From the day Felárdë led his host forth, Kaen Eowenríel had watched over their safety, his mind ever turned north and west, until at last the Elves were brought safe to their new homes, and only then did he let his watchfulness rest.
The great music rose again in the unseen halls of the world, their fate had already departed from the path once written. What choices they would make in the years to come would lie in their own hands.
Without his knowing, this single change that was Kaen had already reshaped the whole of Middle-earth.
...
In midsummer, tidings went forth from Elarothiel. Letters of invitation, fair and solemn, were borne by swift riders to every kingdom and power.
The Lord ofEowenría, High King of the Caladhîn Elves, mentor of Dwarven kings, savior of the Elven kindreds of Middle-earth, lord of the Free Alliance... Kaen ofEowenría was to be wed.
This wedding was unlike any other in the long annals of the world, for it would be the first and only time that so many brides were wedded to a single man in the sight of all the Free Peoples.
On that day, the great ones of every realm of Middle-earth gathered.
On that day, the united realms of WestEowenría and EastEowenría rejoiced from border to border.
Kaen showed no favor or slight among his wives. He refused to divide them with such titles as consort or queen, ranking them high or low, for each of them upheld him in her own field, and none was of lesser worth in his eyes.
His eight wives were these:
Ameliah, head of the Royal Academy of Healing. In the healing arts her skill had reached unfathomed depths. Lord Elrond himself praised her as a healer whose gift was scarcely less than that of the great healers of old.
Cathril, one of the realm's chief commanders of arms, led a legion herself. She had marched with Kaen through fire and war, winning merit no less than any lord of battle, and was hailed as one of the two great war-maidens ofEowenría.
Tauriel, the first Elf to swear fealty to Kaen, and the first of the Caladhîn. She served as the Commander of the Caladhîn in the Ashewood. Together with Cathril she was named the other of the realm's two great war-maidens.
Tifa, Kaen's first beloved, and now the kingdom's Minister of the Finance. By her astonishing gift for trade and craft she made the folk of the realm prosper. People would say that Kaen had made the kingdom rich, but it was Tifa who made the people themselves wealthy.
Joanna, chief architect of the realm. She had taken part in, and often led, the design of every great work in the kingdom, including the capital Elarothiel. Her younger brother Brie was counted among the first nobles ofEowenría and served as lord of Azure-Spring City.
Yenistriel, regent of The Caladhîn in WestEowenría, a Caladhîn Elven princess set as regent there. She was a maiden of pure heart among the Elves. Her elder brother Yenagath was regent of The Caladhîn in EastEowenría and keeper of the Elven homeland, and counted one of Kaen's most faithful companions.
Arwen Undómiel, the most nobly born of Elven princesses, bearing within her veins the mingled blood of the three great Elven royal lines, the blood of the Edain among Men, and even a strain of the Divine. In truth she was near to a demi-goddess, revered in many lands, princess of both Lothlórien and Rivendell. Her father, Lord Elrond, was Kaen's own teacher.
Artemis, of the Divine race, a Maia, Kaen's personal guardian spirit, Lady of the Free White Birds, and one of Kaen's greatest hidden strengths.
None of these women had need of the title of queen or consort to uphold her honor, for none of them were ordinary.
Yet among the common folk they were each called Moon Queens, and Kaen himself was named the Sun King.
White birds wheeled above Elarothiel, and the Golden Sacred Tree, Auricálen, poured shimmering radiance over the King's Seat. In every city of the realm the people donned new garments. That day was set forever as the Festival of Love, and the tale of Kaen and his wives was sung from hearth to hearth and praised by all the peoples.
...
When the wedding was at last concluded, Kaen granted himself a long rest. He journeyed with his wives through many lands, visiting the Ents and the Amanielyar Elves, whose Amanielyar- Ent Kingdom now flourished, drawing to itself many races who loved peace.
Kaen also returned to the places where he had once fought, but now he lingered there only to taste the rare sweetness of leisure.
So the years slipped by, and five years passed almost without his noticing.
In that span, battles flared again and again around the northern Citadel of Rimwinter. The realm of Angmar knew no rest and gave none. At times even cold-drakes fell from the sky, pierced through and through until they were like hedgehogs, slain by mithril armor-piercing arrows.
Those mithril armor-piercing arrows became famed throughout Middle-earth and were hailed as the mightiest ranged weapons in all the lands. Yet aside fromEowenría, which possessed veins of mithril within its mountains, no other realm could fashion such things, whether for lack of material or of craft.
Under the light of the Sacred Trees, and strengthened by the strange gift that granted all who swore fealty to Kaen a threefold growth buff, his key hero-units all ascended to legendary rank. Some among them even reached the pinnacle of legendary might.
In matters of culture and governance, the realms blossomed. In every craft and every art, talents arose in unending number.
The long lives of the people ofEowenría, as a race of High Men, were by now well known to all. As for the Elves, there was no need to speak of it, for their lives were bound to the ages of the world.
In a kingdom made up of long-lived Men and immortal Elves, once the population reached a certain number, the birthrate began to slow. With resources abundant, people did not fill their days by endlessly raising children. Only when a new generation had grown to strength, and the need for yet another arose, would there come another great wave of births.
...
In the matter of war, the kingdom now possessed an Elven host of fifty thousand. Of these, thirty thousand were epic troops, and twenty thousand were of legendary grade.
The armies of Men numbered three hundred thousand. Among them were one hundred and fifty thousand elite troops, one hundred thousand epic troops, and thirty thousand legendary troops.
Beyond these, there were twenty thousand of the King's Guard and the Caladhîn shadow-wardens. They were mightier even than ordinary legendary units, and nearly every one of them held the battle-strength of a near-legendary hero.
Should all of these be mustered together, even a mythic hero could hardly stand against them. Their combined strength had reached the level once held by the personal guards of the High Kings in the First Age.
Nor wasEowenría alone in this rising power. The Elves and the Dwarves were growing swift and strong as well. The Sacred Trees laid their blessing, their buff, upon the Elves, and the Rune Cores gave their strength to the Dwarves. In these years, the might of all the Free Peoples of Middle-earth had climbed to nearly the average level of the First Age.
Now, elite troops were but the lowest tier. The top-tier were the true main host, and the legendary units were the trump cards of every battlefield.
Only Gondor and Rohan still lacked legendary units of their own. They could only, by way of military aid, send part of their forces to helpEowenría hold the northern Rimwinter Citadel. By this means they trained their soldiers beneath the glow of the Sacred Trees, and slowly shaped them into their own epic troops. By now, each of the two kingdoms possessed some twenty thousand such warriors.
...
In the fifteenth year of the Age of the Sacred Trees, which was the year 2960 of the original Third Age, Balin, chief administrator of Durin's Folk, came from Erebor on behalf of King Thorin Oakenshield to visit Kaen in Elarothiel.
He bore with him a grave decision made by the Dwarves of Durin's line, and he sought Kaen's counsel upon it, for it was a choice that might once more stir the fate of Middle-earth.