Easterlings

The Easterlings from Rhûn were Men who lived in the east of Middle-earth, and were enemies of the Free Peoples. Their Kings and Queens were allies of Sauron and therefore they were allies of his people. They were tall, muscular, and either tan skinned or yellow skinned. They had dark toning of the iris-colors (Eye colors such as Green, Hazel, and Brown) in their wide eyes, and black or brown hair that was short on men and shoulder-length on women.



Easterlings of the First Age
During the First Age, the term was applied to the sons of Bor and Ulfang, or the Swarthy Men, who came into Beleriand much later than the Edain, and who were for a part secretly in league with Morgoth.

Sons of Bor
Bor was a leader of Men who came into Lothlann, Beleriand, in the FA 463. His sons were Borlach, Borlad, and Borthand. Bor was welcomed by Maedhros, who gave him and his followers land north and south of the March of Maedhros. Bor and his sons swore allegiance to Maedhros, and remained faithful, though he was told by Morgoth to betray the banner of Caranthir. All of them were wiped out during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

Sons of Ulfang "the Black"
Ulfang also came in Lothlann, Beleriand, in 463, shortly after Bor. He was the father of Ulfast, Ulwarth, and Uldor "the Accursed". Ulfang was welcomed by the sons of Fëanor, and he and his sons swore allegiance to Caranthir. They were given lands to dwell in the north and south of the March of Maedhros. Ulfang and his sons were secretly in the employ of Morgoth, and betrayed the Eldar and Edain during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad in what is now known as the Treachery of Men.

Rule in Hithlum
After Nirnaeth Arnoediad at the bidding of Morgoth, the Easterlings invaded Hithlum. They spread throughout the wide lands plundering, destroying, and killing its inhabitants. The Eldar of Hithlum were able to escape from the invaders by taking refuge in the southern mountains that later the Easterlings avoided out of fear of the elves. The Easterlings soon withdrew northwards and apparently settled. However, the Easterlings were betrayed by their lord Morgoth, and locked solely in Hithlum and denied the rich lands of the Beleriand that they so desired. Here the Easterlings governed with cruelty, robbing, stealing, and enslaving the remaining Men of Hithlum. They took away the young and the able bodied and sometimes young women to be wives; the most widely known being Aerin of whom Brodda took to produce his heir. Despite these evil deeds, they did not take Morwen nor her house from her for they feared her and believed her to be a witch and so her son had time to escape to Doriath. Tuor, the cousin of Túrin was also enslaved in Hithlum by the Easterlings but he was able to escape and evaded them by living as an outlaw, until he was contacted by the Vala Ulmo and went to Gondolin.

The Easterlings ruled effectively in Hithlum as vassals of Morgoth from FA 473 to FA 583. After the War of Wrath, those that survived fled back over the Ered Luin to Eriador and beyond.

Easterlings of the Third and Fourth Ages
During the Third Age, the term was applied to those Men living beyond the Sea of Rhûn, who were usually allied with Sauron (for their leader was the second greatest of the Nazgûl, Khamûl) and frequently attacked Gondor at Khamul's master (Sauron's) biddings. However, Sauron’s defeat at the end of the War of the Last Alliance diminished his presence for over one-thousand years, and any territorial ambition was left up to them alone. In TA 490 they invaded Gondor passing through Dagorlad starting a series of wars that lasted sixty years when they were finally defeated in TA 550 by Turambar, the ninth King of Gondor. Afterwards, Gondor subdued them and took from them a large area of land between the Kingdom of Rhovanion and Mordor including the Sea of Rhûn.

Gondor held on to these territories for a few hundred years but slowly began to lose them over time, and the Easterlings once again initiated warfare. In TA 1248 they once again clashed with Gondor in a series of skirmishes but were still not powerful or organized enough to stand against Gondor’s power. Though defeated the Easterlings would not have to wait long for Gondor soon fell into decline and civil war. Afterwards, the Easterling tribes remained peaceful for the most part until the mid-nineteenth century when they were again powerful enough to attack the west.

Wainriders
The Wainriders were a confederation of Easterling and Southron tribes who were united by their hate of Gondor, fueled by the dark lord Sauron. Following the Great Plague which weakened Gondor, they started their attacks in TA 1856, defeating the Gondorian army and killing king Narmacil II. They rode in great chariots (which gave them their name), and raided the lands of Rhovanion, destroying or enslaving its people. Gondor gradually lost all of its possessions east of Anduin to them.

The thirtieth king of Gondor, Calimehtar son of Narmacil, defeated the Wainriders at the Field of Celebrant, buying some rest for his land. However the Wainriders struck back in TA 1944, allying themselves with the Haradrim of Near Harad and the Variags of Khand. They managed to kill king Ondoher and all his heirs, but instead of riding on to Minas Anor and taking the city, they paused to celebrate.

Meanwhile, general Eärnil of Gondor's southern army rode north to defend his king, but he came too late to rescue Ondoher, but he did manage to annihilate the Wainriders. Eärnil was crowned king. After this defeat the might of the Wainriders was broken, and they retreated east. They still held Rhovanion, but never troubled Gondor again until the War of the Ring.

