your worldbuilding makes a horrifying amount of sense. it fits into the Valar's inability to keep track of things. i really hope someone slaps Manwe and Namo for the doom. it had terrible consequences.
may I ask why Feanor wasn't snatched up? of course, I can see Feanor saying "fuck, nope" at the idea of becoming trapped in the cradle of souls. I believe he would recognize the fake call. in fact, I dearly hope it's him and Fingolfin who find and destroy the thing. because I can't see the Valar tirelessly working at it? (the thought. feanor&fingolfin in the halls and learning that their children meet the most horrible fate)
celebrían's part was sad, tragic but badass in a way.
Maeglin ... I can even understand. He was the first (?) Finweion Morgoth got his hands on after Maedhros and Fingolfin cut his foot off in the meantime. he had no chance.
Curufin I weep for. Celegorm I laughed at because he almost proceeded as if nothing happened at all. (bad boy image pretending not to care)
the fate of the various Orc-children, half Elves and descendants I really, really cheered for. Especially when Arwen reacted so open-minded and acknowledged them as kin.
but fuck the Valar. didn't the journey happen in the first place because there was a shadow and Valinor appeared safer for everyone involved? how can you fuck up so bad?
also: did Morgoth steadily used captured men and dwarves as well? can't imagine that they were save when they died in his captivity/proximity. because the cradle went from a few hundred souls to ... ten thousands and more Orcs in LOTR (at latest)? Even with the explosion of population in Valinor, can the cradle only recycle or does it generate new orcs somehow? even with reusing the same souls over and over again. numbers don't quite match up. only if orc-hatchlings dying early on counts as being born with a soul to capture?
pretty sure I will come back with more thoughts. these are simply the first stumbling out of my mind after reading the story
Since Fëanor didn't die a prisoner or even in the middle of the fight, they couldn't stop him from hearing a call or even do a very good job with a fake call. If they did try to snare him pre-death the way they did Fingon, he probably burnt through the snare without noticing. And it's canon that Fëanor's spirit is observed going to Mandos, so clearly something got him to go there. (Wanted to see Finwë? Wanted to rage at Námo? So angry he couldn't control where he was going and that direction was easiest? Who knows.) …If Morgoth et al had managed to get and hold onto Fëanor's spirit long enough to get it in the orc bank he probably would have exploded out of it. He wouldn't even have to try, their knock-off Mandos-imitation just isn't strong enough to handle that much power.
I think, most likely, Fëanor and Fingolfin don't find out about what happens to their children in the Halls. Certainly no details. Even if they're being shown upsetting things to make them Think About What They've Done, people becoming orcs isn't considered something they did. People becoming orcs is a grotesque, obscene overstep into Námo's jurisdiction and how did they not figure out this was going on for so long why didn't they pick up on this when destroying Utumno, doom is doom and fate is fate and blah blah blah, but this part of fate/doom personally offends him and he will not use it as a tool.
…And overall the Valar are kind of uncommunicative about this. They will not confirm that anyone is an orc. Say they haven't come to Mandos, yes, they may confirm that, but they won't confirm anyone is an orc. They're hoping they can fix the problem before they have to explain it. Or they can fix the problem and then they won't have to explain it. Or it will get fixed.
The Valar are tirelessly distraught about the orc bank. But that doesn't do anyone a whole lot of good, no.
I'm not sure Maeglin being a Finwëan was the major issue as much as Morgoth kind of having a Thing about Gondolin, but yeah. No chance.
Dwarvish souls, definitely not, you can't beat them into shape without shattering them into uselessness. Human souls… I think it's likely Sauron tried and it didn't take properly. He can enslave spirits of Men, obviously. But not as orcs; that system doesn't work on them. They just die all the way.
My story on orc numbers is: Avari. The Avari spread out and have their own population booms — my guess is more of a boom than the Eldar — and many of them don't go to Mandos no matter how they die. Many, many orcs are like Straw — Avari who died for an unrelated reason, didn't answer the call because they don't hold with the Valar around these parts, and then a while later Sauron came along and vacuumed up all the fëar lying around.
Comment on elves, once
mangacrack on Chapter 1 Sat 27 Aug 2022 09:07PM UTC
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Scedasticity on Chapter 1 Sat 27 Aug 2022 10:36PM UTC
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