Who rules the Shire?

They're AnCaps

>>81726381
>public roads

No they aren't.

It's basically a community of strong families overseeing the stuff that needs overseeing. Brandybucks and some other folk are mentioned doing stuff like this, I recall.

>>81726373
The king of Gondor

>>81726411
>implying the roads don't belong to the Baggins family

>>81726373
Why doesn't some neighbouring kingdom just swing by a take all their land? What are the hobbits going to do?

>>81726373

>Who rules the Shire?

Nobody. The whole thing reminds me of a farm cooperative. They have to work together for their own good because they simply can't compete against everyone else around them alone.

>>81726373

The chief official of the Shire was the Mayor of Michel Delving. Elected every seven years at the "Free Fair" held on the White Downs in the Westfarthing, the Mayor was the Postmaster and First Shirriff of the Shire. At the resumption of the throne by King Elessar, the Shire again became part of the restored Kingdom of Arnor. Elessar permitted the Hobbits to keep their own laws and customs. (The office of Thain was also left undisturbed, though now, as intended, subject to and local steadholder of the King of Arnor.) In 1427, Elessar issued an edict prohibiting Men from entering the Shire and declaring it a Free Land under the protection of Arnor.

They elect a mayor. Sam was the mayor for a good while.

They got mayors n shit.

>>81726373

Is it stray dogs?

>>81726373
The Village Green Preservation Society

>>81726447
>It ends at Bag

>>81726373
Sho'Nuff

basically a collection of leaders from clans with the thain being the ultimate military leader

>>81726373
it's a anarchist utopia.

>>81726373
this color grading actually hurts my eyes

That bloke's wife who didn't like the fireworks very much

Oh god it finally hit me. BOROMIR'S DEAD.

>>81726373
Sheepfuckers

Nobody rules it. That's the whole point. The families do shit peacefully. If there is ever an argument that turns to violence in the Shire, the Shirrefs will come and break it up. The Bounders protect the borders of the shire from Warg packs and such. I forget the name of the Milita Captain who rode a horse. Paladin Took is also a veteran.

If you mean who protects it from armies? The Dunedain, Dwarfs (I forget the name of the Hold) and Elves from the Woodland Realms (bar Thranduil, he doesn't like helping out. So only Celebron + Gladriel help) and Rivendell Elves help.

That's it. They believe the innocence and care free attitude the Hobbits have is worth protecting.

>>81726373

Pissed of gnome named Terry.

>>81726545
Because the only worthy thing about it is farmland and farmland ain't very useful if you have to carry the product miles and miles through the desert and piss off the other western kingdoms. The dwarfs and humans and elves have no beef with the hobbits and dont't see the need to attack them. The only ones that could attack them are wild bandits and very far away foreign kingdoms. For the bandits there are rangers from Gondor that patrol the land and the far away desert people don't gain anything from it but pissing off the other western kingdoms.

>>81726660
It hit him too

The Shire is held in trust for the beneficiaries of the shires citizens.

The trust deed states that all citizens will contribute an equal sum to the maintenance of the shires services, for which there are few. Any person who does not contribute will pay triple their debt the next year as punishment, and failure to pay for 3 years has lead to being raped.

>>81726692
who administers the raping?

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I thought it was an Autonomous Collective.

>>81726660
>Gandalf raping day

>>81726596
Pretty sure the return of Kingdom of Arnor was after the Ring was destroyed; pretty sure OP was asking before that. Post-Ring is about how the world is rebuilding. At the time of the Fellowship, Arnor is dead, Fornost isn't reclaimed. Only the Dunedain protect it constantly and the Elves and Dwarfs help out only if there is a big army. Hobbits helped at the Battle of Fornost or whatever that battle was called that pushed Witch King away.

>>81726373
sauronman

>>81726704

SARUMAN

Pippin is the nigga in chief but he's too busy adventuring to actually take the role. Which doesn't really matter anyway. There's also a system of elected mayors and sheriffs.

You can tell Jackson is a hack when he didn't include the scene where Glorfindel goes "WHY DON'T WE THROW THE RING IN THE OCEAN LOL" it'd stop 90% of these threads.

Also, the fact we didn't see the half-elf twins fighting sucked.

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What was the Shire's taxation policy?

>>81726742
>>81726750
Sharky.

>>81726772

Why don't they, tho?

>>81726704
They alternate between Bill Cosby and Arnold. Bills on duty this week

>>81726596

But what is his tax policy?

