Modern Day Middle Earth...?

[Tailz Silver Paws]

I had just recently finished watching all of my extended edition DVD set of The Lord of the Rings and I was putting away some books and I noticed my D20 Modern Roleplaying book. I then had an intresting thought pop into my head. What would the World of Middle Earth be like a few hundred years after the War of the Ring?

What would Rohan be like in the modern age? Would fast cars replace the war horse?

Would we see Milk Cartons with pictures of Ent Wives on the sides?

Would Orcs beg on the streets, while trolls get jobs as night club bouncers and bodyguards?

Would Mordor become a secret state like North Korea?

Would the Lonely Mountain become the biggest and most secure banking buniness in all Middle Earth?

While the Elves who sailed away now protect their sacrid shores with battleships and navel guns.

I wondered.. what would a modern day Middle earth be like as a background for roleplaying.

[Oberoten]

... those Navel guns sound uncomfortable, the recoil would probably hurt like heck. Joke aside though...


I think that Orcs would probably become second class citizens with the only alternative to poverty being military service. This would in turn lead to the armies being mostly orc / troll centric. Less fancy fierarms in other words, more weapons that utilze strength. In short military development wouldn't have gone as far. Warmachines... Hmm. Most likely there would be some kind of tanks or fastmoving vheicles with light armour for quicker deployment maneuvering. Mostly low rank workers with a balance of military in different ranks.

Hobbits ... I somehow see them being the ones to develop firearms (probably the inheritance of the ent-water enhanced ones once they see how dangerous the world around them is.) While not physically powerful, they do seem to have a strong economy and might well be a political power. Especially if they have a strong defence. Mostly merchants and farmers with the occasional craftsman.

The rohirim, the horse people would probably fall into the same trap as the French, German and English army did... Depending so heavily on the horse as a vheicle of war that any changes to that is fought tooth and nail. In the end this too will dampen the development of arms technology. (See Charge of the Light Brigade and such events as the Boerwar for examples of military attitude gone wrong) They'd be a "has-been" a great empire fading in importance as their technology is falling behind. IF they are still a Monarchy this too adds to the fading empire thing by putting commanders into rank by social rank instead of ability. As with most fading empire they'd have great social rifts with the nobility being not only rich and degenerate but also so far away from the poor as to thinking them little more than vessels to be used for their own entertainment. The poor on the other side... might well have other plans. (See French Revolution... )

The numenorites... Now these guys would be cooking with gas. Even duringt he books what little we see of them shows them as daring and inventive. I can see their little empire of piracy stabilizing into traders and in the end into a true empire. Technology would be high, and as the rest of the world deploys motly orcs they'd probably focus on ranged technology to offset the difference in strength. These guys would be the ones with the Naval guns, sitting outside enemy shores and pounding the heck out of the enemy fleets and shorebound troops.

Ents... Desperately trying to stay awake and NOT be made into cheap paper.

[Culdraug]

And I suppose the Ishtar would become politicions?

[Valarian]

While the Elves who sailed away now protect their sacrid shores with battleships and navel guns.

The elves probably wouldn't have to protect the sacred shores. The impression I got from the Silmarilion was that after the Numenoreans attempted to get to Valinor and Numenor was destroyed, Valinor was somehow removed from the world. Only the elves can return to Valinor by sailing west. If others try, they would sail round the world without ever seeing Valinor. The elves can still take the straight path, the path for others is curved.

[kimba]

I think that unless magic totally died, there would be no modern middle earth. The Elves leaving would have taken much of the magic with them.
I think the races would become a melding pot and we would see a new beginning of society. Treants would die off, orcs would be persecuted and "evolve" later in to what we would call barbarians. Genghis Kahn comes to mind. The majority of dwarves would become even more separatist. a few would join the populous and get assimilated. After centuries descendants of dwarves would be looked at as an unfortunate birth defect instead of the proud heritage they once were. the separatist dwarves sadly die out. in fact all the races who do not become assimilated into the vast melting pot called humanity eventually die out and become forgotten.
then due to a catastrophic event the continent breaks up and most everyone dies. Life as it will starts anew in a little area desert area on a grand River. and for 10,000 years the collective races now known as a single race called humanity struggles to survive. Magic is remembered but a thing of legend. the races are remembered but skewed into a mish mash of strange "faerie tales" In short humanity for the next 2000 years strives in leaps and bounds to become the Modern world we know today.
So I think a better question is if Earth was once Middle Earth, What exactly was Early Earth?

