Total War Last Alliance
Ozella Vires
Someone gave the name in retrospect (Elrond?, Isildur?) deeming that the great losses of the Eldar prevented them from ever again fielding a comparable force. This seems the most commonly accepted version. But someone writing right after the fall of Nargothrond could easily have declared the League of Maedhros to have been a "Last Alliance of Elves and Men" too.
The Last Alliance of Elves and Men was indeed so great that it is noted to be only shadowed by the host of the Valar, which was assembled near the end of the First Age to overthrow Morgoth.
Now Elendil and Gil-galad took counsel together, for they perceived that Sauron would grow too strong and would overcome all his enemies one by one, if they did not unite against him. Therefore they made that League which is called the Last Alliance, and they marched east into Middle-earth gathering a great host of Elves and Men; and they halted for a while at Imdralis. It is said that the host that was there assembled was fairer and more splendid in arms than any has since been seen in Middle-earth, and none greater has been mustered since the host of the Valar went against Thangorodrim.
So yes, the Last Alliance was mightier a host than any other after the final one the Valar raised against Morgoth. Even greater than anything the Nmenreans sent against Sauron throughout the Second Age.
The battle was so instrumental for the inhabitants of Middle-earth that nearly every living thing played a role, at least, in the battle. The text here is a little silly in suggesting that Orcs fought Orcs on both sides. But based on prerequisite knowledge, I think it's safe to safe that the Orcs did not fight on the side of the Elves.
And rightly so, because if they had not stopped Sauron there and then, with the Ruling Ring he would have laid dominion over Middle-earth. Sauron had been amassing his forces for many years ever since his escape from Nmenor, and his forces not only comprised of Orcs then but also the Haradrim at that time, and countless others.
One thing different about this war and that of the First Age, is that Men play a larger role. Or at least, the Nmenreans in particular. Remember that Sauron was the catalyst that caused the downfall of Nmenor, and their enemy. Perhaps also because Middle-earth is now smaller, but the proportion of Men to Elves has increased since the First Age. That is why Maedhros' army wouldn't be called that of Elves and Men, because really, the Elves then seemed to be the leaders more so than the Men (the minority). But in the Second Age, things would have been different thanks to the large population of Nmenreans, and fewer Elves than before.
The leaving of the Noldor probably also played a role in the naming of the "Last" Alliance. Already, since the end of the First Age, the Noldor had begun returning to Valinor, and would do so throughout the Ages that came after. With the dwindling of such "High Elves", it's unlikely Middle-earth would ever see such a great host as that comprised of the Noldor Elves.
I do not think that they believed that evil would have been vanquished forever that no other such alliances would have been needed. They would at least rid Middle-earth of Sauron (for a time), but ultimately what evils come afterwards will have to be dealt with. As Gandalf says,
Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
That brings us back to the conclusion that the leaders of the alliance, Elendil and Gil-galad, indeed named it as such in retrospect that, had they not defeated Sauron then, they would not have ever be able to muster another army of that size, power and majesty again.
The trend throughout the Second Age clearly showed the decline of the Eldar (mainly the Noldor) and the rise of Men. Indeed, Gil-galad recognized this early on, in a letter to Tar-Meneldur in S.A. 883:
A new shadow arises in the East. It is no tyranny of evil Men, as your son believes; but a servant of Morgoth is stirring, and evil things wake again. Each year it gains in strength, for most Men are ripe to its purpose. Not far off is the day, I judge, when it will become too great for the Eldar unaided to withstand. Therefore, whenever I behold a tall ship of the Kings of Men, my heart is eased. And now I make bold to seek your help. If you have any strength of Men to spare, lend it to me, I beg.
Centuries later, after the creation of the One Ring triggered war between Sauron and the Noldor, Sauron was able to occupy all of Eriador between 1695 and 1700, with the Noldor holding on only to Lindon in the extreme west until the arrival of a Nmenrean fleet in 1700 turned the tide.
By the end of the Second Age, both races realized that this would be the last time that Men and Elves would stand together as equals, as the Noldor continued to decline both in numbers and in "vitality". Win or lose, I suspect many of the Noldor had decided it was time to depart Middle-earth as so many of their kin had decided to do at the beginning of the Age.
Well the end of the year is finally here and the OHL Draft is right around the corner. After a long season that saw the London Jr. Knights become U16 champions for the second time in three seasons. Now we look forward to the final event of the U16 calendar, the OHL Priority Selection a.k.a. the OHL Draft.
Once again I have compiled my list of players as I have seen them this season. As is my usual disclaimer, this is solely my thoughts. There is a near 100% chance that some players listed below will not be selected and there is a near 100% chance that players I did not list will be selected. The beauty of player evaluations.
Looking back at the 2023 OHL Draft, 43 Alliance players were selected with four in the first round. The London Jr. Knights led the way with seven players selected including Ryan Roobroeck who went 2nd overall to Niagara. While I don\u2019t believe we will have four selected in the opening round of the draft, I do think a couple are possible. Parker Vaughan seems like a solid option in the opening round and with a lot of top end talent committing elsewhere so far, I could see a team selecting Carter Hicks in the first round as well.
As a total, I think this year will be similar in terms of number of players selected as last season. The Alliance is usually in the 36-50 range in terms of total players and I don\u2019t see this year being any different.
Syntaxonomy of the class Festuco-Brometea in Ukraine has barely been still explored. There are some scattered and local data, mainly within the Forest-Steppe zone, which need to be compiled and critically reviewed. Similarly, the Azov Sea coastal zone, which, despite the considerable diversity of habitats, remains unstudied phytosociologically. We have carried out large-scale comparisons of relevs from the Sea of Azov coastline with data from other regions of Ukraine, Europe, and Russia. In total, 2336 relevs were used for the analysis. For the analysis, Modified TWINSPAN classification was used. Diagnostic species were determined by means of the phi fidelity index. In total, 9 associations and 4 subassociations, belonging to four alliances, were identified and categorised as follows: Artemisio-Kochion prostratae (ruderalized steppes), Artemisio tauricae- Festucion valesiacae (saline steppe vegetation on sites affected by the sea or saline ground water), Stipo lessingianae-Salvion nutantis (forb-bunchgrass steppe vegetation) and Tanaceto millefolii-Galatellion villosae (bunchgrass steppes). The last alliance is proposed as a new one.
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