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A Light from the Shadow (Tolkien CKII)

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State of the Kingdom
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    • State of the Kingdom

    Ah Moria, Khazad Dum, it's quite a mess really. Orcs are not the best caretakers of the ancient dwarven home and many levels and circles lay in ruins, barely usable and destined to remain to be so for centuries. Still home is home now you have decided on cohabitation with the Children of Aulë. You have divided handily the ancient kingdom in two parts.

    The Dwarves will dwell in the Levels who spread above the great gates. For the moment they are barely enough to occupy a third of the first but are determined to repair the whole complex to give it again its former splendor. Even with the new arrivals you think they won't number more than two thousand permanent residents, a drop in the great darkness below the mountain.

    The Orcs under your direct command are not even as numerous. Several hundred disseminated in three villages in the Deeps who spread below the great gates. You don't know if the villages were originally segregated by caste but that what happenened and so each place has its own population.

    Karindun is the highest of them and the most populated but its inhabitants are small and nimble and not very strong. They are called snaga by the others and eke an existence in the darkness below the earth without seeing the sun they hate by instinct. They farm mushrooms and eyeless fishes they sell or give to the others members of their tribe: 500 Snagas

    Hyrald at the middle contain much larger Orcs and they are primarly warriors and hunters. What do they hunt? Each other or other creatures that haunt the depths of the earth while mining for metal and mithril. They are the best armed and armored but depends on the Snaga for their constant supply of food : 300 Orc

    Gashburtz is the lowest and the closest to your old resting place. Its inhabitants were devastated by the battles of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs for they were Uruks, stronger and faster and destined to the battlefield. Yet their proximity with your terrible presence changed them as did their relatively pure bloodlines. They serve as priests and shamans to the two others groups forming a tightly knit ruling class You wonder if they could change again if they stayed near you: 100 Uruks, 10 of them with enough Elvish blood to become magicians.
     
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    • @Night_stalker
    Galadriel: You do remember I'm one of the last Calaquendi in the world and the light of Aman lives in my hair. I fear only Sauron.
    Celeborn: (cowering in a corner): Honey don't antagonize the Valarauka. Unlike you, the kingdom is not fireproof.
     
    ganonso said:
    @Night_stalker
    Galadriel: You do remember I'm one of the last Calaquendi in the world and the light of Aman lives in my hair. I fear only Sauron.
    Celeborn: (cowering in a corner): Honey don't antagonize the Valarauka. Unlike you, the kingdom is not fireproof.
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    Hey, it'd be worth it to have her reacting to the idea of a friendly Balrog.

    Plus the poor border guards at the sight of us approaching.
     
    Yep most Orcs today are descended from Men. And in the Tolkien Legendarium a single mortal ancestor is enough to make you mortal. The ten probable sorcerers you have are long lived but not immortal (compared to the rest of the kingdom who are not long lived at all) and possibly have a bit of Boldog blood as well.

    True immortal Orcs are very rare, I would deem the last elves corrupted by Melkor were destroyed in the Fall of Angband if not before.
     
    ganonso said:
    Shit, just seeing the Timeline.

    Count another butterfly, Thrain II who has the map of Erebor and the First Dwarven Ring is still alive, kicking and in charge of your new neighbors.
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    Hmm, I wonder if we could, if we had the opportunity, reverse engineer the dwarven ring, and see if we can use such to understand how the rings interact with eachother? If we understood the mechanism by which the rings work, it could be possible to create a new system free of Saron's taint.
     
    I don't think anyone would trust magical rings ever again.
     
    The Rings are tainted by nature even the Three for they were created by the arts of Sauron and his command of the Discord. I reserve the full explanation for if you seek to examine Durin's ring but I will say this.

    The Jewellers of Eriador laboured years uncounted to create items able to reverse the Fading of the Elves and for their arts they created but baubles until Sauron came to them. The goal of the Rings, to hold back the march of time, to reverse the disappearance of the Firstborn and stop history, is sinful and go against Eru's Will.
     
    The Silmarils are creations of purity that were made without intent for mechanical effect, and they ended up being the cause of the world being broken countless times.

    The Rings of Power are not creations of purity made without an intended purpose, and only cause less strife because they are not publicly known enough to be coveted and fought over.

    Plus they're of Discord.

    No rings.
     
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    ganonso said:
    The Rings are tainted by nature even the Three for they were created by the arts of Sauron and his command of the Discord. I reserve the full explanation for if you seek to examine Durin's ring but I will say this.

    The Jewellers of Eriador laboured years uncounted to create items able to reverse the Fading of the Elves and for their arts they created but baubles until Sauron came to them. The goal of the Rings, to hold back the march of time, to reverse the disappearance of the Firstborn and stop history, is sinful and go against Eru's Will.
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    But we could use Durin's Ring for good technically just as say Galadriel used her ring to cast down the walls of Dol Guldur. Of course convincing Thrain to lend it to us could prove difficult.
     
    No Rings please. Sauron contaminated all of them. Besides, I doubt Nienna would like the idea of us using or making said Rings.
     
    Infrastructure.

    Infrastructure.

    Infrastructure.

    We should teach the snaga better farming and fishing. The more food they have, the more numerous they will grow. Our first priority is educating them in superior techniques, and then in machines and clever devices to make those technqiues more efficient. Teach their children, and teach their children to have a love of learning and knowledge and cleverness and they will one day surprise even us.

    Use the uruk priests and shamans to get them onboard with this new education program, and we can even instil a love of clever things in the uruks by osmosis.
     
    Professor Vesca said:
    Infrastructure.

    Infrastructure.

    Infrastructure.

    We should teach the snaga better farming and fishing. The more food they have, the more numerous they will grow. Our first priority is educating them in superior techniques, and then in machines and clever devices to make those technqiues more efficient. Teach their children, and teach their children to have a love of learning and knowledge and cleverness and they will one day surprise even us.

    Use the uruk priests and shamans to get them onboard with this new education program, and we can even instil a love of clever things in the uruks by osmosis.
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    Technically there is already a group of orcs that likes machines and innovation... torturers.:D
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Technically there is already a group of orcs that likes machines and innovation... torturers.:D
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    " It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help."
     
    I think the technological aspect is not important in the beginning. Teaching them that the free people of Middle Earth are not food and that Sauron is not their god might have priority.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    I think the technological aspect is not important in the beginning. Teaching them that the free people of Middle Earth are not food and that Sauron is not their god might have priority.
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    Such teachings would fall on deaf ears, so long as the free peoples distrust them. They should be allowed to defend themselves, from those who do not know them and who would wrong them out of habit. Such things would take time, and so long as they dwell beneath the mountain, our word will be enough. They dont need to like the dwarves, just obey our command to leave them be. lets get their numbers up, and they will understand that peaceful living is itself a form of cleverness. Why fight, when you can trade instead?

    An easy way the great enemy has to turn us from our path is to use the existing prejudices of the free peoples against us. To show our wards their 'generosity' and undermine our work.

    But I don't think it's something that needs to be addressed right now. Let's get their feet under them first and then we can work on that.
     
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    Actually rereading the thread I have a question. Why this quest is so popular among all those I started.

    It's not the fandom or the level of power of the character because my other quest starring Sauron is not half that long.
    It's not the regularity of updates because sincerely it's the same pace than my other quests.
    So why?

    It was your useless trivia GM question time. We're returning now to our scheduled program
     
    It's an interesting concept, and one that hasn't been done before afaik. This allows it to attract a lot of people for what they think will be a very fun run so long as it keeps going.
     
    Dunno. Don't see many quests about Maia not Umaia, and less so Umaia redeeming themselves. That might be part of it.
     
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