User:Calanon Evergreen

"Such is the nature of evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads. A shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was. So will it always be. In time all foul things come forth."

Notable Wiki Achievements

 * Created a resource pack of completely redesigned Wood-elf armor and weapons
 * Created a new infobox template "Infobox War"
 * Published the story The Great Angmar War

Background
The Elven-king is a title used in Middle-earth for the ruler of the Woodland Realm, the country of the Silvan Elves who dwelt in the northeast of Mirkwood. Little to nothing is mentioned of him in the line of events from the Second to Third age, but we learn later in history that he is aarplane22 (known to the Elves as Calanon), the Elven-king that ruled the northern Mirkwood in the Second Age (lore-wise) and the Third Age (in-game).

The Elven-king had his halls underground, partly in memory (it was said) of the mighty but long-lost Menegroth of Doriath. He lived in attunement with nature, wearing a crown of flowers, or autumn berries, according to the season, and his banner was, naturally enough, green in colour.

Unlike his latter Sindar and Silvan kin, The Elven-king fostered a courteous friendship with the Dwarves of Erebor to the north. Other notable allies were the Horse-lords of Rohan, The Galadhrim Elves of Lothlórien, and the noble Elves of Imladris.

History
The following content is based on real in-game events

Origin
The Elven-king Calanon was a Sindar Elf who travelled East to Rhovanion some time in the early Second Age. Before the great line of Woodland rulers (notable figures such as Oropher and Thranduil), he wandered the Greenwood and became highly acquainted with the vast forest. Before long, he reached the heart of the wood, and stumbled upon the Silvan Elves dwelling there in. In awe of his regal Sindar ancestry, they made him their king, and his rule over their Woodland Realm brought peace and prosperity.

The Shroud of Greenwood
Alas, their peace did not last long. For when the Orcs in the mountains learned of a united Woodland Realm under one they called "Elven-king", the forces of darkness rallied and set out to assault the young Woodland Realm. Towards the mid-Second Age, the orcs and foul creatures of the North flooded into the Greenwood, and pushed the Elven-king and his kin farther east, until their Woodland Realm was only a fraction of the vast, peaceful forest it once was.

Battle in Angmar
In response to the influx of foul creatures now residing under the trees of the forest, the Elven-king assembled a great army of Woodland Elves and waged war on the evil lands of the North, now called Angmar. Behind him, he rallied the Dwarves of Erebor and the Horse-lords of Rohan to aid him in the war. Together, they assembled a mighty host of Men, Elves, and Dwarves at the foot of the Misty Mountains, near the northern tip of the river Anduin. Vaguely known in history as the great Northern Alliance, they marched to the lands of Angmar, intent on vanquishing this foe of the North.

The Northern Alliance passed over the Misty Mountains to Mount Gram, and from there charged into Angmar with a fierce and deadly wrath. The great war for the North had begun, and the forces of good and evil clashed at the foothills of the Misty Mountains. As the battle was underway, the Rohirrim suffered considerable losses, which lead the King of the Mark to lose morale in the cause of war. This ultimately caused him to betray the Elven-king and the King Under the Mountain, by allowing a great weapon of the enemy to pass into the ranks of the Elven and Dwarven troops. The detonation of the Orc bomb killed many Elves and Dwarves, and greatly wounded the Elven-king and King Under the Mountain. With both commanders badly hurt, and the Northern Alliance in complete disarray, the forces of good were forced to retreat and regroup in their respective homelands. The King of the Mark was tried for his act of betrayal, then expelled from the Northern Alliance, and banished from the Elven and Dwarves realms in the north.

After a considerable amount of time, the Wood-elves and the Dwarves of Erebor restored the might in their armies, and again launched an attack on Angmar. They fought for many months, until they reached the heart of the foul land, and vanquished the remaining enemies in the North. The loss of their kindreds in the earlier battle were avenged, due to the sheer amount of Orcs destroyed in the war. But the treachery of the King of the Mark was not easily forgotten, which created a lasting grudge between the kingdoms of the North and Rohan for many years to come. Furthermore, the shroud of evil that came from Angmar still lingered over the now corrupted forest, and many foul things still crept beneath the trees.

The Assault on Erebor
After the battle in Angmar, the free-realms of the North enjoyed a watchful peace that lasted for a substantial period of time. To the guardians of the north, the Wood-elves and the Dwarves of Erebor, their once-great enemy lay silent in ruin. But in secret, a great Orc called Azog (not to be confused with the father of Bolg) escaped the Great Angmar War, and rallied all the surviving Orcs he could find in the southern part of the vast, shrouded forest that the Elven-king was still fighting to cleanse.

His force grew in numbers as time progressed, and even the evil in the lands of Angmar began to reappear. Combined, Azog's force in the southern forest and the developing forces in the heart of Angmar formed an enemy almost as mighty as the evil vanquished in the Great Angmar War. Together, they plotted to wipe out the great ally of the Wood-elves, the Dwarves of Erebor, and their mountain stronghold, for they were still too weak to march on the Woodland Realm of the Elven-king. Once the Dwarves were defeated, the Wood-elves alone would not be able to counter the combined forces of evil.

