These characters were created by Adam France for the fanmodules website, I think they will be of interest here also:
Eregrîn (S- 'Hollycrown', lit. 'One Crowned with Holly') - Treeherd of the Imladris Woods
When first you see him, the strange creature is wagging one of his long knob-knuckled fingers at a Mountain Ash tree growing inside the covered walkway at the rear of the Summer House.
"Hoo, hoom. Now, don't start getting uppity with me, Mistress Ash!" The creature's voice is like the soundings of a very deep woodwind instrument. "You house-trees are always getting ideas outside your station, hoom, roofs and walls around and above you, hoom, too much talking with young Elves and not enough sleeping and drinking water. Settle your roots, cease your stirring, or I shall have you moved away from the House. Hoo, hoom. Then you shall not hear any more chatter, or songs, or poems, save those sung by your brothers and sisters."
The creature is Man-like, and also somewhat Troll-like, but most of all tree-like, standing at least fourteen feet tall, being very sturdy seeming, with a large head crested with a thick growing mantle of holly leaves heavy with bursts of red berries, which seems to be growing literally out of his head like a man's hair. It possesses very long arms, hands and legs, of a bark-like look and his large splayed feet have seven toes. As it notices you and turns toward you, you find yourself gazing into the most incredible eyes you have ever seen; golden brown, shot with a green flickering light they are, deep, slow and solemn, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thought. But their surface sparkles with the here and now, like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake.
Eregrîn, which is Hollycrown, is one of the secret guardians of Imladris, being an Onod, or in the common tongue; an Ent. One of the ancient and half-forgotten treeherds of Middle-earth, he has dwelt in Imladris since the founding of the Haven in the mid Second Age, and tends the woods that run the length of the valley, talking and singing to the trees and seeing that the Elves do not go about waking them up too much, as Elves will often do (in Eregrîn's experience). In time of need, Hollycrown is also a formidable part of the Host of Imladris, and slew many Orcs during the battles of the past age.
Eregrîn was an Enting at the time of the fall of Beleriand, but still mourns deeply the enormous loss of the trees of those lands he walked when 'but a young sapling, new of bark and branch', before he escaped east with Skinbark's folk, living for a time in the Taur Iaur-in-Enyd (S- 'Old Forest of the Ents'), an ancient forest in Lindon on the west flanks of the Blue Mountains, before moving east during the early Second Age into the newly settled Elvish Realm of Eregion, where Skinbark and his Ents enjoyed happy relations with the Elves. During his days in Eregion, Hollycrown became known as a rather too hasty sort to his fellow Ents, a dangerously inquisitive and adventuresome young rogue, by Entish standards, who sometimes allowed his tree-flock to go untended, while he shirked his responsibilities by being off walking in the Misty Mountains talking to Stone-giants, Great Eagles, and Dwarves, or hunting Orcs, or most of all Trolls (whom he hates beyond all reason), or paying court across the mountains to the Entwives who had already moved by then into the flat lands beyond the eastern borders of Fangorn Forest - where he would dally with beauties such as Pearsweet, or Willowtress, or Rainbowleaf.
Often reprimanded by old Skinbark, one of the original Ents first taught to speak by the Elves, who thought Hollycrown a foolish and flighty fellow, Eregrîn was nevertheless away upon one of his adventures in the north when Sauron's army invaded Eregion and sacked Ost-in-Edhil in 1697 SA. Hearing news on the wind of the disaster and of burning woods in Eregion, Hollycrown hurried south out of the mountains, and at the East Road Bridge over the Bruinen River met Lord Elrond, Herald of the King of Lindon, with a small group of Elven survivors of Elrond's Host out of Lindon, and battered refugees from lost Eregion.
Hollycrown was soon howling in shame and horror at hearing Elrond's tale of how the Orcs of Sauron burned huge tracts of the ancient woodland of Eregion, and slew many Ents in battle, when Skinbark led his fellows against the van of the Dark Lord's army trying to stop their advance on Ost-in-Edhil. Elrond sadly recounted to the stricken Ent, that survivors from Ost-in-Edhil saw Sauron himself, in a mighty giantish guise, armoured in black ithilnaur and wielding a great and wicked flaming black-sword, moved in single combat against Skinbark. Dealt a fell wound, Skinbark could not stand before the Dark Lord, and was forced to retreat, half-maimed, with those few who remained of his folk across the mountains east into the depths of Fangorn.
