Minas Tirith City Hall (OOC)

Seven Stars and Seven Stones and One White Tree.
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Éowyn
Éowyn
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Minas Tirith City Hall
OOC


For all your individual and/or joint planning and collaboration in the Gondor forum,
both of the mischievous and stately varieties.

Also, you guys don't need rules for this.
Because you're awesome.

Loremaster of Gondor
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Hello, Red and I were looking at possibly starting up the Rangers again. What do y'all think? As a precursor to that, I'm working on getting the old Ranger Handbook. It'd be nice to be able to do some RPing again in the Rangers.

Éowyn
Éowyn
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Oh, Rangers! <3 It'll always be an essential part of MT/Gondor to me... I'd renounce myself if I objected. So yes. Yeah. We should totally bring it back.

Then the difficulty lies in trying to decide what to do with my trusted character(s). :D

I think I might still have some opening posts somewhere? Though that's probably from the Army, not the Rangers. And the Rangers would be WAY more nostalgic, and I think we're revelling in that. Do either of you (or anyone else) still have stuff from that era? Or maybe the Wayback Machine can help.

High Warden of Tower
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Hi! But what age are we in - 3rd? 4th? I mean... might be important.

Éowyn
Éowyn
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I think we're in whichever age we want to be!

Maybe we should poll the people interested in playing here?

Loremaster of Gondor
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That is the big question Daeryn. I have no idea what age we'll be in. If we're in the 4th Age, the Rangers makes more sense to be revived. If the 3rd Age (or earlier) then the Army would be better to be revived. But I think with the nostalgia, and my own personal preferences, I'd go with the Rangers. But I guess we'll have to wait and see. In the mean time, like I said in my first post, I'm working on pulling the old handbook and putting it into a word doc. Unfortunately, it looks like the wayback machine isn't pulling some of the pictures in the handbook, so those are gone.

Scholar of Gondor
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Greetings, everyone!! Hey, Arnyn!!! It's so great to see the dust get shaken off of this place! I can't even begin to think about which Age we're in here and now. It's like waking up from a dream and trying to remember what was real and what was the dream. It threw me for a loop when we suddenly switched to a different Age all those years ago after working so hard on our previous lives here and around the Kingdoms. To me it was like having the rug yanked out from under me, although it did make sense to have everyone on the same page. I think SLOWLY revitalizing each part of each Kingdom would make sense - for me at least it would be overwelming to try to revive everything all at once. Great to see you all. *waves* Oh, and as for the Rangers: I'm pretty sure I have a lot of those things (photos & posts) in my computer.

Éowyn
Éowyn
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Hey, Findy!!!

I know... Switching from 4th Age to 3rd Age seemed unacceptable to me at the time. Haha. Even though it really made it easier to RP across kingdoms/regions. Well, maybe not easier, it just made sense that way. :D

But regardless of 3rd or Fourth Age, we could do whatever we want, really. =D Just one opinion, maybe:

- If we go the Army route, I don't think reviving all three Military structures (Army, Rangers, Swan Knights) would be a good idea. Too little players. No?
- And if we go the Rangers route, my logic is similar. We don't have the players to fill up seven divisions, even with a one-person command structure per division. But that doesn't mean each Ranger couldn't choose his/her own specialization! We could still offer the seven specializations but have them work together in one and the same group.

Thoughts??

Wainrider
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Findy!!! Oh man the old names coming back makes this old heart warm. :mrgreen:

High Warden of Tower
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Oh, Findy! I thought you would not return to roleplay sites and such. :D So good to see you!

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
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You know all those films when they have the rag tag group who all work together but happen to each have specialist skill sets to contribute ? One united force sounds like a good idea to me, considering the low numbers, and there’s no reason that a Swan Knight for example couldn’t be doing ‘work experience’ amongst the general Minas Tirith contingent, so all relevant bases are covered.

Particularly if taking the Third age route, when Gondor was supposedly dwindled in population and strength since its glory days, so it could easily stand to reason that anyone enlisting was expected to do shift duties as a ranger one month, as a gate guard another month, etc etc. So that any/all rpgs could be covered by whatever sort of soldiers are required. It would result in a multi-talented military that can take on the form of any specific division that the situation calls for, adding to variety for all participants, with potential for ‘specialists’ in certain skills to take turns in heading missions and sharing their knowledge to give all the group a wide range of experiences.

