Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-28137039-20170706135012

I jumped into this theory simply by accident. It all started when I was thinking back to when I was playing the video game "Severence: Blade of Darkness", while briefly trying to make a custom faction on a server based on the game. I was aiming to make it in the Uttermost East, but then it stuck to me to that how similar the game was to the lore of Middle Earth.

Firstly: The levels you ply on ressemble similar lores to the areas in the uttermost east (For example: deserts, mountainous regions, jungles (WIldwood or mountains of the wind forest).The Origin story of the creation of the world is too similar if not exactly the same as the creation of middle earth; The fallen angel becoming evil and creating savage and evil beasts to plague the creation (Clearly Morgoth), then banished from the world into the abyss (The void in which Morgoth is imprisoned). His servent continues to follow in his footsteps to rid the world of good (Clearly Sauron), etc. The cultures based more on asian culture, (Rhudel). Some references to tribal lifestyle (Wainriders, rhudel clansmen), and plenty of lores based on the Dwarves (Orocarni ofc). There is one problem, there are no signs of european medieval culture in the uttermost east. Or so I thought.

I saw Hatholwaith as the appropriate place to make this custom faction. With it being the only named region in the uttermost east, I wondered what was its significance. I researched on what the culture was about and their history, but all I recieved was that they were "Axe-men" and may have been pressent in the battle of the pelenor fields. My first assumption, they are clearly savage like tribesmen who have beards and pillage and raid all nearby kingdoms and civilisations. Theory done. And this is what everyone else thought too. But with all the coincidences of the link between Severence and Middle Earth, I was pretty depressed with the thought that there is no possibility that the game could not directly fit in with the lore, the puzzle piece was too bulk to fit in the hole in the Uttermost East. I was not satisfied.

I looked into these axe men and wondered how they came to be axe-men. Firstly, they have axes, which is a weapon they would have probably raided from the dwarves. But the dwarves of the orocarni most definately have a wider range of equipment than their stereotype "Axe", so surely this is not significant enough for raiders to have a nation named after axes (Hatholwaith meaning "Land of the Axe-men"). This means that these raiders must have some better source to produce a preference of axes. If it were made from stone instead of steel, this attribute is not significant enough to name a country after axes, being that these axes would be very brittle if made of stone. So that means they must be made from steel, or a range of different types of steel. In conclusion, they must have the ability to forge steel.

Forging steel requires alot of resources and careful knowlage and craftmenship to produce good enough weaponry. Thus they have mines, and a blacksmith. These structure types are signs of an advancing civilisation as the structure of a smithy and capabilities of mining means that this nation are capable of making perminant structures. So shows that they are no meet tribesmen or raiders if they can produce there own equipment. With all this, they may have a possibility of being a european medieval culture.

But the first theory was edgy and had little support. It was not enough information to assume they are medieval enough. So I looked into further research and attempted to work out the orogins of the Axe-men. I saw that they may have been pressent during the first battle of the Isen. Upon looking into it, I saw that they were described as Orc-men wielding axes. I then considerred that the Hatholrim lived too far away from Isengard to considere them part of Isengard, so I concluded that these orc-men are a separate species and are probably just a weaker form of the uruk-hai.

I then researched behind the name Hathol which is sindarin for Axe. I came accross many texts where the elves described dwarves and their axes, but I then came accross a character so named after an axe: Hatholdir. Hatholdir was a decendant of the Haldor Liniage and attempted to enter the royal kingship of Numenor. He failed however, but his so did manage to marry into the family. He bore a child who then attempted to recieve kingship, but never recieved the sceptre to become king. Hatholdir's name translates to "Man of the axe" in sindarin which I assumed he had a strong preference to axes of sorts. Or that his father (Unnamed and unnspoken of in the lores) had an axe he named his son after. Hatholdir's story is very bland and has very little lore that allows me to say much about him. It is known that he tried to enter the royal family of Numenor and was born before his grandson in the year 779 SA, but that is really all I could find about him. His son and grandson had no references at all to axes or axe-people. So I assumed I was going no where with this.

But then I looked into when Numenor landed in Middle Earth during the conquest of Eriador. What I found was truely a breath taker. The lore states that it was sometime at the year 600 SA. Looking back to when Hatholdir lived, it is known that he was around before 779 SA and highly likely to have lived beyond that (As the nobles of numenor exceeded normal ages of men). This means that like most numenoreans, Hatholdir may have taken a trip to Middle Earth to settle himself some power there and have access to more farm land etc. It is likely he may have had an affair there and recieved some illigitimate children. The children being illigitimate in a noble house is usually seen as an offence in Medieval culture, and thus the children would be outcasts, which arguably means they became black numenoreans. With the influence of their father's name, they would have travelled east into middle earth seeking acceptance and land under the name of Hatholrim (Axe-men). Eventually after generations of war between eastern wars in the attempt to claim land for their own, they would have found their homeland: Hatholwaith. This is where they resided from then on.

What really helps hear in support of my first theory, the influences of the numenorean culture (European Medieval) will make it more then suitable for the nation of the Hatholrim to succeed in achieving a culture of European Medieval. This theory would  surely prove that the piece of severence: blade of darkness is most definately based in the uttermost east of middle earth. Whoo.

So there you have it. My theory on the Hatholwaith. I hope to hear alot of feedback, and if I am not the only living person who still plays severence: blade of darkness. I'd like to see this someday to become a faction of its own. Thankyou for reading. - FroggIsMe 