Development Text

This is a sub-page of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

Background Information#

Information about some of the characters and locations portrayed in the game. Contains original research as well as excerpts from the The Lord of the Rings books and other sources.

Wiki Excerpts#

General

Barad-dûr was built by Sauron in the land of Mordor, not far from the volcano known as Mount Doom. The construction of the tower began around the SA 1000, and took six hundred years to complete. It was the greatest fortress built since the fall of Angband during the War of Wrath. 

Barad-dûr fell under siege for seven years by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men during the Second Age, and was leveled after Sauron's defeat at the hands of Isildur, but because it was created using the power of the One Ring, its foundations could not be destroyed completely while the Ring itself still existed. As Isildur failed to destroy the Ring, the tower was eventually re-built when Sauron returned to Mordor thousands of years later. 

(Source: http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Barad-d%C3%BBr) 

While occasionally interpreted as resembling pterosaurs, Tolkien himself stated that the creatures were not intended to be "pterodactylic", though he conceded similarities. For the most part, while fellbeasts vaguely resemble outdated pterosaur depictions, they are vastly different from the modern scientific interpretation of these animals, as endothermic, hairy quadrupedes instead of "featherless birds". (http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Fellbeast)

Two excerpts from the The Lord of the Rings Wiki - from the articles for Barad-Dur and the Fellbeast - can be found in Content/Data/Articy/Bin/data.xml. Interestingly, the citations here use the old .wikia links, as opposed to the more current .fandom links, which may place the collection of this information as recently as June 2019, around the time the wiki moved to the Fandom system. This lines up with the announcement of the game's development in March 2019, given that development would likely have commenced with this research.

The Haze#

Background story of the Haze



Ever since the reappearance of Orcs and Nazgul in Dol Guldur, has King Thranduil of the Wood-elves been thinking about better defenses of his Woodland Realm. 

He was very willing to listen to a group of eight Elvish „artists“, some remnants of the old order of Melian of Menegroth, that dedicated their life to the beauty, the power and the magic of the Maia, that dwelled in forgotten times with their old King Thingol in Doriath.

This group had been working on a spell they called The Haze. A powerful guardian spell, that would surround the Woodland realm and protect it from foes and evil intruders. Their head, an old Sindar Elf called Gwendil (the Riddlemaster), had lived during the time of Oropher, Thranduil’s father. He and his fellow group of artisans promised the king to do their best if he allowed them to create this Haze. They did so, but despite their best efforts the Ring of Haze turned out to be too weak to protect the Realm from outside forces. The artisans started to doubt Gwendil.

What the king didn’t know was that the Riddlemaster intended to use the magical powers of the Enchanted River to support this spell. His plan was to create entities that would spread the Haze and strengthen it. Despite the warnings of his best pupil, Mell, the spell was prepared and cast by the whole group of artisans at the Haze’s final breach. But Mell was distracted by her doubts and failed to complete her part of the spell. The Riddlemaster tried to take over, but the forces were now unbalanced. Mell, ashamed and scared, retreated from the group. The powers erupted and the entities they had created turned against the Elves. The terrible, nightmarish creatures seemed to materialize in the Haze attempting to kill everyone.

Mell tried to help but only heard everybody cry in agony and die around her. Trying to struggle free, the Riddlemaster put all his remaining power into a bright flash of light. When it hit Mell, she lost her eye-sight and fell unconscious. When she awoke, everybody was gone, sucked up by the Haze, even the Riddlemaster, or so it seemed. 
She would never see them again and she blamed herself for the Elves’ death. She went back to King Thranduil to report their failure, ask for punishment and warn him of the dangers of the Haze. But nobody listened to her. They saw she was very sick and touched by a great evil.

