Chapter 1: The Usurper - by Elena Tiriel
Chapter Text
The Usurper
"Ornendil, son of Eldacar, bow down before your King!"
He refuses! This renegade refuses to submit to me: the King of Gondor! And now he dares to call me pretender?
"Silence!" My fury will be felt!
The Captain of my Guard salutes. "Sire, should we hang him from the bridge to rot with the other dissidents?"
"No! Summon the people of Osgiliath to the Tower, then take him there and proclaim his disloyalty publicly..." I briefly weigh the most fitting penalty, then smile as I settle on the sentence, relishing my ascendancy.
"Sire?"
"Break his back. Then burn the city!"
***
'Castamir had not long sat upon the throne before he proved himself haughty and ungenerous. He was a cruel man, as he had first shown in the taking of Osgiliath. He caused Ornendil son of Eldacar, who was captured, to be put to death; and the slaughter and destruction done in the city at his bidding far exceeded the needs of war.'
The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion
Chapter 2: The Usurper - by Elena Tiriel
Summary:
For my birthday, I would like something about Castamir, Ornendil, and/or Eldacar. Something Kin-Strifish, which can include the arguments and tensions preceding the actual war. Post-war stuff would also be welcomed. Thanks!
Chapter Text
(posted on a wall in the first circle, writer unknown)
Men of Gondor!
Shall we continue to do nothing whilst we are crushed beneath the bootheel of a petty tyrant?
Shall we continue to live in fear that a misspoken word will bring cruel death to our families?
How many men must disappear in the middle of the night before we say NO MORE
How many daughters and wives must be raped?
How many sons must be murdered in the forced service of a vileursurper?
Have you honour, Men of Gondor?
Can you continue to watch these atrocities being committed in the name of our fair land?
Can you continue to do nothingand still hold yourself a true Son of Gondor?
We cannot allow this foul traitor to continue his reign!
We will not, even though we die!
Chapter 3: We Shall Return - by Marta
Summary:
For my birthday, I would like something about Castamir, Ornendil, and/or Eldacar. Something Kin-Strifish, which can include the arguments and tensions preceding the actual war. Post-war stuff would also be welcomed. Thanks!
Chapter Text
We shall return.
They may drive us from their cities, across the River and away to the South, but we shall return.
They may bring this Eldacar down from the North, but we will not bow to the son of such a house of his, long bereft of all lordship and dignity. I shall not bow.
Gondor loves her strong towers and walled cities, ploughed fields and orchards and stone silos. She has lost her roots: worshipping the land, forgetting Ossë's song.
We remember. We hold Pharazon's pillar, and we shall recall Numenor's majesty. Our fleets grow; our numbers swell.
We shall return.
Chapter 4: What Makes a Barbarian?
Summary:
For my birthday, I would like something about Castamir, Ornendil, and/or Eldacar. Something Kin-Strifish, which can include the arguments and tensions preceding the actual war. Post-war stuff would also be welcomed. Thanks!
Chapter Text
Horses gone, the dogs also. Starved rat, a feast carefully shared. Harbouring strength enough to lift blade and none spared to quench fires raging unchecked through Osgiliath.
“Eldacar! We cannot hold.”
The rightful king must flee a once-fair city.
“Pure-blooded filthy barbarian! He burns his own.”
Escape barely possible, and much abandoned.
“You cannot go in, my lord. ‘Twould be death.”
Hands held him back from the door, heat from the flames searing through mail. The palantír could not be left for that haughty rebel. Ballistas set and loosed. Eldacar watched until the tower fell into the waters of Anduin.
At last he was besieged in Osgiliath, and held it long, until hunger and the greater forces of the rebels drove him out, leaving the city in flames. In that siege and burning the Tower of the Stone of Osgiliath was destroyed, and the palantír was lost in the waters.
Lord of the Rings, Appendix A