Gondor Calls For Aid / Literature

• Tolkien's Legendarium:
  • The Trope Namer from The Lord of the Rings is, ironically, not really an example of this trope. However, the trope does occur in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, between the same two peoples, so in a sense it's still the Trope Namer... just not the way most people think.
  • During the stewardship of Cirion, Gondor was attacked by Easterlings and its allies couldn't or wouldn't help them. The Steward sent a last-ditch plea to northern horse-warriors called the Éothéod. While the Éothéod were on friendly terms there was no formal alliance and things were so bad that the Gondorians had given up hope already. That is, until Eorl the Young showed up with just about every Éothéod warrior just in time to save Gondor from being overrun. The Steward granted the Éothéod the (mostly...) unpopulated northern lands in gratitude, and the Éothéod became the Rohirrim. One condition of the grant was that Rohan would aid Gondor whenever they were needed (and vice-versa, although the one time Rohan called for aid, Gondor was busy and couldn't come).
  • This event means that in the War of the Ring, Gondor and Rohan are formal, treaty- and oath-bound allies. The only factor creating doubt about whether Rohan will answer Denethor's call is the fact that they've just finished fighting another war and are exhausted and concerned about threats to their own realm. Denethor has also called for aid from Gondor's outlying provinces (such as Dol Amroth), lit the beacons long before Gandalf got there (unlike in the movie) and sent a messenger to Rohan to hurry them up. The problem with reinforcing was mainly that said provinces and Rohan were pretty far away, and most were unable to spare more than a tenth of their forces—Rohan went above and beyond the call with the amount of troops they brought, on the thought that if Sauron beat Gondor there wouldn't be much point defending their borders anyhow. (And also honor and stuff.)
  • The Fall of Númenor: When Sauron's forces invade Eriador in overwhelming numbers, Gil-Galad sends a plea to, hoping that the ancient friendship between Elves and Men will outweigh the absence of any formal treaty between both kingdoms. King Tar-Minastir responds by sending a massive fleet which drives back and later destroys Sauron's army.
• Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy: In Kushiel's Dart, the heroine journeys to Alba to convince the Albans to bring their army to the aid of Terre d'Ange which has been invaded by Skaldia.
• The Phantom Tollbooth has this at the very end.
• Harry Potter - the climax of The Deathly Hallows, in which the school students, the Order of the Phoenix, estranged members of the Weasley and Dumbledore families, and even Harry's old Quidditch team all turn out to fight. Nearly every single wizard aligned against the Death Eaters arrives at the battle towards the very end. And the centaurs. And even the house-elves (whom Ron Weasley refuses to ask for aid because he won't issue a request to fight and possibly die to a species incapable of refusal. In the end, one of their own does the recruiting).
• Star Wars Expanded Universe:
  • X-Wing Series: Subverted in Solo Command, when Warlord Zsinj, calls up every pirate and mercenary he'd ever hired to come and defend his crippled ship. The protagonists are among that number, having successfully posed as pirates in the previous novel. Zsinj's call for help confirms that he is vulnerable, not preparing a trap, allowing the protagonists to go and kick his ass.
  • During the Yuuzhan Vong war the Galactic Alliance, the Imperial Remnant, and every capable fighting force in the galaxy join forces against the Yuuzhan Vong.
• The Chronicles of Prydain: In the final book, the heroes must rally all the forces of Prydain to fight in the final battle with Big Bad Evil Overlord Arawn. Virtually every character the heroes have ever met shows up to help. They lose anyway.
• The Wings of Merlin, the sixth and final book of The Lost Years of Merlin, invokes this for its final battle.
• Subverted in Star Trek: Destiny, where the United Federation of Planets needs to call on virtually every major power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for help against an impending Borg invasion. President Bacco hosts an emergency conference and tries to persuade or pressure nine other nations into sending forces to the Azure Nebula alongside Starfleet. Some of them refuse to show up and the fleet is wiped-out in minutes anyway. All that her efforts really accomplish in the long run is to antagonize the Tholians.
• The climax of Martin the Warrior, the sixth Redwall book.
• At one point in Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series, a telepathic call goes out to all the Regulars. They respond so immediately that at least one stove is left running, a suicide prevention is called short (they bring him along!), a bomb-tech leaves an active bomb-site (he brings the bomb along!), and even more extreme 'drop-everything' examples.
• The Night's Watch of A Song of Ice and Fire for the first 3 books keeps asking the realm for help against the wildlings, and possibly even worse threats beyond The Wall. They were sure Eddard Stark would answer the call before he was executed. The Watch finally sends ravens after the great ranging ends in disaster, only Stannis Baratheon came to help, but it is still enough to win the battle.
• In the climax to The Prefect, the governing body of the Glitter Band puts out a call for aid in the evacuation of space stations under attack by Aurora. The highly disparate Ultranauts - the cybernetic, transhuman crew of irreplaceable interstellar starships - respond, using the massive holds of their multi-kilometer long ships to aid in the evacuation of dozens of space stations and the destruction of those contaminated by Aurora's machinery through Weaponized Exhaust, conventional and exotic weaponry
• In Ready Player One, Parzival sends a missive to every user in the OASIS about how IOI has control of the last Gate. He expects just some of them to show up then just sit back and watch while still serving as a distraction. Instead, they all arrive and decide to team up with him to keep the OASIS out of IOI's hands.
• In Warrior Cats, the Clans are all rivals, but occasionally a Clan will be desperate enough to ask another for help, or they'll try to convince all the Clans to team up against a threat. For instance, in The Darkest Hour, WindClan and ThunderClan intend to fight the invading rogues who call themselves "BloodClan", but they know they probably don't have enough cats do it alone, and end up convincing their recent enemies RiverClan and ShadowClan to join them.

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