The Servants of Ungoliant is a fanfiction series written by Bauglir100, and is based on The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien.
The Servants of Ungoliant is set in the unused continent known as Mórenorë, the Dark Land. It focuses on Ungoliant, a villain from The Silmarillion, who becomes the ruler of an entire continent in the Southern regions of Arda. It also focuses on the people and other creatures that serve, worship, or live under her dominion in this obscure, previously under-written region of Tolkien's world.
Servants also is also set in the more obscure regions of Middle-earth, such as Harad, the Sunlands, and the Seven Lands of the South. It is also set in lands near both Middle-earth and Mórenorë, such as the Islands of Ormal.
This story is essentially an Elsewhere Fic, and features very few canon characters from the Tolkien legendarium, though it is still set in the same universe and time period as The Silmarillion (to be specific, the late First Age). Only a handful of canon characters appear or are even referenced in the story, while the rest of the characters are either derived from licensed Tolkien-related works, or created exclusively for the story. Servants also utilizes various unused/obscure elements from The History of Middle-earth, Middle-Earth Role Playing, and other non-canonical material.
The second edition of the story can be found here
.
A list of characters featured in Servants can be found here.
Also, the author of this series has plans for another story set in the central regions of Mórenorë, which may be set in the early Second Age. The Working Title is "The March for the Banded Fire". The events of this story will tie in even more with the events in Middle-earth, and even show a bit of the history of events that happen in later Ages.
The Servants of Ungoliant provides examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Several, including a few from Tolkien's official works.
- Black Eyes of Crazy: The Underlord's son, Jynix, has a habit of developing this when he is angered, stressed, or simply inquisitive.
- Canon Foreigner: Several of the main characters, and a few supporting characters, originated from non-canon material, or were unused/renamed/replaced in later editions of The Silmarillion.
- Child Soldiers: Most of the Darklanders that serve as soldiers in the Dark Land and the Islands of Ormal are teenagers and young adults in their early to mid twenties. There is a reasonable amount of adult Darklanders within Mórenorë, but they are mostly confined to the major settlements of Arvalin, Salvidor, and Delduthland.
- Co-Dragons: Ungoliant has the Underlord/Fankil, Naikamil (literally a dragon), and to a lesser extent, Lungotto/Langon. The Underlord, in turn, has his various sons.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: When Jykale converses with Naikamil in a hot spring near the Black Mountains, before examining the latter's anatomy. In other words, a 19-year-old young man spends a borderline Hot Springs Episode with a fully-grown female dragon.
- The Dragon: The Underlord, Fankil, is the primary lieutenant of Ungoliant. Also played literally with Naikamil.
- Eldritch Location: Mórenorë is simply packed with these. The south-western region, Arvalin, alone contains a black wasteland with an ominous red sky, a gigantic monster-infested network of ravines and canyons running across it, a metropolis of massive, decaying towers, a mountain range of dormant volcanoes, another mountain range covered in vegetation, and a forest of trees with strange, even dangerous shapes.
- Elsewhere Fic: With shades of Original Flavour. Servants is mostly set in Mórenorë, a continent located to the South of Middle-earth. The only regions of Middle-earth that are visited are Harad, the Seven Lands, and the Sunlands.
- Ghibli Hills: The Green Mountains in Delduthland, which is essentially Arcadia to Arvalin.
- Groin Attack:
- Although technically Gunglip actually kicked Naikamil in her belly, this proved just as effective, since Dragons in the Tolkien legendarium have very soft, sensitive underbellies, and a kick from an Ogre wearing full body armor would probably be enough to make a cold-drake stagger and fall over in pain, even for a brief moment.
- Played straight in an earlier chapter, when a Gong finds himself on the receiving end of a rather painful collision with an Elf's staff.
- Lost World: Mórenorë is mostly covered in jungles, and is inhabited by many strange and unknown creatures. Gologoth, in particular, falls much closer to this definition.
- Mooks: Ungoliant's minions, thralls, and other subjects include Gongs, Sarqindi, Giants, Darklanders, Greblings, Delvers of the Deep, and Pygmies.
- Mook Carryover: Many of Melkor's original servants (most of which were created by Tolkien
but were never actually featured in Tolkien's officially released canon) are depicted in this story as Ungoliant's Mooks. - Mordor: Zig-zagged. While "Dark Land" is the literal translation of Mordor, the continent is actually known as "Mórenorë", and is mostly fertile, being covered primarily in jungles and mountains. The south-western region, Arvalin, is mostly a black wasteland with a sky that is red during the day, and pitch-black at night, but it is not caused by the presence of volcanos (although the nearby Black Mountains are in fact volcanos, they are mostly dormant, with only enough activity to produce hot springs), but by liberation from the frozen Southern Wastes, combined with a significant distance from the Sun and the Moon.
- Patchwork Fic: Features characters, locations, and other elements from The History of Middle-earth, Middle-Earth Role Playing, and various fanon based on The Silmarillion.
- Shout-Out: Much of the layout of Gologoth is inspired by the 1966 Gene Deitch film adaptation of The Hobbit.
- The Savage South: Mórenorë to Middle-earth; The Islands of Ormal to the Sunlands.
- Translation Convention: Ungoliant's minions speak three languages: Renorin (the Common Tongue of the inhabitants of Mórenorë), Gongon (the language of the Gongs), and a third language generally known as Melkoric (a language primarily spoken by the creatures of Melkor, hence the name), when communicating with each other. The latter is the one that is translated to English for the audience's sake, since it is the language that is the most univerally used.
- Villain Protagonist: The majority of the story is focused on Ungoliant and her minions.
- Worldbuilding: The story is essentially set in a Constructed World within a Constructed World.
