The Forsaken Inn

[Falenthal]

Am I missing something?

There was trouble away in the South, and it seemed that the Men who had come up the Greenway were on the move, looking for lands where they could find some peace. The Bree-folk were sympathetic, but plainly not ready to take a large number of strangers into their little land. One of the travellers, a squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow was foretelling that more and more people would be coming north in the near future. 'If room is found for them, they'll find it for themselves. They've a right to live, same as other folk,' he said loudly.

That's always spoke to me of a refugee situation. Of course, it would come in waves, and the Southern folk here in the Inn might well be from Dunland instead of Gondor. But there's clearly something going on by the time of the War, and it's pretty easy to say that there might be some foreshadowing of it before then.

I always understood this men came from Dunland. As Saruman is flaming the hearts of Dunledings to go to war, and probably orcs and wolves are seen more often prawling their lands, the dunland tribes that are more peaceful, who don't trust Saruman, who just want to farm their land and herd their cattle and don't feel or understand the need to go to war with the military strong rohirrim, this would (in my eyes) conform the refugees groups that flee to Bree. From what I know, the Bree-landers are themselves part dunleding (although from a very far past), so a bit of knowledge or legends among the dunledings of ancestors who went north looking for a promised land might not be far fetched.
Saruman, of course, taking profit of the situation, would send some of his spies among the refugees, so that the bigger group hide the few "bad-eyed fellas".

I had never imagined those refugees to be gondorians.

[Aeglosdir]

Anyway I gather we are speaking about an exodus of the time when Minas Ithil fell and became Minas Morgul (2000 T.A.)

Not quite that early. There is this in the Appendices:

2901 Most of the remaining inhabitants of Ithilien desert it owing to the attacks of Uruks of Mordor.

It's true that we do not know where they went and we do not know where the people fleeing troubles in the South came from.

Forlong was a pre-Númenórean name of unknown meaning (unless you visit the archives). I'm guessing that the aboriginal languages spoken in the White Mountains were related to those spoken across the Gap in Dunland. Many common names in Gondor were probably old names adapted to Sindarin phonology, like 'Forlong'.

[zedturtle]

Relevant? http://www.scrivler.com/advice/press-re ... -refugees/

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I guess it's something that I first 'learned' as a youth, reading the passage I quoted and then looking at the timeline. 2+2=4 and not realizing that it was part of two different math problems.

That said, Dunland refugees still help explain the potential growth around the Forsaken Inn, for those who want it to be so.

[Glorelendil]

"Most of the remaining inhabitants desert..." suggests that the exodus has been going on for a while.

Ithilien refugees may not be canon, but it neither conflicts with canon nor is it illogical. Ithilien is lovely but it's a little sliver of land, and Sauron has recently returned. Eriador is massive and mostly deserted. Those seem to be prime conditions for...maybe not refugees but definitely migrants/settlers. The only thing illogical anthropologically (but perfectly fine in a fictional world) is that more settlers hadn't already arrived.

[Stormcrow]

I always understood this men came from Dunland.

This has always been my understanding as well. Men from Ithilien would flee to the southern vales of the White Mountains in Gondor.

[Glorelendil]

That was always my assumption as well, but I think Zed has come up with an interesting and valid twist to that story.

Sometimes the best story isn't the most likely one, at least on the surface. For instance, sending a Hobbit to carry Sauron's ring into Mordor. The trick is then convincing the reader (or the player) that it is in fact the most likely one.

[MattG]

Thanks much for this topic Zed and others! The ideas and insight will come in handy for our game.

[Elmoth]

I never understood how Eriador was so void of inhabitants. or middle earth as a whole, really. The sahara has a larger population per square mile than ME. It should be a massive forest all around if this was the case...

[Otaku-sempai]

I never understood how Eriador was so void of inhabitants. or middle earth as a whole, really. The sahara has a larger population per square mile than ME. It should be a massive forest all around if this was the case...

The population of Eriador took some major hits in the Third Age:
- The invasions of Angmar beginning in 1409, culminating in the fall of Arthedain in 1974.
- The Great Plague of 1636-37 devastated Harad, Gondor and Eriador.
- The Long Winter of 2758-59 strongly affected both Eriador and Rohan.
- The Fell Winter of 2911 which was followed by severe flooding the following year.

The distant East and Far Harad might have had fairly large populations of Men. But if those populations were not united under Sauron, if they were fractured and at war with one another, then he might have been able to use them as effectively as he might have wished.

[Elmoth]

All impacts are either in the really far past or half a century away. More than 300 years since the last really important hit (plague) since the winter takes down a few people, but not THAT many.

Basically it means that people in Eriador almost never have sex. And that the demographics as described would mean that forests should be way more general. If it was so void of human activity it is strange that other creatures (orcs) have not taken a strong hold of the land. Nobody has (no humans, orcs or nature), and this is the weird thing about the area. Well, about the whole of ME, really. it is a little bit too empty as it is described.