Encyclopædia
I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama… – J.R.R. Tolkien (1951)
Lay of the Dead
“Yet even so it was Gondor that brought about its own decay, falling by degrees into dotage, and thinking that the Enemy was asleep, who was only banished not destroyed. – – Death was ever present, because the Númenoreans still, as they had in their old kingdom, and so lost it, hungered after endless life unchanging. Kings made tombs more splendid than the houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king of the line of Anárion had no heir.”
– Faramir
Lay of the Dead is a roleplaying world created by Sampsa Rydman, based on an extended (and noncanonical) vision of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The game itself was run from 2002 to 2022, and was set in the waning years of the Realms in exile. Recurrent themes included Death as a part of the nature of Man, and hope without guarantees; combining comedy and romance with tragedy, politics, war and philosophy. All Men would reach and fall, until their final and inexorable demise.
Gazetteer
REALMS AND LANDS
OTHER TOPICS
- Important characters
- Great houses
- Genealogies
- Heraldry
- Literature
- Númenorean legal system
- Orders and organisations
- Political parties
- Ships and seamanship
- Military
- Wars and battles
- Religion and folklore
MAPS AND CHARTS
