A delightful day. Yes. I rode with the elf maid obedient beside me, and my few men about me. North from the crowded, fetid encampment, out into the hills around the northmens' camp, Esteldin.
I do not fear them, the sad ragged men of half-shadows and crumbling glories. I pity them, for the foolishness of their forefathers in their choices, the payment now exacted on their faded scions. I pity what they have become, so fallen from the greatness Men were destined to be. What aid could they ever expect from their elven 'friends'? I do not see some vast array of high-helmed lords tumbling down upon me in a bright vengence.
No. I see a dusty empty land that month by month falls under our sway. I see Men who have been abandoned by the elves they once sought so hard to emulate. The betrayers of their own island kin, betrayed and forgotton by those they believed loved them.
I feel it, gnawing in my heart, that Men could fall so low, such high Men, scratching in the dirt. I would give them their pride again, a purpose, power to order all things as they should be. Men once again in word and deed, masters of their lands and futures. They will come to see it, yes, the wisdom of it. And when He receives their supplication in the north I will step forward, raise them up as my bretheren, long sundered. What a future shall be shaped for Men, when the lord of the east rides forth!
