#lotroweek

Bothering him <3 (we're the only ones in Gondor legally allowed to do this)

the girls frolicking 💖✨🌸🌼🌺

and they all just got sillier as we went on

"she's right above us isn't she?"

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DRAGONS

Ring-drakes: The fate of the dragon Lhamthanc, as depicted in Chapter 2 of my fic in their halls of stone, is inspired by LOTRO’s tale of the Ring-drakes. These were the dragons that consumed a dwarven Ring of Power, and then captured and tortured by Sauron in an attempt to recover the rings. The details of these dragons and their Rings are completely different in my fic, but I loved the concept of Sauron reclaiming the Dwarven Rings despite their dragon-y fate.

Hrímil Frost-heart: Related to the Ring-drakes, one of them in LOTRO is the fearsome dragon Hrímil Frost-heart. I stole his name and story of swallowing a Ring of Power from the game, but had him suffer a slightly different fate when he appears in Chapter 5 of in their halls of stone.

Vethúg Wintermind: Vethúg is the son of Hrímil in LOTRO. He has yet to appear in a story or edit of mine, but I fully intend to adapt his tale of attacking the Longbeard dwarves in the Grey Mountains and killing Dáin I and his son Frór when I get around to it. Additionally, while this is not a LOTRO-exclusive headcanon by any means, I also love the idea of Cold-drakes breathing ice the way Fire-drakes breathe flame; JRRT never mentioned that in any of his writings, but it’s such a cool image!

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MEN OF THE EAST & SOUTH

A huge portion of my headcanons for the Men of the East and South are influenced by LOTRO (and other Tolkien-inspired games). While I haven’t played the game and therefore don’t know all the details, the Tolkien Gateway summaries were tantalizing and inspiring!

Khundolar: One of LOTRO’s four Easterling tribes. Tolkien Gateway describes them as Men who “attack the Wold of Rohan from the Brown Lands and also fight on Sauron's side at the Battle of the Morannon.” From that, I developed the idea that they were horse-mounted warriors like the Rohirrim, and some of Sauron’s main Easterling servants.

Jangovar: Another of LOTRO’s four Easterling tribes. TG describes them as Men who “attack Dale and the Lonely Mountain in the north, and after Sauron's defeat the remainder of that army continues to linger in those lands.” I decided that they were probably closely situated to that area: thus, I picked the Sea of Rhûn to be their base, and made them sailors also.

Sûhalar: Another of LOTRO’s four Easterling tribes. TG describes them as Men who are “shorter in stature and armed with axes, to the point where some mistake them for dwarves” and says that “their armies participate in the Siege of Minas Tirith.” Drawing on the dwarf comparison, I decided they would dwell in the mountains, and have rumors of part-dwarven ancestry (which the dwarves strenuously deny). However, their main overlord for generations is not Sauron himself, but one of his Úmaia underlings, Túvon. (Túvon is adapted from the proto-Sauron character Thû; he appears prominently in this post, and in my fics in their halls of stone and “The Path of Dreams.”) I also made up a headcanon about aspec Sûhalar warriors that you can read about here!

Chayasír: The last of LOTRO’s four Easterling tribes, the Chayasír are described by TG as the only group who do not serve Sauron; they are “craftsmen and tradesmen with no love for Sauron and take no part in the War of the Ring.” I decided that they were closest in kin to the Khundolar, Sauron’s strongest supporters, and that one of Sauron’s earliest moves in the East was to divide the two groups so they’d be easier to control, which worked when it came to the Khundolar if not the Chayasír (who were probably the less populous group to begin with). Additionally, I decided that the Khundolar-Chayasír people would be descendants of the same group where Bór and Ulfang’s people originated from.

Tolkien Gateway continues:

“However, on the same day when the One Ring was destroyed, an unknown calamity had taken place in Rhûn, and in the weeks afterwards streams of Chayasír refugees begin arriving into the Iron Hills and the Dale-lands. The men and dwarves of those lands had only just won a bloody war against the Easterlings and hold a great deal of both prejudice and outward hostility towards them, despite the Chayasír seeing themselves as having nothing in common with the Jangovar who fought in that war. None of the refugees would speak in detail about what exactly had happened in Rhûn, other than it is absolutely impossible for any of the Easterlings, soldiers of refugees, to go back.”

