Lets do a Review - of The Lord of the Rings! (Part 1)

After reading the Lord of the Rings a second time these days (the first time I did read the books was about a year before the first of the Peter-Jackson-films was released), my impression was indeed very, very mixed. Since the movies took such a massive part of the way how the story is set in the public consciousness, I didn't quite knew what would expect me and it became rather discovering the book anew instead of recapitulating a familiar text. Some aspects of it were surprisingly good, others were frankly quite shocking.

But lets start with...

The good things

Plot and Storydeveloping

You simply can't take for granted that a 1000-pages book will keep you entertained throughout its entire length. The Lord of the Rings really does. You can clearly see how well composed it is in its outlines and how well planned the development of the story is. There are no loose threads and even every minor protagonist is thoroughly carried through the plot. A well-rounded story really. Of course this is clearly the result of the long time it took for Tolkien to write it (and the vast amount of background resources he put together in all the years). It was certainly not an easy task writing the story down but that doesn't really shows to the reader.

Depth

I will come back to Tolkien's world-building later in the text, but I can say already here that: when he decides to elaborate a culture, region or event, he does it with great depth and a richness in detail hard to match. The book offers the reader a plethora of sub-stories to unfold and to get background information from further sources online or offline. I found it also quite interesting researching about the real-world mythology he based much of his book on. The author certainly knew his trade.

Emotion

Another big feat of Tolkien is that his story really touches you. The very likeable Shire and its clumsy, peculiar inhabitants for example. It simply gives you such nice feelings of rural childhood cosiness that I can't help but call it with the nice German term Gemütlichkeit.

And it is a pretty clever move starting the novel there, as it is in general to focus on the Hobbit's perspective than of the Human's: The author welcomes you with open arms, seats you at a warm fireplace with a good cup of hot chocolate (or the middle-earth counterpart of it) and serves you a plate of sweets before sending you out on your trip to terrible Mordor, through a supersized world chased by undead riders, Orks and other nasty critters!

I think its also not a too big stretch to view his depictions of the Shire and Mordor in relation to the First World War. While the Shire can be seen as metaphor for his early years in secluded and peaceful rural England, Mordor shows clear traces of rampaging industrialization, trench warfare and devastated, burned landscapes typical for the First World War.

I think this clearly left an imprint on him him, as it did on millions of other young men, who were thrown into the greatest slaughter mankind ever experienced to that date. The only difference really is that Tolkien had the talent and ambition to express his feelings – and clear disdain of what he experienced – into a highly popular narrative.

A Solar "Map"

List Of planets and Moons

Star = Eka

First Planet = Mrt, barren and lifeless

Second Planet = Pahy, lava world

First Asteroid Field = Par

Third Planet = Hara, Tropical world, rings

First Moon of Hara = Hul, forest

Second Moon of Hara = Kul, grasslands

Forth Planet = Mata, the original world

Moon of Mata = Akuna, barren

Fifth Planet = Banua, rocky, thin atmosphere, rings

Sixth Planet = Broine large rocky planet

First Moon of Broine = Ira, temperate

Second Moon of Broine = Mau, water

Seventh Planet = Gasia, gas giant, rings

First Moon of Gasia = Blu, frozen

Second Moon of Gasia = Raka, Barren

Third Moon of Gasia = Nara, Rocky

Eighth Planet = Alle, dead world

Second Asteroid Field = Dus

The Start Of The New Worlds

Out of the ten sleeper ships only 6 managed to leave the planet each heading to various places. One landed on the planet Hara, A tropical world covered in lush green forests. A single continent stretches unbroken around the planet's equator, separating the northern and southern oceans. This continent is teeming with life, as are the oceans. However the colony did not last and it's fate is a mystery.
 Another made it to the planet Pahy, this mostly consisted of prisoners partly political partly not. The planet is immensely hot and inhospitable being close to the sun and comprising mostly of rock and lava.
 One made it to the planet Broine a large rocky planet with high gravity and a thin atmosphere. The atmosphere only extends about 1 mile above sea level, and many mountain tops are exposed to the vacuum of space. Native flora and fauna live in the deep valleys between mountain ranges. Many of these valleys are isolated, causing an interesting amount of biodiversity.
 Yet another to Blū a moon of a gas giant near the edge of the system, deeply cold with a habitable band around the equator, it is full of rare minerals and metals. The colonists mostly comprised of rich nobles.
 One mostly filled with abducted people missed the intended target and ended up at Banua, a terrestrial planet with an unusually large axial tilt causing extreme seasonal changes. The planet has a very thin atmosphere but underground caves do have enough to sustain human life-forms. 
The final ship was not ready and had few people in cyrosleep on launch, but it did have a large number of engineers and scientists who got trapped on board when the ship launched, the ship is now located on the far edge of the system.

