Ulthuan

Having done ancient Mesopotamian image salvage (main thread), it was time to turn toward the other leg on which the Chaos Dwarf inspiration stands: The ashen hellscapes of Angband and Mordor in Tolkien's Middle Earth.

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Imgur Album

Games Workshop had the brilliant idea in the 1990s to combine the cruel and colourful ancient Assyrians with Sauron's Mordor, and ended up with a vibrant race like no other in fantasy. Subsequent additions of Daemonsmithing, bound K'daai Daemons and so on has only added to the mystique and stimulating tensions which are built into the Dawi Zharr. Chaos Dwarfs are becoming an archetype in fantasy, in no small part due to the unique marriage of inspiration in Warhammer. As reference for polluting industry and forbidding landscapes of the Blacksmiths of Chaos, Angband and Mordor is a given.

Time for grimdark, Tolkien style.

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Once again a great collection of images.

I love the story of Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth (4 image). It symbolises everything about elves. Skill, strong will, but also eventual defeat at the hands of doom and the gods.

Rod

Indeed! Though I'm much more with the Fëanoreans... I guess their stubbornness, craftsmanship, skill in battle and utter bloody singlemindedness appeals to my Dwarven nature. Also, not oath breakers. Fëanor's death is the ultimate death in Silmarillion, in my book. Some of the others come quite close, though, especially when those Gondolin Elves execute a counter offensive across the grand plaza and push a fire dragon into a giant fountain, drowning it in its waters... only to be scalded to the death by the steam billowing from the heated fountain.

Great stuff, love the Black Gate in particular, something they did well in the movies IMHO.

Prince of Spires wrote:Skill, strong will, but also eventual defeat at the hands of doom and the gods.

The War of Wrath was a bit of a comeback mind.

True. Though even that only really created a pause in which the elves moved west. Those who remained eventually faded (though it took a couple of hundred years...). And even those never really reached their former glory.

Rod

It's all so epically tragic, isn't it?

Take Galadriel. Born in Aman she joins the rebellion, including the lethal march across the Grinding Ice when Feanor burns the boats. Is part of the whole doomed war against Morgoth but survives to see him crushed by the Host of the Valar. Spurns returning to the West and creates a paradise in Middle Earth. Sees her daughter married to Elrond but then captured and tortured by orcs and passes from ME. Is a major player in the War of the Ring, including turning down the power of the One Ring and then sees her beautiful land fade when it's destroyed. Ends up taking ship to the West anyway, thousands of years late.

That's the glory of the Noldor for me, yes they're tragic but what a tale, the richness and depth of it is awesome. They lived.