Roland sighed as he looked at Renault. He actually felt that Renault was truly pathetic. He shouldered everything on his own, yet still failed to prevent the fall of the empire. He even accelerated its demise...
The Lord of the Rings is an open-world game. In the game, any action of any player may cause changes to the main storyline of the world. This is where Raynor's story begins...
Initially, as a dispensable NPC, Raynor arrived in the North, bearing a warrant from the Royal Paladins of Raglan, tasked with scouting the movements of orcs, orcs, and other evil factions. However, his weak strength was discovered by player lords, whose enthusiasm instantly ignited. A lone Royal Paladin of Raglan! It meant a chance to win their favor, a chance to abduct him! Consequently, Raynor's reconnaissance mission was completed by a large number of enthusiastic lords. Under the influence of players, Raynor, who was supposed to return to report, remained in the North. A large number of players hoping to recruit Royal Paladins of Raglan traveled across the land and gathered there. Under the control of the mainframe's algorithms, Raynor began issuing quests... and thus, a new main storyline was created by players! By the time the players realized what was happening, Raynor had become the Governor of the North. Good thing, even just meeting him was a blessing, let alone recruiting.
That's still not bad. The most outrageous thing is that players completed countless quests to improve their favorability, which brought Raynor a huge amount of reputation. Do you know how terrifying Raynor's reputation is? Just imagine how much reputation hundreds of thousands of Northern players have accumulated for Raynor. Someone compared the highest reputation, and found that Emperor Gary Carr of the Lagran Empire had 300 million reputation points. What about Raynor? 700 million reputation points... So frightening that the emperor even made him king. But Raynor didn't accept the crown of King of the North, but instead asked for the position of Governor of the North, the position of ruler of all things Northern. From that moment on, the tragedy began...
Renault's army, which had united millions of players, attacked the Orc fortress of Gundabad, but was besieged by various Orc tribes and evil creatures in the Misty Mountains. The battle was horrific and lasted for half a month. It ended in the defeat of the player coalition. A large number of the Northern Lords' armies were annihilated, leaving the North empty and almost defenseless except for hundreds of thousands of NPC troops. That battle was officially named "Empire's Twilight" and recorded in the game chronicles. In its heyday, the Lagran Empire almost occupied the entire Rune and most of Rhovanion. Because of the impact of the Battle of Empire's Twilight, the North was completely destroyed. The counterattack by the evil forces in the Misty Mountains and the Northern Wastes led to the fall of Rhovanion. The entire Rhovanion region fell, save for the Elves' Woodland Kingdom, the Dwarves' Mountain Kingdom, the Humans' Dale and Lake-town, and the Northern Viceroyalty's seat, Stromgate. The entire Raglan Empire's access to the outside world was cut off. Rohan and Gondor in the south, and Arnor in the north, were unable to support the Raglan Empire. Under attack from the evil forces of Mordor and the northern Flowich region, the Raglan Empire was declared destroyed. Only the area north of the Rhún Sea remained, and the entire country was completely devastated...
Raynor didn't let his frustrations fade. He actively rallied a coalition of NPCs and players, and under the astonished gaze of the world, he stormed south. He encountered the orcish coalition in the Greenleaf Forest (formerly the Dark Forest)... Surprised, both sides immediately drew up their weapons and exchanged cordial greetings. Unexpectedly, the number of participants grew: not only human players and NPCs, but also elves, dwarves, and even orcs! The entire Greenleaf Forest was ablaze, countless lords' territories were destroyed, and countless soldiers were buried. In the end, Raynor successfully captured Dol Guldur, declaring victory for the human coalition. The Kingdom of Raglan (no longer worthy of being an empire, its national status was less than a state) was finally connected to the human family. After all, using teleportation circles all day wasn't a big deal. Now, it had a direct border with the Golden Forest and Gondor.
Logically, the matter should have been over, and now it was time to gather strength to reclaim the territory. But! Is Lord Ray still Lord Ray if he doesn't stir up trouble? That's not Lord Ray's style! And so, Lord Ray's glorious third battle—the Battle of the Pass—began, and this battle is also recorded in the game's chronicles. What happened? Here's what happened: After returning, Raynor found that constantly traveling south to contact other kingdoms wasn't enough. He thought of finding a breakthrough in the west, and after much searching, hey! He actually found it! The old pass in the Misty Mountains! He sent someone to contact Rivendell, gathered a large army and marched south in a feint attack. He and the elves attacked from both sides and captured the old pass. It was a good thing, right? But! The Greenleaf Forest suffered again, and countless lords were destroyed. The entire Greenleaf Forest was in chaos. Dwarves and orcs in the north, elves, humans, and orcs in the south, Raglan Knights in the east, elven rangers in the west... The entire Greenleaf Forest was in chaos!
After everyone finally calmed down and went home to enjoy a peaceful two days, Master Lei got angry again. He took a look and saw that the orcs in the north were feeling a bit empty. They conspired with the Woodland Kingdom to recruit the dwarves of Lonely Mountain and the humans of the Dale Kingdom below. They fought another Battle of Five Armies, which was recorded in the annals as the Second Battle of Five Armies.
It was outrageous. Under Raynor's leadership, the Lagrang Empire was reduced to a kingdom, the Golden Forest elves were severely weakened, the human player lords of the Leafy Forest had their territories plowed back and forth three times, the evil faction of the Misty Mountains was beaten to a low self-esteem, and the northern Orc Kingdom and Orc players were crushed. Why? During the Second Battle of Five Armies, Raynor launched another surprise attack. He had no moral principles. He actually raided the orcs' lair, Gundaba Fortress... and borrowed the Orc King's head. Of course, he politely left his body behind, because he couldn't borrow too much. In line with the principle of "borrowing and returning, it's easy to borrow again", Raynor was considerate and rushed out from behind the orcs while everyone was fighting hard. Well... he rushed out with a knight group of tens of thousands of people, and then raised his hand to "return" the Orc King's head to the orc army. Then the orcs covered their faces and fled, and Raynor's army pursued them...
Anyway, before Roland traveled through time, Lord Lei was still preparing for war, as if he was going to organize another big event. Now Renault has traveled through time as well, and Roland just hopes that no big event will be organized for him. He only has so few soldiers now, and he can't afford to make any more trouble. Back in the game, when Roland was still a viscount, he only had about 2,000 men under his command, and after a battle in the Green Leaf Forest... all his territory was dug up.
"Hopefully, things will get better tomorrow." Roland sighed quietly as he looked at the sunset.
