Ered Luin is the most linear of the starting zones. It's not like Bree-land, where you run from village to village to village and in and out of Chetwood half a dozen times at the behest of a succession of gloom-stricken peasants.
"I'm sure it will do no good - "
Then why ask?
Nor is it like the Shire, where you pick up a quick quest involving pies and suddenly it's twelve hours later and you've been back and forth across the zone so often you no longer need to look at the map to know where you are. You're also not sure if you're actually progressing at all but you don't mind because this is the Shire and you don't want to leave.
Ered Luin rather neatly acts as a starting zone for both elves and dwarves. The dwarves start in the north of the zone and get to stomp goblins and an alarming number of wild animals, and the elves start in the south of the zone and get to listen to other elves contemplating the meaning of life.
They do some other things as well, in between the bouts of introspection.
Eventually the two storylines meet in the middle of the zone and merge into one, and the theme of that story is the need for elves and dwarves to work together, so whichever race you are it's still relevant.
Each part of the zone is visually distinct and has its own atmosphere, and there's not a lot of running back and forth. All in all Ered Luin isn't the best of LOTRO's starter zones – that would be the Shire – but it's well designed and is, for this game, fairly fast paced.
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