History Fanfic / Splint

* TheAloner: Rukhash, until she rescued Cadoc, had lived alone for around three to four years.

* BrokenBird: Rukhash is clearly traumatized and filled with grief and bitterness from the TraumaCongaLine she went through during and after the War of the Ring, but she's also a kind, nurturing and even lovable person in her own way.

* CoolBigSis: Rukhash has shades of this towards Cadoc's niece, Morwen.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Rukhash. She's foul-mouthed and aggressive, but has a good heart at her core and is very loyal to her loved ones.

* GroinAttack: A male-on-female example is done by Dellon to Rukhash during their first encounter. It's acknowledged the effect's the same if she were a male.

** [[spoiler:When Rukhash gives Baladnor the antidote against the orcish poison in his system, he and Ingrid suspect it might be poison. Baladnor drinks it anyway because he's tired of living as a drunken cripple who needs Ingrid to take care of him. Even if he dies, he'd be free of his pain, and Ingrid would be free to find happiness with a new husband. The antidote turns out be real, much to both of their happiness.]]

** [[spoiler:After Cadoc has left with Rukhash towards Mordor, Ingrid tells Holgar that even if she cannot understand his father's love towards an Orc, she won't deny his happiness now that she has regained hers thanks to Rukhash curing Baladnor and hopes King Elessar can be convinced to call off the unjust charges thrown against the couple.]]

** Rukhash alone knows that [[spoiler:Baladnor is slowly dying of the poison that transferred into his body when she stabbed him with a blade four years ago, and she chooses to settle for leaving him to that fate as revenge. However, after his actions rescue her from being murdered by Barmund's Orc hunters, she tells him about the poison and gives him the antidote for the sake of having a future.]] Cadoc lampshades afterwards how this action proves Rukhash's nobility.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: When Rukhash first finds Cadoc, she seriously considers killing him purely because [[FantasticRacism he's a Man]] and to get {{revenge}} for everything his race have done to her and other Orcs over the years. [[ForegoneConclusion She doesn't]].
-->'''Rukhash''': …I thought for a moment to take that out on ''you'' while you were bleeding out, but I didn't. I didn't blame ''you'' because that weren't fair, because I didn't think it were right to make you pay for shit you ''didn't do''.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Even the ''Orcs'' despised and feared Sauron and Saruman. They apparently weren't too keen on the Witch-King of Angmar either; Rukhash is thoroughly impressed when she learns Eowyn killed him. When Eowyn expresses surprise at this, as he was one of Mordor's leaders, Rukhash bluntly states that he was [[SpeakIllOfTheDead an "arsehole" and a "great big prick"]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: Saruman. Technically, he's [[DownplayedTrope still the same treacherous and evil]] SorcerousOverlord he's always been, but he's been made even worse than he is in ''The Lord of the Rings'' with the confirmation that he had orcs [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape and impregnate human women]] he'd enslaved to breed an army of orc hybrids. Heck, it might not even ''be'' AdaptationalVillainy, as in the original book Saruman also mixed human and orc blood (it's just not mentioned ''how'' exactly he did it).

* BigBrotherWorship: Rukhash was very close to her brother Thraangzi, who was older than her by a decade. After the Battle of Pelennor Field, she'd wanted to go find him despite the great risk in case he'd survived, but she later learnt from a surviving captain that he fell in battle.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Although it took him a week to agree, Cadoc eventually willingly signed the divorce papers Ingrid served him, as he saw how unhappy she was in their marriage and didn't want her to suffer anymore.

-->'''Rukhash:''' I know my lot has always been a little...[[{{Understatement}} heavy handed]]...when it come to your folk-\\
'''Cadoc:''' A ''little'' heavy handed? [...] A ''little''! [...] Your ''lot'' has [[RapePillageAndBurn raped and murdered its way across my country]], and you consider that a ''little'' heavy handed? Do you know how many lives your kind has destroyed? How many sons and daughters your people have ravaged and maimed? I think you would choose your words more wisely if you saw the children orphaned and mothers now grieving for their sons, if it's even possible for your kind to feel an ounce of compassion at all.\\
'''Rukhash:''' What do you know about anything? [...] I were just a girl when [[TraumaCongaLine I lost my dad and mum and sisters and then my brother]] and ''then'', after it were all said and done and the War was finished your folk still wanted more. So I lose my clan and [[spoiler: my [[TheLostLenore mate]] ''and'' my [[OutlivingOnesOffspring whelps]]]] and now I'm here with ''nothing''. [...] I don't need to see them women or them kids because I ''was'' one!
* BrokenBird: Rukhash is clearly traumatised and filled with grief and bitterness from the TraumaCongaLine she went through during and after the War of the Ring, but she's also a kind, nurturing and even lovable person in her own way.
* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler: Rukhash is forced to kill her own brother when he tortures and tries to kill Cadoc]].

