Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-7026040-20190623221757

Hi, I am currently unaware of what is planned for content in Rhun but I have a couple of ideas based on lore we already have with the help of a bit of speculation. Feel free to discuss.

So far what I have in mind are two good factions and two evil factions, with a possible third evil faction.

The evil factions in Rhun have much more potential than the good do from what I've seen. We have Variags, Wainriders, and possibly the Balchoth.

The Balchoth were all but defeated by the Rohirrim long ago and were driven out practically to extinction, it would be very easy to explain that they merged into Rhudel with the Golden Easterlings. Otherwise, the Balchoth would live in an area right outside of Khand, properly populating that area between Khand and Rhudel. They are supposedly based on the Baloch people of Iran.

The Variags were likely closely-related to the Dunlending, so a spiritual clone of the faction wouldn't be completely unreasonable. They are the so-called swarthy men of the East, so they would be shorter (or still the same size as men to cut down on extra coding) and wielding axes, possibly being axe-throwers. They lived in Khand, so a cultural change in architecture would probably be necessary for them to be living in a place like Khand.

The Wainriders would be the fiercest of these three evil factions I feel. They are essentially Mongolians, living in steppes in tribes right east of Rhovanion, which would fill the gap that exists between Rhudel and Rhovanion in the south-west area. That would involve changing the Rhudel steppes in that area slightly however. They would have chariots, or at least very powerful horse archers and spear-throwers.

The good factions are kind of boring to work with I feel, at least with the current lore they have. We have Avari elves and Orocarni dwarves.

The Avari are more primitive than their other elvish counterparts, not working well with metals and sticking to caves and wooded areas. Potential for some kind of unique wooden armor made of bark and / or leather. It sounded like the LOTR mod is positing that the Wild Wood is alive, similarly to Fangorn and a few other wooded areas in Middle-Earth, so perhaps the addition of Ents or Huorns? A long stretch, I know.

There could be some sort of connection made between the Avari and Dark Elves, maybe? Similar to the renegade system already in place. Also a bit of a stretch.

The Orocarni Dwarves are likely similar to their Durins Folk brethren, with the exception of being incredibly greedy. The Red Mountains house 2x the minerals than any other area in Middle-Earth, so why not be greedy? Think the Gold Rush in California. Similar housing and mines as other dwarven factions.

Again I want to stress these are just some thoughts I pulled out in about an hour, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts about these suggestions. I loved how Mevans did Harad subfacs with little-to-no lore to work with, and I feel the same should be done with Easterling factions. Rhudel wasn't really enough for me :-) 