This whole situation is quite interesting to me: I decided it was a final curse of Sauron upon them and their lands that forced them to leave, in retribution for “betraying” him; it could be many other things, but this one has an element of mystery and magic to it which could explain why they’re reluctant to talk about it. In my edit series, I elaborate that “their crops withered before their eyes, the corpses of their dead rose from their graves, and the earth shook beneath their feat” as “remnants of [Sauron’s] Shadow seeped out of their lands as a living curse.”

In my headcanon, Aragorn in his kingliness intervenes on their behalf, and I moved them to the Desolation of Smaug, which is a shitty piece of land no one else wanted, but they’ll be okay in the long run. This is in contrast to the other three tribes of Easterlings, who come together after their leader is vanquished, and pull themselves together much faster. Sometimes saying “fuck you” to evil is worse for you than if you’d gone along with it...but I imagine the Chayasír are proud they refused Sauron’s service. I see them as pretty cool people with a strong moral code.

Khand: While much of my worldbuilding for Khand and its people is original, I did borrow some details from the Middle-earth Role-playing Game and, of course, LOTRO. Tolkien Gateway’s summary of the Variags in LOTRO was a major inspiration for my depiction of them as mercenaries not driven by hatred or loyalty, but rather by practicality and commerce. However, both myself and LOTRO were pointed in that direction by the real-world origin of the word “Variag,” a term of Slavic origin meaning “mercenary.”

Harad: For my Haradrim headcanons, I borrowed a lot of names and ideas from other Tolkien-inspired games, and not so much from LOTRO. Still, I did nab the terms “High Sorcerer” and “Forsaken Reaver” as titles for two of my Nazgûl from Harad.

Corsairs of Umbar: Tolkien Gateway summarizes LOTRO’s Corsairs thusly:

The Corsairs were led by four brothers who falsely call themselves the Heirs of Castamir. These were Azruthor, Dolgimil, Azgarzôr, and the eldest Balakhôr the Scourge. The player negotiated with a Corsair named Jajax, who ended up siding with the player against the Heirs and their followers.

I use the names Azruthôr, Dolgimil, and Azgarzôr, but I apply them to some Lords of Umbar who founded the Corsairs, including Sanghyando, who is truly a descendant of Castamir. Balakhôr, however, I do incorporate as the leader of the Corsairs at the time of the War of the Ring, though I scrap the bit about him being an Heir of Castamir. As for Jajax, he didn’t make the cut.

Mouth of Sauron: This character’s backstory is convoluted, and in my headcanons I tried to incorporate as many versions as I could—including the name “Dulgabêth” from LOTRO! I use it less as a name and more as a title.

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ROHAN & GONDOR

Frumgar’s wife: According to Tolkien Gateway, LOTRO depicts the Rohirrim-ancestor Frumgar as being “partially motivated by his wife (whom I name Sunngifu) being killed in an Orc raid” to move his people north.

Fengel & Wyrgende: I haven’t actually made any stories or posts about this particular headcanon of mine, but I love the tale of Fengel’s demise from LOTRO! Tolkien Gateway summarizes it thusly:

In the last winter of his reign, King Fengel was hunting north of the Entwade when an elderly woman named Wyrgende stumbled into his camp. Fengel sent her away into the dark night and the next day she was found frozen to death at the foot of a tall boulder, in which she had carved a curse against him. King Fengel was furious and ordered Wyrgende's body burned and the stone destroyed, but no man of his company could more her, and every hammer and mattock they set to the stone shattered on contact. Fengel himself assailed the stone with his sword until the blade shattered, and a shard pierced his thigh. The wound festered, and King Fengel died of poisoned blood on the first day of Spring.

