New System Features

For Roland, one question that had always troubled him was undoubtedly the southern two kingdoms' attitude toward Mordor. After the War of the Last Alliance, although the allied forces of Men, Elves, and Dwarves had crushed the dark forces led by Sauron, and Men had finally entered their golden age of development, it seemed that their descendants had failed to remember that age of darkness. Faced with the threat of Sauron's resurgence, Gondor and Rohan in the south had taken no corresponding measures and instead allowed darkness to breed in Mordor...

Roland simply could not understand it. Were they really not afraid that Sauron would come out and scatter their ashes? Or were they planning to let the tall ones hold up the sky if it fell? Roland truly could not comprehend the thought processes of those nobles. However, Denethor II, Gondor's Steward, who had been portrayed as utterly incompetent in the films, was not so incapable in reality. He foresaw that Mordor would launch an attack within his lifetime. Proudly convinced of the strength of his own will, he began studying the Stone of Annúminas, which had long been secretly sealed away and was most closely connected to the stone possessed by Sauron. This allowed him to know distant events in great detail, but his prolonged battle of wills with Sauron also wounded his mind and caused him to age prematurely. At the same time, while resisting Sauron, he also used the stone to monitor Gandalf and Aragorn...

Thus, Roland's impression of Denethor II was not particularly bad. He was also a pitiable man who had guarded humanity; he had merely overestimated his own strength and ultimately fallen into despair.

But that was all. Setting aside the Steward's line and the line of the Prince of Amroth, what kind