Characters / Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Antagonists

The antagonists encountered in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

Beware of spoilers!

Introduced in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Sauron

Sauron

Race: Maiar

As the Dark Lord

As Annatar

Voiced by: Steve Blum

The second Dark Lord to terrorize Middle-earth. Defeated long ago by the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, he has returned to Mordor after a two-and-a-half thousand year absence.

---

• Adaptational Badass: This version of the Dark Lord is vastly more powerful than in the original books, and notably because he lacks a canon handicap. In the events of the books, the top god Eru deliberately takes away his ability to assume an attractive form after the Downfall of Númenor caused by him. In the games, he not only still has it into the Third Age, but Sauron is apparently able to project telepathic messages to unwilling recipients from hundreds of miles away, and possibly also teleport. That being said, the Assimilation Backfire listed below provides a handy explanation as to why he doesn't have those powers by the time the events of The Lord of the Rings takes place.
• Assimilation Backfire: A crucial one too. By the end of the climactic fight of Shadow of War, Sauron absorbs Celebrimbor as he long intended to, but the Wraith manages to match his power and both end up fighting for control over their fusion. It effectively puts them in Mode Lock in the form of the Eye above Barad-dûr. This means he can't physically manifest and also has most of his best powers negated. The only thing he gets in exchange is an impressive, long-range True Sight, an immense downgrade from the threat he was.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Sauron wins and triumphs over every opponent he meets face to face... unfortunately for him, he's often loath to call them triumphs. The undead Ranger Talion was corrupted by one of his Rings and becomes a Nazgûl, but that's only after resisting long enough to keep Sauron's armies off-balance until the One Ring could be found and a quest started to destroy it, thanks in no small part to the nifty new Ringwraith powers granted by said Ring. Sauron can't interfere in Talion's rebellion directly either, since his defeat and forcible assimilation of Celebrimbor ends up stripping him of most of his powers and trapping him in the form of the Lidless Eye. And, as we know from the films, way, way in the future, just as the One Ring finally overtakes Frodo Baggins's mind right on the slopes of Mount Doom, almost guaranteeing that Sauron will retrieve the Ring with no trouble, the hobbit Gollum accidentally destroys it and cripples the Dark Lord's power forever.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Shadow of Mordor made it pretty clear that Sauron was hunting Celebrimbor in order to absorb his power and reassume physical form, something that could only be achieved otherwise by regaining the One Ring. At the end of Shadow of War, Sauron succeeds in absorbing Celebrimbor into himself, but as a result ends up (seemingly involuntarily) turning into an immobile giant flaming eye for his trouble, losing many of his more useful powers and forced to rely on his orc armies to maintain his influence.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted spectacularly. Annatar, Lord of Gifts is easily the prettiest character in the series, but has the blackest, most cruel of hearts.
• Berserk Button: He does not like people playing with the One Ring as the living Celebrimbor discovered the hard way after his own rebellion in the Second Age.
• Big Bad: Of the Bright Lord DLC and all of Shadow of War.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Shelob, Zog the Eternal and the Bright Lord, Celebrimbor for Shadow of War.
• Bishōnen Line: Almost literally when he assumes his fair form as Annatar against Celebrimbor and Eltariel during the first and third phase of the final Boss Battle.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He presented himself as a fair, altruistic Elf who wanted to collaborate with Celebrimbor to create gifts of great splendor. Turns out he was actually using him for his own ends.
• Carry a Big Stick: He wields the black blade-flanged mace his film counterpart does (separate from his previous mace that the Hammer acquired from his first defeat). In-game, it also sends victims sailing quite a distance away.
• Casting a Shadow: He's often wreathed in a dark aura. Sometimes inverted in Shadow of War, where he appears as the dark pupil of a flaming eye.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: It's strongly suggested that his Fusion Dance with Celebrimbor is what caused him to lose all the powers he demonstrated during The Hobbit and the two Shadow games, essentially mode-locking him into the form of the Eye atop Barad-dûr seen in The Lord of the Rings.
• Combat Pragmatist: You're facing an opponent residing in a host body that has the power to brainwash you via a relic worn on their hand. How do you counter that? Well, if you're Sauron, the answer is: wait until the enemy gets close enough to grab the host's hand and cut off the finger the relic rests on, severing your enemy from both host and relic of power.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In the Second Age, Sauron handed one to the rebellious Celebrimbor when the Elf-lord unwittingly brought the One Ring back to its master.
• Death Glare: After seemingly being bested by the Bright Lord, he snaps out of Celebrimbor's attempt to Dominate him and gives a particularly venomous one before cutting the New Ring from Eltariel's finger and finally absorbing his enemy's power.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Sauron is very fond of doing this to people who press his Berserk Button. To wit:
