The Lord of Blades!
Background
Back in the year 2009, the then-15-year-old me was dazzled that the company Games Workshop had finally created a high-profile Warrior character for the Easterlings of their Lord of the Rings line. His name was and is Amdûr, Lord of Blades, and they didn't give him an armored horse of his own until the year 2012 when I myself turned 18.
Five years after that, in 2017, I had turned 23 in May and unearthed an outstanding Battle for Middle-earth mod called Age of the Ring only one or two months afterward! But, I noticed there was no Amdûr in the Mordor hero menu for all of the newly added Easterling units for Mordor back then. Far more recently, I saw they have no plans to make an Easterling faction an official piece of Age of the Ring's ethos.
That's when I decided I needed to make an Easterling faction, so I got to work naming it "Rhûndor", which is Elvish for "Eastland" and confirming a Gameplay style, a definable theme, and a mix of Strengths and Weaknesses. The only problem was I was doing way too much for it in way too little time whenever I made new progress on Rhûndor, which was (and still is) for just an hour a day.
One of the Lead Developers did, however, suggest starting small, as in only adding one unit, hero, or building at a time. That's how Amdûr, Lord of Blades, being adapted from a 2009 Citadel Miniature to a 2022 Battle for Middle-earth faction hero came about! I started him off as a Mordor hero for Age of the Ring 7.2, but he will not be just that for long.
And as you can see above, I made Amdûr out of pieces of Age of the Ring assets (Easterling swordsman, Easterling Kataphrakt, Aragorn as Elessar, and the "Ancient Easterlings" unit from Dol Guldur).
Lore
In the land of Rhûndor (Sindarin, "Eastland"), there are a great many allied but different kingdoms of the men who are generalized as "Easterlings". The one of these which lay east of Rhovanion and around the inland Sea of Rhûn, this kingdom is known as Alwatûrjé, named in its native speech for its immensely mixed geography. Every Easterling seen by Frodo, Samwise, and Gollum at the Black Gate immerged from the Kingdom of Alwatûrjé, where these Easterlings are known in their homeland as the Rékarlax, or "knights", but there is not one Rékarlû who is more revered than Amdûr.
Born to a Rékarlû sword and shield champion on horseback named Ozrûk in 2977 of the Third Age. While even Amdûr knows nothing about his mother, due to her death in a battle she led against the Wood-elves of Mirkwood when he was 5 months old, Ozrûk raised Amdûr in one of the healthiest, most heartfelt father-son relations in the World of Men. Then, when Amdûr was 11 years old, his father led a medium legion of 850 Rékarlax to annex the Kingdom of Dale. Not only does this annex fail, but just as well, Ozrûk is slain by a Outrider of Dale named Brand, who'd later become King of Dale. Orphaned Amdûr then fought, worked, studied, forged, jogged on foot, and galloped on horse tirelessly to become self-sufficient until he was big enough and brave enough to ward off harm.
At 19 years old, Amdûr became capable of slashing his assailants apart faster than a viper yet stronger than a tiger, but wanted to learn how to deal death from afar using only swords to do so. This is how he discovered that the Variags of Khand, an Easterling people who live southeast of Mordor, use sword-throwing as their long-range infantry technique. Learning this from them with huge speed, Amdûr kept on piling on the skills, knowledge, and experience he could until 3019 of the Third Age, when Sauron invited Amdûr to "Lead all of your men to the event of you forging justice for your father", as Sauron put it in a letter to Amdûr.
Once Amdûr was 42 years old, he led the Easterling force at the Battle of Dale, and he found Brand of Dale to be the King of Dale. As such, Amdûr tore his way to King Brand of Dale, and slew King Brand so violently that all of the onlooking Men of Dale and Dwarves of Erebor were physically sickened into taking refuge Under the Mountain. King Dain Ironfoot being the very first in the Alliance of Erebor and Dale to lunge at Amdûr was the sole exception, as Ironfoot was too close to Brand to let Brand's corpse suffer any more. A horrific duel of King Dain Ironfoot using his trusty Red Axe against Amdûr using Ozrûk's giant saber ensued, but the Son of Ozrûk was far to quick with every strike! And alas, there is no more King Brand and no more King Dain because of the current Lord of Blades' desire to avenge his slain father.
What's Next?
I am going to go through Amdûr's powers and what they do and why he has them. In the mean time, thanks for reading this!
