From: valends3@gmail.com   
      
   On Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 6:31:28 PM UTC-5, MrAnderson wrote:   
   > I didn't know somebody already used "Arda" as name for science fictional   
   planet, but keep in my mind that my one is named like this because it actually   
   is rhe same Arda as it was in Tolkien's works. Here comes the time to explain   
   the connection of my    
   universe to LOTR: In Tolkien's books, almost all action takes place on west   
   part of a big continent. In Silmarrilion part of it gets flooded and stays the   
   Middle Earth with Hobbits, Mordor, Rings and stuff. The part that is on far   
   east is called Rhun,    
   but it is never stated what's behind it.   
      
   I feel obliged to warn you that if you want to make any money from this -- and   
   possibly even if you don't -- you need to disconnect from the Tolkien estate's   
   copyrights. They have more and better lawyers than you do.   
      
   And frankly, there's no reason to insert space-Ents and space-Uruk-Hai and who   
   knows what else. Your setting doesn't rely on them *at all*. In fact, if I'm   
   reading you correctly, they've all gone extinct thousands of years before the   
   action of your story    
   begins.   
      
   Finally, if the western half of Middle-Earth disappears -- for some reason   
   which you'd need to explain, because that's very clearly not what happens at   
   the end of the LotR novels -- the Haradrim and the Men of Rhun are not going   
   to say: "must be an    
   asteroid strike, let's invent a space program". They're going to say: "those   
   damned meddling Valar just pulled another Numenor, serves those snooty   
   Men-of-the-West right". And then keep on riding elephants and persecuting Blue   
   Wizards, like they've    
   always done.   
      
   What would make more sense is for some kind of...for lack of a better word,   
   Tolkien-worshippers...to found a colony which then gets cut off from greater   
   human civilization. (Maybe they cut themselves off on purpose? Your call.)   
   Because they're a Tolkien    
   cult, each community starts its own crude surgery or eugenics programs to   
   physically resemble whichever LotR race best embodies its values. The people   
   who value profit and engineering become fake-Dwarves, the people who value   
   physical and martial    
   strength become fake-Orcs, the people who value being pretty and thinking   
   they're better than everyone else become fake-Elves, and so on. And then they   
   have wars over "magical rings" and "mithril armor" and so on, which are   
   actually the last surviving    
   artifacts of the spacefaring civilization they were cut off from, however many   
   centuries ago.   
      
   And then you've pretty much recreated the plot of SM Stirling's "Dies the   
   Fire", but hey, that's the nature of this particular beast.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)