A New Setting

This is the start of a new setting I am building. I will be adding more and more to the setting as I go.

Long ago on the planet Matra, a vast empire existed that spread from one side of the planet to the other. The empire existed on firm rule claiming land by force and assigning governors to each area. The Empire continued in a stable form like this for quite some time, but tensions slowly started developing between the governors, while unable to declare war against each other they still began preparing in secret developing advanced weapons and conducting espionage. However while this cold war was brewing another group started to appear, The Akata a group of anarchists who deemed a unified Empire was weakening everyone and the governors where useless and needed to be removed. In order to shake up the Empire into something more desirable they formulated a plan to use the Internet to spread their message and to cause unrest in one of the regions with small rebel strikes, they then hacked into the Imperial network and use it to fake the launch of nuclear missiles against the insurgents, meaning that during the chaos they could rise up in key locations and take over with little resistance as everyone was distracted by coming nuclear winter and to point out how low the empire had become. The first part of the plan worked just fine, even managing to lock the Empire out of the nuclear launch procedure removing the threat of strikes when it had been realised the crisis was faked. However it turns out most of the Governors had assigned automated safeguards, with the broadcast of a fake missile launch several missiles where launched automatically in retaliation from some of the more aggressive safeguards, this trigged more as real launches where detected and with everyone locked out the network, it used all it could to destroy and counter it's self. Most of the civilization was wiped away leaving a few pockets of survivors desperately fighting each other and the blasted landscape. It would take many centuries to get back to the same level of technology and society that had taken days to be destroyed. Yet during all this a secret project had been awoken, several sleeper colony ships had been developed in secret, full of cryogenically preserved people. Each one had a destination within the solar system and most occupied with willingly picked participants, but some where being used to remove prisoners from the population or less willing people chosen for important tasks and basic labour later on. With the launch of the first nukes a few launched, the ones set up in case of this very situation in the hopes some would survive on other planets. Within a few days they had all launched regardless of situation, now the starts of new colonies had been thrown into space. Now millennia on the various colonies have made contact and trade has started, each unique and brimming with life.

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 9

More Lessons To Learn

Unsolved business: The view at Bleak Falls Barrow form a safe distance

Following the White River up to its origin, I reached Lake Ilinalta and continued wandering along its shore. I even found a half-sunken fortress, which would fit to the description the old Dark Elf at the Shrine of Azura gave me, but after my recent defeat I found its a better idea to stay out of trouble for now and to get better before trying something silly again.

There is a short chain of mountains north of the lake. I followed them to the west and then turned north, finding myself on the road to Whiterun again. I didn't wanted to return there with empty hands. So I decided to take the road to the city of Morthal, north-west of Whiterun instead.

When passing fort Greymoor, a large stronghold occupied by bandits, I met two imperial battlemages which seemed rather friendly. They were both not too happy with the presence of bandits so close at a frequented road, so we attacked them together.

The battlemages were bold. They stormed into the castle, while I was still busy with dodging arrows. The resulting fight though didn't took too long and soon the two wizards were laying dead in the courtyard. I was next. The bandits stormed out of the fort and I did the best I could do in that moment: I ran for my life!

I knew if I wanted to survive this my only chance was to reach the Western Watchtower where a number of Whiterun's guards was posted to defend the city from dragons. But it was so terribly far away! I lost my breath and turned around if they were still following me. They did! And they were way too close! Quickly I sent an atronarch against them and took one of my scarce stamina potions to be able to continue running. While desperately trying to reach the tower I ran past three Redguards, two of them men in their traditional clothing. They were busy with discussing something and as I tried to warn them from the bandits running after me they totally ignored me!

Finally I reached the tower and alarmed the guards. They rushed off to attack the bandits, while I took shelter in the watchtower to heal my wounds. As soon I felt able to fight again rushed to the top of tower to assist the guards. Together we took them down without further loss of life. Their arrows though were well aimed and pretty effective.

This really wasn't my most glorious hour: Two imperial battlemages dead, the two Redguards too, and me again just barely able to save my own life!

At least the Redguard woman was unarmed, though looking pretty disturbed. I searched the bandits for their belongings and then left this embarrassment behind me. I'm sure the guards weren't too impressed of that silly novice-mage who tried to play hero.

