I need some help integrating one of my player's backgrounds into my Tales from Wilderland campaign. Perhaps those of you more familiar with Middle Earth lore can give me some suggestions.

The character is a Noldor elf that was raised with the Wood elves. His background states that his mother was a deceased diplomat from Lorien. He was raised pretty much as a wood elf. His father is unknown but there is an implication that he is descended from a hidden son of Gil-Galad. The character is currently interacting with Irime and inquiring about his past and she very well might know since she had connections with Gil-Galad herself.

I appreciate that my player had tried to integrate his character into the setting and I want to reward him by making the details of his past as "authentic" and fitting with the established lore as I can. I realize that some of these details could be a stretch but if you could give me some suggestions of how I can connect his past with the our Tales of Wilderland campaign and possibly our future Darkening of Mirkwood campaing I would greatly appreciate it.

As a LM I am immersing myself into the Silmarillion and Tales of Middle Earth but there is still so much I don't know.

one thing I would contribute (and though I've read most of the relivant texts I'm really not an expert)

I believe that Thanduil has no love of the Noldor. I think he moved east to get away from the influence of the Noldor. This being so you might want to create some tension between this character and those who share Thanduil's views

Wait, it might have been Thranduil's father.... Anyway I think there very might still be some less than brotherly attitudes between many of the silvan elves and the Noldor.

Reading the simarilion is a great idea, you can get a lot of inspiration from it, and your knowladge of middle earth history will enhance your apprechiation for everything in the game!

It's not quite the juicy flavourful stuff it sounds like you're after, but it came to mind. I find this quite useful and inspiring, especially when I'm struggling to keep it all in my head:

http://lotrproject.com/blog/2013/02/08/tim...tolkiens-works/

And the parent page is just bonkers: http://lotrproject.com

Well first off I think you need to establish a couple things:

1. How old is this character? His Age has a great bearing on things. Was he part of the War of the Last Alliance to throw down Morgoth? Was he in Eregion for the Forging of the great rings? Or does he go back even further in time? A parallel problem to this then is how does one live for x-thousand years and not be infinitely more skilled/talented than a group of novice adventurers.

2. What house of the Noldor does he come from? The answer to this can and should weigh heavily on the nature of the campaign. Is he a son of Feanor and does he share in the Oath and Feanor's Wrath? or is he of Fingolfin or Finrod's line? Each house shares different characteristics.

One pretty big theme you could present your player is a choice about staying or leaving.

Irme could ask the Elf to join her on her journey across the sea. If the player accepts, they get to know everything. If they decline then Irme may give some hints and say you need to follow your own path.

Obviously you hope the player declines and stays with the party but be prepared for the player to accept, RP that, and then probably build a new character. Or maybe the character accepts but near Imladris finds out reasons to stay and complete some old unfinished business.

One important thing you need to work out with the player is how old the character is. This will have important implications on the back story. There is a max age the character can be if left with Thranduil (as King) at birth. This gets pretty hazy depending on your sources but I like to believe Thranduil became king after his father was killed at the Last Alliance at the end of the Second Age.

On the epic side of things you could give the character a family past that played a role in that battle, which included Gil-Galad by the way, and the child ended up with Thranduil for some reason. Maybe Thranduil owes a debt to watch out for the character? Maybe their family name was wrongly accused of some wrongdoing around that time and the character can set it straight in the campaign by revealing lore or an artifact.

This is all going a little beyond the scope of a typical TOR character so don't let this player overshadow the others. Noldor has powerful implications. However, I'd be thrilled with a player this dedicated and knowledgeable and would not hesitate to run with it.

The other big question I would make clear is does the player know he/she's Noldor. And how do they feel about that.

Thanks for all the input so far guys.

As far as age goes, he went with the typical starting age as presented in the AB, though I don't recall what it was off the top of my head. 130 years old? So too young to have been directly involved in many of the major events.

