Rivvy's Rambles on Writing presents: ROLEPLAYING POST ANNOTATION
This is where Rivvy rambles on a recent RP post he did in terms of writing construction, strategy, idioms, cliches, regrets, change-of-decisions, and other information that would make an agent yell at Rivvy for spoiling his trade secrets.
RP post: Fangorn in the Forest of Neldoreth, located in the Ages of Arda RPG (
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=297&start=50)
Context: Ages of Arda is an RPG spanning the entire history of middle earth. Currently, the post is taking place in the very protected Doriath during the Battle of Sudden Flame.
RP Post Summary:
Fangorn's first post in this RPG. He decides to stay in Doriath for the winter to further investigate its beech trees. Noticing
Galadriel, he greets her and asks what is on her mind.
Notes prior to post: So, this was my first time RPing as an ent, and what a big responsibility from the get-go to roleplay as
Treebeard! This was arranged almost on a whim in Discord. I was asked by the GM, Aigronding, to play
Treebeard as the GM thought I would be great as an ent. After all, I kinda have been sounding like one in real life. But anyways, I agreed and then we worked on the timeline on when and where to put him in. What is interesting about
Treebeard is that he makes multiple references to "the Great Darkness" that came from "the North." He's not talking about Angmar, he's talking about
Morgoth, because
Treebeard references
Morgoth's defeat before the Entwives were eradicated by
Sauron in the second age. Once
Morgoth came from the North, that was when the sundering of the Ents and the Entwives began, when the Entwives moved beyond the Anduin river.
At the same time, if the sundering occurred before the Battle of Sudden Flame, that kinda would downplay the very concept of a "Long Peace." Especially because
Treebeard explicitly stated that the Entwives craved peace above all, as in their gardens not being disturbed by malevolence. So we hypothesized that it was the Battle of Sudden Flame that is the trigger for
Morgoth's permanency as Beleriand's threat. We made more plans surrounding this, but you'll hopefully see that unfold as time goes on in the RPG. I've communicated with various members behind the scenes, and one of them is Thalionwen, who is playing
Galadriel. Thus, the conversation between
Treebeard and
Galadriel is planned as a sort of outline with a majority of details being RPed along the way.
Anyways, let's move on to the analyzing of
Treebeard's first post:
Setting the Scene and the Opening Quote
So notice that I'm using the name
Fangorn instead of
Treebeard. I did this for two reasons: 1. his Sindarin name is
Fangorn. 2.
Thingol has placed a language ban on Quenya, so Sindarin is the default language of Doriath. I wanted him to be in the Forest of Neldoreth at the time of the Battle of Sudden Flame, because if he had been in Dorthonion, like he usually is in the winters, I would have trouble believing he would just let the trees burn and not fall in battle against
Morgoth's forces. He is a tree shepherd after all. But if he's over in Neldoreth, then he would not be immediately roused by directly seeing the trees. He would default to his non-hasty nature and think of a more... organized way to respond. But that'll be in regards to the next post.
Speaking of Neldoreth,
Treebeard references this forest in
The Two Towers, visiting it in Autumn. So believe it or not, I only was reminded of this as I was looking at the reference while I was writing the post that he went to various forests in different parts of the seasons. So I had to come up with a reason why he's not going to Dorthonion this winter. Thankfully, Neldoreth is populated by beech trees, per the quote. As I researched beech trees, I saw that in the winter many of their leaves actually stayed on their trees rather than falling down. I found that fascinating, and if I find it fascinating,
Treebeard would experience that feeling doubly so. You'll see later in the post when I use this to my advantage in providing reasoning for him staying in Doriath at this moment in time.
Paragraph 1
Notice I don't start off in describing what the ent looks like. That's done on purpose because I know most readers already have a vision of what
Treebeard looks like. Now recently, in a movie thread, Elenhir has noted that ents only have some attributes of trees if one only took a glance at them, but they were actually of flesh rather than wood. Another post indicated that they probably were not as tall as the movies made them out to be. But I leave it to my readers on what they imagine
Treebeard looks like since he's a well-known character. Perhaps the reader can imagine a few less wrinkles in places to show him being younger in the first age, but I did not consider describing his physical attributes a priority.
