Annals of Arthedain : Fanwater

The following passages were recovered from the ruins of a building in the Lone-Lands. Unfortunately, as with all such books, many of the pages are lost or illegible and so only fragments remain. I have added a final section to recount the history of the town to date, these are well documented in our records, but in this recollection I have allowed the narrative to flow. A more comprehensive record exists within the Town Hall Gerand Glasiter, Historian of Bree Town An Extract from the lost Annals of Arthedain ... the road marked the borders of north and south and, for the most part, was a peaceful region but for the skirmishes with the remnants of older enemies. Yet the Men of Cardolan and Arthedain were not idle in their time and the road was ever watched, and ever guarded. It was 1056 T.A when a prince of Cardolan ordered the building of a line of watchtowers along the road. The great road, ever the point at which feuds were rife, came under the watch of the Emyn Erui (Lone Hills) within two years of the decree. The northern border, however, did not remain empty, for Amon Sul and a line of lesser towers still watched from the North, ever wary of the Cardolan princes. The furthermost West of the Emyn Erui sat beside a small lake, hereafter named Fanwater, that tumbled through the hills into green and fertile lands. The Watchtower of Amon Dun (West Hill) was the most heavily fortified in those days. For within it's sight lay the tower of Amon Sul and there many men of Arthedain gathered and watched the lands. Over the years the tower of Amon Dun grew in stature, rising to the air in defiance and challenge to its neighbour, yet also in its sprawl. The Prince's armies, tired from the travels on the road, made Fanwater a welcome respite. It was in the winter of 1072 amid the harsh and cold winds of the empty lands, that Captain Belarias first sought refuge in the lands. A captain of great girth, and humour, his men both loved him for his laughter and despised him for his greed. Yet he had never before led them wrong despite his gluttony. Belarias garrisoned his men in the fortifications of Amon Dun, and there they remained, long after winter's thaw and long into the spring of the following year. The garrison grew, as the men lingered, women-folk, traders and suppliers flocking to the area to fulfill the needs of the soldiers. The first child was born in Fanwater but a year and a half after the soldiers had made home, the son of the rotund Captain and heir to the assumed lordship of the lands. And so Fanwater grew, a settlement growing from the fortifications, under the ever steady watch of the old Captain's family. Many generations passed, each, in turn, taking Lordship of the lands and settling in the great home in the shadow of the tower. Trade prospered, as did life, and by the 11th century the township of Fanwater was established. Though never granted by the Prince, the Lordship had become a hereditary passage, passing through the generations of the family of Belarias. Yet by the 13th century, the bloodline was more belonging to the Calanor, descendants of Valriun Calanor, the old Captain's standard bearer. By 1332 the town had become a place of freedom, virtue, and wealth. Even the poorest trader had money to live in comfort. The road had brought many riches, for little passed into Arthedain or Cardolan before settling under the gaze of Amon Dun. War came swift upon the lands as orcs and foul creatures reappeared in the region, the forces of Rhudaur striking fast against the lands of Cardolan and Arthedain. King Arvaleg, with allies of Cardolan and Lindon, long held the frontier of the Weather Hills against the treacherous Rhudaurians and their dangerous new allies of Angmar. The guard of Amon Sul, greatest of the towers, fell in 1409 with the coming of a great host out of Angmar, led by the Witch-King himself. War ravaged the region, the northenmost lands bearing the brunt of the assault but Amon Dun and the town of Fanwater was not overlooked. Hard pressed with women and children at their back, the company of Fanwater held fast around the tower. The siege of the advancing forces prolonged and delayed long into the winter of 1409, yet no army of men assailed them, and the winter did little to diminish the strength of the besiegers. It is said that those men of Fanwater, valiant yet doomed, gave the retreating forces of Amon Sul time enough to remove the Palantir and send it forth to Fornost. The company of Fanwater were forced to retreat, and as they fled many died in their wake. The tower of Amon Dun meeting the fate of it's cousin, Amon Sul, in the flames and fire of Angmar. Yet the Tower was not fully destroyed and from the stonework and ashes, new hope arose in the late 1400s. The township, newly restored to the land of Arthedain, grew around the lake, the ruined tower and fortification becoming the foundations of a great manor house. It was in these dark days that the Lordship of Fanwater passed to Harian Calanor, last descendant of the line of Valriun Calanor, and with the newly ratified title came but one charge, to rebuild the township of Fanwater and secure the westernmost point of the Weatherhills. Calanor took swiftly to the task with the help of many of the folk of Bree, where he had sought refuge for many long years. The manor house, henceforth Calanor Manor, stood atop the great hill upon and beside the ruins of the great tower of Amon Dun, which ever served as a reminder of the threat about the lands. Trade grew slowly, as homes were rebuilt, yet ever the shadow of war lay outside the walls of the town, and many an attack devestated homes before it could be repelled. By the mid 16h Century, Fanwater had grown among the hills to imitate its former glory. The fifth Lord Calanor, Haldras Calanor, begun to rebuild the tower of Amon Dun, yet sadly died of old age before the work was finished. The sixth Lord, a man of compassion for his people and avergence to warfare, cared little for the tower and abandoned it, yet ordered the construction of three houses to rival Calanor Manor. These were positioned in a triangle around the great hill; at the north-easterly corner, the great Barracks were constructed, home to the remaining Army and Watch of Fanwater. At the South-West, a hunting lodge, filled with prizes of fur and trophies of the Lord's hunting parties. And