Lord of the Rings: Warriors

Rynar looked at Reynard and sighed. In truth, he thought Reynard had a truly tragic life—bearing the weight of everything alone, yet unable to stop the fall of the Empire.

In fact, he might have even hastened its demise...

The Lord of the Rings was originally an open-world game, where any action a player took could potentially alter the main storyline. Reynard's story began from this very concept...

At the start, Reynard was just an insignificant NPC. He arrived at the northern territories carrying the orders of the Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin Corps to scout the movements of orcs, half-orcs, and other evil factions. 

At that time, Reynard was weak and vulnerable, and the player lords soon took notice of him. 

Their enthusiasm exploded—after all, here was a lone Zaltarion Royal Guard Paladin! 

This meant they could gain favor or even possibly recruit him! 

So, Reynard's reconnaissance mission was completed by a wave of eager lords.

Instead of returning to report his findings, Reynard stayed in the northern territories, thanks to the influence of the players. 

Soon, waves of players hoping to recruit a Royal Guard Paladin trekked to the north. 

Under the game's AI algorithms, Reynard started assigning quests. 

And just like that, a new main storyline was born out of the players' actions. 

By the time the players realized what had happened, Reynard had already become the Governor of the North! Forget about recruiting him—just getting to see him was an achievement.

That was the good part. The most absurd thing was that players, in their rush to gain favor, had completed countless quests, skyrocketing Reynard's reputation.

Do you know how insanely high Reynard's reputation got? 

Imagine this: tens of thousands of players in the northern region constantly boosting his reputation. 

Someone once compared Reynard's fame to that of Emperor Gary Karr of the Zaltarion Empire, who had a reputation score of 200 million. 

Reynard? 500 million! 

Even the Emperor was so intimidated that he made Reynard a king, but Reynard didn't accept the crown of the King of the North. 

Instead, he chose to become the Governor of the North, overseeing all affairs in the region. From that moment, tragedy began...

With a coalition army of millions of players, Reynard led a campaign against the orc fortress of Gundabad. 

However, they were ambushed by the orc tribes and evil creatures from the Misty Mountains. 

That battle was apocalyptic, lasting half a month, and ultimately resulted in the defeat of the player coalition. 

Nearly every northern lord's army was decimated, leaving the north defenseless save for a handful of NPC troops. 

The battle was officially named "The Empire's Dusk" and recorded in the game's chronicles. 

At its peak, the Zaltarion Empire had controlled nearly all of Rhûn and most of Rhovanion. 

But because of the fallout from the Empire's Dusk, the evil forces of the Misty Mountains and the Northern Wastes launched a counterattack, leading to the fall of the Rhovanion region. 

The entire area, save for the Woodland Realm of the Elves, the Lonely Mountain Kingdom of the Dwarves, the human territories of Dale and Lake-town, and the Governor's seat in River Running Town, was lost. 

The Zaltarion Empire's connections with the outside world were cut off, with no aid from Gondor or Rohan to the south, nor from Arnor in the north. 

Surrounded by the forces of Mordor and the northern evil factions, the Zaltarion Empire collapsed, leaving only the lands north of the Sea of Rhûn intact. 

The empire was completely shattered.

Despite this, Reynard did not give up. He rallied the NPCs and players into another army and, to everyone's amazement, marched south. 

In the Forest of Leaves (formerly Mirkwood), they clashed with the orc coalition. 

Both sides, taken by surprise, quickly grabbed their weapons and greeted each other with violence. 

More and more forces joined the fray, including human players, NPCs, elven players, dwarf players, and even orc players. 

The battle in the Forest of Leaves was utter chaos, with countless lords' territories destroyed and uncountable soldiers lost. 

But in the end, Reynard emerged victorious, successfully capturing Dol Guldur, and the human coalition claimed victory.

At last, the Kingdom of Zaltarion (it no longer qualified as an empire, now smaller than even a single province from its prime) reconnected with the rest of the human realms. 

Constantly relying on teleportation arrays was no longer necessary, as the kingdom now directly bordered Lothlórien and Gondor.

You would think that after all this, things would calm down, and they could focus on rebuilding. But! Would Reynard still be Reynard if he didn't stir up more trouble? 

That wasn't his style! And so, Reynard's grand third war—the Battle of the Pass—began, and it too was immortalized in the game's history. What happened, you ask?

Well, Reynard realized that constantly heading south to communicate with other kingdoms wasn't sustainable. 

He decided to find a breakthrough in the west. 

After some searching, he found it—the Old Pass of the Misty Mountains! Reynard contacted Rivendell and launched a feint, leading a massive army south while coordinating with the elves to capture the pass in a pincer movement. Everything seemed to be going great, right? 

But! The Forest of Leaves suffered again. Countless lords' territories were trampled over once more. 

The entire forest became a war zone, with dwarves and orcs from the north, elves, humans, and half-orcs from the south, Zaltarion knights from the east, and elven rangers from the west. 

The chaos in the forest was indescribable.

Finally, when everyone had calmed down and returned home for a few days of peace, Reynard wasn't finished. 

He noticed a vulnerability in the orcs of the north and, after coordinating with the Woodland Realm and the humans of Dale and the Lonely Mountain, he sparked the Second Battle of Five Armies. 

This too made it into the game's chronicles.

In Reynard's chaotic leadership, the Zaltarion Empire became a mere kingdom. 

The elves of Lothlórien were left weakened, and the human player lords of the Forest of Leaves had their lands plundered over and over. 

The evil factions of the Misty Mountains became self-conscious from the constant defeats. The northern orc kingdoms and orc players were left in shambles. Why, you ask? 

Because during the Second Battle of Five Armies, Reynard pulled off another surprise attack—this time on the orcs' stronghold of Gundabad. 

And what did he do? He stole the head of the orc king! 

Oh, he left the body behind, of course. After all, you shouldn't borrow too much. 

Following his principle of "returning what you borrow," Reynard very considerately returned the head during the middle of the battle, tossing it into the orc ranks. 

The orcs fled in terror, and Reynard's forces gave chase…

By the time Rynar crossed into this world, Reynard was still busy preparing for another grand campaign, apparently planning some new event. 

Now that Reynard was here too, Rynar just hoped he wouldn't start something big again. 

He barely had any troops left as it was. 

Back in the game, when Rynar was just a viscount with only two thousand men under his command, his territory had been completely plundered after one of the battles in the Forest of Leaves.

"I just hope… tomorrow will be better," Rynar sighed quietly as he watched the setting sun.