Wikipedia
Elendor is a free online text-based multi-user game that simulates the environment of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Users create characters by determining species, sex, culture, description, history (and sometimes persona) and then role-playing with other users within the setting and atmosphere of Tolkien's world. For the purposes of consistency, the game accepts The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion and to a lesser extent the other works of Tolkien as canonical materials. The time frame is shortly before the onset of the main events of The Lord of the Rings with Bilbo having gone to Rivendell. The game is run on a MUSH server using a variant of PennMUSH.
The game was established in October 1991 and has been called "the original Tolkien Middle-Earth MUSH". It has been noted for its large player population, and at its height during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the time of the production and release of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Elendor was regarded as one of the most popular text-based worlds on the Internet. It was chosen as "Best Tolkien Community Site" by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine.