TAOM - Tales From the Age of Men

A companion website for TAOM (Tales From the Age of Men), a Lord of the Rings total conversion mod for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Browse troops, lords, weapons, armour, and faction data — all generated directly from the mod's XML files.

Live site: taommod.com

Features

• Troop Database — All factions, skills, equipment, and upgrade trees
• Lord Database — Family trees, skills, traits, and biographies for 1,580 lords and heroes
• Weaponry — Crafted weapons with TaleWorlds-accurate damage calculations
• Armoury — Armour stats across all factions and slots
• Faction Pages — 22 factions with troop rosters, upgrade trees, and kingdom details
• Kingdom & Clan Pages — Dynamic pages for every kingdom and clan
• Mod Info — Balance breakdowns for troops, armour, and weapons; races; recruitment; feature overview
• News, Gallery, Roadmap — Patreon-synced posts, screenshot gallery, and development roadmap

Tech Stack

• Astro 5.x — Static site generator
• fast-xml-parser — XML parsing at build time
• GitHub Pages — Hosting and deployment
• TypeScript — Full type safety across data pipeline

Getting Started

npm install       # Install dependencies
npm run dev       # Start dev server at localhost:4321
npm run build     # Production build to ./dist/
npm run preview   # Preview production build locally

Development

npm run lint          # ESLint check
npm run format        # Prettier format all files
npm run format:check  # Verify formatting (CI)
npm test              # Run Vitest in watch mode
npm run test:ci       # Run tests once (CI)
npx astro check       # TypeScript/Astro type checking

Architecture

Data Pipeline: XML mod data → fast-xml-parser → Astro pages (all at build time)

src/
  data/         180 XML files synced from the TAOM mod (troops, characters, armory, XSLT transforms)
  lib/          Modular XML parsers + TaleWorlds damage calculator
    parse-xml.ts        Barrel re-export (all parsers accessible from one import)
    xml-shared.ts       Shared parser config, types, culture mappings, helpers
    parse-troops.ts     Troop XML parsing
    parse-kingdoms.ts   Kingdom XSLT/XML parsing
    parse-clans.ts      Clan parsing with kingdom resolution
    parse-lords.ts      Lord parsing with hero/family data merging
    parse-armory.ts     Armour item parsing by slot and culture
    parse-weaponry.ts   Weapon/shield parsing with crafting piece physics
    damage-calc.ts      TaleWorlds CombatStatCalculator physics (decompiled v1.3.12)
  scripts/      Shared client-side utilities (data-table sorting/filtering)
  pages/        31 pages with dynamic [id].astro routes
  layouts/      BaseLayout.astro (nav, footer, View Transitions)
  styles/       global.css (theme, table styles, culture colors, skill colors)
  components/   TroopTree.astro (SVG upgrade tree)
scripts/        Node.js analysis scripts (weapon balance, culture summaries)
public/         Images, fonts, favicon, CNAME

Data Sync

sync-data.sh wipe-and-replaces src/data/ from two local Bannerlord modules. It is a manual step, run whenever mod data changes; the site is then rebuilt on push.

./sync-data.sh [path-to-TAOM-ModuleData] [path-to-LOTRLOME_Armory-ModuleData]
# defaults: E:/Steam/steamapps/common/Mount & Blade II Bannerlord/Modules/{TAOM,LOTRLOME_Armory}/ModuleData

Source	Files copied
TAOM/ModuleData	troops/troops_*.xml, characters/{npcs_*,lords,heroes,clans}.xml, *.xslt, taom_spcultures.xml, taom_spkingdoms.xml
LOTRLOME_Armory/ModuleData	LOTRLOME_items/<culture>/*.xml, LOTRAOM_{weapons,shields,horses}.xml, LOTRLOME_crafting_pieces.xml, weapon_descriptions.xslt
Bannerlord install	vanilla_weapons.xml, vanilla_crafting_pieces.xml, vanilla_heroes.xml (reference copies from SandBoxCore/Native/SandBox)

Hand-maintained files that the sync preserves: src/data/faction-troops.ts (troop-branch prose per faction) and src/data/patreon-posts.json (written by scripts/sync-patreon-posts.mjs on every build). Backup files (*.bak*, *~) left in the mod source are stripped.

