Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Hey everyone! Wanted to make this post to ask for some help. I will be moving to Colorado Springs at the beginning of January, and I was looking over some cultures that might fit the geography of the area. However, while I am familiar with the landscapes of Middle-Earth, I am by no means an expert! I also thought it would just be nice to get some insight from you all to see if there is anything I'm missing or not seeing!

The first stretch of Colorado looked more akin to the Riddermark with long swathes of golden fields and plenty of horse farms. But when you get closer to the area where I will be living, you are essentially in the shadow of a mountain range, which gave me more of a Dwarven/Vales of Anduin feel. I'm not particularly picky about which culture to base my persona around, I just wanna make sure the landscape fits well!

I'd love to hear what you all think! I've included some pictures of the area for any unfamiliar with Colorado!

Wow great pics!

Great scenery!, this really presents many opportunities for you. As you say, eastern CO is very Rohan-esque with its great plains, and the first two pictures say more 'American west' to me, but the latter pictures definitely suggest the Misty or White Mountains. The former is great as the Rockies also go North-South and gives you the option of eastern Eriador (Trollshaws, Rivendell, Eregion, Dunland, etc) or western Rhovanion (Beorning lands, Moria, Lorien etc). If you want to fudge the geography and pretend they run East-West, you can get then into mountainous Rohan (Dunharrow etc) or large swaths of Gondor. So the choice is up to you - what culture(s) do you have an interest in diving into?
Also FYI if you didn't know, Manveruon's Misty Mountain Rangers group operates out of the Denver area, which doesn't look to be too far from Colorado Springs.

Udwin wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 4:29 pm Great scenery!, this really presents many opportunities for you. As you say, eastern CO is very Rohan-esque with its great plains, and the first two pictures say more 'American west' to me, but the latter pictures definitely suggest the Misty or White Mountains. The former is great as the Rockies also go North-South and gives you the option of eastern Eriador (Trollshaws, Rivendell, Eregion, Dunland, etc) or western Rhovanion (Beorning lands, Moria, Lorien etc). If you want to fudge the geography and pretend they run East-West, you can get then into mountainous Rohan (Dunharrow etc) or large swaths of Gondor. So the choice is up to you - what culture(s) do you have an interest in diving into?
Also FYI if you didn't know, Manveruon's Misty Mountain Rangers group operates out of the Denver area, which doesn't look to be too far from Colorado Springs.

Hey Udwin! Thank you so much for this really in-depth answer! This gives me a lot of options to consider! I didn't even think of the Rockies being easily compared to the Misty Mountains.

As far as cultures that I have an interest in, there are a few options I can think of that would make sense. I have always been fond of the Woodmen and Beornings (Though my physical stature would probably lean more towards the Woodmen). I am also quite fond of Dwarves, so that might be an option as well (Though my lack of ability to grow a beard would probably stand out a bit as well). Dunlendings are also interesting, though I have to confess, I know very little about them.

I actually did not know that! I got in contact with him today, thanks for putting me in touch!

Ah, perfect! I originally had the same issue with the Beornings and began that persona as one of the Woodmen (about whom we have zero direct information), but remember that the Beornings are really just the regional chiefdom under Beorn, of whom only a few are probably big, burly skin-changing types. Another plus is that we know (or can extrapolate) a fair amount about Beorning life.

As for the Dunlendings, it's okay to know very little about them, because there is very little to go on! I wound up reading up as much as I could while preparing my Second Age impression, so I can suggest some sources or provide a copy of my research if you're interested. Depictions of them have ranged the entire spectrum from straight-up Hollywood Barbarian cavemen to 1:1 Iron Age Celts, so there is a lot of freedom in how to interpret them.

Good to see I wasn't the only one who had that thought about the Woodmen! I was becoming quite confused when all I could find was a whopping three sentences about the Woodmen! The "regional chiefdom" comment gives me a lot to think about it! I guess I had never really thought of them in that way, so that will help a lot when doing research and viewing them as a culture!

I'd love to hear anything you'd be willing to share on the Dunlendings, either here or in a more private setting! I've been digging into some of the history and lore behind the earlier men from the House of Bëor and the House of Haleth, and I personally find it really fascinating! I definitely think I should go with my gut when looking at personas, as I feel more drawn towards the nature-based, wild, or tribal/clan based cultures of Tolkien's work.