  • Celebrimbor, Elf-lord and greatest smith of the Second Age, who tried to steal the One Ring and use it against the Dark Lord. After his capture, he was beaten to death with his own smithing hammer though not before being Forced to Watch the murders of his wife and daughter at Sauron's hands.
  • Isildur, ancient king of Gondor who took the One Ring as a trophy of victory over Sauron. He was killed in an ambush by orcs after the Ring betrayed him and revealed him to the enemy. His corpse was then taken to Barad-dûr, where Sauron turned him into one of the Nazgûl.
• Dark Is Evil: He is normally clad in spiny black armor that makes his nature as an Evil Overlord blatantly obvious.
• Evil Overlord: He's not known as the Dark Lord for nothing.
• The Evils of Free Will: According to Shelob, Sauron believes freedom is a blight on existence, a source of chaos he cannot abide by.
• Evil Sounds Deep: As befitting the Dark Lord of Mordor, he speaks in a notably deep voice. Inverted when as Annatar, in which his voice becomes almost disturbingly gentle.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: He bashed Celebrimbor's head to a pulp with his own smithing hammer when he finally captured him, purely out of anger for taking the One Ring from him and trying to usurp him.
• Faux Affably Evil: His Annatar form is an idealized regal Elf, which he uses for benevolent purposes as collaborating with Celebrimbor and offering an empowering, corrupting Ring of Power to Helm Hammerhand. Even after he's exposed as an Evil Overlord, he still uses his Annatar guise on occasion, usually to mock Celebrimbor.
• Final Boss:
  • Of the Bright Lord DLC for Shadow of Mordor, without any ambiguity. Celebrimbor brings his branded Warchiefs against the Dark Lord himself.
  • Played With in Shadow of War. He is the final major storyline opponent you fight, but the story continues with five fortress defense sequences afterward (representing the decades Talion spent restraining Sauron's power in Mordor). All of the siege business aside, Sauron serves as the final boss for Celebrimbor at the tail end of the two-part final boss battle.
• Flunky Boss: In his boss fight at the end of the Bright Lord DLC, Uruk mooks constantly pour into the battlefield to attack you. As the fight progresses, he erases Celebrimbor's branding on his Warchiefs and then continues to undermine his enemy's advantage by resurrecting them as they die.
• For the Evulz: He took the form of Annatar while killing Celebrimbor, apparently just to emotionally torment him one more time.
• Fusion Dance: At the end of their climactic fight in Shadow of War, he absorbs Celebrimbor's soul into himself, causing the two to turn into the Flaming Eye set at the top of Barad-dûr.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: When he uses more attractive appearances like the Annatar form and/or the Black Hand (maybe), his eyes have an evil red glare to them. Flashbacks indicate that he could hide it, with occasional Glamour Failure, in his Annatar form.
• Greater-Scope Villain: For all the goings-on in Mordor. Potentially subverted if the theory is true that the Black Hand of Sauron was in fact the Dark Lord himself in a different form.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose:
  • In the Bright Lord DLC, like in the artifact flashbacks in the main story, when Celebrimbor unknowingly returns the One Ring to him, he immediately turns the tables and defeats him.
  • History Repeats in Shadow of War: Celebrimbor actually manages to subdue and Dominate him with the New Ring he created, but Sauron resists long enough to cut off the fingers of his host Eltariel, depriving him of his Ring, and then absorbs Celebrimbor into himself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Three-fold over the course of both Shadow games:
  • Via Foregone Conclusion, the One Ring, which he made by investing so much of his very being into it. Its loss cripples him, forcing him to rely on his Black Captains and the Ringwraiths, and much later, its destruction breaks his power completely.
  • His Fusion Dance with Celebrimbor costs him much of his incredible powers, trapping him in the form of the Eye atop his tower, unable to do anything other than use his True Sight.
  • In a more roundabout way, the murder of Celebrimbor, Talion, and their families not only sets the former two on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after their mutual resurrection into the Bright Lord, but through their bond, and the later forging of the New Ring, they gained the power to take control of the army of Orcs he commands. Even though Sauron still ends up victorious at the end of Shadow of War by absorbing Celebrimbor and turning Talion into a Ringwraith serving him, their combined efforts kept Sauron from attacking and overrunning the rest of Middle-earth long enough for the One Ring to be destroyed and the Dark Lord's power eradicated.
• Humanoid Abomination: Sauron is a corrupted Maia who — when able to manifest a physical body — takes the form of a towering humanoid figure clad in spiny black armor. He can change shape at will and in the past often assumed the form of a Vanyar Elf named Annatar and, as one theory posits about Shadow of Mordor, he either possessed the body of, or actually was the Black Hand.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Referencing the Downfall of Númenor, Sauron capitulated to Suladân's invading army in their conquer of Mordor rather than bothering to fight. He offered a Ring of Power to the king as a token of his surrender...
• I Was Quite a Looker: In flashbacks, he looks like a handsome young Elf with red eyes which was his fair form meant to trick and manipulate his enemies. By the end of Shadow of War, he's become a giant Flaming Eye and, later on after the One Ring's destruction, a harmless black cloud easily blown by the wind.