From what we have roleplayed so far, his interactions with the Wood Elves have been awkward and we've established that he is tolerated but doesn't really have a place with them. He spends most of his time independently ranging and interacting with other races which is how he ended up in the fellowship.

The character assumes he is Noldor because, from what my player tells me, Noldor have darker hair than the Elves of Mirkwood?

As far as which House of Noldor, this is an intruging question and not one we've really considered. I admit that although I know of the houses I know little about them or what makes them unique. Other than having a mother from Lorien and possibly related to Gil-Galad we have nothing else established. I will look at the Houses in greater detail.

If you're interested in some details about the tricky question of Gil-galad's parentage and his family relations, you might check out Issue #10 of Other Minds. You can find the website with the DL section in my signature.

Cheers
Tolwen

Just a quick note about Thranduil's feelings about the Noldor:

Yes, the Silvan Elves often resented the Sindar & they both resented the Noldor.

BTW, in Unfinished Tales, we learn that during the Second Age, Thranduil's father Oropher moved his people northward from the area of Amon Lanc (Dol Guldur) three times, to escape the spread of the Shadow of Sauron. They then lived around the western glens of the Emyn Duir (Dark Mountains-they later became the Mountains of Mirkwood). He fell on Dagorlad.

During the Third Age, his son grew increasingly concerned because of the spread of the Men up the Vales of Anduin, of the Dwarves of Moria, & from the rise of the Necromancer/return of Sauron.

So, you can integrate any of the above & still stay canon

One thing to remember is that essentially, the last generation of Noldo Elves is from the end of the Second Age. Many returned west after the Fall of Beleriand, and still more sailed west after the fall of the last High King (Gil-Galad). Tolkien states that the Noldor in Middle-earth are few in number by the end of the Third Age (they were tarrying, not building families).

Elrond is less than 30% Noldo (about 40% when you consider Vanyar and Maiar blood, too). Ellodan and Elrohir and Arwen are around 30% Noldo/Vanyar and Maiar (only about 20% Noldor). Heck, Elrond's kids are of the last line of Finwe's kin, and they are all nearly 3000 years old.

It seems that any 'true' Noldorin left in Middle-earth are the extremely wise and powerful--and thousands of years old (Galadriel, Glorfindel, Gildor Inglorion).

Most likely, unless he is thousands of years old, your player's elf would most likely be of mixed descent. Essentially Sindar or Silvan in heritage, with a remaining strain of Noldor (shown in a Fair or Lordly Trait, and Awe skill, perhaps). This is what the one cultural background for the Elves of Mirkwood aludes to. (technically, it alludes to the Sindar heritage of Legolas and Tharanduil).

The game as is does not truley permit Noldo heroes, as they would unbalance the game (living in both the seen and unseen world, not afraid of the dark terrors, wielders of magic, etc).

Not that I'm trying to tell you or your player how to have 'notbadwrong fun', but just looking at it from a Tolkienesque perspective.

That is powerfully insightful information. Thank you for sharing.

I see that you do not post very much - let me be so bold as to encourage you to partake far more often, as your points were very informative.

I learned more about the elves in your one post than I have from all the months playing and reading TOR.

Indeed! This is great stuff and gives me a lot to work with. The character might assume he is true Noldor but can learn from Irime, either directly or indirectly, that he is actually of mixed ancestry. We want to stay as true to the setting as possible. The plot thread of who he really is will prove to be more complicated than he thought.

To make things easier, what about making him half-Noldo and half-Sinda? Or better, half-Sinda and half-Silvan, with some Noldo blood from his Sinda side. This way the connection with Gil-galad's can be true without being too obvious.

Although it isn't a Noldo, check out my Ancient Heritage background in my extra backgrounds thread (or Rich H's document). It is a Sindar bloodline with links to Doriath.

You could come up with lots of interesting things to tie to the bloodline.

Like Thror pointed out, there are not many true Noldo left in Middle-Earth and most would be too powerful to be PCs (for now).

