Middle Earth Campaign Setting (4e Campaign Setting)/Eä; The World That Is
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Eä; The World That Is
Eä IS the name of the world that was created by Ilúvatar and the Ainur at the beginning of time. The landscape has changed greatly over the ages, crafted by the Valar and damaged by Morgoth. The centre of Eä is Middle Earth, the setting of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and is the landmass most familiar to us. Middle Earth contains Mordor, as well as Gondor, Rohan and Arnor, the lands of Men, Fangorn forest, Lórien and Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. Middle Earth is inhabited by all of the Free Peoples; Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits and Men.
To the north-west of Middle Earth is Beleriand, a land ruined at the end of the First Age of the Sun and sunk at the end of the Second. Within Beleriand are places of legend; the fair hidden city of Gondolin, Doriath and Nargothrond. Beleriand is the setting of tales such as the Tale of Beren and Lúthien.
Situated in the Great Sea to the west of Middle Earth lies Númenor, the island-kingdom of Men. Númenor was created at the start of the Second Age of the Sun and destroyed by flood along with Beleriand at the end of the Second Age of the Sun.
Finally, further west than Númenor are the Undying Lands, the land of the Valar that left the world even as Númenor sank at the end of the Second Age of the Sun.
Contained within this chapter is an overview of these lands, presenting potential adventuring sites, and the places that the Free Peoples make their homes:
- Regional Benefits: Benefits that a character from each region can claim, including regional languages and skills, and a list of regional feats that a character can select.
- Knowledge and Lore: Information that a character from a region may know about that region.
- Features and Settlements: Descriptions of places and settlements in the region.
- People and Adventurers of the Region: An overview of the people and adventurers that call a region home.
Middle Earth
At the centre of Eä is the continent of Middle Earth, a place that has been the setting of many legends such as the Last Alliance and the fall of Sauron.
From the First Age of the Sun at the Awakening of Men, Middle Earth has been a continent populated by both Elves and Men, but in the Third Age of the Sun, the dwindling Elves began to forsake Middle Earth, which was to become the land of Men, for the Undying Lands of their kin from whom they had become sundered.
Middle Earth was to the west of Aman, the Undying Lands, separated from it by the Great Sea Belegaer, until Aman was removed from the world at the sinking of Númenor. Middle Earth is split by the Misty Mountains that run from north to south; concealed within the mountains is the legendary dwarven city of Dwarrowdelf which is called Moria (or ‘black pit’) by the elves.
To the west of the Misty Mountains is the lost realm of Arnor, a land founded by Elendil, and Eriador, of which only a handful settlements remained by the end of the Third Age of the Sun, such as The Shire, Bree and Rivendell.
To the east of the misty mountains lies several realms, including Gondor, lands founded by the Dúnedain that also founded Arnor, and Rohan, the land of the horse lords. The east of Middle Earth also contains several forest-realms, such as Lórien, the golden wood, Fangorn and the largest of the three, Mirkwood.
To the east of Gondor is Mordor, the Black Land founded by Sauron in the Second Age of the Sun, and it is from here that Sauron spread his dark influence over the East, to Rhûn, Harad and Khand, the lands that surround Mordor.
This section explores these regions of Middle Earth, regions that adventurers may hail from or may wish to explore.
Languages of Middle Earth
This section summarizes the languages that are spoken in Middle Earth. A more comprehensive description of the languages of Middle can be found in The Lord of the Rings.
| Language | Race and/or Region |
|---|---|
| Adûnaic | Númenor |
| Black Speech | Mordor, orcs |
| Common | All |
| Entish | Ents |
| Haradaic | Harad |
| Khuzdûl | Dwarves |
| Logathig | Rhûn and Khand |
| Quendi | Elves of Eriador |
| Rohirric | Rohan |
| Sindarin | Elves of Lórien and Mirkwood |
Eriador
Eriador is the land between the Misty Mountains and the Sea, within which, Arnor was founded; a realm founded by Elendil in the Second Age of the Sun, only to be sundered and overrun by the orc-hordes of the Witch King of Angmar in the Third Age. For much of the Third Age Arnor was a wilderness.
Common Knowledge
Eriador once made up the Kingdom of Arnor, which was once a mighty kingdom of men, but was overrun by orcs in the Third Age of the Sun. Since then Arnor has become a largely uninhabited wilderness, inhabited largely by Rangers, men who wander the wilds.