• Kick the Dog: Even after his true nature is revealed, he seems to take sadistic pleasure in taking the form of Annatar when interacting with Celebrimbor.
• Light Is Not Good: In flashbacks, he takes on the shape of a white-robed, fair-skinned and blond Vanyar elf named Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. He assumes Annatar's form during the fight between him and Celebrimbor and Eltariel.
• Manipulative Bastard: A master of this. The vast majority of his Nazgûl came into his service because they were mortal men whom Sauron tricked in some way, often by faking a surrender and offering a Ring of Power as a gift. He also manipulated Celebrimbor into forging the Rings in the first place.
• Mind Rape:
  • In a flashback, he does this to Celebrimbor by holding the One Ring in front of him and chanting "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." until Celebrimbor seemingly broke mentally and joined him.
  • Inverted in the Bright Lord DLC, where he delivers the branded Warchiefs from their brainwashing.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: "Annatar" means "Lord of Gifts" (literally "Gift-King"), which should raise some eyebrows. Justified by Elvish naming conventions: Since elves choose their adult names, it wouldn't be unlikely for an elf with the power and intention to give out gifts to name themselves like that.
• Necromancer: The Necromancer, as a matter of fact. And he shows it off during The Bright Lord by resurrecting his dead Warchiefs after you kill them once.
  • Taken further in Shadow of War, where Sauron explicitly brings dead Uruk captains back to life with necromancy, granting them dark curses that make them immune to branding.
  • Again in Shadow of War, though by proxy. Due to wearing a Ring of Power created by Sauron, Talion becomes able to resurrect dead orcs, beasts, and eventually captains in his army.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Shown in a flashback to the Second Age when he beat Celebrimbor to death with the Elf-lord's own smithing hammer for stealing the One Ring and leading a rebellion of orcs against him.
• No-Sell: In the Boss Battle at the end of the Bright Lord DLC, it's actually possible to try and combat-brand Sauron, using the One Ring itself. He just throws you off, though, but it must take balls to even consider the idea. It's shown in Shadow of War that though he is susceptible to being Dominated, he can resist it long enough to cut the New Ring from Eltariel's hand and absorb Celebrimbor directly.
• Obsessively Organized: Shelob's narration implies Sauron has this to some degree. She states he finds nature and all its freedom to be terrifying and has an overwhelming need for order in all things. She also speculates that this is why he chose a shell of metal as his physical avatar.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Absorbing Celebrimbor into himself inadvertently turned him into the immobile Flaming Eye, and it took decades of throwing his best warriors against Talion before the latter finally succumbed to his power — by which point Middle-earth had long recovered from the damage of his first attempt to conquer and the One Ring had been found and taken on the quest to destroy it.
• Reforged into a Minion: If you haven't mashed on his Berserk Button, this becomes his preferred method for dealing with a defeated enemy. It was his preference in creating the Nazgûl including Isildur who deprived him of the One Ring originally. Later, he corrupted Celebrimbor into helping him forge the Rings of Power, and finally Talion was forced to wear a Ring that gradually and eventually turned him into a Nazgûl too. Everyone who opposed him would ultimately be conquered, bent, and corrupted by him.
• Tin Tyrant: He sports his armoured look from the films, implied by Shelob to be his way of cementing himself as the herald of order in Middle-earth. Cruel, merciless order.
• Unholy Matrimony: Its revealed that in the past, he took Shelob as his bride, though he eventually decided to leave her to be killed by Suladân's men. It proved to be a vital part of his undoing as Shelob's rage towards him spurred her to cultivate the power of the Bright Lord while driving a wedge between Talion and Celebrimbor to ultimately ensure that Sauron's power would be reduced and restrained in Mordor by Talion's efforts until the One Ring could be destroyed.
• Voice of the Legion: Sauron, in both his Annatar and Black Knight forms, possesses a deep, echoing voice. This is made particularly apparent when Celebrimbor and Eltariel confront him atop Barad-dûr after betraying Talion.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: When finally facing him in the Bright Lord DLC for Shadow of Mordor, Sauron is limited to heavy attacks with his mace and occasionally countering you with a grab attack if you try to melee him. He has no ranged attacks or any magical attacks at all; even the Hammer could use a Sword Beam, use Force Push, and had an AOE spell attack in addition to smashing with his mace. However, his heavy attacks have massive AOE of their own (just like in the prologue to the films), so he doesn't really need it for close combat. He still has no defense against being sniped from the rooftops other than having an insane amount of health, though.
• Would Hit a Girl: Cruelly murders Celebrimbor's wife and daughter in front of him for daring to steal the One Ring. He also doesn't hold back against Eltariel, nor does he hesitate to slice off her fingers to deprive his enemy of the New Ring's power.
• Would Hurt a Child: As mentioned above, he murdered Celebrimbor's daughter to spite him before killing him.
• Wreathed in Flames: He can manifest an eye-shaped aura of flames around himself, with his silhouette forming the pupil.