The rest of my journey to Morthal went rather uneventful at least. As the city itself is. Its at a rather peculiar location though: To the west and north lies a great swamp which expands almost till Skyrim's capitol Solitude and in the west nothing but snow and mountains. I found Morthal isn't a too cozy place to stay. Also the recent events did shake my self-confidence quite a bit. Time to return to the College and get more seriously into magic. No carriage or boat was departing from Morthal so I had to do the journey back to Winterhold by myself again. I did inquire for the best way and got pointed towards Dawnstar in the north-east and then just follow the shoreline.

After a stop at the local alchemy store, the Thaumaturgist's Hut, where I did my usual mix and trade, I went to the local Inn (with the name Moorside Inn, suiting, isn't it?) and stayed there over night. The next morning I departed towards Dawnstar.

The road leading out of Morthal soon became very inhospitable. It was slippery from the freshly fallen snow and the temperature did drop the nearer I came to the mountains it was leading along.

After a while I saw smoke rising up in the distance and soon a thatched roof too. As I came closer I identified the place as miner's colony. A talk with the locals identified the Colony as Stonehills and the mine as Rockwallow Mine. Suiting names I guess.

There wasn't much an aspiring mage could do. No spiders in this mine, as its leader Gestur assured me. But I could deliver a message for them to their owner, Thane Bryling in Solitiude. Pactur, who seemed to be responsible for the mine's paperwork was quite frightened of her and didn't stop warning me of her bad temper!

Not far east from the mine I got attacked by a group of bandits. Again pretty resistant guys who made me quite some trouble. With the assistance of the mine's guard I got rid of them though.

After this event I did only encounter some occasional spider, but nothing serious anymore, till I arrived at Dawnstar.

My first impression of Dawnstar was that it looked like a horseshoe with its houses cluttered around the small bay of its harbor. Apart from this my first impression the city wasn't too remarkable either. Like Morthal it didn't even had city walls!

I had a walk around town, talked with some locals, got orientation and visited the stores before heading to Windpeak inn, to warm myself and get a bed for the night.

The final leg of my Journey to Winterhold did lead me to at least halfway familiar terrain. This time I was better prepared for the climate way up in the north though. So it wasn't as disastrous as the first time I went to the College.

Well, not disastrous, but not without its perils too. Especially when travelling along the shore. I will have to “thank” that guy in Dawnstar who gave me that advice next time I go there.

I've never seen a snow bear before and it just turned at me after it finished killing one of these giant semi-aquatic beasts the locals call horker. And again Skyrim saw me running for my life. Luckily I had enough stamina potions and after a few risky leaps from ice-sheet to ice-sheet, I found myself in safety again.

A familar view - the college can't be far away.

My dear reader might sense some sarcasm in my report. I can assure you your impression isn't wrong. At this point I was quite upset about myself running into one disaster after the other.

When finally arriving at the College I made up my mind: I had so much to learn still before I could call myself an at least acceptable mage.

I entered my room the Hall of Attainment and fell on my bed, instantly drifting off into sleep.

The next day I found my fellow students busily practising magic. I felt a bit bad just having ran off to play the great adventurer while they stayed here hitting the spellbooks. At least, I guess, my journey falls under the category “practical experience”. And hey – after all I found the legendary White Phial! Well, it was broken – but that wasn't my fault! And well, I admit, its not like I ever heard of this artifact before Nurelion pointed my nose at it, but still: I found the White Phial! That sounds nevertheless pretty good, doesn't it?

I wanted to tell Brelyna about my adventures. She is after all the one in the College I get along best, but I found her pretty occupied with her magical experiments. Also I didn't wanted to boast too much. After all it was me who found that magical orb at Saarthal, where she found nothing but dust.

To do her a favor I agreed in helping her with her latest experiment: a new spell she developed. I had no idea what was supposed to do, but I was sure it wasn't something harmful.

And indeed. The magical effect wasn't harmful. Just very annoying. It made me turn green!

I spent the rest of the day in my room waiting for the effect to wear off, which took way too long. At least it did entertain the people who walked by and gave them a nice and funny story about novice students, which I'm sure would make them laugh for weeks to come...

Later J'zargo approached me with helping him testing a spell he created too – which I more or less politely refused.

I'm sitting now at my desk in the College and look through the write-up of my adventures in Skyrim so far. It became already quite a story! I will try to keep my diary up-to-date and write it as my time allows me. I also want it to be a report of my progress in becoming a mage. I hope one day when I mastered the arcane arts, I will look at these lines with a smile and remember the good old times.

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 8

Bleak Falls Barrow

Passing the Watchtower.

I followed the road back to Riverwood, then took the path up the mountains and followed it until I came to its snowy top. In the distance I spotted a pretty derelict watchtower and as I came closer two bandits guarding it. I took them out pretty easily with my fire-bolts and continued my journey.

