Lady Aikári Aikári Salmarinian of the House of Námorindurë "Novarin minarëa amboran nú niëyanna, asiën Vanyaríu du aikato silen eynen yá." Born over more than four thousand years ago Aikári came into this world as the eldest half of a twin. Her brother came a little time after her and was named merely to his sister, Aikanáto. It had been a nice morning in the spring of 10.805 UCT Kaena, during the years of Isilindúrë. Because there was no real calendar her father Salmarin Esteliónion had invented a year telling of his own so he knew how old exactly his children were. Later in his youth, before he married his present wife Gilénë, he went to sea and came to know the calendars used in the Dying Lands. From there he knew that he was himself a child of the High Ages and his children were born somewhere in the Second Age. Barely 160 years of the sun later on the twins had gotten a little sister. She was named Gilennárë. Aikári was named after her grandmother from mother's side. Aikanáto got his name in memory of a brave forefather, Aikitáro Námorindurë. The name was believed strong for a son of Salmarin and there were many hopes for the boy. Everyone expected that the boy to be the leader of the twins, but it became his sister Aikári. What she decided he listened to. The twins were opposite from each other and they could come well around together. It took nearly a full lóa before the two inseparable children were grown up in mind and body. They spend the first thousand years basically in the lands of Valinor, seldom leaving their own county in it. Tirion was the central base where Aikári lived safely with her family. Her house was situated not so far from the South Gate in Tirion. The style of building was entirely different than in the lands of Middle-Earth. Were there the elven cities build because of defence, Tirion was build in a time that it was build for its beauty and not for defence. From her house Aikári could walk in a descending street toward a street than ran along the white city walls at the inner side. Always she counted seven houses, where families lived like her fathers. The descending street was paved with handmade crystals in stones. The sand colour gave it an earthy look. Grass and little plants grew up between the stones. To the other side it went to the Mindon Eldaliéva where at the foot of the Tower was a big round square, used for little feasts and markets to the meeting place of an important discussion. Ever living Galathilion grew there still. The wall around the city was in a later time build for protection. White it was because that was the colour of the Vanyar, they loved it. It was a colour of serene beauty. It eyed thick and solid. The height was 16 feet tall, any higher than the solidity would be lost. On the wall there were white banners always waving soft in the sea breeze from the sea. The gateway to the south was protected by heavy, strong wooden doors, on where a carving was from Galathilion, the symbol of the city. The gateway to the north was the same. Nature and technology existed here side by side in a harmony that Middle-Earth never knew. Nature was everything that grew in there, plant, tree, flower, grass, animal, bird. Technology was everything that was build by the hands of the Vanyar and the Noldor, houses, walls, streets, harbour, ships, the Tower. Aikári knew that most of her people and the Noldor left her city of birth to live with the Valar on the hills of the Taniquethil in Ilmaran. Her family had been of the few Vanyar who hadn't followed the rest to that hill, but had remained in Tirion, caring for her, so it wouldn't be neglected and become just a memory like so many things. Aikári generated from an independent people in mind and heart. The Vanyar, as they were called, were kind and helpful to friends and family and to Eldar of their own people. For outsiders they appeared sometimes haughty, cold and only interested in their own affairs. Envy was there also among the light hearted Vanyar. In the past Melkor's shadow had been strong and still traces of that influence were to be found in her people, even after generations. The Vanyar elders had quickly learned from that encounter with the distrustful Vala and remained suspicious forever. Loved by the Valar and favoured by Manwë and Varda the Vanyar had almost passage everywhere in Eldamar where they decided to go.That was not the same was the other elves. But little of her people made use of that freedom. Content as they were with their lives they just lived on the Taniquethil. Aikári loved life and respected it, as she had learned once from the botanists under her people; she didn't kill unless she was forced to do it. Her brother is opposite in it, he disliked those who's noses were too curious and those who's hearts were filled with passion for conquering. He believed that another Tar-Calion, the last king of Númenorë, would come up their shores far away in the future. He was one of the few Vanyar, who feared little things in the world. The energy, that surrounded Aikári allowed her to get near little animal life, was compassionate. In Aikanáto's case it was intimidating. They both were adventurous. Her younger sister, Gilennárë, was apart from them a real lady, like her mother was. She would never leave the lands where she was born. Vanyarean children grew up outside the influence of Melkor, outside the threat of the darkness, like Aikári, her brother and her sister had. The elders of her people saw to it that it remained that way. Especially on young age a child was very vulnerable to evil, what later in life