The Riddlemaster, however, managed to flee through the breach and succeeded in severing the connection between him and the Haze. He knew that he needed to act quickly to prevent the worst and that he didn’t have enough time to return to the Elves to prevent disaster. Hoping that Mell might still be alive, he quickly left messages for her to find him. Then he rushed to the source of the Haze to gain some sort of control. Without help he was not able to dismantle the source of the Haze in order to destroy it. So he chose to unite himself with the Haze. That way, he was able to contain and slow down the chaotic forces. He now was unable to leave it. His magic would only work within the Haze and he was unable to reach the other Elves. However, Gwendil knew that his powers would not last forever. His research finally showed him a way to heal the Haze, but he would need Mell’s specific magical skills, her control over water that he lacked. His mind searched the Haze, but he never found her.

King Thranduil was angry, sad and shocked. He locked Mell up in one of the cells, but treated her kindly and put a magic lock on her cell, until the time she had recovered from the evil influences of the spell. Mell warned the other Elves in dark works about the evil powers of the Haze. But the Haze for now worked just fine and did exactly what the Riddlemaster had promised. The Elves didn’t trust Mell and ignored her warnings. Time wore on and Mell showed no signs of recovery, until a little creature crept up to her...

Moria#

MORIA

Whole scene is just cut scene stage.

We need: 

- a path through the mines for dialog (Gollum is crawling and talking to himself)

- The West Gate from the inside (Gollum pushes against the Gate but cannot open it)

- The West gate from the outside



The Gate inside

The Gate has two heavy stone wings that can be pushed open by two strong people from the inside. There are no carvings or other ornaments on the inside of the door.

From the gate, a wide stair leads up to the mines.



The wide stairway was sound and undamaged. Two hundred steps they counted, broad and shallow; and at the top they found an arched passage with a level floor leading into the dark.



The Mines

The air grew hot and stifling, but it was not foul, and at times they felt currents of cooler air upon their faces, issuing from half-guessed openings in the walls. There were many of these. In the pale ray of the wizard’s staff, Frodo caught glimpses of stairs and arches, and of other passages and tunnels, sloping up, or running steeply down, or opening blankly dark on either side. It was bewildering beyond hope of remembering.

There were not only many roads to choose from, there were also in many places holes and pitfalls, and dark wells beside the path in which their passing feet echoed. There were fissures and chasms in the walls and floor, and every now and then a crack would open right before their feet. The widest was more than seven feed across 



The Gate outside

The day was drawing to its end, and cold stars were glinting in the sky high above the sunset, when the Company, with all the speed they could, climbed up the slopes and reached the side of the lake. In breadth it looked to be no more than two or three furlongs at the widest point. How far it stretched away southward they could not see in the failing light; but its northern end was no more than half a mile from where they stood, and between the stony ridges that enclosed the valley and the water’s edge there was a rim of open ground. They hurried forward, for they had still a mile or two to go before they could reach the point on the far shore that Gandalf was making for;



They reached the strip of dry land between the lake and the cliffs: it was narrow, often hardly a dozen yards across, and encumbered with fallen rock and stones; but they found a way, hugging the cliff, and keeping as far from the dark water as the might. A mile southwards along the shore they came upon holly trees. Stumps and dead boughs were rotting in the shallows, the remains it seemed of old thickets, or of a hedge that had once lined the road across the drowned valley. But close under the cliff there stood, still strong and living, two tall trees, larger than any trees of holly that Frodo had ever seen or imagined. Their great roots spread from the wall to the water. Under the looming cliffs they had looked like mere bushes, when seen far off from the top of the Stair; but now they towered overhead, stiff, dark, and silent, throwing deep night-shadows about their feet, standing like sentinel pillars at the end of the road.



Right between the shadow of the trees there was a smooth space.



The Moon now shone upon the grey face of the rock; but they could see nothing else for a while. Then slowly on the surface, where the wizard’s hands had passed, faint lines appeared, like slender veins of silver running in the stone. At first they were no more than pale gossamer-threads, so fine that they only twinkled fitfully where the Moon caught them, but steadily they grew broader and clearer, until their design could be guessed.

