Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-25604636-20151019154404/@comment-50.185.4.25-20160703043436

Lost Road has Numenoans using steel bows that can shoot for several, if not more, leagues. Basically seven miles. (Far beyond the range of modern rifles). There's also a post from someone from spacebattles. Here it is:Actually, ME does not need divine intervention.

Consider the following: The Lost Road said:'Our ships go now without the wind, and many are made of metal that sheareth hidden rocks, and they sink not in calm or storm; but they are no longer fair to look upon.Click to expand...On first glance this reads as a description of a modern ship, albeit with heightened durability.

However, this might not be fully engaging with the text.

One of the stars in the sky of Middle Earth is actually a man-made vessel named Vingilótë. It was built and piloted by father of the first King of Numenor. It would be very strange if the Númenóreans did not posses the same requisite shipbuilding knowledge and skills as their direct ancestor. It stands to reason then that with all their superlative qualities the ships so described aren't ocean-going...but interstellar.

Immediately we can correct several false assumptions. "Hidden rocks" does not refer to reefs or geological formations but celestial debris such as asteroids. Even in unexpected collisions which obviate any kind of bracing or preparation a Númenórean starship is expected to "sheareth" such obstacles, defined as a cutting or scissoring action, so at minimum their hulls are impressively well constructed''. We also realize that "storms" would refer to various stellar phenomena such as solar eruptions.'' The Lost Road said:Our towers grow ever stronger and climb ever higher, but beauty they leave behind upon earth.Click to expand..."Beauty they leave behind on earth"

Interstellar warships need to be serviced and, clearly, it's only logical that the Númenóreans mastered the construction of orbital elevators and space stations. Thankfully, we don't need to guess since that is precisely what is suggested by this passage. Towers reaching into orbit, leaving beauty behind in the atmosphere. The Lost Road said:We who have no foes are embattled with impregnable ''fortresses - and mostly on the West. ''Click to expand...The only thing to the West other than open water are explicit deities, the Valar, of enormous powers, whose mere servants can casually sink continental landmasses as collateral damage of their fighting. The clearly intended implication is that these defenses are designed to protect the island from the aforementioned. We can infer a great deal from the fact that despite having full awareness of the nature of their intended enemy, the narrator has confidence that those fortresses are impregnable. The Lost Road said:Our arms are multiplied as if for an agelong war, Click to expand...For reference an Age is a specific unit of time in Middle-Earth, varying quite roughly from anything in the ballpark of 500 years to several millennia. Arms "multiply" in preparation for a conflict of such epic duration, implying an enormous industrial capacity. The Lost Road said:But our shields are impenetrable,Click to expand...The phrase here provides some excellent clues as to the aforementioned durability of Númenórean ships and defensive structures, as well as all of their fighting forces by extension. Perhaps it's not merely good metallurgy that allows their ships to cut apart asteroids, but forcefields of some kind. Taken more literally, this could refer merely to physical shields which would nevertheless be difficult to deal with. The Lost Road said:our swords cannot be withstood,Click to expand...We can also read this to literally refer to a handheld sword, but it's clear that these two phrases are a suggestive rhetorical flourish pertaining to the entire Númenórean arsenal. Sword and shield as imagery are commonly used in the English language as a metaphor for general military capability. Even in the case that these are really melee weapons, this will likely be cold comfort to modern armies frustrated by enemy immunity to their weapons. The Lost Road said:our darts are like ''thunder and pass over leagues unerring. ''Click to expand...One could interpret this as a rhetorical reference to railguns or cruise missiles with the "thunder" of sonic booms, but in context, the narrator may well be speaking in a more straightforward fashion. What this sentence really means in my opinion is particle guns. Their effect would directly resemble literal thunder and lightning. The stated accuracy can obviously pass without comment.

If we end up fighting the Numenoreons, we are to put it colloquially, screwed. Game over man, game over!