Personally I think that Thranduil wouldn't have allowed a Noldo in after the events of the Last Alliance.
This explains why taken from Tolkein Wiki I can find the actual source if need be:

Oropher answered the summons for the Last Alliance of Elves and Men but marched as an independent army with Amdír, or Malgalad the then King of Lórien. He joined with Gil-galad's forces as they marched down Anduin to Dagorlad. Oropher's company was lightly armed.

In the Battle of Dagorlad, Oropher's company fought valiantly but he was slain with the greater part of his people when he accidentally called an early charge upon the enemy, without orders from Gil-galad. After Sauron was defeated, Thranduil, Oropher's son and heir, returned with the remainder of his people north back to Mirkwood.

LotRNerd, I believe the running concensus would be that the player hero is of the Sindar aristocracy of Mirkwood, but has a trace Noldo lineage, perhaps dating back to Beleriand before it sank, when some Noldo and Sindar were together.

I concur that Orodopher had a strong bias against the Noldo. It is unclear if Thranduil shared that.

I would argue that as he might have blamed the Noldor for his father's death or inherited his father's Noldor views, though how much is unknown for bot Celeborn and Galadril are Noldor if I beleive and he works with them to overthrow Dol Gulder.

A question in relation to the running idea that (within canon) there could be no young Noldor. I see that Tolkien indicates that the Noldor were growwing extremely rare in middle earth, as many had died or left back into the west. It may also be true that most Noldo remaining are not staying to build a future or families. Still I wonder if that really means that there are absolutely no Noldo elves making babies. Afterall even if they are tarrying for a time and plan to return to the west it does not mean they might not wish to bring a new life into the world. I'm also assuming that elven birth control is very effective...

They may be diminishing, and to some extent mixing with the Sinda and other elvesn cultures but I do not really understand why it seems a forgone conclusion tjhat there would not be any young Noldo living in middle earth. I see that the geneologies that are documented don't show any young Noldo but these are very few and represent only the most powerful families (which are more likely to marry out of thier own culture for political marriages in my opinion.

Cynan, you can do as you wish, of course, it's your game. I'm sure you won't find any statement, witnessed by a public notary where Tolkien states that "after TA no Noldor had babies"

But it goes against the spirit and flavor of what's going on. It's late 3rd age. The Elves, and the greater of the Elves in particular, are all but gone. Noldor have moved on. They are tired of fighting the Shadow of Morgoth and then Sauron; they did it for a long time. They are like...old gardeners who have tilled the garden for a long time. It's time to pass on the baton...they know it. The great ones who have stayed behind; Elrond, Galadriel, Cirdan..have done so because they had unfinished business...not because they harbored any real hope that they themselves would, or their children would, bring about a blessed, greener Middle-earth. All the old things they knew and loved are gone...destroyed or lost. Elrond stays because he has one final duty to his brother's bloodline to see the spark of Numenor through...is their hope and strength in this latest generation, Estel, Aragorn? Could he be the man Middle-earth needs to usher in an age of men that are strong enough and responsible enough and self-sacrificing enough to till the garden of Middle-earth.

Cirdan stays, as I see it, because he's a "last guy out, turn off the lights" kind of dude. He's got ships to build; and as long as a few remain left, he'll hang around.

Galadriel is one cool cucubmer. I think she stays because she knows she has much to atone for. She witnessed the kinslaying at Aqualonde. She has much sorrow to repair. She owes it to the fledgling mortals and lesser races to undo some of the evils that her line has brought into the world.

And there you have it. That's why they stay; it's not to give birth to children or usher in a new generation. Think of a married couple who, shortly after they got married, the "world ended"; a meteor was spotted just a few years inside of crashing into earth....world econcomy collapsed....disease spreading like wildfire...do you think they would choose to have children? This is the state of sadness and melancholy of many of the old Elves by the time of the late 3rd age.