Ye Olde Kinship History Discussion

[Ar-Valdarnby]

OK
These are the posts from the old PK forums about Kinship History. I doub that we’ll be using the exact same idea, but I thought that ignoring all this work would be a waste.

I’ve had some trouble quoting from the other forums, so I had to do it all manual ‘copy –and-paste’ style. It doesn’t look very pretty, but c’mon I’ve already done enough work.

Tin

I got rather bored tonight and was thinking it was about time we started thinking about a history for the kinship. I looked through the personal histories that I could see and then wrote this, I was wondering what you thought.
Just thinking that we ought to start thinking about it soon as I've heard somewhere that our lack may be putting people off our kinship.
I suppose our history begins the first time they fought together. It was the year 1974 of the third age when the founding members met and fought side by side. They met in what was then Arnor, it was during the time that the Witchking was riding ruin through those lands and destroying all before him.
Our founding members were amongst those that resisted him, and helped slow his passage in order to give the common, peaceful folk time to flee to safety. Those original members are still known and named on special days when we remember PeaceKeepers both present and those lost down the years. Addraerraent, Calenia, Lómarandil, Féldur the elves Varan, Aaecian, Owacyn, Rigwyn the men; Driadoc Primstone and Sirry Greenhand the hobbits and even the dwarves Rilin and Demli. May they rest in peace as we hold back the tides of evil.
Though the battle was ultimately lost and the Witchking triumphed our founders could not just sit back and let the Witchkings minions and the hordes of orcs and other foul creatures destroy all they had worked so hard to protect, so like the Rangers they took a vow to never stop till all evil had been exterminated from the world and the people of Middle Earth could sleep safely again.
And so began the PeaceKeepers, as our founders travelled around they fought by our code and kept faith that one day the land would be free. They found many enemies in all areas of Middle Earth from Fornest and beyond in the North and Southern Gondor in the South.
As the years passed and members grew old or died in battle, new members were recruited all of whom were worthy people who would live by the code and honour the sacrifice made of those before but most importantly would be willing to continue the PeaceKeepers on going legacy. People who display these values are hard to come by at times as this world heads towards the next great battle, so, though the common man may look upon the PeaceKeepers with awe, there numbers dwindle, but they keep on fighting and will do so till the end.
And so it brings me to today and our party of elves, men, dwarves and hobbits; all sworn to up hold the PeaceKeeper way and help through whatever may come. With the turmoil we have seen around recently, the next war can not be far off, and we often get men, elves, dwarves and even homily hobbits coming from far off to join us in our fight, many of whom have tales similar to mine, of the enemy coming from nowhere to take everything precious to you then vanishing back into the night, leaving you with nothing but pain and misery.
WE SHALL FIGHT! WE SHALL NEVER GIVE UP!
it's just an idea, and anyones comments would be greatfully accepted. Also if anyone else wants to write one feel free, I'm just finding stuff to fill time, lol

Elindir

I liked that Tin. You've done a good job, especially the bit about our numbers dwindling. The only comment I can make on that superb piece of writing is that 'Peace Keepers' has a space. Also, what does 'homily' mean as it's a word I haven't come across before, or was it a typing error As for a suggestion on how to improve it, maybe the bit about 'all sworn to up hold the PeaceKeeper way' could be changed to something about the Keepers Vow

Tin

Sorry about those typo's it was about 1am when I was typing it. I'll go back and change it after hearing what else needs doing.
Oh and I'm afraid the homily bit was supposed to be homely? I'll get one of the people I know from GFF to try and explain, English student, lol.
EpyonEdit: *from gff* Homely (sp?) is an indication of familiarity based on home surroundings; when talking about people or other non-entities, it's a personality trait indicative of being a good natured host. A textual example (well, a pair of them) would be Belkira and Beltira in the Belgariad. A pair of shepards they can't stand to see anything starve or go sick/cold and they're polite and courteous in the face of near enough anything. They also have a tendancy to stay at home, or else are deemed better off staying at home. As such they seem to fit perfectly with their home surroundings, rather than someone who seems out-of-place even at home.
I hope this explains it a little. It's not the type of thing I tend to use. Too few syllables *goes off past the kitty Tinorfithiel reciting the meaning of historiographic metafiction and heterotopia as well as sociologicalphenomenology*
I do like the idea of changing the my comment on a code to being the Peace Keepers' vow *yes Epyon is still here... grr... rotten english lit student*
Once I have some more feedback either I or anyone who feels like it can update and improve it. Feel free to add anything and make comments, it does need some work, this is only supposed to be a rough outline, taking in to account our various histories.