Swearing fierce oaths Hollycrown drew himself to his full height and made to head south to pit himself against the Dark Lord and his vile host, but Elrond stayed the Ent with stern words.
"It is not given to us, my friend, to freely choose to throw away our lives in return for a brief empty moment of vengeance. For such would be the inevitable sad and swift end of your hastening south at this time. For selfish reasons, you were not in Eregion when it fell, despite the command of your lord, and that is a weight of shame your conscience will have to bear and you shall have to mitigate with better service in years to come. However, we here need your strength now, if we few are to survive the storm that hurries upon our heels, and as the senior Lord here present I call upon you to swear oaths to me. To aid us in the struggle to come and join us in meeting whatever doom awaits us."
Hollycrown indeed took oath to Elrond and but for his good service to the harried band of Elves it is possible they would not have survived the journey to the naturally concealed valley that would come to be Imladris. A valley that Hollycrown himself knew from previous journeys in the region, and which he suggested to Elrond as a good place to make for under the circumstances at the time.
Thus it was that Hollycrown played a vital and intrinsic part in the founding of Imladris, and also in it's survival over the following three years, as Sauron's forces combed the region hunting for Elrond and his followers. Many were the Orcs and Trolls that fell to ambushes in the wild wooded hill country mounted by the Ent in those days and when Sauron was finally driven from Eriador in 1700 with the aid of a newly arrived Númenórean army, the newly founded Haven of Imladris was the scene of the first White Council the following year, at which time Elrond received a secret gift from Gil-galad and public confirmation of position as Vice-regent of Eriador and Lord of Imladris, and thereafter Elrond's home was always there, rather than in Lindon.
Ever since Hollycrown has been Treeherd of the Imladris Woods and a staunch friend and servant of Lord Elrond who, as Eregrîn's wisdom has grown the Ent now realises, saved his life during the war. Eregrîn is rarely seen in close proximity to Elrond's House however, as he prefers walking in the wild little woods of the further valley and talking to the trees therein, keeping them rooted and tree-like - as with so many Elves about the place carelessly talking to the trees it would be easy for the woods around Imladris to become rather too 'awake' and 'active'. Hollycrown does also wander the surrounding countryside on occasion, keeping an eye upon them, especially the so-called Yfelwyd of the Knollshaws, where there are dark groves and hidden evils.
Hollycrown also has thrice left Imladris for a year or two in the last eight hundred years, each time joining the great quest of the Ents in searching for the missing Entwives. Each time he has returned to Imladris saddened and unsuccessful.
Elrond's Gardner, the Elf Vilyadhol (whom Hollycrown always refers to as 'Young Master Vilyadhol'), first met Hollycrown in the Gardens of the Entwives some two thousand years ago and the pair have a slightly combative friendship. Hollycrown enjoys speaking and singing with Vilyadhol of the lost Entwives, and Vilyadhol is somewhat in awe even now of any Ent, but Hollycrown has no love for or care toward Vilyadhol's carefully ordered gardens and has a habit of tramping through flowerbeds and hedges, and uprooting swathes of orderly laid out herb-beds while on his way to here or there, causing the normally placid Vilyadhol to rush after the Ent waving a how at him and calling at him to 'be off, you great walking plank, before I make a shed out of you!'.
Hollycrown, like most Ents is a roaming fellow by nature, not given to putting down roots too deeply, so can be found around and about. But he does enjoy visiting a particular shallow cave, under a sparkling waterfall at the easternmost end of the valley, the name of which in Entish could best be condensed down in the hasty common tongue as Crystal-plunge Hall. There Hollycrown makes his Ent Draughts, which he usually only shares with the folk of Rivendell and visitors at the request of Elrond or Celebrían.
Quest for Hollycrown - Part of the strictures of secrecy surrounding Rivendell involve Hollycrown not disturbing the peace of the nearby Eastern Marches of Arnor, whose common folk, especially the Hillmen, are terrified of the Ent when they sometimes see him walking in the woods of the Angle or the Fells and calling him 'the Troll of the Trees'. Nevertheless Hollycrown feels responsible for the woods hereabouts and is concerned that the Dúnedain March-lords have little respect for growing things and woods.
