allonsymiddleearth replied to your post “Stares at the list of Silm-related fic projects I really need to get…”

omg yes I want to read the Ingwë and Elwë swap places AU! ❤

crocordile replied to your post “Stares at the list of Silm-related fic projects I really need to get…”

These are all so great, the ingwe-instead-of-elu one broke my brain omg!! And, Teleri relaxed rebellion? Tell me more… B)

(AUs discussed here and other places like here) That AU idea is really popular! O.O Well, luckily it is the one with the most actual plot and an idea of how I would go about writing it. The biggest problem stopping me is that it diverges from canon during the Great Journey (the first butterfly wing to flap away changes would not be Sauron trapping Ingwë but the turning back of Dan and the Nandor, as the AU idea is to swap the Lindar and Vanyar, so I need only the Minyar to be the non-Avari elves left in Beleriand. Thus Círdan and Dan go with Elwë). And the POV character is Ravennë, who I haven’t established at all.  I would need to write the Ingwë of Cuiviénen, then Ravennë on the March, and basically the AU is the alternate ending to that fic, with everything before it ‘canon’. (Klingon Vanyar ‘verse is weird because I treat it as canon, but canon gives nothing, textual ghosts and glossed over cultures and people, so I feel I have to introduce and develop everyone and everything)

There is this tiny opening when I first conceived this AU, though if I ever got around to writing it (siren call~) I’d start the prologue with Sauron…

The other AU where Fëanor is never born means Morgoth is still released on probation in Valinor. Like canon, the Dark Lord still isn’t going to be able to corrupt or turn the Vanyar, so he turns to the Noldor. However he doesn’t have the resentment-filled paranoid egomaniac with his SIlmarils feuding with half-brothers to exploit into a rebellion. 

More details:

The Noldor as a tribe are still a fractious and easily bored group wanting the latest shiny innovation and knowledge and feuding with each other – Tolkien set that up as their character, can’t change that too much. And there are divisions in the Noldor, especially between Míriel and Nerdanel and Finwë. Míriel is still conservative/reactionary against what she sees as changes for the sake of change i.e. the ‘th’ to ‘s’ switch, plus she did way way long ago reject the king’s hand. Finwë happily married Indis and had all his canon children with her, but he still does the petty switch to ‘s’ to spite Míriel and purposefully snubs her art, choosing to patron her artistic and aesthetic rivals like Mahtan’s genius daughter Nerdanel, who spearheads the abstract art movement away from the traditional Noldor obsession with creating art so life-like to fool the senses. (Nerdanel can and will make statutes like that, but she won’t limit herself and is fond of remarking that just because it was one way in her youth doesn’t mean it should always be – cue cat fights that the Valar are a little worried to be breaking up – Manwë wondering if he should temporarily banish one from Tirion if the knitting needles and stone chisels draw any more blood) Fingolfin is the eldest son and doesn’t have the constant need to prove himself or struggle for any fatherly affection from Fëanor, so less issues. Findis is still the eldest, and again she doesn’t have the crippling nastiness from her half-brother and his supporters and those doubting everything about her parent’s marriage and whether she should even exist. Instead she’s the Noldor heir and with the examples of Nerdanel and Míriel she’s expected to be another genius Noldor woman. Everyone’s waiting for her to create some art to impress everyone. I think maybe carrying over the introverted authoress headcanon of ‘canon’verse, Findis can be the one in this universe to apprentice herself under Rúmil, and together with him improve his Sarati into the tengwar. Finarfin and Fingolfin might not be as close as canon, but they aren’t rivals, as temperament doesn’t change – Finarfin still has a desire to escape from his family’s shadow/drama by going to Alqualondë, and he assimilates into the Teleri royal family pretty strongly. 

But back to Melkor. He can try to play up the Noldor tensions, and might find a lot of luck with Fingolfin’s two sons, as Fingon is the eldest prince of the third generation and still the brash and non-too-bright and ambitious – but with loyalty to his father and grandfather that it isn’t enough (Melkor still hates Turgon). Disappointed again, Melkor turns to where in canon he had dismissed as inconsequential: the Falmari Teleri.

