Rivendell Housing Preview

Rivendell housing is finally becoming a reality… so, want to learn more?

Last week, an article was published on MMORPG.com featuring the very first preview of the Rivendell housing neighborhood.

Today, I’m bringing you a more in-depth look at this brand-new area, with several parts:

• a Q&A with Scenario and Iceman (the two designers behind this neighborhood),
• a photo report,
• and some key figures to wrap things up.

I’d like to thank Scenario and Iceman for taking the time to answer my questions, and Cordovan for making this possible (as well as granting early access to the neighborhood).

It’s now time to discover what the Elven neighborhood of Rivendell has in store!

Quick Overview

The Neighborhood

You’ve been waiting for years to live peacefully near Elrond? Well, now you can! Welcome to the Rivendell Steadings.

Located on the western heights of Rivendell, this brand-new Elven neighborhood offers breathtaking views. The Lost Temple lies to the west, while the valley of Rivendell stretches out to the east. Live high in the mountains, on a dramatic plateau surrounded by waterfalls and flowing rivers.

The Town Square

As usual, this Rivendell neighborhood provides all the services you need to settle in comfortably.

This includes a vault-keeper, auctioneer, forge and relic masters, supplier, healer, housing furnisher, task boards and collection boxes, as well as crafting stations. In addition, a housing broker is available here, making it easy to visit other neighborhoods.

Now, it’s time to hear directly from the creators.

Q&A

General vision & context

Q1. Rivendell is one of the most iconic locations in Middle-earth. From a housing perspective, what made this neighborhood a special challenge compared to previous ones like Rohan, Erebor, or Lyndelby?

Ross (Iceman): We wanted the neighborhood to overlook Rivendell and have amazing views all around. The challenge was with landscape space in that area, being surrounded by The Trollshaws and Misty Mountains. That made it tricky to create a more expansive and larger neighborhood.

Q2. An Elven housing neighborhood has been highly anticipated by the housing community for a long time. How did the team ultimately decide on Rivendell as the location, rather than other iconic Elven places such as Felegoth or Lothlórien?

Matt (Scenario): Housing is, often, something the World Design team takes on in between other major projects and that usually comes with minimal art support. Of the three major Elf strongholds in LOTRO (Rivendell, Lothlorien and Felegoth), a Rivendell-styled neighborhood was the one that required the least amount of art support and was the most compelling to the team from a setting perspective.
Rivendell figures so much into the early game player experience and the views of The Last Homely House have an iconography to them that the other two settings can’t match. On top of that, Flet-style housing in Lothlorien would have required a significant amount of R&D and Art Development to get working well, and Felegoth as a cave-space isn’t quite as quintessentially “Elf” as we wanted to land with for their first Premium Housing option.

Q3. When did the idea of turning Rivendell into a residential neighborhood first come up internally, and what were the key goals you wanted to achieve with it?

Ross (Iceman): The idea probably started in 2024, but really began gaining traction as a side project in 2025. We wanted to make a smaller neighborhood with a more premium feel to it considering its iconic location. Having epic feeling vistas was the main goal with an autumnal theme since we haven’t used that biome in a while.

Matt (Scenario): Of our core playable races, only Elves had not received a premium neighborhood themed around them. We have a ton of ideas for different settings for premium neighborhoods, but it is important to us that Elves get before we move on to other styles and locales.

Neighborhood design & layout

Q4. How closely is the housing area connected visually and thematically to the existing Rivendell landscape that players already know?

Ross (Iceman): Rivendell housing uses many of the existing biome assets, trees and textures, to blend with The Trollshaws, Rivendell, and The Misty Mountains. It has its own look and feel as well though, using our new rock sets and improved textures. All the house exteriors got upgraded visually with added geometry and texture upgrades.

Q5. Were there specific visual or environmental elements - such as water features, bridges, terraces, or vegetation - that were especially important in defining the identity of this neighborhood?

Ross (Iceman): We wanted to have a multi-tier river flowing through the area with multiple waterfalls and that would connect to surrounding rivers in a way that made sense. The arch bridges from Rivendell were kept in mid as focal points.

Matt (Scenario): In general, the World Team likes to do what we can to make each space we build feel naturally connected to the areas surrounding it. Ross’s work in the neighborhood does a great job of that – showing just where certain rivers and streams in Rivendell and the Trollshaws could have originated from.