Meglinon (S- 'Honey-eater / Bear-like Person') - Bee-herald of Imladris
Bees are infamously haughty, proud, self-important and touchy creatures, ever aware they are the only ones able to create the golden gift of honey. Even worker bees believe themselves to be on a social par with the heirs of an Elvish or Mannish household, and queen bees are as honoured as the head of the house. Thus, long ago, the Elves learned that to successfully keep and breed bees required ensuring they are kept happy and content, but most importantly feeling appreciated and respected. Thus one must speak to them regularly and always deferentially, almost as a supplicant, regularly informing them of all the doings of the house, and most importantly of all inviting them politely to attend important social events, such as weddings, funerals and so on. Even though the bees actually don't deign to attend most social functions, feeling they are far too busy working and can't spare the time, should they not be kept properly informed, or worse yet be left uninvited to a wedding for example, they will certainly become most wroth, and either leave in an angry swarm to find a new and better home, with folk who have manners more worthy of them, or worse yet attack anyone who comes near their hives.
So it is that Elves, who love honey like all sensible folk, keep bees in hives, a craft they first invented and perfected, before sharing it with Men, but always appoint a 'Bee-herald', (S- 'Glíwilnaror', 'One who tells the Bees') who spends endless hours talking and singing to the bees, keeping them abreast of current events, or recounting poems and songs for their enjoyment, whilst also of course tending the hives and collecting honeycomb from them with the gracious consent of the Queens.
The Bee-herald of the Rivendell Hives, which are located at the edge of the West Orchard in a neat white fenced area beside a small cottage where the herald lives, is Meglinon. An Avari Silvan Elf, who was once King Oropher of the Greenwood's Bee-herald, but who departed that land at the end of the last Age, when Oropher's son Thranduil assumed the throne rather than Bladorthin, whom Meglinon have favoured, of average height and stature, with long hazel hair upon which is set a golden circlet with an amber bee emblem at it's centre. His eyes are golden brown, and it is said they were once blue, but that they slowly changed colour over many long years of gazing upon the honey he collects and prizes. Dressed in rustic Silvan green and brown tunic and trews, Meglinon knows the name of every bee in the valley, and their lineage, and refers to them as; 'Master Nimbleflit, of the line of the Glimmergold Hive', or 'Squire Bumbledash', or 'Lord Antbane, of the Combwatch Guard of Good Queen Pollenrich', or 'Young Sir Farflight the Daring', or 'Old Strongwing the Flowerminer' and so on. The bees respect Meglinon more than they do anyone else at Rivendell, save Lord Elrond and his immediate family, and occasional important visitors such as the Lady Galadriel for example. The bees will not bother other Elves, but Meglinon asks that any entering the Hive Paddock bow as they approach the hives.
On some nights as Meglinon sings to them in Elvish, the bees will dance for him, soaring about the evening sky in amazing swarming patterns, their combined buzzing forming a rythmic accompaniment to Meglinon's songs.
Ranging the length of the valley and beyond in their quest for pollen, the Rivendell bees also act as scouts and wardens for the Lord of Imladris, flying back swiftly to warn Meglinon should strangers be about at the fringes of the hidden gorge, while other bees stay watching the potential intruders learning all they can of them. They can also gather in a 'war-swarm' at Meglinon's command, should the valley be truly threatened.
Quest for Meglinon and the Bees - A mountain bear has come down lately out of the Misty Mountains, and stolen honey on two occasions from the 'wild hives' that Meglinon also visits in the foothills just east of the valley. Meglinon was going to ask Elrond to deal with the bear, but sizing the PCs up will suggest they might hunt the bear down and deal with it. He will dispatch a small swarm, twenty or thirty of the 'Wildhive Rangers' to aid the PCs, and will point out that in return he would gladly teach the PCs some 'Bee-ish' words and signs that if spoken and delivered with due respect and deference would allow PCs to gain the wary friendship and alliance of stranger bees they might meet in the wider world.
Robin S.
Eregrin & Meglinon of Imladris
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Eregrin & Meglinon of Imladris
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Re: Eregrin & Meglinon of Imladris
What a marvelous collection of NPCs!
"Far, far below the deepest delvings of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he."
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