Cardolan's noble houses had ever been proud ones, and from the Numenorean period were accustomed to a great deal of autonomy. This has its roots in the fact that colonial Minhiriath was both, on paper, a Numenorean colony, and yet also a backwater. Though the neglect of Numenor allowed it to flourish on its own terms, it meant the governors appointed by Numenor did not have much power at all, being more just first among equals to the great noble families which rose up in colonial manors. Though loyal and of the Faithful, they bristled at any attempts to infringe on what they saw as their ancient rights and autonomies, granted during the days of Numenor and confirmed by Elendil (perhaps not explicitly, but he did not much move against them on it). Thus, supporting Thronodor (whether as a king in and of himself, or as a mere sub-prince of the broader Arnorian Realm) allowed them to further secure such privileges and dilute the power of the crown.

1. Thorondor

T.A. 746 - 936

2. Turambar

T.A. 768 - 1001

3. Ciryon

T.A. 840-1079

4. Tarandil

T.A. 942 - 1153

5. Calimendil

T.A. 1043 - 1235

6. Tarcil

Victorious claimant of the Cardolani succession crisis due to the support of house Caladir and Arthedain. In the continuing feuds among the Cardolani nobility, Tarcil is poisoned.

T.A. 1101 - 1287

7. Tarastôr

Tarastor of Cardolan, last King thereof. His death brings an end to the direct line of Thorondor and the Kings of Cardolan. His aunt's son takes over the title of 'Prince of Cardolan'.

T.A. 1168 - 1300

8. Tarmacil

Prince Tarmacil of Cardolan, first of the Princes of the line of Dol Caladir.

T.A. 1278 - 1368

9. Osthir

Prince Osthir of Cardolan died in the Battle of the Downs, as he was leading the southward thrust to try to relieve Cardolan. He (and his daughter Nirnadel) had been in the north to finalize the betrothal promised to house Caladir by King Argeleb in exchange for their fealty in 1349. Nirnadel's marriage to King Araphor (which would be hastily done in the wake of the invasion's repulsion) was also the pretext for the absorption of the princely title of Cardolan into the royal title of Arthedain (and Arnor), hence its replacement by a royal governorship from thenceon.

T.A. 1346 - 1409

• Barad Girithlin

The stronghold of House Girithlin, who settled in the lower Baranduin Vale as early as S.A. 1786. In those first years of Eriador Colonisation, before the refounding of Lond Daer or Tharbad, the Baranduin was sometimes used by the numenoreans to reach northern Eriador despite the treacherous and shallow waters, marshes, and rocky fords.

To the south of the estuary was a further threat: the diminutive but dangerous folk of Eryn Vorn, who held no love for the Dúnedain. Barad Girithlin was therefore first built as a fortified manor house and waystation, but by the later centuries of the Second Age there had been added a stout-walled octagonal tower of singular design.

Even during periods of abandonment it was never truly ruined and provided a robust defensive position when occupied.

• Mistalondë

Mistalondë was one of the great works of Elendil, founded on the site of a small numenorean harbour in the province of Ethir Gwathló opposite Lond Daer, to replace the latter port which had been overthrown and its harbour silted by the Great Wave that followed the Downfall.

It was long a key haven for ocean-going ships travelling between Gondor and Arnor. However, the great works of the fourth century of the Third Age allowed all but the largest vessels to sail up the Gwathló as far as Tharbad, reducing the importance of Mistalonde and beginning its long decline.

• Súthure

House Gunion supported Turendur of Cardolan in the Cardolan Succession Crisis (T.A. 1235-1244). As a result their capital port of Mistalondë was eventually besieged, and though it was not breached and sacked Mistalondë was stripped of much of its former autonomy by the victorious King Tarcil, which accelerated its decline of fortune and population.

Commencing in T.A. 1360 various Enedhwaithrim clans emigrated over the river into Ethir Gwathló, where they were recruited as feudatories. However these feudatories gradually grew in strength just as the Dúnedain population declined, with their leaders asserting control over more and more of the province until House Guinion ruled in name only. After the Devastation of 1409 they evicted the last lord of Mistalondë from his ancestral seat.

Renamed ‘Súthure’ in their tongue, Mistalondë became the capital of the Saralain kingdom that emerged as Cardolan’s control evaporated. Though much diminished, and largely ruined by time and centuries of fighting among the people of Saralain, Súthure remains one of the few significant settlements of Eriador.

Its harbour and markets remain the centre of the limited trade of coastal Enedwaith and Minhiriath, and while its ancient walls have long since toppled, a smaller defensive ring has been raised from the broken stonework of many a collapsed hall and warehouse.

• Mistalondë Reclaimed

Once again in Dúnedain hands, Mistalondë has been raised from the ruins. A cornerstone of the renewed Gwathló trade, the harbours, walls and warehouses of Elendil’s port have been restored, and its wide streets echo with the songs of sailors in myriad tongues.

