ithilienns reblogged
A little drawing, I made of Thuringwethil and Sauron for @fall-for-tolkien 's Scribbles & Drabbles 2024 event! :)
ithilienns reblogged
Source: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Sauron
dude thats sick. thats rad
ithilienns reblogged
I destroyed myself to get here, but perhaps in the end it was worth it
ithilienns reblogged
Farwell at end of the War of Wrath.
ithilienns reblogged
cherrywinelord
Will you follow him if he shows you the light?
ithilienns reblogged
I haven't painted in over a month while in the artblock. trying to finish old artwork, while pondering which hair color is most canonical for Sauron…. (WIP).
ithilienns reblogged
(tw: death, gore, horror)
I love how downright creepy Sauron is.
He's your neighbourhood psychopathic genius, a skilled sorcerer whose allegiance was realigned once (to his true alignment imo) and then never since waivered.
Unlike Morgoth, who was more straightforward in his execution, Sauron's style is insidious, and in a sense more horrific for how slow and personal his tactics can be. His temper is such that he can play the long game, even play at being weak in order to earn trust, and then next thing you know he has an old friend's corpse up as a war banner, or he has sunk an entire island down the Sea.
He bred the Orcs. Tolkien played with different version of the origin of Orcs, but what I like best is the version where they were corrupted Men, maybe even Elves, and although they were Melkor's idea, it was Sauron who had the ability, patience and tenacity to make the idea come to fruition.
He built cults. Do you know what cults are like? How they draw people in, what they make people believe, what they get people to do? From an outsider looking in it must have looked truly bizarre, but Sauron was able to turn a powerful nation against the Valar and painted Morgoth as the true god. Eru Ilúvatar was denied as a false god, and the Valar made to be liars. There were blood sacrifices, human sacrifices—all for a religion Sauron invented, but was so successful that, once Númenor was gone, Sauron brought the cult with him to Middle-earth.
He was called The Necromancer. What made him garner the title? Who gave it to him, and what had they seen? Surely the Nazgûl were not the first of their kind, not when the Nine were already so well-made. What manner of experimentation had Sauron done in order to make them, and what did the "failures" look like? What knowledge did he use to corrupt and circumvent the Gift of Ilúvatar, which gave Men free will and death, so that their spirits transcend Arda? The Nazgûl were unable to die, and as wraiths they also lost their free will, bound to Sauron and the call of the Ring.
He corrupted kings. He corrupted his own kind. Curumo could not have been the only one, and we know Curumo was a powerful Maia in his own right, the leader of the Istari. Now imagine being a native of Mordor and witnessing the poisoning of the lands. And then an age later, imagine being from one of the villages around Rhovanion and experiencing the slow haunting of Amon Lanc. What defense did the common Man have against someone like Sauron? At least the Eldar could see Sauron and his agents; none of the Men can do so. There must only have been odd sensations, a dread settling in, dreams that lure them in before turning into nightmares.
ithilienns reblogged
i think finarfin during the war of wrath should have personal beef with sauron over finrod's death. like. angrier than he is with morgoth even
ithilienns reblogged
I don’t know. i really don’t. the thought made me laugh.
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Annatar Lord of Gifts
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Zigûr coming out of Melkor's temple
Very cool Zigur design; I'm loving his veil and headdress. And the ephemeral, gauzy, rather feminine design of his outfit is a stark contrast to the blood-stained hands and cloak.
ithilienns reblogged
Anonymous asked:
Isn't silvergifting weird ? I mean celebrimbor is the guy whom sauron straight up tortured and killed him painfully and it's 2nd most popular ship for celebrimbor?
At the risk of being a bit too blunt here, it's really only weird if you're under the (incorrect) impression that shipping is like when you think two of your friends would make a cute couple and not simply the idea that the dynamic between two or more characters is compelling in some way (which is what I've usually seen it be in the almost 20 years I've been in fandom spaces). There is value in stories that end badly. Lies and betrayal have just as much reason to be in a story as any other element.
Celebrimbor and Annatar/Sauron worked alongside each other for centuries. The arrival of Annatar usherd in a golden age of new discoveries and power for the Elves of Ost-in-Edhel/ Eregion as a whole. Celebrimbor let Annatar in despite the warnings of family, like Galadriel, and the Elves of Lindon telling Annatar to jog on and take his suspicious self elsewhere. Is he trying to make up for his family's tragedies caused by lack of trust? Does he want power? Does he want to outshine his (in)famous grandfather? Get one up on his father? And that's just Celebrimbor's side of this. There is so much to explore between these two, so it's really not surprising that romance is something that people include.
There's also quite a few flavours of Silverfisting/Silvergifting out there. There's the one where they both fall for each other. There's Sauron stringing Celebrimbor along because it suits his purposes. There's Celebrimbor playing along to try and get close enough to find out what Sauron is up to. There's Celebrimbor thinking Sauron actually wants to turn over a new leaf. There's the version where that's even true! There's Sauron thinking Celebrimbor could actually swayed to follow him. Etc. etc. etc. etc. I could go on forever.
And on a more general level, some of us like sad stories. Sometimes the cruelty just hits that much harder when it was preceeded by kindness. "I hate you" can sound kind of bland on its own, but when it replaces "I love you" it has the ability to cut that much deeper. It adds layers to each happy scene to know that that's not how it's going to end, to be privy to knowledge of a future the characters are hurtling towards, blissfully ignorant.
A ship doesn't need to be nice. It's purpose is to put an interesting story in front of us. And sometimes that interest comes from watching on in horror as the inevitable catches up with the characters.
ithilienns reblogged
One thing I love is that Tolkien never gives any specifics about Sauron's appearance in the Silmarillion, beyond the facts that he is "fair" and "beautiful." Unlike with many other Tolkien characters, there's no mention of his hair or eye color, his height, or anything else about his physical appearance as Annatar or any of his other fair forms.
It could just be because he is a shapeshifter and such details aren't important, as they aren't permanent, but I think Tolkien was a clever enough writer to have an additional purpose for it.
It allows the reader to picture Sauron as whatever is most fair to them.
In a way, it grants Sauron with the very power of shapeshifting that he has in the books; he can appear different to each reader and form himself into whatever is most fair and seductive in their own eyes.
ithilienns reblogged
The Lord of the One Ring, and of all Rings
I have never played Elden Ring, but it has a nice aesthetic. Meanwhile the deyassification of Sauron is something I’ll never forgive Amazon for.
ithilienns reblogged
you know i think the funniest thing about sauron/mairon is that he has been described as “fair” 7 times in the book, higher than any other characters including luthien, and she is supposedly the most beautiful woman in that fictional universe,, like somebody actually did a count on it