And I just have to say, I’m loving seeing the old Minas Tirith icons after all this time :D

Khazad Elder
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Sup everyone! I can help wherever necessary. Just let me know!

Melkor
Melkor
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Ditto Oro. I have a few Gondorian characters to pull out the cobwebs

Scholar of Gondor
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Yes, I agree that an army (or whatever) could be well represented by individuals with their own skills and abilities. For the moment I just need to get my head around RPing again. Pubs are a great way to hone those writing abilities, for both newbies and us creaky old folks pulling ourselves from our rocking chairs.

Scholar of Gondor
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hi, folks. geordie here. How do I join Gondor, again? :)

Arien
Arien
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geordie wrote: Thu May 14, 2020 9:36 pm hi, folks. geordie here. How do I join Gondor, again? :)
Hi geordie! Lovely to see you.

In the top right of your screen, click on the little triangle drop down by your icon.
Go to user control panel
Go to the furthest right tab, represented by 3 lil lines
Option to change kingdom is there.

Black Númenórean
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geordie!! Welcome! There's also a direct link the change kingdom and change rank on the left hand sidebar now :D

Scholar of Gondor
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Yippee! Hi geordie! On your PC, use top left sidebar, but on your phone do what Sil said. Great to see you, Sir.

Dúnadan
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I can honestly say I’m surprised and incredibly delighted to see so many faces from “the good ole days” showing up. It’s so good to see all of you! I don’t even know where to begin saying hi, lol!

I haven’t rp-ed for what, almost ten years now? I’m thrilled at the chance to rp again. I opened the pub thread because there weren’t any threads here yet, because MT’s always had a pub, and because I thought it’d be a great place to dust off the cob webs. I’m with Findy on that ( and it’s fantastic to see you btw!) I’m game if anyone wants to replace it with something more substantial or better or has a different idea for it.

I kind of miss the Houses of Healing, but I know that was always tough getting anyone involved enough in it.

Horse Trainer of The Mark
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I vote yes for rangers to come back and also I vote fourth age please!!! I never quite got used to the Gondor of TA. Or Rohan for that matter lol.

Also HELLOOOOO OLD FRIENDS! LOOK AT ALL THESE FAMILIAR FACES!!!! SQUEE!!!! I feel like I'm a teenager again. Wow. Arnyn, Turin, Findy, Reeks. And all the others I forgot.

(And apparently I am here simply to bring some color to the White City, lmao)

Loremaster of Gondor
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Hey Findy, Rowena, Moriel, Reikon. Wow, so many familier names. It brings back so many memories.
Well, here is an update to my toils. I got the Ranger Handbook more or less put back together from what I was able to pull from the Wayback Machine, and what Pele had personally, plus information I had access to elsewhere. Pele also gave me copies of a couple other Ranger documents. I haven't looked at them for any updates needed.

As for Fourth Age versus Third Age, because when I first joined, and Gondor was in the fourth age, I much prefer it. But I can understand the desire to have timing more or less uniform across the kingdoms. After all, there really isn't much for Mordor after the War of the Ring, unless want to play as though Harad or Umbar take it over (to my understanding) or still have hordes of orcs living there. Not to mention, the elves leaving Middle Earth. But hey, that's not my call to make.

I should be able to RP more now that I'm a "grown up" (whatever that means) and I don't see any major upheavals in the foreseeable future.

Well, I'll hush now as I feel like I'm rambling.

New Soul
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I vote for 4th age too! I hated not being able to take little elfie Veowyn where ever I want! I love Vandani and all, but still. (This question on timeline is also why I haven't chosen a kingdom yet)

Craftsman of Gondor
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Hey y’all!!! Sorry meant to post earlier but had to work, super excited to see this coming together. Honestly was my first thought when I saw the site go up haha

Honestly I’m all about the fourth age (part due to the fact that we don’t have to worry to much about events from the book happening, plus I enjoy plaza more then. (More person preference) it may be best to see where the rest of plaza ends up.

I had the same thought about the branches, we would either need to be one group, or at least cut down to like two. It would be nice two have a bit more than one group, but I would also say it depends on how much growth we get.

