MiddleEarthRoze

The Lord of the Rings: The Age of Men

_{Note: This Roleplay is a rework/off-shoot from Middle-Earth: The Fifth Age, courtesy of @Lucian}

Greetings all! If you're a fan of the world of Tolkien, then this is the roleplay for you. Our story will be following a group of intrepid volunteers as they uncover an unfolding plot of darkness in their supposedly peaceful world. All canon races will be accepted (Within reason - no Spiders, please.), and it will be taking place not so long into the Fourth Age.

Most information in regards to character creation will be given in the OOC when it is made; this check is simply to test the waters and see who would be interested in a roleplay set in the world of Lord of the Rings. Knowledge of lore is preferred, but as this is set after the events of Lord of the Rings, it won't be absolutely important, unless you want to go ham on your character's backstory. The movies alone can probably give you the basics of what is needed to be known, but book lore comes first! If something contradicts between the movies and the books, the books will take precedent. Again, this shouldn't affect people too much, but it should be kept in mind.

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The year is 4E 219. King Eldarion, the son of Aragorn and his wife Arwen, has been ruling in relative peace for nearly 100 years. But trouble is brewing in the lands of Middle-Earth. News of Goblins returning to their Mountain strongholds and causing trouble on the fringes of the Misty Mountains has reached the realm of Gondor; paired with the return of the spiders of Mirkwood, and seemingly random attacks on the roads or in the wilds against various races has caused the King to begin to worry. It was small instances like this that led up to the greatest and bloodiest wars that lands have ever seen. Are they a cause for concern, or simply small factions of evil, striking back against the good and innocent? King Eldarion does not know the answer, but it is not only he that ponders over this question. The lands of Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits are too wondering what these occurrences might mean... and the ever-growing kingdoms of men are beginning to grow antsy of these terrors. The Second War of the ring and the felling of Sauron may have occurred over a century ago, but the memory of this is still fresh in the minds of some. The realms of Harad and Umbar well remember their predecessors involvement in such acts; nor is their involvement truly forgotten by the allied forces of Gondor, Rohan and now Arnor. Tension builds among these humans races, as they do amongst the other species of this world.

Races of Men

The Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor: The current ruler of Gondor is King Eldarion, son of Aragorn. His Sister Princess Tinúviel rules in Arnor, in the former capital of Fornost, while Eldarion rules from Minas Tirith in the South.

Rohan: Home to the Horse-Lords, and the capital remains Edoras. The descendent of Éomer and his wife Lothíriel rule here. They remain independent - but friendly - with the realm of Gondor. Other notable places include Isengard and Helm's Deep.

Dol Amroth: A coastal Principality, descended from the line of Imrazor. It is rumoured that there is elf-blood in the veins of this house, for the Princes born here are as fair as the Eldar to look upon.

Ithilien: A principality established after the second war of the ring; this line descends from Éowyn and her husband Faramir. As such, all reigning Princes or Princesses of Ithilien are also the king's steward.

Dale: Following the destruction of Smaug and the Battle of the Fives Armies, Dale flourished under the new control of Bard the Bowman, and his line of children. They are now a popular trading spot between Erebor and other regions, and their wealth is renowned.

Esgaroth upon the Lake: Rebuilt after it's destruction from Smaug, it too made use of the wealth now flowing in from the north from the newly established Erebor and Dale. Although independent of Dale with it's own Master, the two work in harmony with one another, and rarely come to a disagreement. While Dale makes it's money through more material wares, Esgaroth continues it's work in fishing and boat-making.

Harad: Home to the Haradrim, the people of this southern land have grown both in strength and independence away from the more northern lands of Gondor. While no longer seen as a true enemy by the King, tension and mistrust still remains.

Other: Many other lands contain men, both friend and foe. Colonies have appeared in the liberated land of Mordor, and around the lands of Rhûn and Nurn.

Elves

Eryn Lasgalen: The Kingdom of King Thranduil; while he and most of his people dwell in the north, the south has been reclaimed from the spiders and evil that dwelt there for so long, even going so far as to taking Dol Guldur and re-establishing it as a southern watch. However, Southern Mirkwood remains empty, bar for a few intrepid colonists, and the Istari Radagast. The spiders may be gone for now, but something is still odd about the trees there...

Lothlórien: While Galadriel departed from the Grey Havens with Gandalf and the Ringbearers, her husband Celeborn remained, staying in the beautiful forest with his people for a time. By now, he and many of the Silvan Elves dwelling there have departed for Aman, but the forest is not as abandoned as Imladris. Thrnaduil took it as an extension of his own Kingdom, and while the magic of Galadriel has left the forest, it remains both a beauty, and a stronghold for the elves still living there.

