Greetings,

I am putting together another chronicle. This one takes place two years after my first one.
The players will be heading southward to Minasar, the capital of Dorwinion. It is a great (for Middle Earth) cosmopolitan city where east meets west sort of like Byzantium.
I also have plans for the large island in the Sea of Rhun.

Should be fun,

Frank Frey

Sounds interesting, Frank. I look forward to hearing more about it!

I had an idea knocking around in my head of making Bard's future wife a noblewoman from Dorwinion and basing an adventure around a diplomatic trip to Dorwinion. There would be a faction opposed to the marrige and somekind of sneaky plot to stop it. Although that's as far as I got really, might go back to it one day.

What do we know about Dorwinion (other than that they make wine)?

My Tolkien's Bestiary states that Dorwinion is "of all Northmen settlements, Dorwinion is the most easterly"

Are there any canon sources describing Dorwinion?

There's very little in Tolkien's actual writing, however, the chapter Cirion & Eorl in Unfinished Tales discusses the history of the Northmen & Wainriders. I mention it because it gives you a great feel for the people (who would have shifted by the time of the War of the Ring) & the region. Some of them may have remained, intermarried, etc.

If you want to get an idea of how someone converts the ToR rules for people & hazards for your journey to Dorwinion, look for Halbarad's previous posts about his Horse Folk - you can certainly tweak them for what you're doing.

In addition, check out Tolwen's links for Other Minds - he may have something.

http://www.omzine.org/

Not yet, but the upcoming Issue will have quite a lot on that topic

Cheers
Tolwen

I figured if anyone would know of something it would be you Tolwen, & sure enough, you're going to have something in the forthcoming issue

Wasn't there a supplement for MERP called The Sea of Rhun or something? I seem to recall there being info in a supplement for the area of Dorwinion that was discussed here on the boards a while back...

Yes, MERP did release some info on Dorwinion in the Sea of Rhun supplement. Dorwinion has been mentioned several times in topics here. Drop the following into a Google Search field for a listing:

Dorwinion site:http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?trk=cubicle7&showforum=33

In my own chronicle the adventurers are adventuring down the Celduin exploring and trading as they go rather like Rus vikings navigating rapids and raids by wild easterlings. My conception from what little the Prof wrote is less of the city of Byzantium and its disparate empire but more the City states. Byzantium (micklegard- the great city)seems more like Minas Tirith - ancient, embattled but still proud. So for me Dorwinion is more culturally like the city states of the Rus (Gardaland). That would make them a cosmipolitan mix of the steppe culture of the easterlings, northmen with a venere of Gondorian civilisation over the top. Culturally I see them as northmen (following the Professor) with the other things layered on. Timbered cities each ruled by a petty king with his close retainers in a "kremlin like" citadel surounded by a larger defended city living by trade perhaps extorting tribute from the tribes men east and north, as well as by agriculture (the wine of course) due to the excelent climate. But close enought o the Dale men and Lake men for easy exchange of goods. Thats how i'm going to play it - when (and if) the adveturers survive the hazards of the journey.