* ChekhovsGunman: Baladnor, Ingrid's {{Jerkass}} second husband, is revealed to be [[spoiler: the man who killed Rukhash's children and mate (though only the latter one personally)]].

** [[spoiler: Rukhash and Cadoc name their daughter Dera, after Cadoc's Dunlending grandmother. It's also a nod to the fact they both have Dunlending heritage]].
* DefectingForLove: [[spoiler: Cadoc quits his job as a Ranger to be with Rukhash, although technically he was already planning on retiring]].

* ElsewhereFic: Takes place in Middle-earth and even features appearances or mentions of canon characters such as Eowyn, Faramir, Aragorn, Saruman and Sauron, but otherwise follows the story of OC's not directly relevant to the main story of ''The Lord of the Rings'' -- mainly the orcs that served the Dark Lord or Saruman, and the ordinary humans who fought in the War of the Ring.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Baladnor's thoughts reveal that when there started to be less of Orcs who were actually raiding people and more of dens with females and children as well as males defending their homes to be killed, many Orc hunters quit their profession at that point. Baladnor himself, who never enjoyed killing Orc children and viewed it as a necessary evil, was planning to leave the profession after one last hunt, which ironically enough left him in his pained state after [[spoiler:Rukhash poisoned him]].

* {{Foil}}: [[spoiler:Both Rukhash and her older brother Thraangzi were born in Isengard, got separated from the rest of their kin when Isengard was flooded, and made it to Mordor where Thraangzi was sent to the army and Rukhash learned healing and midwifery. After the War ended, both started a new life in an Orc tribe with a ''shaûk'' and had two children, but they became the {{Sole Survivor}}s when their respective clans were slaughtered by Orc hunters. Though Rukhash doesn't stop hating Baladnor for his role in the massacre, she ultimately chooses to give up on vengeance to have a new life with Cadoc, but Thraangzi is so obsessed with having his revenge on Cadoc that he ignores his sister's pleas to let her new ''shaûk'' be, leading her to killing him in defense of Cadoc.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Rukhash and Cadoc both have pretty good reasons to hate each other's species (especially the former, as [[spoiler: her mate and children were slaughtered by Orc hunters]]). Dellon, as it turns out, used to be more lenient towards orcs. Then two particularly bloodthirsty ones got their hands on him...

* TheGlomp: Rukhash to [[spoiler: her father when they are re-united]]

* HeroesPreferSwords: Cadoc, a Ranger, wields a sword.
* HotGuyUglyWife: Played with. Cadoc is considered a reasonably attractive guy, whilst Rukhash is considered pretty ugly. However, by Orc standards, [[UglyGuyHotWife Cadoc is the ugly one, whilst Rukhash is attractive]]. Interestingly, after a while, Rukhash and Cadoc both start to rather like how the other looks.
** Of course, if you look at some of the artwork helenamarkos has drawn of Rukhash and a few other female orcs, they honestly aren't that hard to look at.

* KnightTemplar: Dellon, the 'Orc Butcher', who takes his job ''very'' seriously, to the point of hunting Rukhash and Cadoc half way across the country just because he hates orcs that much.

** Has a few for ''Freedom's Limits'' (which is partly justified given that ''Freedom's Limits'' is a {{Prequel}}). Namely, later chapters of ''Splint'' confirm that [[spoiler: Amani, Smador and Madavi's daughter]] survived and eventually found her grandmother [[spoiler: Smador's mother]], whose survival was also rather ambiguous.

* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler: Rukhash]]'s mate and children, who were killed by Orc hunters.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Most people -- including Cadoc to start with -- see Orcs as nothing but violent monsters who deserve everything they get. To be fair, Orcs ''do'' have a tendency to commit RapePillageAndBurn and kill humans indiscriminately. However, when Cadoc meets and gets to know Rukhash, he begins to view them more sympathetically and reassesses his previous beliefs about them. There are also some humans out there, such as the Dunlendings, who feel more kinship to Orcs than other Men and sided with them during the war for various reasons. The narrative itself largely takes the view that BothSidesHaveAPoint and that Orcs are just as much people as humans, with [[HumansAreFlawed all that entails]].