>>81726775
It didn't have one. They each had farms, each clan tended to the farms. Each farm always produced more than enough food. Hobbits then traded it between people or the more adventurous kind went to Bree and traded for shit there. Men didn't go to the Shire as it was pointless. Post-Ring destruction it was made illegal to do so unless assisting the defence of the Shire.

>>81726786
There is a rumour, 25th anniversary of LOTR will have the Destruction of the Shire ending added in. This must have been shot and not added.

>>81726796
Ring wants to be found, it'd find a way to get into a current that would take it to land; or it'd get eaten by a fish and a human will catch the fish and eat it and get the ring in the meal and take it to Sauron or get attacked by orcs or whatever.

>>81726796
1. There are fucked up things in the deep places of ME and they don't want to risk one of them getting their hands on the Ring
2. There's the possibility that the Ring could wash ashore and then they'd be right back where they began
3. The Ring HAD to be destroyed as it was the only way to defeat Sauron. Sauron would have eventually conquered ME even without the Ring so destroying it was the only want to prevent this eventuality.

>>81726545
the rangers protect them. also middle earth seems to be kind of funky. there seem to be large swaths of land that aren't owned by anybody. i don't think the shire has any neighbors. there are a bunch of haunted forests and ruins around that probably keep others away.

but i think the rangers protect them from malicious foreigners and goblins and the like. in fact, sauronman was able to take over when they (the rangers) were all away on war.

>>81726545
The Northern Dunedain somewhat secretly protect the Shire and much of the surrounding area.

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>>81726687

>>81726838
The Shire was part of the Kingdom of Arnor and the old Kingdom of Noldor (where Gil-galad and co lived pre-death) was to the north west I think, plus some of the minor dwarf holds. But Arnor got REKT by Witch-King and the Hobbits helped push the Witch King and his armies away. The surviving men couldn't live in the cities as they were haunted or infested and they didn't have strength to clear them so they became rangers, patrolling and killing shit if it got to the few remaining villages. The Shire happened to be a civilization nearby and the Dunedain wanted to repay them for their help.

Again, the civilized races of the world wanted to protect the innocence of the Hobbits. They found their attitude of "We only want 6 meals a day + snacking, a nice bed, friends and family. We don't want grand armies or grand cities or huge empires or trinkets or weapons or whatever. We just want 'basic'" and they thought "They're unique creatures, let us protect them, for if they knew about the true amount of evil in the world, this bastion of happiness and carefreeness will vanish as well"

>>81726876
This. It was partly to protect their innocence and partly as payback for Hobbits actually leaving the Shire to help fight in Arnor's armies despite being fucking Hobbits.

>>81726827
Michel Delving had a mayor, who paid him? Who pays the bounders and shirriffs if not through taxes?

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>>81726373
Syndicalism is a proposed type of economic system, considered a replacement for capitalism. It suggests that workers, industries, and organisations be systematized into confederations or syndicates. It is "a system of economic organization in which industries are owned and managed by the workers".[1]
Its theory and practice is the advocacy of multiple cooperative productive units composed of specialists and representatives of workers in each field to negotiate and manage the economy.
For adherents, labour unions and labour training (see below) are the potential means of both overcoming economic aristocracy and running society in the interest of informed and skilled majorities, through union democracy. Industry in a syndicalist system would be run through co-operative confederations and mutual aid. Local syndicates may communicate with other syndicates through the Bourse du Travail (labour exchange) which would cooperatively determine distributions of commodities.
"Syndicalism" is also used to refer to the political movement (praxis) and the tactic of bringing about this social arrangement, typically expounded by anarcho-syndicalism and De Leonism. It aims to achieve a general strike, a workers' outward refusal of their current modes of production, followed by organisation into federations of trade unions, such as the CNT. Throughout its history, the reformist section of syndicalism has been overshadowed by its revolutionary section, typified by the Federación Anarquista Ibérica section of the CNT.[2]

>>81726373
It's gotta be whoever grows all that weed

>>81726969
Nobody. The Mayor was basically "The guy who talked at Banquets". The Shirriffs protected the village from trouble, the Bounders protected it from Warg's crossing the boundaries. They then got food from their clans/families. Everybody did a job. The Shire produced more food than even Hobbits could eat. So other jobs were there to make sure harvests weren't damaged. Young hobbits used to steal as well, s o you had Shirrifs to prevent that and to stop fights between families. But since there was enough food they just came home and there was food there.

So if you want, they were paid in kind with food. Food that nobody could eat anyway as there'd be too much.

>>81727030
Was pipeweed ever explained to be marijuana? I can't remember. I thought it was just tobacco type plant; it's only in the films when Radaghast takes a puff he acts as if he's high.