Anyways great to see you all again, and super excited to get a chance to hear and see all of you.

New Soul
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What'ssss up, Gondor? Heck yes Rangers.

I had a couple. Manwathiel, then Morwen, but they were pretty serious. Let's see, Zevarion was up for some mischief...

I'm ready for shenanigans. More pie fights in the barracks, anyone? Has Pele showed up? PIESSS

Khazad Elder
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Rangers of Minas Tirith are a must. But first i think we need to figure out what the Minas Tirith focus will be. What will our shtick be? I think each Kingdom should really stick to one or two focuses so we don’t step on each other’s toes. Maybe this is a meta post that should go into the admin forum, but I truly think with a small forum too much competition is bad and we need to coordinate a cohesive focusing of each forum. Dont overwhelm the people. Lol.

High Warden of Tower
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Durien, I'm all for the Houses of Healing too. Sort of a must, like military stuff... But suppose everything depends on number of people and activity levels?

Captain of Tower
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Hiya folks! It is great to see you all.
I too am interested in the Rangers of the 4th age. I had been working toward fashioning something of the sort (specialized elite units composed of varying specialities with primary and secondary skills. Archers, swordsmen, axemen etc.) out of the army before life got crazy and the plaza disappeared I had much of the old ranger handbook that I used as a starting point, but it also had its own issues. I propose that we craft something new based on the old, to fit our current setup. Of course, taking it slow and thoughtful is my operation manual.

Scholar of Gondor
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Karis! I'm glad you're still on board. It feels weird and wonderful at the same time. I'm excited and scared. But if we all take our time, I think we'll be able to make this work on a smaller scale. I have missed our time on the Plaza, but know we can't do it like we used to, but can still spark those great memories. I have to dig through my computer files to recall Findy and her NPCs to piece something together again. Wheee!

Éowyn
Éowyn
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All these naaaaames! So wonderful! :smiley17:

Oro, I think many kingdoms will be setting up an army of sorts. I've also seen a couple marketplaces and it looks like Imladris is thinking about Houses of Healing too.
I think back in the 'original' Plaza days, MT was centered around the Rangers, so I can't imagine not having that.
We had soooo many threads/things at one point (arguably too many), and I get your concern that we should be careful not to set up too many things at once just to see them die, but then again... I haven't seen one newbie around so far, so we don't need to worry that quickly about things getting out of control? Part of me feels this is very counterintuitive, this being MT and all, but looking at this thread it seems to me like the oldies will pitch stuff here before going rogue. ^^ And if someone pitches an idea and several people are on board... why not work it out and go for it?

Or am I being too naive? :smiley8:

As for the Age: I know a lot of us MT oldies would prefer the Fourth Age, since it's what we RP'ed in first, but I do remember it was weird when you crossed over into another Kingdom where suddenly Sauron was still around. Should we decide this Age-business kingdoms-wide? Or go rogue ourselves like we did back in the day? Part of why RP'ers from other kingdoms didn't visit MT more back then was probably in part to blame on the different time line...
Though it looks like Aig already set up quite a few threads in Imladris in TA 3007. That's not necessarily what we want.

Chief Counsellor of Gondor
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To be fair, where it comes to the fourth age, I would think that more of the other races would have an opportunity to ‘visit’ Gondor then, after the Return of the King and all. Aragorn’s influence was fixing roads and things far north of the Southern kingdom, and even the folks of Mordor/Harad were undergoing an uneasy sort of new state of co-existence, some perhaps more likely than others to have been friendly or curious about Gondor than they ever had under the yoke of Sauron. The Elves now had Arwen on the Gondorian throne, the Hobbits had set a precedent in Pippin being a Guard of the Citadel, etc etc.

Maybe Fourth Age can actually be Gondor’s ‘thing’ on this site. The thing that makes our army, market etc different from the other kingdoms. :smiley16:

Éowyn
Éowyn
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I honestly kind of like that, Ercassie. ^^

Black Númenórean
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That's sort of how it was in ye olden days of Kingdoms- Gondor was in the 4th age and we had Aragorn and Arwen rulers, Mordor was.. whenever, sometime in TA so our big baddies were still around, and I can't remember when the other kingdoms were set :smiley16:

Dúnadan
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Could we set up a poll here in Gondor to decide which age?
I kind of love this loose feeling on here - everyone knows the drill, everyone’s a bit more mature, too, lol - and I don’t it would create mass amounts of confusion or arguments if Gondor chose a different timeline than other kingdoms as long as we clearly posted it. It wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong though! (I’m with the fourth age voters personally...)

