And so a new day dawns,
And with it, a new path awaits.
The year is 3007 of the 3rd age...
Are you ready to live the dream?
 

“There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.” – (Ainulindalë, Music of the Ainur, The Silmarillion.)

 
And through him did they shape his will. Until the mists of time that had shrouded from them their creation were lifted, did they see that they had created a place of Dreams and in their comprehension they were in awe.
 That was in the beginning, now, two ages of the world have passed and with it has come the passing of the evil of Melkor, cast into the void, and the rise and fall of Sauron at the hand’s of the Children of Iluvatar. Mighty was the clash that saw his end and the start of the Third Age.
An age of passing it seems, for the Coming of Men sees the fading of the Elves into the West, returning unto the Blessed Realm, yet still they linger, for even as the
Third Age hath begun a shadow born grows.
 
From Dol Guldur a lesser shadow grows, drawing strength from the great evil that now openly builds within the great confines of the Plateau of Gorgoroth in Mordor, for the return of the Dark Lord has seen the Barad-dûr rebuilt, Orcs have begun to multiply and Mount Orodruin has burst into flame once more. These tidings do not bode well for the free peoples of Middle Earth.
For men who dwell north of Mordor their town of Dale sees a new King crowned, Brand son of Bain. For the valiant men of Minas Tirith in the great ancient realm of Gondor the death of Ecthelion II now means that Denethor II becomes Steward of the White City.
 
For Dwarves, Balin leads folk of Erebor to reclaim their forefather’s great mines of Khazad-dûm, while Dáin of the Iron Hills remains King under the Mountain; while far away to the west the Elves of Rivendell continue to linger existing as they had done for many thousands of years a race of beauty, knowledge and wisdom of things that have come to pass and those that have not.

 Further west still we come to the Shire a quiet and non-adventurous place all told, yet this is sure to change as events begin to gather pace, the frequent visits of Gandalf a mysterious old man in grey, a troublemaker to be sure and then followed by the sudden disappearance of Bilbo during his grand farewell feast has been source for much gossip, for gossip and daily life and all manner of pleasant things are the only things that occur here.
The year is now 3007 of the Third Age and still it remains a small corner of the world that enjoys the watchful peace despite the growing turmoil in the outside world.
 
Middle Earth is on the cusp of great deeds, and it is here that Dreams is poised to begin, for with the death of Gilraen in this year, Aragorn II (or Strider) becomes now the last true descendant of the Chieftain’s of the Dúnedain, and as we all know it is but a short few years before Frodo leaves the Shire on his epic quest that we are all so fond of.

 
Thereby it is obvious that the Kingdoms adhere to this time frame, not too the extreme but to such an extent that most RPG’s reflect this era.
 
However on top of those general Kingdom RPG’s it is our wish and design that our Dreams progresses through the Third Age consequently re-living the events that transpire as a result of the travelling of the One Ring to fires of Mount Doom. Such events will be selected from the many that occurred by you the members; this will be carried out through polls so that everyone may have a chance to influence the direction of the forum.
 
For example you could see yourself as an elf reliving the flight across the Bruinen, repulsing the attacks upon Rivendell and Lothlórien, as a Hobbit the great struggle of Sam and Frodo on their travels across the Wilderland and into the wastes of Mordor, the defence of the Shire on the return of the triumphant heroes toward the end of the Third Age, as a valorous man or woman of Gondor in defence of Minas Tirith, the defence of Helm’s Deep.

For you Mordorians, the general destruction that accompanied your attacks upon the free peoples, the capture of Merry and Pippin and their fate at the hand’s of the Rohirrim, the killing of Boromir and assault on Gondor are to name but a few of the many events that may be recreated.
 
Such events will be major events within the Dream, and will take place in a combination of the relevant Kingdom’s and the Inter-Kingdom forums. Firstly threads relating to the main events will be for instance, the summoning of the army, the farewell to loved ones.

