Benish Armon was an ancient Daen site which lay in the midst of Ethir Anduin. It was abandoned after the lowlands surrounding the Anduin mouth were deluged by the global cataclysm accompanying the Akallabêth and transformed into a vast delta. Some years following the changing of the world, the Ethir became inhabited by the Sakalai— a coastal people migrating north from the broken seaward lands of their homeland on the peninsula of Umbar. At some point after these Sakalai became the Ethir Folk, the ruins of Benish Armon were made into the lair of malevolent Maiar- spirits that assumed a cat-like fana . These were Tevildo and his nine thanes, who laid claim to Ethir Anduin as their domain and preyed upon its human inhabitants.In T.A. 830, Queen Berúthiel of Gondor (who dwelt for a time in Ethir Anduin in a villa constructed by her husband Tarannon Falastur), used a Gem known as the Kuilëondo to dominate the cats and thereby freed the Ethir Folk from the terror of Benish Armon.But the tale of the cats of Berúthiel, of the Kuilëondo, and of the cult that afterwards arose among the Ethir Folk, had much deeper roots.
History[]
The cult of Benish Armon emerged soon after Ancalimë’s death around 830 or 831, and spent the next five hundred years searching for the identity and location of any living descendant of Ancalimë, in utter vain. For when Tarannon, rightly fearing for his child’s safety, sent the babe to be carefully fostered by Gundor his Steward, who was simultaneously rendered the first Prince of Morthond. Gundor proudly adopted the boy as his son and the heir of his house, and raised him kindly with no mention of his past. So it was that the bloodline of Berúthiel and Tarannon lived on in the princely line of Morthond, unknown even to the later scions of that house. Attempts by the Cult to discover later heirs, aided lightly by the Necromancer, proved fruitless, and the Cult would dwindle to near-oblivion.
References[]
- MERP:The Kin-Strife
- The Cult of Benish Armon by Chris Seeman, Jason Beresforn & Stefan Ardinger in Other Hands #6/6 -oct.1994