Harlindin: The Lost Elves of Far Harad.

Before the first migration of elves and only shortly after Orom first espied the young Elves awakened by the waters of Cuivinen a small group of the Lindar portion of the Nelyar tribe fled before the servants of The Dark One1. Those that survived headed ever further south away from the Dark Ones servants and fearsome monsters. They found a fertile land of young woods and prospered and grew in numbers. The called themselves the Harlindin Elves, The Southern Singers. Linw and Linely who were among the 24 pairs of the original Lindar were taken as their leaders. A few tried to return to Cuivinen but they never returned to tell their tale. Two things happened to upset this first settlement. Strange new lights that came to be known as the Sun and the Moon began to fly in the sky over the lands. They brought even better crops and were considered a boon though most of the Harlindin found themselves drawn more to the silvery light of the erratic Moon. The second change involved the arrival to the region of a group of strange, short and not lovely people also fleeing to safety. They turned out to not be Elves but some new and short lived race, a race that came to be known as men. The leaders of the Harlindin did not trust these new people and Linely foresaw the great grief to the Harlindin if they dwell together. A few of the Elves left a trail easy to follow to another nearby land where large herds of antelopes roamed and the land was fertile. Linw hoped the men would settle in and leave them alone. Linely said it would take more than this and they must become a secretive people again. Their great peace had ended. The Elves moved further south to where a great rain forest had grown strong with the life-giving rays of sun. They kept guards out and trained some of the local animals to help them in their hiding. Their closest friends were the otters of the local rivers and the grey parrots of the young rain forest. They cultivated many fruit trees and made hidden fish ponds deep in the woods. They began the slow process of building a protective maze within the woods to guide intruders away from their new settlement. The years passed and they successfully hid. They managed to lead men astray and developed beguilement to protect themselves. Among these were seemingly moving trails, never leaving signs of passage beyond their realm, mists and wisps of lights to lead those getting too close and of course occasionally putting men to sleep. No man made it through but Linely warned that they would soon need to move again and set up an even greater defense. She saw the world changing soon and men growing into great numbers in the next age. She advised her people to develop even greater songs of power and enchantments. It was 590 years from when the sun first rose that the land shook like never before. Their woodland retreat was largely ruined and the men of the south lost much of their settlements in the cataclysm. Harlindin scouts had searched out potential new locations respecting Linelys prophetic warning and found two of their possible locations still stood. Both were within a great and mature rain forest. They chose the one near a large lake. This was the first time the Harlindin prepared for battle but it was no normal battle. Their greatest singers went out with their best scouts and cleared the way at night for the 5 fast marches of the now numerous Harlindin Elves. Wherever man or intelligent beast was sighted they were put to sleep or charmed to forget. Their passage left many stories but no details of what had happened. Many a man and beast recalled only extraordinarily pleasant dreams with strangely beautiful singing. Some few retained some scattered memories of waking by waters and great starlit farms and a hidden wooded realm. The Harlindin began to build their new and larger retreat. The great oval maze was over a mile thick and surrounded the entire land around the lake. It was 7 miles across the narrow portion of the oval and 10 miles the longer distance. Their skill in song and beguilement continued to grow and they learned to sing the very plants into helpful growth. They also learned to partially awaken some of the trees. The trees themselves helped keep watch over the hidden realm. They grew in knowledge and song but grew with nature as opposed to the Noldorin way of craft and metalworking. No rings of power for them made of gold but Rings of Contemplation within wooded groves and gardens of flowering trees around babbling springs. No great stone towers or even a city in the great trees but rather simpler ground dwelling of trees and interwoven living vines were their way. No horses or canines but their friendship with the otters, parrots and trees stood them well. They ate mostly fruit and nuts supplemented with fish and a ground fowl they mostly kept for their large

