Question to MoL: the New Notion Club Archives

[TesalionLortus]

@MoL because this is not the first time I'm running into stuff like this, on this website specifically, so gotta ask... Do you guys read it and/or maybe take inspiration from this archive? https://notionclubarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Khundolar

Or do you guys type LOTRO entries on it ??? :P

Because the knowledge of lotro-specific questlines and lore seems top-notch:







but this one below is peculiar lol !







eh... not Sauron? did someone take a giant leap ahead there into "what happened in Rhun" territory or something? Hey maybe it's you guys I figured you out, are there possibly spoilers on this archive? :P

Also, she? Wasn't that a male captain in-game :P





GEEZ...



Never knew bandits of the Wold could be THAT deep...
so they burnt it for freedom....


Can't unsee it now. I'll always feel guilt whenever I have to kill a bandit.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Do you guys read it and/or maybe take inspiration from this archive?

This is the first I've heard of it, but as a general rule we try to avoid non-canonical sources -- too easy to mix things up. We have no shortage of our own ideas, that's for sure!

MoL

[TesalionLortus]

This is the first I've heard of it, but as a general rule we try to avoid non-canonical sources -- too easy to mix things up. We have no shortage of our own ideas, that's for sure!

MoL

Yeah, that's for sure! Either way, I've been wondering whether some of your names are actually taken from somewhere else hence the occurrence but if not, then it must really mean people/someone at the archive really appreciate your ideas because I've seen LOTS of LOTRO's clan names/locations/lore treated like it's an integral part of that place in lots of articles - it's almost as if someone treats LOTRO higher on the "canon ladder" and only then adds pure fanon/combines with these other non-canon sources (I guess?). I remember looking for many things over the years in google meaning to end up on lotro wiki and ending up on The New Notion Club Archive instead

[elvenes]

there's A LOT of stuff that lotro takes from, for example, MERP (middle earth roleplay) the boundaries of regions, map layouts, names of places, names of towns, not everything is 100% invented from scratch using just the books, even if a dev says no, it's evident if you look it up, too many instances for it to be ALL coincidences XD call it taking inspiration from, that will work

[TesalionLortus]

there's A LOT of stuff that lotro takes from, for example, MERP (middle earth roleplay) the boundaries of regions, map layouts, names of places, names of towns, not everything is 100% invented from scratch using just the books, even if a dev says no, it's evident if you look it up, too many instances for it to be ALL coincidences XD call it taking inspiration from, that will work

Do you have an example specifically of what was taken from where? Made me curious but any info I've ever run across looked mostly like it's online stuff inspired by/taken from lotro, not vice versa

[elvenes]

Angmar region, and Evendim are 2 that come to mind

[TesalionLortus]

Well yeah, but meant like a specific single name that actually originated from somewhere else so not lotro's original

[professorcat12]

Hello. If you click three dots on top right of each page, at least on desktop version, you can access page history. Khundolar, Northron Outlaw and Rozi pages are created way after Great River release. Khundolar page mentions Boschi, a quest boss, which the page edited and added way after Riders of Rohan release. At one point editors even considered the Dunlending Powus as an Easterling. It's just one of many fandom.com wikis that are fanfictions. Check out Lucerne for a wackier wiki/ fantasy setting. New Notion Wiki has a page called Lorgan II. Wiki editors used Doran Martell's (Alexander Siddig) still from HBO's Game of Thrones show. It also has Lotro category.

I should've read its main page. It clearly says New Notion Archive is a wiki for expanded Middle-earth and contains non-canon stuff. Some of the stuff I've read are funny nonetheless, like using a Two Towers movie Dunlending as an image of Acca from Lotro. Lucerne on the other hand seems to be fantasy setting created by a group of people, according to a very old and one of two forum posts Lucerne wiki has.

I checked Rozi's page history and noticed it had mentioned "the Nameless" since page creation date April 2012. Maybe the Nameless here is just Sauron. If you click the Nameless in Rozi's page, it'll take you to disambiguation page for Nameless beings and the Nameless as Sauron's other name.

[Phantion]

It seems the moral of the story here is: Here's hoping the next big level cap update can get us back on the trail of filling-in some gaps in Rhovanion! Middle Mirkwood / The Narrows / East Bight, Fields of Celduin, Barding-Lands, crafting alternative ways into Southern Mirkwood beyond Epic Volume II Book 9 and perhaps just having the "beach invasion" of the Malledhrim be it's own Epic Story thing that doesn't hinder landscape contiguity anymore, and then, there's the gaps between Southern Mirkwood, current Great-River Brown Lands, and the messiness where the Mouths of the Entwash meet the Wet-Wang meet the Dead Marshes meet Emyn Muil: the western shores of the Anduin have received a ton of love, and so have the northeastern shores going from Elderslade down at least as far as Laerlad.

But now it would be very cool to start digging more into that lore Great River was working on as well as some of the Rhovanion history and Eldacar / Vindumavi and all of that.

I'm excited to see where things go next after the pending further update of Eriador stuff

Cheers!