TAOM — Tales From the Age of Men

A Lord of the Rings total conversion mod for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord v1.4.8.

What is it

TAOM reimagines Bannerlord as Middle-earth during the War of the Ring. More than twenty kingdoms wage war across a custom map — hundreds of unique troops, rideable war beasts (war elephants, giant spiders, wargs), race-specific lifespans, alignment-driven diplomacy, a full career/class progression system, per-kingdom special resources, and dozens of other systems. Every kingdom, clan, lord, and troop has been replaced or rewritten to fit Tolkien's world.

By the numbers: 58 feature modules · 39 GameModel overrides · 30+ Harmony patch categories · 50 careers across 16 cultures · 11 special resources across 18 kingdoms · 800+ troop definitions · 2,600+ unit tests · 90 feature docs.

The active development branch (and the GitHub default) is bannerlord-1.4.5.

Quick Start (Developers)

Prerequisites

• Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord v1.4.8 installed
• Visual Studio 2022 (or the .NET SDK + MSBuild) — targets .NET Framework 4.7.2
• BANNERLORD_GAME_DIR environment variable pointing at your game install (the setup-dev-env.ps1 script configures this)

Build & test

git clone https://github.com/haterade22/TAOM      # lands on bannerlord-1.4.5
cd TAOM

.\setup-dev-env.ps1        # configure BANNERLORD_GAME_DIR + dependencies
.\build.ps1                # build the mod
.\build.ps1 -RunTests      # build + run the test suite
dotnet test TAOM.Tests     # tests only

A successful build deploys the module into your game's Modules/ folder. Enable TAOM in the Bannerlord launcher and start a new campaign (existing saves are not supported).

TAOM.sln at the root contains both Main (mod code) and TAOM.Tests. Tests run with MSTest + NSubstitute. Shared build settings live in Directory.Build.props.

Project Structure

TAOM/
├── Main/                     # Mod source (.NET Framework 4.7.2)
│   ├── Features/             # 58 feature modules (CareerSystem, SpecialResources, LotrIssues, Elephant, …)
│   ├── Core/                 # Core infrastructure + IoC
│   ├── Adapters/             # Sealed-type adapters (IHeroAdapter, etc.)
│   └── _Module/              # Bannerlord module files (SubModule.xml, ModuleData, GUI)
├── TAOM.Tests/               # Unit tests (MSTest + NSubstitute, 2,600+ tests)
├── docs/
│   ├── adrs/                 # Architecture Decision Records (11)
│   ├── features/             # Feature documentation (90 files)
│   └── migration/            # Bannerlord version-migration tracking
├── tools/                    # Rebalancing + localization scripts
├── .claude/                  # Claude Code config (skills, agents, rules, hooks, memory)
├── .codex/                   # Codex adversarial-reviewer config
├── CLAUDE.md                 # AI instruction file (authoritative project reference)
├── AGENTS.md                 # Codex review instructions
└── build.ps1                 # Build script

Architecture

All mod logic follows one pattern:

[HarmonyPatch / GameModel / CampaignBehavior] → IHookInterface → Service → IAdapter

Services never touch TaleWorlds sealed types directly — they work through adapter interfaces, which keeps business logic fully unit-testable.

Non-negotiable rules:

• TDD mandatory (red → green → refactor)
• Entry points under 150 lines — delegate to services
• No #region, no [Obsolete], no #if DEBUG (except IoC registration)
• Adapter pattern for any TaleWorlds sealed type
• Research TaleWorlds internals before implementing — never guess signatures

See the Architecture Decision Records for the full set of design constraints.

Features

Factions

Free Peoples	Dark Powers	Independent
Gondor · Rohan · Erebor · Dale · Rivendell · Lothlórien · Mirkwood · Lindon	Mordor · Isengard · Dol Guldur · Gundabad · Misty Mountain Orcs · Goblin-town · Blue Craig · Dunland · Easterlings (Rhûn) · Harad · Khand	Umbar (corsairs) · Shaghâna · Âbanissa

Over 100 clans and 800+ unique troop definitions across all factions. Settlements like Erebor are hand-kitbashed in the editor — see the build reference.

