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Roland looked at Reno and sighed. Honestly, he thought Reno had it pretty rough. The guy carried the weight of everything on his shoulders… and yet still couldn't stop the Empire from collapsing. If anything, he kinda sped up its downfall.
Lord of the Rings was originally an open-world game. In it, any move a player made could mess with the main storyline. And Reno's tale started right there…
Back then, Reno was just some throwaway NPC. With an official order from the Royal Paladin Guard of Ragrand, he went north to scout the movements of orcs, half-orcs, and other nasty factions. Problem was, he was still weak back then — so when a few player-lords spotted him, well… boom! The hype exploded.A lone Royal Paladin from Ragrand? That meant farming reputation points! That meant maybe even stealing him away!
So instead of doing his recon, Reno's mission got "completed" for him by an army of overly enthusiastic lords. Under their influence, he never returned to report back. Instead, he stayed in the North, surrounded by hundreds of players desperate to recruit a Royal Paladin. The game's AI saw the frenzy and had Reno start handing out quests.And just like that, the players accidentally spawned a brand-new main storyline. By the time anyone realized what was happening, Reno had already been promoted to Governor of the North. Forget recruiting him — you'd be lucky to even get an audience.
And that was the good part. The real madness? Thanks to all the "reputation farming" quests players did for him, Reno ended up with a ridiculous amount of fame. You have any idea how scary Reno's rep stat was?Someone did the math — the highest before him was Emperor Gary Karl of the Ragrand Empire with 300 million rep points. And Reno? 700 million. Yep. Even the Emperor got spooked and offered him the crown of "King of the North." Reno refused — instead, he took the position of Governor, with authority over everything in the North. And that's when the tragedy began…
With an army that included millions of player-led troops, Reno marched on the orc fortress of Gundabad. But the orcs and other evil things from the Misty Mountains swarmed them. That battle… it was chaos on an epic scale. It lasted half a month and ended in disaster. The Northern army was crushed, leaving the region almost defenseless — just a hundred thousand NPC troops and some walls.
The devs named it "Twilight of the Empire" in the game's official history. Back in its golden age, the Ragrand Empire had held almost all of Rhûn and half of Rhovanion. But after that battle, evil forces from the Misty Mountains and the Northern Wastes counterattacked hard, taking over most of Rhovanion. Only the Woodland Realm of the elves, the Lonely Mountain dwarves, Dale, Lake-town, and Reno's capital at Swiftflow City survived. Every route connecting Ragrand to the outside world got cut off. Rohan and Gondor to the south? Arnor in the north? Couldn't help. Between Mordor and the evil factions of Forodwaith pressing from both sides, the Ragrand Empire fell. Only the lands north of the Sea of Rhûn remained — a crippled remnant of a once-great nation.
But Reno didn't just give up. He rallied an army of NPCs and players, and to everyone's shock, he went south swinging. In the Greenleaf Forest (formerly the Dark Forest), he ran straight into an orc coalition. Both sides "greeted" each other with weapons immediately. Then more and more joined in — human players, elf players, dwarf players, even orc players! Greenleaf became a warzone so messy you couldn't tell who was fighting who. Countless player territories were leveled, untold soldiers died… but in the end, Reno captured Dol Guldur. It was a human alliance victory.
That win finally reconnected what was now the Kingdom of Ragrand (couldn't call it an empire anymore — it wasn't even as big as one of its old provinces) to the rest of the human world. No more relying entirely on teleport gates — now they had a direct border with Lothlórien and Gondor.
By all logic, Reno should've settled down to rebuild. But come on — Reno without trouble is like a tavern without beer. That's just not his style.Cue his third grand war — the Battle of the Pass. Another entry in the official chronicles. Reno had been thinking: all this constant travel south was a pain. Why not find a way west? And he found it — the Old Pass of the Misty Mountains. He teamed up with Rivendell, launched a fake southern attack, and then with the elves' help, took the Old Pass from both sides.
It was great… except Greenleaf Forest got wrecked again. Dwarf and orc forces from the north, elves and humans and half-orcs from the south, Ragrand knights from the east, elven rangers from the west… calling it "chaos" doesn't even scratch the surface.
Eventually, everyone chilled and went home for a few peaceful days. Then Reno got bored again. He noticed the orcs up north were stretched thin, so he made a little alliance with the Woodland Realm elves, the Lonely Mountain dwarves, and the men of Dale. And boom — the Second Battle of the Five Armies began. Into the history books it went.
This time, Reno really pushed it. In the middle of the fight, he went full sneaky-mode, bypassed the frontlines, and hit Gundabad Fortress — the orcs' home base. Oh, and he "borrowed" the Orc King's head. Very politely left the body behind, of course.Following the rule of "borrow once, return once," Reno waited until the battle was raging, then rode out with his knights, lifted the head high, and tossed it right back into the orc army. The orcs broke and ran, Reno's forces chased them down, and… well, you get the picture.
Anyway, right before Roland crossed over, Reno was still building up his troops — clearly plotting another big "event." Roland can only pray Reno doesn't start one here. He barely has any soldiers now. Back in the game, when Roland was still just a viscount with 2,000 troops, a single Greenleaf battle left his territory totally flattened.
"Here's hoping… tomorrow's a better day," Roland murmured, watching the sunset.
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