disappeared, because the children learned in the first five hundred years of their lives about life, about survival, about healing, about the bound they shared with nature, about crafts, the stars and other necessities, reading, writing, fighting and so on. The elders gave them also enough knowledge and baggage with them, so they could guards themselves against the dark influences. Aikári was trained the same way. Around the thousands years old she joined the Defence Force, where she learned to come taking care in practise for what the Valar gave her people so long ago. With the age between 1600 and 2100 they set themselves out to sea and explored the world. They were full-grown then, in mind and bodyŠand had permission of the elders to go. North and south of Valinor were two places, Araman and Avathar. Araman was a rocky, cold place; Avathar was also a cold, dark and deserted place and had been once the home to Ungoliant. Araman was a trainings place for when you just joined the Defence Force. After the training they travelled south to Avatar to meet that place of darkness, to meet the evil, to see what Ungoliant did to the victims she caught. The elders went with the young to be there for them in case that place overwhelmed them. Both Aikári and Aikanáto had been brought there to learn the evil in the world. They had a protected youth, young as they were they knew a little of fear and hate.They were both taught in the ways of the Vanyar; to learn wisdom from encounters, seeking always serenity and peace in that disturbing world of hate, fear, distrust and dislike. The twins knew nothing else; they had been trained in it from their first breath. They were not sensitive to beautiful tales and nice faces or other elusive approaches. The elders taught them to live in the light of the Valar with mind and heart, learning that the light was a part of their being. A natural dislike laid biased in it to those who embraced the dark. They were natural enemies. They were also educated in the natural force that existed around them. Furthermore they came to know that they were the first children of Iluvatar, immortal and hold the duty to carry out the wisdom they learned from youth. They learned about a bound they had with the nature as none of the other races had. They learned to listen it, hearing the sounds spoken in there, while listening to their own feelings also. Their father had this way of explaining it as told to his daughter, when she was just about thousand years old: "Communication runs two ways, from a commander and from a soldier, between a salesman and a buyer, between two neighbours who exchange information. Just to give you a few examples. All areas are the same; the Defence Force as you have learned to know recently is not more different from the way you and I speak. How I give you advice and orders. At that point you always listen to your feelings, what they tell you. Important messages may hide there; one of the other can have missed. You and I are elven, first children of Iluvatar and sharing a bound with nature that none of the other races have. Use that bound, listen to it sounds. The music of the Ainulindalë is still sung, every day, every minute, if you listen clear fully you can hear it. It is not music that is simply played on horns and flutes. This music is something you can't just hear. It is what you feel, what you see, what you hear and what you experience. See a flower growing and opening up to the sun, behind it is the power of Yavanna. That is also a way of communication. It is difficult and I know you won't understand it fully. That will come later on in life, when you go out on your own. You will learn to see what I told you know. Don't fear it." Brother and sister used to watch the grey ships coming from the east in the harbour of Tirion. They knew these ships were bound for Eresseä for there were banned people onboard who were not allowed to set ever foot in Valinor again. They were the Noldorin and their descendents. But onboard were also other elves of strains they had barely heard off, descendents of those who never left Middle-Earth, the Moriquendi. Ships of the Vanyar and the Teleri were on sea to pick up the grey ships from the east and brought them safe to Eresseä. The waters around Valinor were very dangerous to sail through the protective mists than hang around the lands and the sharp rocks beneath the surface. In the childhood years of Aikári one drama had happened to her, that she held a trauma from for the rest of her live. It was in the harbour, when her father returned from a journey, Gilénë took her at a hand onboard over the gangway. Aikári misstep somewhere, she lost the grip of her moms hand and fell into the water. She went down under and suck deep to under the ship. She tried to fight to get back to the surface but failed, because her cape had gotten stuck behind a damaged shelf on the ship. Her air ran out and she got nausea. Her brother jumped after in the water. By the time Aikanáto had reached her she was unconscious. They got her back to the surface. Medical examination showed she had gotten water in her lungs. From that happening she remained fearful to drown and that is why she never entered the sea again to swim. Another major happening in her life was her mother's choice to live in the embrace of the Valar forever and therefore Gilénë needed to leave the live as she knew it. Not used to death in particular this was something in the lives of the three children they had never thought being possible. After that Aikári grew awfully quiet, keeping the thoughts and feelings