Author's Notes:  The armies gather before the Black Gate.

March 25, 3019

Banners Before The Gate (Violet)

Flags and banners from every realm hung limp in the heavy air, their once bright colours dull and dusty.   A blood red sun stained the blues of sea and sky in the banners of Dol Amroth and Imladris to drab purples and violets.

As battle surged over the waiting armies the patterns of colour broke apart, mingling and reforming with the tide of fighting in a vast, ever-changing kaleidoscope.

The standard of Anfalas – a field of green beneath the sky – wavered and fell beneath the flood, sinking slowly into the mud as blood stained the sky-blue banner a bitter violet.