#yeah me with Corunir

[a-lonely-dunedain]

12.............. with Corunir?

So you have chosen... Tur-Morva. *evil laughter* wherein the rescue instance goes horribly awry in a canon-compliant way

“Eth… Help me” Ethedis hears a weak but familiar voice behind her, one that she would be overjoyed to hear in any other circumstances and speaking any other words. She was a split moment from sprinting down the tunnel, where she had heard Bregadir frantically calling for a healer mere seconds ago. 

Instead, she stops and pivots around to see Corunir collapsed on one knee, breathing heavily and bleeding more so, a deep shadow of crimson growing beneath him. Horror sets in the pit of her stomach.

She stoops to steady him just in time as he falls forward into her arms. “I think… wounds reopened…” he mutters faintly as Ethedis struggles to reposition him to asses his injury. 

“Corunir…?” No response “…Corunir!” She calls frantically, still to no avail. He’s fading fast. She fights to bury the panic welling up in her heart. She has to stay calm if she is to have any hope of saving him. She prays someone else heard Bregadir’s call for a healer, she cannot help both of them.

There is a long cut on his stomach, that seems to be the primary source of the blood. The wound is not fresh, seeming days old yet healing very poorly. No doubt an injury sustained during the Grey Company’s capture and left to fester after he was thrown into that dark cell, just beyond the reach of his kin. It seems to have reopened in the battle. His strength has already been long spent, and this rapid loss of blood would be enough to push him over the edge. His face is pale and his breath slows with each moment, he is minutes away from death.

She puts her hand to the wound, applying as much pressure as she can in her already weakened state. “Please… just hang on. Just a little longer…” she pleads, blinking away tears. He cannot hear her. 

She takes a deep breath and turns her mind outwards, beyond herself and this small corridor. She does not know how deep below the earth they are, but deep enough that she cannot hear the slumbering trees or even reach their roots, but she doubts they would be willing to lend her their power anyway, not while it’s still winter. She keeps searching. She finds some moss, it wants to help, but it is too small for this task. 

After a search that, in reality, barely lasted a moment yet it felt like hours, she finally finds something. An underground river, flowing swift and strong beneath the earth, unaffected and uncaring of all else, yet holding great power. She begs the dark cold waters for aid, to lend her its strength and grant this dying man in her arms new life. 

‘Please. Please just buy him a little more time. Let me save him. It isn’t his time yet. Not here. Please.’

There is nothing. The river has no reason to care. She fears it will give her nothing.

Nothing, and then the sound of rushing water thundering in Ethedis’ ears alone, the shock of cold water in her veins, and an unfamiliar power flowing through her hands. Flowing like a torrent of water too powerful for her to tread in such a weakened state, yet tread it she must. She sends it into Corunir’s near-lifeless body. Close the wound, stop the bleeding, give him the strength to survive. 

There is water now, but not from the river, it flows from Ethedis’ eyes. Her hands tremble and her arms burn as though she has been swimming against the current of an ocean. Acting as a conduit of power such as this would test her limits even on a good day, and this was anything but ‘a good day’. 

She cannot do this. She cannot hold onto this river. Corunir is still bleeding. If she stops now it will not be enough to save him, but she cannot hold on. More water escapes her eyes, a sob from her throat.

Suddenly she feels another set of hands atop her own, calloused, worn, and strong. A familiar voice beside her, it belongs to Golodir.

“Easy, Ethedis, easy. You’re doing well. It will be alright.” If he is afraid, his voice will not betray it, and that is all the better for Ethedis. 

With the practiced confidence only an experienced captain could possess, he manages to steady her. She can hold on a little longer, she is not fighting alone, Golodir found them. He says it’s going to be ok, and she believes him.

She keeps it up just long enough, but not a moment more. She cracks open one eye and sees Corunir's bleeding has finally slowed, if not stopped altogether. Some color has returned to his face as well. She thinks it is safe to stop now. She looks over to Golodir and sees worry in his eyes, but no fear. He simply nods at her, she thinks she hears him say something, but she cannot make out the words. She lets go and collapses. She thinks Golodir caught her, but her body is numb with cold and she can’t feel much of anything. He calls out to her, but she lacks the strength to respond and consciousness quickly abandons her. Corunir is alright at least. Golodir found them, everything will be alright.

