Social:List of Worlds
Overview
In order to play the game, a player must select a world (also known as a server) after logging in. Created characters are stored per server.
The LOTRO Launcher provides a player the opportunity to access any server at login. To change your world selection, you must log out and back in again. Depending upon your account type, you are permitted to create at least one character on every server. The list of worlds presented at login is in seemingly random order. This is to compensate for the human tendency to pick "the first one" on the list. A "load balancing" mechanism rotates the "first on the list" periodically. However, the last world you logged into will typically be at the top.
World Closure Notice 2025
On 13 June 2025, Standing Stone Games announced the scheduled closure of all of their 32-bit worlds effective 31 August 2025. Players are strongly urged to transfer characters off those worlds onto one of the 64-bit worlds, Sting, Glamdring, or Peregrine (RP) for US-based accounts; Grond, Orcrist, or Meriadoc (RP) for EU-based accounts.
List of active worlds
| Name | Group | Location | Role-playing | Encouraged language | Technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkenstone | A | U.S. east coast | 32-bit | ||
| Brandywine | A | U.S. east coast | 32-bit | ||
| Crickhollow | A | U.S. east coast | 32-bit | ||
| Gladden | A | U.S. east coast | 32-bit | ||
| Landroval | A | U.S. east coast | RE | 32-bit | |
| Glamdring | A | U.S. east coast | 64-bit | ||
| Peregrin | A | U.S. east coast | RP | 64-bit | |
| Sting | A | U.S. east coast | 64-bit | ||
| Belegaer | B | U.S. east coast | RP | German | 32-bit |
| Evernight | B | U.S. east coast | 32-bit | ||
| Gwaihir | B | U.S. east coast | German | 32-bit | |
| Laurelin | B | U.S. east coast | RP | 32-bit | |
| Sirannon | B | U.S. east coast | French | 32-bit | |
| Orcrist | B | Europe | 64-bit | ||
| Meriadoc | B | Europe | RP | 64-bit | |
| Grond | B | Europe | 64-bit | ||
| Treebeard | Legendary | U.S. east coast | 32-bit | ||
| Angmar | Legendary | U.S. east coast | 64-bit | ||
| Mordor | Legendary | Europe | 64-bit | ||
| Bullroarer | Open preview | U.S. east coast | |||
| Palantir | Closed preview | U.S. east coast |
Server groups
Transfers are not possible between all servers. This is due to historical servers being operated by different companies: Turbine in the U.S. and Codemasters in Europe. The incompatibilities remained even after the European servers were reintegrated under Turbine. As new servers have opened and old servers closed, the worlds remain split in two distinct groups, denoted as group A and B in the table above. These are also referred to as U.S. and European servers despite their physical locations.
Characters on event servers such as legendary worlds can be typically transferred to either server group but after transfer the characters are bound to that group.
LOTRO World Character Transfer Guide
Role-playing
The world labels of RP (roleplay) or RE (roleplay encouraged) serve to direct role-players to servers with roleplay communities. Previously, RP worlds had additional rules and policies to provide a more Middle-earth immersive environment, whereas RE worlds had fewer restrictions. These rules and policies are no longer enforced, and there is no official distinction between roleplaying worlds, roleplay-encouraged worlds, and regular non-roleplaying worlds from a moderation standpoint.
Rulesets
The majority of servers follow a standard ruleset with the latest content, level cap and no inherent XP modifiers. Legendary servers have a lower level cap that progresses over time and often XP modifiers for all characters playing on those servers. The event server of Bombadil, featured the Tournament of the Twins where players could join one of two factions with PvP enabled on the landscape between factions with a level cap of 50.
Preview servers
Two preview servers, Bullroarer and Palantir open temporarily for preview and testing of new releases. Access to either of these servers requires a separate client, found on the forums. While Bullroarer is open to anyone, participation on Palantir requires a rigorous application and invitation as well as agreeing to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
World maintenance
SSG typically conducts weekly and biweekly world restarts to support the health of the game environment during weeks where they do not have other downtime planned. These weekly restarts last for about an hour and take place starting at 8:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) on Wednesdays.
Historical Information
Lord of the Rings Online originally launched with 32 servers.
On September 30, 2009, the two Japanese servers were closed.
Public testing of Chinese servers began in July 2007, on January 21, 2012, the ten Chinese servers were closed.
On May 31, 2010, the seven Korean servers closed.
Prior to 1 June 2011, the "European Worlds" (servers) were operated by Codemasters and were physically located in Europe (EU).
- Since that move, those "European Worlds" were moved to Turbine's data center and all worlds became accessible to all players.
