MORDOR & RHUN (MERP RPG books Mapped by Region, Part 4)

East of Gondor lies the dark realm of Mordor, where one first encounters towers and structures built by the last human kingdom to contain the denizens of that evil land. And now, perversely, those defensive works are occupied by the enemy, turned against Gondor. East of Rohan and Rhovanion is the great inland sea of Rhûn, yet another source of invasion afflicting Gondor over the years.

We’re now fourth in my series, mapping out Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP) supplements of the 1980s-90s to expand your One Ring game. This time though, we are well beyond the areas covered by supplements for AiME/TOR/LotR5e.

However, MERP did explore these regions.

As noted previously, MERP is long out of print, copies are expensive, and legal PDFs are not available. Bootleg PDFs can be found on the webs, and I think they’re righteous in this situation. –> Be careful, some download sites are a bit sketchy.

I sell Middle Earth RPG stuff of course – The originals. Some titles aren’t terribly expensive. I also buy RPG lots & collections.

Geography & History

There are few good maps of Mordor & Rhûn.

This image is adapted from the Campaign Map of Northwest Middle-earth (1989), released by Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) for MERP (more info in prior Gondor article).

Sauron’s depradations from ash-covered Mordor – of Gondor and the rest of the lands of the Free Peoples – are well-known from books and movies, so I won’t go into that here.

Rhûn is far more obscure, and it too was a launching pad of invasion into Gondor (in T.A. 400s-500s), as Easterling hordes thundered into Rhovanion. But mostly Rhûn was a world unto itself, a crossroads to the far east, with only far-ranging traders keeping the region in contact with the rest of Middle Earth.

To most of the people of western Middle-earth, the land called Rhûn is shrouded in a haze of myth and rumor. It is at once the domain of mysterious cultures and mythic cities, a boundless expanse of wild plains and uncultivated lands rolling to the ends of the world, and a perfect horizon that might, at any moment be marred by an ominous smear of dust: the tell-tale sign of an approaching horde of riders. The majority of Western maps end in a great swath of tan, sometimes filled with the fanciful creatures of the artist’s mind, but more often bearing only a single word: Rhûn.
To a choice few, however, Rhûn is a diverse land of tremendous opportunity, where an individual with a handful of silver coins can build an empire. These few have glimpsed the snow-capped peaks of the Pinnon Rhûn from the deck of a ship sailing the Inland Sea. They have looked down on the green valleys of Folyavuld, which the west knows as Dorwinion. They have seen the forested shore of the sea, the tall spires and glittering domes of Mistrand, and the myriad Easterling campfires dotting the great plains like stars in the night sky. To these few, Rhûn beckons; calling out to the heart of the explorer.
MERP: The Inland Sea (more on this later)

A Closer Look

Next we’ll explore the Mordor & Rhun map to see MERP books by region.

I’m not going to describe the publications in detail, since I have already done so at my RPG Reference Site.

MERP at Wayne’s Books Old School RPG Reference

With one exception! The Inland Sea. It’s not catalogued at my reference site, because it was never published.

Mike Campbell & Luke Potter had developed a comprehensive Rhûn sourcebook for MERP, but the timing was unfortunate.

Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) canceled publication of MERP accessories in late 1997, and would soon lose their Middle Earth license altogether. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Peter Jackson was imminent, and the rights holders were ready to cash in on the buzz surrounding the movies, including RPGs.

“The movies are why ICE went under. We had always been self funded from sales and receipts, and had worked with Tolkien Enterprises when we had seasonal cash flow problems. But when the movies were scheduled, the called in all of the money due when we hit the next shortage. Then they licensed dozens of other companies to do what we had been doing.”
Coleman Charlton
(From interview at the Random Wizard blog, now defunct)

The Inland Sea manuscript was mostly complete, and later taken to completion by Chris Seeman of the Other Hands fanzine. It’s available for free from @ merp-fan-modules at groups.io (registration required).

Mordor

Dagorlad and Dead Marshes, the site of a titanic battle in the Second Age. Adventure where the Frodo journeyed with Sam and Gollum, and grappled with dead people.

Tower of Cirith Ungol & Shelob’s Lair is a MERP module with source material and adventures around and in the tower warding the final approach into Mordor (plus the queen of spiders of course). Cirith Ungol was seen in Return of the King when the orcs were fighting over Frodo’s mithril armor.

This map is found inside the cover. It shows well the contested borderlands between Gondor and Mordor. Cirith Ungol is found along the road through the mountains.

MERP is set in T.A. 1640 so Minas Morgul – familiar to movie viewers as the Witch-King’s evil abode – is still Minas Ithil, bastion of Gondor. I profiled Minas Ithil in the Gondor post.

Teeth of Mordor details Morannon (in the north of the borderlands map above), known as “The Black Gate” in The Two Towers movie.

Gorgoroth covers the wasteland plateau of the same name, dominated by Mt Doom, where Sauron’s armies gathered.

The Angus McBride cover art for Gorgoroth is so great.

Rhûn

Rhûn can be thought of as akin to the region surrounding the real world Caspian Sea, along the trade route linking East and West. Good and Evil can be found there, and Sauron has been meddling there for centuries

River Running develops the land of Dorwinion, on the northwest shore of the great sea. It is the only MERP accessory with a cover by Larry Elmore.

Perils of the Sea of Rhun has three adventures on and around the Sea of Rhun.

The Inland Sea, mentioned previously, is a 162-page gazetteer with adventures, plus a gorgeous map of Rhûn.