Treachery of Men Discussion/Planning Thread

[Durelin]

Ah, I'm excited about this!

So will we be covering the actual battle at all? I of course don't mean any great deal of fighting and sieging (it seems you're wanting to stay away from that, which I do like, even though a good battle can be great fun, too), but perhaps more of the *behind the scenes*? It's of no consequence if we are not.

I think I know what I want to do with the spy... I'll get working on the bio as soon as possible (I should have already started working on it, but it's been difficult to decide where to go with this...which is great!). I'll be playing Thuringwethil, I believe, as long as that is alright. And I will do my best to avoid vampire clichés, I promise you.

The Encyclopedia of Arda says this, and I imagine it's as credible as I'm going to find:

Originally Posted by The Encyclopedia of Arda

"Tolkien's use of vampire seems clearly influenced by its more modern associations, rather than its original Magyar meaning. In terms of the story, vampire is probably intended as a translation of an unknown Mannish name for these monsters: bat-winged, but apparently otherwise human-like in shape."

I suppose I'll have to hide her wings somehow, unless there's anything to suggest vampires might be able to shape-shift? Worse comes to worse it can always be explained that Morgoth somehow took care of that for her. I'll go with that.

I don't expect she's completely human looking all the time, even without her wings, so most likely she needs some help with illusion from Melkor anyway.

As for other vampire aspects...I imagine she'd still require victims? But perhaps these vampires would not necessarily require human victims at all. Would be interesting, if various herd animals and such were found dead every once in a while when she was too lazy to go out and hunt for her food...I think it would be a bit much to have people dropping dead, though. We've already got plenty of tragedy to deal with.