Rolof showed me Bleak Falls Barrow the day we esecaped from Helgen. It was a pretty large and scary looking ruin complex looking down at us while we were on the road to Riverwood. My first impression proved to be quite right. It was also a pretty large and scary looking place when standing right before it. Massive stone stairs were leading up a platform, surrounded by massive arches and pillars pointing high in the sky.

Just before I did set a foot on the first step I realized I wasn't alone. Arrows were darting left and right and I rushed to take cover.

My opponents weren't too hard to defeat actually, just being outnumbered and not seeing where the arrows came from they did shoot at me made it all a bit pesky but eventually I gained safely access to the ruin.

There were two more bandits in the wide entrance hall, then I headed down a corridor leading deeper into the ruins. I did pretty well and progressed nicely until I ran into an opponent who seemed have some kind of protection against my spells. Or was just more resistant than the others. Anyway. My spells didnt do him much harm, contrary to his sword which almost broke through my protection spell. I realized quickly that I don't stand a chance against him, turned away and ran off before it could become really nasty.

Bleak Falls Barrow.

Outside again I collapsed into the snow, thanking the heavens that he didn't follow me outside. Weary and hurt I made my way down the mountain again. With empty hands, but at least alive.

After I recovered I began to stroll along the White River, harvesting herbs and the occasional mudcrab, while I did scold myself for not being able to overcome that bandit. I hated to disappoint the Jarl and Farengar after they put so much trust into me with giving me this obviously pretty important task they won't give any random adventurer who happens to stumble into the Jarls throne room looking for fame.

Actually I wasn't looking for fame at all. Well, perhaps for adventure. And a bit wealth won't hurt too. But mostly I wanted and still want to get better. I want to learn and be a good mage. And this means to be competent enough to fight off some bandits if I have to. And obviously I wasn't.

So the mudcrabs had to suffer. They are perhaps not the best target for training magic at, but at least I felt a bit better after roasting some of them.

The Adventures of a Mage in Skyrim - Part 7

The Long Road Back To Whiterun

The woods west of Riften are as beautiful as they are dangerous. I came by a heavily guarded farm south of Lake Honrich, in sight of the city, just as a troll attacked the farmers. I hit it with my flame spells and the guards took it down with bow and arrows. This little episode should be a warning of what was waiting for me deeper in the forest.

I strayed a bit south off the road, looking for herbs to collect and deer to hunt, as suddenly the earth began to shake and the sound of a nearby battle did alarm me. Before I could realize what was going on, a Orc mage did land right before my feet. She was unconscious and just getting her senses back. But before I was able to help her I saw a giant running towards me, wielding its massive club. I turned and started to run, back to the road and towards the farm where I saw the guards just before.

I guess the giant spared the Orc's life because I seemed to have his full attention now. Every few steps I made on my run, I felt the earth shaking from the leaps the giant made to catch me. Almost out of breath I started to conjure flame atronarchs, just to see each getting smashed into bits by one hit with the giant's club. Somehow I made it alive to the guards and they ran to my help, or to defend the farm, but just lets assume it was their priority to rescue me!

I think conjuring the many atronarchs did weaken the giant more than I did expect since the giant did fall only after a comparably short fight. Curiously I started to examine the huge creature and looted what was useful to me. Amongst other things I found a Mammoth Tusk, which I picked up to bring it to Ysolda in Whiterun.

Despite their monstrous size, giants are surprisingly human-like in their appearance. They actually look like perversely overgrown humans with wiry and bony limbs and torso and a pale and distorted face. From my studies I knew that giant's toe was a pretty common alchemy ingredient, so I cut them off with my dwemer army knife. Giant's toe – unlike dragon's tongue, which is actually a flower – really is giant's toe and tastes a bit like goat cheese.

After this episode I went back to the place where the mage landed. I suspect she had an encounter with the giant's club or got somehow thrown away by it, so I expected her to have suffered quite a trauma. The spot she hit the ground was pretty easy to identify, since a shallow pond was just nearby, but no trace of the mage. She must have survived her fall. Quite an impressive display of orcish robustness.

A few minutes walk away I spotted a wooden stronghold. As I carefully approached it I saw my Orc mage again! She must have remembered me, because she was pretty friendly towards me, unlike her companion who clearly wanted me to bugger off as soon as possible.

It's really strange. An Orc mage seems to be one of the biggest oxymoron you could think of, but she was already the second I did encounter in Skyrim already! She actually looked more like a necromancer to me, according to her robe. But who am I to judge foreign cultures.