And here there are hooks in which Melkor can play. The Falmari Teleri are isolated away from the Valar and the rest of the elves – they ignore everyone but Ulmo, Ossë, Uinen, and some Noldor, they are looked down as latecomers and outsiders. And the Falmari like Olwë have the suppressed anger and guilt of leaving/being left by their kin back in Beleriand. Melkor can have a field day with all of these feelings. Easy to turn them against the rest of the Valar – “” the Valar took the first two tribes but didn’t care about any of you to wait the first time, and then only brought over the island and demanded you take this second chance or forever forfeit the land of bliss without caring about why you were staying. Your brother/king Elwë was as much an ambassador and king as Finwë and Ingwë, yet the Valar forgot him. Your kin wait for you in the darkness and wilds of the other shore while you live in light and bliss. Aren’t you guilty? Don’t you want to show them how wrong they were for not listening to you, to see all this magnificence they are missing? Don’t you want to go rescue them? “” Melkor can even use the rumors of the Second-born to twist the Teleri into rebellion – conflate the Latecomers with orcs and it becomes less ‘the Second-born of which you never met or no nothing about are going to replace you in the Valar’s affection and take over lands in the Hinder Shore you’ve never seen’ and more ‘the Second-born are coming and they are going to invade where your kin are – the Sindar don’t know about them so you need to go warm them, because you know the Valar have abandoned them your blood-kin completely’. And the Teleri sail out to Tol Eressëa and dream of Beleriand and the lands and rivers east. They dream of sailing a little beyond the island, sailing back to Beleriand. They look at their beautiful Swan-ships, the wonderful labor of their own hands that can do what the Valar once did with an island. They think that there is no prohibition against sailing back. Ulmo doesn’t forbid them. Ossë even encourages it in his own way, waxing lovingly about the shores of Middle-earth and his good friend Círdan. Olwë and the Teleri decide to leave, to take their great flotilla and sail to Middle-earth to reunite with all their missing family. They aren’t positive if they are permanently leaving Aman – just going for a visit and rescue and bring back all those refusing kin. And it’s not like the rest of Valinor will care or even notice they’ve left. One low-key rebellion exodus, no mass murder involved.

The Valar are still aghast and a little hurt, it causes a swarm of drama and discussion in Tirion, especially as Finarfin and his children left with the Teleri, citing that he didn’t dislike the Valar or anything, but this rebellion/cause was just and his loyalties are with his wife, brother-in-laws, Olwë, and adopted people. Some of Fingolfin’s children and the other most adventurous Noldor join this Excursion as well for the excitement. Aredhel for sure, and Argon. Maybe Fingon? Maybe even Anairë for the perfect mirror-verse reversal of who left and who stayed behind in canon.

Of course the Teleri reunion with the Sindar isn’t as perfectly rosy as the Sindar and Nandor reunion. Hard to rescue your big brother when he’s an establish king of an entire continent with a Maia wife and daughter, and extremely lovely and permanent underground kingdom… Olwë’s had several centuries as king himself out of his big brother’s shadow, too. Just because orcs are invading doesn’t mean the Sindar and Nandor really want to leave their homes and forests to Aman. Círdan is quite happy with his boat-building skills, thank you very much.  “”That short gentleman over there is a dwarf, please don’t stare or make rude comments, cousin, it took us a lot of awkward encounters and treaties to restore and create good relations and we don’t want to go through anything again – no they are not orcs, don’t you dare draw a bow at Telchar, please put down the ax! Mortals? I think they are but what is this Second-born Usurper nonsense about? “” The whole mess isn’t as bad as the Sindar relationship with Kin-slayers (again, no actual murder of anyone, let alone innocent blood relatives)

The Two Trees still need to get axed somehow/when and there needs to be another Plot Trinket for Eärendil and Lúthien/Beren to have without the Silmarils, but yeah. That’s the AU.