With which Human culture of Middle Earth do you have the greatest affinity?

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

I just realised something quite uncomfortable. I can't be objective when I think about the cultures, mainly because I've been M-E roleplaying for so long that the thoughts and opinions of the character I've played longest have started to affect mine.

I'd say that your choices in role playing give evidence to your affinity (which is a subjective thing after all) rather than skewing it.

I speak thus from experience; my primary character is Eorling; a secondary one was a Breeman who had been displaced; a tertiary character is a rather thorny hobbit; yet another character is a 1st age seer; four more are Eorling; even one from the 21st century visiting Gondor! oh, and a dog. ...and one old gaffer hobbit lately.

But the Eorling stands out - a pretty fair indicator for my affinities.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I'd say that your choices in role playing give evidence to your affinity (which is a subjective thing after all) rather than skewing it.

Well, I don't know. I do like Gondorians but every single Gondorian my character has met has been a little, eh, not so nice. We have joked about them with my friends, and now it's become very hard to think of a nice and smart Gondorian. That's the game master's fault though. She must have some kind of antipathy towards them.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Well, I don't know. I do like Gondorians but every single Gondorian my character has met has been a little, eh, not so nice. We have joked about them with my friends, and now it's become very hard to think of a nice and smart Gondorian. That's the game master's fault though. She must have some kind of antipathy towards them.

Now that is a bit unfair. Why is it my fault that you never like my Gondorians?

I do like Gondorians, and speaking of them, yes, Nogrod, I think your imagination of them is pretty accurate or just sligthly biased... Go on and vote.

[Elmo]

Black Numenorean

[MatthewM]

A Gondorian, for sure!

[Elmo]

Originally Posted by Elmo

Black Numenorean

I like the cut of their jib

[Lalaith]

What of the First Age? The Haladin, the men of Hithlum, the people of Beor....and of course the Ulflings and Borrim...

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

What of the First Age? The Haladin, the men of Hithlum, the people of Beor....and of course the Ulflings and Borrim...

Elempi says in the first post he willingly limited the choices to Second&Third Age. But looks like another idea for a poll, elempi? (if you haven't had enough of them already )

[Nogrod]

I think I'll stick to Gondor even if Lommy's and Aganzir's lively descriptions of the northern values and lifestyles make me waver a bit... It's a hard choice indeed.

I do affiliate with Matthew's description of:

Originally Posted by MatthewM

Warriors with artistic ideals and love for lore and history...right up my alley.

and that's also what the knights of the Middle-age were supposed to be and what the janissaries of the east probably were to a larger extent. But those are just warrior ideals and as such rarely met.

And after all they just make a part of the parcel.

I'm more drawn in with the hassle and buzz of the street; meeting different cultures, flavors, scents, habits, dialects, dressing, courtship-rules, gestures, tastes, music, dances etc. in the air of general benevolence, curiosity and freedom from prejudice.

Surely there would have been the poor and the rich as well as those claiming to be the originals vs. the newcomers etc. I know I'm painting it with more rosy colours I may have license to but still I think the big Gondorian cities were the only places in the Middle-Earth where this caleidoscopic meeting of the various cultures of the ME was possible.

And all of that under the banner of the free people. Not under the banner of a family, a village, a race, a nationality, a home country... but under the banner of freedom and justice... and the Right.

Not bad indeed as far as daydreams or utopias go.