The Black Hand

The Black Hand of Sauron

Race: Men (unknown nationality, possibly Black Númenórean) (formerly)

"Come back to me, elf-lord!"

Voiced by: Nolan North

Leader of the Black Captains, this Black Númenórean performed the ritual that summoned the Wraith that bonded with Talion. According to the Wraith, defeating him is the only way to break the curse tying them together.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: He is available as an ally in the mobile version of War. However, it's implied he is after the New Ring, downplaying this.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear who or what exactly the Black Hand was because of how rushed and sudden the climax was. Was he Sauron's human host like Talion-Celebrimbor? Was he just another upper level minion like the Tower and the Mouth of Sauron? Were any of the presented backstories correct? We will likely never know.
  • If he had a Ring of Power, he could be one of the nine Nazgûl pre-transformation, as his attire is very similar to that worn by Ringwraith-Talion^note Although with normal skin tone, but this could be explained by the fact that Talion was already long dead when he was turned in the sequel. The spiky armor and glowing eyes also suggests this. However, this would still not explain Sauron's sudden appearance and as mentioned, he doesn't seem to have a ring.
• BFS: He wields a large longsword.
• Big Bad: The villain behind Talion and the Wraith's woes in Shadow of Mordor.
• Black Speech: Says the incantation to summon the Wraith in the Black Speech.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: If he is meant to be a Nazgúl pre-transformation; like in the books, he has no visible ring on his finger, and thus his power presumably comes from Sauron himself. Shadow of War establishes that the Nazgúl of this series actually wear them.
• Foreshadowing:
  • For the spoilers: "Come back to me, Elf Lord." Emphasis on the "me."
  • His eyes also glow a shade of orange, not unlike fire...
• Humanoid Abomination: He looks like a man with lank black hair, but he's anything but.
• In the Hood: He wears a hooded cloak and never takes the hood off, adding to his sinister appearance.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Rumours of his rise to power range from killing the two Blue Wizards to being an old ally of Sauron to even being the Dark Lord himself. The last one is possibly true.
• Promoted to Playable: The Power of Shadow DLC gives the player access to a Black Hand skin.
• Slashed Throat: Gives Talion and his family an Impromptu Tracheotomy as part of the Human Sacrifice ritual to summon the Wraith. He later does it to himself to extract Celebrimbor out of Talion and draw him into himself.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: He has red-rimmed yellow irises, which occasionally glow red.
• Tin Tyrant: In the final boss fight, he reveals himself to either be Sauron himself, a Willing Channeler for Sauron's power, or able to conjure armour identical to the Dark Lord's.
• Wreathed in Flames: When he assumes his true form, his body becomes wreathed in flame.

