Middle Earth (Longplay/Lore) - 0028: Fornost (Shadows of Angmar)

Channel:

Sqotch 'Studios'

Subscribers:

2,990

Published on November 22, 2016 10:11:48 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fcl1xjzYnE

Game:

The Lord of the Rings Online (2007)

Duration: 1:50:58

131 views

1

Despite his best efforts, the threat in the North Downs is not yet defeated. Located in the north-west of the North Downs, where the Greenway leads, stands the city of Fornost, broken long ago by the armies of Angmar. It once served as the seat of kings. When it fell, so did the North Kingdom of the Dúnedain - Arnor.

Arnor was the northern kingdom of the noble-blooded Dúnedain, founded late in the Second Age by Elendil, who later died at the hands of Sauron. In those days, the capital of Arnor sat in the city of Annúminas, on Lake Evendim, west of the North Downs.

Generations later, in a dispute over succession, Arnor was broken into three realms, and the North Downs became the dominion of a new kingdom called Arthedain. Here Amlaith — the first king of Arthedain, and a direct descendant of Isildur and Elendil — made Fornost his capital.

For more than eleven hundred years, the Dúnedain kings of Arthedain ruled from Fornost. It was a king of Arthedain that bestowed the lands of the Shire to Hobbits from Bree. The Hobbits called Fornost the “King’s Norbury,” a translation of the city’s formal Elvish title of Fornost Erain (literally, “northern fortress of kings”). The folk of the North Downs use all these names today. Some Men also call the lands of Fornost “the Deadman’s Dike,” for today the city and its fields are a bleak ruin.

Almost a thousand years ago, the hordes of Angmar swept across Nan Amlug and overran Fornost as part of the Witch-king’s stratagem to conquer the North Kingdom. The city fell. (Some say that traitors bewitched by Amarthiel — a champion of Angmar — betrayed the proud city from within.) Routed Dúnedain lords fled the land and king Arvedui, escaped to the frozen north but was lost at sea. So ended the kingdom of Arthedain.

The Witch-king held the city of Fornost for a year, until an army made of Men from Gondor under Eärnur, the last king of Gondor, along with Elves from Lindon and Rivendell, and rallied remnants of the northern Dúnedain, arrived on the Fields of Fornost. The battle that followed ravaged the land and destroyed the army of Angmar. The Witch-king fled east to Carn Dûm, but his mark forever stained Fornost and its fields.

The ruined city of Fornost seems forever blighted by the treachery and brutality of its defeat. Once a place of kings, it is now befouled by Orcs and haunted by Oathbreakers and fell spirits.

Other Statistics