Headline systems

• Career System — 50 careers across 16 cultures; pick one at character creation, progress a tiered choice tree, unlock passive bonuses + an active battlefield ability (press V).
• Legendary War Beasts — ride wargs, Harad war elephants (trample + tusk auto-attacks), and Dol Guldur giant spiders (auto-bite); each driven by behavior-tree AI and fielded as cavalry.
• Special Resources — 11 per-kingdom resources (War Spoils, Gems, Elven Wine, …) that gate elite troop upgrades; XML-driven with many-to-one kingdom/culture mappings.
• Cultural Feats — lore-driven per-culture bonuses (Rohan cavalry speed, Erebor smithing, Mordor raid damage, Gondor loyalty, …), each backed by a dedicated GameModel override.
• Culture Conversion — conquered towns, castles, and their villages gradually adopt the conqueror's culture, switching recruitment pools to match.
• Smart Battle AI — coordinated cavalry line-charges, companion-led formation tactics, and mixed formations that interleave unit types instead of segregating them.
• War of the Ring — scripted phased escalation into permanent total war between Free Peoples and Dark Powers; configurable via JSON + MCM.
• Race & Age System — race-appropriate lifespans and fertility (immortal elves, 250-year dwarves, fast-breeding orcs, ageless Nazgûl).
• Named Companions — 18 lore companions (Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, …) as recruitable wanderers.
• Bandit Management — five LOTR bandit cultures replace vanilla hideouts, with configurable density and themed encounter flavor.
• Localization — full text support across 12 languages with graceful English fallback.

…and dozens more systems (castle recruitment, culture marketplace, troop-weight balancing, messengers, quick-action inventory, banner color persistence, settlement guards, custom battles, siege defense, tournament armor, shader precompilation, and more). Each is documented under docs/features/. LOTR rules are enforced through 39 GameModel overrides and 30+ Harmony patch categories — both registries are catalogued in CLAUDE.md.

How It's Built (AI-assisted pipeline)

TAOM is developed with a structured, AI-assisted engineering pipeline.

• Claude Code is integrated as more than a code generator: 41 custom slash-command skills, 5 specialized agents, 22 automated hooks, 18 path-scoped rule files, persistent cross-session memory, and 7 MCP servers (symbolic code navigation, decompilation, git, GitHub). CLAUDE.md is the authoritative reference every session loads.
• Codex (OpenAI) runs as an independent adversarial reviewer — it shares no session context with Claude, so it provides a genuine second opinion. 40+ reviews completed to date; review instructions live in AGENTS.md.
• Mandatory completion workflow — every C# feature passes a 4-phase gate before merge: build + internal /deep-review → Codex adversarial review → self-review of the fixes → closeout (issue, feature doc, CHANGELOG).

Installing to Play (non-developers)

TAOM ships as a set of modules. Required alongside the core TAOM module:

• Companion modules: TAOM_Map, LOTRLOME_Armory, TAOM.Dependencies, Alliance.Wargs
• BUTR dependencies: Harmony and Mod Configuration Menu (MCM)

Place all modules in your Bannerlord Modules/ directory, enable them in the launcher, and start a new campaign — existing saves are not supported.

Contributing

1. Read CLAUDE.md for coding standards and conventions
2. Write tests first — TDD is mandatory
3. Use the adapter pattern for any TaleWorlds sealed type
4. Keep Harmony patches and entry points thin (< 150 lines); delegate to services
5. Research TaleWorlds behavior before implementing — decompile, don't guess

License

TAOM is licensed in parts. LICENSE-CONTENT.md is the overview and carries the path-by-path scope; LICENSE is kept as plain MIT text so license detection keeps working.

What	License
Code (C# source, tests, tooling, build scripts, Gauntlet UI definitions)	MIT
Content (art, 3D and 2D assets, the world map, game data, lore text)	CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: non-commercial, attribution required, share-alike
Audio, fonts, and third-party binaries	Not TAOM's to license. See THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt
The TAOM name, "Tales From the Age of Men", and the branding	Granted by neither license. See TRADEMARK.md

Forks are welcome and the code is genuinely free to use. Two things it does not come with: the audio and fonts (which are not ours to pass on) and the project's name (which no open license grants). "A fork of TAOM" is fine and always will be. Calling your fork TAOM is not.

Provenance record for the content: docs/reference/asset-provenance.md.

This mod is a fan project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Tolkien Estate, New Line Cinema, Middle-earth Enterprises, or TaleWorlds Entertainment.