with how intricate that uniform is, i imagine the Numenoreans were able to field an army of three, maybe four, at best.
I know Tolkin just wanted to create a world where it was the Germanic Sagas forever, but its pretty conspicuous how technology never changes in the books. Like the elves returned to Middle Earth 7,000 years before LotR and they were also living on Valinor for like 20,000 years. And the level of technology, espeically military technology that Tolkin describes never changes. It's always just the high middle ages or the early middle ages if you live in a more primitive part of Middle Earth.
What I'm saying is that the Tercios would have wrecked everyone in Middle Earth's shit.
Edit: Also, there is about 3,500 years between the late Second Age and the end of the Third Age (when LotR takes place), and a Numenorian soldier looks exactly the same as a soldier of Gondor.
This is a universe where an industrial revolution was stopped by angry trees.
Also the Shire's proto-bourgeoisie (the Sackville-Baggins) got overthrown by the Ancien Regime (the Baggins and Tooks), so capitalism was never able to develop in Middle Earth.
Numenorian soldier looks exactly the same as a soldier of Gondor
this same artist has a drawing of earlier Numenoreans, where they look quite different, they've got lamellar and seem to be more in the vein of hoplites
although I don't know to what extent these are actually based on descriptions in the books, I've never read the Silmarillion (or the regular books either)
He never gives a detailed description of what exactly someone is wearing, but he either has people in leather jerkins or mail, and the weapons are all conventional early middle ages weapons. Specifically he never mentions plate armour or even crossbows. The impression he gives is that every battle for ten thousand years, just kind of looks like the Battle of Hastings, but with trolls and dragons and eagles.
I believe the Silmarillion does say how men were more 'primitive' than the elves and they only developed a civilized culture once they reach Numenor. But they were primitive in that they were less organized, like a big roving mob, once they settle down somewhere they immediately became like the elves of Belariand and just stayed like that for 3,000 years. So I think the first Numenorians would look like a peasent guy with a tunic and a big axe and after 100 years they all looked like the late Second Age guy.
Interesting. Definitely seems odd in terms of development.
Although I'd say this isn't exclusively a Tolkien problem, I feel like a lot of fantasy settings end up feeling like they're in some kind of technological limbo. ASoIaF also seems to have had basically no new tech happen for millenia.
tolkein militaries are wack as shit, like only Rohan ever figured out that cavalry is good?
No one else in Middle Earth actually knows what a horse is or looks like.
Always a pleasure seeing Tolkien inspired art. Does anyone else see inspirations from sea life in the armor, it'd fit seeing how Númenor is on an island.
There's definitely some kind snail shell thing going on. It's even more visible in the drawings of earlier Numenorean soldiers.
The artist goes into some detail here - apparently this comes from an actual drawing by Tolkien of a helmet, although the original is a lot more ridiculous, Turner Mohan has taken that idea and made it into a more reasonable design.
