Kingdom of Rhovanion

## **NOTICE:**

*The following page is a player-run organization or faction. As such, it does not necessarily represent the overall set lore of Middle Earth. In short, it is a group of players getting together and having fun. Keep this in mind as you read.*

## Kingdom of Rhovanion

### Location

West of Sea of Rhun, Between Mirkwood and the River Running, South of Dale

## Summary

A tribal people of the west-central regions of Middle-Earth and origin of the Northmen of Rohan, Dale, and other regions, this kingdom is the remnants of a people once devastated by disease, slavery, and infighting. There was never truly one Kingdom of Rhovanion, but many bickering princedoms of which the most powerful of the Princes which would typically be referred to as a kind of 'King' of Rhovanion.

## Official Lore

Unofficially founded by Vidugavia, from whom the kings of Rohan are long descended, sometime in the 13th century of the Third Age, the Kingdom of Rhovanion was allied with Gondor against the Easterlings of Rhun. The daughter of Vidugavia, Vidumavi, wed the Gondorian heir Valacar, with the ascension of their son to the throne of Gondor resulting in the Kin-Strife, a great Gondorian civil war which greatly weakened that realm and forever lost them the Havens of Umbar, only ended when the King-in-Exile, Eldacar, returned to his mother's home to gather a Rhovanion army with which he reclaimed his throne.

In the year T.A. 1635, the Great Plague came, wiping out at least half of the people of Rhovanion, leaving the realm weak and barren, prime for the invasion of the Wainriders in T.A. 1851. These chariot-bound Easterlings ravaged the lands, enslaving the people of Rhovanion for fourty-three years, until the Great Revolution of T.A. 1899, assisted by Gondor's assault upon the Wainriders from the west, resulting not in a resurgence of Rhovanion but rather in flight, with most of those who survived leaving for Gondor, abandoning their ancestral lands.

This was not the first great migration of Northmen, though, for those whom would be known as Eorlinga had, following the Battle of the Plains in T.A. 1856, in which kings of both Gondor and Rhovanion fell under the hooves of the Easterlings, fled west to the Vales, whereupon they founded the city of Frambusrg, from which they would later march south to form that mighty kingdom of Rohan.

## WOTRMC Lore

Though largely abandoned, some tribes of Men did remain in the Plains, eking out an existence as nomadic hunters and subsistence farmers, afraid to rebuilt lost cities and stronghold for fear of summoning the return of the Easterlings. A few fortresses were built upon ancient foundations or in hidden valleys, but the population remained decentralized and without authority past local tribal leaders, known as Thiudans as many Gondorian terms faded from memory in favour of the old languages and dialects of the Rova. Tribal warring and an inability to preserve their food past salted meats maintained a low population, ensuring there would be no great powers as in the past unless a new Prince, a new Kindins, a new Vidugavia were to arise to direct their people. After many centuries, the Biaccvidu arose in Guudrand, Thiudan of Waldadung, last descendant of Vidugavia in Rhovanion and leader of the same tribe his ancestor had headed.