Fate Questions Answered (Patreon)

Hey all! So, here is my response to my Fate Touched questions. I have read all of the comments on this series of questions, the Magic and Climbing questions but I decided to wait on posting a response until I was working on those specific stories. Since I am now working on Fate Touched  (Effect is out to Hiryo) and am destroying it – 7,500 words per days over the past three days – I thought of doing this and posting the HP only poll for February. That should be up by this point, and if anyone is still having trouble voting on it, please tell me. I maintain it hasn’t been anything I’ve done, but I would like to know if Patreon is screwing up again.

I will also say that I will be posting Monday two revamped/edited chapters of Death’s Avenger. I have been going through them slowly after they were sent back to me by a new editor, and I really want to Grammarly them before reposting them. That kind of work is what I do while watching football LOL.

As I was doing this, I also posted some responses to specific individuals. Not many this time, but if you pointed out something interesting to the story overall or had your own question, I answered in the original thread.

Anyway, now onto my response to your opinions on the Questions of Fate… huh, that sounds kind of awesome as a title. LOL.

1. This was the question about where to take the story before the Aragorn meet up and after the dwarven and monster slaying arcs. Here, several of you had interesting points, starting with Beleriond who pointed out that Tauriel would probably not be at all comfortable in the land of savannahs and dessert that is the south under the people of Harad.

Steven Borchert had an idea that I had not considered: having the twosome look for the Avari, the elves who did not join the journey to the West from the very beginning. This is different from the Sindar elves, who began the journey but did not cross the ocean or live in the light of the Valar. There really isn’t much known of them, beyond the fact they would have the same long life but none of the spiritual abilities or skill with craft that the Noldor or even Sindar do. I will perhaps introduce one or two of the six known tribes of Avari still living in Middle Earth, but do not expect to see any heroes or long standing characters among them. The Avari are EXTREMELY isolationist, and, frankly, lesser than the Eldar. Unlike the Sindar, they did not meet even a single Maia, being leery of leaving their homes or poisoned against Oromë by the lies of Morgoth.

Byran Brown also had an interesting point – that I haven’t had Harry spend anytime with Radagast or learn about lore. Here, however, I have to point out that this Harry is not a potion persons. Snape poisoned him very badly against that kind of thing. But your suggestion of heading east would pair well with the idea of diving deeper into the various dwarven societies. I will not have Harry look into the Blue Wizards for now. He doesn’t know much about them after all. That could happen in the future though.

Braeden1002 brought up a concern that diving deeper into the dwarves could become repetitive. I hope to not let that happen, but I hope if it does that all of you will point it out so I can correct or remove such.

Because as you might have guessed, the majority of people seem to be split between the Haradrim and more time with the dwarves. I think personally I will go with the dwarves, because that will help me set up the final Harry-centric arc before we go into my version of Frodo’s escape from the Shire. That will be very important.

Now, that doesn’t mean that I won’t also introduce the rangers. I can do that too, but it won’t get it’s own arc. Rather, I will have them be introduced in groups

5. And I know this is very out of order, but it ties into the end of the previous question, because originally, I had thought to use the fact that Tauriel wanted to remain with her and Harry’s child until they reached maturity (remember, folks, only the hobbits have anything like the term teenager in their language LOL). But, as Novus pointed out, this is a point that I have brought up before, and he was quite right to point it out again: Tauriel is YOUNG for an elf. She isn’t even a thousand years old yet. I have to keep on remembering this  - or being reminded of it – that she is that young for her folk. Now, that has nothing to do with her capability or maturity, but it does have a lot to do on whether or not she is ready to have a child. And children among the elves do not just ‘happen’. Giving life to a child among them takes from their own Fëa. It is why the mother of Fëanor willingly went into the halls of Mandos, fading there rather than continuing to try and live, he basically took all of her energy when it should have been enough to give birth to many children.  So, I will not push for Tauriel to have a child in this story. This Harry will not become a father… although he might become a very weird uncle to many… Heh. So no half-elf babies for a long while.

2. Here once more Beleriond had a point, as did Delphinous. Beleriond pointed out that travel times would be a big deal if the wedding is planned ahead of times. Even someone like Galadriel would need a few weeks at least, and any human – Aragorn – would need far longer to reach the Lonely Mountain and Long Lake. But also that Harry and Tauriel are not the type to want a large ceremony with loads of even their friends. As for wedding specific lore, nope. Not to my knowledge. I don’t have the unfinished tales, but I can’t recall any real full-blown wedding ceremony, not even when the Valar Tulkas and Nessa married before the second war with Melkor or when Arwen and Aragorn wed. And if any marriage should have been given a full ceremony it is a marriage between literal demigods (or gods, depending on how you think of them) and one of the main characters of the Fellowship series. So while there will be a wedding, I will make it small and magical rather than a big deal. Although, Beleriond also menionted that Galadriel would probably want to be there. So that gives me the priestess to preside over things LOL.

Braden1002 just wants it to be touching, and that I can promise you. And Novus: you mentioned a cheeky Vala/Maia showing up. We shall see. Cheeky I don’t know about. Ecstatic, perhaps I can do. And as several mentioned, I might try to include some dwarven bits into the ceremony.

3. This question seemed dominated by people who wanted to see bits of Saruman’s fall, which, as Novus and Beleriondpointed out, has already begun. He’s not an enemy of the free world just yet, but he definitely has not been on their side for many decades.  I will try to show him more as a major baddy rather than a mid-boss as he kind of was in the original, but it will be tricky. I will probably lean into the craftsman aspect more. We only were shown a few glimpse of that in canon: the traps that killed an ent when they attacked Orthanc, and the explosive device that forced the Rohirrim at Helmsdeep. More of that.

4. Here few people had specific ideas, but the majority seemed in favor of seeing Aragorn’s adventures. So I will probably show a few, including one important one that Braeden1002 and Zagan mentioned: when he met Arwen and fell in love. That is a major point. In the legendarium, it is explained that before that meeting, Aragorn had no desire to become King, but after, Elrond explained that only a king of the restored north and Gondor, the rejoined kingdom of the Númenor on Middle Earth, could be worthy of Arwen, whose people believed was Luthien returned among them. (Yes, she was that big a deal). I won’t let the story be sidetracked away from Harry, but both Aragorn and Bilbo, along with Frodo, will need some screen time. Small blurbs, as Alex Cratementioned, will be the way to go.

Thanks as always for your opinions and suggestions everybody, and I hope you have a good evening.