Character of the Month: Eönwë
This month's biography focuses on Eönwë, who started with a variety of identities but settled into the role of Manwë's herald, exemplifying the values of strong leadership and justice.

The first time Curufin kisses Finrod, it is to provoke.
There is no deeper meaning to it. Only a cousin with a pleasant smile and mild words; only Curufin's unending need to break things and a violence that has been hanging from his fists since they stepped into these caves.
He expects Finrod to reel back with disgust, expects him to be scandalized, to be offended, to narrow his eyes, maybe even to threaten. He does not expect for Finrod's mouth to open beneath his, Finrod's hands coming up to fist in his robes and pull him close. He bites at Finrod's lip savagely, and Finrod bites harder, smiling into the kiss when copper bursts bright between them.
It really only continues escalating from there.

Fingon understood that hope was a choice. It was careful and deliberate, and it was hard, and the times when having hope seemed the most impossible were the times one had to choose it over and over again, every second of every day. This was the fundamental truth at the core of Fingon’s beliefs, the centre around which he understood the world and his place in it.
Very seldom did he waver in this conviction more than he did in the months following the Dagor Bragollach.
***
Fingon inherits the crown. Maedhros comes to Barad Eithel in the hour of his grief. Together, they figure out a way to move forward.

The Valar tell them that they cannot return to Beleriand and Elwing accepts this easily, for she has no reason to return. Sirion is destroyed, naught but ash and rubble and dried blood. The Fëanorians had kidnapped her sons and, she is sure, slain them before she and Eärendil even reached Valinor. There is nothing left for her there.
It takes four years for rumors to reach her ears that her sons likely still live.

Thirteen years before the War of the Ring, an orcling — more intelligent and more curious than most — is born in Mordor. His curiosity will lead him to both incredible discoveries and perilous situations, all of which will shape him into a leader unlike any Mordor has ever known. But to become that leader, he must defeat all his rivals, especially the most abhorrent of them all — his enemy since earliest childhood.

Gwindor and Celebrimbor share their fears, after a council meeting in which Túrin got his way.

Melkor demands an account of Mairon’s failures.

A March-Warden assists the last of the refugees from Doriath to the Falls of Sirion after the sons of Feanor assail Menegroth.

In the aftermath of the third kinslaying and the death of Amrod and Amras, Maglor needs to reassure himself that Maedhros is still there with him.

King Finwë of the Noldor was not the only one who died that day.

Argon falls, and Turgon screams.

In the aftermath of the Dagor Bragollach, an elf searches for survivors amongst the ruins of a town. The horrors he sees make him struggle to find hope in an ever-darkening world.

Last night, the King’s Men put to death a large group of dangerous radicals in the Artists’ Quarter of Armenelos. Caught only a few hours before their planned assassination attempt on Tar-Míriel, they forced our heroic enforcers to battle for their very lives. Unfortunately, the splinter group of Faithful fanatics were unwilling to surrender peacefully. A large number of weapons, including incendiary devices, were recovered from the basement of the house in which they had been planning their cowardly and devious attack. Although all of the royal guard survived, one of their number was carried to the local hospital with severe injuries; he is expected to recover.
Citizens are asked to report any unusual activity to the King’s Men. Now, more than ever, Númenor must stand together against those who would destroy her.
—Short Bulletin in the Armenelos Times, Year 11 of the reign of Ar-Pharazôn

Luthien helps unlock Galadriel's Sight

As a very young elfling, Mablung's heart chooses its companion, and Mablung stays true to this love until the end of his life in Middle-Earth.

With any luck, he will simply be able to keep Finrod alive until Beren gets himself killed as he is destined to do, and then he can drag Finrod back to Nargothrond alive and well. It will not be an end that leaves Finrod once more in Curufin’s bed, but it will be an end that he can live with. Curufin needs Finrod to live, every other ending leaving him with bile on his tongue and nausea haunting him. He knows this is foolish. He knows he is ruining the carefully crafted plans he’s been building for years, cutting all the strings he’d been ready to carefully pull, but when he closes his eyes—
When he closes his eyes, he sees blood caught in the dulled yellow of Finrod’s hair, blood on his mouth, his cheeks, blood weeping from his throat. Curufin closes his eyes and cannot bear to keep them closed.
“We are going with you,” he says simply, the words like ash in his mouth.

Elured and Elurin watch their world burn.

Mairon reunites with Melkor at Lammoth.

Argon falls.

"Dior shall he be called, and you shall be a comfort to each other: that though he be fatherless and motherless, and you childless, you shall not be bereft of kin."
On the lives and deaths of two kings of Doriath: Elwë of Cuiviénen, wisest and noblest of Elves, who ruled in peace ere ever the Sun rose; and Dior Eluchíl, at whose feet the realm crumbled.

Before the destruction of Gondolin, Glorfindel was forced to keep many parts of his life a secret. Much of this changed after his second coming to Middle Earth.
Featuring: Glorthelion, intersex!Glorfindel, mpreg, and queerplatonic Glorestor.

Two elderly hobbit-ladies find ways to get through the time of Saruman's rule over the Shire.

Fingolfin and Maedhros both have particular needs. They find fellowship over this.

Ósanwë gives an intimacy to relationships that is almost unmatched.

Fingon knows that it is reasonable for Maedhros to go east, good, even. That doesn't mean he's happy about it.