Althérion, the Sea Price of Tolfolas (Joins the Glaurung)

The bells are ringing in Dol Amroth as an unexpected hero has arrived to offer his services to Breged on the voyage of the Glaurung. Althérion, the second son of Prince Althérias, of the island of Tolfolas, came ashore clad in golden armour and bearing a shield of ancient Númenor. Despite his resplendent appearance and his hard earned reputation as a warrior, Althérion is better known as a statesman and judge. For the past ten years, he has served as his father’s chief diplomat and has travelled far and wide in Gondor, hence his nickname, the Sea Prince.

At home in Tolfolas, there are many who favour Althérion over his brother Althériac to inherit the princedom from their father, but if Althérion harbours any such ambitions he has never made it known. He says he comes to join the voyage of the Glaurung with his father’s blessing, but there are a few who wonder if he rather comes at his father’s command.

Whatever Breged and Madracoth think of this new volunteer to the crew must for the moment go unrecorded, for it would be unthinkable to refuse such a noble, high-ranking, and popular warrior.

 ***

Althérion is another crewman who grew out of painting the figure. I was looking through my box of unpainted figures, seeing if any might work to join the crew, when I found this figure of Eomer. I also discovered a strange shield (It’s a Mithril Miniatures shield, which I believe comes from a Barrow Wight diorama set). I’m not sure what the shield is supposed to represent, but the ship and the star made me think of Númenor. I figured attaching that would be a good start in getting the figure away from representing Eomer.

I’m not sure what caused me to paint the armour gold, but once I had, I knew I must be dealing with a person of some serious status, even more so if he carried an ancient shield. I wavered for a moment on making him a prince, as this would give him a status actually above Breged, but then I remembered the other main influence of my campaign, the Argonautica. The crew of the Argo was actually filled with Princes, all of whom had more status that Jason, so I figure my ship can have at least one.

I decided such a prince must come from an island. As far as I know, Tolfolas is the only island that Tolkien named as being a part of Gondor, which made my choice rather easy. I’m not above making such things up, but if there is a perfectly good Tolkien option, why not go for that?

Looking at the pictures, I might need to do a bit of touch up on the waves on the shield. These were very difficult to paint. As is often a problem with Mithril Minis, some of the detail is a bit soft and hard to pick out. Still, I think it is worth it.

In fact, I am so happy with how this figure turned out, and how unique a figure it has become, I’m thinking of picking up a few Rohan Royal Guardsmen to paint up warriors of Tolfolas, should I ever need such a thing.