City of Kings is the second expansion pack to grace the popular Tolkein-themed MMO. This iteration brings substantial additions to the game's overall plot and storyline -- mostly centering around Amarthiel's acquisition of the palantir of Carn D?m and her subsequent search for Narchuil: the lost ring of power.

Other changes include:

New Reputation and Bartering systems -- Reputation allows you to earn positive and negative standing with the different races and groups in Middle-earth based on monster kills and quest completions. Bartering allows you to trade trophies earned in battle for rewards like armor sets or mounts.

"Legendary Play" -- for characters experienced enough to have reached the Ettenmoors. Spend destiny points to play either as a Northern Ranger or a terrible Troll as you vie for dominance.

"Critter Play" -- Satisfy your longstanding desire to step into the persona of a nonviolent random creature. Sadly only one animal (the noble chicken) will be available at launch, with others coming soon. Scratch! Scratch in the dirt for the dewworm of Angmar!

New quests... over a hundred of 'em. Plus new adventures, new dungeons and over a dozen new monsters.

Customizable user environment -- upload your own skins to theme the game's interface any way you like... plus the ability to resize individual game elements from the options panel.

"Our first update significantly expanded the world of Middle-earth with new story arcs, quests, and exciting new kinds of gameplay" says Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. "For Book 10 we continue the epic story and introduce a ton of new content. [...] It is extremely satisfying to see such a large number of players embracing the game and joining us in Middle-earth. We intend to continue our long established reputation of delivering frequent and substantial updates to our players with the release of Book 11 this autumn which will offer players the opportunity to live in their very own house in Middle-earth!"