(Yaaay Golodad to the rescue! there was meant to be another part to this, where Corunir comes to later and actually has the chance to talk to Ethedis, but it wasn't coming together fast enough so I'll probably just add that part *gestures vaguely* "later". I DO like what I had so far, but it was my first time actually properly writing dialog between those two and I wanted to make sure I did a good job, ya can't rush it. you'll see it later.)

#anyway heeey look my first time actually writing about the ranger I'm so obsessed with! #idk why I put it off so long I think I was just worried about doing a bad job #you know when you have a blorbo you care so much about you're afraid to make content about them bc what if it won't be Good Enough #yeah me with Corunir #I still don't even know how to draw him #ty for the ask friend! #I'm doing these horribly out of order I still haven't technically gotten to the first one yet oops #oh well! #love that cameo of Tossdir literally dying in the background hehe (the reason Bregadir was frantically calling for a healer) #also hi Bregadir how do you keep showing up in my fics? #my favorite background character has to be that moss tho #I wants to help!!! it's just moss it can't DO anything but it wants to help!! I love it #lotro #lotro fic #Corunir #Golodir #lotro oc #Ethedis

[rohirric-hunter]

So I now have all five NPCs successfully implemented. I need to give them all custom dialogue and a range of things that they'll say and then I'll be at the point where I'm ready to start actually making quests, which is pretty cool!

After that comes the really hard part, though, which is the part where I figure out how to add custom models into the game. I want to give them customized outfits and stuff, but tutorials about this are not really geared towards beginners.

Oh yeah and I think I know how to get rid of the ks hairdos dependency, but I need to do a little more research about that before I start messing about with it.

But the absolute next step is to figure out why Corunir absolutely refuses to use any combat build except constant shieldbashing supplemented by a healing spell.

#rangercamp #i increased shieldbashing priority by 2%... and this is what happens #he will not even touch his sword. he doesnt even have it equipped most of the time #oh yeah i also need to take all of candaiths junk out of corunirs inventory too #b/c corunir is just a copy of candaith with his name and appearance and fighting style and voicetype and class and skills and spells #*deep breath* and perks and clothes and id and location and relationships changed #but the only thing i did with his inventory is add the shield #anyhow my hope is to have a basic setup with the five followers and a basic radiant quest to 'unlock' them as followers #utilizing the classic 'do one (1) quest for me and ill literally die for you' skyrim setup #and at that point. like. its not DONE i have other things ill work towards #but if everything works right that would be version 1.0 #which i mean i know ive been working on this for 10 months but its still wild to me that im this far along

[poetry-draws]

‘I will be glad to see daylight again, and I know Lothrandir must feel the same!’

#lotro #Lothrandir #radanir #Corunir #yeah it's happy about lothrandir hours #this one's for you sarc #we just accused me of being too mean to these guys #well that's not incorrect #but see?? nice??? i made nice #mostly a fabric study #and the dad-gummed hands

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

i am, unfortunately, still thinking about the bad au

#we don't often scrap things entirely but that one's definitely A Lot #but yeah this hasn't stopped me from thinking about ncf the living #and the talk about est and corunir the other day #and how est definitely makes reckless promises sometimes #especially to her friends #aaaa #est #none chill friends

[a-lonely-dunedain]

Will you tell me about Ethedis and Corunir? Like when they first met/early parts of their acquaintance? Several people have some AUs where their PCs help him cross the Rammas Deluon to meet up with other Rangers, do you have anything like that? Any thoughts on what they do together post-canon?

my blorbos! of course I will :3

I think I touched briefly on this in another ask, but they meet in pretty much the same way it takes place in the epic line. only difference being that in the initial quests where you're investigating the watching stones Corunir goes with Ethedis on those errands instead of just staying back in Aughaire. he's had enough of waiting around and wants to help in any way he can, even if he can't get close to the lesser stones (and as capable as this elf seems in matters of lore, her survival instinct clearly leaves a lot to be desired. by a ranger's standard, at least). besides, even if he didn't want to go Ethedis probably would have dragged him along anyway lol (insisting he stay further away than necessary from the lesser stones of course). I mean, clearly her new friend is Not Doing So Great emotionally, so what better way to cheer him up than a buddy road trip across Fasach-larran? literally anything else? shhh she's trying her best ok

anyhow, so they fight some Duvárdain and wargs, have some bonding moments, Ethedis' infectious smile achieves the impressive feat of actually improving Corunir's mood somewhat, the start of a beautiful friendship, ect ect...

