The Lord of the Rings Online's latest dev stream showed off the fourth and final region coming with this fall's Legacy of Morgoth expansion, taking players on a tour of the arid canyons of Urash Dar.
The latest Casual Stroll stream by Senior World Designer Matt Elliot is the fourth in a series of previews the Standing Stone Games team is doing, showcasing what players can expect when Legacy of Morgoth releases next month. Urash Dal is described as an arid canyon region, and Scenario describes a design philosophy for this and the petrified forest of Imhular as wanting to feel more claustrophobic than the more wide-open lands of Ambarul and Khud Zagin.
Urash Dar continues the trend of the blending of cultures throughout Middle-earth's history in the South-eastern parts of the world, where we see this smashing of Numenorean, Gondorian and Haradrim architecture all seamlessly working together. Early on in the stream, Scenario showcases an old Numenorean dyke, erected by the Sea-Kings to widen a river in the region, while also explaining that this area was one of the few lush parts of Urash Dal altogether.
This is borne out later in the stream as we see the arid desert take over, though it never becomes desolate or reminiscent of places like the Sahara desert, rather it looks like the high deserts you might find in Nevada, Arizona and Utah, for example. It's arid, but has character from the various canyon walls, mountains and more.
The Lord of the Rings Online: Legacy of Morgoth is slated to launch on November 6th, but the developers at Standing Stone Games do caution on the new pre-order website that the date might shift based on the studio's needs. Raid content, which will be highlighted in a future stream, won't be included at launch but is promised sometime before February 2025.
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