Easterlings

Lore
Easterlings, known in early times as Swarthy Men, were a race of Men who lived in the vast and uncharted lands of Rhûn, east of Mordor and the Sea of Rhûn. Easterlings were enemies of the Free Peoples and were allies of Sauron. There were many different nations and kingdoms of Easterlings living in the vast lands of Rhûn. These ranged from civilized empires to barbaric horse nomads of the open steppes.

Easterlings were either tall and sallow-skinned or short and swarthy. However, there were also said to be a different type of Easterlings that appeared during the Siege of Gondor from unknown eastern lands, who were broad, short, and bearded, being perhaps Dwarves from one of four Dwarf clans of the Orocarni in the far East. Easterlings were the most numerous and deadly of the enemies of the Free Peoples, and it is said if the Blue Wizards had not been sent into Rhûn the hosts of the East would have outnumbered the Western peoples. Their skin was either sallow (a pale yellow) or olive. Their eyes were dark (dark brown and black), and their straight hair was black. The "swarthier" Easterlings of the First Age and the sallow-skinned men of the Second, Third, and Fourth Ages may have not been a related people, as those of the First may have simply come from the then-unknown lands east of the Blue Mountains, and could have had more relation to the Dunlendings than the later Balchoth and Wainriders.

There were many different races of Easterlings that came under Sauron's banner in the War of the Ring. Some were tall and sallow skinned, others short and broad. Some Easterlings who were present at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields were short, broad and bearded like Dwarves.

The Easterlings consisted of multiple tribes. In this server, they are all one faction. The tribes were the Balchoch, Wainriders, and Variags.