Acrolein

Sounds good

Tin

Yep, fits my overall idea of the kinship well.
Could use a few more periods when you fix it up, though
And by the way, welcome back Acrolein

Uorion

I like it, but I am a little confused about whether our characters are the founders or not.

Elindir

I suppose the founders bit was the only bit which confused me. I think that maybe the kinship shouldn't be too old, maybe have us few as the founders, after all that is what we are, then the newer members we get could be the 'younger generation'. On second thoughts I have realised that I personnaly don't see the kinship as being very old, I see us as being the founders. Or maybe we could have something along the lines of 'us' being the younger generation, and now taking the lead since the 'founders' have gone. Just my ideas PS. Welcome back Acrolein. Nice to see you dropping by

Hawk

That's good Tin. I suggest we don't post anything in relation to histories on MEO though.
For there are a few who just want to come in with the purpose of closing down kinship threads when they come to denounce kinsip histories. They know this is the result but they come to post in the thread anyway and no action on the mods seem to go against them either.
I really found Abdiel's idea on the histories to be quite intriguing. He wanted to combine our histories into the main histroy.
I need to redo my history though in order to fit it into Middle-Earth. One day I'll get around to that.

Tin

This was only supposed to be an idea for a history, and I was taking into account the histories that have been posted for individual people, in mine it says that I met the Peace Keepers many times before 2954 therefore the kinship must have existed a while before that, using my history as a basis. The reason why I left you guys as been more modern members is the fact you are men and dwarves e.t.c though we can alter both personal and kinship histories to suit us all.
I personally liked the idea of giving the kinship a history dating back a bit as it gives us some more depth and history for our various vows. It also gives us a reputation to uphold.
Oh and just to say when Epyon had a brief glance over what I'd written he said:
A nice, very BASIC outline to a story. It gives you a good position to start from but there's a lot more that will need to go in if you want this to be an in-depth history. I think the age is slightly too old if the original members were the ones lobbying anyone to join, as even in Tolkein men don't live that long. You could have a different battle a little closer to the time, or else some form of prophecy before hand; you don't have to keep absolutely to the history written by Tolkein. In fact you've already deviated from it slightly by having dwarves and elves working peacefully before the events of LoTR; as far as I'm aware they didn't mix that much at all before hand, as shown by the seige of the Dwarves towards the end of "The Hobbit". It might be worth getting more ideas from your members as to how they see it going, but leaving the ultimate decision as to what gets included to whomever writes it. I think for a history as rich as the one you're looking for this is a good start; not a great one, but passable by any standard, as far as notes for a set of notes go anyway. If you want an idea for how the sort of depth you might wish to go into, either read "The Rivan Codex" by Eddings, as well as "Belgarath the Sorcerer", or I could send you some notes for one of the novels I'm working on. Let me know if you do, I'll try and dig some of the more useful stages up for ya.
I think he makes some good points in that, though the main reason I set it so far back in history was that I wanted a major battle that was lost. Can someone help me find a nearer one, I left some of my books at home. Though one thing about using us as founding members is that we've all said that we met the already formed Peace Keepers at such and such a point, so who originally formed us? The other thing would be that when was a battle or something that would have made all our different races work together, most of us should in theory hate each other, lol.
Any help with any of these points would be appreciated.

[Ar-Valdarnby]

PART 2!!!

Elindir

Now you put it that way Tin, I see the benefits of having a history dating quite a way back. I can't think of any major battles off the top of my head but I'll have bit of a dig around tomorrow if nobody else can think of one. Or maybe it doesn't have to be a major battle. Tokein mentioned that the Dunedain had many battles with orcs, trolls and wargs from the Misty Mountains. It is just as possible that there could have been a battle involving elves and men fighting together aginst these enemies at some point, but including dwarves and hobbits as well could be tricky. Maybe we could do something along the lines of fighting against dunlendings, that wya it wouldn't be too far from the Shire, having hobbits battle all the way in the south would be even less realistic.
With the issue of the elves and dwarves not getting on, it could be included in the history how the head elf and head dwarf had a disagreement and from this there was caused some tragic disaster, teaching them to work together in the future.
To add more depth, we could each adopt the role of one of the founders and give each of them a brief history, so we can really bring them, and therefore the foundation of the kinship, to life.

