DnD Adventures in 4th Age Middle Earth... Ideas?

[Steverooo]

True, but Aragorn was a special case. He was a throwback to when Numenoreans lived for centuries. Presumably by the Third Age they had diminished so that their lifespans were, on average, no greater than ordinary men. Some might have lived to be quite a bit older than the ordinary human on occasion, but it can be assumed, based on how unusual it was for Aragorn to live as long as he did, that none of them approached 200. Except for maybe the royal line, and even then, Aragorn was still the longest-lived of them since before the fall of the north kingdom.

Elros (the first king of Numenor) lived at least 410 years, perhaps 442, if not more. Elendil, Isildur, and Anarion all lived at least 181, before being slain in the battle of the Barad-dur, or shortly thereafter. This is the problem with the Dunedain in ME... They tend to be killed, not die of old age!

Argeleb was slain in battle with Angmar and Rhudaur. Arveleg was slain by an invasion from Angmar. I can find no dates for Araphor nor Arveleg II. Arvedui was killed when an Angmarian storm caused ice to crush the hull of the ship sent to rescue him from the ice bay of forochel. Thus Aranarth, his son, was the first chieftain of the Dunedain of the north. Tolkien tells us that the blood of the Dunedain waned faster in Gondor than in the north, but that the northern line still lived to twice the age of men. Aragorn lived to 190, longer than any of his line since Arvegil (III 345).

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Here's another interesting source, for anyone who is planning on doing a campaign that involves the corruption of the Blue Wizards. I usually hate fanfic, but this is well worth reading... it makes Middle Earth make a lot more sense, too. See what you think.

http://www.xeper.org/maquino/nm/Morlindale.pdf

 

[Agback]

Aragorn lived to 190

Aragorn was born on March 1st 2931 (Third Age). Aragorn died on March 1st 1541 (Shire Reckoning). (Both according to Appendix B.)

1 SR = 1601 TA. So Aragorn's death would have been 3141 T.A.

3141 - 2931 = 210.

It is true that Tolkien writes elsewhere {Appendix A part (iii)} that Aragorn died at the age of 190. But he somehow managed to do so on his 210th birthday. Time travel, perhaps.

To get agreement with the age of 190 you have to either push Aragorn's birth to 2951 and his coming-of-age/meeting with Arwen to 2971 (making two alterations in the Tale of Years), or alter the date of his death to 1521 SR and the length of his reign in bliss with Arwen from 'six score years' to 'five score years' (making one change in the Tale of Years and one in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen).

One way Tolkien made one error. The other way he made at least two. I'll say that Aragorn lived to 210.

By the way, Elros died in 442 (Second Age), at the age of 500. His brother Elrond 'went west' at the beginning of the Fourth Age, aged about 6,519.

Regards,


Agback

EDIT: typos in punctuation.

 

[Pants]

Draw your own conclusions...

Don't forget when Gandalf first confronts the Balrog. He attempts to put a locking spell on the door and the Balrog blew through it with its own counter-spell, which nearly consumed Gandalf and sent him tumbling down the stairs.

Of course, later on Gandalf breaks the Bridge of Khazad-dum with his magic and he destroys the Balrog's sword.

During the confrontation with the Wargs before the gates of Moria, Gandalf does something that either blinds or kills a bunch of them.

During the Siege of Gondor, Gandalf uses a Daylight-esque spell that drives off the Nazgul.

 

[Alcareru]

Did the dwarves all go somewhere? I thought they still had workings in the Ered Luin and Erebor (and possibly in the Iron Hills). Appendix A says "After the fall of Sauron, Gimli brought south a part of the dwarf-folk of Erebor." I always presumed that teh rest of the dwarf-folk of Erebor stayed under Erebor.

Regards,


Agback

I believe you are correct. There should still be dwarves in the Blue Mountains and Erebor.

As a side note another cool campaign hook (for dwarves at least) would be a campaign to retake Mount Gundabad, which the dwarves revere as a sacred place, from the orcs. Such a campaign could erupt into a full scale dwarf-orc war.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Indeed. It isn't realistic, nor meant to be. The point is that in Middle Earth there is nothing 'mere' about perfect craftsmanship. Nor is there (apart from the deceits of the Enemy) any 'magic' to lend aid to craftsmanship. Middle Earth is a fantasy setting in which fantastically good artisans make fantastically good handicrafts.

Two ways of saying the same thing. Just because you don't CALL it magic, doesn't mean it ISN'T magic. Just goes to show (as I mentioned in my earlier post) that JRRT rolled a much richer tapestry of elements into "magic" than mere spellcasting. It's rather the reverse of the famous pulp-novel savage's response to technology or literacy as magic: Here, technology and literacy ARE magical.