Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-27462565-20161205065856/@comment-25101089-20161231100643

Dragonovith, you brought up some very interesting points. The idea of Dorwinion paying tribute to Rhûn in exchange for neutrality from Mordor is a fun one. I'm not sure how I feel about it on first reading, but it is definitely something we will consider going forward. Unfortunately there is no definitive canon answer to these questions, since so much concerning Dorwinion and the Easterlings straddles the edge of the lore, to put it generously. So, we have to come up with our own ideas and answers, and invent our own lore. But I would like to point out that, just as everything in the mod itself is a work in progress, so things in the 'meta-mod' such as original lore can also be considered unfinished and fluctuating. We might well decide on some lore for Rhûn now and then change it a year down the line, and amend the mod to reflect that. Indeed, Professor Tolkien did much the same with many aspects of the lore, all throughout his life, so it's good enough for us. In such 'meta' matters, you dudes (the community) are particularly useful. As far as Dorwinion is concerned, our conception of them was as a mostly neutral mercantile state. They trade with peoples far and wide: Gondor, the Northmen, Wood-elves, the 'civilised Easterlings' of Rhúnaer, who were always planned in some form (Golden Ford waypoint) and others. Being neutral, they would have no enemies, and this is made possible by their value in resources and craftsmanship: why would a trade partner seek to attack them if it means they will lose the trade? And so it is: prosperity begets contentment, and contentment begets... perhaps a bit too much contentment. Even in the last days of the Third Age, when rumours start to appear in Dorwinion, rumours of unrest across the Sea, Wainriders and worse marching along the East Road, and Rhúdel massing its armies for an invasion... such fearmongering nonsense would be quickly discarded by the wise majority, and those who spread it encouraged to stop and remember how the world really works. The Easterlings are our friends! We send wine to them, and they repay us in gold and trinkets. Why would they consider to risk upsetting all of that? Remember, Rhúdel are nothing like those uncivilised Wainriding hordes - no, we have the Vintner Guard to defend us when those savages come raiding, and even that doesn't happen too often. And despite their naïvete, they might even be right, but for the other forces at work in the world besides bread and circuses. Of course, the presence of the Avari complicates matters. While Sauron may see fit to allow Dorwinion to exist as a neutral Mannish state with ties to his underlings, he would certainly not be content to do the same with Elves. The Eye gazes upon more than just grapes and wine, and the Elves of Dorwinion may yet unwittingly bring doom upon their mortal friends. And I think that there exists a certain amount of tension in the Land of the Young between its human inhabitants and the Elves. Certainly nothing close to open hostilities, but a degree of healthy distrust. The Vintner-Court in my imagination is the head of Mannish authority, and the centre of vintner culture, with its guards and mercenaries and traders and nobles and wine-tasters. Perhaps even something of a jewel in the way of arts and sciences. The Elves would partake in all of this, for their part, but they would also keep themselves to themselves; a sort of shadow state alongside the Mannish structures of power. For the Avari may live and trade with Men, but as with all Elves, ultimately they are of a higher kind, and a law of nature unto themselves. And if in Dorwinion some Men mistrust the Elves, far more would Rhúdel fear the Avari. There are many superstitions among the Men in that land regarding Elves, I think, just as the Rohirrim tell their tales of Dwimordene and the perilous Lady of the Wood. Certainly, Sauron would not miss an opportunity to play on such enmities as a means of slowly fuelling the fires of war. Enough tales of logging parties vanishing in the Eryn Caran, or men stumbling home with poisoned arrows sticking out of their arms and terrible dark spells put upon them by forest-sprites (in truth, no doubt, manufactured by Khamûl) or rumours of Elves conspiring with vintners to poison the wine shipments to Balcamrûn... before too long, an army bedecked in gold would be marching West across the ford to lay siege to the Vinter Court and hunt down those demons of the forest. Yet, I have no doubt that if Dorwinion should come under attack, the Order of Bladorthin with their dwarf-forged spears and other Elves with their curiously absent bows would take up the call and fight side-by-side with Men to defend their friends and country. And this is what I suppose happened there during the War of the Ring. While the Wainrider-Khaganate army besieged Erebor and Dale, some more Rhúdelrim and maybe even Orcs marched into Dowinion and took it for their Overlord, under the perfectly agreeable guise of a noble cause to wipe out the troublesome Elves and expand the reaches of the glorious Khaganate. With Dorwinion being a sort of Eastern analogue to the Shire in many ways, perhaps it would be fitting that some form of Scouring transpired there during the war... or maybe not. Maybe the Easterlings just sat around and drank their tributes of wine from the occupied population. Which would, naturally, now be of far lesser quality, and maybe even laced with unpleasant Elvish herblore (in truth, this time). And then, once the War was over, the Reunited Kingdom rode in to liberate Dorwinion and 'subdue' the Easterlings, and in due course the peaceful trade resumed again - only now with the full threat of Númenórean military might to quietly encourage that Rhúdel enjoyed its wine without causing any problems. . Disclaimer: All of that is basically speculation and should not be taken for the final truth, and certainly not for canon.