so as far as getting Corunir across Rammas Deluon goes, I always figured Ethedis would damage the stone heart of one of the Watching Stones allowing Corunir a path through.

y'know the light of the rising dawn skill LMs get? that's kinda like a concentrated laser beam of pure sunlight? I betcha firing a big one of those would damage the dark stone heart alright! of course firing a massive sun laser like that was extremely taxing on Ethedis, and not something she had ever really tried to do at that scale before. she learned the hard way she probably shouldn't try to do it again, lest she burn up from the inside out Fëanor Style™. (ok her spirit isn't *that* powerful or anything, it's just that her body isn't strong enough to channel that much power at once or something. Idk how I want to say LM skills work exactly. am I making any sense? probably not! I just can't have Ethedis firing off laser beams all willy-nilly like she does in game so I gotta put some heavy limitations on it. having it almost kill her seems reasonable! I'm so nice to my character 😊)

Ethedis is still standing but shakier than she expected to be, doing that left her physically hurt in some invisible way, as if it burned her on the inside. she's hiding it well enough for the moment however. it's still not going to be easy to pass Rammas Deluon, for Corunir especially, between the lingering malice of the now lifeless stone and his dark memories of this place the bones of his kinsmen lying before him it still takes all the strength he has left not to bolt in terror. honestly he didn't even expect to make it this far, but he's not alone this time. Ethedis keeps her hand on Corunir's shoulder as they walk through, partially to reassure him, partially to keep herself from falling over.

Now the thing about the watching stones is that it could very well be possible to repair them by simply replacing the damaged heart, and once the Iron Crown realizes that one of the stones has been rendered useless and there's a gap in their most effective line of defense, they're not going to waste any time in filling it back in. Corunir realized this as soon as Ethedis proposed her crazy plan to him, and when she murmurs something along the lines of "I will not I'll be able to do that again..." after blasting the stone heart, he realizes that passing the Rammas will probably be a one-way trip for him (it won't be of course, he'll eventually gain the strength to challenge the stones himself, but at this moment he doesn't see that as a possibility). you'd think that knowledge would make crossing the valley that much harder for him, but surprisingly it's the least of his worries right now. after all, when he agreed to come to Angmar in the first place he knew there was a high chance he wouldn't make it back, they all knew and accepted it. there was a reason no one ever came looking for them. no no, what he was worried about was trying to keep his eyes up and focusing on the horizon. something in the back of his mind was screaming that if he looks anywhere else, to where the bones lay still, he too will join them that's where you belong, isn't it? where you abandoned them? a squeeze of Ethedis' hand on his shoulder breaks him out of his dark reverie, as if she could sense his spirit beginning to falter.

hey wait I was just trying to write a summary here! how'd this turn into an actual attempt at writing? since when do I do that?? false advertising.

anyway yes, they do make it to the other side! exhausted and not unscathed, but they make it. Ethedis finally collapses from the physical strain of the aforementioned laser blast, giving Corunir quite a fright, as for a moment he thinks the stones somehow Got Her. luckily she's still conscious and can assure him that she's ok(-ish) and that destroying the stone heart just took a greater toll on her than she expected. once Corunir carries her a safer distance away from the valley and uses some of his fancy Loremaster Healing Skills™ to help her recover (did I mention I headcannon Corunir as a guardian/loremaster multiclass? lore-guardian? guard-master? idk) they're able to make it the rest of the way to Gabilshathûr and continue the epic line from there.