It was a morning like any other for the Men of Dale and the Dwarves of Erebor. But these conditions quickly shifted, as the Orcs from the southern forest and Angmar attacked the city of Dale without warning, and quickly defeated the Northmen. Because they attacked in plain daylight, and their assault was so swift, the Dwarves of Erebor did not perceive the evil on their doorstep.

Soon after the Orcs took Dale, they streamed onto the plains of Erebor and straight for the Dwarven kingdom. The Dwarves stormed out of the Lonely Mountain with their army, and on the plains of Erebor they fought the dark forces of Azog. What they had not foreseen was Azog had lured them out of their mountain stronghold, and away from the defensive advantage they had at Erebor. Azog took advantage of this factor, and pushed back the Dwarves to the River Running. It was there that a great number of Dwarves were slain, and the defense of Erebor all but diminished.

It was in this hour of need, that the Elven-king had come. For the Dwarves sent out a request for aid at the first sight of the evil host, which was directly addressed by the Elven-king. With the might of the Wood-elven army behind him, he drove the Orcs back behind the River Running.

Yet again, Angmar suffered drastic losses, and was once more vanquished to a silent land of shadow. Azog was slain in battle by the Elven-king, and the remnants of his forces retreated to the Ettenmoors. The Dwarves of Erebor suffered heavy losses, which stirred them to assemble a new army that would soon retaliate against the forces of darkness.

Battle in the Ettenmoors
Not long after the Assault on Erebor, the Elven-king and the Dwarves of Erebor assembled their armies in pursuit of the remaining evil. They met the Orcs in the Battle in the Ettenmoors, who had found allies in the mountain trolls who dwelled there. The fight lasted for many weeks, but ultimately the forces of good reached the brink of victory. It was in this stage of the battle, however, that the tide turned in favor of the Orcs for a duration of time.

The Orcs had lured the Wood-elves and Dwarves further into the Ettenmoors, where they had set a trap to snare the forces of good. They dug a concealed hole that lead to a vast, dark, underground cave system. As the forces of darkness seemed to be in retreat, the Dwarves of Erebor charged ahead, and unwittingly fell into the camouflaged hole that the Orcs had dug. Ironically, the Dwarves, masters of the underground, became trapped in the depths of the Ettenmoors, and needed to seek a way out before becoming lost in the dark tunnels below. For a period of days, the Dwarves of Erebor wandered the underground tunnels, while their allies the Wood-elves fought the enemy above.

The Elven-king and his woodland army fought valiantly above ground, fending off attacks from the Orcs on all sides. By the grace inherent in the Eldar, the Elven-king channeled what energy he could from the surface to the Dwarves below, in hopes that they would feel his presence and return to the surface. After days of battling the Orcs, to his relief, the Dwarves emerged from an obscure cave entrance nearby, and once again joined the fight against evil. The combined forces of Elves and Dwarves drove the Orcs farther north to Mount Gundabad, where they defeated the remaining evil in the realm of Angmar, and they returned to their homelands victorious.

The Rise of Mordor
After many years had passed since the Great Angmar War, news began to spread of a great evil was brewing to the south of Middle-earth. Darkness and fire spewed from the lands of Mordor, which prompted Gondor to set a watch on the foul lands to the east. They rallied every ally in the vicinity to defend against this evil. In the midst of this assembly, a proposal arose that involved striking Mordor by surprise. While Gondor and its allies kept the evil at bay from the west, a host of forces would go around the Brown Lands and attack from the east. To their aid, the Gondorians called the strongest of the free-peoples in the vicinity, including the Galadhrim Elves of Lothlórien and a company of Elves from Imladris to fight from the west. They tasked the Horse-lords of Rohan to assemble a host of their own, and attack Mordor from the east. But with no allies left to call on, the King of the Mark was left with only one choice: to call upon the aid of the Wood-elves of Mirkwood and the Dwarves of Erebor; and reassemble the Northern Alliance that had been broken in the days of old.

Old Alliances Renewed
The King of the Mark travelled north to Rhovanion, where he pleaded to the Elven-king and the King Under the Mountain to take up arms at fight the evil in the south. Being of the Eldar and tied to the fate of Middle-earth, the Elven-king would not let the free-peoples of the South stand alone in the fight against Mordor. The old grievances from the Great Angmar War were set aside, and the newly renewed Northern Alliance marched south to the eastern edge of Mordor.

They attacked swift and hard, pouring into the black lands and taking out the guard posted there. Things quickly took a turn for the worst, however, as the forces of Mordor cut off the Elven-king from the Dwarven and Rohirric troops. Surrounded by Orcs and Olog-hai, the army of the Wood-elves was quickly diminished, and the Elven-king was forced to pull his army out of the battle.

The remainder of the Northern Alliance charged further into Mordor, until they reached the slave region of Nurn. It is here that the King of the Mark and the King Under the Mountain made a desperate stand, fending off foul creatures coming from all over Mordor. Their armies too eventually diminished, and as the two kings fought persistently, they managed to defeat the remaining Orcs in the vicinity.

