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[kaian-a-coel]

1314 years between "mordor left unguarded" and the events of the game. That's a big stretch.

[umiman]

Fantasy themes in general tend to have some silly concepts of time.

But these are worlds with lots of extremes and immortals, so what do I know.

For reference, we as mere normal humans went from bronze armour to naval railguns and landing on the moon in the same amount of time.

[sambojin]

I think it's safest to say you can slip a few rangers, doing ranger'y stuff, pretty much anywhere, during any time on middle earth that you want, and not totally break canon. It's kind of their job. Move quietly, defend Gondor and Arnor, don't show up in appendices, only in computer games.

Damn I hope someone figures out some modding for this game.

[Rakonas]

Yeah, I don't see a big problem with a slight ranger presence. I think it's safe to say that what we saw wasn't even a military presence, it's more like being on the lookout (and failing at that). Then again, you'd think that Mordor would allocate some resources to controlling the black gate.

[LoSboccacc]

Fantasy themes in general tend to have some silly concepts of time.

But these are worlds with lots of extremes and immortals, so what do I know.

For reference, we as mere normal humans went from bronze armour to naval railguns and landing on the moon in the same amount of time.

we mostly had to fend off a couple invasion here and there, and a couple centuries of dark ages, their world got reshaped completely, got sun and other things destroyed on multiple occasion, had lot of places where curiosity literally killed you and all mechanical things where linked to dark arts (that's mostly speculation on ortanc fire and fireworks in general in ME).

I guess scientist and inquisitive minds in a magical world died prettly quickly.

[Cthulhu]

Fantasy themes in general tend to have some silly concepts of time.

But these are worlds with lots of extremes and immortals, so what do I know.

For reference, we as mere normal humans went from bronze armour to naval railguns and landing on the moon in the same amount of time.

We also didn't have lots of Very Scary Things lurking about and constraining the extent and mastery of civilization.  That's usually my go-to explanation for the weird stagnation you see in fantasy worlds.  That or an interregnum situation where there was some kind of "magitechnologically" advanced civilization that fell and we're in a dark period.

Elder races are easy to explain though.  You've got a race that doesn't reproduce rapidly and lives for extremely long periods of time.  Most of the rulers have been that way for an extremely long time -- Elrond and Galadriel have both been around since the First Age.  The conservatism would be next level, imagine if Hammurabi et al were still alive and running countries today.

[Sordid]

You don't necessarily even need a special explanation for the stagnation. Yeah, okay, it took 2,500 years to go from bronze armor to rail guns and space rockets, as umiman said. But the bronze age itself lasted as long as that, so you could also say that it took 2,500 years to go from bronze armor to bronze armor. The further back in history you go, the less rapid technological development is. In actual fact it took what, 200-ish years to go from steel breastplates and sabers to rail guns and space rockets? Dudes with swords had been the backbone of armies for thousands of years until only very recently. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the usual portrayal of Middle Earth as a medieval world with dudes in plate armor and such. I've always felt that it should all be a lot more primitive than that.

Also don't forget that human civilization tends to take two steps forward and one step back. If you look at the ancient Mediterranean world, it's amazingly modern in a great number of ways. Then the dark ages come around and it all goes downhill again. The progress whose fruits we reap only seems inevitable in hindsight. The Renaissance could very well have ended with another slump into yet another dark age.

[umiman]

The entire duration of humanity's recorded history is actually shorter than two of LotR's ages.

The entire Third Age, which is when these events take place, would actually take us as humanity back to when mammoths were still alive.

This is kinda fun... I wonder what else I can compare timewise...

If Elrond is alive in this world, he would have been around when men were trying to overcome their lactose intolerance after their first attempt at herding cows.

In the time it took for the One ring to be "un-lost", Afghanistan got invaded about 19 times.

For the amount of time that Gollum held onto the ring, around 20,000,000 species of fauna have gone extinct. According to the WWF anyway.

[Cthulhu]

Dragons are a fun one too.  Elves have the excuse of being all reserved and Spockish to explain their behavior, but an arrogant greedy amoral bastard?  A ten thousand year old dragon (not that crazy as far as fantasy goes) would have been around for Sumer.  He would've seen basically the entire course of human civilization.  He knows from experience that human lives mean nothing.  Would he even register us as a legitimate form of life?

How fucking deranged would an actual ten-thousand year old being be, really?

[TD1]

I'd say as deranged as a dragon.

But, most of the time I'd assume it would slumber on its bed of gold for considerable lengths of time.

[miauw62]

Becomes rather weird when the ghost has a wife and an entire tribe of outcasts who know and acknowledge him. Suddenly, it's a whole lot of ghosts.

Well, a ghost army isn't exactly unheard of, is it?

[kaian-a-coel]

I'd say as deranged as a dragon.

But, most of the time I'd assume it would slumber on its bed of gold for considerable lengths of time.

That'd be grand. Imagine a dragon who slept for the last, oh, three centuries? It would've fell asleep around 1714. At this time, virtually nothing has changed for three centuries, and it's barely different from a millenia before. Guns and cannons and more powerful monarchs, but not very different. Three centuries later, the dragon awakens in 2014, wants to raid the town that has been there for the last two millenias, find sprawling metropolis of glass and steel, and is greeted by fighter jets and helicopters. Imagine the shock.

[Mech#4]

I think such a thing was in "Vampires: The Masquerade" (The first one, not Bloodlines).

Spoiler: Kind of spoilerish. (click to show/hide)

You get turned in the medieval period and later get staked, or put into a stupor. You eventually reawaken in the present. I don't know how much of a shock it presents to the player character as I haven't actually played the game.

[Cthulhu]

I'd say as deranged as a dragon.

But, most of the time I'd assume it would slumber on its bed of gold for considerable lengths of time.

That'd be grand. Imagine a dragon who slept for the last, oh, three centuries? It would've fell asleep around 1714. At this time, virtually nothing has changed for three centuries, and it's barely different from a millenia before. Guns and cannons and more powerful monarchs, but not very different. Three centuries later, the dragon awakens in 2014, wants to raid the town that has been there for the last two millenias, find sprawling metropolis of glass and steel, and is greeted by fighter jets and helicopters. Imagine the shock.

Nah, he was around for the last advanced civilization, the one that went to space and left no evidence behind

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

That'd be grand. Imagine a dragon who slept for the last, oh, three centuries? It would've fell asleep around 1714. At this time, virtually nothing has changed for three centuries, and it's barely different from a millenia before. Guns and cannons and more powerful monarchs, but not very different. Three centuries later, the dragon awakens in 2014, wants to raid the town that has been there for the last two millenias, find sprawling metropolis of glass and steel, and is greeted by fighter jets and helicopters. Imagine the shock.

On both sides.  Especially if the dragon in question was the size of Ancalagon.