nutritious eggs. The otters acted almost like herding dogs to the slowly bred fish of the lake. It was here in their fourth home that they met and tamed the okapi to be their special mounts. The okapi were naturally shy and quiet and excellent at traveling unseen in the woods. The Harlindins enhanced their ability with songs to make they and their riders pass unseen within close distance of man and beast. The Second Age largely passed the Harlindin by except that men kept growing in numbers and invaded the outer reaches of their woods. Rumors grew of a mysterious inner wood of a sorcerous people. It was said that men that entered the realm would not be able to leave if they ate of the food or drank of the wine. It was rumored that a great king had a great treasure horde within. Stories included men returning that thought they spent but a few night but decades had gone by. This last was not true and no man ever made it within the oval ring of the maze to see the Harlindin and escape again. It is true some were put to sleep in the maze and found themselves mysteriously far away in another part of the woods well away from the realm. Some men were left bemused and with hazy memories of dreams of another way of life and they wandered mostly lost of years at times. But none actually spoke to the elves that then returned to humanity. Some few were brought in and thus was news of the wider world gained. Thus even the Harlindin learned of Sauron and the Nmenreans. They wanted nothing to do with either. These men were treated well for their short years and indeed some thrived and lived far longer than normal though it still seemed very brief to the Elves. When the world changed again it had little effect on the Harlindin save for a season of unusual flooding. Though they wished it they could not stay as isolated in the third age. In the second age, much of Harad had dried out and the humans sought the greener areas and a kingdom of men had grown near the greater woods. The felling of trees began to grow quicker and Linw determined that the humans must be dissuaded and the woods protected. The Harlindin began to scare the humans off. They made it seem the woods were alive. People would enter the woods and disappear for days or weeks and be far way when they awoke. Some would disappear completely. Entire armed lumbering camps disappeared over night and the men would reappear scattered and with memory loss and a great fear of the woods. The campaign was going well when the Elves themselves were startled one day. They saw tree-like beings entering the woods and stopping to talk to the trees. The trees appeared to greet them with almost joy. The Harlindin raced back to let Linw and Linely know of these strange tidings. Linw and Linely themselves came out to meet these strange and unexpected beings. As they carefully approached, Linw and Linely sang a song of welcoming and strode out to meet this group of 18 unexpected people of the trees. They most resembled aged fruit trees to the eyes of the pair. One of the strangers stepped forward and spoke in a tongue close to Harlindin language, Great Greetings Speakers to Trees, we have come from far fleeing the Dark Lord and Bringer of fire. We have heard the land itself whisper of Elves passing this way long ago and we are happy to find your people. You could call me, hrum, let me see, Smoothbark is long past and no longer best. Perhaps Applefriend would be best. We are the Entwives, perhaps the last of the Entwives and we have come long and far over the dry lands from the Brown Lands that were once our gardens. We seek a refuge from orcs and the humans that betrayed us. Only Elves have never hurt us and we no longer feel safe on the open plains. Would you take in refugees? We can be of help. Applefriend was a stooped and tanned figure standing perhaps 12 tall. Linw and Linely were tall silver-haired elves of considerable stature. All of their line shared the silver hair. It was one of their escorts, their young great granddaughter Linwen that spoke first. Surely the tree folk should be welcomed to our land of singing trees. I am Linwen, apprentice singer to the trees and I at least welcome you with all my heart. Linw spoke, Forgive my daughters daughters daughter her rash tongue. She speaks out of turn but from the heart at least. I too would welcome you to our realm and I will try to persuade the elders of our tribe that we should welcome you. I will leave Linwen with you while we return to gauge the will of our people. She will take you to a pleasant grotto where you should be safe.

