Hey all, these guys are the most mysterious, and can be the coolest looking. Their troops look awesome too!!

Can someone give me any literature, websites, links, information.....really anything at all, where I can learn more about these guys?

I understand some of the lore but I want as much information as possible.

They are probably the next force Im making over the summer including a Mumak, a few warbands including one mounted warband of Mahud.......and plenty of harad.

I imagine Im going to do the Mumak and Mahud on jungle style terrain bases and make them look like theyre from Hawaii/South America

Im probably going to make the haradrim look like theyre from Africa/Egypt/Saudi Peninsula area.

I want to make them right though! I also just want to know more lore to inspire me and to come up with random ideas.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

I can't point you to much I can just speak from experience. For myself my Haradrim are based upon the medieval Turks, skin tones, basing etc. My Mahud are more from Africa proper and as such are dark in the skin tone I applied. I based these tones off of personal friends who are from those regions so it was nice to have a person to physically model it for me

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LoTR wiki hai some great information which you can learn about them from. Couple of links below that may prove useful.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Haradrim

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Rhûn

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Mahud

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I started to walk around without shoes...

It sort of then became a Hobbit

Personally, I always distrust the lotr wikia, some information is clearly wrong or just non-canonical (and I don't want to get into the Tolkien cannon debate here). I feel some of the information in the wikia is gotten from the films or just from games even.

These links provide accurate information from Tolkien's work (the last three also with exact quotations):

http://thainsbook.net/harad.html
http://thainsbook.net/rhun.html

http://www.henneth-annun.net/resources/ ... m?SCID=237
http://www.henneth-annun.net/resources/ ... m?SCID=194
http://www.henneth-annun.net/resources/ ... m?SCID=238

From what I gather--

Harad is analogous to Southwest Asia and North Africa (aka, the Middle East) and are caricatures of the medieval Saracens. Further south lies Far Harad, analogous to Sub-Saharan Africa and home of the Mumakil. "Mahud" is a term invented by Games Workshop to describe the people of Far Harad.

Rhun is a bit tricky. As its inhabitants are only known as Easterlings, it's possible that Rhun is a mash-up of numerous different Eastern cultures, including China, Turkey, Persia, Greece+Byzantium, Korea, Slavs, etc, but I'm not quite sure.

Khand is also a bit tricky. The name "Khand" implies Mongolia, or perhaps China, but their troops are called "Variags," similar to the real-world Varangians. The Varangians were Vikings who settled in Eastern Europe, creating the medieval state of Rus' and serving as elite soldiers for Byzantium.

The links Feanor provided give a good "canonical" background of the regions.

I agree with your concept of the Haradrim, but with the Mahud, I might recommend painting them more in line with Sub-Saharan Africans rather than Latin Americans.

I think Harad, Rhun, and Khand have the most interesting, coolest aesthetics and background as well. However, with the exception of the Mumak and Mumak Mahud, I really don't like GW's interpretation of Far Harad. If I were to start a brand new army right now, it would probably be Far Harad using Perry Miniatures' Mahdist range.

The Men of Far Harad are definitely more analogous to Sub-Saharan African, being the only people in the book called "black men"

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About that^ Im sorry I was unclear. I planned on doing their bases in terms of that vegetation/nature.

Whoops.

I also dont like games workshops skin tone of the Mahud, but I do like their colors and design a lot.

Thanks EVERYONE for the helpful advice ideas, and links.

Im not too worried about Easterlings cause they are in armor anyway, and I will never do Khand. Im mostly worried about Harad and Mahud.

I still will do Mahud with red tones for their outfits maybe mixed with browns.

As for Harad I will definately make them a tannish skin tone not white or yellow. They def will have a tan.

I just cant do the Mahud dark though......if I do that, theyre just going to remind me of zulu warriors, and then I will feel like Im doing historical stuff and I want to keep it pure fantasy.......but I do now understand because of you guys that they should be have a pretty dark complexion.

Ok guys, Im gonna check out those links, and if you guys have any other info, please let me know!

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

I think whenever you try to understand LOTR you should notice the context lived by Tolkien. He was a soldier on WW1 and his sons were soldiers on WW2.

For example I always think of dead marshes as the dead bodies on Verdun and Somme. So for me the haradrim are a clear example of turks. They have also been the most dangerous eastern culture against europe in the recent past.

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"It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay."

Visit my WIP!

Just remember that Tolkien's Middle-earth does not equal Earth.

I've heard the opposite theorized--Arda is a prehistorical Earth. That being said, it's unreasonable to always expect a 1:1 historical match.