On June 1, 2015, the three Russian servers were closed. In April 2016, 19 other servers followed. For a set period of time, players of all servers were offered to move their characters over to other servers for free. Characters that remained on closed servers (also known as Dark Worlds) were inaccessible until March 2025. Between March and August 2025, characters may be transferred from those Dark Worlds to any of four new 64-bit servers for free. After August 2025, remaining characters on the Dark Worlds will be gone forever.
In November of 2018, Standing Stone Games announced the creation of two Legendary Servers (Anor and Ithil).
- Details can be found here: Legendary Server Announcement Both of these servers have since closed.
In 2021, two new Legendary Servers were opened, Shadowfax and Treebeard. They differ in their progression speed (150% experience speed vs 40% experience speed), and also introduce the new Landscape Difficulty option, where you can set the landscape difficulty between Normal and Deadly +6.
- An overview can be found here: https://lotro.com/en/legendary Shadowfax has now closed.
In August 2024, two new Legendary Servers were opened, Mordor and Angmar. Mordor is located in Europe, and Angmar in North America. These two servers are the first to feature 64-bit technology.
In March 2025, four new [servers were announced].
Unknown Worlds
These worlds once existed but never fully released, and historical status is unknown.
[DE] Elfstone, [EN] Entwash, [FR] Celduin, [FR] Maethor, [EU] Nimloth
[US] Isengard
Closed Worlds
|
Historical list of worlds
|
| [US]Arkenstone | [EU]Evernight [EU] | [EU]Laurelin [EU-EN-RP] | [US]Vilya(Closed) | [EU]Maiar(Closed) [DE] |
| [US]Brandywine | [US]Firefoot(Closed) | [US]Meneldor(Closed) | [US]Windfola(Closed) | [EU]Morthond(Closed) [DE] |
| [US]Crickhollow | [EU]Gilrain(Closed) [UK] | [US]Nimrodel(Closed) | [EU]Withywindle(Closed) [UK] | [EU]Vanyar(Closing) [DE] |
| [US]Dwarrowdelf(Closed) | [US]Gladden | [US]Riddermark(Closed) | [EU]Anduin(Closed) [DE] | [EU]Estel(Closed) [FR-RP] |
| [EU]Eldar(Closed) | [US]Imladris(Closed) | [US]Silverlode(Closed) | [EU]Belegaer [DE-RP] | [EU]Sirannon [FR] |
| [US]Elendilmir(Closed) | [US]Landroval [EN-RE] | [EU]Snowbourn(Closed) [UK] | [EU]Gwaihir [DE] | Anor(Closed) [Legendary] |
| Ithil(Closed) [Legendary] | Bombadil [Events] | Shadowfax(Closed) [Legendary] | Treebeard [Legendary] | |
| Angmar [Legendary][Veil of the Nine] | Mordor [Legendary][Veil of the Nine]
|
Russian Worlds
| As of June 1, 2015 these servers are now closed. |
| Fornost |
| Mirkwood |
| Aglarond |
Chinese Worlds
| As of January 21, 2012 these servers are now closed. |
| 伊锡利恩 (Ithilien) |
| [杜林之门 (Durin's Gate) |
| 安都瑞尔 (Anduril) |
| 清晨之门 (Land of the Sun) |
| 跃马客栈 (Prancing Pony) |
| 灰袍巫师 (Grey Wizard) |
| 黑暗土地 (Dark Land) |
| 埃雷德鲁因 (Ered Luin) |
| 色萝林 (Golden Lorien) |
| 卡扎德杜姆 (Kazad-Dum) |
Japanese Worlds
| As of September 30, 2009 these servers are now closed. |
| エーグロス (Aeglos) |
| ナリヤ (Narya) |
Korean Worlds
| As of May 31, 2010 these servers are now closed. |
| 스카사 (Scatha) |
| 미나스 티리스 (Minas Tirith) |
| 에도라스 (Edoras) |
| 펠레노르 (Pelennor) |
| 아르고나스 (Argonath) |
| 베오른 (Beorn) |
| 앙칼라곤 (Ancalagon) |
European Servers North American Servers Legendary Servers Event Servers Anduin [DE] Arkenstone Anor Bombadil Belegaer [DE-RP] Brandywine Ithil Eldar Crickhollow Shadowfax Estel [FR-RP] Dwarrowdelf Treebeard Evernight Elendilmir Angmar Gilrain Firefoot Mordor Gwaihir [DE] Gladden Laurelin [EU-EN-RP] Imladris Maiar [DE] Landroval Morthond [DE] Meneldor Sirannon Nimrodel Snowbourn Riddermark Vanyar [DE] Silverlode Withywindle Vilya Windfola