Easterlings

The Easterlings (often called warriors of Rhûn) were Men who lived in the east (in the land of Rhûn) of Middle-earth, and were enemies of the Free Peoples.



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 Accursed"
Ulfang also came in Lothlann, Beleriand, in 463, shortly after Bor. He was the father of Ulfast, Ulwarth, and Uldor. 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.

The Easterlings were betrayed by their lord Morgoth, and locked in Hithlum. After the War of Wrath, those that survived fled back over the Ered Luin to Eriador and beyond.

Easterlings of the Third Age
During the Third Age, the term was applied to those Men living beyond the Sea of Rhûn, who were 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.

Easterlings of the Fourth Age
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.

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.

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. He came too late to rescue Ondoher, but managed to totally defeat 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 2150 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.

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. Little was known about them, but they appeared to be a race of horse-men much like the Rohirrim, although they were fiercely loyal to Mordor.

Weapons
The Easterlings had two principal weapons, the polearm and the scimitar (although they were also known to be skilled archers). The polearm, fitted with a serrated blade and tipped with a spike, was made in two sizes: the nine-foot polearm was used to defend against enemy charges, particularly from cavalry, while the shorter, five-foot one, featuring spikes at both ends, was used in close combat. Each was backed with a curved spike sharpened on the outer edge: on the long polearm this was used to trip or hamstring enemy horses; on the shorter one it was for piercing armor and deflecting enemy blades. It was a truly versatile weapon that could be used defensively and offensively, offering the Easterling immediate retaliation with a choice of four points of attack to use. The three-foot-long scimitar may have been a recent addition to their arsenal, perhaps an influence from their association with Sauron's Orcs, 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. Their Bows were five-foot-six-inch, made of Black wood, and strung with one-sixteenth-inch siver-senew-string. Their three-foot-six-inch arrows were black-shafted arrows with pale-brown (almost white) feathers (three inches long) and had dark-silver steel heads. These arrow-heads were barbed, serrated, heated in burning-coals, and three inches long. When the Easterling fired the arrow, it flew 345 yards from the archer to his target. A slit in the back one-inch of the arrow, a fifteenth of an inch wide and a quarter-inch deep, is where the string was placed in the use of an Easterling Bow. The black quivers were twelve inches by thirteen inches by thirteen inches, in a scalene triangle form, and four inches wide. In the book, they use axes.

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. They can also be seen all too easily in the Return of the King movie, where they are easy to see mowing down the Men of Minas Tirith and savagely tackling them with swords, halberds, shields, maces, and hammers. This is during the breaking of the gates after the Trolls enter. This can be seen in the VHS, DVD, and extended DVD versions.

Physical and Vocal origin
The Easterling skin color is paler than the Men of the West's Skin, and their eyebrows were a bold black. Men had black goatee moustaches that covered the entire trapedoid-shaped area between the nose and mouth, they stood about seven feet tall, had dark-toned eye-colors ([dark]brown, blue, green, etc.), and short black hair. Women had the same skin but with very thin brows and Their eyes were almost as big as (as in larger than) the Men of the West's, giving them a half-Turkish half-Persian look. Their voices are varied, but have Persian accents, firm voice, male version demonstrated beautifully by John Whyte as the Soldiers of Rhun in the Battle for Middle-earth series.

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 copper in which case they had the money and time to make such exquisite armour. Rhûnic armor was made from gold-colored bronze, along with the helmet; its dragon-shape was made to intimidate enemies. The Men of Rhûn could also manufacture small pieces of armor called "lames". The gold-bronze armor consisted of a stomach-plate, a groin-guard, a chestplate for sternum-and-heart protection, a collar to protect the full neck, rerebraces and vambraces and cuisses and greaves of half-cylindrical-curve shape, and hand-plates with finger-plates and thumb-plates. They were exceedingly well-protected, the weak points being the back of the entire body. But they fought in tight groups; therefore, an attack to the rear was not to likely at all. The clothing that the Men of Rhûn wore consisted of red-leather gloves, black-leather boots, dark-purple longpants, a dark-purple tunic and longsleeve-shirt, a dark-purple headscarf, and a black facecloth. The undercut, gold-colored bronze helmet was worn over the cap and scarf (attached to the cap), 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. 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 could usually hold their own against a larger host of Orcs, just a few well-trained Easterlings could cut down their opponents 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. 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 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, three-foot by four-foot shield had concave top and bottom edges and made with golden bronze that surrounded a dark-brown square. It was held by an iron handgrip that was behind a gold-bronze 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 an overheating of a Grassland like Rohan or Dale. 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, as well as the Elven ethnicity of Silvan and the Human ethnicity of Northmen. This lead to a disunion that the new Dragon-King had to hire Aragorn to deal with.