As a long-time Tolkien fan, who played and GMed in Middle Earth with RM2, I recognize the ME roots for most of the races/cultures in the Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing System. I'm planning a campaign in Shadow World, since it offers a large canvas. I'm having trouble, though, fitting some of the races and cultures into the SW setting.
As others have already said - use the Master Atlases, and use the races included therein.
My particular challenge at the moment is where the southern empires that the Mariners are pining to recapture... I was trying to build a mixed man of the Mariner culture and wanted to know where to locate the empire of which they had been deprived by High Man betrayal (according to the Mariner viewpoint). My original GM made me a gift of several SW books, including the "Jaiman: Land of Twilight" module" and I was considering making them exiles from U-Lyshak. Would that work?
Probably not. Jaiman has not been the stage of a major displacement of population because of 'high men' (Laan or Zori) [I exclude the Sky Giants setting because TKA basically repudiated it and it was apparently written with a complete disregard of the overall Shadow World history].
Laan *did* displace many 'lesser' cultures in Emer, especially in Haestra during the rise of the Lords of Emer (some of the Shay people fled, including those who went north to Jaiman and became the Jameri people). But it is more than 9000 years ago, and the memory of it would have faded, especially since the Wars of Dominion occurred between then and now.
You could also use the expansion of the Emerian Empire in early Third Era (again in Emer). But the vanquished cultures were not 'mixed men' and, in most cases, were not displaced but absorbed (Jineri, Ochu, Jaaderi and Shay). The only marine culture among those would have been the Jineri.
You could still have your "displaced people" in Jaiman, but they would not be mixed men, and they would not have been displaced by 'high men'.
- it is likely that the Haid people fought against their neighbours several times. Some of them might have been displaced. The Syrkakar in Mur Fostisyr have been displaced, but not by high men.
- the people of Saralis, Ly-Aran and Xa-ar have been displaced by the invasions of the armies of Ulor (mostly Lugrôki and Pale Men).
Rhakhaan conquered Wuliris recently (and more or less lost it soon after), but they did not *displace* anyone - it was a conquest for acquisition, not for replacement.
Also, is there anywhere more details on Gryphon College? I am beginning a very low-level campaign in Quellborne, with plans for the players to be porter/guards for a trade caravan though the mountain pass through the Caldsfang/Dragonfang mountains that define the southern border of Quellborne, into Saralis and Rhakhaan.
If you start a low-level campaign in Quellbourne, Gryphon College is a long way away - being located in the foothills between Rhakhaan and Zor, your PCs would have to cross either Saralis or Zor before reaching it. There are probably interesting places closer to home :p
I would use Quellbourne in conjunction with the Iron Wind (Mur Fostisyr) and Xa-ar campaign modules. Iron Wind must be adapted a bit because of the time shift, but it can be a great source of inspiration with plenty of new people to meet and new locations to discover. Those two modules are the closest influences you can have to Quellbourne.
I still have trouble with the city of Quellburn being "prosperous" before its demise given the climate in Quellbourne, the fact that it was on a plateau and not at sea level, and the lack of arable land around (not to mention the many natural predators, the warlike neighbours, and the fact that two Orders Arnak are in the neighbourhood...). Trade would have been difficult - the sea routes have to go around Xa-ar and re-enter the Ulor Bay or go around Ly-Aran as well, and the land routes have to cross the Kaldsfang or Lu'Nak, then go through Saralis or Zor...
