Nelyafinwe Maitimo: A Character Assessment

Author's note: And so I finally publish this: a detailed personality and physical assessment of my views on J.R.R. Tolkien's character, who has become my obsession, my muse, and almost my second half. I've had him in my head for a while, and now I've finally gotten together an assessment on him. I hope you enjoy it.

PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT
Maedhros Nelyafinwe Maitimo Russandol (Called Russandol to make things easier) stands at eight feet tall, the fourth tallest of all of the Eldar. He has coppery red-brown hair, that used to be long, tied in a loose braid down to his waist. After his captivity, he kept it short, at its longest down to his shoulders, and unbraided. He cuts it at the beginning of the summer and lets it grow out until the next year. This solves the problem he possesses with a rare condition among Elves- the habit of his hair to get wild in the summer humidity. His eyes are grey, piercingly bright, often compared to the steel of a blade. They can be either very inanimate or very animated, lighting up in either fury or in happiness. Depending on what sort of mood he is in, they can seem to speak, and he needs not say any words audibly to communicate. This mode of communication he uses quite often with his cousin and best friend, Findekano. He possesses high cheekbones, a slightly turned-up nose, and what are generally thought of as noble features. His skin tone is fair, though not quite so fair as most of the Eldar, he having inherited his mother's darker complexion. His cheeks and the bridge of his nose are spattered with few, faint freckles- one would have to look very closely to see them. Also, laced across his face, are a few scars from his time in Angband, white against his skin.

His body is almost perfectly proportionate despite his height. His legs are slightly more long than is normally proportionate, but nothing that makes him seem strange-looking. Just by looking at him, one can tell that he is very strong, but lithe and agile, with lean muscle that can match and overpower many with greatly visible muscles. His right arm ends above the wrist in a thick, ugly scar, and the rest of his body is laced with more scars from whips and other various wounds. His entire back is mottled with white scar-tissue, and he is rarely seen shirtless because of these

He commonly wears reds, greens, blues, and burgundies. Often he's seen in a navy-blue with an eight-pointed star emblazoned on it at times, mostly for official things, or in a dark red-burgundy tunic with gold edging, for less official things. He isn't fond of dressing ornately, and his armor is plain steel-plate with an eight-pointed star and no more. The only type of jewelry he ever wears is the occasional copper circlet on his brow.

PERSONALITY ANALYSIS

Russandol has four distinct moods, with some fluctuation between those moods. Before the Oath and all that followed, his behavior was solely in two of these moods, the other two he gained later on.

The Prince of the Noldor: Stalwart and unfazed, this is how he appears to most people. It is more of a persona than an actual personality, but in any official situation, this is how he seems. Characterized by a certain hardness, unreadability in his eyes, and a lifted chin, and accompanied by an air of nobility and stubbornness that could almost rival his father's, this mood usually comes on when someone begins to argue against his point, or when he needs to place a firm hand on his brothers, or when in some sort of council. He is not disagreeable, but stubborn enough that some people may find offence. He is also very well-mannered and for the most part polite enough when he is in this mood.

The Battle-Crazed Kinslayer: This mood was not acquired until Alqualonde. Driven and set on by the Oath, it is rare for him to burst into this mood, unless said Oath needs to be fulfilled. Russandol seems to lose all control over himself, and yet fights like he does know what he's doing. His eyes begin to blaze like icy fire, and he becomes truly dreadful. A milder form of this occurs when he is in battle, but then he has more control and will only kill should he decide to kill, nothing more, unlike in the Kinslayer mood, when he will kill anything and everything that comes in his way.

The Despondant Suicidal Mood: Russandol's first experience with this was on Thangorodrim and in the aftermath. His tortures had driven him to lose all hope and desire only his own death and nothing more. His eyes take on an empty look, and his conversation is limited. He seems to draw into himself almost completely, losing contact with the outside world.A very frustrating mood for anyone who desires to get him out of it. During one of these spells he can be completely silent for days at a time, and blow up in a fierce fury the next moment. Very few are capable of dealing with him when he is like this, and even Findekano has a tough time of it. It took a while for him to recover the first time, but even harder after Findekano's death in the Nirnaeth. After that, the mood never fully left him and just festered until the end of the War of Wrath, when he realized the Oath that so many had died for and killed for was unattainable. That was enough to push him over the edge- quite literally- and drive him to suicide, the only Elda to ever do so.

The Carefree Mood: Always seeming so serious and reserved, many are surprised when they see that Russandol actually has a fun side to him. This is the nicest of all of his moods, but, sadly, the one that is least-often exhibited. It was much more in Aman before anything had happened, and never from the Oath until some time after his rescue. Findekano had a way of bringing this out in him, enticing Russandol to act very carefree, undignified, and immature, but not in a bad way at all. Later, after the Nirnaeth, he was almost never in this mood until after he and his brother Makalaure had begun raising the Peredhil twins. Then, at times, his mood would shift to this, though there ever was a shadow of despond.