Strayed Captain

In the last week all I’ve been doing is questing and grinding Enedwaith Reputation on my Warden, she’ll be Kindred with Algraig tomorrow but as far as Grey Company is concerned it looks like two weeks if I can be bothered which I probably can’t (I can only hope there are ways to get some reputation in the upcoming book).

Anyway, the last stop on her journey are the Gloomglens and especially Maur Tulhau, the hobbit village. As with pretty much everything you encounter in Enedwaith the names are neither Westron (English) nor Sindarin (Elvish), instead they are in the language which has not been named (Dunlendish perhaps?) but which bears a striking similarity to Welsh. Now I’m not going to teach you Welsh, mainly because I don’t know any (unless you count the hundred words of which meanings I am aware )

What I’m going to show you is how the Hobbits in Maur Tulhau are connected to the Hobbit families further north in the Shire. Let’s start from the top shall we?

Iolo Brochtû (Brockhouse family)

broch – badger (also called brock) and tŷ – house

the Maer – Mayor, see? Welsh is easy – of Maur Tulhau related to the Brockhouse family; Brockhouses can be found all over the Shire and Bree-land, probably the most notable member of the family is Viola Brockhouse the leader of the Woodworker’s Guild, currently residing in Esteldín.

Caradog Henbuch (Oldbuck family)

hen – old and buch – buck (see it almost translates itself)

the name Oldbuck is not found in today’s Shire but descendants of the family are, Oldbucks used to live in Marish, which is the area south of and including Stock, and the first Thain was of that family; Oldbucks later crossed Brandywine and established Buckland and they’ve also changed their name to Brandybucks. The majority of the Brandybucks family can be found there.

Coid and Violed Isbrun (Underhill family)

is – under and bryn – hill

A Forge-master and what I’m guessing is an accomplished gardener. The Underhills can be found mostly in Bree-land and some are in the Shire. You may be familiar with Constable Underhill from Combe, whom you helped early in the epic story.

Iago Glennudh (Banks family)

glennydd – banks, plural of glan – bank, shore

an agricultural visionary (yes he’s the one for whom you collect boar droppings), this was the first Hobbit whose name I tried to translate – Banks? Interesting … then I found that Iago means James. James Banks? Who is he? Does he work for Turbine? Is it some kind of Easter Egg? Then I found there is a family of Hobbits called Banks and it sprouted from there. There are only two Bankses in the game though – Alric, Inn League Taxidermist from the Bird and Baby Inn, and Opal, skirmish weapons barterer from the camp at Glâd Ereg in Eregion.

Rhosun Turio (Burrows family)

turio – to delve, to burrow and Rhosun I’m fairly certain is a variant of Rosie

The Banks family is a fairly numerous one, the most adventurous of them is probably Ham Burrows who is freezing up north in Forochel with at least one other Hobbit (he’s a again a skirmish Barterer). The cooks among you may remember Esmeralda Burrows who charged you to prepare some delicious food during your first crafting quest (but I’m not sure she will be in the game much longer).

Adsiltia and Aled Madcorf (Goodbody family)

mad – good and corff – body (my guess is the word corpse is related to that)

a Relic-master and a … someone (not going to tell you). Goodbodys can be found in the Shire and are actually of the few who do not live outside of it (if Lorebook is up-to-date that is), you may be familiar with Opal Goodbody who is in charge of catering (I guess) around the Party Tree and who also sends you a letter any time there is a new festival.

Cadel and Kened Balchtrod (Proudfoot family)

balch – proud and troed – foot

Cadel is provisioner on the main “square” of Maur Tulhau, Kened whose surname is Baltrod which I guess is just a “typo” is again … someone. The Proudfoots (Proudfeet!) are another fairly numerous family closely related to Bagginses. If you like horses and racing you sure do know Carl Proudfoot the Race Master and there is also Postmaster Proudfoot who is basically the chief officer of the Shire Quick Post.

Lili Gardhur (Gardener family)

garddwr – gardener

Lili is the healer vendor of Maur Tulhau. Gardeners are about as rare as Bankses – only three of them in the game. There is also one Ted Gardener the Vault-keeper of Bree but last time I checked he wasn’t a Hobbit.

Avan Brocktull (unknown)

Avan is the Stable-Master of Maur Tulhau and I haven’t been able to identify him unfortunately. The word twll stands for hole (or smial in this case) and this is where Tulhau comes from (meaning smials). He may be somehow related to the Brockhouse or the Longholes family but who knows?