A Costly Victory
However, when the Orcs occupied fighting Gondor and its allies in the west learned of the events that took place in the east, they sent what forces they could to reinforce Nurn. In light of this, the King Under the Mountain and The King of the Mark slipped out of Mordor through the east, and were not present when these forces arrived. With the army of Orcs divided, Gondor and its allies were easily able to break through in the west and finish the Orcs that went to the east of Mordor. Thus, the war was won, and the evil of Mordor vanquished until the unforeseeable future.

Aftermath
The remainder of Orcs that did survive fled to the plains of Dagorlad, and fortified themselves at the Black Gate. After a period of time regaining their might, the Elven-king and the King Under the Mountain travelled south again to finish the remaining evil. They took the long, muddy rout through the swamp of Nindalf, in hopes that they could attack with stealth.

Once they reached Northern Ithilien, however, their hopes of stealth were quickly wiped aside. For the Orcs of Mordor perceived an attack was imminent, and stationed a guard that was ready for an assault. As the forces of good crossed into the barren plains of Dagorlad, the guard of the enemy struck from both sides, cornering them in-between Ithilien and Dagorlad. This move by the Orcs crippled the armies of the Wood-elves and Dwarves, but did not stop them from reaching the Black Gate. On the outskirts of Dagorlad, the last battle in the War in the South began. The Elven-king and the King Under the Mountain rallied their armies and fought all the way into the Black Gate. The forces stood no chance against the combined might of these armies, and were destroyed in a matter of days. The war, with heavy costs, had been won.

A Mysterious Evil Brews in the Forest
Even after the great wars of the bygone ages, the darkness that surrounded the Elven-king's woodland realm continued to loom over the vast majority of the forest. The southern part of the forest, where legions of Orcs once gathered, became known to the Wood-elves as Amon Lanc. As time progressed, the Woodsmen and other races living near the forest spoke of a nameless evil that had now taken refuge in Amon Lanc. Long had the Elven-king perceived this evil, for he noticed that the foul creatures who dwelt in the forest had grown bolder. The Elves of Light, the Galadhrim of Lothlórien, lived close to the southern part of the corrupted Greenwood that Amon Lanc occupied. Taking every measure of caution, the Elven-king journeyed south along the river Anduin to the Golden Wood, to seek council with his Galadhrim kin.

The Gift of the Galadhrim
The Galadhrim Elves perceived a great darkness that brewed in Amon Lanc, and bestowed upon the Elven-king their most beloved star to counter this evil. The Light of Earendil, they claimed, would be a light in the darkest of places. The Elven-king accepted this generous gift with delight, and returned to his woodland realm to prepare an assault on Amon Lanc.

Clash Under the Trees
The Elven-king was not fully aware of the evil that dwelled within Amon Lanc. Taking every precaution possible, he called upon an old ally to aid him in this conquest. The Dwarves of Erebor responded to this call, and they rallied in the Golden Wood along with the Elven-king and his army. Together, they marched out of Lorien, across the river Anduin, and into the southern part of the forest to Amon Lanc. Their mere presence in the forest attracted all kinds of foul creatures to them, but these attacks were easily warded off by the sheer number of Elves and Dwarves.

At last, they reached the great hill of Amon Lanc. They fought their way through all kinds of monstrous Orcs and trolls, until they stumbled upon a mysterious fortress that had been erected at the heart of Amon Lanc. The Elven and Dwarven armies fought the foul creatures on the plains outside this fortress, while the Elven-king and the King Under the Mountain ventured inside. Once they reached the center of the fortress, after fighting through Orcs that dwelled there in, the concealed evil that dwelled there emerged.

A Light in Dark Places
Out of the darkness, at the center of the fortress, emerged a shadow; Nameless and fearsome, its mere presence shook the foundations of the fortress itself. The Elven-king took up arms and stood against this Nameless shadow, while the King Under the Mountain held off any Orcs that tried to attack. The Nameless shadow spoke in a tongue not heard since the bygone ages; it was Black speech, the tongue of Mordor and of darkness. However, its words did not sway the Elven-king; instead, he wielded the Light of Earendil bestowed to him by the Galadhrim. With a grand display of power, the Elven-king utilized this Light to battle the shadow.

In the end, the Light of Earendil and the power of the Eldar proved too great for the Nameless shadow. It dispersed in the bright light, and vanished from the sight of the Elven-king and King Under the Mountain. The Orcs outside the fortress battling the Elven and Dwarven armies were driven back into the depths of the forest, where they fled out of sight from the forces of good. Much of the strength of the King Under the Mountain, especially the Elven-king had been spent battling this Nameless shadow, and they returned to their homelands weary of war. This would be the last great war that the alliance of Wood-elves and Dwarves would engage in for many years to come.

( Little did the Elven-king and the King Under the Mountain realize that they were battling an under-developed, weakened spirit of Sauron. He would later return to this location in the Third Age, known in that time as "Dol Guldur".  )

[Work in progress, more content coming soon ]