Tin

One of my major reasons for choosing the Witchking battle was the fact that I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that the Hobbits sent some archers, and as the dwarves were threatened they would be there too, aswell as the elves and men.
Before I start fiddling with what I've done, could people let me know whether they prefer the idea of us being the founders of our kinship (which means that most of us would need to rewrite our personal histories to talk about forming rather than joining the Peace Keepers) or whether we are the current generation which is what I wrote in the history I made up.
Personally, I don't like the idea of the dwarves and elves learning to get on due to an argument between a head elf and dwraf having bad repurcussions, it just sounds kind of fake and nothing like that is mentioned in any of the books I've read. For one thing why would they have made an agreement in the first place. I took the idea that they fought side by side, if someone saves your life a few times you tend to like them for it, whatever you may think of their race/background.
What you said about the founders, if we decide that we are the modern members, then yes I think your idea about us adopting them to flesh them out would be good. What I wrote (if we want to use it) is only an outline, it needs a fair bit more flesh. If we do little personal histories for the founders we could put the links to them as their names in the kinship history so those who are intrested can learn more without haveing to search for it.
I deliberately left most of hte history after the forming blank so that we can make sure that the Peace Keepers are where ever we want them to be for picking up new members, and if we get bored we can always add in some tales about what the Peace Keepers were doing at any set time.
In my mind, our history is not a static thing, it's something we can add to and inrich at our leasure, I just wanted to get it started so we can have some depth to it before the game comes out and we're all to busy playing it to come here as often.
Any other things people would like included, please let me know, I've got some free time coming up soon and I thought I would make a little project of roughing out a history. We don't have to use it, but it would be intresting to bandy some ideas around. That or anyone who feels like it can try writing a history, I don't mind, mine was mainly to get ideas flowing, as it is something we're going to want at some point.

Elindir

I decided to have a bash at throwing a few ideas together and attempting part of history. I think it's quite good but then taht is just my biased opinion
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The great battle at Angmar, fought in the year 1409, was one of the fiercest that Eridor had ever witnessed. The Dunedain fought with great courage, the elves of Rivendell showed their true worth and even the dwarves of the Ered Luin showed their strength. And unknown to all of these, there was a small band of hobbit archers, they were not particularly strong or brave, but they stood firm until the end.
Among these races there were skilled warriors, but few more so than Aaecian. He was a lord of Fornost, but was not as proud as men of his kin; he was not too afraid to ask for aid when he needed it or to befriend those of alien race.
It happened to be in one particular ambush that Aaecian of Fornost, Féldur of Rivendell and Demli the Dwarf were caught out in the open with their respective races. As the battle raged around him, Aaecian could see that all was not well. Elves and dwarves, who should have been fighting together, were being too stubborn to put aside their differences, refusing each others help. Seeing that if things continued this way there would be no hope what so ever, Aaecian decided to intervene. Once they had reached the camp containing many different warriors from all sorts of life, Aaecian decided to hold a meeting to show his concerns. It was after dinner that he stood on a log next to the central fire and called to him many listeners and once he had got their attention he told of what he had seen that day and how he dreamed for a future where all could fight together without discrimination or ridicule. But this did not go down well, he was laughed out of the camp for being so bold as to express his opinion.
However, he was not alone. After him left a small group, with no more than seven members, who followed him into the wilderness and eventually found him on his own atop of a round hill surrounded by forest. Within this group there was Féldur and Lómarandil the elves, the men Varan, and Rigwyn, Driadoc Primstone and Sirry Greenhand the hobbits and Demli the Dwarf. They told Aaecian that they all agreed with him and how they too wanted a peaceful future. So it was, on this misty night atop a bald hill that the Peace Keepers were formed.
The group travelled towards Angmar, in search of their companions so they could join in the great battle of their time, but it was too late. The battle had seen that the allied races were utterly destroyed, down to the last hobbit; apart from the few who had managed to flee the battle. Those that were found lost in the wild, naked and hungry were freely given aid by the Peace Keepers. Some of these destroyed soles were even persuaded to join the wandering group including the elves Addraerraent and Calenia, the man Owacyn and even Rilin, an extremely stubborn dwarf. It was in this way that the Peace Keepers began to grow in numbers, but this did not last long.
Angmar had come out as the victor in that battle and now foul and vicious creatures wandered the lands freely; except those who felt the strength of the blades or the sharpness of the arrows of the Peace Keepers. The Peace Keepers patrolled the lands of Eridor for nearly a hundred years, recruiting those which they could and assisting those that needed help. But the slow decay of time always has it’s toll on things and it was about now that their numbers began to once again dwindle; hobbits men and even dwarves cannot live forever, and the elves who had always been few became even less as the frequency of attacks increased.
In the year 1636 the great plague struck Eriador whipping out many regions; in this time the leadership of the Peace Keepers passed onto Numbor the elf. Numbor led the Peace Keepers for many years but soon fell tired war and no longer desired to fight so instead took up an advisory position. But with no one to lead them the remaining Peace Keepers became lazy and stopped actively trying to recruit, causing the numbers to dwindle even more. This continued until there were none left; this was almost the end of the Peace Keepers. Numbor removed himself to the hills at the foot of the Misty Mountains where he lived in content solitude, save for his occasional visits to Rivendell or local villages. To none would he speak of the horrors he had seen, but it was apparent in his eyes that he knew much more than he would ever reveal to anyone.

