Rhûn

From Realms of Arda

Type: Principal Land

Names: (S. "East"); Western Rhûn; Near East1

Location: Northwestern Lands

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Detailed Description 2.1 The Land 2.1.1 Regions of Rhûn 2.2 Flora and Fauna 2.3 The People 2.4 Items of Note 2.5 Adventures 2.6 Overview 3 References

Introduction

²Rhûn is the name given by the Dúnedain to the lands east of Rhovanion, surrounding the great Sea of Rhûn. Traditionally, these lands make up the eastern border of Northwestern Middle-earth (cf. Utter Rhûn).

Detailed Description

The Land

• Gazetteer
  • Natural Features
  • Sites of Civilization

Regions of Rhûn

• Geographical Regions
  • The Uldona Spine
  • The Inland Sea of Rhûn
  • Parta Rokantha
  • The Plains of Rhûn
  • The River Valleys of Rhûn
  • Taj-Ures
• Mannish Realms
  • Folyavuld
  • Gathod
  • Logathavuld
  • The Cairn Angle
• Other Realms
  • Eryn Rhûn (Elves)
  • Nurunkhizdín (Dwarves)

Flora and Fauna

• Flora
• Bestiary

The People

• All peoples
• Languages
• Characters

Items of Note

• All Objects

Adventures

• Adventures

Overview

³To most of the people of western Middle-earth, the land called Rhûn is shrouded in a haze of myth and rumor. It is at once the domain of mysterious cultures and mythic cities, a boundless expanse of wild plains and uncultivated lands rolling to the ends of the world, and a perfect horizon that might, at any moment be marred by an ominous smear of dust: the tell-tale sign of an approaching horde of riders. The majority of Western maps end in a great swath of tan, sometimes filled with the fanciful creatures of the artist's mind, but more often bearing only a single word: Rhûn.

To a choice few, however, Rhûn is a diverse land of tremendous opportunity, where an individual with a handful of silver coins can build an empire. These few have glimpsed the snow-capped peaks of the Pinnon Rhûn from the deck of a ship sailing the Inland Sea. They have looked down on the green valleys of Folyavuld, which the west knows as Dorwinion. They have seen the forested shore of the sea, the tall spires and glittering domes of Mistrand, and the myriad Easterling campfires dotting the great plains like stars in the night sky. To these few, Rhûn beckons; calling out to the heart of the explorer.

In actuality, the Inland Sea and its surrounding lands have from the beginning acted as a gateway between the realms of far-eastern Endor, where the Children of Ilúvatar first awakened, and the great civilizations of the west. More than any other single factor, it has been the migration of people from east to west that has shaped the history of the Inland Sea. And because Rhûn is a natural portal between the west and east, its wars have often spilt over across the borders of neighboring lands, drawing foreign powers into wider conflicts that have wrought great destruction on the lands surrounding the sea. In the instances where western and eastern peoples have fought against one another, Rhûn has been the battleground. Its people have repeatedly absorbed the damage of foreign wars and have been persecuted in the name of foreign causes, both of eastern and western origin.

Rhûn's role as passage between west and east has also been a great boon to the region, and many of the Inland Sea's cultures are organized specifically around the carrying of trade between distant lands. Though a route south through the Gap of Khand and west across the lands of Northern Harad spoils Rhûn's monopoly on the east-west trade, many is the local merchant whose purse has grown fat transporting eastern goods to western markets. Politics among the peoples of Rhûn is largely based on the control of two competing trade routes that crisscross the land and span the wide sea. So important are these routes to the economies of Rhûn's neighbors, that foreign powers have repeatedly found it necessary to intervene in local rivalries so that the routes could remain open. It is a common local joke that the mighty realm of Gondor would crumble if the wolves were to catch a certain nomad lord's best cow, or the wrong Ehwathrumi caravan guard slept past sunrise.

At the root of the joking, however, lies an important truth about the region. The security of the trade routes is a deadly serious matter to the people of Rhûn, and many have died trying to make their fortune in commerce, be it on the sea or along the dry trade roads of southern Rhûn and Rhovanion. The city of Mistrand stands perched on the choke-point between west and east, regulating the amount of goods that cross the line of the Sûrûbeki River and pass further west into Gondor. Mistrand, however, is under the thumb of a conservative eastern religion that has, in recent years, shunned most contact with the western-facing peoples of Rhûn in the interest of strict isolation from foreign influences. Gondor enjoys a long-standing relationship with both Folyavuld and the towns of the Ibnotithuida, an Eriadoran Northman culture on the Warwater River. Both of these peoples have enjoyed for many centuries the role of middle-man between Mistrand and Gondor, and have developed a bitter rivalry with one another for the best goods and profits. The Northmen, the Dúnedain and the Men of Dorwinion (the Folyavuldok) have all invested a great deal of money and effort to create a dependable means of delivering trade goods to the wealthy citizens of the western kingdoms. Mistrand's insularism now threatens to destroy the rival trading empires, redefining the balance of power along the littoral of the Inland Sea.

The erosion of Gondor's influence in Rhûn since the closing of Mistrand's market is no simple side effect of a random cultural change. The religion that has swept the countryside in southern Rhûn and seeped into the power structure of Mistrand is an artifice for the worship of Némol the Ring-Wight, a devoted servant of Ûvatha the Nazgûl. Under the guise of the plains-god Kérkassk, Némol has gradually taken advantage of the latent feelings of mistrust between Easterling and Dúnadan. The people of Mistrand have institutionalized their hatred of the west, and though they know it not, they are now numbered by the lord of Dol Guldur as one of the many peoples at his command.

This is Rhûn and the Inland Sea in the mid-Third Age; a borderland in every sense. It is where east meets west, civilized meets wild, order meets chaos, and good meets evil. Just as Gondor faces its time of crisis at the end of the Third Age, when the shadow threatens to engulf all, so is the mid-Third Age the time of crisis for Rhûn. Nations, souls, and history itself hangs in the balance, and their are no white wizards here to save the day. The shadow spreads subtly; inexorably through the cities, the pastures, the homes, and even the hearts of the people. The recently departed Great Plague brought death and chaos to this land, and tore great gaping wounds in the fabric of Rhûn's societies. Now in its wake, the servants of the Dark Lord swoop in to weave a new pattern, one in which every thread radiates from the dark center of the cloth. The strong who would attempt to put Rhûn back on the road to order are now the targets of Sauron's assassins. In their absence who will stand against the rush of this dark tide, to oppose the momentum of a mountain as it slides into the sea?

References

• ¹ICE MERP 4002 (entry for Celduin).
• ²ICE MERP 4002 & Admin
• ³OHS4