The Hammer

The Hammer of Sauron

Race: Men (Gondor) (formerly)

"The ranger from the black gate..."

Voiced by: John DiMaggio

An immortal human, survivor of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, taken by the Dark Lord and made one of his greatest lieutenants.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: Like all the main antagonists of Shadow of Mordor, he is available as a character in the mobile version of War, and goes against Sauron's armies.
• The Ageless: While he doesn't look young by any stretch of imagination, he certainly doesn't show his true age of two and a half thousand years.
• The Brute: The most physically imposing of the Black Captains who's not afraid to smash his enemies with his mace.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He's The Brute of Sauron's three lieutenants and the most physical fighter of the bunch, and is armed with a massive mace that he wields with bone-shattering strength.
• Co-Dragons: Both he and the Tower serve as this to the Black Hand.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: The Hammer cannot be vaulted or stunned, and immediately counterattacks with a telekinetic shove to break your combo meter if you throw a throwing dagger at him. He's still vulnerable to regular attacks, counters, and being shot in the head, but since his health is so high (he's got twice as much health as an Orc Captain) you're pretty much expected to kill him with combat finishers.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Only after defeating him does Talion get access to the second half of the game.
• Exact Words: The Tower stops him from killing Talion on the spot, pointing out the Black Hand wants him alive. The Hammer settles for pummelling Talion unconscious, pointing out that Talion will live from such injuries.
• Evil Is Hammy: Exhibits much of this during his battle with Talion.
  Hammer of Sauron: The Dark Lord will RULE!
• Evil Gloating: Does this to Talion just before their final fight. All it does, however, is slam down Talion's Berserk Button.
  Hammer of Sauron: Where was your bravery when we bled your wife, and gutted your son?!

• Face–Heel Turn: He started out, long long ago, as a stretcher-bearer, trying his best to save the lives of Gondorian soldiers... until he picked up the mace.
• False Reassurance: When Ratbag tells him that all the Warchiefs were killed except him, the Hammer dryly replies, "Fortunately, you are still alive!" Ratbag laughs nervously, and then the Hammer bludgeons him.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He's one of Sauron's Black Captains now, but he used to be a stretcher-bearer for Gondor.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face is covered in scars of the evil variety.
• Magic Knight: On top of smashing things with his mace, he has a few basic black sorcery moves as well.
• Mirror Boss: He has a few magic attacks that mirror your basic Wraith abilities; his ground-slam area-of-effect attack is basically a black sorcery version of Wraith Flash, and he has a "Force Push" move that's functionally similar to your throwing daggers, dealing limited damaging but breaking your chain combo.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He spitefully slams his mace onto Talion's hand, scarring it, before knocking him out. Said scar serves the focal point from which the Wraith uses its powers.
• Playing with Fire: He occasionally lobs a fireball at Talion during their fight.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Considers his Uruk minions useless and little more than fodder to slow Talion's blade in their boss fight. He's also incredulous about the fact the Warchiefs seemingly could do nothing to stop Talion's rampage.
  Hammer of Sauron: So the local Warchiefs did NOTHING to prevent this sacrilege?!
• Sword Beam: He can slam the ground with his mace, sending a fireball at you at range.
• Unique Enemy: His moveset and fighting style are unique to him, and he's also the only straight boss fight in the main game; the Tower is a Puzzle Boss and the Hand ends up being a Cutscene Boss. Sauron himself serves as the Final Boss in the game's final DLC campaign.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: He mixes regular attacks that need to be countered and heavy attacks that need to be dodged, and has Contractual Boss Immunity against the more basic exploitable moves like vaulting and Wraith Stun. Some Orc Captains have one or two of these attributes but the Hammer is likely the first opponent you'll face that has them all.
• Was Once a Man: His bio says this verbatim, elaborating that he was once a stretcher-bearer for Gondor that found Sauron's mace and succumbed to bloodlust.
• You Have Failed Me: He unceremoniously executes Ratbag the Coward for failing to protect The Gorthaur from destruction. The next game reveals that he failed to kill Ratbag, though.
• You Don't Look Like You: His mace is said to be the same one Sauron once wielded, but looks quite different from the one seen in flashbacks. Justified by the fact that Sauron's gear is shown to shapeshift with him.

The Tower

The Tower of Sauron

Race: Men (unknown nationality, possibly Black Númenórean) (formerly)

"The Black Hand wants him alive!"