Eriador Lore
A character knows the following with a successful skill check:
- History DC 15: Arnor was founded in the year 3320 of the Second Age of the Sun by Elendil, and it was the first kingdom of the Dúnedain in Middle Earth. Elendil was High King of all of the realms of the Dúnedain, though he sent his sons south to found Gondor.
- History DC 20: The sons of the Tenth King of Arnor split the Arnor into three realms, Arthedain, Cardolan and Rudaur. In the Third Age of the Sun, the Witch King arose in Angmar to the north of Arnor and for almost seven-hundred years made war on Arnor. By 1409, the kingdoms of Cardolan and Rudaur had fallen, and Arthedain lasted only another six centuries.
- History DC 25: During the First Age of the Sun, Eriador was inhabited by men under the influence of Morgoth, the Enemy. During the Second Age of the Sun, it was Sauron that held sway over the men of Eriador until the Dúnedain claimed Eriador and founded Arnor.
Settlements and Features
From the fourth or fifth centuries of the Third Age of the Sun, before the fall of Arnor, the capital city of Arnor was Fornost, though the city was ruined during the fall. After the fall, Arnor was largely a wilderness with once great ruins of fallen cities. A few settlements, such as the Shire, Bree and Rivendell remained after the fall of Arnor.
Barrow Downs
The lands east of the Old Forest were known as the Barrow Downs, because of the barrow graves built there. During the war with Angmar, the last of the Men of Cardolan sought refuge in the Barrow Downs, only to find the barrows inhabited by fell spirits called barrow-wights.
Bree
Bree was founded in the Second Age of the Sun by men from Dunland, and was the main village in Breeland—other villages included Combe, Archet and Stoddle. Bree was one of the few towns to be inhabited by both Men and Hobbits.
Carn Dûm
Carn Dûm was the capital of Angmar in the north of Eriador, and was inhabited by evil men who served the Witch King. Carn Dûm was later destroyed when Angmar fell to forces of Dúnedain and Elves, though the ruins of Carn Dûm would likely have remained haunted by fell spectres and shades of the witch king, as well as the remnants of the men of Angmar.
Fornost
Fornost (“North Fortress”) was the capital city of the realm of Arnor and was powerful and prosperous up to its fall in the Third Age of the Sun. Fornost was ruined in the year 1974 of the Third Age by the armies of the Witch King of Angmar, and although it was retaken in 1975, it was deserted.
The Old Forest
In the Third Age of the Sun, to the west of the Brandywine River lay the Old Forest, the last remnant of an ancient forest that once covered all of Eriador. The Old Forest was inhabited by many malevolent Tree spirits, called Huorns.
Rivendell
Built in the year 1697 of the Second Age of the Sun by Elrond the half-elf in the valley of Imladris, Rivendell is a refuge both for the elves of the fallen land of Eregion and for weary and injured travellers. Rivendell is strongly guarded by powerful enchantments, and it is virtually impossible for evil to enter the valley.
The Shire
Since the seventeenth century of the Third Age, the land west of the Brandywine river was called the Shire and inhabited by Hobbits. The shire was divided into four areas, the Four Farthings; later the Oldbucks crossed the Brandywine river and founded Buckland. With the exception of several natural disasters and the Orc raid that occurred in 2747, the Shire was a peaceful land, largely unaware of the outside world.
Weathertop
Weathertop was the common name for the ruins of the watch tower of Amon Sûl that was overrun by the forces of the Witch King in the fifteenth century of the Third Age of the Sun. The Dúnedain rangers of Arnor often use Weathertop as a lookout point, for it provides a long view of Arnor and Eriador, and thus messages left by rangers can often be found there. However, Weathertop is also easily seen from a long way away, so adventurers taking advantage of the view provided from Weathertop often attract unwanted attention.
People of Arnor
Until its fall in the Third Age, Arnor was a realm of Númenoreans who had fled from Númenor after its fall. The people of Arnor were also called Dúnedain (“Men of the West”) by the elves. After its fall, much of the inhabitants fled Arnor or were slain. Many of those from Arnor would have fled to Gondor, or possibly ended up in villages such as Bree. Those that remained were rangers who patrolled the wilderness to keep it free from orcs that might have threatened Bree and the Shire.
Adventurers
The majority of adventurers from Arnor are rangers, trained to survive in the wilds of Arnor so that they may keep the servants of The Enemy away. Those that are not rangers often multiclass into ranger, or are trained in wilderness survival to some extent, and are often being called ‘ranger’ in title if not in class. Many adventurers from Arnor seek to help reunite the fallen kingdom, reserving a special hatred for orcs, trolls and fell spirits as it was such creatures that laid the Arnor of old low.
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