Tag: Umbar

beruthielthequeen:

I’ve long chosen to use this non-canon map as a basis for building out “Near Harad” and Umbar. In this conception, Umbar is the name of the region, and the port city is more properly called the Haven of Umbar, or perhaps An Umbar; but is often shortened just to Umbar.

The region of Umbar is not a single kingdom, but consists of a number of city-states, some of which might control a few other smaller cities nearby and some of which are their own discrete entities. These are all strongholds of the so-called Black Númenóreans, descendants of those Men of Númenor who were of the “King’s Men” faction of Ar-Pharazón and rejected the elves and Valar. Unlike the Gondorim to the north, who are also descendants of Númenóreans but of the opposing faction who remained faithful to the elves and Valar, the Black Númenóreans both intermarried more readily with the native men of Middle earth; and also maintained the human tongue of Adûnaic, more properly called Adûnâyê, as their cradle-tongue. It has since spread to become the common language of all inhabitants of Umbar and serves as a trade tongue, though with alterations and loan-words adopted from the languages of the natives of the continent. At this point their specific dialect could, perhaps, be called “Black Adûnaic.”

An Karagmir, the city-state which I’ve positioned as Berúthiel’s place of origin, is one of the more independent of the city-states, controlling no other subordinate cities. However, its geographic location at the very edge of the Dune Sea desert (similar in scale, scope, geography, and general climate and ecosystem to the Sahara) means that it is at one and the same time a “buffer zone” between the culturally-related but independent city-states of Umbar and the migratory native Umbarim tribes (a culturally and ethnically interrelated group known collectively by a word in their own tongue which translates to Free People) which inhabit the Dune Sea; and also serves as a center of trade. All of the trade goods of the Dune Sea nomads and many of the other nations south of the desert pass first through An Karagmir; and goods from the Haven of Umbar pass through An Karagmir on their way to those same trading partners.

As of the early Third Age, the direct bloodline of the rulers of An Karagmir has been maintained as relatively “pure” Númenórean; the kings have adopted the practice of polygyny, but only the children of the first wife, who is always of high Númenórean blood, may inherit the rulership of An Karagmir itself. But marriage is used to secure alliances; and it is common for the king of An Karagmir to marry women from important bloodlines in neighboring groups or from other nations and city-states with whom they maintain relations of trade or other alliance.

Berúthiel, whose birth name was Tamar Margoliantë, is the daughter of Ar-Târikôn (note: the prefix Ar- is the honorific, and means king); and Zidarêz Lômiphel, a sapthêth, or wise-woman, born of the ruling line of the powerful Blue Wind tribal group of the Free People. Berúthiel’s ability to speak mind-to-mind with animals and, to a lesser extent, with people, comes from her father’s bloodline – whether they are aware of it in these specific terms or not, it is an “elf like” talent, and is associated with the longer lifespan, healing abilities, and stronger mental abilities of the uplifted Númenóreans, and is natural enough, though they consider it a form of magic. But because she was gifted in this, and because she is of the right line for it, her mother also taught her the lore and traditional magics and knowledge of the Free People, and she could be considered a sapthêth also, for having had that training.