 This may take place in the general Kingdom forums or its Subforums, the actually meeting and “main event” RPG will be held in the Inter-Kingdom forums. Now we realise that some Kingdom’s may not be involved in a “main event” that is taking place, please do not feel left out! You’ve seen what goes on, the timeline is packed with every
race doing what-not, and here there and everywhere, so there will be a “main
event” that will include you.
 
Besides, if you’re not taking part it is an excellent opportunity to read a Tolkien events are recreated before your very eyes, now I am sure I speak for everyone when I say that that is fantastic and extremely exciting.
Having you, the best role players on the planet rein acting some of our favourite bits in the book.
 
Now I am also just as sure that you will have noticed that at certain events main characters will be involved within the event. At times this may turn out to be characters who are ruling your Kingdom, in which case they will obviously role play as these characters, unless of course there are extenuating circumstances for example it is not humanely possible for them to be online when needed for the event or they really, really do not wish to participate, in which case a “second” will be used. However often there will be “vacancies” to fill a main character spot for the event, in which case you all (respective Kingdoms only of course, an Elf can’t play Aragorn for instance) will have the opportunity to have that character to role play. A second will also be used for these main characters in case the originally member states that they will be unable to role play that character further.
 
The events will be spread over a long period of time; early estimates are suggesting a good 3 to 4 years for the Third Age to be played out. This will leave plenty of time for organisation for the events, and for the events themselves to take place. We do not intend at all to drag the RPG’s out; we would prefer to go overkill on the time required so we can have a certain amount of lee way for any unforeseen hiccups that may raise their heads.
To eliminate such, there will be a number of organising positions that will be filled in order to aid with the logistics, this may likely also come with characters. Also those characters in the main event are likely to be expected to aid in the organisation. Now this will be entirely up to ruler discretion but RPG’s started or continual ones for example the Market Streets of Minas Tirith can reflect the event of current war in the posts that are made there, as would for example the “meeting places” of the Kingdom where visitors and residents of the Kingdom’s alike would share in the “gossip” at the current event; expressing example IC the love for a loved one involved in a battle.
 
It will also transpire that characters will die as the timeline progresses. For instance, at the current starting year for the Kingdoms, Minas Tirith has Boromir as a ruler character, however as we know he perishes in defence of Merry and Pippin. Thus the ruler icon will change to reflect the change in circumstances.

Not all ruler characters will die, but will be out of their realm, for ease I use Minas Tirith again as an example, Boromir leaves the White City and so would be unable to assume command still of events in Minas Tirith, thus when the Dream reaches this point in the timeline the ruler icon will change, this may also be extended to the Elves of Rivendell,
for currently Elladan is one of the ruler positions, however we have textual evidence that he is sent on errands by his father, thus, another character will be chosen to “replace” him. Of course these decisions may change to reflect certain future circumstances.
 
By now I am sure you can see where we have gone with this one. A forum wide RPG will be in place as well as a Kingdom’s own personal RPG’s. Now this seems all very daunting and canonical, we accept that we cannot adhere like purists to the canon, and so obvious lee way is granted so that the Kingdom’s may grow and develop under the members into the Kingdom they are happiest with and into characters they are happiest role playing. Of course participation in these main events is no compulsory and general personal Kingdom RPG’s will continue as they did before the event, though you must
expect a slight slowing of these should its participants want to get involved with the main event.
 
So that is our intention, the Dream. It leaves now to welcome you with open arms and the friendliest of smiles and hugs to you, and that we hope you thoroughly enjoy your time here. Something so small as a glimmer of an idea has now progressed to a place where many already frequent and the feeling of welcome and contentment already fills the air.  Whilst plans and visions unfold and kingdoms begin to rise from the empty plains, something else, something special and with great potential also stirs. We attempt to offer
something that isn’t available all over the net.
 
The end? After Sauron is defeated and the War of the Ring is over, after the
ship departs the Grey Havens and life begins to settle once more in
Middle-Earth, we too shall settle in the Fourth Age, hopefully with the
memories of a wonderful experience, an LotrDream perhaps?

Credit and many thanks for the above timeline goes to Simaril
Reference for the above material has been taken from The Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien The Lord of the Ring's Triology by J.R.R.Tolkien