• Argond

Argond was perhaps the grandest example of the fortified palaces founded and embellished by the great houses of colonial Minhiriath during the Second Age. While the families that settled in this period remained faithful, many were in some part influenced by the beliefs of the kings-men and became imperious and domineering, ruling through great landed estates (this distinction from their more solidly-Faithful northern kin was one seed of the emergence of an independent Cardolan in the Third Age).

House Caladir was no exception to this, yet their wealthy founder - having taken a local Eriadorim woman to wife - left a dynasty forever tainted in the eyes of the Kings-men. Exiled to Middle-Earth, House Caladir built Argond in the image of their lost estate in Andustar. It became the capital of the eponymous colony of Dol Caladir, which swore fealty to Elendil following the Downfall.

• Ruins of Argond

Argond became the capital of Cardolan following House Caladir’s inheritance of the throne in 1255, after the death of the last male-line descendant of the House of Isildur. It was badly damaged during the Battle of the Keep in 1409, during the conflict which saw the death of the last Prince of Cardolan and the end of the ancient House Caladir in the male line, after which the capital was moved north to Iarond and Cardolan was re-incorporated into Arthedian.

While still sizeably populated even thereafter, the decline of Cardolan could not be stemmed, and Argond was abandoned after the Great Plague struck Minhiriath in 1637. Erosion caused by centuries of weather and wind kept the ruined citadel from being buried under mounds of grass, and its bleak walls still loomed over the Gwathló valley at the end of the Third Age.

• Argond Restored

In memory of House Caladir, the great palace and stronghold of Argond has been restored to its former glory as the center of Cardolan. Its great walls and mansions are both a reminder of the storied history of the Dunedain of the North, and a symbol of their renewal.

• Tharbad

Tharbad lay at the confluence of the Gwathló and Glanduin, a place of great marshes known as Nîn-in-Eilph. It was the furthest upstream that the river was ever navigable, and it was here that Aldarion of Numenor met Galadriel.

During the years of numenorean forestry in the Gwathló basin (S.A. c.800-1695) it was the site of the last in a chain of forts built to guard the great timber stores of the Guild of Venturers, and destroyed in S.A. 1697 during Sauron’s invasion of Eriador, along with the forests themselves.

Tharbad was refounded as a permanent haven in S.A. 1912 following the similar refounding of Lond Daer in the previous century. It became a major entry-point for settlers heading for the settlements in the Baranduin valley and beyond, and later Minhiriath itself, during the Eriador Colonisation.

Later, when Minhirath became a formal numenorean colony, it became the administrative capital and a major settlement in its own right. At the arrival of Elendil Tharbad in theory became a Crown Territory, but in practice remained governed by a local Guild Administration with great autonomy and privilege.

• The Great Docks of Tharbad

In the fourth century of the Third Age, during the reigns of Arnadil of Gondor and Arantar of Arnor, Tharbad was transformed into the lynchpin of communication between the Realms in Exile. An enormous drainage project, alongside construction of causeways, quays, and great bridge to carry the North-South Road, created a significant trading centre. This allowed Tharbad to be expanded south of the river for the first time.

Though garrisoned and in theory jointly-administered by both Gondor and Arnor, in practice governance of both sides of the city was delegated to the ancient Guild Administration. The Arnorian and later Cardolani garrison on the north bank became increasingly drawn from the populace of Tharbad and its immediate environs, until it was effectively a local militia.

As the most outward-looking city in Arnor, Tharbad was never entirely reconciled to the Cardolani secession, regarding it as bad for business. They were dismayed at the waste and destruction of the wars between the kingdoms, and chafed at the reduction in local autonomy that followed the Cardolani civil war. Nor were they were fulsome in their recognition of the Caladir succession, and despite sympathy with Arthedain's unification strategy they resented their sons being sent to their deaths against the growing number of Angmarrim raids in the north, and increasingly withheld levies and taxes.

• The Ruins of Tharbad

Tharbad refused to contribute troops during the devastation in Cardolan in 1409, arguing that they needed to look to the defence of the haven (while secretly suspecting that Angmar would avoid drawing Gondor into the conflict), and thereafter effectively seceded from Arthedain's new Cardolani administration based at Iarond.

Tharbad effectively became a city state under Gondorian protection, but the latter's garrison was reduced until it became mostly ceremonial, and it was eventually withdrawn after the Great Plague of T.A. 1636 which left Minhirath deserted and Tharbad heavily depopulated.

With the Fall of Arnor in T.A. 1974 Tharbad was left entirely isolated. The fenlands slowly crept back and the city fell into ruin. By T.A. 2050 the great bridge had fallen, replaced by a dangerous ford. Thereafter Tharbad continued to decline, with more and more mercenaries, bandits, and ruffians (typically from Dunland) making it their abode and extorting tolls on the few traders that still came up the Greenway. The Fell Winter of T.A. 2912 finally killed or dispersed the few remaining inhabitants.