At the top, as high as Gandalf could reach, was an arch of interlacing letters in an Elvish character. Below, though the threads were in places blurred or broken, the outline could be seen of an anvil and a hammer surmounted by a crown with seven stars. Beneath these again were two trees, each bearing crescent moons. More clearly than all else there shone forth in the middle of the door a single star with many rays.

Elves of Mirkwood#

Info: The Elves of Mirkwood

The woodland realm once used to include all of Mirkwood. But the Necromancer's (Sauron's) witchcraft turned most of the woods into a dark place and now the Elves only inhabit a small part of it, north of the forest river. Heart of the realm are the Elvenking's Halls : A net of beautiful caves, carved into a mountain.

Since the beginning of the Third Age the King has been Thranduil, son of Oropher and father of Legolas.

Almost all of the Elves in his realm are "Silvan" elves. They are a lot more "native" and wild and primarily live in the forest. The King's relatives, however, are descendants of the "Sindar" and a bit more "upper class". The Sindar have adopted a lot of the Wood-Elves' culture, but still, there is a palpable difference between the Silvan and the Sindar that causes some subliminal tensions within the realm.

Many of the Wood-elves feel that the King doesn't do enough to protect the woodlands. He seems to be content just hiding in his palace, living in caves like a dwarf, while his realm grows smaller and smaller. 

The King is aware that his realm is about to be swallowed by the darkness, but he knows the costs of a war against Sauron. He had been in the battle of Dagorlad where Sauron had been defeated the first time, three thousand years ago, and he all too well remembers the horrors and the costs of that victory. He fears that whenever the Elves would start to fight back, it would be their last battle. The costs would be so immense that his realm would perish anyway, and even if they won, the evil forces would contaminate his people and find its way into his realm nonetheless.

Mostly withdrawn from the world, the Elves have now abandoned most of their trades with the Men of Dale and the Dwarves of Erebor. Only few goods are being transported back and forth on rafts via the forest river.

While there are no forced hierarchies between the Elves in the woods, some hierarchies and organizational structures do exist within the King's palace (at least formally, for the Elves don't care about that too much and prefer creative, organized chaos).

The King has a small council, namely the master of lights, the treasurer, the hunting master, the master of ceremonies. However, he tends to make lonely decisions rather than to consult his council.



The Palace

The palace consists mostly of a system of caves carved into a mountain on the north side of the forest river. The entryway to the halls have huge stone doors that are closed and secured by magic. The throne room is a great hall with pillars carved from the living rock, formed like trees. In lower levels are cells for prisoners and at the lowest part of the caves are the cellars of the king. These cellars are built over an underground stream so that empty barrels can be dropped into the water and floated out to the forest river through a gate barred by a portcullis (this possible escape route has been reinforced and secured since a bunch of dwarves and a hobbit used it for their escape a few decades ago).

The stream is also the water reservoir for the palace, and artful aqueducts and hydraulic structures pump and conduct the water up to the rest of the palace. Those aqueducts used to feed a number of trick fountains as well (see the Queen's Cascades), but those are mostly out of order now.



Look and Feel

We hate this place! Everything smells of disgusting fragrances, and the Elves are everywhere, with their terrible shining eyes, making sinister music, trying to enchant us with evil magic. Bunches of tallow candles and lamps or little fire places illuminate the halls.

A labyrinth of caves, caverns, halls, tree-shaped pillars and many stairs (i.e. ramps). Ornaments of beech and oak leaves. 60 years ago, after the war of five armies, the Elves have won many diamonds from Smaug’s treasure and that shows in the palace as well. The more representative rooms are now decorated with white sparkling gems.

The Wood-Elves are described as more wild and dangerous than their relatives in Lórien or Rivendell. Their art and architecture is thus less sophisticated and pleasing and instead more reminiscent of an enchanted forest, feeling somewhat spooky or 'haunted'. The oldest parts were made by dwarves and are a bit stiffer and more even. Not everything in the palace is architecture. Parts are left as natural grottos with stalactites that look like roots or like mushroom lamella. The transitions to the architecture are fluid. There are some underground gardens that are more wild and sinister than beautiful. The outer gardens on top of the hill, on the other hand, are very artful, with statues, fountains and trimmed hedges and trees.

