Adventurer's Companion - Speculation

[Jussi Marttila]

I thought that what's said of the Dunlendings in The Two Towers is that they've been tricked by Saruman and they made peace with Rohan after the Battle of Helm's Deep. So, maybe workable.

[Falenthal]

I also think that Dunledings could be a playable cultures without many problems. Specially if the sourcebook Tale of the Years is still far ahead of the Ringwar.

[DavetheLost]

Dunlendings strike me as more likely than Woses. The latter seemed very isolationist.

Of course as LM I would welcome an indepth sourcebook on the orcs. I want to know all about orcish culture. What do orcs eat for breakfast? OK, maybe I don't actually want to know what orcs eat for breakfast.

[Terisonen]

Dunlendings strike me as more likely than Woses. The latter seemed very isolationist.

Of course as LM I would welcome an indepth sourcebook on the orcs. I want to know all about orcish culture. What do orcs eat for breakfast? OK, maybe I don't actually want to know what orcs eat for breakfast.

Themselves?

[Glorelendil]

There's a reason "eat me" never became part of Orcish slang.

[Southron]

Wasn't there a minor character in the Rohan sections of the books who mentioned he understood the Dunlendings tongue as he grew up in an area where the two cultures mixed?

[zedturtle]

Old Gamling knows the language:

'I know that tongue. It is an ancient speech of men, and once was spoken in many western valleys of the Mark...'

So there seems to have been trade between the two peoples, at least enough to keep an old tongue in use despite efforts by kings to have a standard court language. (This last bit is supposition, but not unlikely.)

[Southron]

Thanks Zed.

[Falenthal]

I don't imagine Dunledings being that different from Beornings or Woodmen, only that related to Mountains instead of to Fauna and to Forests. If the Beornings didn't have such a strong leader or the Woodmen didn't count with Radagast, would they have been able to resist the lure of the Necromancer? I think that's what happened to the Dunledings when Saruman got to them. They lacked support from any Maia or strong leader aligned with the Good, that's all. Otherwise, I don't think they're worse people than any other culture. Specially if we consider that they were driven away from their lands by the Númenóreans and later by the Rohirrim. Can't blame them for being a bit bitter with the world.

[Falenthal]

New Virtues -like The Call of Mirkwood for elves- or culture variants -like the hobbits of the Anduin- would be nice, too. This would add new flavour to some cultures.

I can imagine a Virtue for the High Elves of Rivendell called "One of the Wandering Companies" or the like. It could only be taken after the High Elf has a number of Marked Skills (or the number of ranks of his marked skills add up something), so that he decides his life in Middle-earth is coming to an end. For an elf, this could still mean that he has a few decades ahead for wandering across the lands, and he could still go on adventuring with a group. What benefits and hindraces should it have? I don't know. Maybe the elf could stop gaining Shadow from now on (he is beyond earthly life, so to say), but he could also not erase his already gained Shadow, and could also not recover Hope in any way (or maybe just via Fellowship Focus). He could gain the ability to find shelters in the wild lands (elven glades) like the refuges of the Rangers, and know elven paths that make travels easier.

Such a Virtue could fit in the hypothetical sourcebook about Grey Heavens and the Great Belegaer, as there's were all Wandering Companies head in the end.