(Video)

[handofsilver]

(Celebrimbor is perched on a rocky outcropping, a sketchpad on his lap and his dark head bent in intense concentration. One of his hands is moving deftly over the page, his silver gaze darting towards the higher points of the city.)

Do you think a world - a civilization - could be swallowed whole? (He tarries over one of the spires, so bent, so bowed.) The more I see of our fair city, the more I am convinced it has a life and a pulse. There is no material that retains memory half as well as rock and earth.

(Leaving him to wonder how the caverns began.)

How many emotions would you feel if you were trapped within the maw of some ancient creature?

Comments

[ushahin]

The Ellyon of my home fear being underground more than anything else. If they were to be buried alive, they would die by inches. As for me, I have never minded being away from the sun.

[He points the video towards Fetch, busy preening his glossy black feathers.]

A flock of my friends helped. I formed a ladder out of their little minds to make my way back. Otherwise, I surely would have perished.

[handofsilver]

Your Ellyon have practices I cannot condone, but the Elvenkind of Arda too would be frightened of being buried in darkness. We love the stars, the sun and the moon. The latter two are remnants of two great trees and to see their light gives us hope; strength.

(Celebrimbor smiles and inclines his head.)

Thank you, Lord Fetch. I am glad you did not perish, Ushahin.

[ushahin]

Strange, that there are so many similarities between Ellylon and Elves. I have told you before that the two are practically identical in appearance. I wonder why that is.

[Ushahin sees patterns wherever he goes. There is no such thing as coincidence in his mind.

At the words directed towards him, Fetch stops preening long enough to grumble out a quiet Mrraahhh! He understands most of what people say to him.]

[handofsilver]

More than a coincidence, I think. Who is to say Eru - or some Darker aspect of him - did not create your world and the Ellylon with it?

(He bites back a smile at Fetch's answer.)

I will not say that there are no cruel Elves. I am related to some who are hated far and wide on Arda for their misdeeds. But, on a whole, we do not like to cause suffering.

[ushahin]

Mayhaps it is so. I have found other connections between worlds here. My own was said to be formed from the body of the first god, Uru-Alat. All the rest of the Shapers came from him and used the jewel on his forehead to shape the world into what they wanted.

[It is refreshing to have someone he can talk to on such a level. So many of the residents here seem like children to one as old as him, but Celebrimbor is much more of a contemporary than the others.]

Then that is a marked difference between Elves and Ellylon. They like to say they have the best interests of the world at heart, but I have seen into their minds, and know better. They are not above causing suffering or manipulating others to get what they want.

[handofsilver]

Eru and Uru-Alat sound alike and these Shapers sound like the Valar and Maiar. (Though there is no jewel mentioned in their lore - a fact that gives Celebrimbor comfort considering how his family prizes powerful jewels. Or...certain powerful jewels. But he knows if Eru had one, Fëanor would have probably wanted it too.)

We are not above manipulation, however in our case, we use our long years of wisdom to attempt to set the world right. Those who can accomplish what we cannot are sometimes encouraged - gently - to go forth. Yet we do not desire their suffering.

[ushahin]

Perhaps all worlds start off from the same place, only branching off as their creators see fit. [Or maybe these two are the same because one was a deliberate perspective flip on the other. Ushahin takes note. There is no record of what came before the first god. And the names, Eru and Uru-Alat, so similar sounding.] Could it be there was a singular being that had created both worlds, one merely a dark reflection on the other?

The Were have more of that sort of nature to them. They are beings close to the earth, compassionate, and wise, though their appearance led many to regard them as monsters.