oh gosh, as for post cannon I haven't really thought all that much about it mostly because thinking too far into Ethedis' future includes Corunir's eventual death. GOSH DANG IT WHY DID I HAVE TO MAKE HER AN ELF ;-; however I did toy around with the idea that they would spend a not-insignificant amount of time in the rebuilt Annuminas (mostly because Evendim was always my favorite region in the game). but even then I don't really see them settling down anywhere. I mean, you know how rangers are, they don't like to stay in one place for too long and Corunir has had enough waiting around to last him a lifetime. and Ethedis is, well, Ethedis. a young elf filled with wanderlust. and with the end of the War of the Ring and the world finally becoming safer, her desire to see ALL of it has increased tenfold. so I'd imagine they're going to spend a long time just traveling around, revisiting old places they didn't get the chance to properly explore (Ethedis is absolutely going to take him on a tour of Rohan. it was so cool and he hardly got to see any of it!). oh yeah and routing out any pockets of Sauron's old lackeys they happen across. that's also important.

ok I got super ramble-y here but I'm hoping that's what you were asking for lol. if even half the things I wrote here made sense I will consider this a victory

#lotro #lotro oc #corunir #lotro spoilers #so yeah! Ethedis and my Blorbo :3 #honestly both of them needed someone to hold their hand and give them forehead kisses I'm so glad they found eachother #(I say. acting as if I wasn't the one who nudged them together whispering 'now hold hands') #shhhhhhh #anyway thank u for asking abt them!! I rarely write anything at all these days unless someone asks me to #so it's good to finally attempt to get the creative juices flowing again. even if they are past their expiration date #and it shows lol #see. this is why I don't have an Ao3 account #long post

[a-lonely-dunedain]

heyas friend! would you be interested in taking about ethedis a little bit? she seems pretty cool from what I've seen so far, and I'm kinda curious about her :D

oh! well sure I'd love to! provided I can get my thoughts into a half-coherent state. I haven't really written anything about her publicly, mostly because I don't really write much of anything publicly. or privately, for that matter. it all just floats around in my head like some kinda thought-soup. or smoothie. so it will probably be helpful to write some of this down anyway lol

ahem! so Ethedis was my first character, so the early parts of her story pretty closely follow the elf-intro quests. main difference being that she wasn't there when the Refuge of Edhelion fell. according to the game it was attacked like 600 years ago, and I think she's waaaay younger than that. I wanna say like 300-something? yeah she's baby. I mean still an adult by elven standards but like, in spirit, she is baby.

but yea she ends up there just as an apprentice Loremaster who's traveling with the sons of Elrond, both to help in any way she can and because this was a good opportunity to study some recent-ish history. also even tho she's from Rivendell she's probably been to the Blue Mountains a couple times. she's actually fascinated by dwarven architecture and culture, so she jumped at the opportunity to join Elladan and Elrohir's party. she wasn't even initially gonna be allowed to come, but she gave Elrond good enough puppy-eyes 🥺 he was like "fine FINE you can go just stop looking at me like that".

Also, I'd been toying around with the idea that in her travels to and from Ered Luin in the past she might've met Amdir and became friends with him, so that just makes everything in Bree So Much Worse for her. because now not only is she experiencing the loss of a mortal friend for the first time, But she's the one who has to help put him down. (not to mention the guilt of "could I have prevented this if I made it to Bree sooner?") it takes her awhile to fully understand that he's like, gone gone, on account of her being so young and like This Has Never Happened Before. anyway yeah, fun stuff :)

good news is that she bounces back from that pretty quickly! I mean kinda. She's just putting her strong emotions to a more productive use, that being hunting down whatever bitchass Nazgul was responsible for her friend's death! she has no idea what she's getting into :)

as far as her personality goes, she's bright, cheerful, and a bit of an airhead (surprising for a Loremaster I know). she's not exactly stupid or anything (I just play it up for comedic effect sometimes lol) but she is young and therefore less experienced and wise than most other elves you would meet in the 3rd age. the benefit of that is that she's not nearly as Tired™ as many other 3rd age elves either, and can handle a lot of emotional distress without losing her sunshiny demeanor. good thing too! Corunir definitely could use a sunshiny friend, considering all he's been through.

OH! right, speaking of Corunir and Ethedis!