Voiced by: JB Blanc

One of the Dark Lord's lieutenants, cursed to never stop growing, but remain within armor that remains the same size. It slowly constricts him, and his only joy is in spreading pain to others.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: Like the Black Hand and the Hammer, he is available as an ally in the mobile version of War.
• Body Horror: He's continually growing in armour that's increasingly too small for him, fusing into his body. There are four blades impaled into his back, adorned with banners made from sinned faces.
• Co-Dragons: Both he and the Hammer serve as this to the Black Hand.
• Cutscene Boss: The player doesn't do a whole lot in the fight against the Tower; Talion does all the heavy lifting in cutscenes.
• Evil Knockoff: In the sequel, orcs with the title "The Pretender" wear armor identical to his but don't have his voice or skill in mind tricks, so they opt to have a gang of decoys follow them instead.
• Facial Horror: His lower jaw looks downright necrotic, his lips peeled backwards revealing his decaying gums.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's very polite and precise in his speech, but still clearly sadistic and evil.
• Genuine Human Hide: The flesh of two human faces hang like banners from his Spikes of Villainy.
• Kneel Before Zod: "Bow before me, and I will deliver you to the Dark Lord unspoiled."
• Large and in Charge: He's the largest humanoid character in the game, standing well over 7 feet tall and being even larger than the Hammer.
• Legacy Character: In Shadow of War, you can find an Uruk who bears his title, wears his armor, and, most worryingly, speaks in his voice.
• Malevolent Mutilation: As he grows into his armour, it increasingly intersects with his skin, steel plates digging into his flesh, and the gorget over his lower face has cut away his lips, leaving him with a grotesque rictus.
• Magic Knight: On top of being a black sorcerer, he carries a pair of Mordor swords on his back and will handily beat up Talion with his fists if he grabs him, suggesting this trope.
• Master of Illusion: He seems able to affect the perceptions of those around him, seeming to force them to think he is where he is not. Even his speech seems to come from this, as he barely moves his mouth (and would have trouble forming words as well as he does with no lips anyway.)
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: As mentioned above, some orcs in War wear his armor and speak in his voice. However, an another orcs type, "The Pretender" doesn't have his distinctive voice despite wearing identical armor. So either the voice is a complete coincidence, or his armor does something to those it finds worthy of the title.
• Me's a Crowd: During his boss battle' there are actually multiple copies of the Tower wandering the keep, though you probably wouldn't notice unless you use Wraith Vision to observe through the walls.
• Multiple-Choice Past: His lore entry says this in regards to his moniker - Either he built a tower during his mortal life, or was locked away inside of one.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Tower bellows that Talion will never see his family again in their final confrontation... and in doing so, goads Talion to throw off the Tower's sorcery, knock him down and start shanking him.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Has shown to be absent one moment and present when turning back around.
• Puzzle Boss: You don't fight him directly. His boss fight consists of multiple stealth attacks.
• Rasputinian Death: Talion stabs him multiple times in the chest with his dagger, then kills the Tower by pinning him to the floor by driving a sword through his throat.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He only ever raises his voice twice in the entire game. Otherwise, his dialogue is spoken in a cold, collected, and intimidating voice that resonates with malice.
  Tower of Sauron: You have walked through the grave many times. I shall make walk through the grave again and again, until you know that it is your place to stay there and never return.
• Spikes of Villainy: He has several spike-like protrusions coming out from his back.
• This Cannot Be!: The Tower seems genuinely shocked when Talion shrugs off his sorcery and overpowers him.
• Vocal Dissonance: His hulking, monstrous appearance belies a surprisingly smooth, calm voice.
• We Can Rule Together: Infers this when he invites Celebrimbor to cast Talion aside and take a place with them at Sauron's side.
  Tower of Sauron: The Dark Lord forgives you, Celebrimbor. Return to him, and cast aside this human corpse.
• Wham Line: Reveals that Celebrimbor chose Talion as a host rather than being forced upon him.
  Tower of Sauron: Celebrimbor is your curse, Ranger. He chose you. And he can release you at any time.
• Would Hit a Girl: Holds Ioreth at swordpoint to force Talion to surrender in the prologue, and later orders his Orc minions to torture Lithariel for information on Talion, then leave her corpse where he can find it once they're finished.
  Tower of Sauron: When you're done with her, hang her. High. Make sure the Gravewalker can find her.

