Hidden Nuggets we see all the time...

[CorwynD]

Well, it's not Tolkein related, but it's surely an example of the dev's good sense of humor:

I got a Flagon of Red Wine off a monster drop and the flavor text described that "It makes you feel so fine all of the time."

I thought that was pretty funny, but then, I'm a child of the 80's.

[Pmac]

It would be cool to be able to see a huge tower.. and enter it and climb to the top. Thats what i used to love about older mmos i played.. u could go ANYWHERE. any door opened and lead to another area.

[Lohi]

Then I ran to Farmer Maggot's to see if his dogs were there. Of course, they were, and named appropriately.

When I was doing the 7 day trial, I did the chicken play quest to try it out. I had not explored the Shire at all, much less any of the rest of the game. I had not read the books in a very long time. I was surprised at how easily I navigated around the Shire.

I even thought "I should go see Farmer Maggot's place, he has some dogs and I can talk to them". So I just headed east, turned south at the Brandywine, and voila, there they were exactly where my brain said they should be. Hurrah.

[Cleitanious]

Well it doesn't really make sense to let you wander in and out of any place you want. Burglers perhaps, but the rest of us aren't the type to just walk into a random persons home. The exception being our homes, that we can choose to open to others. Maybe these hobbits and such don't want you in their homes.

Ehh, in EQ2 you buy and live in houses that are physicially located in the City enviroment and there is nothing stopping every player from having a house.

[SniperCT]

Well, it's actually broader than just England. Forochel, for instance, is Finland, Rhûn is the Middle East, Harad is northern Africa; however, Khând, which is between them, is Slavic.

According to Christopher Tolkien, Bree is based on *Brill* in Buckinghamshire, a place he created for Farmer Giles of Ham. He doesn't give any real-world origin.

Just had to comment; Always thought Rhun was farther east. Think Mongolia, with Khand being closer to the middle-east or even India. Some aspects of the far Harad also seem to be Indian. Gondor has elements of the Byzantine empire, with dashes of Egyptian love of building Large Things(tm), though none of the Egyptian religious beliefs(Post-downfall Dunedain tended to dislike large displays of religion, after all of Sauron's machinations and human sacrifices on Numenor).

Read this thread in one night, it was a good distraction from work! Some things I hadn't noticed, many others I had. I always wished we could see Earendil, though.

Not generally a lore-nugget, but it did remind me of the description of Moria - the dwarf homesteads, with all the columns, it's gorgeous (and just one of many areas that seem to be a hint of things to come. Annuminas to Minas Tirith - though I dearly hope Tirith is massive. Each circle should be the size of Bree-town and instanced for performance )


Trestlebridge is another place that got a very small mention and got expanded massively. It's awesome.

[oumagic]

Not generally a lore-nugget, but it did remind me of the description of Moria - the dwarf homesteads, with all the columns, it's gorgeous (and just one of many areas that seem to be a hint of things to come.

This is even more true of the Sarnur dungeon (Thorin's Hall rep). I don't like grinding rep, but the location is enough to make me go there. The hidden nuggets are everywhere. I keep seeing more as I re-read the books.

There is one quest that has a fiendish fellow trying to take a baby out of a window. At first I didn't think it seemed right. The bestowal dialogue got me searching and it sure enough was there:

Bestowal:
'I think this creature is getting bolder, and it could be he is not willing to settle for fish anymore. That he is now climbing through windows in search of cradles tells me that even two barrels of fish might not be enough to dissuade him from trying it again.'

I don't have the book with me, but it is indeed lore appropriate. I love that this game has me trying to go back and find nuggets.

[Berephon]

This is even more true of the Sarnur dungeon (Thorin's Hall rep). I don't like grinding rep, but the location is enough to make me go there. The hidden nuggets are everywhere. I keep seeing more as I re-read the books.

There is one quest that has a fiendish fellow trying to take a baby out of a window. At first I didn't think it seemed right. The bestowal dialogue got me searching and it sure enough was there:

Bestowal:
'I think this creature is getting bolder, and it could be he is not willing to settle for fish anymore. That he is now climbing through windows in search of cradles tells me that even two barrels of fish might not be enough to dissuade him from trying it again.'

I don't have the book with me, but it is indeed lore appropriate. I love that this game has me trying to go back and find nuggets.

Indeed :

'...The Woodmen said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles.' Many Meetings, FotR.

[auximenes]

I always took that part as an embellished campfire story to scare the younger folk.

[Silverlocket]

I always took that part as an embellished campfire story to scare the younger folk.

. . . and when they looked, there was a hook on the window!

SL

[Taliaferro]

. . . and when they looked, there was a hook on the window!

SL

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

/faint

;-)

Tal

[EvilDevil]

I dont know about this one, but i noticed something that i hope someone can answer.
if you take the road between bree and the forsaken inn, in midgewater marshes, if u noticed there is a dirt road that leads to a hobbit house. No one lives there, but if you look around there is a large stone and a wooden bench. I noticed an open book with a drawing of a tree and some letters but i cannot read it... any idea what could be book be?...

[auximenes]

If it's on the south side of the road, just before you get to the Lone-lands, then as I recall that was the original location for part of the Ellie Cutleaf quest series out of Archet.

[steelsnake]

If it's on the south side of the road, just before you get to the Lone-lands, then as I recall that was the original location for part of the Ellie Cutleaf quest series out of Archet.

Indeed it was, although I think the look of that location got changed too, not just the quest chain leading there.

