This tale is the product of many minds and many meetings. It is set in Middle Earth in the final years of the Third Age and is a saga that continues to grow in the telling. It is an account of the great families of North Farthing and their role in the events of that perilous time.
Why North Farthing? I suppose because it has always remained a most mysterious blank, from the very earliest scribbled map by The Professor himself up to the most recent supplements and broadcasts. Secondly it seemed likely that sensible Hobbits, that most cautious and unremarked of races, might have another, very different tale to tell. One not intended to be shared with the bigfolk, especially after the resurgence of their northern kingdom.
The story uses a framework from the second edition of The One Ring RPG along with inspiration from many other sources, especially Under Hill, By Water for the Shire. The behaviour of the hobbits is entirely their own. In brief the Shire is an island of peaceful, pre-industrial rural life surrounded by dangerous wilderness and violent, dark-age fiefdoms. Hobbits could be considered simply as diminuative 18thC Yeomanry, but a vital difference is their innate generosity and instinct for social justice — they are peculiarly immune to greed. “Agrarian distributism”, as one learned pilgrim might describe their society. Their class system and undoubted snobbery is based on prestige rather than land status so generosity (as evaluated by their friends, neighbours, relatives, etc) is an important virtue. As is respectability and upholding tradition, of course.