[Tailz Silver Paws]

I think that unless magic totally died, there would be no modern middle earth. The Elves leaving would have taken much of the magic with them.
I think the races would become a melding pot and we would see a new beginning of society. Treants would die off, orcs would be persecuted and "evolve" later in to what we would call barbarians. Genghis Kahn comes to mind. The majority of dwarves would become even more separatist. a few would join the populous and get assimilated. After centuries descendants of dwarves would be looked at as an unfortunate birth defect instead of the proud heritage they once were. the separatist dwarves sadly die out. in fact all the races who do not become assimilated into the vast melting pot called humanity eventually die out and become forgotten.
then due to a catastrophic event the continent breaks up and most everyone dies. Life as it will starts anew in a little area desert area on a grand River. and for 10,000 years the collective races now known as a single race called humanity struggles to survive. Magic is remembered but a thing of legend. the races are remembered but skewed into a mish mash of strange "faerie tales" In short humanity for the next 2000 years strives in leaps and bounds to become the Modern world we know today.
So I think a better question is if Earth was once Middle Earth, What exactly was Early Earth?

Nah I disagree, the thing I liked about Middle Earth, was that it was NOT our planet. It was a fantasy world with its own myths and legends.

Besides, I don't think the melding pot concept plays out very well, your basicaly saying all the races ether die out of become one. I disagree. We can even see today in our real world that the many ethnic groups are quite strong and will remain so for many generations to come, even with mixed breeding.

I think the Dwarves would certainly hide in their mountains and shun the world at large. But I don't see them just melding into humanity, the same with the elves.

The only race I see that could die out would be the orcs. Didn't the wizards manufacture the orcs? eg: they were not the spawn of a lady orc and a boy orc bumping uglies!?

Thus if there are no wizards around making orcs and trolls, they would slowly die off, would take a while as I assume the orcs have the long life or part of it carried over from the elves that were manufactured from in the first place?

[kimba]

I respect your right to disagree here, but.... in the last 2000 years out lives and societies have totally integrated. truly ethnicities are becoming one. in another 2000 years I doubt we will have black, white, red, brown or yellow people. in in the past there were quite a few other "colors" that have assimilated into these 5. I would think that in 20 - 30 thousand years anything can happen - did we not have dinosaurs on our planet that died out what a million years before cro-magnum man even existed? We only have a 12000 year old history and even that is debatable. I personally like to think that there was a part of this worlds history where elves and dwarves and all the nasties out there existed and that there was magic abound. There must be some reason out legends are full of that type of stuff. Isn't there some sort of truth in every legend? No, I like to think that we are Middle Earths future. and in case of some major war or something Middle Earth could very well be our future as well.

[Valarian]

Tolkien wrote the Silmarillian, and from this the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to fill in a gap he perceived in English myth and legend. He found these myths and legends in other societies and created a mythological base for England. Middle Earth can be viewed as being an England in the dim and ancient past, or more accurately - Mercia in a dim and ancient past.

[kimba]

Tolkien wrote the Silmarillian, and from this the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to fill in a gap he perceived in English myth and legend. He found these myths and legends in other societies and created a mythological base for England. Middle Earth can be viewed as being an England in the dim and ancient past, or more accurately - Mercia in a dim and ancient past.

I did not know this. I allways had a feeling that middle earth was part of our past. (fictionally speaking) Nice to know my theory had a bit of bite to it. In fact I hit the nail on the head.

Ouch- I think I hurt my arm patting myself on the back.. LOL>

[Stuart]

I respect your right to disagree here, but.... in the last 2000 years out lives and societies have totally integrated. truly ethnicities are becoming one. in another 2000 years I doubt we will have black, white, red, brown or yellow people. in in the past there were quite a few other "colors" that have assimilated into these 5. I would think that in 20 - 30 thousand years anything can happen - did we not have dinosaurs on our planet that died out what a million years before cro-magnum man even existed? We only have a 12000 year old history and even that is debatable. I personally like to think that there was a part of this worlds history where elves and dwarves and all the nasties out there existed and that there was magic abound. There must be some reason out legends are full of that type of stuff. Isn't there some sort of truth in every legend? No, I like to think that we are Middle Earths future. and in case of some major war or something Middle Earth could very well be our future as well.

I'm afraid the genetics behind "color" are such that even taking into account multiple genes, penetrance and a raft of other factors, human skin tones will not mix into one generic color... you are not suggesting "blending" , are you ? Tut, tut, Mendel is turning in his grave !