>>81727089
>Was pipeweed ever explained to be marijuana? I can't remember. I thought it was just tobacco type plant; it's only in the films when Radaghast takes a puff he acts as if he's high.

No that's just a meme that was popular as far back as the hippie movement. Tolkien said that it's tobacco but that he calls it pipeweed because he figured using the term tobacco would break immersion.

>>81726624
WHO'S DA MASTAH!?

>mfw all these LOTR threads have family made me reinstall Medieval Total War 2 so I can install the Third Age mod

I'm really surprised there hasn't been a Third Age mod for Warhammer Total War. It's much better suited for it AND has Workshop support. Really annoyed. Third Age Mod was fantastic. Shame Dwarfs in Tier 3 were too OP. Elves couldn't beat them as they took Tier 3 arrows like pros.

middle earth is some strange place. there is no technological changes since the elves invented everything in the beginning. now everyone is stuck in some time continuum where not technological/ philosophical advancements are the identifier but lore/knowledge of the past.

>>81726731
underrated post

>>81727133
>would break immersion.

lmao what

thats like saying water would break immersion or gold or any other naturally occuring thing

>>81727164
Numenoreans had high tech shit sort of stuff, like steel bows, giant ships etc. But they got rekt.

>>81727160
A total conversion mod like that takes time. The third age mod for medieval took years to get where it is now.

>>81727133
Thanks, thought as much. I've been doing work on a story for a long time, you know, writing down what I'd like to do and shit. But then I think of Tolkien and think "Fuck me, I'll never be able to do what this guy did". Tolkien made several languages (though he never finished Black Speech sadly), he wrote poems and songs and he created new names for content that otherwise could break immersion. So a sword was a sword, but they're not going to be drinking Chardonnay Wine or Champagne.

I wish I could learn how to create own languages and make up cool little details.

>>81727237
well yes, but they were an exception. in regular middle earth there are like 10 layers of people who lived at the same place and there is no difference between them. it has some stone age vibes to it.

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>>81726373
It's either like an Amish community or something more akin to a very small, isolated European town a century or more ago. No real need for government or a full-on resource management system given that the shire seems the most plentiful farmland in middle earth. Hobbits are unassuming as well so it's unlikely you need a real law and order system, anything that did end up in a dispute is probably settled on a personal level.

Given the environment that exists in the Shire and among the hobbits it seems there isn't a need for a ruler. Rulers or leaders are required for societies with direction. The hobbits have no direction. They're happy living a long time, eating a lot, and celebrating the same old holidays every couple of years, they have no need or desire to develop.

>>81727256
Oh for sure, but back then they had to create models and splash damage and shit for larger creatures. Warhammer Total War has at least models which can be edited and don't require additional altering to get them to do X or Y.

Warhammer Total War is the best modern Total War yet it got the worst scores and reviewers went "IT SUCKS PLAYING IT CAUSE WE KNOW HOW IT ENDS", yet we didn't know how Roman Empire ended?

If Creative Assembly can pull off the merging of the next two games and Mega Grand Campaign isn't treacle paced, it'll be fantastic. Yet reviewers won't notice this.

Anyway, maybe they're waiting for the second game/expansion (since it can be played on it's own or combined with first) to make the Third Age mod. It's the mod I look forward to constantly.

I hate having to install the ME2 mod as it's pretty slow and shit but it's so fun.

>>81727290
CHAMPAGNE IS NOT ON THE MENU BOYS REEEEEEE

>>81727190
i don't think it's the same. i can't quite put my finger on why, but i really don't think it's the same. in a lot of fantasy books, the author comes up with his own names for herbs and plants if they don't sound folksy enough.

for example, "sage" or "thyme" sounds foklsy enough. but "tobacco" sounds like some funny dago or spic word. similarly, imo it'd sound weird if the hobbits were cooking "bratwurst", instead of sausage for example. or, to use plants, "potato", sounds folksy, but zucchini would sound weird

>>81727313
>>81727237
It's a thing that plagues a lot of medieval fantasy. You wanna make it feel epic by saying such kingdoms have existed for thousands of years but that means putting the world in an never-ending stagnation.

>>81727089
It's explained to be tobacco. Wasn't it the main trade item of the Shire though? Whoever produced and sold all that should be powerful

>>81727190
Tobacco, like po tay toes, are new world plants and shouldn't exist in middle earth since its an ancient europe analogue.

>>81727237
Of course they did. They turned on their creators. Only the Faithful survived an they founded Gondor and Arnor.