Q6. What types of houses will players find in Rivendell Housing? Are there notable differences in size, structure, or interior layouts compared to previous premium housing neighborhoods?

Matt (Scenario): Rivendell Housing will consist of 2 Base houses, 4 Deluxe houses and 1 Kinship house. All yard hooks in the neighborhood are mobile to allow for greater decoration flexibility (though the vertical range of these hooks is more limited than their horizontal range).
The amount and types of hooks in each house will be similar to what can be found in Lyndelby, with the exception of Rivendell being the first neighborhood to have Ceiling Surface and Ceiling Paint hooks for their interiors. The interiors do their best to match the footprint of the exteriors of the home, with enough space instead to give players flexibility but not overwhelm them with too many rooms.

Hooks, tech & new features

Q7. Each new housing neighborhood usually brings improvements or refinements to the hook system. What kinds of new hooks or placement options can players expect in Rivendell?

Matt (Scenario): As mentioned, Ceiling Surface and Ceiling Paint hooks are the new inclusion for the housing system. And, upon reviewing older neighborhoods, that system “should be” easy to backport when time allows (in fact, probably easier than doing things like fence, dayfile and music hooks for yards would be).
For the launch of Rivendell Housing, all current Floor Surfaces and Floor Colors will work on ceilings, but we do have the ability to, in the future, have Surfaces and Colors that are Ceiling-only if we (or you all) so desire. You may have noticed all your Decorative Floors are now Decorative Platforms, and that your Floor Surfaces now say they can be used on Ceilings – that is all a part of this!

Q8. The classic question: will these new housing features and improvements be retroactively added to older housing neighborhoods in the near or not-so-near future?

Matt (Scenario): When time allows for them to be. I’m trying to get at least one of those newer features (Lights, Dayfiles, Fences, Ceiling Surfaces, Music Volumes) backported in 2026, but that will all depend on time, priorities and workload.

Development process & feedback

Q9. Looking back at previous housing releases, what lessons did the team apply directly to the development of Rivendell Housing?

Matt (Scenario): I think that we took for granted that our player base was spread out over a wider array of servers – and because of that “chase” properties were more viable. Be it a Belfalas Island, Waterfall Cave, Geode House, or Smial with Mobile Hooks, a greater density of players makes the demand for those kinds of spaces over all others in a neighborhood more challenging.

Several design choices made in Rivendell were a direct response to the reactions to Lyndelby. Mobile Hooks on open landscape were a run-away hit (albeit experimental) – so it made sense to bring them in as the primary and only type of yard hook for Rivendell. The lack of a “chase house” and a smaller neighborhood will, hopefully, help each neighborhood be more evenly populated, instead of only 1-2 houses carrying a whole layer.

Q10. Was there anything that surprised the team during development - either technically or creatively - while working on this neighborhood?

Matt (Scenario): For me, it was the amount of MEO (Middle-earth Online) I discovered in “them thar hills” while I was painting out the far terrain looking towards the Trollshaws. Several old villages and points of interest, long since buried under the terrain between The Trollshaws and the Ettenmoors, still existed – I never realized how much of Rhudaur was originally intended for that version of the game.

Key Figures & Basic Information

The neighborhood features a total of 7 houses:

• 2 standard houses
• 4 deluxe houses
• 1 kinship house

All of these houses come with mobile hooks.

The major new feature in this neighborhood is the ability to customize your ceilings - yes, all of them - using existing textures (Surface (Floor) = Surface (Ceiling)).

A wide range of Elven-themed decorations will also be available. Some are already live (see here), while others will be obtainable through the Rivendell housing vendor or other sources (such as Lalia’s Market, etc.).

As Scenario mentioned, the number of hooks is similar to what we’ve seen in Lyndelby housing. Below is a summary table based on what I observed:

Photo Report

General views of the neighborhood

Standard houses

Deluxe houses

Kinship house

Many thanks again to Scenario, Iceman, and Cordovan for making this preview possible!

Don't forget that Scenario will be showcasing the neighborhood live on Twitch on April 1st - starting at 2pm Eastern (-4 GMT) - on Twitch.tv/LOTROstream. If you have questions for him, be sure to mark your calendar.

The neighborhood should arrive shortly after on Bullroarer (in the coming weeks).

So… are your bags packed?