Lore

The Westfold was the western part of Rohan, close to the White Mountains and lying between the river Isen and the Folde. The North-South Road ran through the Westfold from the Fords of Isen to Edoras. Its stronghold was Helm's Deep.

The Westfold was originally part of the realm of Gondor, until in T.A. 2510 the fief of Calenardhon was granted to Eorl the Young by the Ruling Steward Cirion. Thereafter, the Westfold was part of Rohan.

In 2758 the Dunlendings led by Wulf overran Rohan and King Helm took refuge in Helm's Deep. During the subsequent Long Winter first prince Háma and then Helm made sorties and forays into the Westfold for food and to attack their besiegers. Both men died in the snows.

In the beginning of 3019, due to the threat of invasion by the forces of the wizard Saruman, Théodred, the son of King Théoden, established himself at Helm's Deep to command the military strength of the Westfold. When actual war began Théodred added to the Muster of Westfold by summoning the Muster of Edoras.

On February the 25^th, the First Battle of the Fords of Isen was fought. In this fight the sole objective of Saruman was to slay Théodred; had his forces invaded the Westfold immediately after this battle Rohan would have suffered grievously. Instead, Saruman's army withdrew and did not return until March the 2^nd to fight the Second Battle of the Fords of Isen.

Following the fall of Théodred, command in the West-mark was assumed by Erkenbrand, who was Lord of Deeping-coomb and the rest of the Westfold. In the Second Battle the forces of Erkenbrand were scattered and Saruman's host marched through the Westfold to attack the Hornburg. However, in the Battle of the Hornburg all of enemy were crushed.


Construction

The intention with this project was to capture the vast, open feel of Rohan, whilst maintaining a sense of historical and agricultural realism - based especially upon Anglo-Saxon buildings and farms. Each village and homestead was led by either a single builder or team of two builders, with contributions from others. The farms were built seperately, using our extensive research on mediaeval farming techniques in the process. Each village was named using Old English - the language Tolkien used to represent Rohirric.

There are six villages, eighteen homesteads, two lumber camps, two quarries, and two forts in the Westfold, and over 1800 beds. It is only a part of the kingdom of Rohan, which is set to be the largest kingdom on ArdaCraft's map so far.

For anyone who is interested in seeing a detailed timeline of the project's construction, the Westfold project thread on our forums provides a good overview.

---

The Westfold forms part of a larger project which seeks to recreate Middle-earth in its entirety. Credit goes to Benzathoth and iNamelessi for leading this project, and to the entire community of builders for leading all the villages and homesteads therein.

The Westfold can be viewed from above on ArdaCraft's dynmap. There is no download avaliable, but ArdaCraft is a non-whitelisted server which anyone is welcome to come and explore, provided they have installed our modpack first.

All information can be found on our website.