For those that care...

[Rade]

It won't matter to most players, but to some it could be important.

So far the server has never had a time-line or story; the events that are "taking place" are roughly around the end of the Third Age, and slightly after (Aragorn as King of Gondor).
What I propose is a little player history; I've already been thinking about how I'd rewrite the history to fit out purposes. I've tried to write a brief version of my ideas below written in the best Tolkein-simulation-style I could muster (with clarifications written in parenthesis like this).

We begin with the destruction of the One Ring. The foundations of Barad-Dur have failed and the forces of darkness scatter to the light. In celebration Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and without the forces of darkness to pester the land there has been much prosperity among men. The elves have made their retreat to Valinor; however, some still remain being unable to forsake the lands of Middle-Earth.
Figuring the end of the Dark Lord Sauron to be the end of evil, many of the scattered forces were left unslaughtered and neglected in the new age. The mortals decided that a time of rest was needed before the fading shadows and flames of evil be snuffed-out entirely. Yet they were all deceived by the designs of Morgoth, Black Heart and the true master of Sauron. Within the One Ring was not only stored the power of Sauron, but it also entrapped the life force of his terrible master Morgoth. In this way, once the ring was destroyed, Morgoth was able to bypass the guard on the Walls of the World that seemingly guaranteed his exile from Arda. Within the fires of Oroduin (the place where the ring was forged) Morgoth was release and his form incubated anew.

It was with great surprise that the outer lands of Gondor were set alight from the east. Morgoth, drawing all his shadows to him (the scattered forces) and forging them anew from the Tower of Black Sorcery (Minas Morgul) began to send out his forces to assail men unawares; but under swift command of the New King they were met by the forces of Minas Tirith and thus began the final war of Gondor and Mordor.

So this basically lets us have access to anything from any time period that we wanted. After Morgoth has been resting in the void beyond Arda I imagine he would be terrible enough in strength to summon all his old allies and give them new birth; the prosperity of Gondor is not defined and they very well could have filled their lands that were once destroyed with life again - it basically grants us anything we want with a little imagination while deviating only slightly from the events of the Third Age. This isn't going to change anything, it isn't going to nerf anything, but it just adds a little continuity for those who care.

Cheers.

[Abimael]

I like the idea of bringing more of the story of Middle-Earth. That could open a new ground to add "ultimates quests" to both Gondor and Mordor: Aragorn could pass a quest "destroy evil Morgoth that lies in Minas Morgul" and Morgoth could pass "murder the king of Gondor Aragorn", so both factions now would have more reasons to try to invade cities, a fact that is becoming rarer and rarer. And, of course, those  2 big quests would give the best rewards of the server  .

[Endlessorrow]

There is no time in the story line of middle earth that exactly fits the state of affairs in GvM.   

 If we placed Steward  Denthor in MT instead of King Aragorn though it would be very close to the events time line of the early parts of the lotr series.
   
In fact if we assume Grima Wormtounge periodically visited Sarumon,  We could Place GvM's current state in the time line somewhere in the fellowship of the ring, between  Gandalfs escape from Issenguard When Sarumon stopped hiding His treachery and his new force of Urukhai, and before  Gandalf slayed the Balrog of Moria.

  There Might be some displeasure at moving Aragorn from M.T. to say Rivendell for the white council, but if we were interested in cleaning up the story line this would do it Nicely. 

  And Think of the epic quest for Mordor payers to invade Rivendell  destroy the white council and retrieve the one ring  for Sauron..

  "All You must do Is Enter the Council Clearing, slay Elrond,and sevral muti thousand year old elflords. Gandalf The Grey, Aragorn, Legolas and his fellow elves from the woodland realm, Gimli and his fellow dwarves from the lonely moantain, 4 hobbits, and Borrimir and 3 other Gondorian tough guys!