Still, good question... often try to see what various props say/show, and so far with not too much luck.

A few that stymied me so far:
- The map table (housing deco icon)
- Various tables across the landscape with drawings scattered on them

Even on very high textures I can't make out the images well enough to figure out what they're showing.

[Abeille']

I'll say it again . . . this thread is a real feel-good thread for me, and I'm sure the rest of the team. It shows that our efforts were not wasted.

Wasted they were not! And in reading this thread I am humbled by just how much I do not know (although more than average). I knew there were Tolkien enthusiasts in the world who put to shame perhaps Tolkien himself with lore and reference. However, I have just one life time. The fact that I now have a game in which to see and feel all the "nuggets" from my childhood days of reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is a superb feeling. I congratulate each dev for a job more than "well done".

Side note: Seeing as how the forum is even more massive than the game and I'm a relatively new player.... when grinding an alt in Ered Luin and happening upon a giant snowman, my jaw hit the floor with amazement. I can not imagine that it would be referenced to the story in any way (I choose to believe that the developer decided to design an enjoyable side object) I'd like to know if I'm wrong. Perhaps something to do with the life of Tolkien?

I know there are others who have seen this snowman, but here is the screenie: http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...wenSnowman.jpg

[Berephon]

Wasted they were not! And in reading this thread I am humbled by just how much I do not know (although more than average). I knew there were Tolkien enthusiasts in the world who put to shame perhaps Tolkien himself with lore and reference. However, I have just one life time. The fact that I now have a game in which to see and feel all the "nuggets" from my childhood days of reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is a superb feeling. I congratulate each dev for a job more than "well done".

Side note: Seeing as how the forum is even more massive than the game and I'm a relatively new player.... when grinding an alt in Ered Luin and happening upon a giant snowman, my jaw hit the floor with amazement. I can not imagine that it would be referenced to the story in any way (I choose to believe that the developer decided to design an enjoyable side object) I'd like to know if I'm wrong. Perhaps something to do with the life of Tolkien?

I know there are others who have seen this snowman, but here is the screenie: http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...wenSnowman.jpg

Thank you!

No, the snowman is not a lore-reference. Just an easter-egg. There's also a sand castle and a few other oddities somewhere in the world, if you look carefully.

[Dantee]

what about the flying fish near needlehole.

[Berephon]

what about the flying fish near needlehole.

That would be a bug.

[dennisconrad]

No, the snowman is not a lore-reference. Just an easter-egg. There's also a sand castle and a few other oddities somewhere in the world, if you look carefully.

Hmm. Snowman, sand castle and scarecrow so far. Well, and the cow on the roof, but that isn't that odd. Oh, and the Hobbit in the hedge. And that drunkards in Celondim are called wine enthusiasts. And that Steven Cold Bear obviously carries a really big axe in his intestines. And the Hobbit telling you about fishing in this game. Thinking about it, there's a LOT of odd stuff in LOTRO :-)

[ManticoreFalco]

And while we're on the subject of Colbert, don't forget the merchant up near Mincham in the Fields of Fornost named Colbert who hates bears!

[Tairii]

No, the snowman is not a lore-reference. Just an easter-egg. There's also a sand castle and a few other oddities somewhere in the world, if you look carefully.

And there's the miniature sand castle and snowman in the Mathom House.

[SiSL]

And while we're on the subject of Colbert, don't forget the merchant up near Mincham in the Fields of Fornost named Colbert who hates bears!

Yup, that's what I thought in the first time when I see it, and he is "MAD" :P

[Symar]

Oh, and the Hobbit in the hedge.

In Bree? I was thinking that was a bug and was going to report it next time I went through .

[Berephon]

In Bree? I was thinking that was a bug and was going to report it next time I went through .

Actually, it's one of the funniest dramas in the area. If you will notice, his buddies are sitting below him in a daze amidst the wreckage of a wagon. I noticed my last time through there that the dialogue didn't kick off when I ran past, though, so it may be bugged.

[Vayde_Vilya]

Best thread ever.

I just wanted to respond to the little bit of literary criticism we had going on earlier. From the foreward:

As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches: but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the link between it and The Hobbit. The crucial chapter, 'The Shadow of the Past', is one of the oldest parts of the tale. It was written long before the foreshadow of 1939 had yet become a threat of inevitable disaster, and from that point the story would have developed along essentially the same lines, if that disaster had been averted. Its sources are things long before in mind, or in some cases already written and little or nothing in it was modified by the war that began in 1939 or its sequels.

The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dûr would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.

Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes of views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.

I think this line has stuck with me for a very long time: "In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves."

I think it speaks to Tolkien's appreciation of life and the parts of life represented by the shire and hobbits and what can be and is part of the non-weapon-drawing-gameplay of lotro, and really what sets this game apart from all others.

So, thanks again, Tolkien and Turbine. These little lore-nuggets are sort of the point.

[Silverlocket]

Still, good question... often try to see what various props say/show, and so far with not too much luck.

A few that stymied me so far:
- The map table (housing deco icon)
- Various tables across the landscape with drawings scattered on them

Even on very high textures I can't make out the images well enough to figure out what they're showing.

I have had the same curiosity about the bulletin board at the entrance of Ost Forod in Evendim. There is a note on it which -- memory fails me, and I'm not at home to check -- seems to say something about going to sea in a ship or as a sailor or something. Has anybody had better luck than I in reading that?

SL