Summary: Codemasters has released an entry in their "hero's guide" series of articles for The Lord of the Rings Online, this one centering on the Lone-Lands, home of Weathertop and many other dangerous locales.
Codemasters has released an entry in their "hero's guide" series of articles for The Lord of the Rings Online, this one centering on the Lone-Lands, home of Weathertop and many other dangerous locales.
The details are as below:
From the edge of Bree-land in the west to the verge of the Trollshaws in the east, the hills and swamps of the Lone-lands bear the ruins of kingdoms long dead. This land's long history of war and woe has cut deep scars into its landscape and its people. The lonely road that gives the region its shape and purpose today is desolate at best and dangerous at worst. Even the road is a ruin from another time, passing beneath noble stone and broken rubble on its way from the civilization of Bree-land to the perilous woods of the Trollshaws and beyond.
The most regal and prominent of the Lone-lands' many ruins rise above the road like a symbol of the land's sad legacy: Weathertop. Once known as Amon Sûl, it was a proud tower of vision and vigilance, but it fell in battle and sat derelict in the wild until now. Today, countless Orcs prowl through the place's rubble, and the few Rangers who defend it cannot often deter them.
Far along the road in either direction, the shape of Weathertop stands stark against the sky, like a head wearing a battle-worn crown, reminding travellers and adventurers that the hills beneath their feet were once walked by kings and heroes - and may be again. Travellers in search of safe passage through the Lone-lands are wise to stick to the road, but it's the accounts of those timid souls who travel only via the road that feed the region's reputation for somber desolation and wide, bleak hills. Off the road, to the north and south, the Lone-lands hide rivers and bogs, breathtaking landscapes and sprawling ruined castles. But as you travel off the road, you venture toward ever more fearsome foes.
The darkest corner of this land hides an enemy so fell and terrible it chills even a Wizard's blood.
A History of Strife and Sorrow On its face, as a borderland region of quests and monsters for up-and-coming adventurers on their first steps away from the relative safety of Bree-land, the excitement of the Lone-lands seems to stem from enjoying a change of scenery and tackling higher-level foes. Like so much of Middle-earth, however, its current threats have deep roots in its long history. Your adventures are part of a larger saga hinted at by ruins and shades throughout the Lone-lands and revealed in part here.
The East Road runs through the Lone-lands like an artery, and it has served more than one ancient kingdom as highway and borderline. Thousands of years ago, it connected the Dunedain kingdom of Arnor - sister kingdom of Gondor - to Rivendell, the Misty Mountains, and lands east. It intersected the North-South Road (now called the Greenway) near the heart of Arnor, where Bree stands now.
Soldiers and knights stationed at the Tower of Amon Sûl - built on Weathertop, the highest of the Weather Hills - kept watch over the East Road from their high vantage point. Amon Sûl, in those days, lay well within Arnor's borders and housed a palantir, or seeing-stone, like the kind kept now at Isengard. With it, this land and its leaders could communicate with the far-off Arnorian capital of Annuminas. This created an era of security and nobility for the Lone-lands - few remnants of which now remain, save for the ruins of Amon Sûl and the Last Bridge.
Older even than the ruins of fallen Rhudaur that mark hilltops across the Lone-lands, the ancient Last Bridge stands as the sole safe crossing over the River Hoarwell and east into the Trollshaws.
As you cross the Lone-lands, notice how different Weathertop's ruins look from those scattered elsewhere in the region. The scale and precision of the stonework of Amon Sûl is unmatched by the lesser, later keeps and castles. When you reach the easternmost edge of the Lone-lands, then, take special notice of the Last Bridge, another rare relic of Arnor in this area.
Long has the Last Bridge stood on this, the only safe crossing of the Hoarwell (called the River Mitheithel by the Elves). It has endured millennia of wars and neglect. Many have walked these stones - ancient kings and savage armies, Elf-lords and Nazgul - and now your hero has that honour as well.
