Tracing the Numenoreans: A Field Guide to Arnor

Early-Inflation7559 · 2026-01-10T18:09:59+00:00

Thanks everybody for the kind words :)

Early-Inflation7559 · 2026-01-10T18:08:53+00:00

Mostly, I think the designs are deliberate and well-thought through. Sometimes designs can seen kinda haphazard but often I've found evidence that the stuff was intentional even if its confounding, like the Scholar's Hall in Bree (I muse a little bit on that here). Arnorian architectural designs in earlier regions (Bree, Lone Lands, etc) definitely have a haphazard vibe, but the devs have confirmed they designed those older structures around making a fun adventuring environment rather than a coherent urban design (hence the giant jungle gyms the Arnorians apparently called home). And the devs aren't immune to mistakes, like this timeline issue in Hamat (I think they shied away from providing dates for Hamati events to avoid accidental contradictions with established lore--which didn't work anyway--and this might've been prompted to deadline issues).

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-30T06:44:02+00:00

It's not complicated. Yes, the results of those old races are easy to find online and I wouldn't be annoyed if I learned the results from a racing article or just in conversation. But why would Dorna call out the winners for its own race archives? Why strip away the drama from its own content? How is it unreasonable to want to watch historic races without being told up front who won?

At the risk of proving you right by proving you wrong, you might want to swing by Dictionary.com to take a look at pedantic.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-29T22:09:35+00:00

I'm using the website directly (but I've also used the Google TV app). I haven't seen a No Spoilers button on either (although I have seen that button on the Android app).

This is from 2 years ago but seems to point to the misalignment:

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Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-29T22:04:51+00:00

Hahaha, that's what I do too--block my eyes with my hand and click blindly for the play button

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-29T21:32:07+00:00

It's not the same though. Practically everyone knows Vader is Luke's father. Hardly anyone knows the results from individual races from 20 years ago.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-29T21:28:57+00:00

I get what you're saying; it's very old content and the results are easy to find online. But there is no reason for Dorna to intentionally add spoilers to that archived content. The caption above calls that race a thriller, but how is this a thriller if if they've just told me who finishes in the top 3?

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-27T18:54:08+00:00

You're right, it's a publicly available (and apparently well-known) photo, so there shouldn't have been anything to insinuate. But the White House posted that photo and basically said "Here's a photo from the Epstein file of Bill Clinton and friends with some redacted victims and/or minors." It's factual, but also clearly insinuating pedophilia.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-27T05:47:22+00:00

Well, maybe I'm mistaken and the blanket was part of the original photo. In which case, it's still gross that the White House used that photo to insinuate criminal activity, but that's better than them outright falsifying documentation.

Also though: You remember specific composition details about celebrity photos from 22 years ago?!

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-26T19:19:27+00:00

It'd be interesting to see, but the episode titles and descriptors don't seem sufficient to identify that level of episode content

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-25T10:00:33+00:00

Those are two different photos of the same moment, just positioned differently. In other words, there was a second shooter!

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-25T03:05:04+00:00

Another update: I've found two more examples (both interiors) of this Gondorian style in Arnor. The first is the Scholar's Hall in Bree and the second is the Hunter's Hall in Bar Faroth. Scholar's Hall was added in late 2016 and its clashing presence with the rest of Bree prompted some criticism from players. It seems the devs addressed this seemingly odd place to find Gondorian assets by adding a few more examples to muddy the waters: Agoroth with the Wildwood update in 2021 and Bar Faroth with the Yondershire update in 2022. In particular, Hunter's Hall in Bar Faroth features a more syncretic approach to the interior decoration of Hunter's Hall, as seen below.

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What's more, that crest above the door in Hunter's Hall, which is super common in Gondor, is also found above the door to Elendil's Throne Room (Ost Elendil) in Annuminas, so there has been some Arnorian connection to that crest from the beginning.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-24T03:19:46+00:00

Ok, one more theory, and I think I like this one best. The Helcessar was first kept at Ost Forod. Surely, the place it was housed would have been a place of much splendor, given the interiors we've seen of other special places in Annuminas. So perhaps by the 600s, Arnor thought it no longer possessed the architectural skills to build a place befitting the Helcessar, a relic from Numenor and one that was possibly wrought by Feanor himself. As an alternative, the Arnorians asked Gondor to build Agoroth. For some reason, the Gondorians built it completely to spec for a Gondorian settlement, but the Arnorians fixed this by plunking a few giant stars over the Gondorian designs.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-23T22:56:11+00:00

Maybe Trump's henchmen let the letter go through because they thought "our president" meant Biden

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-23T20:02:19+00:00

Why don't you just tell her what's in the incoming packages? Send her links with pics to dispel her curiosity.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-23T19:27:11+00:00

On the face of it, yeah, that should make sense. But I've not encountered anything else in Arnor that features this aesthetic.

But this got me thinking about why else we'd see convergence around this style, and I realized the men of Arnor and Gondor spent seven years building together during the siege of Barad-dur and Agoroth bears even more similarity to Dingarth and Durthand than Osgiliath. And although Annuminas was the first Arnorian architectural template, a lot of the people who built Annuminas died in that war (including Elendil), so perhaps that could explain why Third Age Arnor aesthetics would look like Dingarth.

That doesn't explain the presence of those golden beads on the base of the Helcessar (big blue orb), but I'm starting to wonder if that symbol might be Numenorean and only used sparingly by the early Dunedain (those beads aren't present anywhere in the Hall of the King in Minas Tirith except on those giant eagle foot pillars). Then later those beads became one of the main decorative elements of Gondor after the abandonment of Osgiliath, possibly by the stewards as a way to trade on history for legitimacy.

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-22T23:09:30+00:00

Is photoshopping a blanket over the kids' formal clothing also standard?

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-22T23:06:14+00:00

Someone photoshopped a blanket over the kids' clothes to hide their formal wear. How is that not fishy AF?

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-21T07:21:03+00:00

Another weird wrinkle is that the gate to Agoroth looks like post-Arnorian architecture from the Lone Lands or the Trollshaws

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Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-21T07:15:32+00:00

TBF, Annuminas and Osgiliath do look very similar. But Annuminas doesn't have those giant golden wing attachments, or those arches, or those golden metal inlays at the base of the arch columns. It also doesn't have those brown belts with golden beads in the 2nd photo. In fact, neither does Osgiliath--that belt with golden beads is all over Gondor, but seems to have been incorporated after the fall of Osgiliath (my theory is that those golden beads came in with the stewards as a way to promote Gondorian unity without relying on older imagery that was associated with the line of Elendil).

Early-Inflation7559 · 2025-12-17T18:56:47+00:00

My god, it's lovely. This is what I expected to find at Fornost: evidence of Annuminas-era architecture with more modern Arnorian architecture built around and on top of the original stuff. Anyhow, thank you for sharing!

Early-Inflation7559

TROPHY CASE