4th age materials?

[Noobie2k7]

Does anyone know if there are any books or material describing the 4th age? Or any time after the ring was destroyed and sauron was defeated. I'd love to build a campaign based around the 4th age so i;d like to find as much info on it as possible.

We can also use this thread for discussion on what we think would be ok for armies to run in a 4th age campaign. Who do we think would be good baddies, what are armies likely to look like? I mean Gondor is a given, mordor is likely to still have armies of orcs but not sure who would command them. The evil men are still a possible major threat like Harad and the easterlings but allied forces are less likely as they have no force to pull them together.

[Xelee]

Hi Noobie2K7, there is a free ebook collection of essays by a LOTR fan that has an essay on the 4th Age: http://www.michael-martinez.com/pres...002-01-07.html

Cheers

[Noobie2k7]

Awesomes. Thanks very much

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I don't think there's very much written about the Fourth Age, but here's the general picture I have from what little bit I did read:

I think orcs were mostly reduced to wandering bandits, warbands, etc. since they really lack any sort of organizational skills and without a strong authority figure would have become disbanded. If you decide you want to keep them alive, then the Mouth of Sauron, Gothmog, or whatever Black Numenorean leaders might still be around would probably have retained some orcs for their own retinues, but I don't think you'd see the likes of the armies that Sauron brought to the Pelennor Fields or the Black Gate. And realistically a lot of the orcs would probably squabble and battle amongst each other or might even turn on their former human allies. Conversely, I would imagine that Harad, Easterlings, and Khand would have maintained political stability and would probably pose the greatest threat to Gondor and Rohan, just as they did in the earlier Third Age.

I think, although I don't remember for sure, that Aragorn and Eomer campaigned against Harad not long after the War of the Ring. That would be a good excuse to use the Eomer, Marshal of the Mark profile.

[Noobie2k7]

Yeah, i think the campaign might end up being eastern kingdoms against gondor and rohan with the mouth of sauron leading an army too. I love the mouth of sauron model so i;d be happy with that :P Might even try and rework the dark marshall into a normal black numenorean king or something that used the fall of sauron as an excuse to rise to power. As i think an army of mainly black numenoreans and morgul knights would be pretty awesome. Adding in orcs for fodder troops.

[Peregrin]

When you think of orcs and goblins, think the goblin kingdom in the Hobbit. No human, Nazgul or balrog leader. Just a strong, manipulative, and cruel goblin king. They are hardwired to need an authority figure. I don't think Aragorn let them centralize, but they would settle in to surviving bands under some of the more ambitious captains, IMO. Until they were rooted out by the good guys, of course.

[jprp]

This is the 4th age, it will end in a Tolkienised Ragnorock apocalypse, then the world will be re-made as it was intended to be in Eru`s music.