Ages in Tolkien aren’t really something that lines up with technological progress in the way we consider things like the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and that concept of technological ages is kinda BS anyway. In Tolkien’s legendarium, Ages are considered started and ended by major events as decided primarily by the Elves of Middle Earth - the removal of Morgoth from the world, the fall of Numenor, the defeat of Sauron, and, much later, the birth of Christ.
that concept of technological ages is kinda BS anyway
but for real, human history is like Mid Seier’s Civilization and once a technology is unlocked it will now be used in every city forever until the next one is researched. and our stories should also be like this.
Okay but while this is true in a general sense it is most definitely NOT true that in the area immediately surrounding the Mediterranean the people there discovered steel working, began living in a feudal society, had stirrups and full plate and all of that and just forgot how to do it all. I get that Tolkien was a pretty serious Catholic but appending the birth of Christ onto the timeline is really dumb, unless this is some Fantasy equivalent to Jesus and not the one that was born in the Roman Empire.
edit: or maybe some apocalyptic shit goes down in the Sixth Age and the Earth gets replaced by our own?
Ages in Tolkien aren’t really something that lines up with technological progress in the way we consider things like the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and that concept of technological ages is kinda BS anyway. In Tolkien’s legendarium, Ages are considered started and ended by major events as decided primarily by the Elves of Middle Earth - the removal of Morgoth from the world, the fall of Numenor, the defeat of Sauron, and, much later, the birth of Christ.
okay but that still doesn’t explain why the Third Age had medieval technology and then somehow in the future they had reverted to Iron Age tech.
but for real, human history is like Mid Seier’s Civilization and once a technology is unlocked it will now be used in every city forever until the next one is researched. and our stories should also be like this.
Okay but while this is true in a general sense it is most definitely NOT true that in the area immediately surrounding the Mediterranean the people there discovered steel working, began living in a feudal society, had stirrups and full plate and all of that and just forgot how to do it all. I get that Tolkien was a pretty serious Catholic but appending the birth of Christ onto the timeline is really dumb, unless this is some Fantasy equivalent to Jesus and not the one that was born in the Roman Empire.
edit: or maybe some apocalyptic shit goes down in the Sixth Age and the Earth gets replaced by our own?