And as always, I appreciate you providing all this information and help! As someone just getting into this, it can be a lot to approach at first!

TheSmallGaul wrote: I'd love to hear anything you'd be willing to share on the Dunlendings, either here or in a more private setting! I've been digging into some of the history and lore behind the earlier men from the House of Bëor and the House of Haleth, and I personally find it really fascinating! I definitely think I should go with my gut when looking at personas, as I feel more drawn towards the nature-based, wild, or tribal/clan based cultures of Tolkien's work.

And as always, I appreciate you providing all this information and help! As someone just getting into this, it can be a lot to approach at first!

Of course! No need to reinvent the wheel (or have to do all your own research from scratch, at least)! Shoot me your email in a PM and I'll send over what I've pulled together.
I think you will appreciate my recent 2A persona prospectus thread here, and while not directly applicable to Dunlendings, a lot of the 2A background info I dug up is probably still applicable. And my article on Men of the Second Age in the latest MERS newsletter was a direct result of brainstorming this WIP impression.

Garden of the Gods is a great place. Lots of other great places there. Best place to be a Ranger.

Tom_Ranger wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 8:22 am Garden of the Gods is a great place. Lots of other great places there. Best place to be a Ranger.

Oh, believe me, I am beyond excited! Pikes peak, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs. I plan on ranging them all!

Heyyyy! So I also responded to your introduction thread, but I wanted to pop in here a bit as well just to address your specific questions about fitting a Middle-earth persona into the geography of Colorado!

As I mentioned in the other thread, it will be really cool to have someone locally who is invested in developing a persona like that! Most of the folks who run with us are a little more casual about it, but I’ve been encouraging more of them to dive deeper lately. Hell, I only JUST started really fleshing out a proper persona myself in the last few months, and I’ve been doing this for almost a dozen years!

In terms of Colorado/Middle-earth geography, it’s something I’ve thought a fair deal about over the years (and in fact, I was just talking a bit to Udwin about it a few weeks ago, because it's been on my mind lately). It's funny to me that you hadn't considered the Rocky Mountains/Misty Mountains analogy at first, because honestly that's the very first thing that came to mind, for me, haha! But as I mentioned in your intro thread, we also had a branch of the Tolkien Society out here at the time called the Misty Mountains Smial, so I drew inspiration for our group directly from that name, and just because it seemed the natural analogy for our landscape. In my head I sort of always see us as being grouped largely on the WESTERN side of the Misty Mountains, around the vicinity of Rivendell and the Trollshaws, but in fact most of us technically live on the EASTERN side of the Rockies. I haven’t fully reconciled those factors yet, to be honest, but there are a TON of other great landscapes throughout the state that could easily stand in for any number of locations in Middle-earth!

As you mentioned above, big sections of the state would made a great parallel for Rohan, or even Hollin, and just huge swaths of Eriador in general. There are a lot of places around the Castle Rock area (about 45 minutes or so north of the Springs) that remind me a LOT of the Trollshaws, too! One in particular that I love is Castlewood Canyon State Park, which I personally feel has the PERFECT landscape for that area - but it’s also a very popular park, so we don’t go there often, since it’s usually mobbed with people.

In general, my imagination pretty much always draws me back to the areas around the Misty Mountains though - which allows for a great many options for a persona. Dúnedain, Beornings, Dwarves of Moria (or the general Dwarven diaspora, depending on the time period you're aiming at), or even Elves of Imladris would all fit in really well around here - or also Rohirrim, woodmen - heck, even Hobbits, in some parts of the state! So yeah, I'd say you have plenty of options to choose from!

In terms of adventuring, feel free to drop me a line if you're ever jonesing for the trail! I'm absolutely not the most experienced outdoorsman, but I love learning, and being out there with other folks who have a bit more miles under their boots than I do! And if you’re on Facebook, feel free to send a membership application to the Misty Mountain Rangers group page if you haven’t already! We’re currently restricting membership for that group to CO residents only, but that may change soonish, and even if not, I’d be happy to consider an exception for someone who will be living here soon! We post about upcoming outings in the group quite a lot, and usually make event pages specifically for them so we can keep tabs on who all is planning to come.

One way or the other, I hope this was somewhat helpful, and I look forward to running into you sometime around these parts!