• Tharbad Restored

After centuries of ruin and decrepitude the ancient port of Tharbad has been restored to some semblance of its earlier glory.

Years of labour have seen the river dredged and the marshes tamed. The causeways have been repaired, and astride the river newly-built arches once again curve over the giant numenorean piles. The quays throng with sailors from ports as far away as Belfalas and even Umbar, and the north-south road hums with traffic seeking the legendary entrepot of the Gwathló.

• The Mansion of Thalion

Though the earliest numenorean settlers in Eriador made their homes in the upper Baranduin valley, so as to be closer to the elves of Lindon and the surviving Edainic peoples, the Baranduin was too shallow for good navigation, and the incomers desired a route into central Eriador that was not reliant on the good will of Gil-galad.

They therefore made use of the Gwathló, and made a port at Tharbad from where roads were made into the north. In time Minhiriath itself became settled, and among the first and principal towns was Thalion, which lay at the junction of what would become the Greenway and the Redway.

Unlike the older settlements further north, which were not formal colonies of the numenorean crown, or the autonomous settler-fiefs of Minhiriath, Thalion was controlled directly by the governor at Tharbad. Here was built an impressive summer mansion for the governor, which was regarded as one of the most elegant architectural achievements of the Eriador Colonisation, despite being less grand and imposing than the strongholds of the great settler families.

• The Palace of Thalion

After the Downfall Thalion became part of the royal lands of the House of Isildur, and in 480 of the Third Age King Tarcil of Arnor converted and extended the colonial mansion into a grand palace, as beautiful as it was sprawling. Its great stone halls and pavilions were the pride of southern Arnor.

• Ruins of Thalion

Thalion was not built with war in mind, and while its location was of great strategic importance it was not easily defendable. Sacked repeatedly during the internecine wars between the arnorian successor states, it was thoroughly razed during the invasion by Angmar in T.A. 1409, after which the capital of Cardolan’s remnant principality was moved. The Palace of Thalion was never reoccupied, and gradually its great structures were largely buried under loam.

• Thalion Restored

With great toil a new palace has been raised on the ruined foundations of Thalion, in memory of the great halls of old. Though crafted with hands of lesser skill than those of their forefathers, the palace is once again a source of pride for the Dunedain of the North, and a key centre of administration for the southlands of Arnor.

• Minhiriath
• Dol Caladir
• Ethir Gwathlo
• Eryn Vorn
• Girithlin
• Tyrn Hodhath
• Dyr Maenason
• Faerdor

The Cardolani Civil War, also known as the Cardolani Succession Crisis, was a war fought in the Kingdom of Cardolan upon the ascension of King Tarcil of Cardolan to the throne in T.A. 1235, lasting until 1244. The war was rooted in opposition to the ascension of King Tarcil, who desired to centralize the kingship and curtail the privileges and power of the proud Cardolani nobility. Tarcil was opposed by two factions led by his younger brothers, Turendur and Caldamir. Turendur had the support of the south and coastal regions, whereas Caldamir had the support of the north-east as well as aid from some of the Dunedain lords of Rhudaur.

After six years of indecisive war, Tarcil gained the upper hand by the intervention of Arthedain in support of his rule. The war lasted for 3 more years, with Turendur dying in combat and Caldamir fleeing into Rhudaur, where he was lost to history.

The aftermath would see the rebellious nobility of Cardolan humbled, but also set the seeds of Cardolan's later decline and the end of Tarcil's own dynasty, with his son being the last King of Cardolan.

The Devastation of Cardolan, also known as the Devastation of 1409, refers to the invasion and subsequent damage caused to Cardolan by the kingdom of Angmar in T.A. 1409.

Angmar, having succesfully drawn the majority of the forces of Cardolan and Arthedain northward to the Barrow-downs and Weather-hills, were able to march into the heartland of northern Cardolan with only minimal resistance, pillaging and burning as they went. Eventually the coalition forces of Arthedain, Cardolan, Lindon and Saralain under the newly crowned King Araphant were able to stop the advance through Cardolan at three decisive battles: the Battle of the Crossings at Sarn Ford, the Battle of the Keep at Argond, and the Battle of the Downs at Minas Mollost. Even with these pyrrhic triumphs, it would take two more years for all of Angmar's now scattered forces to be hunted down and rooted out of Cardolan, with the last army being destroyed outside Barad Girithlin in T.A. 1411.

The Devastation would leave permanent and drastic impacts on Cardolan. Though still held by the Dunedain until the later Great Plague, Cardolan was substantially depopulated and its infrastructure greatly damaged. Many of the Dunedain of the region chose to either migrate to Arthedain or move closer to its border, with governance of the region being shifted away from the old Princely capital of Argond towards a governorship stationed in Iarond.