Ruby City Application

[utulien_aure]

PLAYER

Name:Mary

>Age: 21+

Personal Journal: N/A

E-mail: mkdelatour@gmail.com

AIM/etc: https://www.plurk.com/delatour

    

CHARACTER

Name:Findekáno Ñolofinwion | Fingon Fingolfinion (Fingon the Valiant)

Canon: The Silmarillion (Tolkien’s Legendarium)

Age:  c. 2000, appears to be in late 20s

Timeline  F.A. 5, on his way to rescue his cousin Maedhros from captivity in Angband.

Items with character at canon point:

• Set of dark traveling clothes

• Weapons

  • One bow and quiver of arrows

  • Two knives

  • One sword

• Harp

• Satchel containing extra rations and basic medical supplies

If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A

    

Personality: Sometime after his death, a historian will write the following of Fingon the Valiant, High King of the Noldor: “Of all the children of Finwë he is justly most renowned: for his valour was as a fire and yet as steadfast as the hills of stone; wise he was and skilled in voice and hand; troth and justice he loved and bore goodwill to all, both Elves and Men, hating Morgoth only; he sought not his own, neither power nor glory, and death was his reward.” This is a fairly accurate picture of Findekáno Ñolofinwion as he will become (although he would dispute some of it, particularly the parts referring to him as wise) but Findekáno is not quite there yet. He has a courageous soul and a generous, buoyant nature, but until very recently these have never been tested with true hardship. He’s still trying to process what that means.

        One of the keys to understanding Findekáno at this point in his life is that he has grown up in a physical paradise. Valinor in the time of the Trees is beautiful, peaceful, bountiful, and safe- the perfect setting for a happy childhood and youth. And despite the ongoing family tensions among the royal family of the Noldor, he’s had that, and it shows: he’s become a kind, friendly person who tends to think the best of people if they give him half a reason to do so. But Valinor becomes a lot less paradisiacal as he grows older, not only because of the release of Morgoth and the growing tensions among his family, but also because he doesn’t feel like he has a purpose there. He’s part of an immortal race, which means that the people in charge of society will alway be in charge, and while a good education means that he’s competent among the arts and sciences the Noldor tend to favor he doesn’t really have a vocation to take up his energy and ambitions.

It’s partly because of this frustration that Findekáno develops some of his earlier goals and ambitions. What he wants most is to be doing something that is actually useful to the Noldor, and as he gravitates more towards his father and grandfather’s work around the court, he begins seriously considering what it would be like to be in a leadership role, as a ruler and protector of his people. Of course, he’s an immortal in paradise- no positions are opening any time soon. (He also earns the epithet of “Valiant” during this period, but that has more to do with a series of arduous but ill-judged stunts and physical hobbies than anything that would truly merit the title-if a number of people could get away with calling him Findekáno the Stupidly Reckless, they would have probably chosen that instead.) It’s this frustration that first attracts him to the idea of returning to Middle Earth- even as he  sides with his father over Feanáro, the propagator of the idea to do so, he can’t get in out of his head that in Middle Earth he might actually get the chance to build and defend something of his own.

But then the Darkening happens, and after it Alqualondë and the Helcaraxë: these are the first real exposures Findekáno has had to loss or pain on a large scale. They’re also the first events that drive home how courage and good intentions can go badly astray. When he attacked the Teleri at Alqualondë, he sincerely believed his family and people were in danger (which, technically, was correct). But because he had not bothered to find out who started the fight, the people who followed him into the fray are kinslayers. As is he. And while there were many reasons behind the Noldor’s journey across the Helcaraxë, one of them is that Findekáno was still determinedly advocating to leave for Beleriand, despite the Doom and despite Feanáro’s betrayal.

As far as he’s concerned, the deaths on the Ice-including his sister-in-law, including his youngest brother- are partly his fault. So, as he will feel for the rest of his life and for long afterwards, are all the deaths among his people to come. While that guilt and the determination to do better will eventually help him reign in his natural impulsiveness, at this early stage he hasn’t processed it very well. When he sets off to find and rescue his cousin Maedhros, it isn’t only because he believes he owes his old friend the attempt or because he wants to deal with the feud between the Noldor. He also needs to have saved someone, or at least to have given his all to do so. While Findekáno’s usually optimistic nature will reassert itself in the wake of Maedhros’ rescue in his main timeline, (it’s really hard not to hope you’re doing the right thing when you get help from a giant eagle), the version Ruby City gets initially is a bundle of nervous energy, still trying to prove he has made the right decision to his people, to the Valar, and to himself.

 

Background: http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Fingon

 

Abilities:

Elven Racial Traits:

• Elves are immortal; while they can be killed in battle or fade from grief, they are meant to exist as long as the world exists. They are also heal quickly and can’t be poisoned.

• Elves’ speed, strength, and agility is much greater than that of a normal human. Because Findekáno is from Valinor and was exposed to the light of the Two Trees, these are probably greater than that of a regular elf as well.

• Elves have extensive mental gifts, including a near-perfect memory, the ability to talk to animals and plants, and telepathy (<i>osanwe</i>).

• Rather than sleeping, elves go into a semi-conscious trance where they meditate on beautiful images and thoughts.

• Elves are ambidextrous

These skills apply to Findekáno personally:

• Swordsmanship: considerably talented, although there are better swordsmen in the family

• Archery: he’s better at this than swordplay, and it is his favored form of combat.

• Horsemanship

• General knowledge of most arts and crafts:   Findekáno doesn’t have a specialized skill or one he is extremely gifted in, but he’s fairly well acquainted with a number of the kinds of art the Noldor tend to specialize in.

• Experience with politics and leadership

• Cooking

• Music: he’s a fair harpist and singer

• General survival skills, particularly those applying to combat and surviving in extremely cold environments

• He’s only perfectly fluent in Quenya, but is also by this point able to speak Sindarin fairly well

    

Network/Actionspam Sample: http://rubycity-ooc.dreamwidth.org/632580.html?thread=19554564#cmt19554564

    

Prose Log Sample:

Getting used to Ruby City is an ongoing process, but Findekáno throws himself into it. The city’s small enough that he learns the layout easily, and for a few days he just wanders through the streets, poking his head into the different buildings. And in the moment, it’s surprisingly fun- the food situation isn’t a matter of life and death, no desperate hunting or scavenging necessary. No one’s burning their few books for warmth, even as the temperature dips (now that he can do without, but for now he’ll manage). If he wishes to, he can buy a dozen different types of pastry just to figure out which of them he prefers and bring the rest back to share.

It isn’t even raining.

 

But still, something about the city still sets him on edge. Perhaps it's the people he misses- he’s grown used to having his people at his back, with only the scant privacy of a crowded tent as refuge. Ruby City is the opposite- the architecture may be strange, but odder still is how abandoned many of them look when they could hold so many. He doesn’t want to think of home, but the comparison comes anyway. Does Tirion look like this now, with so many buildings and so few people to fill them?

 

It isn’t a question any here can respond to, and given how many of his questions have been met, perhaps not one to which he wants to know the answer.