Rebooting The Lord of the Rings.
Perhaps just for the fun of it but Wood Elves like Legolas should have a more rustic appearance, perhaps to the point where they look almost Ent-like with tree bark as armour and possibly skin.
Orcs should be of two distinct types: the cursed descendants of Men who aided Morgoth in the First Age and were bred with Fallen Elves, and those Elves who aided Sauron in the Second Age. This latter type are a lot smarter and retained their excellent night vision.
Denethor and Boromir are more like giants then men, although the latter is somewhat implied in the novels. Gondor is populated by a mixture of these giants and High Elves plus some dwarves.
Correction: let's say the elves named the dwarves thus ("stunted men") because the elves themselves are remarkably tall, or at least two and a half meters tall. As time went by the High Elves stayed very tall while the Wood Elves's stature lowered to roughly that of Men and Dwarves. However, in the Third Age the life of the High Elves was limited to half a millennium.
The population of Gondor is 50% Dwarf, 40% High Elf and 10% Men. It was ruled by Elf Stewards after Isildur disappeared riding North to Arnor in order to consolidate his domains. Aragorn's direct ancestors were those Men who stayed behind in Arnor in case the siege of Mordor failed. They were joined by the survivors of Isildur's retinue.
Faramir's armour is a mixture of types. His upper body is protected by segmented bronze armour and he wears a mail sark. The bronze segments extend to his upper arms. He also wears bronze greaves and iron vambraces on both forearms. This is finished off with an iron helm crested with mithril. His men are similarly armoured when they attempt to reinforce Osgiliath's defences. Most are finished off when they turn around and retreat as they have little armour protecting their backs.
It is reinforced in this version that Frodo and Sam take many months to reach Mordor and many more to cross the desert and reach Mount Doom.
Minas Tirith comes under siege during Faramir's attempt to reinforce Osgiliath. At first by Easterlings only, but under the cover of night several legions of Orcs arrive in secret over the next four days.
However, it is not Sauron's intent to besiege Minas Tirith. His aim is to draw all the evil men under his thrall to him until the One Ring remains outside his possession. Aragorn and his companions ride quickly to Minas Tirith to distract Sauron, making him think the Ring has been found and thus acting early. He sends the bulk of the Easterling forces that were approaching Mordor to Minas Tirith and reinforces them with half an Orc legion. These Orcs are engineers and archers only, specifically used for seige warfare. The Orcs and Easterlings are to be further reinforced by an army from Harad.
Aragorn arrives in Gondor with the aid of the King of the Dead. The army of the dead intercepts the corsair fleet which was meant to carry around half the Harad army to Osgilitath. Without this fleet, the Harad cavalry and Mumakil are stranded on the wrong side of the river to Minas Tirith. Some of the infantry attempt to cross a ford along with a handful of Mumakil. This force is intercepted by the Rohirrhim.
The Orcs and Easterlings, meanwhile, were tricked into fighting each other by the cunning of the Pukel Men who guided the Rohirrhim to unguarded paths behind the siege lines.
This is something of a work in progress. I want to remain true to Tolkien's vision but have something which would work for film or television. It is difficult to know what to change and what should remain the same.
It could be implied that the Hobbits are actually normal size as they are our ancestors. Similarly, the inhabitants of Gondor could be referred to as Giants, by the Hobbits at least. The "Gondorians" could generally be too tall to ride horses, perhaps it is only their leaders who ride into battle and riding on aurochs instead of horses. It can be assumed that Elves do similar. Regular sized-or Hobbit sized at least-folk are the "Pukel-men" and the Men of Rohan. The Easterlings and Men of Harad could actually be evil dwarfs.
Faramir and his men are cut down simply because they are on foot. Despite wearing mail, the Orc archers are able to penetrate this by using arrows made from simple pointed sticks, still fletched with feathers but with no heads which would get stuck in the gaps between the mail links. These arrows, or some of them at least, would be poisoned.