Now, “Wyrgende” is an Old English name meaning something like “given to cursing,” so I highly doubt that’s the name her mother gave her. Instead, I interpret it to be an epithet Fengel and his men bestowed upon her.

But who was she before she was Wyrgende? As a fortuitous coincidence, I had previously established Fengel’s unnamed older sister to be called Layrun. After her and Fengel’s brothers Folcred and Fastred died in the Battle of the Crossings of the Poros, their father diminished as a leader in his grief, and Layrun was no less devastated. In her own peculiar way of mourning, she retreated with a small group of followers into Fangorn Forest, where they became known as wood-witches, feared and respected by those who believed in their powers.

The Entwade is near to Fangorn, so if an old and dying Layrun heard her long-lost brother Fengel was nearby, perhaps she would have wanted to see him one last time... So: Unbeknownst to Fengel, the woman he called Wyrgende was none other than the Wood-witch of Fangorn, his own sister Layrun, who in her last days decided to test her brother’s worthiness and found him lacking.

I really ought to fic this sometime!!

Herubrand and Herefara: These are two very minor characters, Riders of Rohan, who die in the Battle of Pelennor fields. LOTRO expands upon their backstories, and while I ignore most of that, I did adopt the idea of them being father and son.

Denethor’s sisters: Denethor canonically has two unnamed older sisters. LOTRO gives them names and titles: Vanyalos, wife of Forlong and Lady of Lossarnach; and Terenis, Lady of Tumladen. However, those names are Quenya, but all the Stewards’ names are in Sindarin at this time, so I translated their names to Beniloth and Taeneth, while keeping much of the rest of their story.

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MISC.

Felegoth: Unimpressed by the lack of a name for Thranduil’s halls in canon, I borrowed LOTRO’s name “Felegoth” for this location (though I don’t think I’ve actually used it in a fic or anything). The translation is unclear; fele obviously evokes “cave” (as seen in Felegund), but goth translates to “cruel dread” (as seen in Gothmog), which doesn’t really make sense. It also reminds me of the groth in in Menegroth, but if this goth is related and just missing the R, that would make Felegoth mean something silly like “Cave of Caves”!

Lumi-väki: Since the name “Lossoth” for the Men of the Ice-bay of Forochel is somewhat derogatory, I wanted a different way to refer to them, and LOTRO provided the answer! Tolkien Gateway summarizes:

The Lossoth appear in the zone of the Ice-Bay of Forochel introduced in April 2008. The Lossoth skate on ice and push sledges, and have the ability to tame and ride to war on mammoths. Many aspects of their language, culture, and appearance seem to be derived from or inspired by that of the Finnish, Sami, and Inuit peoples. They call themselves the Lumi-väki. Their chieftain is Yrjänä, who rules from the Great Lodge of Sûri-kylä.

I borrowed these names for myself, and added some more Finnish names for my other Lumi-väki OCs. Additionally, “Sûri-kylä” seems to translate to something like “village of mourning,” so I interpreted that name to mean that Yrjänä was mourning someone and incorporated that into my headcanons.

Men of the Mountains: The King of the Mountains (later the King of the Dead) is named Rioc in LOTRO, with a daughter called Bravantal. Tolkien Gateway gives this summary: 

The King of the Dead is named Rioc. Although his men were unwilling to fight Sauron because they had worshipped him, his excuse for not honoring the oath given to Isildur was because his daughter Bravantel had an out-of-wedlock child with one of his Númenórean warriors.

I borrowed that story and those names and expanded upon them, also hinting at the concept of LOTRO’s Oath-stones:

The Stone of Erech is named Orossar and is reimagined as one of the seven Vandassari (Oath-stones in Quenya) brought from Númenor. [...] The stones had in them the power that made the oaths sworn in their presence more potent, and thus they were divided much like the palantíri (three to Arnor and four to Gondor) to make pacts friendship with the non-Dúnedain peoples of Middle-earth.

I also have plans to incorporate some more LOTRO-based place-names in my headcanons later, but nothing solid so far :)

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