Competition Overview First Place: A Special Day in Lorien Second Place: the Bold and the Beautiful

Competition Overview
by Rho

In the IK forum, members were asked to talk about a special day in their kingdom. Evidently only Mordor and Lorien have such things, as we only received two entries, but both were fun reads, and it was decided that both first and second place would be published. I am happy to present to you entries by Crystalen of Lorien and Tarin of Mordor, and I hope you enjoy reading about those special days in their respective kingdoms...

Competition Overview First Place: A Special Day in Lorien Second Place: the Bold and the Beautiful

First Place: A Special Day in Lorien?
by Crystalen

Hmm...*ponders* well, when I came back of course! Yes, ’twas the day of my return! All bow down to the greatness of Crystalen! *cue music* ...okay, maybe not *music stops*. Really though, you could almost hear the groans and mutterings as people pulled the pitchforks and chased me out again. They really did you know, but that is a different story. Not to mention it isn’t overly special... so yeah.

Back on topic then. A special day in the realm of Gaddy...and Celly. Still can’t believe I deleted the only evidence of Ecaps waddling like a duck, but that is beside the point. Special day...*thinks*...*thinks harder*...*thinks even harder*...*realises that if she had a brain cell it would be lonely and gives up*.

Well I guess you could mention the funeral of Cele; we finally got shot of him (only joking; we love you really!): Menthol’s been wanting to burn you for ages (she’s even got her own cremation business), and don’t you dare deny it Menthol or the ear-biter will come and get the other ear! Er....yeah, moving on swiftly then. I figure we could talk about the rather random event where we all turned into rather odd creatures. I mean; I woke up one morning feeling rather dehydrated to say the least, and then had a craving for fish! Not to mention we had a kangaroo and a koala for a ruler. So instead of elves we have emu’s, crocodiles, eagles, penguins and spiders! Spiders! Er.excuse me; since when did we have spiders in Lorien?!? Darned good question but hopefully our arachnid problem will be solved soon...well I guess we could call on Mirkwood for some advice if it doesn’t.

Sorry, totally drifted off topic there. Okay, special day, special day. Aie...Merl! Yes, Merl. Today she resigned as General of the Guard; and no, I didn’t mean it like that; I’m not glad you’re going...but it’s only when you lose something that you realise just what you had. Yes, we’ve (I’m meaning the Guard here) have acknowledged your work and thanked you countless times (well they better have or I might go minion on them *g*) but in a way we’ve taken you for granted in the sense that you’ve been there, you’ve worked with your Wardens to keep us rabid lot entertained and occupied, and it’s never really occured to us that one day you might just want a change of scenery and become a turncoat and go to Mordor or something! You’ve been in the Guard from the beginning, and I think we’ve become so used to your presence that we’ve forgotten to thank you properly for everything you’ve done. So I guess that this day is special because even though it is sad to see you leave, it has served to remind us of just everything you, Merl, have done for the Guard and for Lorien. So yeah, I’ve never been good at this sort o’ thing, but thank you Merl and if you don’t come and give me the chance to have a rematch I might just toss you over the wall and into the fosse!

Gosh...Crystalen the evil minion being sentimental? The shock! The horror!! *ahem* yeah.. it would be if I was still a minion...fair do’s I guess. Anyway; Continuing on swiftly... with the resignation of Swirly Merly (sorry couldn’t resist) it’s a new generation of the Guard. There is a new ranking system (well it’s new to me anyway), the Divisions are no more (I feel so old when I remember the divisions!) and now we have a new General, Brill. No, I’m not saying it’s Brill that we have a new General, I’m saying that Brill is our new General! *sigh* Some people. Anyway. I’ve never RPed with Brill, and I don’t know much about her, but if Merl appointed her as our new General then she must be pretty special and I’m sure that she’ll do great (actually I know she’ll do great) and that now is the time for a fresh take on the Guard. A new Arachiril and some new Wardens (and some newbie soldiers like me *g*). My point is, yes, to an outsider perhaps it isn’t so special, but it isn’t every day your longest (or one of the longest) serving Generals resigns and appoints a new one, but to somebody newly returned to Lorien, it is rather special. Because when I was here the first time, I experienced the Guard run in one style, and now (when I finish my training) I’ll experience a new Guard.