Rhus Cornchúthur (Hornblower family)

corn – horn and chwythwr – blower

Rhus (Rees) is the first Hobbit you’ll probably encounter in Enedwaith (safe for occasional hobbit corpses), he’s sitting on a slope in front of Maur Tulhau and he would be probably blowing his pipe if the darn Hobbits were actually into something else than marigolds. Can’t smoke those, no sir!

Hornblowers are a small family the most notable member of which is probably Holly Hornblower the pie-baking enthusiast from Hobbition.

Gwin Curhonod (Maggots)

Gwin is a Hobbit captured by the Bugan of Khoblún Utot. The only connection I can make is farmer Maggot – the word cynrhonyn means maggot – but the famous farmer is the only one of that name.

And that would be all, allow me now to share my sources:

• Welsh-English Lexicon
• LOTRO Lorebook and the list of Hobbit families

So I got in, I actually visited Enedwaith in the F2P beta, made it as far as Echad Dagoras and restrained myself from going further.

View from Echad Dagoras in Fordirith

People say Enedwaith is a theme park, while there are big differences between, say, Mournshaws and Fordirith in terms of terrain, weather and mob population I can’t say I fell like going through a theme park, I barely cross two zones in a day.

I really like it, hills, trees, great outlooks from any highly situated camp, I guess Mirkwood would be the same if it wasn’t for the forest.

Since there’s a lot to talk about I’ll do several post, this one is about the environment – fauna and flora mostly.

Fordirith

The Northwatch is the northernmost area of the whole region and is not much different from Eregion, if you actually keep to the middle of the map everything seems kind of same. Fordirith is inhabited by Dunlendings of the Draig-lûth (Dragon clan – from Welsh ‘draig’ and ‘llwyth’) and black wolves.

Interesting things happen in Enedwaith when the night comes. The black wolves turn into creatures of shadow, looking as if a black smoke was coming from them and their eyes begin to glow. Other than that they are still wolves with their usual crippling attacks though they are able to perform some shadow based skills as well. They also got a corruption the removal of which causes them to take 20% more damage for about 20 seconds.

Now a little complaint – the actual border between Eregion (without dynamic layers) and Enedwaith (layered) lies somewhere in Fordirith, while I was questing in there I was crossing it every few steps – the result is loading screens and disappearing mobs and resource nodes. Certainly annoying but I’m already out of there.

Windfells

View on Amon Mîn in Windfells

I usually run with sounds turned off but I fortunately turned them up in Enedwaith. The sound of wind blowing across the plains really helps the immersion in this area. Here you find the remnants of what used to be North-south road which you may remember as the Green-way. The actual road starts in Fornost and goes all the way down through North Downs, Bree-land, Minhiriath (a region between Bree-land and Enedwaith), Enedwaith, Rohan (where it turns east), along the White Mountains into Gondor ending in Minas Tirith.

Anyway, the population of Windbluffs consists of Dunlendings (they really are almost everywhere) and again – wolves though they are white this time. They are also some occasional crebain, oxen – these are kinda new animals though they are not that interesting – and there is a herd of domesticated goats. As with Fordirith, interesting things happen at night. Druggavar and Cuthraul two kinds of fell spirits appear in the dark. Druggavar (‘drwg’ + ‘gafr’ literally ‘evil goat’) are black goats with glowing eyes and their bleating kinda sounds like someone ran it through a synthesizer, which is not bad, just weird. They behave like normal goats though they can make you unable to evade (permanent fear debuff as long as you are in combat). The Cuthraul (cythraul – demon) are pale Fell spirits with their eyes glowing more than usual and they are some of the few ghosts that actually say something:  ”Your spirit shall wither before the Eye!”, “Fall into shadows!”. They come in two variants – one (Dark Cuthraul) sports a corruption that will make him do more damage but also take more, and it tiers up every few seconds. The second – Cuthraul Fear-caster – will spawn a pair of crawling hands that will actually slow you down (-50% run speed aura). Finally someone realized they can clutch onto our legs A mithril-flake-dropping Warg can sometimes be seen here but Wargs don’t live here.

There is also an ancient Arnorian ruin – Amon Mín – currently held by the Dunlendings and there is not much happening in there, you are not even sent there to kill an evil leader of a local Dunlending band.

