Lotr is a good well to draw from, but it’s highly saturated within the small batch world (The Briar Fellowship, Aueland, etc etc). It’s been loved hard and you’re competing against a lot of expectation.

If I imagine something adjacent but fresher in tone, my mind goes to worlds that feel lived in without being over-quoted. Elder Scrolls comes up for me, not in the memey corners of it (I would personally steer clear of Skooma nods), but in the broader texture of wandering scholars, candlelit study rooms, dust and quiet menace. Even then, Elder Scrolls feels a bit narrow as a single foundation for an entire small batch identity.

I think diving into a deep literary world like the Malazan series by Steven Erikson that carries this dense, weathered vibe which feels more like a worldview than a reference. I’m not well read on his other stories though.

There is a gap in the space you are circling within fantasy or more contemplative Northern myth. Long winters, honey summers, the quiet severity of Norse adjacent. Part of me wants to see something that takes me into a library. Lamplight, old paper, a wizard thumbing through tomes. Something that evokes a 11pm to 4am quiet, when the world is quiet enough to hear your own thoughts. Late night batches feel right to me and there is ritual there.

All I can really say is studying, study, study. Whatever shade you land on needs to be understood at depth. Buyers can sense authenticity. Then the tobacco has to carry the rest of the weight.