Interesting article about Variags

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

This is a popular theory among some elements of the Tolkien game modding community. In The Fourth Age Total War the Variags are exactly that.

That's interesting; the very reason I discovered this article was because I was looking for information on the word "Variag" after daydreaming about what a book-accurate "Midde-earth" tabletop game (with toy soldiers) could be like. I was wondering how a game developer might make the Men of Khand distinct from the Easterlings and Haradrim without inventing wildly and using what little information was available from Professor Tolkien's own writing.

You probably have a point about Khand being in arid climes. I suppose I just imagined the word "Variag" having specific connotations of "Scandinavians in Russia", and thus in Middle-earth being "Northmen in [The Middle-earth equivalent of Russia]" but of course the geography does not match, and I'm possibly being too literal.

I suppose one might imagine Khand possibly being a bit of a melting pot of Northmen, Easterling and Haradrim influences, a bit like the Men of Umbar being something of a combination of Númenórean and Haradrim elements. I find it amusing to speculate, at any rate.