Arthedain: First Kingdom of Arnor

Built around the windswept, rugged heartland of old Arnor, the Kingdom of Arthedain alone seems to maintain the ascetic traditions of the Faithful along with some hope of bringing peace and the old dreams back to the north. In Arthedain, the adventurer will find streams and rivers to fish and travel, herds of big game to hunt, and a rocky, hilly land open to settlement or wandering. The more aesthetic or political-minded may journey to Fornost, where the Royal Court of the Dúnedain of the North meets in secret to discuss and debate matters of state. Also inside the high and well-guarded walls of the Arthadan capital, scholars continue their research into the sciences and record the history happening around them. Those looking to farm the rich soil of southern Arthedain must ask permission of the Hobbits, who now live in and rule that part of the kingdom under the protection of King Arveleg I. A kingdom of contrasts, a land dominated in spirit by the highest of Men yet home to the hearth-loving Hobbits and the reckless Rivermen of the Brandywine, a realm whose borders are crawling with spies and agents and with mysterious strangers visiting the inns of Bree—this is the land of Arthedain, the bewildering and embattled North Kingdom.   THE LANDS AND BORDERS   Arthedain, the northern realm of the exiled Dúnedain, is bordered by the River Lhûn to the west and extends north to the icy plains of the Northern Waste (also called Forochel or the Forodwaith) and east to the Weather Hills (S. "Emyn Sûl"). It includes within its territory all the land north of the Great East Road between the Lhûn and the Hills, with a irregular border enclosing an area some four hundred miles across in any direction. Its heartland has always been the northern half of this territory, the Twilight Hills (S. "Emyn Uial), and the North Downs (S. "Tyrn Formen") to the east, where Fornost Erain, the capital of the realm and the seat of its King, .stands only a day's ride from the Oiolad, now a frontier with the hostile realm of Angmar. The Weather Hills, little inhabited, form the southeastern flank of these frontier defenses, while the Rammas Formen (S. "North Wall") composes the northern flank along the edge of the Forodwaith. Behind this shelter, the Midgewater Marshes and Bree-land rest at the junction of the Great East Road and the North Road which connects Fornost with distant Cardolan. The Baranduin River flows from the Twilight Hills southward across central Arthedain. The higher, rougher, eastern side of its valley is the Nan Turath,or "Kingsland." Although it isn't nearly as rugged as the hill and down country around at the headwaters of the river, it is rocky enough that only the narrow valleys of streams are arable. On the western side, in the old Arnorian province of Siragalë, the land is far better; the Hobbits have settled here in large numbers to create the new territory they call the Shire. Past Bree and the Great East Road on the lower Baranduin lies dying Cardolan; and west of the Shire and the Twilight Hills is the Elvish realm of Lindon. Neither is a great threat to Arthedain, and both are sad reminders of the slow decline of the Free Peoples in Eriador. The mix of semi-desolate landforms with fertile ones had a decided effect on the societies of the Eriadorans who first made their homes here in the early Second Age. The chalk prairies never received any substantial settlement of herdsmen or anyone else. However, the hill country possessed a pattern of vegetation called silvan woodland, named for the Elves who roamed it before human settlement. Hardwood forests flourished here, spreading out from the best water sources towards the hilltops; only a few rocky exposures and glades were bare, sporting grasses and ground cover. Eriadoran clan-holdings were usually located in the sheltered, woodland vales, although their herdsman wandered the exposed heights and the prairies. The downs, where drainage left less water, supported only tough grasses and heather; these open areas were called moorlands, or simply moors. Here bare rock showed often, and trees and brush were, often literally, hidden in pockets and ravines. Tree-clearing and heavy grazing turned the silvan country into moorland in the Second Age. Even the first Dúnedain to travel into Arthedain from the south never knew much of the silvan country when it was in full growth. Many of them thought that only the Elves, who preserved the tree cover of Siragalë by simply never farming it, could make forests grow. The Dúnedain first sought metals and minerals not already being mined by the Dwarves. This strategy succeeded, to some degree, because the available mineral wealth of Arthedain was in deposits too small to attract Dunn's Folk. Wealth there was, however, thanks mainly to the small igneous intrusions located here and there under the Arthadan hill country. Copper and cobalt were both found in the Pinnath Ceren, on the lower Baranduin in Cardolan. The tin to make bronze out of the copper came from deposits in the Hills of Scary, west of the Baranduin in Elvish country, and from the North Downs, near where Fornost was eventually built. Fornost also provided the Men of Eriador with enough silver to allow coins to be minted. Lead, in mineable quantities, salt, sulfur, and more obscure minerals were also found in the north country. The chalk itself yielded flint for fire-building and marble for stone working, with quality building granite also exposed around the steeper hill masses. The bogs provided "turf or "peat," compacted plant material that could be burned for fuel when the forests gave out or "baked" into a pure form of charcoal for use in making the famous Arnorian High Steel. The original Eriadorans lacked good steel for tools and also the social organization to make this decidedly varied land prosper. Their herdsmen roamed most of the country, but they tended to form petty tribal kingdoms around each individual small mine or fertile valley. When the Dúnedain began arriving in numbers they were often welcomed, as even the peaceful astronomers who wanted only empty hilltops and clean air for sky-watching could be a unifying and pacifying force. The Elendili, the refugee Faithful of the later Second Age, with their literacy, knowledge, and immensely long lifespan, finally provided the north country with the unity and skills it needed to flourish.   CLIMATE   Normally—but for the frigid tundra of Forochel, of course—Arthedain is a land blessed with a cool but pleasant climate. The moderating influence of sea winds and air currents brought from the Gulf of Lhûn and through the gap between the north and south ranges of the Blue Mountains has favored the realm with abundant rainfall and sunshine and comfortably cool summers. Since the rise of Angmar in the far northeast of Eriador, the climate of Arthedain has changed for the worse, especially in the northern hills. Winter hangs on, the spring thaw is delayed, and people begin to wonder if the snow will ever melt. When summer bursts upon the scene it comes violently, with ice and hail storms and fierce winds that flatten the crops as they ripen in the fields. The Arthedain have carried on as best they can. The Men of the hills and the Hobbits of the Shire shield their crops and animals from the brutal summer storms and the winter wind's frigid reach, and they burn turf and twisted grass to make their dwindling firewood supplies last the year through; but they ponder how long they themselves can persist in the face of such adversity. The High Folk huddled at Fornost wonder too, and offer prayers and incantations as the soldiers drill in the windswept courtyards below the King's Chambers. The Seers' warnings to the King are clear: the Witch-king's magic is as powerful as it is menacing, and the very wind may be at his command.