Balchoth
The Balchoth were a fierce race of Easterlings, who attacked Gondor while under orders of Dol Guldur. In 2510 they overran the plains of Calenardhon and almost destroyed the army of the Ruling Steward Cirion, but were defeated by the Éothéod under Eorl the Young. Like the Wainriders they rode in chariots and wagons, and they may have been descendants of this people.

The War of the Ring
During the War of the Ring at end of the Third Age, the Easterlings joined with the forces of Mordor participating in the Northern battles that nearly defeated the Elves of Mirkwood, the Men of Dale, and the Dwarves of Erebor.

Despite being on the losing side in the War of the Ring, the Easterlings still continued to remain a threat throughout the early Fourth Age but were finally subdued in a series campaigns led by Elessar. With some of their lands annexed to the Reunited Kingdom, it presumed that there were no longer anymore major invasions to threaten the peace. It is not known whether these men mixed with their former enemies and learned to live in peace or were simply subjugated tributaries.

Variags
The Variags (in our time, this is another name for the Varangians) were from Khand, and they first appeared in the West in 1944 of the Third Age, fighting alongside the Wainriders. They later appeared during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Tolkien wrote little to nothing about the Variags and Khand, what information about them exists is speculative.

Weapons
The Easterlings had three principal weapons, the halberd, the scimitar, and the composite bow (for they were known to be skilled archers).

The steel-bladed wooden halberd came in two sizes: the nine-foot halberd was used for porcupine formations and phalanx marches, while the five-foot one was used as a basic soldier's weapon. All halberds were spiked on the top (on the five-foot one it had a pike on the bottom too) and had downward-curving, serrated axe-blades, and below that halberds were backed by a curved spike; on the nine-foot one it was used to trip enemy horses while on the five-foot one it was used for piercing armor and deflecting if not disarming enemy blades. The axe blade featured a hole creating the curve. This was a truly versatile weapon that could be used both offensively and defensively.

The three-foot-bladed scimitar may have been a recent addition to their arsenal, perhaps an influence from their association with the Haradrim, although the rounded pommel, handgrip and guard cast from a single piece of bronze were clearly of Easterling design. The curved blade was used in a downward, diagonal slashing attack and for thrusting. No matter which method of attack the Easterling chose to use with his scimitar, it was extremely effective in his hands. (Note: the Easterlings would only use the scimitars when the phalanx broke or when they lost their halberds.)

The five-curved composite bows of Rhun were made usually out of ivory or bone, and were made to stand little more than half the archer's height. This bow came with 3-foot long arrows, and the design of the bow allowed arrows to rocket at least 500 yards, making it an ideal weapon for a chariot empire like them. The string was about a quarter-inch thick, making it as much a charioteer's bow as it was a pedestrian's bow. The Easterling Composite Bow was made of stronger material than wood so that the Easterling could block swinging attacks from enemies, and then stab back with a halberd or scimitar. This bow was a truly exploitive weapon that could thirdly be used as a horse-rider's bow. Being forward-facing imperialists, the Easterlings would use a volley/bombard tactic to surprise their Gondorian or Dalic enemies, and then they would send in the chariots to drive them out of the state, and the state would become Rhun's.

Given that the Easterlings represent Eastern Civilization in an alternate Earth, it is possible (but not official) that The Easterlings had managed to design a volitile black powder like Saruman's but much older. This powder, if it existed, may have been used to make 3-barrel pole cannons, nest of wasps rocket batteries, and miniature hand cannons, as well as heavy siege cannons. The 3-barrel pole cannons would have consisted of three half-foot bronze tubes mounted coming out of a 3-foot-long waxed-wood pole, the tubes arranged in a triangle. The tubes can hold inch-long steel cylinders with sharp, conical heads. The black powder would be loaded into a hole at the beginning of each tube. Then, when the first tube was fired with a miniature torch, the weapon is turned one-third of the way to fire the second and third shots. The nest of wasps would be a hexagonal basket with 32 arrows inside. Each arrow would have a paper tube of this powder bound to it. The miniature hand cannon would be just a bronze tube on a 1-foot by 2-inch by 2-inch prism of wood, loaded and fired in a similar way to the 3-barrel cannon, but much lighter to carry around. The Heavy siege cannon was probably five feet long and loaded with a 10-inch steel ball, and fired much like the other two cannons, but was large enough to take down walls. In terms of assessing Tolkien's works, it is safest to say that both Easterling black powder and Isengard black powder is non-canonical.

In the book, they use axes. These were devastatingly effective against the enemies of Rhûn, as seen in both editions of the Return of the King DVD as the Easterlings savagely slay the men of Minas Tirith with their lethal weapons. Most of them tend to use halberds and scimitars, though.

Background
In the movie The Two Towers an army of men is entering the Black Gate. The corresponding passage in the book describes them as Easterlings; however, they carry the flag of Harad in the film - a black snake on red ground. Furthermore they wear the typical red cloths as they are often described to be used by Haradrim.

