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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 8 2015, 3:35pm
Post #1 of 10
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Locations in the Blue Mountains
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What follows is a brief manuscript that I worked up for a home-brewed role-playing adventure that I am writing for The One Ring Roleplaying Game, which I might turn into a short story for Other Minds in addition or instead. The adventure is set in the Northern Eren Luin, which hasn't been mapped yet for TOR and for which Professor Tolkien provided few details. Take a look at it, if you like, and post your thoughts.
Topographical Features of the Blue Mountains
If I could draw worth a darn, I would make a map of Eastern Eriador and Lindon, concentrating on the Ered Luin (the site of a home-brewed adventure that I'm working on). As it is, using Christopher Tolkien's maps I've identified the sites of Mount Rerir and Mount Dolmed as well as where the land seems to have subsided to create passes and vales over the remains of the ruined cities of Belegost and Nogrod. I took my topography from the fold-out map of Middle-earth in my LotR hardcover edition.
In the Northern Ered Luin, I have dubbed the river in Forlindon that feeds into the Gulf of Lune the Linduin (Singing River). Starting from the Gulf of Lune, I imagine the former Halls of Thorin to be about a 70-mile journey north from the Grey Havens. The Nan Nogrod (the Hollowbold Vale) would be about 100 miles to the north; Cirith Belegost (Mickleburg Pass) is about 50 miles beyond that, just north of Dolmed. At the western end of Cirith Belegost, just to the north, is Nan Dolmed (the Drowned Vale), where the land over the northernmost part of ancient Belegost collapsed. The lesser river that originates in the middle of the Northern Blue Mountains and feeds into the River Lhûn (Lune) seems to be called the Little Lune. 50 miles or so north of the Little Lune is the Cirith Rerir (called the Northern Pass by Men). Near the north end of the range, just where it starts to veer to the east, is what remains of Mount Rerir where, in the First Age, the Noldor under Caranthir had constructed a fortress.
I can only imagine that the Dwarves would have also had settlements and mines in the Southern Ered Luin. Tolkien never identifed any; but, Karen Wynn Fonstad placed Belegost there in the revised edition of The Atlas of Middle-earth (as opposed to the placement found in the fold-out map in The Silmarillion). I'm sticking with the map and description found in The Sil. The eastern extension in the middle of the Southern Blue Mountains is not named; I propose Pin-i-Sarn (Stoney Ridge).
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by entmaiden on May 10 2015, 5:19pm)
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Felagund
Nargothrond
May 10 2015, 3:56pm
Post #2 of 10
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Great to see this coming together, Otaku-sempai! I was intrigued by your ideas when you first posted them last February.
I like the new names. For the river you've named Linduin, which I reckon is awesome btw, I associate it with the River Ascar, which flowed from the Ered Luin, by Mount Dolmed, into the River Gelion. Perhaps some wistful Elves of Lindon referred to this as Ascarhîl (my very crude linguistic attempt to render "Ascar's heir"). And if the leap is made that this is the former Ascar, this is where Beren and Dior dumped the remaining treasures of Doriath - this giving the river yet another alternative name: Rathlóriel.
Your conception of lots of vales fits nicely with one of Tolkien's alternative names for Thargelion - Talath Rhúnen (East Vale), also known as Dor Caranthir.
There's also Lake Helevorn potentially in the picture close by Mount Rerir. Perhaps the cataclysm of the War of Wrath emptied it out, or shoved it underground. Either way, you could have a nice feature to play with. Caranthir also had a settlement there. One final feature that comes to mind - the Dwarf Road that tracked the River Ascar, from Belegost and Nogrod, west to Sarn Athrad and beyond. I wonder if there were trace remains to be had, in Forlindon? As a former archaeologist, I can personally attest to ancient roads surviving all sorts of events and neglect!
And finally, how about some Khuzdul?
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 11 2015, 1:24am
Post #3 of 10
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Thanks. The Linduin would not be far from the source of the First-Age River Ascar, but Ascar originated from south of Dolmed where the source of the Linduin is farther north. Finding the former bed of the Ascar could be an adventure of its own.
Remnants of the old Dwarf Road might indeed have survived into the Third Age, buried under thousands of years of silt and soil or in the mountains.
