Filling the Gaps: following in the footsteps of the Wildwood and the Angle

[Phantion]

The Ered Cernin goes nowhere near Harad, much less Far Harad.

According to what source? It seems to me it isn't included on any Tolkien map of Middle-earth - and so, folks have to guess at it.

For my "head canon," while I have my own views about the RoP series, I do think Amazon's map makes some sense to me: https://rop-map.com/

You'll notice the Orocarni starts to the northeast of the inland Sea of Rhun then goes all the way down - and then, in the faded ink areas, just keeps going south of Umbar.

It also makes some geographic sense to me that Mordor doesn't have an "open rear door" but rather a valley between its open lands and the Orocarni. Easier to control. Anyways, folks can sure have their own ideas of what's on the "un-mapped" parts of Middle-earth. Your head-canon doesn't decide mine; nor does mine decide yours.

It'll be interesting to see what LOTRO does with it. To my mind, it's an easy "impassable border" for the eastern lands going from north to south. As a long mountain range, it could vary with a lot of different biomes, etc., while serving as a useful "buffer" to keep things contained to Middle-earth. It could start more iron-like in the part that's closest to the Iron Hills then gradually get more "Mordor-esque" as it gets parallel to Mordor's eastern reaches and then get more "desert-like" or even tropical as it keeps going further south, if they decided to take that route. It's also an easy way to get-in the homes of the 4 Dwarven Houses - the 2 in the northeast and the 2 in the southeast of Middle-earth. They could do various things with those.

As far as LOTRO goes, https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Ered_Cernin We're only told they are "east of Rhun" but not much else - and then there's the whole concept of, "Where's the southeast? The South or the East? Does it count as both?" and so forth.

There's also this map - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lo...20180404014231

But that's a very long time ago before the world changed a lot.

There's this map from this link - https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Oroc...te_note-SMA4-2

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Oroc...te_note-SMA4-2

But that's part of Tolkien's drafting process - not a consistent idea - and plus, the battles between the Valar and Morgoth changed a ton of geography. Maybe the Orocarni is the northeastern mountain range and the "Yellow Mountains" are the southeastern - but . . . it's very hard to pick how that maps onto Third Age Middle-earth's geography. The Misty Mountains aren't even there on that map.

Anyways, my point still stands. It's nebulous - given how many alterations happen to Middle-earth's geography from the Years of the Trees through the late Third Age. The devs will have to, based on the scant info we've got, arrive at their own interpretations of the Ered Cernin and so on. Look, I'm find if "Yellow Mountains" = the name of the mountains far to the east of Umbar and Far Harad. That's hairsplitting over naming. But I do think it'll make sense for Middle-earth to pretty much have those borderlands that mark the absolute bounds of Middle-earth as Middle-earth.


Cheers!