Diary #1 - Forth Eorlingas
Diary #1 - Welcome to Middle Earth !
"Forth Eorlingas!"
Hello everybody, I'm Lonhaldar, one of the member of the MEP Team! I'm really glad to introduce you to our mod, and for this first diary, I propose to travel with you inside the plains of Rohan.
Before I talk about this kingdom, I want to say one or two things about the gameplay. For the War of the Rings scenario, the start date is 11362, this is because we count the dates of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ages, and a part of the Years of Trees before that. Why? Because it's a better way to make and represent some characters and dynastic trees (like the loooong family tree of Aragorn, or the characters like Galadriel/Elrond/...). A few words about the map: during the War of the Rings, there are two opposing large factions, but it's a little more complicated. At the center of the map, Rohan fights against Isengard and Dunlendings to the North West and Mordor to the East. Gondor is his powerful ally in the south, but itself in war with Mordor/Harad/Rhûn/...
But for now, maybe the best thing is to show you directly a map of Rohan.
For this map, we use the "de jure kingdoms" filter. So, a big kingdom, with 26 counties, 6 "districts" (duchy level). The titles of Marshals of Rohan aren't landed titles, but minor ones, then you could make your owns "1st Marshal of the Mark" as in the books.
I can show you what are the construction of the de jure kingdom of Rohan maybe? Hmmm... Yes, I think I could.
The kings of Rohan are the heirs of Eorl the Young who received the territory of Calenardhon from Cirion, steward of Gondor, around 500 years before the start of our bookmark. For the game, we implement the entire dynastic line of Eorl, from... Eorl to Theodred, son of Theoden.
In the War of the Rings scenario, you'll begin with Theoden obviously. Let's have a look to this character, and to a specific trait he has:
Yeah, that's Herugrim, his own sword! We implement some traits like that for specific characters/stuff, who'll increase/decrease some skills of the characters who hold them, and who could be the source of some events/decisions too.
Some important characters are here too, like Eomer and Eowyn. They're from the Eorl dynasty, because they're the sons of the sister of Theoden. So, if Theodred dies, Eomer should be the heir, and the line isn't broken.:
Nukumnehtar made a great job in the cultures file, so we've got a really great Rohanese culture, and some surprises to come, be sure of that! The Rohirrim got their own skins too, because we can't have the same helmets/crowns for Rohan and for Gondor or Hobbits !
Some events will adds some flavour to playing the game as a Rohir. But it'll be another diary I guess, I don't want to show you all our works for now !