At the moment I am working on a sort of 'high concept' version of Middle Earth. I'm working from the texts and MERP on the Tolkien side, but also using The Unknown East to fill in 'Utter Rhun' or whatever you want to call the trans-Caspianish regions Central and East Endor. I'm mixing in elements of Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist stuff; and the viewpoint is decidedly less dualistic (or monotheistic) than Tolkien's; in a sense it's pre-axial and amoral. Melkor is, essentially, the equivalent of Durga and Kali at various points through the ages, and Manwe is more or less giving himself good press. Because that's what God-Kings do, and it's their prerogative; but the Dark Elves are more likely to be objective about the king of the heavens than the elves who got blinded by the light. I don't intend to go into too much detail, since there's a lot of Middle Earth and Buddhist stuff out there as it is. Mainly I wanted to tweak the awarding of Artha to be explicitly neutral on 'selfless' acts (since that just doesn't make any sense to me) and put it on the real meaning of Ohm and Arta, which is a lot closer to 'Will to Power'. The word 'Holy' and its equivalents basically means the sun, strength, iron and alien - none of that goody-two-shoes nonsense with Indra; he will steal the Hell out of your horse. Do you even throw lightning, bro?
