Upon the windswept crown of Weathertop, the ruins of kings long fallen keep their silent watch. Here, beneath a fading sky, a small fire once burned and drew forth shadow from the dark. In that brief and perilous hour, steel and flame held back the night, yet a wound was dealt that fate itself could not forget.
Kind-hearted to kin and ruthless to foe, there is no doubt that the blood of Rohan runs deep within Éowyn. No dread masters her heart; rather, it is filled with a stern courage and a will unbending.
To say they were bred for war is no mere exaggeration. Birthed in the pits of Isengard™, the Berserkers were made stouter than their already muscle-wrought kin. Forgoing the heavy armour of their fellow Uruks, they charged into battle with naught but a slab-like iron blade and a blood-filled helm. Their senses steeped in life’s ichor, they see (and will only ever see) the red blood of their enemies.
Amidst the ruin of a dark wizard’s keep, broken and blackened at the ending of a bitter battle, Merry and Pippin found themselves alone. Yet by chance, or perhaps by some gentler fortune, they came upon a storehouse, now masterless and soon to be ruined by flooded waters. There they sat among ruin and shadow, and finding leaf of a kind both rare and pleasing, lit their pipes and let the smoke curl upward into the dim air.
Amidst the orchard’s hush, Merry lingers with apple in hand, a bite taken and another moment savoured. Easy charm and quiet contentment, tucked between mischief and repose.
A quiet day’s fishing upon a humble raft; the gentle drift of water beneath a wide and watching sky; the sudden thrill of a line drawn taut, when an unlooked-for catch broke the stillness of the hour. In such things did Sméagol take his pleasure, and in the companionship of Déagol, dear to him in those earlier days. Glad was he then, and quick to laughter, even at the tug of a great fish upon their slender rod. For the world was yet untroubled, and their lives unshadowed. Ah, how simple were those days, before the Ring came upon them. How simple - and how swiftly lost.