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Tuesday 6 November 2012

LOTRO: A tourist guide to the Wold


It's time for my (long overdue) second part of the Rohan landscape series, my very own excuse to post all the landscape pictures I've been taking in-game the past weeks. This time, we'll make a virtual travel through the Wold, the uttermost northern region that falls under Rohirric territory.




I was sent to the Wold by my epic quest from the South, but if you don't follow the epic storyline, you will enter the region (and with that, Rohan) from the Great River region to the North. This will be your first view of the region: a transcendence area with the hills and last remnants of the ruins of the Southern Great River, in which you can already see the grass become more yellowish as it is in the plains of Rohan.


Now I already gave it away! Indeed the well-known plains of Rohan start here, with sloping hills and undeep clear waters in the lower parts. Wild horses wander around, sometimes alone, sometimes in large groups.


The Wold features the first Rohirric settlements after Stangard, of which the well-defended Harwick (picture above) is the largest. Since Tolkien didn't describe any villages in this particular area, the game makers had to make up some names of themselves. And just like Tolkien did, they took their inspiration for Rohan from the Saxons. There's no doubt that they were inspired by the many wics or wichs of the seventh and eight century that are found throughout northwestern Europe. These towns were all harbour towns that played a role in international trade. In fact, they were the only city-like places there were in these times. In England we find places like Lundenwic (London), Eoforwic (York) and Ipswich.



Picture above: stand on the hill north of town to get this typical Harwick picture.

Even though Harwick isn't a harbour town (the water on the picture above is very shallow), its name reveals that our developers tried to keep with the lore and took their inspiration for this region from the Saxons, as we know Tolkien himself did.


War may bring people together, but it may also drive them apart. The village of Langwold experienced the latter. While their houses were burnt to the ground by invading brigands, the leader of the nearby Harwick doesn't want to provide shelter. It is the first example of the troubles in this threatened country.

Lewis Maskell of Stnylan's Musings eloquently describes the atmosphere among the people of the Wold in his article Unwelcome at Harwick. Syp from Biobreak takes a more mundane approach to the behaviour of the thane of Harwick in If LOTRO would let you be evil, the world would be a much better place.


For the nature lovers among us, the Wold features many wild animals, of which many quite unfriendly. I cleared quite a few of them to get the romantic picture above. The shallow waters are inhabited by salamanders, the northern fields by large wild cows. There are no wild bears in this region. My pet bear (picture on top of the article) looked very carefully.

When exploring the plains of the Wold, it is advised to travel by war-steed. Brigands and roving warbands roam the fields, and a quick escape can be of vital importance. For the ecologists interested in boars: they are found just south of Harwick.

More in a Tourist guide to Rohan


10 comments :

  1. Nice screenshots. :) Just out of curiousity, have you been able to keep your graphics at the levels you've played the rest of the game?

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    1. Thank you! I nick Tiger's computer to get these sort of images, and yes, he's able to play the game with these settings. On my own poor Mac, however, I need to resort to medium or lower with mounted combat, otherwise it gets too laggy. Still I often see the brushes appear beneath my very hooves if I go very fast!

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  2. I especially love the shot with the grey dappled horse - looks almost real! I've been having huge problems with mounted lag too and have been playing on medium too :( I've recently turned back up as it doesn't actually seem to have any effect on the MC lag itself for me... I think anyway... Hopefully they will have a fix for it soon :)

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    1. I hope they will fix it soon too. It's a bit painful to design such fun new gameplay and then having it ruined by lag.

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  3. Nice Rav! You are such a great photographer.

    Love love the one with the horse wading into the stream toward you. He has a look in his eye like "friend, or foe?" I can just imagine you holding out an apple to get him to come over like that. :D

    Sorry you have had issue with your settings, but yay for Tiger for supporting the cause!

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    1. Thanks for all the kind words, I'm glad you like them. And you just made me go "awww" with your horse description! :D

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  4. But the really important question is: Are there any boar?! You know how essential those thick, rich, juicy, delicious boar-steaks are for any well-to-do enjoyer of fine foods!

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    1. I'll be sure to look into this important matter in a future article. ;)

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  5. There certainly are boar in The Wold :)

    My one problem with Harwick is that it is in no way a port. The name would suggest a port of some sort - and I have to say I am a little disappointed. Turbine's research into Turbine is usually fairly good, and I would have thought they would have realised the -wick ending would suggest a settlement on the Anduin or other reasonably sized river/lake. Ah well, at the end of the day it is only a minor bugbear.

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    1. I agree, that would've been even better. If only Turbine would hire me as their game developing archaeologist! ;-)

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