Perhaps just for the fun of it but Wood Elves like Legolas should have a more rustic appearance, perhaps to the point where they look almost Ent-like with tree bark as armour and possibly skin.
Orcs should be of two distinct types: the cursed descendants of Men who aided Morgoth in the First Age and were bred with Fallen Elves, and those Elves who aided Sauron in the Second Age. This latter type are a lot smarter and retained their excellent night vision.
Denethor and Boromir are more like giants then men, although the latter is somewhat implied in the novels. Gondor is populated by a mixture of these giants and High Elves plus some dwarves.
Correction: let's say the elves named the dwarves thus ("stunted men") because the elves themselves are remarkably tall, or at least two and a half meters tall. As time went by the High Elves stayed very tall while the Wood Elves's stature lowered to roughly that of Men and Dwarves. However, in the Third Age the life of the High Elves was limited to half a millennium.
The population of Gondor is 50% Dwarf, 40% High Elf and 10% Men. It was ruled by Elf Stewards after Isildur disappeared riding North to Arnor in order to consolidate his domains. Aragorn's direct ancestors were those Men who stayed behind in Arnor in case the siege of Mordor failed. They were joined by the survivors of Isildur's retinue.
Faramir's armour is a mixture of types. His upper body is protected by segmented bronze armour and he wears a mail sark. The bronze segments extend to his upper arms. He also wears bronze greaves and iron vambraces on both forearms. This is finished off with an iron helm crested with mithril. His men are similarly armoured when they attempt to reinforce Osgiliath's defences. Most are finished off when they turn around and retreat as they have little armour protecting their backs.
It is reinforced in this version that Frodo and Sam take many months to reach Mordor and many more to cross the desert and reach Mount Doom.
Minas Tirith comes under siege during Faramir's attempt to reinforce Osgiliath. At first by Easterlings only, but under the cover of night several legions of Orcs arrive in secret over the next four days.
However, it is not Sauron's intent to besiege Minas Tirith. His aim is to draw all the evil men under his thrall to him until the One Ring remains outside his possession. Aragorn and his companions ride quickly to Minas Tirith to distract Sauron, making him think the Ring has been found and thus acting early. He sends the bulk of the Easterling forces that were approaching Mordor to Minas Tirith and reinforces them with half an Orc legion. These Orcs are engineers and archers only, specifically used for seige warfare. The Orcs and Easterlings are to be further reinforced by an army from Harad.
Aragorn arrives in Gondor with the aid of the King of the Dead. The army of the dead intercepts the corsair fleet which was meant to carry around half the Harad army to Osgilitath. Without this fleet, the Harad cavalry and Mumakil are stranded on the wrong side of the river to Minas Tirith. Some of the infantry attempt to cross a ford along with a handful of Mumakil. This force is intercepted by the Rohirrhim.
The Orcs and Easterlings, meanwhile, were tricked into fighting each other by the cunning of the Pukel Men who guided the Rohirrhim to unguarded paths behind the siege lines.
This is something of a work in progress. I want to remain true to Tolkien's vision but have something which would work for film or television. It is difficult to know what to change and what should remain the same.
It could be implied that the Hobbits are actually normal size as they are our ancestors. Similarly, the inhabitants of Gondor could be referred to as Giants, by the Hobbits at least. The "Gondorians" could generally be too tall to ride horses, perhaps it is only their leaders who ride into battle and riding on aurochs instead of horses. It can be assumed that Elves do similar. Regular sized-or Hobbit sized at least-folk are the "Pukel-men" and the Men of Rohan. The Easterlings and Men of Harad could actually be evil dwarfs.
Faramir and his men are cut down simply because they are on foot. Despite wearing mail, the Orc archers are able to penetrate this by using arrows made from simple pointed sticks, still fletched with feathers but with no heads which would get stuck in the gaps between the mail links. These arrows, or some of them at least, would be poisoned.
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