what would possibly exist in the farthest east?

[Zigûr]

Beyond Rhûn? A distant sea, I expect. As far as I was aware Rhûn was essentially everything east of Rhovanion to the far coasts of Middle-earth, beyond the Orocarni perhaps.

Within Rhûn: kingdoms of Men and Dwarves (as has been said), some remnant of the Avari Elves, Orcs I would imagine. We have to imagine a land which had lain deep under the shadow since time immemorial.

Professor Tolkien of course never went into any greater detail for, I would argue, two reasons:
a) the fictional authors of his narratives knew nothing further about Rhûn
b) having parts of Middle-earth which were unknown maintained the sense of mystery and 'unseen vistas' which he thought were important

[Alfirin]

Hard to say. It is tempting to think that, as ME is in a certain sense, an earlier form of our own world, that if you went far enough east, you would find other large kingdom's of man, corresponding to the large ancient Asian empires of our own world (Indian, Chinese, Kmer etc.) But as you point out, there is really nothing said one way or the other. If such kingdoms exist, I imagine that one of them is probably similar to Near Harad (if only because the Near Haradrim with thier skills at Oliphaunt riding seem as much Indian in orgin as North African/Middle Eastern) I'd say that there was some influence on the West in that one would assume that the far east would be where gunpowder was discovered (as it was in our world) but evidence seems to lay on the Ishtari discovering gunpower all on thier own (either Saruman figuring it out and letting Gandalf in on the technique back when they were still on speaking terms (or vice versa), or Gandalf discovering it independently.)
Actually, there might be a lot of incentive in later ME to find out what lay to the east. Besides wanting to make sure a new Dark Lord or some sort was not gathering power there wating to swing in and retake lands now rendered masterless by Sauron's defeat, Faramir might want to make a trip. He is still techically steward of Gondor (even if he only excercises that right in cases where the King is away on other matters. He might decide that the line of the Stewards needs a replacement horn (now that the original is broken and buried), and that would mean sending someone traipsing around the east in the hope that somewhere out there there are still Kine of Araw wandering around.

[Belegorn]

I've no idea what may be out there. Perhaps some Elves and Men. I'm not sure if all the Men who're descended of the 3 Houses went west nor all of the Elves. Perhaps some lingered at their awakening places and even went the opposite direction.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Hard to say. It is tempting to think that, as ME is in a certain sense, an earlier form of our own world, that if you went far enough east, you would find other large kingdom's of man, corresponding to the large ancient Asian empires of our own world (Indian, Chinese, Kmer etc.) But as you point out, there is really nothing said one way or the other. If such kingdoms exist, I imagine that one of them is probably similar to Near Harad (if only because the Near Haradrim with thier skills at Oliphaunt riding seem as much Indian in orgin as North African/Middle Eastern) I'd say that there was some influence on the West in that one would assume that the far east would be where gunpowder was discovered (as it was in our world) but evidence seems to lay on the Ishtari discovering gunpower all on thier own (either Saruman figuring it out and letting Gandalf in on the technique back when they were still on speaking terms (or vice versa), or Gandalf discovering it independently.)

Actually, there might be a lot of incentive in later ME to find out what lay to the east. Besides wanting to make sure a new Dark Lord or some sort was not gathering power there wating to swing in and retake lands now rendered masterless by Sauron's defeat, Faramir might want to make a trip. He is still techically steward of Gondor (even if he only excercises that right in cases where the King is away on other matters. He might decide that the line of the Stewards needs a replacement horn (now that the original is broken and buried), and that would mean sending someone traipsing around the east in the hope that somewhere out there there are still Kine of Araw wandering around.

An interesting thought.

For some reason I have always thought of the wainriders and the other 'easterlings' under Sauron's sway, as being inspired by historical near-eastern societies. Therefore I also imagined that there would be other kingdoms further to the east, not under the dominion of Sauron.

[Alfirin]

Possibly, I've always thought the Wainriders were sort of the ME equivalent of the Scythians (also noted as horsemen and charioteers). Since the Scythinas were near eastern (their territory was mostly in the Iranian Steppes) That would bear it out.
And I would also like to think a few of the Farther Eastern kingdoms could have been Shadow Free. If they were, it might even be fun to imagine that rumors of these kingdoms were whispered in the west, and there was a belief that, should another menace on the level of Sauron arise, and it be neccecary in the absence of elves and wizards, armies of this shadow free east would ride out and lend their support to this evil force's conquest (sort of a ME version of the legend of Prester John.)

[tom the eldest]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Possibly, I've always thought the Wainriders were sort of the ME equivalent of the Scythians (also noted as horsemen and charioteers). Since the Scythinas were near eastern (their territory was mostly in the Iranian Steppes) That would bear it out.
And I would also like to think a few of the Farther Eastern kingdoms could have been Shadow Free. If they were, it might even be fun to imagine that rumors of these kingdoms were whispered in the west, and there was a belief that, should another menace on the level of Sauron arise, and it be neccecary in the absence of elves and wizards, armies of this shadow free east would ride out and lend their support to this evil force's conquest (sort of a ME version of the legend of Prester John.)