* NearDeathExperience: Cadoc at the beginning of the story; his is thrown from his horse and breaks his leg, then gets set upon by wolves. He has another one later after being captured and [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] by [[spoiler: Rukhash's brother]].

* OneWordTitle: The title of the fic is simply ''Splint''. A splint usually refers to a piece of wood or other material used to support a broken limb that has been set so it heals properly. At the start of the story, Rukhash splints Cadoc's broken leg, which marks the beginning of their relationship. From a metaphorical perspective, Rukhash and Cadoc could also been seen as 'emotional splints' to each other; two broken but strong people supporting one another as they start to heal.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Rukhash]] lost her little daughter and infant son to [[spoiler:Orc hunters]] four years before the start of the story. [[spoiler:Her brother Thraangzi]] also lost his twin sons in similar circumstances nearly eigth years ago.

** [[spoiler: Rukhash is more than capable of taking care of both herself ''and'' Cadoc while pregnant]].

* ProperlyParanoid: After Rukhash is captured by [[spoiler:Thraangzi]] and Lugat, [[spoiler:Thraangzi]] orders Lugat not to let Rukhash out of his sight for any moment because he knows [[spoiler:what an escape artist his half-sister is thanks to the flexibility she inherited from her goblin father]]. Confident his bindings can hold Rukhash, Lugat gets bored and leaves her alone, but when he's ordered back by [[spoiler:Thraangzi]], he discovers to his shock that Rukhash has escaped, and when he figures out why his companion insisted on guarding her so vigilantly, she attacks and kills him by [[spoiler:dropping from the cave's ceiling]].
* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: Rukhash has a dream where [[spoiler: her deceased daughter warns her she has to leave right now, because a "man in black" is coming to kill her]]. Rukhash and Cadoc heed the warning, which is just as well, as [[spoiler: the "man in black" is notorious orc hunter Dellon who is indeed on their trail]]. Cadoc also has a psychic dream of sorts, where [[spoiler: Rukhash's deceased brother - whom she just killed to protect Cadoc - makes him promise to look after his sister]].

* RedemptionEarnsLife: [[spoiler:After Rukhash learns that Baladnor is the Orc hunter she poisoned and thought had killed during the raid that killed her mate and children, she ultimately decides to settle for letting the poison in his system to do its work of gradually killing him as revenge. When he has his HeelRealization and sees Rukhash as the BrokenBird she is instead of just a beast who poisoned him, he refuses to join Barmund in murdering her and saves her life by warning Magistrate Halbard whose men stop Barmund and his friends just in time. After Rukhash is told of what Baladnor did, she reluctantly gives him the antidote against the poison, freeing him from his chronic pain and joint problems as well as allowing him to have sex with Ingrid.]]
* RelationshipUpgrade: [[spoiler: Rukhash and Cadoc]] finally resolve their UnresolvedSexualTension in the [[spoiler: fifteenth]] chapter.

* SecondLove: Rukhash and Cadoc are both this to each other. Cadoc's marriage to Ingrid failed partly because of her annoyance he was [[AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder always away fighting]]. Rukhash once had a mate [[spoiler: but he was killed by Orc hunters]].
* SirSwearsALot: ''All'' the orc characters.
* SoleSurvivor: Rukhash is the only member of her old clan who escaped a massacre led by Orc hunters. She initially believes she is the only member of her family who survived the destruction of Barad-dûr [[spoiler: but it later turns out this isn't the case. Her brother Thraangzi was also the only survivor when his clan was massacred by Orc hunters]].

-->''"In the end it all happened like He said it would. [...] He said that if we'd failed 'im, the race of Men would run us down 'til there weren't any more of us."''

--> ''"I thought for a moment to take that out on '''you''' while you were bleeding out, but I didn't. I didn't blame '''you''' because that weren't fair, because I didn't think it were right to make you pay for shit you '''didn't do'''"''.

** [[spoiler:Thraangzi lost his ''shaûk'' and twin sons when the party of Orc hunters led by Cadoc slaughtered their clan. After capturing Rukhash and Cadoc, he tortures Cadoc to the brink of death and refuses to heed his sister's pleas to give up on revenge, leading to her killing him in defense of Cadoc.]]

** [[spoiler:Thraangzi lost his ''shaûk'' and twin sons when the party of Orc hunters led by Cadoc slaughtered their clan

* EyeScream: Cadoc gets one of his eyes [[spoiler: burned out with a hot poker]] and wears a patch for the rest of the story.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler: Rukhash]].