And now I’m rambling. So it is probably best that I shut up...yes it probably is for the best because I can see those pitchforks coming my way again. *sigh* And if I ever do remember that ever-so-special day I was going to tell you about; I’ll be sure to come and tell you!

Competition Overview First Place: A Special Day in Lorien Second Place: the Bold and the Beautiful

Second place: The Bold and the Beautiful
by Tarin

A special day, a day like none other. The day that has, so far, changed Mordor from what I have seen it as for a while now. Whether or not it’s for the ultimate best remains to be seen, but so far we’ve all been really happy. We have Sir HotStuff as one of our most powerful Rulers, so how could we not be? Yes, and I mean other than the fact that, when groveling, we take the risk of having any and all skin burned off by his flames. If he does that we can just taunt his spelling, that’s always fun.

It was a day of darkness throughout the land. A day which was filled with soot, with sadness, with ash, with blackness, and all other bad things. Ok, that basically describes every day in Mordor, but imagine a day darker than normal. Imagine a day when the minions are more resistant to working than usual. Imagine a day where everything seems to have more clouds in the sky, and everyone a more bleak outlook. Hard, isn’t it? Well, it was a day darker than usual, the day the WitchKing was seemingly flattened by some unknown force. Yes, that’s right. Flattened. Squished. Gone Byebye. Vanished. Never heard from again and went to Tahiti on vacation. Alright I admit that this person narrating the tale doesn’t remember exactly what happened to the WitchKing, just that he hasn’t been seen since the day I am talking about right now.

This day was also the day that Sauron disappeared for a few hours, only to return looking quite a bit more feminine than he previously had. It really turned out to be quite the look for him, since he somehow managed to keep up his evil persona, even with the whole feminine side surfacing. Of course, to anyone who knows women that shouldn’t be a surprise, we’re evil, moreso than anything else on the face of Middle-earth, which is probably why Sauron took the time to get in touch with his feminine side. He just wanted to turn himself into a being even more to the dark side than he ever was before, which is impressive, and only possible if you add a bit of feminine personality into the mix. But I digress.

Before I become anymore sidetracked than I already am {really not sure if that’s possible though}, let me get back to the point. This was the day that the Witchking seemed to disappear. No one has seen him since that day. Sure, there had been a few smoke and mirror tricks inside of his dressing room that day, but no one knew that those would trigger his last day around. Rather fitting that he was replaced by a Balrog, or maybe that was the cause of all that smoke. I have been wondering what that oddlooking pile of ash and metal was when one takes a rather "unguided" tour of Barad Dûr...

However, it still doesn’t change facts for who was where, when, and why. The Witchking gone, he had been rather chased out by the new kid in town, I would think anyway. Why else would one so powerful abandon his position? That is, unless someone offered him that fourth spot in the Nazgûl’s barbershop quartet I finally weaseled my way out of. I bet you all are wondering who that new kid was by now. That kid was none other than the big flaming type guy, Lord Gothmog. With an iron fist and rather pretty wings {why do I have the feeling Túrin’s going to kill me for saying that?}, he flew into the Throne Room of Mordor and took a seat on the now vacant chair on the right of Sauron.

While that day was marked by many things, like the burning of snagas, the swooning of many single minionesses {and former minionesses as well}, and the attempted stealing of that nice flaming whip, it was more importantly marked by one single thing. It was marked by it beginning a new age in Mordor. The Flaming Lord, and the Feminine Sauron. What a combination. Together, they have made the day which I have briefly gone over - one that will forever be a special day to many, I am sure.

Now then, if you’ll be so (un)kind as to excuse me, I’ll just go now and run fast, far, and maybe even change my name {again}. I have a feeling that would be a semi intelligent thing to do before Túrin finds out about that "pretty wing" comment.