A R D A _ M A R R E D | | I N F O

Player
Name: the scarlet
Preferred Pronoun: whicheveerrr but 'she' is fine for simplicity's sake
Contact: rancors, pm

Character
Name: Mairon, Annatar, Zigur, Sauron
Canon: Tolkien's Legendarium, The Silmarillion, Akallabeth

Pull-point: Akallabeth, right after being drowned during the sinking of Numenor

Power Opt-in post link: OPT-IN

Content Opt-out post link: OPT-OUT

Age: ageless / before time / before the ufeatures, rounded / non-elven ears. currentLY appears to be mid-late 30s. eternally.

Gender/Sex: gender chosen as male, but theoretically chosen before any definitions were applied to male or female. physical sex generally chosen as male.

Appearance: no canonical description. in my depiction of his form at this canonpoint, he is ~7ft in height, Mannish (rounded / non-Elven ears), vaguely Numenorean in features. long black hair, brown/gold eyes. physically on the lean side, almost deceptively so. freckles on various parts of his body. has a scar over his throat where it was torn into by Huan.

History: He was a Maia, a lesser spirit of the Ainur, created by Eru Illuvatar in the beginning before anything else. From the teachings of Eru, Mairon became a follower of Aule, learning all things concerning smithing and stone. He valued order and efficiency, and shunned Melkor's chaos until well after they entered the universe and landed on Arda.

Only after the destruction of the lamps did Mairon fully 'defect' to Melkor's side, aiming to utilize the Vala's strength and power to carry out a new method of efficiency and order. In little time he became one of if not the most loyal of Melkor's servants, and soon became Lieutenant of the Angband fortress. As lieutenant he had a part in just about everything Melkor did, and the Elves named him Sauron, the Abhorred. When Melkor was absent from the fortress, Mairon was the one who assumed control his lands and forces, and he relinquished the throne back to his master when he returned each time.

Melkor's armies terrorized Beleriand for thousands of years. At the end of the War of Wrath, Melkor was captured by the Valar and dragged away, thrown into the Void as punishment. Mairon pleaded to spared and to repent, but refused to return to Valinor to face his punishment. Instead he fled and hid in Middle-Earth, choosing to take up the task of repairing the damage that was done. He set up his own kingdom, Mordor, and built the tower of Barad-Dur as its capital. Eventually he sought the aid of several Elven settlements. Only Celebrimbor of Eregion accepted his proposal.

Together with the Elven jewelsmiths, he and Celebrimbor made the Rings of Power, and Mairon himself made the One Ring to control the others. The Elves wearing the Rings of Power realized what was happened and rose up against him. Mairon in turn took his armies from Mordor and razed Eregion to the ground, took Celebrimbor hostage and eventually killed him, and proceeded to take over most of Eriador within the year. His hold lasted until Tar-Minastir of Numenor responded to Gil-Galad's call and drove Mordor's forces back.

With the Rings of Power, Mairon turned East and South instead, bringing the Easterlings and Southrons under his sway as he sought for the last Three made by Celebrimbor himself and still in hiding. He distributed the Rings of Power amongst Men and Dwarves, hoping to gain more minions or allies. He could not control the Dwarves overtly; the nine Men, on the other hand, eventually became Ringwraiths.

1500 years later, Ar-Pharazon of Numenor marched to Mordor and Mairon allowed himself to be brought back as a prisoner. Within three years he became Court Advisor to the King and soon turned the already Valar-scorning Numenoreans to worshiping Melkor instead, having them cut down Nimloth and sacrifice their own 'faithless' people in Morgoth's name.

Then he sent Ar-Pharazon to invade Valinor and Numenor was sunk. And Mairon along with it.

Personality: Manipulation is his game. He is called a deceiver, but he does not necessarily lie all the time. When he says he wants to heal Arda, it's true-- only his ideas and methods to do so are a little more than amoral. With his love of order and efficiency, one could say his modus operandi is 'the ends justify the means', in the most extreme cases. For all that he wants to heal Arda (for whatever his definition of 'healing' is; in this case, 're-ordering' it as he sees fit), he is completely fine with razing settlements, destroying forests, enthralling Men, tricking them into joining his forces. Perhaps in his eyes, Men and Elves are not required.