Black squirrels are running around, big as cats, not afraid of the Elves who often feed them. Their gleeful “chacker chacker” screams can be quite disturbing. Bats and moths are also common guests. Some badgers live with the Elves as well, and the Elves have tamed some of them, using them for hunting.

It is important to show the community of the Elves here. While Gollum is still alone and mostly stays by himself, the Elves are always in pairs or groups and enjoy the night, feasting, dancing, making music, playing games, telling stories, kissing… while we are excluded of everything. Even rooms without NPCs should always show signs of that community: Leftovers of some feast, abandoned game boards, voices and music that come from rooms we cannot enter.

Stage Directions#

Finale#

Action: 

1. Mell and Riddlemaster enter through door. Riddlemaster closes door and seals it with a spell. Then they go to the source together.

2. Mell*, RM and Gollum reach the hall of the source: A round, beautiful, peaceful, mossy garden full of Mirkwood moths. In the middle stands a sophisticated crystal well, glowing in a warm day-light, filled with dark water in which little nightmare creatures swim like goldfish. A column of dense haze ascends from the well up to a strange illuminated glass orb that hovers high above. From there it spreads in cords of Haze into the rest of the tower. Long transformed by the Haze, the room appears to be mirrored top to bottom.

They cannot reach the Source, though, because of the spell of the Haze. They need to weaken the spell, first. 

There are two wind channels that need to be closed off. The Riddlemaster will go one way and switch off the first, Gollum goes the other direction to close the second. Mell will stay at the source to keep the erupting forces of the Source in check to give RM and Gollum some time. The RM warns Gollum about the nightmares and the chaotic Haze. Not every path or door will lead to where Gollum may expect it to lead. 

3. Gollum alone. Sméagol plants distrust against the Riddle Master. What if he lies? What if he has no intention of letting us go? Can’t trust the Elf! Gollum wants to stick to the plan. It’s the best chance they have. They could destroy the source, Sméagol suggests. Gollum: But the Elves warned us that everything might collapse and then we die. Sméagol: Then stop the Riddlemaster, before he dissolves Mell!
 
4. We enter more and stronger Haze level strangeness. We see shadows on the wall. The shadow silhouette of Gandalf. Gollum reminds Sméagol of the powers and beauty of the Ring. We need the Ring to protect us from Lords and Wizards! 

5. Gollum closes the first wind channel. Conflict dialog. If Gollum is strengthened, he is all the more determined to leave the Realm and find the Ring and save it from the evil sorcerer’s influence. If Sméagol is strengthened, he is now determined to rid himself from the Ring’s influence. And Mell will help him.

6. Gollum returns to Mell at the source. Mell is freaked out. She is getting tired and the Riddle Master has not returned. He should be long back by now. Gollum promises her to find him.

7. Gollum searches the tower for the Riddlemaster. Inquisitor, Orcs have now entered the South tower. We can hear the Inquisitor shout orders. He sends his men to find Gollum. Orcs also warn each other about some Elves who have followed them into the tower. Gollum finds the Riddlemaster. He has fallen and injured his leg. He gives Gollum instructions how to close the second wind channel and provides some wind magic help for him to move on.

8. Orcs and Nightmares all run around in the Haze-Mayhem. Gollum has to sneak past everybody. - Opportunity to be helped out (indirectly) by Beastmaster, if alive. Sméagol is now convinced that RM has to die. Nazgul shadows haunt Gollum. 

9. Gollum closes the second wind channel. Conflict Dialog.

10. Riddlemaster Decision: Gollum returns to the Riddlemaster. He is hiding from an orc who hasn't seen him yet. We look down on the scene. Conflict dialog: Throw down stone to Riddlemaster to give him up (Sméagol) or kill the orc (Gollum). Riddlemaster dies or sends us back to Mell.

11. Return to Mell again. ---> FINALE