Child of Gondor
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Arnyn! Reporting for duty, Captain. :smiley10:

Karis, Findy, Turin, everyone else, nice to see you all.

I would also love to see the Rangers come back, however I have no preference on the third/fourth age.

Craftsman of Gondor
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I think the poll idea makes a lot of sense, might be a really good idea to start first with what we as a kingdom would like, so then we can present our idea as a whole rather than just a few random ideas.

From there maybe we can also vote on a few threads to start just to get back in the groove of things, and kinda feel out where that takes us. Thoughts?

Éowyn
Éowyn
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Sound cool, Red and Durien.

Leiryn! Hi! Haha, this is unbelievable! :smiley8:

High Warden of Tower
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Can't help feeling excitement at seeing all the names! And I think it is kind of funny that everyone starts back from 0 again. :D

Poll might just do, as some sort of common starting point would probably be good.

Khazad Elder
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Personally I hope the entire plaza moves over to the 4th age and leaves the weird middle ground for good. It is much more fun to RP after the story and not try to keep figuring out where in the timeline you are. When you are in the 4th age, you can create your own stories and plot lines and enemies that pop up from the east, or from within your own country that are non-canon without stepping on the feet of canon. As much as I like canon characters, some still exist and others are unnecessary for the stories of the plaza to go forward.

New Soul
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If (ahem, when) we start up the Rangers again, would old characters that have achieved various status/rank regain that? Of course, it's hard to necessarily find all that, but I'm sure people remember.

I personally will likely bring back some old characters that are full Rangers, but definitely have some fresh meat I'm ready to throw into the mix. Since any army needs recruits.

I do like fourth age. I get the moves we made in the past, but I agree- there's always mischief and plot to be had in other ways.

But a poll is a great idea- and I think Red has a good thought on presenting as a Kingdom. Also, who knows; maybe the kingdoms are in different times or the rp in each Kingdom scratches a different itch, so to speak... It's so odd to be starting somewhat from scratch like this.

Arnyn, I am sad though, that our last hot tub pub featuring Aragorn and Bro-oromir got lost to the void. Alas.

Éowyn
Éowyn
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Oro :smiley8: :smiley22:

Morwen, are you referring to full Ranger status, or officer ranks?
Because having 4 Captains/Commanders would be silly if there are like 12 people in the Rangers.

What would everyone think of starting as full Ranger if you ever were one, but that actual leadership ranks would be determined in some other way? Maybe through an election :smiley16: Cause I can't imagine just working with "dibbs" or people claiming it somehow. That doesn't seem fair... But before we even go there, we need to decide on the age, what kind of army and army structure.

I'll ask Narv if he could make us some polls!

Khazad Elder
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Arnyn and Morwen, I absolutely think it is in the best interest of Gondor to create a new military with new members. We can use the same names and titles but that everyone should start at zero and eventually a Chain of command be chosen through organic means. We can start by picking a certain leader but eventually let people work their way to ranks. I dont think we should honor the old ranks because too many people rotated through at different times.

New Soul
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Fair-- I definitely don't think we should keep ranks, I was referring to ranger status-- but honestly I'm cool with starting over for the most part.

That said, I wouldn't want to bring in some characters as total newbies, it would just be weird to write. So, Oro, you mean literally zero, as in brand new trainees? I suppose we'll need a couple trainers- if we did that, maybe some old characters could step in to train, but not with any ranks or anything.
If we did start totally from scratch, I'd maybe not bring in my older characters, I'm fine with them hanging elsewhere and having some general fighting experience, just not rangers. But I also would like to bring some back, so I'm on the fence about those, depending on how we approach this.

That said, I'm definitely happy to bring in a new character to train from the ground up..since it'll destroy the purpose of training if there is no one to train.

