| Acts of disobediance are: abuse of the name of the Aina
Amarth disrespect towards higher ranks disobeying orders/failing to carry
out orders failing/refusing to pay dues failing/refusing to pay fines unnotified
longterm inactivity disrespect towards the Amarthatar (i. e. not praying
once per session)
Sentances for lesser crimes can be decided by a superior of the felon,
but all penalties have to be confirmed by at least two Turamarth. In especially
severe cases of acts if disobediance the Turamarth decide the sentance.
All sentances that involve death are to be carried out by the Firfaroth.
A more detailed book of rules will be published, for the members'
sake, but we see no reason in writing it here. You may, of course, have
it if you request it.
6. Features of the Guild Hall
To force people to be thematic we suggest an altar where all members
can 'pray to amarthatar'. Its benefit would be that endurance points would
generate faster while praying. Also, since it is important to the theme,
we would like to develop a system where we can log every member's praying
session so that we can make sure that they do their one mandatory prayer
per session.
We would like the inside of our guild hall to be lawless so that
we can punish our own members as we wish.
The most important feature is the library. We even need one during
the trial guild time, since it is very important to the theme.
7. Secondary Skills and Familiars
Since the Aina Amarth is a Cult of "'magic' traditions" [sic] (see
below) and its members are deeply absorbed by sorcery and often stumble
upon the paths of devilry, we suggest our skills to be mainly wizard skills
and our familiar to be some kind some sort of hideous, nameless creature,
summoned from hell.
Our first suggestion for a non-combat skill is 'meditation'. With
this the members can find a peaceful place to meditate seeking to part
the soul and the body from eachother. When someone succeeds in carrying
through a concentrated meditation their soul parts from their body, and
they have a so called "out-of-body-experience". This allows the player
to explore places without actually being there, leaving his body behind.
Entering a room where there are other players, all they would notice would
be something like: 'You sense the presence of a lost soul', or 'A cold
wind chills you to the bone'. Using this skill would of course drain lots
of endurance points. The biggest flaw of using this would be that the body
could easily be killed without being able to defend itself. If all the
endurance points are used up the soul is cast back into the body.
8. The Background of the Aina
Amarth
The Cult of the Aina Amarth is sprung from the Ithryn Luin, which
Tolkien wrote very little of. This is what we have unraveled by studying
his works closely:
8.1 The Ithryn Luin
The Istari we all know well. We have heard much of Gandalf and Saruman,
a little less of Radagast but almost nothing at all of the two remaining
Istari: Alatar and Pallando,[2] called the "Ithryn Luin", the Blue Wizards.
As far as we know from the works of J.R.R Tolkien at least one of them
was the founder of the cult which we call the Aina Amarth. Of their background
I wish to cite the following of Tolkien's words:
"Of the blue little was known, in the West... for they passed into
the East with Curinír but they never returned".[3] "Their task was
to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled
from Melkor- worship, to stir up rebellion".[4] "They must have had very
great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening
and disarraying the forces of East... who would both in the Second Age
and Third Age have... outnumbered the West".[4] "[W]hether they remained
in the East, pursuing there the purposes for which they were sent; or perished;
or as some hold were ensnared by Sauron and became his servants is not
known".[3] Here is the main fact that carries the foundation of the Cult
on its shoulder: "[The Ithryn Luin] were founders or beginners of secret
cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron".[5]
The Aina Amarth, 'the Holy Doom', is a name that we have given to
one of the mentioned "secret cults". Let us now state the interpretation
of the facts:
The time of the Ithryn Luin's arrival in the East is uncertain, but
it must have been some years after the Istari's arrival in Middle-earth,
in the year 1000 of the Third Age of the Sun.[6] Therefor it must be circa
2000 years between the coming of the Ithryn Luin and the War of the Ring.
This means that the Aina Amarth could be a very old Cult, only it has just
recently arrived in the West.
We have also learned about the Aina Amarth by studying the East.
No elves have tarried there since before the drowning of Beleriand when
elven ships were built to sail upon the Sea of Rhûn.[7] If there
were any stray wanderers, these would of been mainly dwarves. Thus, the
only inhabitants of the East during the whole Second and Third Age were
men. The ancestors of some of the inhabitants along the Sea of Rhûn
were Bëorians and Hadorians (also called the People of Marach).[8]
Most of the inhabitants in this area are, though, Easterlings.
8.2 The Quest for Immortality
In all of Tolkien's Middle-earth related works men are anxious and
restless, often yearning for more than they already have. Men have envied
elves for their immortality, and elves have envied men for their mortality.
The best example of the restlessness of men is the downfall of Numenor,
when Sauron chanelled their yearning for immortal life towards the immortal
lands of Valinor, finally evoking the Great Armament which ended with the
drowning of Numenor. The Aina Amarth are subject of the same type of impatient
yearning for immortality. They are jealous of the elves and therefor their
enemies. This is one way in which they "were ensnared by Sauron".
We have noted that it may seem contradictory that we use a lot of
elven words and yet are hostile towards elves. The explenation for this
is that Alatar and Palando, the Ithryn Luin, were Istari and therefor from
Valinor their mother tounge being Quenya (High Elvish). They founded the
Aina Amarth seeking to give the wild men of the East wisdom to rebell against
the powers of evil and taught them Quenya. Though the Aina Amarth was "ensnared
by Sauron", they continued to speak Quenya, the language of the enemy,
since they took pride in speaking it, flattering themselves with being
superior of other men. Also, many individuals of the Aina Amarth thought
for themselves: "Perhaps the magic and the secrets of the elves lie in
their languages...", naivly hoping that mastering their tounge would unravel
the secret of immortality.
8.3 The Aina Amarth and the
War of the Ring
The Aina Amarth are indifferant to the War of the Ring, yet they
may cross the roads of both good and evil while carrying out the will of
the Amarthatar.
9. The Guild Location
We would prefer our guild hall to be placed either alongside the
Sea of Rhûn or nearby it, since it is the easternmost part of northwest
Middle-earth. But the Sea of Rhûn does not exist yet. So, either
we will wait, if there are any plans on creating the Sea of Rhûn
within the near future, or place the guild hall in a temporary place until
the sea is created - if you will permit a temporary location, that is.
[1] The History of Middle-earth vol. 10, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth
[2] Alatar and Pallando are also refered to as Morinehtar and Rómestámo,
Darkness-slayer and East-helper, in The Peoples of Middle-earth, pp. 384-385
[3] Unfinished Tales, p. 390
[4] The Peoples of Middle-earth, p. 385
[5] Unfinished Tales, p. 401
[6] Unfinished Tales, p. 388
[7] The Peoples of Middle-earth, p. 391
[8] The Peoples of Middle-earh, p. 373 |