>>81727471
Actually it is supposed to be closer to old creation myths. Right around the time the ring is destroyed you already have gunpowder and everything mythical is leaving the world.
Fast forward a little and you'd get more modern times.
This is a huge deal as some elves and Sauron wanted to prevent the change and keep things the way they are.

>>81727592
>some elves and Sauron wanted to prevent the change and keep things the way they are.
sauce? i don't remember this. was it in the similarium?

>>81727592
Seeing Middle Earth in a 1900's setting would be really weird. And 2000's would be even more crazy.

>>81727646
I think there are some mentions of it in the lotr books.

>Now these were the Three that had last been made, and they possessed the greatest powers. Narya, Nenya, and Vilya, they were named, the Rings of Fire, and of Water, and of Air, set with ruby and adamant and sapphire; and of all the Elven-rings Sauron most desired to possess them, for those who had them in their keeping could ward off the decays of time and postpone the weariness of the world

>>81727646
Elves wanted to prevent the change because destroying the one ring that held Sauron to the world would also destroy the power of the other rings which is what the elves used to protect their kingdoms and societies for so long. If the change occurred then the elves would fade away with the rest of the magical/mythical world.

>>81727320
Man, that is a sad painting

>>81726704
a town rapist is elected in a time of crisis. the title and responsibilities are considered to be the highest form of civil duty, not some frivolous boon.

>>81727906
Actually Sauron tricked them into creating the rings of power by promising them that it would prevent change. When Sauron forged the one ring they immediately noticed the treachery and simply took them off.

>But the Elves were not so lightly to be caught. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and perceived that he would be master of them, and of an that they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. But he, finding that he was betrayed and that the Elves were not deceived, was filled with wrath; and he came against them with open war, demanding that all the rings should be delivered to him, since the Elven-smiths could not have attained to their making without his lore and counsel. But the Elves fled from him; and three of their rings they saved, and bore them away, and hid them.

By the time the battles against Sauron took place the elves were content to go back to the lands of the Valar and only hanged around to help stop Sauron once and for all.
They made some big sacrifices there that the movie unfortunately never bothered with imo.

>>81728109
Correct.

The Shires citizens over the age of battle duties are all collected into a pool and at the time of arrears 12 letters are sent out to randomly selected citizens.

They are placed infront of a court of the mayor and the rapee, and from there the rapist is chosen.

The process of elimination is varied but generally deals with how connected they are to the debt ower. The further removed from the debt ower the citizen, the more likely they are to be chosen as the rapist, as it is understood they will be an impartial rapist.

>>81727380
The campaign map cant be modded in the newer games so its impossible.

There is an excellent LOTR mod for attila with beautiful models but it will never go past being a battle mod

>>81728120
>Of the Three Rings that the Elves had preserved unsullied no open word was ever spoken among the Wise, and few even of the Eldar knew where they were bestowed. Yet after the fall of Sauron their power was ever at work, and where they abode there mirth also dwelt and all things were unstained by the griefs of time. Therefore ere the Third Age was ended the Elves perceived that the Ring of Sapphire was with Elrond, in the fair valley of Rivendell, upon whose house the stars of heaven most brightly shone; whereas the Ring of Adamant was in the Land of Lórien where dwelt the Lady Galadriel. A queen she was of the woodland Elves, the wife of Celeborn of Doriath, yet she herself was of the Noldor and remembered the Day before days in Valinor, and she was the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth. But the Red Ring remained hidden until the end, and none save Elrond and Galadriel and Cirdan knew to whom it had been committed

>Thus it was that in two domains the bliss and beauty of the Elves remained still undiminished while that Age endured: in Imladris; and in Lothlórien, the hidden land between Celebrant and Anduin, where the trees bore flowers of gold and no Orc or evil thing dared ever come. Yet many voices were heard among the Elves foreboding that, if Sauron should come again, then either he would find the Ruling Ring that was lost, or at the best his enemies would discover it and destroy it; but in either chance the powers of the Three must then fail and all things maintained by them must fade, and so the Elves should pass into the twilight and the Dominion of Men begin. And so indeed it has since befallen: the One and the Seven and the Nine are destroyed; and the Three have passed away, and with them the Third Age is ended, and the Tales of the Eldar in Middle-earth draw to then-close.”

>>81726373
Master Blaster

>>81726411

How do you know they weren't purchased by the local community from a private company at a fair market price?

>>81726545

Why would you take their land? Why not just tax them? Idiot

>>81728120
>only hanged around to help stop Sauron once and for all
After looking things up this obviously doesn't apply to all the elves. The obvious example being Arwen.

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TAX?

>>81726564
is there even a need for a ruler?
how many hobbits are there?