The Talons

The Talons of the Black Hand

Race: Uruk-hai

Five Uruk Captains who serve as the Black Hand's most senior enforcers and commanders.

---

• And This Is for...: One of the Talons sometimes remarks that they'll kill Talion in revenge for what he did to the Tower of Sauron.
  Talon: It was an honour to serve under the Tower! You will suffer for what you did to him!
• Occult Blue Eyes: They all have these.
• Red Is Violent: All of them use blood-red armor and are the most elite of Black Hand's forces.
• Super-Soldier: Vat-grown to be the Black Hand's fiercest warriors and generals, not that they're more dangerous than any other mid-level captains.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: They're unlikely to all get a chance to introduce themselves to Talion before being slain during the final mission.
• Wolfpack Boss: Individually they're not much tougher than a regular mid-level Uruk Captain, but you fight all five of them at once in close formation. Then again, you have five Warchiefs of your own backing you up in the fight, so it's still not too much of a challenge.

Beastmaster Warchiefs

Beastmaster Warchiefs

Race: Uruk-hai

Five Warchiefs who have overrun Núrnen during the Lord of the Hunt DLC. These guys are static characters instead of the randomized orcs Talion usually meets. In alphabetical order, their names are Ashgarn Smuggler, Shagflak Ghûl Keeper, Tumhorn Beast Tamer, Ûgakûga Graug Rider, and Zûgor Beast Butcher. Torvin enlists Talion's help to end their threat to the local wildlife.

---

• Badass Normal: As his title suggests, Ûgakûga Graug Rider has managed to tame and ride a Wretched Graug. Talion is understandably shocked that an Uruk could pull off such a feat.
• The Beastmaster: Five of 'em.
• Continuity Snarl: Lord of the Hunt is established to take place after Talion kills the Tower of Sauron but before he confronts the Black Hand, but Shadow of Mordor's main story makes absolutely no mention of their presence. It can be Hand Waved somewhat by the fact that Talion and his troops needed to voyage across the Sea of Núrnen to reach the Tower, and thus there's a little Time Skip that the main game doesn't address; however, that would still mean that the Beastmaster Warchiefs set up shop pretty quickly.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Their presence can be considered this for the Beastmaster advanced class in Shadow of War.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Their titles pretty much spell out their abilities.
• Final-Exam Boss: Shagflak Ghûl Keeper is this as well as the Final Boss for the Lord of the Hunt DLC, as he's completely immune to everything except beast attacks.
• Four-Star Badass: All Warchiefs are this by definition, but these guys take it up a notch. While they need to be drawn out like other Warchiefs, they're notably more hands-on with their lackeys' activities and/or boast unique personal achievements:
  • Ashgarn Smuggler is an accomplished Caragath rider who joins his Mooks in transporting stolen blasting powder.
  • Shagflak Ghûl Keeper has managed to tame a colony of Ghûls and demonstrates a rather creepy level of affection towards his "babies."
  • Ûgakûga Graug Rider has managed to tame a Wretched Graug, which he rides into battle.
  • Zûgor Beast Butcher is at least heavily implied to participate in his followers' wholesale slaughter of Mordor's beasts.
• Horse of a Different Color:
  • Ashgarn Smuggler and his lackeys ride Caragaths, the first instance of Caragor/Caragath-riding Uruks in the series.
  • Ûgakûga Graug Rider (as his title suggests) rides into battle on a Wretched Graug. Not only is he the only Uruk across the games to ride a Graug, he's also the only person who's known to have performed this feat without supernatural assistance — not even Torvin can claim this accomplishment.
• If I Can't Have You…: Shagflak Ghûl Keeper's reaction to Talion's domination of his Ghûls, as he has a (rather unhealthy) affection towards them.
  Shagflak Ghûl Keeper (to Talion, referring to the Ghûls): My babies are better off dead than in your thrall!
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Or the only solution, in this case. While Talion has unlocked Branding at this point in the story, and he can Brand grunts and Captains as usual, the Warchiefs cannot be Branded and must be killed.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Ûgakûga Graug Rider's Only Friend is his Wretched Graug, whom he affectionately refers to as "Stompy." Appropriately, when you kill Stompy, Ûgakûga angrily swears to avenge his death.
  • Shagflak Ghûl Keeper displays a disturbing level of affection for his Ghûls, commonly referring to them as "my lovelies."
• One-Steve Limit: Their titles are unique to the Lord of the Hunt DLC. Mostly averted in Shadow of War, which includes almost all of them in its Nemesis title pool.
• Theme Naming: Their titles are related to beasts — well, almost all of them, anyway: Beast Butcher, Beast Tamer, Graug Rider, Ghûl Keeper, and... Smuggler.
• Wacky Wayside Tribe: As the Lord of the Hunt DLC occurs during the events of Shadow of Mordor's main story (see Continuity Snarl above), they can be seen as this in the context of Talion's quest as they're completely irrelevant to it.

