The Road to Edain 4.3: Dwarves of the Ered Luin news

Greetings, Companions of Edain!

The last weekend of Mod of the Year voting is upon us, and so is the last of our three great Dwarven realms: Ered Luin, domain of the exiled Dwarven prince Thorin Oakenshield.

There [Thorin] laboured long, and gained such wealth as he could; and his people were increased by many of the wandering Folk of Durin that heard of his dwelling and came to him.

- The Return of the King, Appendix A: Durin's Folk -

Of all the Dwarven realms, Ered Luin has probably changed the most. This all started with implementing the movie design for the Iron Hills, probably the most frequently requested change in the history of Edain. While doing that it became clear to us that the Iron Hills could no longer be the fast and aggressive faction - the movie Dwarves were just too heavily armored to fit that role and carried heavy shields on top of that. We therefore decided to re-envision the Dwarves of Ered Luin as more lightly armored wanderers.

This change might seem sudden and even extreme, but we had actually been unhappy with Ered Luin's heavily armored Dwarves for a while now. While they looked extremely cool, they actually didn't fit with the history of that realm at all. Ered Luin was not a large and powerful kingdom like Erebor, it was a sanctuary for those Dwarves who had been exiled from their homeland by the dragon Smaug. Thorin built a new existence for his people there after long wanderings, but he never lost sight of his true home and would later launch an expedition to reclaim Erebor. We therefore felt it very appropriate to design the Dwarves of Ered Luin quite differently from the other two realms: These are Dwarven wanderers, banished from their home, carving out a new existence in exile, taking work where they can find it as Bilbo said in the movie.

Fierce and determined, hardened from their lot in life, they are still proud and powerful warriors, but they don't field heavily armored armies. Their warriors are equipped for life on the road, wearing light but sturdy leather armor and cloaks to protect them from the weather. With heavy armor, they don scalemail and helmets. We took Thorin and his company from the movies as an inspiration: Note how they too travelled lightly armored and only donned heavy armor once they had reached Erebor. Taking cues from both our previous design and Thorin himself, the Dwarves of Ered Luin wear blue cloaks and shining silver scales.

In terms of Gameplay, Ered Luin focuses on speed and unorthodox tactics. Their Guardians move faster than those of Erebor and the Iron Hills due to their light equipment and their long journeys, and they use longer-ranged archers instead of short-ranged axe-throwers and crossbowmen. This is meant to represent their distance from their ancestral Dwarven homelands and their desire to reclaim it.

While this represents a significant departure from our previous design, we feel it captures the history of the realm much more accurately and fits in better with the heroes of Thorin's company, so we hope you enjoy it!

And if you liked this update, as always we'd be honored if you would consider giving us your vote for Mod of the Year 2015! Keep in mind that votes by registered accounts count a lot more.