jedibuttercup

Just so you know, this prompt of yours has been nagging at me for months now, though it's been long enough since I last read or watched LotR that I can't seem to make the proper mental shift to write it. I'll have to set aside a weekend sometime this fall to do so. But in the meantime—is this plot bunny the sort of thing you were looking for?

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The sequel will begin seventy-odd years after Aragon got the ring, when the War of the Ring would have occurred in canon. But—the backstory to get there:

Estel was strong enough as a ten year old, having not yet contaminated himself by using it, to hide the One Ring under his bed rather than on his person and mostly forget about it. While it remained inert Elrond could not directly sense it, though he was often wary, especially after Gandalf worried to him about Bilbo's ring's appearance and absence. All the same, by the time Aragorn found out about his heritage a decade or so later, it had managed to sink dark roots enough that though he still went out to learn about other Men as in canon, it was with the subconscious aim of taking up the power due him, rather than merely shepherding his flock as best he could from the shadows. Though he did meet Arwen before leaving as in the books, he was already too distracted by other concerns to fall into the "love at first sight" relationship that dominated his canon life.

This Aragorn first used the Ring in Rohan, after first meeting and parting from a vaguely disquieted Gandalf, probably in the service of some military engagement against marauding Orc or dark men in the hills, and could not stop using it thereafter. His cult of personality grew swiftly; and once he left there for Gondor, he thrived under the approval of the Steward-- fully accepting Ecthelion's preferential treatment of him rather than maintaining his distance and running North as soon as his military leadership was no longer necessary. When Ecthelion made the connection between his appearance, origins, and manner and the lost royal blood of the North, he admitted it, accepted the hand of Finduilas (daughter of a Prince!) in Denethor's place, and settled in, delegating his obligations as chieftain of the Dunedain of the North to his cousin Halbarad.

After the birth of an heir and a spare to the Crown, Ecthelion, rapidly fading, announced Aragorn's lineage rather than turn the country over to his own son-- and events spiraled out of control from there. Aragorn was beautiful, and terrible, to the people; they were awed by the tales of his exploits in the war, but also secretly disquieted by the dark hints already visible in his nature. When Denethor schemed against him after Ecthelion's death, the Steward's displaced son found enough supporters, and at his coronation, struck. Aragorn escaped the city, but Denethor, left in charge of Aragorn's minor sons, publicly decried the anonymous assassins who had taken the life of their almost-King's wife and took up the mantle of regent "until the King return".

Meanwhile, the informed Nine searched out Aragorn in the wilderness-- tracking him by the Ring he'd naturally used in his escape. He was found, and captured, despite his efforts. Sauron, laughing for joy, took up the Ring and began crushing all who lived in Middle-earth, one land at a time.

By 3018, virtually all the Elves have fled, the Hobbits are slain, the surviving Dwarves have closed themselves up in their caverns, and the remaining Human resistance has withdrawn North into hastily rebuilt fastnesses in erstwhile Arnor. Of the Elder Days' heroes, very few have stayed behind, one being Elrond-- who remade Narsil and put it into the hand of Aragorn's heir, Boromir.

The story is told in Boromir's brother Faramir's hand, in a journal entry, as his attempt to set down the terrible trainwreck of his father's legacy before the brothers head out in a futile attempt to finish what Isildur had started so many years before.