east of middle-earth there were elves(originaly) a few dwarves, men, and the Blue Wizards. Sauron's influence in the East was interrupted by the Blue Wizards.

Well, nothing is actually known of what happened to Alatar and Pallando, but as wizards they probably did limit Sauron's control. All we really know is that the Dwarves wandered off their for mining, and it was basically just vassals and servants of the Dark Lord.

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"Mustard the Rohirrim! We've got to ketchup with those Uruk-fries before they capture the Hornburger!"

Alatar and Pallando could have fallen to the dark lord like Saruman but then again we don´t know what happened to them

Well, Saruman - one of the greatest of wizards - fell to Sauron, so it is entirely possible that the Blue Wizards may have gone the same way; though they had no Palantír to worry about.

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"Mustard the Rohirrim! We've got to ketchup with those Uruk-fries before they capture the Hornburger!"

If you think about it...
the easterlings from Khand, the Haradrim, and the Corsairs were all influenced by Sauron, mainly because they worshiped him as a God, but as the Wizards were Maiar, so they would be harder to corrupt as they worshipped Eru... and they had no Palantir...

The 'new' type of Easterlings seen at the battle of the Pellennor Fields, bearded like Dwarves and carrying axes, always made me think that that tribe had met Dwarves somewhere East, and been influenced by them.

Unsurprisingly, I tried to incorporate a bit of that into my models of that tribe.

I like to think that the dwarves would have resisted in a sort of guerilla warfare style.Also I believe the Rangers of Eriador and Aragorn would disappear into the east to fight against Sauron's power in those lands.

The Eastern Realms

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The Age of Men is over. The Time of the Orc has come.

*looks at last post*


If only gaarew were here...

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"Mustard the Rohirrim! We've got to ketchup with those Uruk-fries before they capture the Hornburger!"

Well, the "rest of Middle-earth" looks something vaguely like this:



You can see the Misty Mountains (Hithaeglir) in the middle and the vast eastern plains north of the Sea of Helcar. Beyond are the Yellow Mountains. Some maps imagine another, smaller mountain range (the Mountains of the East) between the Misty Mountains and the Yellow Mountains.

This map isn't really canonical. It is based on a rough sketch of Middle-earth by Tolkien, which he later abandoned. But it gives you an idea of where things might be located. Remember the shape of the world changed at the end of the 1st Age, the 2nd Age and I like to think sometime after the end of the Third Age too. I like how Mordor seems to have risen from the sea, and perhaps it returned to the sea in the end.

With this map, we can imagine Dwarf Holds in the east, working the Misty Mountains. We can imagine where Sauron fled from Gandalf; where Saruman may have pursued him away from. And lots of windy plains for Easterling tribes to dwell in.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

Endor?

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The Age of Men is over. The Time of the Orc has come.

Are you meaning corsairs

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The Age of Men is over. The Time of the Orc has come.

gaarew???

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The Age of Men is over. The Time of the Orc has come.

Haven't seen gaarew around for a long while, but he would have been all over you for responding to posts that were months old.

What are you talking about again?

There's a bunch of Easterlings, as described by Faramir, who attack Cair Andros described as "bearded" and "carrying great axes"

But really, all "Easterling" means is someone from "the east" and by "east" its east of where you're standing. By and large, in Middle-earth terms anyone from east of the Carnen River, and east of the Sea of Rhun and east of Mordor is an Easterling. It's not a race, its not a culture, its not a language, its not a fighting style. It's a bunch of people who, by the end of the Third Age have been conquered by Sauron and fight in his armies.

There's a whole continent there to populate with your own imagination and your own vision, and your own conversion projects.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

these axe bearing bearded easterling is what ended up as GW Khandish

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warmancer

Not really.

The guys Faramir describes are "bearded like Dwarves" - the GW Men of Khand have nice, well ordered neat beards.

Now it DOES bring me to my favourite hobby horse of Tolkien lore.

Variag is the Russian word for viking - same word as Varangian, as in the viking guard who defended the Emperor of Byzantium. Later there were less vikings and more Englishmen, especially after 1066. The way they are described in the books "the Variags of Khand" can be read two ways: one is that there is a place called Khand, and the people of Khand are Variags. The other way to read it is that there are Variags who have come from Khand, and that Variag is a separate entity. That the Variags are a people who live in Khand. Khand means something like empire in old Bulgarian.

So imagine Khand is an empire, and in that empire are a bunch of famed warriors called the Variags.

Finally, what were the Varangian guard of ancient Byzantium famed for?
Their big beards and huge axes.

Imagine a group of Northmen mercenaries and adventurers who serve the lord of Khand as his warriors, who have marched to war for Mordor and for many other Warlords through the long centuries. Perhaps they are from the Carnen vale, or further north, maybe even from the lands around Dale! They sale down the Red Water to the Sea of Rhun and from there overland to the Gap of Khand, there to earn silver in the name of the lord of Khand. Then sent against Gondor!

The only problem with this idea is that Faramir's men have never encountered these warriors before. But maybe that's because Faramir and his men have heard of Variags, but never seen them - they are suitably alarmed when a bunch of hefty beared blokes with big scary axes show up.

But that's all just fun speculation.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.