An eastern kingdom eh? Hmmm interesting.yeah maybe there are kingdoms in the east but probably more like the haradrim(minus the mumakil),a tribal kigdom fighting each other.the technology there would maybe be quite advanced,seeing that they had chariots,which the west NEVER used/invented.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

the technology there would maybe be quite advanced,seeing that they had chariots,which the west NEVER used/invented.

On the contrary, I see the use of chariots by the Easterlings (and elephant cavalry by the Haradrim, incidentally) as evidence that their cultures were primitive, not advanced. Extensive use of chariots was characteristic of pre-Classical cultures like the Egyptians (among many others). The West had steel weapons and mail, advanced architectural techniques, naval technology etc and a generally more early-medieval flavour.

I have always seen the Easterlings' use of chariots as evidence that their development was "held back" by their long history as thralls to the Shadow.

[tom the eldest]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

On the contrary, I see the use of chariots by the Easterlings (and elephant cavalry by the Haradrim, incidentally) as evidence that their cultures were primitive, not advanced. Extensive use of chariots was characteristic of pre-Classical cultures like the Egyptians (among many others). The West had steel weapons and mail, advanced architectural techniques, naval technology etc and a generally more early-medieval flavour.

I have always seen the Easterlings' use of chariots as evidence that their development was "held back" by their long history as thralls to the Shadow.

By "advanced"i mean that very few,if none,of the west's war machine could match the chariots.the cloeset thing that the west have to counter the chariots maybe their very strong horsemen,like rohirrim and dol amroth knights.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

On the contrary, I see the use of chariots by the Easterlings (and elephant cavalry by the Haradrim, incidentally) as evidence that their cultures were primitive, not advanced. Extensive use of chariots was characteristic of pre-Classical cultures like the Egyptians (among many others). The West had steel weapons and mail, advanced architectural techniques, naval technology etc and a generally more early-medieval flavour.

I have always seen the Easterlings' use of chariots as evidence that their development was "held back" by their long history as thralls to the Shadow.

I guess that would be true if the Gondorians had previously been using chariots, and these had become obsolete. However this does not seem to be the case...

It is an interesting question, especially since there can be no doubt that the Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor was the most technological advanced states in ME at their founding. Arnor disintegrated and Gondor entered something that could be called 'dark ages' where their knowledge waned.

So while other cultures most likely progressed, the Numenorean's regressed.
Would it have been possible for other cultures to overtake them?

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

On the contrary, I see the use of chariots by the Easterlings (and elephant cavalry by the Haradrim, incidentally) as evidence that their cultures were primitive, not advanced. Extensive use of chariots was characteristic of pre-Classical cultures like the Egyptians (among many others). The West had steel weapons and mail, advanced architectural techniques, naval technology etc and a generally more early-medieval flavour.

I have always seen the Easterlings' use of chariots as evidence that their development was "held back" by their long history as thralls to the Shadow.

I'm not sure that Elephant cavalry can be considered "primitive" either. It seems to me that were are confusing a lack of tech with a lack of resources. The Haradrim use elephant because they HAVE elephants. The West doesn't so it doesn't. In our world, elephant cavalry has been used by pretty advanced civilizations, The Mugals (and all of the other Indian kingdoms, the Khmer and all of the South east asians. Hannibal (elephants or not, he was a Roman trained general and was generally using Roman level tactics.) As for the steel, mail etc. we don't to my knowledge get a full detailed description of Haradrim arms and armor, they could be comperable. And we never see any of thier cities, so thier archetecture is anybody's guess. Yes, Gondor and Arnor have a sort of late roman/early medival feel, but think of what other civilizations were around during ours, and their level of tech. Plenty of them were at rougly the same level of civilization (if indeed such things can really be quantified) In fact, if you are talking early Medival, the Islamic world would probably be slighty MORE advanced tecnically; while we were dealing with whatever setbacks the Dark Ages gave us, they weren't The crusades certinly had an aful lot of cases of "advanced" Medival Europeans getting thier armored asses handed to them by the "Primitive" Islamic empires, and not all becuase of them being closer or better used to the terrain. If you want to put Gondor and Arnor as early Medival Europe, then the kingdoms of the East we'd be talking about would be things like Imperial China, The kingdoms of India, A Kmer who were busy building Angkor Wat, a Japan that was already starting the Samurai period Mayans in Mesoamerica, Mound Builders in Southeast North America, Anasazi cities in Southwestern America, Chaco and Early Incas in Peru and so on. I'm not actually trying to say that your assertion that the West was more tecnically advanced is wholly incorrect, but it seems to me it has less to do with objective facts and more to do with Tolkien's own Eurocentrism and Anglophilia.