It’s been a while since I have enjoyed myself this much exploring new areas. While the Rise of Isengard expansion did bring new regions, they were never really “beautiful” or “awesome” in my experience. The Great River makes up for that in all aspects. The quests are of the familiar “do-this-because-I-am-too-lazy-to-do-it-myself” genre, but the landscape and atmosphere are breathtaking. I fell in love with Thinglad the moment I entered that part of the forest, but the Rushgore has truly stolen my heart. The Limlight Gorge is also absolutely wonderful and when questing there today I felt like I was in a “real world”. It all felt so realistic. The Rushgore though is truly something new. It’s a swamp, but it’s full of reed so high that you cannot see through it and unexpectedly run into enemies all the time. There is a soft mist floating on the water and the light and colours are very magical. The best surprise of the swamp are the black swans that swim around. If you stand around long enough you can see them coming in and land on the water every so often.
The quest rewards from The Great River mostly consist of silver and Anduin tokens, but some larger quest lines reward armour that shares appearance with the older PvMP armour pieces. I think it’s a wonderful way to recycle these into the game and I was very pleasantly surprised to find the Ancient Inlaid Breastplate as a selectable quest reward in the Rushgore (quest Answering the Summons). This chest piece shares appearance with the old heavy PvMP armour for guardians, captains and champions. Now anyone can obtain it through questing in The Great River!
Be careful when choosing gloves for this robe, for most longer gloves clip through the sleeves.
If you want to know where a certain armour piece or cosmetic comes from, you can look it up on Lotro Wiki, by typing its name into the search box. You can equip any piece of armour cosmetically through the wardrobe, even armour that is not meant for your class or level.
Head: Winged Circlet, white dye (Skirmish barter, cosmetic)
Chest: Breastplate of the Enforcer, white dye (Ettenmoors barter, champion/guardian/captain) – now also available as Ancient Inlaid Breastplate (Great River quest reward, heavy)
Shoulders: Shoulder Pads of Resolve, white dye (Isengard instances barter reward, minstrel/lore-master/runekeeper)
Hands: Leather Bracers of the Gentle Stag, white dye (Dunland armour, medium)
Back: Swan-cloak, white dye (Lotro store, cosmetic)
Cosmetic Lotro 
We can choose that robe as a quest reward!!! This is fabulous news!! I am so happy 🙂
I also am really loving how beautiful the Great River is. I think they outdid themselves this time. I truly am enjoying just playing the game again.
I agree. I got the old sense of adventure back again. 🙂
Great to hear this place is visually appealing! The last time I was in awe of a location was climbing the side of the mountain at Thror’s Coomb. Been too long.
I’ve got to get me one of those 🙂 !
Your screenshots really capture the magical feeling in the region and the outfit greatly matches it as well. Very well done 🙂
And I can at last have this robe *dances off singing*
Despite being heavy armour, this outfit looks really graceful. Looks nice with the swans.
This is utterly beautiful. Your outfits put mine to shame.
Oh my, that makes me feel bad! There is absolutely nothing shameful about your outfits. In fact I am always admiring the imaginative and creative ensembles that my fellow cosmetic lovers on the lotro forum thread & other blogs create, and yours are among my favorites! On top of that, your outfits are “in character” and tell their story, where my outfits are… well just outfits. 🙂
Beautiful outfit and screenshots! I can’t wait to explore the Great River! 🙂
This is just so beautiful ! Your writing of the new region made me feel the beauty surrounding your design. I have been playing LOTRO for less than a year and could have been at higher levels on several of my Rose toons, but then I would have missed so many places to explore. Eventually they will reach the Great River and other regions, and will be dressed in the most wonderful ways since many of your cosmetic designs inspire me. Thank you for the gorgeous ensemble and just awesome description of the new regions.
Fantastic news about this chest piece – going to hunt it down now! 😀 Update 6 has been truly wonderful for cosmetic lovers, and for the first time in ages I’ve been reading quests and love the storylines. I visited the Rushgore the other night for the first time and got annoyed that I couldn’t see enemies and kept running into them 😛 But they’ve done a fantastic job
Charming! How do you actually get “Answering the Summons”? I’ve done every quest from both camps and I still don’t have it. And there is little info circulating about this particular one…
I’m very bad at remembering quest locations and I rarely write anything down, but if I’m not mistaken the quest line started at the Abandoned Farm or at the small Camp near to it. I know I handed in the quest at that camp. It’s the quest line with the Oathbreakers, which has several branches.
Thank you very much! I shall look for that place! If anyone else has any info, I would really appreciate it!
I love, love, LOVE this outfit! It’s beautiful and elegant, yet says “don’t mess with me.” Looking at all of your beautiful outfits makes mine look like a child did them. xD
Actually the quest is called “Banishing the Dishonoured”. Its given by Eowils to kill the boss shade in the Atburg.
Thank you for adding that information Angathriel!
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