He promises immortality, power, godhood, freedom, and has the proof to back it up-- himself. He is strategic, resourceful, and if nothing else, he is a survivor of the War of Wrath, regardless of his status as a Maia. He witnessed the capture of his master, the death and destruction of Melkor's forces and his allies, his friends, and the fall of Beleriand. With only himself and no one else, he learned how to use what he did have to gain more, to do what he needed to do. Where Melkor might have shared some idea of his plans, his intentions for doing what he did, Mairon never does. Those closest to him after the War of Wrath either end up dead or under his complete control. The easiest way to prevent insubordination and betrayal.

Like Melkor, Mairon has a vision of how Arda should be, and is willing to use whatever means to achieve it. Unlike Melkor, however, Mairon is not as arrogant, not as petty, not as cowardly, and he is completely fine with following along.. but only those he chooses to follow, be it the Valar, Aule, or Melkor. He is and always will be a Lieutenant, someone who serves another. Yet at the same time, he only serves himself. He tries to throw off Melkor's influence and heal and order Arda instead of corrupting it for his master, even if in the end he winds up doing just that.

What he will do in a strange world with no means of control and limited power, one can only imagine. But time means nothing to him, so if he decides to lay low and wait, spend it doing other, less productive things.. well. He did spend almost 1000 years under the radar after Melkor's capture at the end of the First Age.

Abilities: Under my headcanon, Mairon is a follower of Aule and a spirit of the Earth, so his powers will reflect that (save for the sorcery that he learns from Melkor). Limitations will be proposed in parentheses.

- Ainur immortality, regeneration. will not age and is pretty hard to kill / keep dead.
(still has advanced healing/regeneration but not as pronounced as it usually is, and particularly devastating injuries will leave scars.)

- shapeshifting; canon forms have been a wolf, a snake, and a bat, all much larger than usual/man-sized or greater, under the reasoning that Huan was supposedly the size of a horse, so Mairon's form would not have been smaller than that.
(limited to these specific forms. restricted to a few times per day, more tiring than usual.)

- manipulation / control of elements, namely the earth, stone, and to an extent manga and lava, shaping it in the way that Arda was shaped. Nowhere near as pronounced as Aule's control or Melkor's, but still enough to pass himself off as a god. He uses this sparsely enough as is, and only on a small scale.
(cannot alter geography, limited to 10 square miles in effect; attempting to alter the music too much will be painful)

- lies and deception, using a part of his will to influence his manipulation and control over others.
(will be limited with permissions post.)

- increased strength, speed, resistance, resilience, superhuman, but only just.

- all but immune to temperature extremities and normal toxic environments-- regularly lives in/under/near active volcanoes and areas with little to no sunlight.

- sorcery: canon examples include enchanting the foundation of Barad-Dur to be indestructible by any current known means; enchanting a ring to improve upon latent powers and incidentally corrupt its wearer; and illusions, as used in the deception of Gorlim. in all, mostly defensive / deceptive magics.
in canon, the 'magic' battle between Mairon and Finrod is only described as 'songs' of power, of defending, etc, as an 'art' instead of classic 'magic'. my interpretation is that it involves manipulation of the music that was used to set the blueprint of Arda in the beginning, using one's voice as the transmitter. audio-visual illusions, so to speak. theoretically speaking, the only way to stop him from making any 'music' is to completely remove his vocal cords.
(will be limited with permissions post and draining effect when used on large scale / long term. given this interpretation, the draining effect could be a result of the sorcery being very tied to a specific world, and thus less effective in a 'different' Arda. limited to illusions of things not himself.)

- foresight, of a kind. knowledge of what Arda is and has been, will be; knowing the entire history of Arda in flashes and bits and pieces.
(limited to recalling only the history of his own Arda up until canonpoint)

- tolkien's version of telepathy / mind-speak.
(limited by permissions post.)

Inventory:
- Numenorean High Priest robes
- a knife concealed within a small idol statue of Melkor/Morgoth
- various Numenorean style jewelry pieces
- a pendant bearing the insignia of the Eye of Mordor/Sauron
- NO RING

Anything else: can he arrive completely soaking wet mid-drowning? 8V