Middle Earth questions

[tleilaxu]

Actually Umbar was a port of the Black Numenorians, distinct from the Haradrim

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Early on it was, but ceased to be so after Gondor, led by Hyarmendacil, thrashed 'em thoroughly in 1050 TA. That's when they were scattered to the winds. By the time of the War of the Ring, Black Numenoreans were few and far between.

 

[tleilaxu]

Well, there was some kind of succession struggle that the Umbarites were in on. I'm pretty sure in some concordance it is stated that the Corsairs of Umbar are Black Num. the same way that the Dunadain are the leftovers of Arnor. This adds to the sweetness of the Oathbreakers revenge, fulfilling their oath against the false of their own people.

 

[tleilaxu]

btw colonel, do you have anything that needs doing or researching for your ME d20 site?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Regarding Umbar - yeah, it changed hands a bunch of times. The Haradrim took the Havens in 1810 TA, and it seems they held it until Aragorn finally retook Umbar at the end of the Third Age. What Black Numenoreans still existed were apparently intermarried with the Haradrim. So, they were still in control of Umbar, in a sense.

What would you like to work on in regards to the Middle Earth site? It's been dormant since submissions stopped coming in. I imagine that will change as The Two Towers approaches release. Derek and I have been discussing some things we'd like to do or add to the site, and maybe run a little contest. If you'd like, it'd be very cool if you could go through The Hobbit and the Trilogy and find all the references to spells being cast. I've done this to some extent in the past, but I'm sure I've missed some. Basically, anything that could substantiate that D&D-type magic is used in Middle Earth. If you don't want to do that, any project that catches your fancy would be appreciated - we are always looking for content.

 

[tleilaxu]

i'll see what can be done (at my own pace of course)

i think the Silmarillion has loads more raw data than the hobbit or lotr. I'll consider that a bit more... stuff like Sauron turning into vampries and werewolves at will.

I'd be interested in doing stuff like

"Basic warrior of Gondolin"

"Guardsman of Minas Tirith"

"Generic Green Elf of Ossiarand"

this stuff would be more useful for actual adventures rather than adding the 10th version of frodo

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Then please feel free to submit such characters. They are useful.

I realize that the characters from the Trilogy may not see much, if any, use, but if they weren't there, we'd be questioned all the time about it. In fact, requests for characters from the books and movies were some of the most common queries we received.

 

[Wolf72]

The Haradrim were generally aligned with Sauron, and were a constant thorn in Gondor's southern side. Umbar was one of the kingdoms of the Haradrim.

I imagine they had an aversion to the elves. They served in Sauron's army alongside orcs, and presumably had little knowledge or love of the Valar and Maiar.

thanks! I was just wondering because it seemed like they were mostly ignored ... almost like the US and Russia going at it, but who cares about Mexico!

I guess I was more or less concerned about the rest of Middle Earth. It seems they have a stake in what happened but had no idea or care to do anything about it, since I'm not sure how much bigger Middle Earth gets and how many other people are there.

In the FR the time of troubles happened, but it seemed the only real action took place in Faerun (did the beings in Kara-tur play a pivotal role? what about Maztica)

Okay last analogy: WWI ... sure it's called a World War, but while a good portion of the earth was involved ... only the colonial powers had any meaningful impact.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Actually, most of Middle Earth's peoples seemed involved with the war against Sauron. The Hobbits seemed the least involved.

* Sauron used the Haradrim and the Easterlings in his armies.

* Saruman used the Dunlendings in his armies.

In the War of the Ring, pretty much everyone was involved - the men of Dale and the Dwarves of Erebor were attacked by Easterlings of Sauron's army; Thranduil's realm was attacked by orcs from Dol Guldur, as was Lorien (3 times); and of course we know the Easterlings and Haradrim were the non-orcish backbone of Sauron's armies that attacked Gondor and Rohan.

 

[Storminator]

I think the question was directed at those places off the edge of the maps. What's beyond Harad, or Rhun?

And of course, that's kind of hard to answer!

PS