Ancient Items

“	... they could now see that many bones were lying, and among them were broken swords and axe-heads, and cloven shields and helms. Some of the swords were crooked: orc-scimitars with blackened blades.	”
–The Fellowship of the Ring, The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm

Ancient items are pieces of remains that can be scavenged from certain blocks in the Dead Marshes. They can be used to make a piece of armour or a weapon from any of the seven main factions that fought in the Battle of the Last Alliance.

Upon obtaining an item crafted out of ancient parts, the player gains the achievement "Archaeologist".

Obtaining[]

Ancient items have a chance of dropping upon digging remains in the Dead Marshes. This can be either a piece of ancient armour plate, an ancient sword hilt, blade, or tip. However, is it worth the risk?

Uses[]

The pieces of ancient armour plate can be crafted into ancient pieces of armour, using the normal recipe for armour pieces. An ancient sword can be crafted using the ancient blade, hilt and tip pieces, using the recipe shown below. To make an ancient dagger, simply use the same recipe but without the 'blade' piece.

Once picked up, the item must be right-clicked to turn it into a random piece of armour, a sword, or a dagger from Mordor, Gondor, Arnor, Durin's Folk, Lindon, Rivendell, Lothlorien, or the Woodland Realm. These were the factions that fought outside the Black Gate at the end of the Second Age; a battlefield that then became the Dead Marshes. The state of durability of the item varies.

This is the only type of armour that can not be worn, nor put on an armour stand. Other than the Sword of Command, this is the only type of weapon that doesn't actually do more damage than a fist [1 ()], and can not be put on a weapon rack.

Modifier[]

In the past, the items could also be enchanted but this is no longer the case. Now these weapons have a good chance of having the Wraithbane modifier which makes the weapon able to hurt dead marsh wraiths.

In the experiment, 122 ancient swords were crafting, of which 19 have gotten the modifier "Wraithbane". So, the approximate probability of a unique modifier is 15.5%.