>>81728500
The little baby taxes?

>>81728475
arwen is a fifthly race mixer

>>81728109
who rapes the town rapist tho?

>>81728531
Arwen is mixed race though, you meme spouting fuck.

>>81728566
Don't you understand? The rapist is rotated. Andw hy would anyone need to rape the rapist?

>>81728601
because he didnt pay taxes for three years

>>81728601
he fails to carry out his duties. That is punishable by rape

>>81728629
Then he will be raped by the next chosen rapist.

>>81728531
She actually hails from a long line of race mixers that goes all the way back to the first king of Numenor who chose to be human.
Aragorn is also from this same line so they are actually extremely distant relatives and this is pottery on an unimaginable scale that Lucas could never hope to achieve.

>Arwen was a very distant relative of her husband Aragorn. Aragorn's ancestor, Elros Tar-Minyatur, the first King of Númenor, was her father Elrond's brother, who chose to live as a Man rather than as one of the Eldar. Arwen eventually became Queen of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor when she married Aragorn, who was of the line of the Kings of Arnor. By Arwen and Aragorn's marriage, the long-sundered lines of the Half-elven were joined. Their union also served to unite and preserve the bloodlines of the Three Kings of the High Elves (Ingwë, Finwë, and the brothers Olwë and Elwë) as well as the only line with Maiarin blood through Arwen's great-great-great grandmother, Melian, Queen of Doriath, and also on Aragorn's side, through the line of kings of Arnor and Númenor to Elros, Elrond's brother, whose great-great-grandmother was also Melian.
This is from Wikipedia, but I believe it is true. /disclaimer

>>81728661
in a situation where a rapist deliberately eschews his duties, it is to be understood that society itself is under threat of collapse. in order to ensure balance and order be maintained, purposely trained bulls, bred specially for the act of intercourse, are primed and then released upon the offender.

there have been 2 instances of this in the past year alone and hobbit folk consider it to be excellent sport.

>>81728697
race mixing didnt pay off because elrdon was too weak to throw isildur into the lava when he had the chance

>not using the lotr wiki
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Main_Page

>>81728500
AND MY TAX

>>81726373
Do The Hobbits have an armory? In case they get attacked.

>>81728737
>Bill, the rape-pony

>>81728834
Its a communal militia

>>81728746
>>not using the lotr wiki
Wikipedia had more detail on her genealogy.
I don't think her being his first cousin sixty-three times removed is important which is the only detail the wiki has over wikipedia for my purposes.

Why not take the Ring to the west, to the Valinor? I am certain their magic powers are a bit better then that of Sauron's so why not use them to destroy the one Ring?

>>81729063
because Sauron would conquer Middle Earth even without the ring, they literally make a point that hiding it would acomplish nothing during the council at rivendell, whats up with you dumbasses asking lately why didnt they hide it

>>81729063
Because such things are the affairs of mortals. At most all they did was send Gandalf, Saruman and othe other wizard faggots to deal with it.

>>81729063
Ever since the Elves slaughtered their own kind and pursued Morgoth into Middle Earth, asking for help from Valinor is a no go IIRC.
>But Gandalf has revealed to us that we cannot destroy it by any craft that we here possess,” said Elrond. “And they who dwell beyond the Sea would not receive it: for good or ill it belongs to Middle-earth; it is for us who still dwell here to deal with it

>And that we shall not find on the roads to the Sea,' said Galdor. 'If the return to Iarwain be thought too dangerous, then flight to the Sea is now fraught with gravest peril. My heart tells me that Sauron will expect us to take the western way, when he learns what has befallen. He soon will. The Nine have been unhorsed indeed but that is but a respite, ere they find new steeds and swifter.'

>The westward road seems easiest. Therefore it must be shunned. It will be watched. Too often the Elves have fled that way. Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be.'

>>81726373
that would be me.

>>81728697
>that goes all the way back to the first king of Numenor who chose to be human.
Farther than that. Shes related to Luthien. Half elf half maiar.

>>81728746
>using the wiki
Get the fuck out turbopleb.

>>81727770
Hell yeah. Pelennor Fields are full of buildings, streets and infrastructure.

>Hey Babe, I just landed in OIX (Osgiliath International Airport). Yeah Middle Earth is so much different compared to Aragonia (new name for Valinor), I can't wait for seeing the old town of Minas Tirith with those white buildings and stuff.

>>81726373
>Who rules the Shire?

The 1% Hobbits. They're wealth trickles down.

>>81726545
did you even read the book? the planet is the size of jupiter so middle earth is literally tens of thousands of miles across