What's Next For LoTRO?
I've seen this come up in World Chat a lot.
People seem concerned about what else SSG can do with the world of Middle Earth after SPOILERS sauron's death. Well, I could tell you that geography is not the most important thing when it comes to storytelling and you can easily make stories in existing areas, perhaps I can instead show you guys what exactly there IS left:
I modified SSG's map of Middle-earth to show important Landmarks in Middle-earth. Pro-tip: The greyed out names are areas we haven't been to yet. While we have covered the "major" zones in the Lord of the Rings story, there is still a TON of land we have yet to visit. Mirkwood, South of Bree-land, Southern Gondor, Mordor (Soon!) and the Dale/Iron Mountains area in particular combined make up effectively the entirety of the explorable space of Middle-earth we have today!
There are a lot of factors that go into what we can and cannot get regarding content. There are license issues to consider that SSG will never be able to publicy state aside from the obvious, but the fact remains that regardless of how we get it, we can always be certain it will be worthy of Tolkien's legacy!
People seem concerned about what else SSG can do with the world of Middle Earth after SPOILERS sauron's death. Well, I could tell you that geography is not the most important thing when it comes to storytelling and you can easily make stories in existing areas, perhaps I can instead show you guys what exactly there IS left:
I modified SSG's map of Middle-earth to show important Landmarks in Middle-earth. Pro-tip: The greyed out names are areas we haven't been to yet. While we have covered the "major" zones in the Lord of the Rings story, there is still a TON of land we have yet to visit. Mirkwood, South of Bree-land, Southern Gondor, Mordor (Soon!) and the Dale/Iron Mountains area in particular combined make up effectively the entirety of the explorable space of Middle-earth we have today!
There are a lot of factors that go into what we can and cannot get regarding content. There are license issues to consider that SSG will never be able to publicy state aside from the obvious, but the fact remains that regardless of how we get it, we can always be certain it will be worthy of Tolkien's legacy!
Well, where you have Harondor/Southern Gondor is actually Lebennin. Move your label for Harondor south and slightly east.
ReplyDeleteA very important story area is just off map to the left of Harondor and it would be easy to add: Umbar, the Corsair haven of Black Numeneoreans.
Your Ered Luin should be northeast of where you have it just a touch so that it contains part of the River Lune.
Just to the left of Eregion you could have labeled Ost-in-Edhil (spellcheck?), the Second Age citadel where Celebrimbor, son of Curufin, son of Feanor (Celebrimbor whose statues are all over the game) - lived and forged the 19 Rings of Power, 16 of which he was assisted by Sauron in disguise, and the Three he forged alone for the Elves.
The Gladden Fields are actually farther north than you have them, but the Moria inset kind of screws that placement a bit.
As far as where else they could go for story: They could go to the First Age and raise Beleriand... Do Angband...
Likewise, they could introduce Numenor, Land of Gift, home of High men of the west, the Dunedain (and more).
They could go east and open up Cuivenen and Hildorien, the places where Elves and Men awaken respectively.
They could make the Glittering Caves.
They could do a lot. It just depends on how ambitious they want to be.