The armoury culture folders also carry generated ranged_ladder.xml (AI missile-speed bow clones) and starter_kit.xml (stat-floored player-start twins). They are synced for completeness but parse-armory.ts deliberately skips them — they are not player-facing gear.

Armour Turntables

Armour videos are hosted in R2. src/data/armour-turntables.json contains the public base URL and verified uploaded filenames. Builds read this manifest without contacting R2, and the player loads a video only when its item is opened.

After uploading more MP4s, refresh the manifest from the export directory:

npm run sync:turntables:all

The default source is Z:\TAOM Turntables\batch-turntables. Use --source=... to change it or --limit=50 to check a test batch. The command checks public availability and skips files not uploaded yet. It preserves the existing manifest if a network or server error occurs. Use --base-url=https://videos.taommod.com when switching to a production custom domain. Exported filenames must remain unchanged when uploading.

XSLT Transforms

XSLT files in src/data/ transform vanilla Bannerlord XML data into LOTR equivalents. The parsers read the <xsl:template match=...> blocks directly to recover the overridden values.

File	Purpose
lords.xslt	Renames vanilla NPCCharacter lords to LOTR characters, sets skills and face properties
heroes.xslt	Matching Hero overrides — clan, kingdom, spouse, biography text
spclans.xslt	Vanilla Faction (clan) name and banner overrides
spcultures.xslt	Vanilla Culture renames, NPC and party-template mappings
spkingdoms.xslt	Vanilla Kingdom name, title, colour, and policy overrides
module_strings.xslt	Culture adjectives and other localisation strings
action_strings.xslt	Campaign news / action strings
comment_strings.xslt	Lord dialogue and introduction strings

Custom (non-vanilla) kingdoms and cultures are defined directly in taom_spkingdoms.xml and taom_spcultures.xml; weapon_descriptions.xslt lives under armory/ and names the crafted weapons.

Culture Mapping

Bannerlord vanilla culture IDs are mapped to LOTR factions:

Vanilla ID	LOTR Faction
aserai	Harad
khuzait	Rhun
battania	Khand
empire	Dunland
vlandia	Rohan
sturgia	Dale

Custom cultures map directly: gondor, mordor, erebor, isengard, gundabad, mirkwood, rivendell, lothlorien, umbar, dolguldur, goblin, mistymountainorcs, bluecraig, lindon, abanissa, shaghâna (id shaghana), plus the armoury-only arnor, iron_hills, mercenary/thenn, and troll. Eight minor cultures used by bandit-boss troops (gondor_soldiers, erebor_warriors, mirkwood_stalkers, gundabad_raiders, harad_raiders, rhun_raiders, dunland_raiders, umbar_corsairs) render with their own labels and roll up to the parent faction in mod-info counts. Only lothlorien is hidden from the troop and lord listings.

Damage Calculator

damage-calc.ts replicates the full TaleWorlds CombatStatCalculator physics pipeline from decompiled Bannerlord v1.3.12. It calculates swing/thrust damage for crafted weapons using piece weight, inertia, center of mass, and speed ratings. Verified against in-game values (e.g., Galadriel Sword: Game=87/72, Calc=86/72). Do not simplify the math — it must match the game engine.

CI/CD

• Deploy (.github/workflows/deploy.yml) — On push to main and every 6 hours: quality gate (lint, format check, tests) → build → deploy to GitHub Pages. The scheduled run picks up new Patreon posts without a commit.
• PR Preview (.github/workflows/preview.yml) — On PRs: quality checks with build status comments
• Lighthouse (.github/workflows/lighthouse.yml) — Performance monitoring with budgets on key pages

Quality Tools

Tool	Config	Purpose
ESLint	eslint.config.mjs	TypeScript + Astro linting
Prettier	.prettierrc	Code formatting (120 width, single quotes)
Vitest	vitest.config.ts	Unit tests for parsers and damage calc
Husky + lint-staged	.husky/pre-commit	Pre-commit formatting and linting
Lighthouse CI	lighthouserc.json	Performance budgets

License

This project is a fan-made companion site for the TAOM mod. All game data belongs to TaleWorlds Entertainment and the TAOM mod team.