"These blades were forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse; they were foes of the Dark Lord, but they were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dûm in the Land of Angmar..." - The Lord of The Rings
Many hundreds of years before the adventures of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, before Aragorn and the Quest of the Ring, the Shire and its surrounding lands were ruled over by the greatest Kingdom of Men ever seen to the East of the Sea: the Kingdom of Arnor. After the fall of the Dark Lord Sauron at the Battle of the Last Alliance, it seemed as if the peace in these lands would last forevermore.
Yet it was not so. For in the cold, dreary lands of Angmar, a new shadow began to stir; one only known as the Witch-King of Angmar. Orcs and all manner of wicked things began to creep from that cursed vale, and within but a few years, ruin fell upon the lands of Arnor that could scarcely have been imagined. The land split into three Kingdoms; brother turned against brother, blight and pestilence struck the land. The great watchtower of Amon Sul, which had long stood watch over the land with its seeing stones, was destroyed as hundreds died. It seemed even the might of the Elves could not quell this new devilry.
Yet the Arnor capital, Fornost, stood against this rising tide of evil; for this is where your story begins. As one of the Dunedain rangers, you must explore the sundered lands of Arnor to save your Kingdom before it falls utterly to the devices of the enemy. Though be on your guard, for the lands of Arnor still lie uncharted, and you may meet both friend and foe alike. Whispers tell of things that creak beneath ancient trees, eerie dirges that rise from beneath long forgotten tombs and of a mysterious old man, hooded and cloaked, that could change the fortunes of even the most doomed...
Features
-Rather than "leveling up", this story will instead provide all bonuses and gameplay through artifacts and items. So whilst a regular RPG might say "You have reached level 2! Here are 5 points you can put into a stat, and a buff that gives you 2 damage to Orcs!", instead, this story will give you named items that you will be able to switch with each other, giving a much more personal and impactful way of progressing that ties back into the story. Further, while you can acquire nearly every single item in one playthrough, it is reccommended that you focus on items of a certain Class Type, for this will be a much easier and more immersive way of playing. As Rangers do not use armour, you will instead have to find other ways of restoring your Amdir ("Hope"), such as with herbs like "athelas".
-A true open world; great care has been taken to ensure that this open world is as free and traversable as possible, as well as including many details from the lore. The lore for this story comes from Tolkien's books Unfinished Tales, The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit, though a great deal of inspiration has come from the video games "The Battle For Middle Earth II", which did provide a helpful overview of the story through cutscenes, and The Lord of the Rings Online.
- The lands of Arnor are on the brink of disaster, and as such, the paths you choose and the treasure you find, matter more than ever before, and what you do in one part of the Kingdom may have great effects where you least expect them. Plenty of folk across the land are kept safe from things that would make their blood run cold by the Rangers, and while Fornost remains, you ought not allow evil to go unchecked.
-Death is not the end. Unlike most games, when you are defeated in battle, the story does not end there. For there are other forces at work in Middle Earth besides the will of evil.
-A day-night cycle. Be wary if you stay out too long into the night, for there are fouler things than Orcs in the dark places of the world...
- Mysteries of Middle Earth. Do not be afraid to explore the lands. For while you can complete the story without doing so, in order to uncover the whole story of the lands of Arnor, and of the histories behind your friends and foes, you will need to travel off the beaten path...
Author's Note: I have really tried to improve my prose for this story, as well as to focus on things that people liked about some of my previous stories. I have tried to tie much of the gameplay and combat to the "day-night" cycle as I really like the pseudo-emergent/survival elements it adds to the story. Also, while I have taken great care to keep true to the lore, some aspects have been changed slightly to work with the gameplay features (Most notably, the time it takes to travel between locations is greatly reduced, and the bounds of Rhudaur in the "Map Location" have been extended slightly to the West to encompass Bree-Land.) This game has been tested many, many times and I cannot find any bugs, yet nor can I guarantee that it will be bug free, owing to the scale and scope.