She told me the story of her clan. The Orcs in Skyrim – as far as they didn't live in the Nord settlements – were organized in clans living in remote forts out in the wild and usually don't tolerate outsiders.

As she told me why she made an exception with me, things began to get really weird: Her clan lost the favour of their god Malacath because of their weak chief, who wasn't able to defend their stronghold against the giants in the region. They lost already many men to the giants but their leader stayed away from the fights. So she asked me to help her clan getting its honour back and please Malacath by helping her performing a ritual. She just needed some troll fat and a daedra heart from me...

I promised them to keep their matter in mind and left, feeling the hopes and expectations of the Orc mage weighing quite heavily on me. How the hell do they all get the strange idea I might be the answer to their problems? I just barely survived a fight with an ordinary bandit leader and didn't at all feel like being some kind of tough adventurer, or even a hero.

Following the road further west I had a few encounters with bears and trolls before reaching the outskirts of the mountains which divide the south of Skyrim into the Falkreath and the Rift hold. I decided to leave Ivarstead aside and go directly into the mountains. I knew it was quite a risky decision, but I just wanted to return to a region more familiar to me. Ironic, isn't it? Helgen, the place where I almost got beheaded not long ago, suddenly became a symbol of hope for me.

The climate became colder the closer I came to the mountains and an icy wind from the Throat of the World blew snow into my face that it hurt like a thousand needles.

The sun began to set and I cursed myself for the decision not going to Ivarstead and instead following this damn mountain pass. It became very quickly dark and the wind became a nasty snow-storm. I had difficulties to see the path winding up between the cliffs. I prepared myself to fight off ice wolves or bears or trolls or whatever creatures might lurk behind each corner in this hell. Suddenly I saw a shack snug against the rocks. I must have cried in joy! I ran towards the shack as a pack of wolves came out of the dark, but they couldn't stop me.

I stepped into the shack where a Nord was sitting. After I made him clear I'm not representing a threat to him, he seemed rather peacefully. Except for rambling paranoid and suspecting me of being an imperial spy. But I think that simply happens to you when you are a hermit, living out in the mountains for too long.

After all though in a place like this neither of us could be picky about their company. I was worn and tired, and a terrible storm was going on outside. I think we both were simply glad not to be out in the wild that night.

I can't say I had a great sleep that night but the next morning the storm was gone and the pass looked so peaceful. As if it was a completely different place! I wanted to make use of the good weather and bid the hermit farewell.

A few corners further I hear the noises of a battle somewhere ahead of me. I carefully continued my path, ready to take cover any moment. I was lucky though. Lots of dead bodies of imperial legionnaires appeared ahead of me. Some Stormcloak soldiers were amongst them too, but by far the most were legionnaires. The road was actually scattered with dead imperial soldiers! I followed the trail of dead bodies and figured the battle must have dragged on over a pretty long distance. Were the imperials spread thin and therefore an easy target for the Stormcloaks? It appeared so. I eventually ran into the victorious Stormcloak soldiers. They weren't terribly many of them left and they mostly ignored me. I guess they were busy with treating their wounds and mourn the loss of their companions.

I arrived a the ruins of Helgen without further incident. Strangely The city's gates were intact and closed shut. This smelled dangerous. Did the imperials reoccupy the place? Or bandits? I decided not to try my luck and avoid the place. I made my way around the ruins until I could return on the road to Riverwood.

Coming back there was a bit like seeing an old friend again. The little, peaceful Riverwood! I said hello to Gerdur and Hod and did some trading before heading to Whiterun. I gathered a lot of herbs and other ingredients and I could really need some money and my stock of potions was pretty depleted too.

How good it was to see Whiterun again! The friendly and peaceful land, the warm climate of its hold. If you ever tried to cross a mountain pass in a snow-storm or got almost beaten to mash by a giant you really appreciate a place like this.

I spent a pretty good time there. My purse got filled nicely, I got a few useful things and simply enjoyed myself!

Oh and I got rid of that Mammoth Tusk I was carrying since my encounter with that giant. Ysolda was delighted to see it and told me a few tricks for bartering with shop-keepers. But next time I will think twice before I carry something unwieldy over a mountain pass.

I also went up to Whiterun's Castle, Dragons Reach, where I saw the Jarl's wizard, Farengar, again for some trading. He was surprised to see me return with empty hands and did remind me of getting them this Dragon-Stone thing from Bleak Falls Barrow. Ah well.

It wasn't too far away. You could see the mountain it was resting at from Dragon's Reach after all. And perhaps stepping down into a Nord ruin again would be interesting. Saarthal went pretty well too after all, so I decided to do him this favor.