Grey Havens: Located in the diminished Elven realm of Lindon, here is where the Shipwright Círdan dwells. Likely the oldest of the Eldar to now remain in Middle-Earth, Círdan had said he will be the last Elf to leave for the Undying Lands, to ensure none is left behind. A small population of Elves live in the Havens too, or scattered around the surrounding lands.

Ithilien: Following the War of the Ring, Legolas Greenleaf settled a colony of Elves there at the allowance of King Ellesar and Prince Faramir. It is believed most of these people left for Valinor after a century or so, but some may still remain among the men that dwell there.

Dwarves

Erebor: Following the death of Smaug and the Battle of the Five Armies, Erebor once again had a King under the Mountain to rule it. The line of Dain Ironfoot II rule here, and the Dwarves are back to their digging, deeper and deeper into the Earth. In recent years, a separatist sect is rumoured to have appeared; bent Dwarves who are selling the treasures of the earth to less than friendly-folk, at a higher-than-normal price. The current King disregards these rumours, but shipments are going missing more and more to be considered coincidence.

Khazad-dûm: Moria was retaken by the Dwarves shortly after the end of the Third Age; it is now considered their chief stronghold, and it is now richer and even more beautiful than Erebor. Still, the Dwarves dig deep, mining mithril to sell to elves and men; again, rumours of separatist Dwarven merchants has cropped up here, but with how dig they deep, that is the last thing the line of Durin have to worry about...

The Glittering Caves: After being re-discovered by Gimli during the battle of the Hornburg, the Dwarf settled a colony of his kin there to make good of the ore-rich caverns. To this day, they remain as beautiful as they had been nearly 2 centuries ago, even after much mining of the walls and floors.

Other: Dwarves have settled in many places through-out Middle-Earth. The Iron Hills and Blue Mountains are only some to add to the list.

Hobbits

The Shire: The main home of the Hobbits; consisting of various farthings and lands, it is typically "ruled" by 3 authorities. The Mayor (And his contingents of "Shirrifs"), the Thain, and the Warden of Westmarch. After 7 consecutive terms as Mayor Samwise, the title seems to have been kept in the Gamgee line in the years following. Typically because the Hobbits reckon the Gamgee's are good at that sort of thing. As for the Thainship, it remains with the Took family, and the title of Warden to the Fairbairn's.

Westmarch: A stretch of land in Eriador gifted to the Shire by King Aragorn; a Warden was reinstated not too long after that, and it is guarded well by the Hobbits. After the Scouring of the Shire, they guard their borders far more diligently now.

Bree: A town found between the Shire and Imladris; a decent enough place, if you avoid the crooks. Home to the now-famous Prancing Pony (Thanks to the Book of Westmarch), the population typically consist of Hobbits and Humans. They get along better than the "Big-Folk" generally would with Shirelings, but they are all mostly friendly anyway.

More information about the plot, and where our character's stories begin will be given in the OOC. This is basically just to see who's interested.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

@Lucius Cypher@Frizan@Norschtalen@Lauder

Alrighty, post is up! Your roll was pretty low, so you've only got six scamps to deal with between the four characters. Only difference for you guys is that you haven't got injury rolls - however, if you want your character to sustain an injury, that's fine by me. :)

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

Naenya cocked her head to the side slightly in interest at the young warrior's suggestion. She'd of course heard that theory before - that the Daedra were linked in a somewhat more permanent way to their creators than mortals were to the Divines. If a Daedric Prince died, there was a theory that all of his "children" would die alongside them, and their plane would tear itself apart into nothingness. This theory was utterly refuted by scholars who stated that Daedric Princes couldn't die in the first place, so people were wasting their time thinking about it. This usually ended up in large arguments that Naenya herself tended to stay out of, choosing to focus on far simpler theories; like the potential hierarchy or structure of the Universe. Were the Planes of Oblivion surrounding Nirn? Maybe they were all in the same circular pattern, so jumping from one to another would eventually have you end up where you started. Naenya frowned slightly, as she recalled a particular conversation about the topic being interrupted by a mad shepherd; in his opinion, all of the lands, Daedric or otherwise, were fated to be destroyed every 50,000 years, before beginning anew. As such, she didn't end up answering Bardeck, and instead frowned at her feet, wondering where such a mad concept could have come from.