What do you mean by keeping titles as opposed to ranks? I'm not sure I'm catching that distinction.

Khazad Elder
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I mean we can create the same structure but with NPCs in those seats (Or some old characters) and then have everyone start fresh. Either with new characters or rewound versions of their other characters. I think that we could easily get a fun start for everyone with everyone starting at zero. The chain of command can be NPCs run by some of our experienced people and eventually phase them out.

New Soul
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I like it. The idea of a fresh start for a fresh Plaza sounds enticing in this wild world.

I found the notes and structure from the most recent iteration of the army when Arnyn and I were ruling, but I don't know how useful it is. Maybe worth a look- though I know that was based on adjustments made for the membership then, but who knows where we're headed. So, I could pull those up and look and see what's useful, if anything.

I've got a grumpy who could help run some training maybe. Though maybe it's best we don't let her near new recruits...

Scholar of Gondor
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I like the idea of a new, fresh, army, although people having fighting experience in their character's background could be useful. Like those with experience could RP sharing their knowledge with another character, having discussions. Possibly a Training Grounds for people to hone & practise their skills, but not necessarily be in competition with each other.

Some of my favorite RPing memories are Findy running the Apothecary in the Marketplace. I think we could easily move her to her own Apothecary either on the Pelennor Fields or someplace adjacent to the Houses of Healing or just anywhere in Gondor (ooooh, the possibilities are endless!!!). I learned SO much RPing all of those herbs & healing remedies. I've still got all of my reference books for healing medicines as well as those wonderful LotR movie books showing the armor and Ray Mears essential bushcraft books. I may start dancing around here soon!!! :smiley16: AND let's not forget that Atlas of Tolkien's Middle Earth! :smiley8:

High Warden of Tower
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Oi, starting fresh with the army is a bit of a challenge, as it would make it difficult to reconnect with the previous character background, but I suppose it would be fair considering the circumstances.

Any particular plans for the Houses of Healing, Findy, Durien?

New Soul
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Perhaps that character background doesn't need to be a loss. Any character that wants to keep that experience could, as a past rank held. They would just need to come up with their own reasons for leaving, etc.

That would help a lot, I think, since there are a fair amount of characters intertwined with one another that served together, etc.

Now next step is where to start. I see Narv says polls should be enabled for us, but I'm uncertain what our first question is.

Do we start by seeing who has an interest in army leadership, and vote from there?

Khazad Elder
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So Arnyn and I have been talking over messenger and we think, and this is just to put this out there for discussion because we aren’t the bosses, but that a new Gondorian army RP should probably be a small squad based military for now. Much like Faramir and his band. Traveling around scouting the borders of Gondor and taking on Mordorian scouting parties and remnants.

For that I think that we can start very small and always expand if there is a ton of desire to jump in. Characters could have a lot or a little experience with the Gondorian military and just have been selected to join this “Elite” special ops group. Or they could be young trainees with lots of potential that have been brought along to learn from the Vets.

Obviously we have no ranking system or organization discussed but we think that keeping it small and expanding as we need, rather than over engineering and having to cut down would be for the best.

I nominate the ranking system to be as simple as (names subject to change) “Commander (1 of this rank), First Officer/Lieutenant (1 of this rank), and then like “Sergeant, Veteran, and Recruit”. The last three ranks could have any number of members and are earned through merit and posting. The Commander and First Officer would be the OOC organizers and GMs, then the other three ranks would RP their position but would not be decision makers. A Sergeant could either RP having a squad of NPCs, or actually RP with a group of vets/recruits to lead them. Ect. Just the beginnings of my musings.

Éowyn
Éowyn
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The TA/FA poll has been created! It will end after 3 days. Please, go vote! :smiley11:

New Soul
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I like it. Simple, to the point, and seems to allow for past character rank and experience to carry over to an extent.

I know we don't want to start too many threads- and there were a lot, even when we were last up and running:
Army: Headquarters
Army: Renown
Army: Training Grounds
Army: Barracks
Army: Armoury
Army: Stables

And then Ithilien had a a branch of the rangers as well.

Could be worth a poll to see if there is a place or two people would really want to play in. Some of those could be consolidated, too, if multiple were wanted.

Potential combos- barracks/armoury/stables for one.

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