Culture
Knowledge of the culture of the Easterlings is limited. In the First Age it was extremely primitive; examples of this rise from Brodda's treatment of the Men of the House of Hador in Dor-lómin. However, by the Third Age the Easterlings must have been an extremely wealthy and well advanced people, as is demonstrated by their exquisite armor and well-crafted weaponry. It is known that Easterlings love Dwarven craftmanship (and weapons). Their whole life is about war, because from child and on, they are trained for war. Even the woman will fight with the manfolk. Easterlings fought with savage skill as well as many different types of psychological warfare. There has been some controversy about the relation of the evil Easterlings and Asian humans in reality. Their culture and armour seem somewhat related to India, China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia.

Uniform, shields, and future
The Easterling culture was at a high level, and their smiths were almost as advanced as Gondorian smiths. Rhûn was one of the richest countries in Middle-earth and had mountains full of easily obtained copper, iron, and Gold with which they had access to vast resources of money and raw materials. The country's rich supplies of every kind of resource were enough to easily feed, clothe, and grant wealth to the nation's entire populace as well as granted Rhun's masterful smiths the time to make grandly exquisite armour and weapons of near unparalleled quality and effectiveness. Rhûnic armor was made from brass, along with the helmet; its dragon-skull-shape was made to intimidate enemies.

Their scaly brass armor consisted of a stomach-plate, heart-plate, groin-plate, collar, rerebraces, vambraces, cuisses, and half-greaves. The clothing that the Men of Rhûn wore consisted of red leather gloves, black leather tall-boots, dark-purple long-pants, a dark-purple tunic and longsleeve-shirt, a dark-purple headscarf, and a black facecloth. The undercut, brass helmet was worn over the headscarf, and featured cheek-and-eye guards, along with two horns from the back and a crest on the front, to remind other beings of dragons, intimidating to the enemy even before the battle began. This primitive form of psychological warfare was terrifyingly effective against the Men of Gondor and Rohan and Dale, who would oftentimes literally quake in their boots at what seemed a golden horde of Easterlings swarming from the uttermost East.

During battle, these heavy infantrymen formed the core of Sauron's armies, for they were taller, stronger, better-trained, and better-equipped than the swarming orcs that fully comprised their forces. Whereas a force of Gondorians or Rohirrim or Dalics could usually hold their own against a larger host of orcs, just a few thousand (3000 - 10000) Rhunic-trained Easterlings could cut down any opposing army like a scythe before grass.

The Men of Rhûn wore their clan-wealth as well: gold, bronze, silver, rubies, and other colorful pieces of ornament-material. Easterlings also liked wearing battle trophies, talismans of victory that would inspire them to glory and riches and power and territory/region ownership and totems of fear that would petrify their next opponents. This psychological warfare struck terror into their enemies and gave them an even greater advantage in battle. On maps made by Games Workshop, and in Battle for Middle-earth factions made by The 3rd Age, we can see pagoda-style architecture in every single one of the buildings, hinting at a Hindu-like or Taoist-like religion.

We are also told within the various writings of Tolkien's legendarium that they were extremely tenacious fighters. After the great rout during the later stages of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, a (Relatively) small (7000-strong) force of Easterlings stood their ground, with their backs to the River Anduin, and fought to the last man while the host of Sauron fled. They caused sizeable and disproportionate casualties among the Free Peoples, and reminded them once again that the Easterlings are not to be trifled with.

The curved, rectangular, two-foot by four-foot shield had concave top and bottom edges and made with brass that surrounded a dark-brown square. It was held by an iron handgrip that was behind a brass circular boss surrounded by a diamond shape that was surrounded by the square. It came with a dark-red leather "belt" if the Man of Rhûn was to strap the shield to the forearm for combat requiring two hands. Even archery was allowed by this big strap. One rather striking detail on Rhûnic armour was that a sun was etched into their sternum-plate, resembling a burning of a grassland like Rohan or Dale. Like the soldiers of Japan in the 20th century, they wore the rising sun emblem upon their armor. After the fall of Sauron, a few Easterling clans continued to fight against the Free Peoples, starting off by attacking the newly crowned King Elessar and the Gondorian kingdoms, this lasted until later in the fourth age when Aragorn was forced to subdue them until they were willing to settle an argument.

Kataphrakts
The Easterlings were known for their unique type of cavalry known as kataphrakts. These were Easterlings that mounted upon heavily armored horses and wielded a scimitar and broad shield. They were notorious for their ferocity of their attacks and the sheer amount of defensive power that these troops could summon when they were deployed side-by-side. The golden-bronze scail-mail armor on the fronts of their horses allowed them to safely trample anti-cavalry, Lances, spears, and modified polearms were also included in their arsenal. The name Kataphrakts is possibly based on the Kataphraktoi, which were also heavily armored cavalry troops of the Byzantine Empire.


 * These were featured in the The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

External link

 * Easterlings at Tolkien Gateway