Reply To: Thieves of Tharbad module

Princess Nirnadel   M32 : Princess NIRNADEL™

The last king of Cardolan went to his death in battle with Angmar on the Barrow-Downs in the year 1409 of the Third Age. His death was one of the blows that finally destroyed the North Kingdom. Many of Cardolan’s knights and hiratar (barons) fell alongside their king in that final bloody rout.
The king’s death left but one heir, his daughter, Nirnadel.
Nirnadel, then dwelling in Tharbad, and barely old enough for the task, was crowned queen, and all expected her to fail. Nirnadel ruled over the fractious feudal realm of Cardolan for three tumultuous years. She had to balance the demands of envoys from Arthedain and Gondor, and fend off the plots and intrigues of the Witch King and his minions. She ruled over a land filled with ambitious and often hostile barons. It was a land bloodied and wounded by the disaster on the Barrow Downs. Despite this, Nirnadel proved to be a worthy ruler – honest, generous, intelligent and wise. She ruled as a Prince of the Dunedain should, and it made her many enemies – and many admirers through the north.
History records that Nirnadel and his regent, Nimhir, were slain in the winter of 1412, after a reign marked by feudal quarels, courtly intrigue and many assassination attempts. Her death marked the true end of Cardolan, though many princes would name themselves king of Cardolan in the following centuries. Tradition holds that her body was laid in a boat and sent down the Greyflood River out into the eternal sea. But since then, rumours and songs have claimed that she did not die in the assassination attempt and instead was spirited out of Tharbad by adventurers in the service of Elrond of Rivendell; the songs say that she was adopted by the House of Foros in Arthedain and lived a long life. She had several children, the songs say, and her grand-daughter married Argeleb II of Gondor. The truth of this, as in many things about the wars of Cardolan, is unknown.