Elendor

Elendor is free online text-based multi-user game that simulates the environment of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Users create characters by determining species, sex, culture, personally and history and then role-playing with other users within the setting and atmosphere of Tolkien's world. For the purposes of consistency, the game accepts "The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit" and "The Silmarillion" and to a lesser extent the other works of Tolkien as canonical materials. The time frame is shortly before the events of "The Lord of the Rings". The game is run on a MUSH (Multi-User Shared Hallucination) server using a variant of PennMUSH.

The game was established in October 1991 [elendor.net and alt.fan.tolkien claims 1991, the latter indicating it was reestablished by May 1993; earliest available usenet citing December 1992; electricminds claims 1993] and is regarded by several sources to be the oldestFact|date=October 2007 Tolkien-based MUSH on the Internet. At its height during the late 90s and first few years of the 21st century, a time period that coincided with the production and release of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Elendor was regarded as the most popular Tolkien-based MUSH. [(wired)] It was chosen as "Best Tolkien Community Site" by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine. [(yahoo)] As of May 2005, the number of registered users in the game was over 2,000.Fact|date=October 2007.

Game play and mechanics

Elendor is comprised of twenty-one different factions known within the game as cultures. Each covers a different group or geographic area of Middle-earth. As in "The Lord of the Rings", action is confined to the northwest of Middle-earth. Users may play an Orc from Moria, an Elf from Mirkwood, a mortal Man from Dunland or a Hobbit from the Shire and so on. Some cultures and species are restricted and require approval by the game administration. These include the Ents, Trolls and Dúnedain as well as other special or powerful species. "Feature" Characters (FC) and "Book Feature" Characters (BFC) are granted to users as rewards for their dedicated work for a culture, good roleplaying ability and seniority.

The cultures are each governed by a "+ruler" (an out of character position) and a council of "Local Admins" or "LAs" who assist the +ruler. These users are responsible for the theme and day-to-day operation of their respective cultures. Above the +rulers is a council of "wizards" or MUSH-wide administrators who have wide-ranging responsibilities that range from code and server maintenance to user arbitration and game theme oversight.

Notes

References

*(mudmagic) cite web |url=http://www.mudmagic.com/listings/game/1722/ |title=Mud Magic: Elendor MUSH - Enter the world of Tolkiens imagination |publisher=mudmagic |accessdate=2007-10-22 - Game of the Month for June 2006
*(theonering) cite web |url=http://haven.theonering.net/reviews/games/elendormush.html |title=Tolkien Gaming - Gaming Havens / Game Reviews / Elendor MUSH |publisher=theonering.net |date=2000-01-25 |accessdate=2007-10-22
*(wired) cite web |url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.10/lotr_pr.html |title=Wired 9.10: The Fellowship of the Ring |month=October | year=2001 |publisher=Wired (magazine) |quote=one of the most popular text-based worlds |accessdate=2007-10-22
*(yahoo) cite web |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20020124051519/www.yil.com/daily/lotr/index.asp?date=nominees |title=Yahoo! Internet Life, Lord of the Rings on the Net Contest |date=2001-12-05 December 2001 |accessdate=2007-10-22
*(electricminds) cite web |url=http://www.abbedon.com/electricminds/html/vcc_dir_elendor.html |title=Elendor MUSH |quote=evolving since 1993 |date=between 1993 and October 2000 |accessdate=2007-10-22 - electricminds directory entry

External links

*cite web |url=http://www.elendor.net |title=Elendor MUSH |publisher=elendor.net |accessdate=2007-10-22
*cite web |url=http://web.archive.org/web/19981205093954/http://www.elendor.net/ |title=Elendor MUSH (archive from December 1998) |publisher=archive.org |accessdate=2007-10-22
*cite web |url=http://www.elendor.org |title=Elendor Cultures |publisher=elendor.net |accessdate=2007-10-22 - Unofficial Elendor culture pages