- "…it is a fascinating country, chock full of things – the wanderers, flowers, woodlands, towns and villages. Friendly folk help one on one's way and absurd happenings tint everyday life with the colour of gold. The mountains succour me and shed upon me their beguiling majesty and their arboreal splendour.
How can one adequately describe the magic of those deep-forested mountains in the pedestrian language of a letter? Superb and magical, they display their gentle slopes in a wealth if varying shades of green, for sweet chestnut, flowering acacia and tall pines follow the trails up to the gorges and down again to the plain…" -Petrosian of Lamedon
Arnandath (S. "High Vales") was a small Raindor of Gondor in the south-central Ered Nimrais just west of Morthond Vale. The Vales were home to a number of mountainman villages and a few ancient Númenórean monasteries. It was ruled from Mirach, the region's largest town.
The high vales and slopes were claimed by a devout lord of the Faithful who loved the mountains as an echo of the great peaks of Númenor. The fief had little to do in the great affairs of Gondor, producing neither warriors nor statesmen, but the first lord, who died childless, nevertheless left a legacy in the form of an endowment to support three houses of contemplation. Here men and women congregated in the silent worship of Eru.
But deeper in the mountains, where none went, was an ever earlier legacy – a temple built by Black Númenóreans, worshippers of Melkor, a copy of that constructed in Armenelos. And here a dire priest was rewarded for his sacrifices by immortality – in the form of a Wraith. When all his companions fled after the Fall (most to Umbar, some to the service of Sauron in Mordor) he was left to await his own death. But a messenger came from Sauron, bearing what he called the Ring of Eternity. Thus he endured, even through Sauron's own fall and rise.
In addition to the native mountain-men, some gypsies were to be found in the area.
Places of note[]
- Anusta Maldoviëtaro
- Anusta Mîrëcalo
- Anusta Suhtoviëtaro
- Anusta Voronetyaro
- Echad Enegriw
- Mirach
- Shibin
- Shrines
- Standing stones
- Suciëvar
- Villages of the Mountainmen
Characters[]
Herisan Kháine Maynir Mîrëcalo Petrosian Pethronaras
Notes[]
Original names: High Vales; Mierǎch → Mirach; Mirkal → Mîrëcalo; Moldovitor → Maldoviëtaro; Sighisoara → Echad Enegriw; Petru Rare → Pethronaras; Sibiu → Shibin; Suceva → Suciëvar; Sucevitor → Suhtoviëtaro; Voronet → Voronetyaro
References[]
- MERP adventure: Letters from a Foreign Land, by Graham Staplehurst, in White Dwarf Magazine Issue 93, Sep 1987