to herself. Her brother set out to sea and didn't return for over a year. Since so very little was known on the gift of men and how his children reacted to this happening, Salmarin felt with the approval of the Council that his eldest daughter with her heart full of compassion was sent to over the sea. Where she would only not learn for herself she needed to know so badly and what her people weren't able to teach her, but also she would also bring knowledge home that would make the understanding upon the gift of men more accessible and would deepen their understanding of the peoples where death was a daily part of their lives. It was a little hope of Salmarin, which the chasm, about the encounter, with death between the peoples of the elves wouldn't broaden further with this mission. As the female part of the twin Aikári had the average height of about 6'0. She had the golden blond hair of her people, worn waist length and tied the traditional way most of the time hanging loose and running down her back. Her eyes had the sea colour of green grey, when the sun shifted over the waters. Her style of dressing was at home gown, trousers and tunics in soft natural colours. Her battledress was own underclothing, dungaree, hauberk, long sleeved tunic and helmet, what she seldom wore. She carried the white longbow and white wooden quiver of the Vanyarean archers, what natural carvings contained on the outside, with in it the long white feathered arrows. In her belt she carried both a dagger and a sword made by particular design only known to the blacksmiths among her people. Her flaws were that she could become angry when people neared her too closely feeling threatened then, she judged too early and was quickly impatient. On the other hand she respected life in every form existing on Arda. She was loyal, trustful, compassionate and friendly to those who valued friendship with her. She liked to study the social structures of peoples, reading and discussing about her. It was also a part of her true mission in middle earth. She was by exception sent by the member of the White Council of Tirion to the Dying Lands to see how life was really known there. The male part of the twin Aikanáto had the average height of somewhere near 6'3; he had darker tint green grey eyes and wore his hair shoulder length, bound together in a loose tail. His style of dressing was dark, plain and simple. Seldom had he worn ceremonial dress as it was required on special occasions. He considered it an intrusion when the lesser elves couldn't wait until spoken to. Due to the mission of Aikári he was the one who brought her between Tirion and Mithlond, from where he only knew the course to get there. He was the captain on reconnaissance ship Sénescar and dwelt with it over the waters nearby Valinor catching up elven ships of the east and bringing them to safety through the dangerous waters protecting Valinor. Life in the Undying Lands knew no structure. The Vanyar people didn't have a long history of military, bravery and heroism. In her heart Aikári would never acknowledge that she was an inhabitant of the Dying Lands. At home she wasn't a part of some created structure, which was so very human. "Structure" was a word that wasn't really known in the Vanyarean dialect of Quenya. It sounded very much regulated and controlled to the ears of the Vanyar. The society among the Vanyar wasn't controlled, it had an own life and just like every Eldar Aikári participated in it in all natural ways. Tirion didn't have more than hundred inhabitants. Most of them were a part of her people who had never left the city; a few other families were descendents of the Golodhrim, dark-haired Noldor. Aikári knew only that everyone was equal to each other. The Vanyar culture didn't embrace warfare. They didn't know the determination to die for a land so they would perish from earth. If Melkor was ever to return, they would flee to lands where they would be safe and live in peace, because of the children there were born among them. They had to be protected at all costs. Children among her people were one of the greatest gifts, not many were born. They had always been the smallest kindred of all the elves. A child born was for them a happening of great importance.The parents got from all sides special wishes and gifts. And when in a lóa four children of the Vanyar were brought into this world, they saw that as much. Back home both Aikanáto and Aikári were members of the Valinorean Defenders Force. In the Dying Lands it would be called it an army, but it was not. Even yet it wasn't military, they knew no ranks, no commanders, and no designations of units. The duty was mainly guardianship and giving guidance to those who arrived from the great sea to live in Eressëa. The inhabitants of Valinor and Eressëa saw themselves as being indebted to the Valar to help them to protect the lands they gave to them, alike the Valar gave also their help to protect it against any threat from outside. Aikári's footsteps were as light as all those elves in the world, but different from those who were from another strain than the Vanyar. It held more than just some forgotten memory. Aikári knew her inheritance, her own culture, it spoke through everything she was, in what she believed, in the ways she walked and dressed. It was the light of Calaquendi, people who passed through the Dying Lands thousands of years ago. Nobody could silence that light in the children of the Calaquendi, the descendents of those who went long ago to the Undying Lands. Back to the top Return to the front page of the book