* SoleSurvivor: Rukhash is the only member of her old clan who escaped a massacre lead by Orc hunters. She initially believes she is the only member of her family who survived the destruction of Barad-dûr [[spoiler: but it later turns out this isn't the case]].

* StraightForTheCommander: When Cadoc's surrounded by Orc hunters in Chapter 32, Rukhash recalls a lesson her grandfather Geth taught her when he killed a dangerous snake by cutting its head. She applies that lesson by recognizing [[spoiler:Barmund]] as the leader and shooting him, which causes the others

* {{Retirony}}: Downplayed. [[spoiler:Baladnor had planned the attack on Rukhash's clan to be his last hunt before he gave up the profession of a Orc hunter. The wound inflicted by Rukhash's poisoned blade left him plagued by chronic pain as the poison was killing him slowly over the following years, with no doctor able to cure him. Fortunately, after he foils Barmund and his friends' attempt to murder Rukhash, [[RedemptionEarnsLife the Orcess gives him the antidote that finally rids him of his pain and prevents his death that would have eventually followed]].]]

* SurprisePregnancy: [[spoiler:Rukhash is dumbstruck when she figures out she's been pregnant for a few weeks since starting her journey back to Mordor with Cadoc. She was under the impression that like the majority of orcesses, she couldn't conceive between her estruses, which come only thrice a year. The only exception to this rule are the Uruk-hai thanks to their human heritage, and it's a rare occurrence even among them. Rukhash herself was conceived when her Uruk-hai mother Hegdash was out of season.]]

* PottyEmergency: One of the first subtle signs of [[spoiler:Rukhash's]] SurprisePregnancy is her constant need to urinate.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted. Rukhash is ''very'' blunt about the matter, much to Cadoc's embarrassment.

* TheAlcoholic: Baladnor, Ingrid's second husband. [[spoiler:It's case of DrowningMySorrows, though.]]

* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler: Rukhash and Cadoc name their daughter Dera, after Cadoc's Dunlending grandmother. It's also a nod to the fact they both have Dunlending heritage]].

* ChekhovsGunman: Baladnor, Ingrid's {{Jerkass}} second husband, is revealed to be [[spoiler: the man who killed Rukhash's children]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: Baladnor's thoughts reveal that when there started to be less of Orcs who were actually raiding people and more of dens with females and children as well as males defending their homes to be killed, many Orc hunters quit their profession at that point. Baladnor himself was planning to leave the profession after one last hunt, which ironically enough left him in his pained state after [[spoiler:Rukhash poisoned him]].

* TheAlcoholic: Baladnor, Ingrid's second husband.

* CoitusEnsues: There are some sex scenes sprinkled throughout that aren't really necessary to the plot, though nothing drastic.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Although it's acknowledged that the Orcs were technically the original aggressors, Orcs and Men both have sympathetic viewpoints and both have some legitimate grievances against each other; this is particularly demonstrated during some arguments and conversations between Rukhash and Cadoc in early chapters.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: By Chapter 50 onwards, the cast has grown exponentially, mostly because Rukhash and Cadoc join up with a clan of orcs and eventually encounter other clans too.

* ActionGirl: Rukhash and many other female orcs.

* AdultFear: Your children being hunted down and murdered, which many Orc characters, including [[spoiler:Rukhash]], experience.

First published in 2011, the fanfic is currently ongoing. It can be read at fanfiction.net [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7501884/1/Splint here]] and on AO3 [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/696967/chapters/1282564 here]]. There's also a SpinOff {{Prequel}} by Zoop named ''[[Fanfic/FreedomsLimits Freedom's Limits]]''.

First published in 2011, the fanfic is currently ongoing. It can be read at fanfiction.net [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7501884/1/Splint here]]. There's also a SpinOff {{Prequel}} by Zoop named ''[[Fanfic/FreedomsLimits Freedom's Limits]]''.

* NotSoDifferent: Orcs and Men, as it turns out.

'''''Splint''''' is a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fanfiction by helenamarkos. Set several years after the events of the War of the Ring, it follows the story of a Ranger named Cadoc whose life is changed forever when he is rescued from a wolf pack by an Orc named Rukhash, with the pair forming an unexpectedly close bond. However, with on-going mistrust and hostility between Men and Orcs, the pair must face many challenges to their relationship and enemies on both sides. The fic is notable for it's more complex and sympathetic portrayal of Orcs, though it does not downplay or whitewash their brutal nature either.