It was rumoured that Sauron had returned and that he was gathering many evil creatures to himself in Mordor. It was on one of his visit to Rivendell in the year 3013 that Numbor heard this, and was warned that orcs and the like would soon return to Eriador. It was now that Numbor realised he should not have been complacent with the Peace Keepers. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before some foul creature would send him to the halls of Mandos, Numbor went in search of a suitable candidate to whom he could pass on stories of ancient deeds and great courage; it was time to reawaken the Peace Keepers.
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Let me know what you think

[Ar-Valdarnby]

PART 3!!!!

Tin

I think it's good, though I do have a few things I would like to say.
I'm not sure whether just mentioning that the strife between the dwarves and elves is damaging the war woudl convince any to change sides, you have to remember that they've grown up hating each other and that sort of racisim is very hard to break through. Personally (yes I know it might be a little biased but *shrug*) I think the idea of them saving each others lives and building up trust in battle works better, as I know of many cercumstances where that sort of thing has broken through rasicim, though I don't know any cases of someone loosing their rasist thoughts and feelings after being told while they are bad.
The other thing is about the fact the Peace Keepers disintegrate then are reformed. For one thing who in our kinship would be Nabdor? And I tihnk we ought to have been round since we were formed, it gives those of us who are elves (and any future elves) more time we can play with about when we joined. My character especially wouldn't have joined a newly formed Peace Keepers as she doesn't like knowing people, in my history the reason she joins is that the Peace Keepers and she have worked together many times and she knows she needs help. (Yes I know I can rewrite my history, I just wanted to point it out).
I think that if the Peace Keepers are to split, it could be say a lack of numbers, or a big battle that wiped most of us out, so those left go thier own ways, but then it is reformed with new blood when the current threat comes along, that way us older elves can say we've been a part of the kinship a long time, and how we know about the Peace Keepers so much. (bother, that's badly worded but I can't think of the wording right now, I'll try and rephrase it if you don't get what I'm going on about).
Just my few comments, other than that, great.

[Elindir]

Triple posting?

Oh well, good work Eol. Now we just need to decide on what we're going to use for our re-make of the history.

[Ar-Valdarnby]

I tried to get it all in one post, but apparently there's a 10,000 word limit. Who knew?

[Elindir]

*waves hand*

Pick me! Pick me! I knew it! ;D

[Ar-Valdarnby]

*blatantly ignores Elindir*

Anyone? Did anyone know about the 10,000 word limit? If someone doesn't answer me I might have to assign extra homework.

[The Great Eye]

I knew about it. I tried posting something that was monumentally long and couldn't. NO HOMEWORK!!

[Ar-Valdarnby]

Good job Hex, a thousand points to you.

But you were wrong with the no homework. I said no Extra homework. You still have to do a book report on Old Man and the Sea by tomorrow for me. ;D

[The Great Eye]

NO NO!! I detest that book!!! Please! no!!

I had to do a report on it last year....

I wonder if it is saved in my computer still......

[Elindir]

Just because you're a Mod doesn't mean you can set me homework. But make sure Mil hands his in ;D

[The Great Eye]

There is no way I am doing more homework. I checked and it is not in my comp anymore. BLeh! and it was a bad book. I did not like it.

[Ar-Valdarnby]

I can set you homework, you just don't have to do it

Lol it really was a horrible book, but If you're just going to turn in an old report then I'll just have to change the assignment. Let's say a book report on....The Scarlet Letter

EDIT darn the outpostingness!!!!! For that, you'll just have to do booth reports HA!

[The Great Eye]

what is a booth report?

JK!

The Scarlet Letter was not that bad of a book. I would do a report on that, but it has been a while since I read it.

[Uorion]

Once again we get off track, and once again I raise my post count. Muahahahahaha....

[Ar-Valdarnby]

Hey, Hey, Hey!

I'll not have spamming on this board, that belongs in the off-topic, where I don't have to worry about it