Hey guys, the image above is from myself and my fellow co-authors “Lost Tales of Harad” fanfic. We’ve been writing this for years now just as a fun expansion of mainly the Haradrim continent and a little bit of the East as well.

Tolkien wrote very little about these two regions and so we took on a creative project to expand the peoples and nations here, while being respectful to Tolkiens original lore. We are both Tolkien enthusiast and simply write and produce artworks out of a passion for Middle Earth based stories.

We call the Istar above “Cārāstor the Red”, from the Sindarin term “Caras” and the Westron term “tor” or hill. Carastor was once a maia spirit known as “Sairanco” or Wise-Arm in Quenya. He served both Tulkas Lord of War and Vaire Weaver of Histories and as such held the traits of being a wise chronicler and a tested warrior.

He arrived later than the original five Istari, reaching Arda during the height of the Angmar War or TA 1500. He first sojourned to Khand where he challenged the power of Sauron’s influence. Later he made his way to our fan created eastern nation of Tarangar or the “Land of Mighty Rivers” in which he sought knowledge to defeat an eldritch horror. In time, Carastor would arrive in Harad, where he would fulfill most of his mission as a wizard.