As for Niko, such concepts weren't really important to him as of now. Having aided Bardeck and the others in dispatching some of their enemies, the Nord was quite happy to just kill the beasts and leave as soon as he possibly could. After Valentis had pointed out another tower, Niko joined him at the door, peering down with surprise. He hadn't realised they were so far up already - the ground below looked just as unwelcoming as it had been when they had stood upon it - but a fall from this height would easily cause more damage than a tumble at ground level would. Glancing across the narrow bridge, another door could be seen leading into a smaller, albeit still terrifying - spire. Hopefully this one wasn't locked too.

"They should put railings up here." He muttered under his breath almost absent-mindedly, mind jumping to what a child hazard this bridge was. Then he came to his senses and remembered that the entire damned realm was a hazard, to a child or otherwise.

"If more daedra reach this room, make sure they don't storm the bridge while we're over there." He instructed as he turned back to look at the group. "A battle on such a narrow passage won't be good for anyone. Especially if we find a key." Niko could only hope that more people volunteered to help beyond himself and Valentis - the old man looked capable enough, but more numbers could never hurt.

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"RETREAT! RETREAT! THE ENEMY HAS BROKEN THE LINE!"

The call came from the barricade outside the city gates; the panicked yelling of the guard captain paired with the shrill screeching of Clannfear. The group of the demonic, over-sized lizards was only small at half a dozen, but after hours of constant onslaught from the gate, the guards had fallen to either exhaustion, wounds or death. The captain and his last man could not hold the beasts back, and so they turned tail and ran down the hill, towards the encampment. "Gods be willing that there is someone there to help us fend these beasts off!" The lone guardsman panted to his captain as they ran, terror clear in the young Redguard's eyes. The Captain could not answer, but sent a silent prayer to the Divines. His only job was to protect these citizens, and he would die trying. Hopefully this head start would give them an advantage... or more swords.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

@Stitches

No problems there. All we ask is that character's have a viable and realistic reason to be able to survive in the wilds and planes of Oblivion that we'll be stepping into - or at the very least, have a reason forgoing into such places without having said survival skills. If your friendo is making a mentor/protecting role, that's fine by us. Especially if your character is still offering something useful to the group, like Alchemy.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

@Stitches
Aha, yeah, the IC has been going a bit slower than I had first anticipated or hoped - entirely the fault of the GMs, but we're learning from our mistakes. We've been active for 5 months or so, but the introductory mission hasn't been concluded yet.

I was planning on having a "Level-Up" as soon as the fellows within the Oblivion Gate had vacated it - but just the ones involved in the closing of the gate, in that instance. Anyone on the outside will level up at a different time, as their character's will have seen far less action. The GMs will decide on what skills a character has to level up in, and perhaps even offering an additional skill slot for them to place something new that their character has discovered. For example, after this gate has closed, a character who killed most of their enemies with a bow, will be offered a level up in the Marksman skill - because they've used it a lot in an alien environment, with alien foes, making it one large learning curve in that particular area. Or alternatively, we may create a skill along the lines of "How to Survive the Deadlands 101", for someone to gain a Novice skill in. Not to be worded as that, but you get the idea. Hopefully, haha.

As for how often we'll allow a skill to level up - it won't be *very* often. Probably after every pivotal quest/battle. Otherwise everyone would be a Master in everything pretty quickly.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

@Lauder

Frizan's character Uzka, Lucius' character Malakaus, and Norschtalen's character Rinori.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

@Stitches

There certainly is room - feel free to submit a CS!

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

@Lucius Cypher@Frizan@Norschtalen@Lauder

To keep you fine folks interested in this longer-than-I-anticipated campaign in the Deadlands, I'm going to have a bunch of enemies break through the front lines of defence in Kvatch for your character's to do something. It'll give you a chance for some die-based combat, and get your characters interacting with each other while you're waiting for the rest of the group to finish the job. Or die. One or the other. XD Expect the post for tomorrow at the latest. As for everyone else, please get to posting if you haven't started already - we need to get this wrapped up quick. Once we have the key, we still have another round of enemies on the top floor to get through.

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Crimson Skies

In case y'all were confused on what to do next about this pesky locked door, there's a door leading to another tower, via a very high up, narrow and rail-less bridge that may hold the key. If your character's aren't keen on heights, I wouldn't recommend them volunteering to check it out. Don't worry though, those who stay behind will have something to keep them entertained. The dice will decide what exactly they encounter. >:)

Middle-Earth: The Fifth Age

@Archangel89

Thanks for checking in anyway! Oh, and congrats! :D