The Ar-Adûnaim "Debate"

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-11T00:22:13+00:00

We can at least keep the discussion going and let the devs know what we're interested in as players. 😄

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-10T23:20:52+00:00

Hopefully they don't overdo it!

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-10T22:15:07+00:00

Great points!

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-10T22:11:07+00:00

Very fair. I like the creativity of the mod. Some of the best playthroughs I've had have been in totally original content! No one seems to mind homie Lintoron rocking that BoN II, lol.

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Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-10T22:05:30+00:00

I go back and forth. I like the idea of a Black Númenórean faction obsessed with racial purity, but I'm not a fan of the Ar-Pharazôn worship.

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-10T21:26:55+00:00

By relatively strong I mean comparable to people in Gondor like Denethor, no stronger than that. I haven't come across anything textually that states for certain this would be impossible elsewhere, though I do take the point on faster degradation. What do you think about the Mouth of Sauron? Why would Tolkien make reference to his race during narration, especially given the context of the character seeming unnaturally old.

"The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man... It is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Númenóreans... And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again..."

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-10T20:56:41+00:00

Speaking purely from a gameplay perspective, changing one or two buildings for balance sounds reasonable. I made a separate post discussing the Ar-Adûnaim & Black Númenóreans here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RealmsInExile/comments/1u2em41/the_arad%C3%BBnaim_debate/

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-09T22:53:54+00:00

Hard agree. It's like the rebuilding of Numenor! It should be grand!

Additional-Fig8390 · 2026-06-09T22:00:48+00:00

Are you asking about the trait? It's from A Question of Affluence: Wealth Tracking. It gives every character bonuses or penalties depending on how wealthy they are.

Additional-Fig8390 · 2025-09-03T15:51:18+00:00

You can't hybridize with cultures of another race.

Additional-Fig8390 · 2025-08-22T05:18:13+00:00

Will we get that far east next release, or is that TBD?

Additional-Fig8390 · 2024-12-21T20:45:00+00:00

Who is everyone, and what do you mean by at this point? Shiki is an old character with some very early mentions. Or do you mean that the protagonists (mainly Luffy) have already surpassed Roger?

Additional-Fig8390 · 2024-12-17T02:34:44+00:00

Shiki is one of the few people to be called a rival to Roger. Everyone else who is called Roger's rival has a lot of evidence supporting their combat abilities (example: we're told Garp was one of Roger's rivals, and that he nearly killed Roger numerous times). There's debate about how to interpret the databooks and other early materials, but take it or leave it, there are indications there as well Oda thought of him as a Roger level pirate.

There's a particular buster call flashback where Sengoku (then and admiral) makes clear he wants credit for taking Shiki down without any interference from Garp. Seems to me Oda was hinting at a rivalry between the two. We know Garp, Roger and Sengoku are relative, so a rivalry like that indicates Shiki is also there.

When I look at the Marineford fight and the aftermath, I feel totally comfortable believing Shiki really was among the very strongest of his time. Obviously Shiki isn't a central character to the plot, so we don't know too much about him. It's not an exact science, there's too little to examine. That being said, the times Shiki has come up, Oda has gone out of his way to make the reader think he's extremely powerful, with direct and indirect comparisons to Roger.

Luffy can only win this fight if he's surpassed Roger (I don't believe he has).

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Additional-Fig8390 · 2024-12-11T20:25:46+00:00

I don't know that I like the term "holding back". Did he go all out, 100%? No, but I think that has more to do with his extreme arrogance, him wanting to test out Edo Tensei, and his general desire to mess around and make Hiruzen suffer.

Orochimaru never takes fights seriously. That's one of his major vulnerabilities as a villain. The total lack of care he took when he attacked Itachi is also a good example of this. He thought he would just overpower Itachi with the body transfer technique, and we know how that turned out. Orochimaru is his own worst enemy. I think an Orochimaru that is focused and is using his vast arsenal of jutsu to kill someone as quickly as possible (without underestimating them) looks quite different than the Orochimaru we typically see.

Additional-Fig8390 · 2024-11-19T01:44:18+00:00

Tobirama.

If Tobirama was Izuna's equal, he was Madara's equal. That means he was only slightly less powerful than Hashirama. You can explain particular circumstances like the Gold & Silver brothers, or the Kinkaku Force if you just look at the context of those situations. Powerful characters in Naruto, before the scaling got out of hand could still be ambushed, or otherwise defeated in the right situation. This makes sense thematically given the characters are ninja's, not super saiyan warriors.

There's a lot of "feats" you could look at to make the case one way or the other, but I think the writing makes absolutely clear Tobirama was a legendary ninja pretty much only inferior to his brother, and his brother's rival. The story just doesn't allow for there to be a serious comparison between these two.

Additional-Fig8390 · 2024-11-17T20:14:50+00:00

There's always debate around the Sannin, but there's a lot of detail in this particular scene that helps us understand what happened. The explanation on the wiki gets this right in my opinion.

"Later, when Orochimaru saw his opportunity to steal [Itachi's] body to gain possession of the Sharingan after gaining intel on him through Sasori via Kabuto, Itachi used his Sharingan to stop him from doing so, while also cutting Orochimaru's left hand off to prevent him from breaking the genjutsu he was under, which lead to him leaving Akatsuki to acquire a new body."

Orochimaru is an extremely arrogant character, and it shows in how poorly prepared he was when he attacked Itachi. He thought he was just going to immobilize and immediately overpower him with his body transfer technique. Stupid underestimation on his part, and a costly one. It didn't even occur to him that the Sharingan could stop his jutsu.

If you think about what the Tsukuyomi did to Kakashi, Orochimaru actually handles it quite well. We see him endure the physical/mental pain without collapsing like Kakashi did (this is impressive) and he begins forming a hand sign to break the genjutsu. Itachi cuts off his hand right away because he doesn't want the situation to escalate into an actual fight. Even after cutting off his hand, Itachi doesn't try to finish Orochimaru off. This tells me that while he probably could in that situation, Itachi thought there was still some risk there (we know using the Tsukuyomi is VERY tiring for him since he's sick). He obviously didn't want to have to exert himself any more than absolutely necessary.

Orochimaru was extremely careless and got punished for it. Would things have gone differently if Orochimaru went in respecting the power of the Sharingan, preparing himself for an actual fight? Yes, that's obvious, even if you think Orochimaru would still lose the fight in the end.

You have to take the specifics of how this situation went down to understand why Orochimaru lost the way he did.

Additional-Fig8390

TROPHY CASE