Finally, a decent overlay map of Middle Earth and Beleriand! I had no idea that so much of Thargelion was still there.
Worth noting how much of the Lord of the Rings – indeed, how much of Middle-Earth – is post-apocalyptic, picking through the half-salvaged scraps of a drowned world.
All my fractal-related headcanons are under the #Fractal Basilisk tag. (THE DEADLY. Fractal basilisk tag.)
I mean… it’s 90% crack, but it has a couple of roots in actual headcanon theories? XD
Fractal hypnosis is mostly relevant to the mathematically/geometrically inclined Maiar (Langon is susceptible to ice fractals. He can go to rehab with Sauron.)
Something in the Maiar programming for completing tasks and identifying substances related to their origin makes them want to track the iterations of the fractal until they find the end. But it just keeps going! AHAHA WOW THERE IT GOES AGAIN JUST LIKE THE LAST 1,000,000,000 times! I wonder what it’ll do next! AMAZING!
I figure it’s both relaxing and stimulating and it engages 100% of their CPU, so they just kind of freeze up and blue screen until something snaps them out of it. Hence, “catnip”.
I don’t think Valar are affected by fractals at all, simply because they’re that much more familiar with the properties of Infinity.
“And this habitation might seem a little thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of Arda for the foundation of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit were more bitter than a needle; or who consider only the immeasurable vastness of the World, which still the Ainur are shaping, and not the minute precision to which they shape all things therein.”
I mean… Melkor probably CAN see the entirety of the fractal down to subatomic particles, and just doesn’t care? Like, “PFFFF, infinity-schminity, been there done that! Why do you think I came back from exploring the Outer Dark? You think I’d still be -here- if there was something cooler happening literally anywhere else in creation?? Hey, guess what’ more interesting than math: ME.”
Heh. Not only have I read through The LoL, but references to choice bits of it (via the Dark Muse’s snarky observations) have made their way into my ficcish hackery, cf. The Writhen Pool and Fell Meats.
‘Sleep, Oh unhappy, tortured thrall! Thou woebegotten, fail and fall down, down from anguish, hatred, pain, from lust, from hunger, bond and chain, to that oblivion, dark and deep, the well, the lightless pit of sleep! For one brief hour escape the net, the dreadful doom of life forget!’ ~Luthien’s spell on Carcharoth, Canto XIII, The Lay of Leithian
Friend this means so much to me; your writing and your wit, your understanding of character and your humor are a constant inspiration to me. I am mutually delighted by your every appearance on my dash. ❤
Beren: But where is Huan, where the hound to whom I trusted, whom I bound by love of thee to keep thee well from deadly wandering unto hell?’ (130)
Luthien: ‘I know not! But good Huan’s heart is wiser, kinder than thou art, grim lord, more open unto prayer!
‘Good Huan,’ said he, ‘guard her well! In leafless field no asphodel, in thorny thicket never a rose forlorn, so frail and fragrant blows.
my guy. my dude. Beren. friend. are we talking about the same fragile and fragrant rose who just kicked the ass of Sauron and is on her way to walk in to Angband, thrown down with a giant motherfucking wolf, sing Morgoth a little night-night song and then walk out again without fixing her hair? While you’re literally peeing yourself hiding under a table?
is that
the same one
son you’re gonna need some cold water for that burn
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 