When I met Corunir in Aughaire I was just like "oh this poor guy. Ethedis, go /hug him he needs it" and their dynamic just kinda escalated from there. Ethedis the Sunshine Elf™️ just goes "sad ranger??? NOT on my watch!". Ethedis provides much needed emotional support, and Corunir keeps her from walking off cliffs or into pools of death-water. mutually beneficial relationship 😊

In my headcannon, after Ethe masters the watching stones she's able to get close enough to one to damage its heart so Corunir has a path through Rammas Deluon, and they do the rest of the Eriador epic line together. Corunir deff wouldn't have wanted to leave Ethedis to east Angmar on her own, he finally got a friend gosh darn it he's gotta make sure nothing happens to her!

also they hold hands sometimes 😳 maybe even cuddle,,,, 👉👈

gah I'm bad at talking about this, what I'm trying to say is that they're adorable together. I personally headcannon Corunir as demiromantic ace, and Ethe probably is too, so their relationship isn't romantic for like a long time (what can I say? my demiro ace self likes to project onto my blorbos). I'm not sure when they develop romantic feelings for one another. I think there isn't one point I can point to and say "that! there's when they fall in love!", it's more of a gradual thing that just always felt natural to them. they don't notice their relationship changing from platonic to romantic, whatever state it's in is just what feels right. it's like, they don't fall in love, they just kinda end up there at some point. I don't know if I'm making any sense lol. point is, yes I ship my OC who has a personality *vaguely* based on my own with my favorite ranger, what of it? what is life without at least one shamelessly self-indulgent ship? I think everyone should get at least one, as a treat :) also:

*gently slides this image of Corunir and Eth over bc my friend did a rly good job on it and I need u to Look At Them*

anyway uh, yeah! that's some stuff about Ethedis :) my lil elf who's head is full of sunshine instead of braincells. I don't know how to end this post.

#lotro #lotro oc #corunir #I feel like I was just rambling here but like #this is what you asked for! #I think #hopefully? #either way it was nice to actually get some of this written down :) #I probably wouldn't've gotten around to it if someone didn't ask

[a-lonely-dunedain]

11, 12, 17, 34?

"11. If you could have one npc as a companion to run around with you, who would it be? would it be the same for all your characters?"

my blorbo my guy my friendo Corunir!!! I get so SAD every time the quests make me leave him, so I'm taking him with me <3! if I can have different NPC buddies on different characters, I would probably use this feature to save some NPCs from their fates. one takes Candaith, another Lorniel- tho it would make some quest dialogue a bit funny if these choices don't change the plot. (Golodir: "I wish we hadn't lost Lorniel..." Companion!Lorniel: "father I'm right here." Golodir: "sometimes I can still hear her voice..." Companion!Lorniel: "quit telling people I'm dead!"). so yeah, Ethedis and probably a few other character would have Corunir (bc not all my alts have personalities and backstories so I'd just use them to replay content with him), I think Leagriel might have Elrohir, for Blorbo (yes, from your shows!) it's a toss-up between Bingo Boffin and Tubi Thickfist (that guy who has one quest in Moria and I LOVE his name. you can get a glove item from him called "thickfist's thickfists"), oh and Lothrandon gets to hang out with his son, obviously.

"17. Were there any plot twists that really got you somehow?"

*points at Black Book of Mordor Epilogue* does it count if I already knew what the ending was before the story started, but I was just shook by how we got there? bc uh, I'm gonna say I was NOT ready for the wanderer's backstory. oh yeah and *gestures vaguely at Mordirith* him too! and on a related note: shockingly enough the Falcon Clan thing didn't really surprise me? I mean the aftermath did, like we lost A LOT more than I expected there, but the betrayal itself didn't come totally outta left field for me. Tur Morva was always a little off y'know? like how the area was always layered, the stable master and LI vendors are all located at a camp far outside the city, and the whole thing was instanced off. as I was questing there I just had this sneaking suspicion of "huh, this place will probably be full of hostile mobs at some point, that would explain why it's so empty. something really bad is about to happen!" and like, yeah. it did.

it's the same thing with how you know an early game NPC has a good chance of dying or not depending of weather or not there's a door separating them from the overworld. I.E Toradan's room in the Mad Badger means he'll likely die bc the game can just lock you out of that room. meanwhile Candaith is totally safe at his camp in the overworld because at the time the devs didn't have the ability to make NPCs disappear after you finish a quest (I mean clearly that's no longer the case, but you can still see evidence of how it used to be)

"12. Do you have any particular playstyle(s)? (solo vs group play, landscape questing, pvmp, roleplay, etc.)"

well I mostly do solo landscape questing, it is generally what I prefer, but also because I'm far too shy to join groups lol. I'd love to do more group content but the only groups I know are raiding groups and I'm worried about embarrassing myself in front of them ^^; (I do know how to play yellow LM fairly well tho) same goes for roleplaying, I've done some before and it's been really fun but once again I'm Too Shy to join in or start my own groups (like take my shyness about doing group content and make it x1000)

"34. Do you have any wishlist things you would like to see added some day?"

