Filling the Gaps: following in the footsteps of the Wildwood and the Angle

[TesalionLortus]

I do wish they'd revisit and come up with some more clever models for the Nameless though.

Neh, no. If there is anything I dislike it's retconning things into something else entirely after X years, they've been pretty well established by now and I don't have any problem with them

But every single time I go and encounter them, whether beneath Jarnfast or under Moria's bowels, all I can wonder is when Ellen Ripley and the space marines are going to show-up with a tank to help out the Dwarves.

The Nameless literally look like some slightly-altered, upright version of Giger's Alien drawings and the portrayal of the classic xenomorphs in the "Alien, Aliens, Alien 3" movies. I love that IP, but it's a very different tale than those Tolkien wove in Arda, and my mind just can't dissociate them because they look so much alike in-game.

Even so, the eggs? Too much. Just way too much. I keep wondering why the face-huggers haven't hatched

Giger's xenomorphs just don't belong in Middle-earth; they have a whole different vibe and feel informed by an entirely "alien" - pun intended - IP where the best known solutions tend to involve flame-throwers, rapid fire armaments, tanks, and "nuking the site from orbit" (Aliens).

They don't even look THAT similar (though clearly some inspirations were there). So I would say, well yes, you're just unable to dissociate for some reason. Also, yesss... they *don't belong* in Middle-earth, that was clearly the point. You're not supposed to feel like they belong. So, I would say it worked

Something else, literally anything else! I'd even take something more wraith-like but with fangs or something vaguely vampiric than . . . "Aliens."

We have Merrevail for that - they belong somehow, with nods to the lore and folklore legends. And other wraith-like creatures, from Oath-breakers to lesser servants of the Maiar, or even the lesser Nazgul, for the wraith part. Nameless aren't supposed to belong, however.

Anyways, I'm very scared of how silly they'll make Throkhar look in light of the "Chamber of Shadows" (*that Nameless really looked goofy after ripping fake-Durin's beard off)

He was a bit of a goof there but I guess the Shadowed King - to something like Throkhar anyway - would be merely just that, a goof playing at being a dwarf. I mean, I guess he only got his "status" as such a baddie because he was actually able to act like a decent leader (since stylizing himself on dwarven king) rather than just run around, gnaw and consume as head of the "nameless hive". Plus, that entire instance and premise clearly served to tease some Durin stuff for Gundabad... so I'm not that worried about the whole "Shadow King playing a humanized dwarf like a goof!" having any serious effect on the narrative or how they're going to handle Throkhar/other Nameless once it comes to it

All we know from the lore is that they're Nameless and they gnaw. It does make sense they have teeth. The design I find much better is that of the Rogmul. Now THAT does feel far more Middle-earthy and honestly closer to Tolkien's descriptions of the wingless Balrog.

And they do have teeth. And they gnaw. Some with bigger mouths full of teeth, able to swallow a rock. Others with their little ones and with their screechy creepy voices. Also, rather than outright alien, some of them have these horns which makes them more Eldricht too. A mix of sorts. They fit the bill of unfathomable and stranger to Middle-earth/Arda quite well. The design of Rogmul, again, doesn't work, because it belongs to Middle-earth and is merely a "lesser" take on a Balrog, so again a Maia connection.

Honestly, if it were me, I'd directly model Throkhar on Tolkien's actual, wingless, shadowy Balrog description.

That wouldn't make him different from a Balrog. They can just... do an actual Balrog based on this. So, I expect something more original for Throkhar, and yeah, I wouldn't want him to be just a large resized version of the basic Nameless we've gotten. Also, I'm of an opinion he might have many forms or something. A bit Eldricht, but would need to give him some physical (for consuming) form too. Anyway, it all depends on the story they've got planned here and idea/origin for the Nameless in the first place. I doubt he will be like the Mistress, since they also mentioned a Nameless Mother, not just Throkhar who is always specifically referred to as a he and a lord, so the Shelob-counterpart for the Nameless would be that mother, though who knows where is she, maybe not even in Arda no more. But yeah, all in all, I'm really convinced they gotta feel stranger because they're somehow alien to the place, that's how I would expect it to go in any case, and they're supposed to be older than Sauron so not sure what's the angle here otherwise.

I wish they'd go more in - that - direction. Nameless, scary, fanged with large maws - but more in that "Morgoth, Ungoliant, Balrogs" typology - something I could more easily picture in my head as the mysterious evils of primeval darkness of a sort that still feel self-referential: still a uniquely Middle-earth entity. I know it would be a huge writing and graphics challenge for the devs - but I do think it would be very worth it to steer the Nameless away from outer space and closer to something we could imagine more readily possible and plausible gnawing the depths of Arda.

In other words, you would have them do the redesign to have them feel more like all of these other things we already have albeit a bit more on drugs, like the recent model of the Grey Fear (ah, it is so cool!). But nope, they're not supposed to feel familiar to the place, that's what I thought the devs were always going for - it was intentional rather than a mishap.