The second page of my Middle Earth Anthology, which is going to be three pages total and deals strictly with the cultures present in the 3rd age. It is conceivable that I might do one for the 1st age but that would be a LONG way off. As long as this took me to do, I believe that in the long term it will actually save me a great deal of time because now that I have concept art for each of these cultures I will not have to create new designs every time I want to illustrate Tolkien. And since I will probably make Tolkien illustrations for the rest of my life, it was the logical thing to do. All of this is marker except for the centerpiece which was done in Adobe Photoshop Elements. To find where each culture falls on the map you can match the color of their font with the blotch of the same color on the map. And now, because some people like long drawn out explanations (myself included), my logic behind each template:

First of all, all of these are either based on the mental imagery I incurred through reading the books, or in places where the mental imagery was weaker it is based upon my impressions of each culture.

*Dunedain: These are the last people of pure Numenorian descent. They are probably the tallest human race in the Middle Earth second to the Haradrim. They don't wear much for decoration other than the Star of Elendil, which is also worn by the men of Gondor. They live in the wilderness where it gets fairly cold during the winter so they are not dressed for a warm climate. Originally I had planned on giving the woman long loose open sleeves but since they live way up north I thought the tight sleeves would be more logical as they would offer more protection from the cold.

Orcs of the Misty Mountains: The most common type of orcs. They are shorter than humans and elves but taller than dwarves. Originally created by Morgoth when he tortured and twisted some of the first elves. I know that Tolkien never mentions orc women directly, but we know that they must have them because he said that they multiply after the children of Illuvatar. He probably never created any female orcish characters because orcs are supposed to be ugly. For these orcs the purpose was just to convey a general idea, because my impressions was that they were pretty ragged and disorganized. Although the orcs are not completely stupid as they tend to have talent for devising war machines and torture implements.

Lothlorien: Well it says that they wear grey, and the fabric has the ability to take on the colors of other things that it is close too, such as trees or rocks. They also need to be able to go silently so whatever they are not going to be wearing things that would make noise.

Rohan: The man was pretty easy to imagine, for the woman I had to think a bit about what would be appropriate for them. They have really light almost white hair, and they wear a shiny mail shirt that comes down to the knees. I also pictured their cloaks as being somewhat like a trenchcoat, which can also be used to conceal all sorts of wonderful weapons. These guys like to fight and sing songs about it, so I wanted to make them look battle ready.

Gondor: They do wear jewelry and bright colors. There are some faint stylistic resemblances to their kindred in the north, which was something that I did not originally intend but occurred nonetheless for reasons which I have stated earlier. The man is in his civvies. When he's dressed for combat he will be wearing something totally different. There are three types of military garb that the Gondor men wear which are mentioned in the books. I will get around to showing that later.

Umbar: Umbar was the first Numenorian settlement on Middle Earth. So there were already people there friendly to Sauron prior to the colonization of Gondor. For much of the 3rd age it was part of Gondor, but split away during the reign of Eldacar because his mother was from Rohan and they didn't want to accept someone who was only half Numenorian. There was a civil war and at the end everyone hostile to Eldacar and Gondor moved to Umbar, creating a perpetual state of hostility between the two countries. The loss of Umbar also cost Gondor most of its marine capacity. During the time of LOTR Umbar is described as being the northernmost realm of Harad. I wanted to not only make them look like pirates, but I also wanted to show how they have been mixing with the Haradrim. So that is why they are they are taller than the Dunedain and Gondor people, and it is also why the woman is a bit darker.

Uruk Hai of Mordor: There are also Uruks in Isengard but these are the Uruks of Mordor. There was a need for bigger tougher orcs that could endure sunlight so orcs were crossed with humans to create orcish supersoldiers. The Uruks are described as being "more like evil men" than orcs. Some of the characters were speculating as to whether the Uruks were created through cross breeding or whether they were men that were "ruined" by Sauroman. We know that orcs and humans are genetically compatible because of the Isengarders who appeared to be of mixed heritage. At any rate, this is how I pictured the Mordor Uruks. The only color being the eye of Sauron. At first I thought I might have been putting too much armor on the man but then it crossed my mind that the main point in creating an Uruk was to have soldiers big enough to carry large burdens. Since they are part human they are bigger, the tusks are smaller, and their skin is not green.

Variags: At the time I drew this, there was only one other person on DA who attempted to draw Variags. All the more reason for me to draw them. The Variags are not really described, except that they are from Khand and they are irritated by the sunlight as are true orcs and the troll men of Far Harad. In the Middle Earth the only things irritated by sunlight are the evil things bred in the dark of the world before the Valar created the sun. However, they are not orcs, or trolls. I pictured them as somewhat vampiric with smaller builds and long sneering mouths. Not necessarily as hopeless and irredeemable as orcs but still evil and creepy. Although I think the woman turned out more creepy than the man. Probably the only chance I will get to draw any of the females for the antagonistic cultures is if I decide to show the different homelands. Which may be something worth doing.




*I wanted to mention this as a side note regarding the various Numerorian civilizations in order to explain some of the logic behind the derivation of their patterns. Tolkien originally intended for the Middle Earth to be the real earth from some forgotten epoch, or an alternative early history for the real earth. While he eventually denied this, the cultural similarities remain. I know that he originally intended for the Rohirrim to be the forerunners of Germanic peoples, so I tend to imagine them as being somewhat Viking or Visigothic. And actually, he rather plainly describes them as looking that way. But the Numenorians, based on the fact that they are the oldest most sophisticated western civilization in the ME, and based on their settlement patterns, I tend to see as the ancestors of those who spoke Latin, Greek, Farsi, and Sanskrit. The oldest Indo-European civilizations. Now of course I realize that in the end the notion that the Middle Earth was the real earth was scrubbed along with other ideas like having England be Tol Eressea dragged back to land and so on. But subconsciously I tend to draw on those early civilizations for stylistic elements. Hence the look for the various Numenorian cultures and offshoots.