what would possibly exist in the farthest east?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

The easterling do have some military advance.for example,the have an effective anti-cavalry techniques,which is why they were feared by rohirrim and gondor.

Where does it say that? Besides, the Men of Gondor rarely used cavalry in battle (as opposed to mounted infantry) beyond the Knights of Dol Amroth so I fail to see how that's likely.

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

they also had some advance in agricultural,seeing that most of sauron food were made in rhun,due to the ashes of mount doom make fertile land in rhun.

No, most of Sauron's food was grown in Nurn, the southern and largest part of Mordor, not in Rhûn. Also it was grown by slaves, not specifically by the Easterlings - although I'm more than willing to consider that many of Sauron's slaves probably were Easterlings.

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

they armour is also pretty different from the west.the west had wing-shaped helmet and iron armour,while the easterling had fearsome dragon-shaped helmet and golden armour.considering that the easterling can make gold into a strong armour,i think that they had some advanced metalurgy techniques.

Where is this ever stated? This sounds like an assumption based on the film where they wear gold or bronze covered equipment. Now the Man of Harad who dies in front of Sam, on the other hand, is described as wearing a "golden collar" and a "corslet of overlapping brazen plates" but this is one of the Haradrim, not an Easterling. We don't know much about the equipment of the Easterlings at all, actually, except that some used axes in battle.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

Where is this ever stated? This sounds like an assumption based on the film where they wear gold or bronze covered equipment. Now the Man of Harad who dies in front of Sam, on the other hand, is described as wearing a "golden collar" and a "corslet of overlapping brazen plates" but this is one of the Haradrim, not an Easterling. We don't know much about the equipment of the Easterlings at all, actually, except that some used axes in battle.

Even in the movie, I doubt very much whether the Easterlings’ armour is meant to be *made* of gold.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Even in the movie, I doubt very much whether the Easterlings’ armour is meant to be *made* of gold.

Agreed. Gold is a lousy metal to make armor out of; it's very heavy and more importantly, very soft. It might be OK for "parade" (ceremonial or ornamental) armor, but no one with any sense would wear it as protection in actual combat. I can sort of imagine someone wearing gold PLATED armor,for ornament (though unless Harad has a LOT of gold, even that might be stretching things for any but the highest ranking officers.) I can even imagine a few useful effects of this. Since gold doesn't corrode such armor would never need to be polished and would be rust resistant (provided you remembered to patch and holes that weapons made in the plating). But under the plate, it would still be iron, steel or bronze with the reference in the book heavily suggesting bronze as the most likely option (actually the reference says "brazen" which would mean brass, but I've never heard of anyone making armor out of brass, so I think it possible that the plates were bronze and Sam misidentified).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Well, war-chariots were 'primitive', in that they were an intermediate step on the way to full mounted cavaltry. Some cultures of course skipped right over the step; but it certainly was the case that chariots by classical times had been relegated to parades and races- and a few isolated and, yes, backwards peoples like the Britons.

Basically, chariots were for armies that hadn't yet figured out how to fight from horeseback; decent cav would rip them a new one.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Well, war-chariots were 'primitive', in that they were an intermediate step on the way to full mounted cavaltry. Some cultures of course skipped right over the step; but it certainly was the case that chariots by classical times had been relegated to parades and races- and a few isolated and, yes, backwards peoples like the Britons.

Basically, chariots were for armies that hadn't yet figured out how to fight from horeseback; decent cav would rip them a new one.

The east-to-west migration of successive tribes like the Balchoth and Wainriders might mirror the Iron Age Celtic migrations across Europe, as Celts were avid charioteers. The Gaelic culture had its hero Cuchulainn riding a chariot into battle, and the Britons, with very Tolkienesque nomenclature, had the Wetwang Chariot:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore...ot_burial.aspx

[tom the eldest]

Chariots were probably more useful in ME.the only time gondor ever win against balchoth and wainriders was because they had allies.in the balchoth case,the rohirrim ambushes them from the rear,while in the wainriders case,eärnil was ambushing them in their camp,whoch is known as the battle of the camp.but,the chariots were no match for the rohirrim,because chariots are,i think,less agile than horseman.

[denethorthefirst]

There are probably several dwarven kingdoms in the east. We know that all the dwarven houses united to fight the orcs of the misty mountains in the war of the orcs and dwarves. Since the only dwarven states/groups that are mentioned in the west are those in the iron mountains, the blue mountains, erebor and moria the remaining houses must have come from the east. If I remember correctly four of the seven dwarven houses originated in the east. Considering that Sauron couldn't conquer Moria I guess it's likely that these dwarven pockets survived during the second and third ages even though Sauron ruled the surrounding areas.

I always wondered what happened to the Avari. It's possible I guess that they prospered relatively uninterrupted in the first age while Morgoth was locked up in the North during his war with the Noldor. Luckily for the Avari he wasn't in a position to divert much of his attention to the rest of arda during the wars in Beleriand. Maybe the Avari built several great kingdoms, or maybe they lacked the population numbers and necessary culture to built successful states and got annihilated in wars against dwarves, men and morgoths surviving monsters from his days at utumno.
At least by the time of the second Age, when Sauron expanded eastwards, the peaceful time for the Avari probably ended and they were either enslaved or hunted down.