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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwinBahamut" data-source="post: 4701682" data-attributes="member: 32536">And how many books are there out that detail setting information for the Forgotten Realms? Or even Eberron, for that matter?And, keep in mind, many of those Middle Earth setting books exist solely as an attempt by various people after Tolkien's death to go into Tolkien's setting notes and pull out as much as they can in order to fill a desire by various people to see more stories set in Middle Earth. How many books do you think could be created from unused setting detail created by any other author? Probably as much as a dozen books, I bet.Because The Lord of the Rings is a book trilogy, it has certain inherent setting detail needs that are very different than other forms of entertainment. It needs less detail than a series of books much longer than a trilogy (can you really write a whole other trilogy of novels in the setting of Middle Earth as it exists now?), and it certainly requires less detail than something like an MMORPG (which literally needs hundreds or thousands of individual characters and dozens of highly detailed locations, all within a strong thematic framework). All told, I am quite certain that Middle earth is very far from being the most detailed setting ever devised. If nothing else, overblown abominations like the DC multiverse and Marvel universe are far more extensive and detailed, simply because so many more stories have been told in them. Even the fact that Tolkien created his own language for the setting is nothing unique anymore.Truthfully, Middle Earth and The Lord of the Rings have been imitated and used as the model for countless stories and settings since (and quite rightfully so), so there really isn't anything really unique about them anymore other than historical role and quality. Well, I suppose few have dared to copy Tolkien's elaborate writing style, but that isn't really an aspect of the setting.The greatness of Tolkien's writing has nothing to do with setting detail, and everything to do with Tolkien's own skill in crafting those stories. If anything, I consider the constant inside references to far more obscure works contained within those books to be one of the few flaws of those novels, not one of their assets. Frodo or Aragon invoking the names of Beren and Luthien is something that is meaningless to a reader who hasn't read the Silmarillion, and thus it is something that is just as easily ignored as anything else.</blockquote>

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