What I did consider a priority was his feelings regarding Neldoreth. Here I mention how he finds beech trees fascinating, referencing that aspect of the leaves turning tan in winter. But I also use a little creative license in assuming he has witnessed
Lúthien dancing causing flowers to grow, thus reminding him of
Fimbrethil, who I presume also has that power but may/may not dance to facilitate the growing of the flowers (just imagine an entwife dancing like
Lúthien and try not to chuckle). I also mention the summertime in Ossiriand, which
Treebeard also mentions in the second book of LOTR. This is where I also hint where
Fimbrethil is located (which was done with collaboration behind the scenes with Nia, who is playing that role).
Paragraph 2
In
The Two Towers,
Treebeard directly states that in the good old elder days, he indeed would spend a week just breathing in the fine air. So I did a callback to that in this second paragraph. His relationship with
Thingol is another one where I needed to use a little logical thinking and creativity in regards to what
Treebeard would most likely think of the elf-king. In LOTR,
Treebeard actually cautioned Merry and Pippin to avoid getting entangled in Lorien as it was a weird place. Using that vein, I'm assuming that our ent regards
Thingol as a weird person because he not only has the Girdle protecting the place, but he also instituted a language ban on Quenya! I see Doriath as weirder than Lorien, so I'm assuming
Treebeard thinks that way too. This also gives a tiny hint in regards to a future post where we will get
Treebeard's response to a certain new policy.
The next part of the paragraph I reference the battle which caused the end of the Green Elves in terms of their power in Ossiriand. It also conveniently means that there is a bunch of land for entwives to tend to, as I'm assuming that once the elves were depopulated/left, a lot of the plants became abandoned. I have
Treebeard getting his news from trees, since that's who he communicates the most with. I also establish that the Long Peace has allowed our ent to travel everywhere including Neldoreth, providing both a reason why he's in Beleriand and lowering the sense of urgency in worrying about the threat up North.
Paragraphs 3-4
So paragraph 3 is where I sorta use creativity to come up with a reason for
Treebeard not to visit Dorthonion in the winter (at this moment). Because of my research of beech trees that I did while writing the post, I had him become interested in why the leaves aged but stayed on those particular trees. The second creative reason is including curiosity on whether or not the presence of
Lúthien affected anything, thus also requiring him to investigate Region to see if there was any difference between Neldoreth and Region.
With paragraph 4, I was very careful to make it so that he had a feeling that something was wrong up north as a bit of insight. At the same time, because of the whole Girdle of Melian thing, along with the delay of the refugees just making their way south into Doriath, I had to make it so that it was only a hunch. And a hunch alone would not cause
Treebeard to do something hasty like leave the forest to investigate. This also allows the opportunity to get more information out of somebody, and well enter
Galadriel
Paragraphs 5-7
As implied, the pair have met before. This is a reference to the Return of the King, where we know that they met before (along with Celeborn). Their relationship is interesting, and there is a lot unsaid and actually a lot of... possible tension between the pair as they kinda both talked shade about the other's forests behind the other's book. But that's an entire different subject. We do not know exactly of every single conversation and when they happened, but in RPG's like Ages of Arda, plausibility becomes key in filling in gaps. It's very plausible that
Treebeard got permission from
Thingol to visit Neldoreth whenever he wished, and therefore meet
Galadriel and
Celeborn there. It is also plausible that the ent received news from the elves.
Paragraph 6 is a direct response to Thalionwen's post as
Galadriel. I basically summarize quite a few aspects of the entire post before this quote in dialogue form. Notice I specifically note that
Treebeard is happy that elves care for the trees. An astute reader who has read Thalionwen's post as Galadriel should eagerly anticipate to the probable bad news that will be stated towards our ent.
Paragraph 7 provides the conversational cue for
Galadriel to respond. I show the insight of
Treebeard, and note once again that ents are not hasty. This will prepare the reader eventually for what our ent will plan in the next rp posts. But that is in the future. Our annotation then, ends here for now!
Postscript: I went to sleep after I posted and dreamt I was treebeard
~~~
So there you have it, an Annotation of one of my RP posts. Questions, comments, suggestions? Feel free to bring them up!