Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-26149161-20170422125738

Mae govannen, mellyn-nin. By sheer accident, I have stumbled across a hidden quote in a little-known essay, surrounding the Rivers and Beacons of Gondor. Those of you who saw my message to myself on my wall have gotten an insight into the suggestion-making process. I was reading it (being mainly an etymological discussion), when I found this quote:

 " The Men of Darkness built temples, some of great size, usually surrounded by dark trees, often in caverns (natural or delved) in secret valleys of mountain-regions; such as the dreadful halls and passages under the Haunted Mountain beyond the Dark Door (Gate of the Dead) in Dunharrow. The special horror of the closed door before which the skeleton of Baldor was found was probably due to the fact that the door was the entrance to an evil temple hall to which Baldor had come, probably without opposition up to that point.   But the door was shut in his face, and enemies that had followed him silently came up and broke his legs and left him to die in the darkness, unable to find any way out."

This historically meaningful and interesting feature would make a wonderful addition to the mod. Furthermore, it proves something else--Men of the Mountains had existed as late as the time of Baldor! Who is to say they could not have survived later, especially if there were men young and fit enough to attack him. It might also give insight into the separation of Nimrodel from her companions. Now, I would not continue with that idea without a better quote, but at the least, Men of the Mountain ruins should be vamped up due to this.

This suggestion will focus on adding temples and ruins for the Men of the Darkness, while exploring the possibility of their survival or at least long existance.



The Biome:

The ruins and temples would be found in the White Mountains and White Mountain foothills, in a special subbiome called "Shadowy Vale". These would be rare, filled with dark firs, and no Gondor beacons would spawn near them (though they shouldn't spawn in Ered Nimrais anyway).

As a side note, the White Mountains were actually black and white, according to both lore quotes and the Atlas of Middle-earth. That would help make the environment cooler and more mysterious--though little-known in lore, there are many strange legends surrounding them.



The Structure:

There would be three kinds of temple: aboveground and underground, and underground would have Natural and Mined variants.

The Aboveground Temple would be made of stone brick, or perhaps a new Men of the Mountains brick, made of black rock quarried from the Mountains. In shape, they would be similar to a jungle temple, save with an altar for sacrifices, the remains of fires for burning people, and Eye decorations.

The Underground Temple would be entered through a hole in the mountainside, and would have several twisting passages, the homes for the guards and smaller temples. At the end would be a Closed Door, which requires a faction-level pickaxe to break through. Inside would be armour, gold, and other treasures, but in the center a great cavern with an altar and Eye patterns.

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">Underground Temples would have two variants: The natural version, which looks like an adapted cave, and the mined version, which looks like a Dwarven Mine: straight and even. For further immersion, some of them could have collapsed, to show Nature does exist in Middle-earth.

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<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">The Ruins:

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">Ruins would also be found, made of MoM brick. These could be houses, low towers, graves, or whatever the Mod Team can think of.

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<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">Items:

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">To add to the immersion, the Men of the Mountains would get armor, brick, and a banner. These would be used decoratively, and they would not have weapons beyond Iron.

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">I shall make textures for the armor later, but in general they would be darkish iron and leather, with about Dunland-Rohirric strength.

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">The brick would be made of black and white brick mixed from the Mountains, and have a smoky grey color.

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">The banner, finally, would be a black and white mountain range on a grey field, with an eye. If anyone has a better idea, I am accepting.

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<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;">Thank you for reading this suggestion! As always, comments, Kudos, and constructive criticism is most welcome.

<p style="text-align:start;text-indent:0px;"> <font color="Silver">Ithilion, Discussions Moderator <font color="Silver">(Auta i lómë) 12:57, April 22, 2017 (UTC) <ac_metadata title="Temples and Remains of the Men of Shadow"> </ac_metadata>