Nan Laeglin

Bridge between Windfells and Nan Laeglin, Lhanuch on the right

Nan Laeglin in the middle of Enedwaith (which I’ve been only able to translate as Valley of Green Pools though they aren’t any) is the place where you find Lhanuch (ox-village) the “capital” of Algraig, a friendly Dunlending clan – I said friendly though they are about as friendly as the Lossoth but at least you don’t start as an outsider. They belong to the Uch-lûth (Ox clan). Lhanuch stands on a hill near the great road, you can’t really miss it.

View on Nan Laeglin, Harndirion in the distance

Unfriendly Dunlendings don’t appear here but you start to feel Saruman’s presence. Half-orcs and Wargs walk through this area as if it was already theirs – “What are you doing out of your hole?”. Sometimes you can also stumble upon an angry Plains Ox Bull.

Thrór’s Coomb

East of Nan Laeglin, one of two areas with a proper forest. Named after Thrór who ruled under the Mountain when Smaug came. He escaped with his people and traveled south from Erebor through the Gap of Rohan and then turning north into Dunland (which is part of the proper Enedwaith) where he and his people spent some time.

View on on the borders of Thrór's Coomb from Harndirion

Thrór’s Coomb as well as Nan Laeglin is being overlooked by a great watchtower called Harndirion (Southern Watch/tower). Though you cannot reach the top of the tower even its base is situated high enough to give you a great view over the area. There are also some Dwarven ruins and most importantly a great library in Nár’s Peak where you’ll be taken if you follow the epic line.

The coomb is kind of split into two parts, the western is full of Dunlendings and the eastern part – a large coniferous forest being close to Misty Mountains and thus covered in snow – is inhabited by some Giants and Gwibers. I haven’t explored it much as it is meant for at least small fellowship. Ginats don’t need an introduction and the Gwiber (Welsh for adder) are fire drakes, though they look a bit different. For some reason Gwibberlings have the same amount of morale as a full-grown Gwiber. One beast worthy of mentioning is Cloben, Rare Nemesis Gwiber, who often falls prey to passer-by Wardens who like to solo him, I have yet to attempt that.

Lich Bluffs

South of Nan Laeglin along the great road. As the name suggests there are some Dead strolling (or floating, in the case of Oathbreakers) around as well as Cun Annun (hell-hounds). To me they look like a cross-breed between a barghest and a shar-pei. They don’t differ much from barghests though they start to chew on you really hard if they are low on morale (morale transfer + root).

A Lich Bluffs barrow (with yours truly in the front)

Overall the area is similar to Barrow Downs or Imlad Balchorth though there are no darkwater or crawling hands. The barrows do look a bit different though not by much.

Mournshaws

A thick forest west of Lich Bluffs and Nan Laeglin. There are some stonehenge-like structures within and if you are lucky you will meet The Hunstman, an Elder spirit who used to (though perhaps still does) serve Oromë. The forest is inhabited by Wood-trolls, Cun Annun and Elhudan who are the Enedwaith version of Limrafn. They have an interesting skill, when you fight them they may spawn a little Elhudan and if you don’t kill those they will heal the Elhudan for a big amount of morale (at least from half to full) fortunately one strike is often enough to get them. Not much really happens in here, it seems that the more south you the less there is to do.

Gloomglens

Remember Scuttledels? This similar but more grass and the rocks have the Grand Canyon hue (thanks to which they are being criticised as un-Middle-earth-ish). Inhabited by common white wolves and boars and two other interesting mobs. First are the white stags, they behave like normal deers (stuns, useless calls for help, etc.) but depending on the first attack you use on them they will debuff you accordingly (-25% melee damage, +100% power cost for tactical skills or something equally annoying for ranged attack which I haven’t been able to get since my captain does not have ranged attacks). It is an interesting defence mechanism and I salute Mother Nature for that though it will probably take quite some time for the stags to realize they are being pulled with other skills then the ones that are actually important for the class – at least in some cases, Captains pull with a cry (tactical), champions and guardians pull with bows (ranged).

A bugan

The other mobs are Bugan (Welsh for bogey) and I have to admit they are kinda creepy, they are basically goblins but they are dressed like hobbits and their features are more hobbit-ish.

Why would they be dressed like hobbits you may ask. Well that’s because there are hobbits in Gloomglens (but it’s not like you didn’t know before, is it? . They live in a small village called Maur Tulhau (Great Holes, or Smials perhaps ), and they very much resemble the hobbits we know – chatting about anything and everything – though their apparel might be not as fancy.

And that would be it, I hate saving this as a draft over and over and if I’d keep doing that I’d never publish anything, next time: Quests, Deeds and stuff.