Linwen asked much and listened long. She learned of the world of Elves, Men, Orcs, Dwarves and Dark Lords. Sea lords and great cities were described and horrible wars and fire, always fire. Linwen learned of Elves like her own people and terrible Elves is strong mail with mighty swords and spears from over the Western Sea. Linwen was amazed by the descriptions as her own people had but little metal craft preferring to work with living plants and wood. Their weapon of choice was still the bow and arrow and most bows still have stone tips loaded with natural substances to subdue their foes. They relied mostly on guile and what men called magic though for their protection. At the same time a desire to see this outside world began to grow in her. Linwen found much to like in Applefriend and her 17 friends. Windwhistle, Mossybark, Silverleaf, Grimbranch the best warrior but warrior of desperation and not pride, Greenmantle, Trellisweaver, Ivycloak, Rosemistress, Grapetamer, Wildberry, Serenetree, Burntbark an entwife with deep burn scars that rarely spoke at all, Mulberryfriend the youngest, Cherryblossom, Waterlilywader, Gardenlady their eldest and Silentberry the most scarred and least talkative. When Silentberry moved it was seemingly without sound. After nearly a month, Linw and Linely and 2 dozen of their people returned to escort the Entwives to their new home. The Entwives eventually settled into a string of groves near the lake where they could order their gardens and orchards. There was must learning shared between the Entwives and the gentle Harlindins. The Harlindin Elves managed to protect their wooded retreat throughout the third age. They resorted to fighting but once and with the help of the Entwives and 216 tree guardians they had awakened ensured the men never knew what attacked them but the men carried back tales to leave the haunted forest alone. Linwen became a tree singer of great promise and learned much from the Applefriend and the others as their closest friend. She became one of the chief scouts of her people and ventured occasionally into human towns at night and out to the sea. She was skilled with bow of course but also the art of stealth and climbing. She had a natural ear for languages and her singing was powerful. She even learned to fight with human swords and was part of a group that trained themselves in this new art. She learned over the long centuries to make her paired short swords dance though rarely had she used them in actual combat. Her speed and agility were amazing. She was considered strange by those of her generation and older but among the younger Elves, those of the third age, she was held as a leader and speaker. In this the third age is when the most profound arts of the Harlindin Elves came to fruition. This is when they created their living towns and villages. They wove with skill and song longhouses of strong trees and vines. Cool in the hot climate and protection from rain and hidden in the woods so even the beast did not know that Elves lived near. They grew odd furniture, fruit trees with normal trunks that would then widen greatly to good size round table of smooth tops and have but a slim trunk grow up above the table and fruit year round. They had chairs and couches of shrubbery and vines growing in harmony. They used beds of soft thick grass. They had secret gardens throughout the woods and their fish farms on the lake. The otter folk were their shepherds. The grey parrots were their lookouts and helped to spread their seeds so that all the woods had nutritious plants scatter throughout. The Harlindin Elves lived in their wooded realm among their protective mists and prospered and slowly grew and thus most of the third age passed. It was not until near the end of the third age that a large human intrusion happened again. This time though it was a far larger army with dozens of oliphants. Through secret guile and nighttime raids these armies were disrupted but still they built forts on the edges of the woods. When the oliphants would not fight for them against the unknown terrors of the wood, the Haradrim turned to other methods. They used fire often and fires were an effective tool. Linw and Linely needed to find away to drive these invaders out before it was too late. Linwen volunteered to lead a dozen of the stealthiest to learn more of the leaders behind this war and see what could be done to get them to abandon it. Starting in the camp, she sang the guards to sleep in one large area and then her small group worked their way to the command tent. She found a senior advisor and beguiled him to the point where she was able to learn where the Prince that

ordered this army lived and where to find the general of this army. That night the swords of the Harlindins made fast work of the dirty work of killing dozens of men in their sleep and lacing their food and water with natural poisons that would cause stomach ailments and drowsiness. The advisor was never seen again as he was sent back to the woods for further use as an information resource and the camps captain was found wandering outside of the camp all but bereft of his memory and speaking of the horrors that awaited if the army did not leave. From this camp she split her forces. She sent six of her band to the Generals fort to do what they safely could and she led another six to a great city of the Haradrim. The retreated back to the woods long enough to summon their okapi steed. They travelled at night and when near populated areas even avoided moonlight. With great stealth they arrived at the city in only 4 nights of travel. The okapi were secreted but a few miles from the city. That night they went over the walls of the city using vines they grew to get over the wall swiftly. To the central fortress of the city they crept. Linwen made glamour of invisibility about her and made the final approach on her own. On the top floor of the fortress she sang the men to sleep. Down to the Kings apartments she continued to sing those awake to sleep. Near the Kings very door though stood one that was fighting the sleep. She sent an arrow flying for his throat but he moved to quickly for one she thought dazed. The guard raised hue and cry and charged towards her. Her second through fifth arrows found their marks though and he lay dying. She swiftly crossed to the doors, with practiced skill she unlocked it and then sang the wooden bar to slip loose. With a dull clatter the bar was gone and she sang back up her glamour of invisibility. She opened the door to find the King cowering behind a desk. What manner of being dares assault King Melliot? Linwen responded, I am the spirit of the haunted woods. Your people knew for thousands of years to leave the sacred woods alone but you sent men that brought fire and axes. We tried gentle methods to turn them back but you ordered them to press harder and burn faster so I have left my grove and come for you directly. One last time I tell you in person, leave the woods alone and you yourself shall pay the price. All this time she was throwing her voice and had snuck up behind him. She used a small club to knock him senseless and then made sure he would suffer nothing worse than some headaches. She did a quick search of the apartments and found a lightly jeweled sword of fine and alien make that seemed to be of power. This she liberated as her fee. Back out she went as stealthy as she came. Back to her people she rejoined who had been busy preparing to set fire to the citys warehouse district. Messages were left that for every tree burnt a building would burn and the fires were lit and the party of Elves left quickly. They returned to the okapi and road for home. The generals fort near the woods had suffered such larger mayhem that few had slept for the past week. The men were digging trenches, standing fire watches, trying to stop the ghost like beings that slipped in and out of their fort like the wall were non-existent. On Linwens return though all activity stopped and but hours behind her were orders from the King to cease operations and bother the woods no more.

This means they are not technically Avari as they did not refuse the invitation but rather missed it entirely.