I found an interesting descrepency in The Atlas of Middle-earth. For several reasons, Karen Wynn Fonstad moved the site of Belegost almost 200 miles south of where it is located in The SIlmarillion. This means that after the Ered Luin was broken in the War of Wrath, Belegost would have been sunk under the Gulf of Lune. However, her maps of the Second Age places both Nogrod and Belegost an additional 150 miles to the south, placing Belegost in the Southern Blue Mountains and Nogrod at the bottom of the Gulf. Oops!
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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Felagund
Nargothrond
May 11 2015, 3:16pm
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What era is your RPG set in? I ask, as it has implications for the kinds of denizens you'd have.
If it's the Second Age, it'll be the Kingdom of Lindon in full flow, with the Noldor remnant predominantly in Forlindon, and the Sindar mainly in Harlindon - under the lordship of Celeborn, for a while.
If it's the Third Age, I suppose most of the Elvish action is around the Gulf (Mithlond, Harlond, Forlond) - although there's still enough 'folk of Lindon' for Círdan to recruit to go and fight the Witch-king in III.1974, which could imply a remnant Elvish population in Forlindon.
And, yep, KWF made an error with her placement of Belegost in the southern range of the Ered Luin. Suspect she was misled, understandably, by Tolkien's pre-1943 'First Map', which does place Belegost in the south. The Silmarillion map, like you say, is the more accurate anchor for the geography of the Ered Luin.
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 11 2015, 3:28pm
Post #5 of 10
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The game's default setting starts five years after the Battle of Five Armies. My adventure isn't limited to a specific year, but it is intended to be several years after Sauron declares himself and three of the Ringwraiths re-occupy Dol Guldur--possibly as late as TA 2977.
I'm sure that you are correct about why Fonstad moved Belegost to the south of Nogrod. However, she does equate the Western Isle of Himling with the site of Himring in the First Age. That makes her re-arrangement of both Nogrod and Belegost in her Second-Age maps to place them even further south all the more puzzling. This looks to be an unintentional error; this might depend on which came first: The maps or her conclusion that Belegost might have survived past the end of the First Age.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on May 11 2015, 3:37pm)
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Felagund
Nargothrond
May 11 2015, 4:04pm
Post #6 of 10
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KWF is such a legend, I reckon we can forgive her falling foul of Tolkien's sometimes baffling geography!
Late Third Age timeframe - sounds good. The Blue Mountains must have been pretty much empty of Dwarves in the wake of Erebor's refoundation. Unless, of course, you're a LotRO player - in which case, Dwalin is still hanging around!
By the way, are we the only ones interested in the Ered Luin? I think it was just you and me back in February too. There's no accounting for taste!
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 11 2015, 4:12pm
Post #7 of 10
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Except for some Dwarves such as Bifur, Bofur and Bombur, I think that most of those who relocated to Erebor following the Battle of Five Armies were those of Durin's Folk. I believe that many of the Dwarves (possibly most of them) who occupied the Blue Mountains after the Balrog was disturbed in TA 1980 were the descendants of the Broadbeams and Firebeards who had left the Ered Luin early in the Second Age after Nogrod and Belegost became too unstable. Most of them probably thought of the Blue Mountains as their true home and likely remained there until they dwindled and died off in later ages.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on May 11 2015, 4:14pm)
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 15 2015, 12:00am
Post #8 of 10
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The river that feeds into the Lhûn from the Emyn Uial (Hills of Evendim) could be called the Siruial (River Twilight).
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 15 2015, 4:55am
Post #9 of 10
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The eastern extension in the middle of the Southern Blue Mountains is not named; I propose Pin-i-Sarn (Stoney Ridge).
Make that "either Pin-i-Sarn (Stoney Ridge) or Eryn Sarn (the Stone Hills)."
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on May 15 2015, 4:56am)
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Otaku-sempai
Elvenhome
May 26 2015, 5:29pm
Post #10 of 10
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I've changed Cirith Rerir to Cirith Forod (literally, the North Pass) and raised the possibility of a parallel track:
Fifty miles or so north of the Little Lune is the Cirith Forod (called the Northern Pass by Men). Rumors persist of another, much more difficult and dangerous, pass just to the north called Cirith Rhúnen (the Pass to the East) by the Elves.
"At the end of the journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia..." - Phantom F. Harlock
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