What happens when a realm like Middle Earth develops gunpowder? And then, one day, aviation? Soon, the orcs and the elves are battling over space colonies! What is the result of a cladding a troll in strength-enhancement armor and giving him a minigun? How does elven culture develop into the space age? What about the Dwarves? and, most importantly, where does magic fit into all this?

The idea is really rough still, and I would love some input from others, but the basic idea is this:

Lord of the RIngs in space. 

I realize that there are a couple problems with this. First of all, the books imply that the history of Middle Earth is our history. We will simply choose to ignore this. The second thing is that the elves were all leaving Middle Earth. For our purposes, we shall say this:
, 
In the Lord of the Rings, what allowed the elf havens of Rivendell and Galadriel's realm to exist were the upholding effects of the magic rings given them by Sauron. With his defeat, the rings lost their power. For the purposes of this story, we will adjust that little-known fact, and say that they DO continue to work. This also opens up allowing Ringwraiths back into the story.

Any takers? I am looking for about five, unless I can think of a better number.