Ettenmoors and a 'physical' connection to the rest of the world

[Feirlain]

Doing some exploring in the North Downs, Lone-lands, and Trollshaws has made me curious as to a gap in the physical connection to the Ettenmoors.

I know in the past folks have said there have been chinks in the landscape armor that allow you to cross over into the southern parts of of the Ettenmoors near the south part of the river on that map. This makes the physical location of the Ettenmoors north of the Trollshaws exacty where it should be, with the river eventually emptying under the Last Bridge in the very east part of the Lone-lands. However, if this is true, it means there is an area just east of the North Downs and north of the Lone-lands that is completely empty/undeveloped. There are two possible paths that I have found hint that this area may eventually be included in the game.

One is the major roadway out of Angmar that is in the east part of the North Downs that is used by a vast Enemy encampment. This roadway eventually becomes smaller, but continues up the south-eastern hills toward the undeveloped area in question. This would make sense as the 'lore' states that the Rivendell area is under threat from a large host of the Enemy from Angmar (and naturally where all the Creep troops in the Ettenmoors would be coming from). I always wondered why a huge Enemy army was just sitting there in the east part of the North Downs, when they could easily steam roller the entire region as there is nothing really to stop them (especially when combined with the other Enemy army sieging Trestlebridge). But now it fits that these are reserves for the Ettenmoors.

The second pathway that hints at an undeveloped area east of the North Downs is the abandoned road leading north of Weathertop. It simply stops at a couple of boulders that block the roadway on the very north part of the Lone-lands map. It's very clear that it was meant to continue on and go somewhere. Most likely more Enemy territory as this would be the perfect place for all the orcs and goblins to come from that have set up a couple of temporary camps just north of Weathertop.

So, now that travel by Stable Master to the Ettenmoors is no longer restricted, will we eventually see a physical connection made with the Ettenmoors from this Enemy held area going directly to Gramsfoot? And if so, that means there would have to be a connection for the Free Peoples forces to get to Glan Vraig from the Trollshaws/Rivendell.

P.S. While doing research on this subject, I found this map which shows what I'm talking about: https://lotro-wiki.com/images/d/d5/E..._Varghedin.png
The undeveloped area is the region labled Gram Ridges on that map.

[TesalionLortus]

Oh well, we've effectively discussed all this in the Filling in the Gaps thread not that long ago. Who knows what the devs have in store, but if they filled these gaps around Moors (and didn't move it/replace it with PvE version) any connections between open-world and currently existing Moors would have to be teleports

[Feirlain]

Oh well, we've effectively discussed all this in the Filling in the Gaps thread not that long ago. Who knows what the devs have in store, but if they filled these gaps around Moors (and didn't move it/replace it with PvE version) any connections between open-world and currently existing Moors would have to be teleports

Oh, wow. That thread is fantastic! Sorry I missed it to start.

Looks like the area I originally posted about is called Rhudaur (as well as Ettendale) on the updated map in your thread: https://lotro-wiki.com/images/0/01/A..._lands_map.jpg. I sure hope the dev team has a chance to get to all the areas eventually, but my vote would be for these (Rhudaur and Ettendale) first as it would allow a physical connection to all sides of a 'floating' map right now - the Ettenmoors. Just like they did to finally physically connect Ered Luin to The Shire with the Yondershire.