*inhales*

Dwarf Loremasters.

I cannot even begin to describe how much it Baffles me that Hobbit LMs of all things got added and NOT dwarf LMs. I care about this a very abnormal amount and I won't even try to hide it. but if I try to speak at length about it I will rant for paragraphs so we're not going to do that today <3 just know that I will forever be bothered by the lack of dwarf LMs in this game til my dying day.

#thank you friend! #lotro #lotro spoilers #ask games

[poetry-draws]

ok i didn’t full-render Midsummer pub crawl but there was some stuff i was obsessed over drawing it, and wanted to post detail shots:

Nerd Thoughts, under the cut

Lothrandir!!! according to (waves hands) he’s been to Forochel and back, so I figured his second family sent him back with something Nice and Comfy after all the TLC he’s without a doubt getting back with his crew. Loose tunic with Lossoth inspired elements, with an aesthetic sprinkle of Whatever Arvedui Was Wearing

blue + leather are staples of the 2 NPC models the Lossoth have, with wave detailing and tasteful metal studs on the leatherwork. no i didn’t render or texture anything, i am.... very tired

Dagoras!

what can I say except it’s a cleaned-up version of his uniform? Dagoras Represent. stylized black armband motif? idk what you are talking about

Corunir

that’s all i’m gonna say

#lotro #process pics #lothrandir #dagoras #corunir #yeah i tend to throw a lot of nonsense in there #like..... radanir's feet not quite touching the ground? just because i think it's funny #half of this is in here because i thought it'd be funny #orthonn being the least of a lightweight out of him radanir and faeron? hilarious to me

[a-lonely-dunedain]

I just realized something that makes me even more sad about Corunir. at this point I didn't think it was possible but here we are!

(SPOILERS BELOW for major character deaths! I know at least one person who follows me hasn't played through these quests and I don't wanna spoil them [yes Doc I'm talking to you])

OK SO nearly all the other Angmar rangers are dead. like, every single ranger NPC that was originally part of Golodir's company dies, save for two. Corunir is almost the only survivor, and of the two that live he's the only one the player ever really gets to know. I was just at the midsummer fest to check, and yeah, he and Nethraw are the only two Angmar rangers left. I kept scrolling through all the NPCs in Angmar on the wiki and it just went "dead, dead, dead, super dead, dead dead, also died, aw man he died too? dead, dead"

LOTRO, you mean to tell me that my favorite character, who spent possible decades in isolation in Angmar fearing that all his friends might be dead, FINALLY got to see them again only to watch as they're picked off one-by-one over the course of the war and journey south????? you mean to tell me that he lost everything TWICE?? like once wasn't enough????? will you not just let my man rest????????? he never did anything wrong *sobbing and crying*

like, what he says right after Golodir's death just hurts SO MUCH more after you take into account that nearly everyone else was dead at that point. nearly everyone else who understood what he had endured at Rammas Deluon was gone, leaving him alone in more ways than one.

"I cannot believe he is gone, <name>. I spent so much time on this journey worrying about what he was feeling, and worrying about what he had endured, that I gave little thought to myself. But now... There is just emptiness. What do I do now?"

but anyway yeah he's probably having a rough time right now and I am very upset that LOTRO's main quests haven't sent us to check up on him. now if you will excuse me I'm going to melt into a puddle of emotions and cry. I swear as much as I love hurt-comfort fics what I need right now is one that is 100% comforting Corunir and no hurt. I wish I knew how to write good so I could make that, anyway I'm crying about my lack of writing abilities too

#lotro #lotro spoilers #corunir #sad about rangers hours #so so sad about ranger #why does the video game man make me feel so many emotions?????? #who said he was allowed to do that?? #he's my blorbo WHY must you hurt him #anyway I'm really bad at communicating emotions I hope I don't sound TOO much like a crazy person #on account of y'konw #crying over a video game man