalantadil and proclaimed it heirloom of his House; for, taking the falling star as portent, he decided then to cleave his line in both name and purpose from the ambitious Hador Kings of Numenor, thereby denouncing their perfidy. And so this branch of the Beor became the Isilrim, and Solitar took the four-pronged star as the sign of his House, and he named his kin ‘the People of the Moon’.

(Continued in +ghelp isilrim4)
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+ghelp isilrim4:

HISTORY (Con.):

Yet as the malign influence of the King’s Men diffused across Numenor, the severance of Solitar proved not without its retribution. For the Isilrim were self-avowed Elf-friends and observers of Aman; when the Sceptre was passed to Ar-Adunakhor the Twentieth King, who in his pride fashioned himself 'Lord of the West' and outlawed the usage of the Elvish tongues upon the Isle, the House was forced into strict isolation upon their lands about the hill of Oromet. At the prospect of reform under Tar-Palantir the Twenty-Fourth King, who himself was the first of ten kings to again come to Tar-Ministir's tower in hope of spotting the ships of the Firstborn afar, the Isilrim enjoyed an eager yet brief return to public life. They were leaders among the Faithful then, mighty among the delegations of that last of the pious Westernesse Kings in Armenelos. But they were cold and just in the consideration of their impious countrymen, proving without sympathy for the King's Men in their policy. Consequently, following Ar-Pharazon's usurpation of the Sceptre from Miriel daughter of Tar-Palantir, the House's number was persecuted and rooted from their ancestral lands in Andustar. These were seized and re-appropriated by men allied to Ar-Pharazon, who was henceforth known as 'the Thief' to the Isilrim.

Collecting whatever document and heirloom they could--a source of great grief to this day for the Isilrim, for much learning and craft is said to have been lost in their haste--, their remainder fled. But they did not escape to Romenna in their unhappy years of homelessness, as was customary then for the displaced Faithful. Instead, they found haven in the nearer lands of their distant cousin, Amandil Lord of Andunie. Yet as Amandil sailed soon thereafter into the West seeking the appeal of the Valar, the Isilrim braved themselves once more for exodus. Akin to the Andunie Lord, they departed that Bay three years ere the Downfall, their ship bound instead for the mortal shores of the Eastern lands. There they hoped to find that faithful line of the Princes of Belfalas, with whom their forefathers had four-generations earlier won friendship and alliance in battle against Sauron, fighting under common banner during the campaigns of Tar-Calmacil the Twenty-Eighth King.

(Continued in +ghelp isilrim5)
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+ghelp isilrim5:

HISTORY (Con.):

Though their voyage was hard--the greatest mariner of the Isilrim, as the House's claim goes, serving instead among Amandil's crew--, the vessels of this persecuted House of Solitar the Smith, descendent through many lines of Beor the Old and servants of the High Elves ere the War of Wrath, came, at length and by Ulmo's grace, to that promontory Amroth, the seat of the Princes of Belfalas. There they were received in welcome by the Lord of that House, which would later become the ruling House Imrazor of the Princes of Dol Amroth; and the Lord Isilrim at that time, Malach the Wise, heeding the piety and nobility in that line, swore Oath to its service, for which the Prince of Belfalas granted them a manor within his city, and too some minor holdings without in an eastern valley of Dor-en-Ernil near the Serni, called Dolwinion. Upon those lands they raised an image of Tar-Ministir’s tower upon the hill of Oromet, the adjacent mountains said to recall to the Isilrim the peaks of Andustar past, though the only waters visible from its crown were those of the Bay of Belfalas before the rivers Serni and Anduin, where no ships of the Firstborn were known to sail.

But it was from this tower's heights that the Isilrim witnessed the friends of that kind, the sails of the Elendili; for the coming of the Exiles of Numenor led by Isildur and Anarion, whose vessels bore the standards of Andunie past, themselves grandsons to the Lord Amandil, were spotted as they came to the Bay of Belfalas and upon the river Anduin to the harbor of Pelargir. And the Isilrim went there to greet them. But when they learned of the reason for their coming, of Ar-Pharazon the Thief's armada against the Undying Lands and the Akallabeth, whereby the Land of Gift was sunken into the smoky chasms of the earth, it is said that the Isilrim mourned for a generation, and that some of their number became fatigued of life. Their most able, however, came to the aid of the Exiles even in their mourning, cutting and shaping stone from about their lands to build the homes and towers of their brethren. By virtue of these deeds were the Isilrim recognized by Isildur as Lords among men within the Southern Kingdom of the Dunedain, Gondor; though they were entitled to no greater fief of their own; and their first Oath remained still with the Prince of Belfalas.

(Continued in +ghelp isilrim6)
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+ghelp isilrim6:

HISTORY (Con.)

Thus, when Amroth became Dol Amroth with the Lordship of Galador the Half-elven, first Prince of Dol Amroth and son to Imrazor Prince of Belfalas, the Isilrim maintained their Oath, and their warriors bound themselves as Knights to Galador's newly founded Order of the Swan. So it is that the Isilrim remain yet wed to this Order through all the long years, adherents still to the Oath of Malach the Wise to the Princes of these lands.

Despite the length of the Isilrim's history, the greatest of its Knights was born but recently: the late Lord Sirion II Isilrim the Younger, Knight-Marshall to the Order of the Swan, whose valor earned his peoples the gift of Calembel in Lamedon from Angbor the Fearless, the Lord of that fief. Thence have many of the Isilrim moved--where they are called the 'Sema', a local rendering for 'the People of the Moon'--, though not all; and it is yet a great honor of this House to be entrusted Keeper of Dolwinion by the Lord Isilrim.
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Isilrim Stuff - Revision history

Lid at 04:46, 5 March 2009