Judge of the Wastelands

Welp.

on the one hand I love the dinner set enough to cough up some cash on ebay, but I've been burned with lepin crap so much there it scares me. Any word on US release?

My 'family' (From left) Raven Fernwood, Businessman, Politician, Merchant, and second-largest shareholder in the Black Lodge Trading Company. Mayor Edwards, Mayor of Gromm, Provisional Governor of the Wastelands, Head of one of the Trading conglomerates in Varlyrio (Raxus) Orsen Waythe, Majority shareholder, Black Lodge Trading Company, Judge of Wastelands, enforcer/militia leader for the private army employed by Black Lodge Rugen Yesterling, Businessman, Goblin representative in Gromm, occasional spy for interests outside his constituency, shareholder in Black Lodge IMG_2006

It's funny, I do like that approach to fantasy, but my story conforms far more to the crime fiction I read than Tolkien. Perhaps.............

few of these images are not showing up for me, but what is showing up is stunning work.

The droid arms do a good job functioning as the fence and I like the simplicity of the stables. As others have said, the roof is really well done

Quite the armory and the lighting here is excellent. Keep it up!

That moment when you intend to change your signature and you change your display name by mistake...........

mccoyed can tell you I went too far in our private conversation, but I'll say that for the record I do 100% agree GoT is a wayyy more realistic portrayal of life and politics, even if Tolkien is far more to my taste in fantasy. I thought I did but I can't find it here, so I'll make a platform and get a picture to here as soon as I can

That is one nice looking dragon. Good work!

Yeah in fairness I just went guns blazing into the wastelands without really reading up on it, but I figured that wastelands mean anarchy and lawlessness, and who doesn't love a good wild west yarn?

Oof If you wish I'll delete my posts (or at least scrub the politics from them)

Now, this looks like a place for a good time! Excellent, creative idea and well executed!

This then is not so much a disagreement with Tolkien as you rejecting the idea that the West is a force for good. And when you create a universe for better or worse you are the historian. You seem to be arguing that since Tolkien doesn't ram down our throats that orcs were once good that somehow makes his portrayal racist. I really like LOTR, but that's actually not the reason I'm arguing this point. Tolkien, like all of us, is a product of the time and place he lived in. For better or worse, we are the inheritors of the West. Over and over again, the West has been assaulted by 'hordes from elsewhere' whose skin tone is darker than ours. The skin color had nothing to do with it. We have a way of life, a religion, a culture, that other people want to erase. And you have to make a determination. Was Charles Martel 'problematic' or 'racist' when he halted the Ottoman Empire at Tours in 732? Was the Pope racist to view the Mongols as a monolith that must be opposed wholesale? Was it racist for Jan III to break the siege at the Gates of Vienna in 1683? The Orcs did not want fair treatment or land rights, they did not want religious liberty or trade. They wanted to wipe out Middle Earth. In this Tolkien's works demonstrated that heritage in western thought. Sometimes there are good guys and bad guys, sometimes it really is that simple. Because I for one believe in Western ideals, and I am willing to stand at the gate to defend them even if it means that people look down their nose at me from ivory towers and faculty meetings at universities. Edit: It dawns on me this is Varlyrio's discussion page and not a place for arguments about the merits of the West or the literary thought behind the Lord of the Rings, and it is not my intention to clog the chat or to go to war over something ostensibly not part of GoH. But I hope you all forgive my defense of the West and Tolkien, both mean a lot to me and I want a fair discussion of what they are and what they mean.

I think this is a misread of Tolkien personally. Orcs weren't their own race, they were the bizarro elves (and elves being 'angels' orcs would be fallen angels) and thus I find the charges of racism leveled at Tolkien ridiculous. In fairness, the Marauders were more of a plot device than an actual addition to the lore of Varlyrio. I'm not a fan of 'orange man bad' character explanations ether, rest assured of that. The device was more to explain why the Head of a Trading Company was a warrior, and why trading companies had (or contracted with) private armies. Orsen Waythe's dream (and it's close to becoming reality) is to plant his flag so trading can actually go peacefully without everyone's stuff getting stolen. On a more personal note, very glad to hear my story is interesting enough to be adapted into yours!