to the East of Calanor Manor, a great tavern for the peoples of the town “The Captain's Arms”, in distant reminiscience of the foundation of the town. Yet under the eighth lord, Jerant Calanor II, devestation once more struck the town. No arms of war brought death and no enemy was there to be opposed as the Black Curse swept north and west. The Great plague of 1636 took many lives in the town, the Lord not escaping the unseen hand of death, and the Barracks and the Tavern were abandoned in those days, for fear of spreading the deadly curse. It was the Great Plague that sundered the lineship of the Lords Calanor, for no son or daughter was borne to the young Jerant Calanor and so, the line came to and end. Yet the son of the daughter of Valriun Calanor, Malonus Cordinar, pressed his claim for the lordship, and so the line of Cordinar came to power. Under Cordinar, the army of Fanwater was restored, yet the Watchtower of Amon Dun still stood ruined and idle. It was in the years of the Cordinar line that trade with Bree began to prosper and by the 1940s Fanwater was once more a wealthy township, it's borders protected by strong arms, and its travellers and townsfolk secure from the harms of Angmar. Yet as war loomed, and the great forces of Angmar pressed toward Fornost, Elriun Cordinar, fifteenth and last Lord of Fanwater, rode out with his garrison to meet upon the Fields of Fornost. There, Elriun Cordinar and his guard made a stand with Arvedui, Last King, and upon the North Downs a bloody battle was fought. Yet the strength of the Witch King, unchecked for many years, was too much for the last warriors of Arthedain. Without order or demand, Elriun Cordinar and his household guard held the rearguard of Arvedui's retreat, forestalling the pursuing army of Angmar for but a few hours, but time enough for Arvedui to make for the North. Yet with the death of Elriun Cordinar, the lineship of the Lords of Fanwater came, irrevocably to an end. An untold tale, and unimportant one, for the King Arvedui died but a few months later, and with him, the kingdom of Arthedain collapsed. For many years the village of Fanwater, depleted and devestated, went unnoticed. The few people that still lingered in the shadow of Amon Dun became reclusive and isolated from the outside world. Yet still they tended their flocks and pastures within the hills, and were, as they had mostly been, self sufficient for the most part. But an outsider arrived from the hills in the summer of 1987, a woodsman of Bree and son of the Mayor of that great town. At first, the woodsman could not believe that the village had so long stood in the reach of Bree and gone unnoticed, yet as he wandered through the ruins and abandoned homes he came upon the remaining inhabitants with a mixture of fear and wonder. It was not until 2054 that the township of Bree recognised the small village of Fanwater, however, and it was another three years before it was annexed to the Mayoral district of Bree-land. The lordship, long absent, was not restored, yet the title and the deeds to the lands were held by the Mayor of Bree in escrow for any that might come to claim them. Between 2060 and 2562 the village of Fanwater became a temporary residence for the small watch of Bree. On the eastern border of the town, and with a watch over the inroad, it offered an ideal position for the Watchmen. Yet unlike the garrisons that had preceded them, these men were not true soldiers, and saw no conflict of consequence in the long passage of years. It was not until 2569 that the first roots of danger and threat made their presence known in Fanwater. The Year of the Dragon, as it is remembered in the village, and a year that has prompted many tales in the taverns of Bree and the homes of Fanwater. It is said that in the Spring of 2569 a great green dragon swept across the village, it's fiery breath scorching across the rooftops and setting a great blaze. Many of the wooden homes, with their straw thatch, burned to the ground that Spring but few outside of Fanwater ever believed the story of the Dragon, for it had not been seen by any other. For the next 300 years, the village of Fanwater became, once more, insignificant, for though it stood between the wilderness and the town, a watering point between the Forsaken Inn and The Prancing Pony, few ever chose to stop, and even fewer cared to remember it. The Watch of Bree, ever diminished in numbers, abandoned the village soon after the Fell Winter of 2911, which froze the lake for the first time, and brought Great Bears to the woodlands of the southern hills of the village. (The heroic deeds of the last Watchman during the Fell Winter, Jon Hopston are recalled in the Archives of Bree wherein Fanwater is mentioned upon many pages). And once more, Fanwater was all but abandoned, for with the Watchmen, went their families and their kin who had once brought the village to life. Only a few remained, those who could trace a lineage back to the age of the lordship, and they took their residence in the former Barracks at the north of the village, while the rest of the homes were boarded and shuttered. It was not until 2954 that the name of Fanwater was heard once more within the town of Bree. Men from the South, laden with coin and goods for trade, bartered with the Mayor for the deeds of the village, though their reasons for such were never discovered. Yet the Mayor, a man distrusting of strangers, turned them away without consideration of their claim. Whispers circulated amid the gossips of Bree that the Mayor fancied the Lordship himself, that Fanwater held ancient treasures, and even that the village was a place of spirits of a long lost age but of these none have proven true, as so oft is the case with the gossip heard in Bree. However, in 3018 a new claim arose. The new Mayor, shrewd and cautious, bartered carefully with the new claimant, a soldier, and a warrior from the South, and a price was fixed at the last. While the Mayor ever felt uncomfortable with the deal, he was at least glad to have men capable of arms, apparently at the protection of the town. Henceforth, Fanwater received it's thirteenth lord, Urien Greymoor, Lord of Fanwater. And so, the Lordship restored, the lands distributed to men of worth, Fanwater once more arose from the shadows of it's long past, and became the home and the garrison, of the Northwind Free Company.