Ancient Warchiefs

Ancient Warchiefs

Race: Uruk-hai

Some Warchiefs whom Celebrimbor encountered and dominated during his initial insurrection in Mordor during the Second Age. The five Warchiefs of Udûn accompanied Celebrimbor to his Final Battle with Sauron, but the renegade Elf-lord was known to have recruited other warchiefs from across Mordor. These guys are static characters instead of the randomized orcs Talion meets. The Warchiefs of Udûn are Akoth the Vile, Gorfel the Massive, Rûg the Crafty, Tûmhorn Evil Eye, and Skak Raid Leader. Other warchiefs recruited by Celebrimbor include Ûshak Fear Eater (Minas Ithil), Koth the Grog Hoarder (Cirith Ungol), Grisha Iron Mount (Gorgoroth), Mûglûk the Champion (Seregost), and Mogg the Tricky (Núrnen).

---

• Back from the Dead: During the Final Battle with Sauron, Celebrimbor is forced to kill the Warchiefs of Udûn after the Dark Lord undoes their Heel–Face Brainwashing — only for Sauron to undo that too.
• Badass in Distress: After their Heel–Face Brainwashing, Akoth the Vile, Rûg the Crafty, and Skak Raid Leader wind up getting captured and sentenced to death. Of course, all this does is conveniently gather them in a single spot for Celebrimbor to rescue -- and, when he does, he has some serious firepower on his side when the remaining two Warchiefs of Udûn come calling.
• But Thou Must!: Much like Lord of the Hunt's Beastmaster Warchiefs cannot be Branded and must be killed, the Warchiefs of Udûn cannot be killed and must be Branded.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Shadow of War's Ancient Warchiefs have tribal affiliations and advanced classes, while both were nowhere to be seen in Shadow of Mordor or its The Bright Lord DLC. Justified since the quests are suggested to be Talion's interpretation of Celebrimbor's memories, especially as you can still play them — or even play them for the first time — after Celebrimbor is out of the picture.
  • Grisha Iron Mount rides a caragor, although Shadow of Mordor establishes that orcs haven't been able to figure out how to ride caragors a few thousand years later. Presumably, the orcs lost the knowledge of how to tame and ride caragors somewhere along the line, and they only rediscovered it during the timeframe of Lord of the Hunt or during the Time Skip between the games.
• Dual Boss: Gorfel the Massive and Tûmhorn Evil Eye take on Celebrimbor simultaneously, probably because he's turned the other three Warchiefs in Udûn at that point and they figure that there's safety in numbers.
• Fate Worse than Death: Invoked by Tûmhorn Evil Eye when he's mortally wounded.
  Tûmhorn Evil Eye: Will you give me the choice of death, or will you corrupt me too?
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: All of them are subjected to this courtesy of Celebrimbor. The Warchiefs of Udûn get it inverted too — by Sauron himself, no less.
• Older Is Better: Shadow of Mordor's captains have a max rank of 20, but The Bright Lord DLC's captains, including the warchiefs, have a max rank of 25. It's probably at least partially due to the fact that Sauron was more established in Mordor back during the Second Age (as opposed to the main game, where he's been absent for thousands of years and has only recently returned).
  • Notably, this was eventually inverted in Shadow of War, but probably for gameplay rather than story reasons: Celebrimbor, his gear, and the Ancient Warchiefs are all level 60, which was the max player level when the game was released — but, when the July 2018 update increased the max player level to 80, the Shadows of the Past missions were not adjusted. This was possibly done for balancing reasons, as increasing Celebrimbor's gear levels (and hence their stats) might make certain Shadows of the Past quests too easy to complete.
• One-Steve Limit: Zig-zagged. Some titles (the Champion, the Tricky) are in Shadow of War's Nemesis title pool, while others (Fear Eater, the Grog Hoarder) are not.
  • Mûglûk was in Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis name pool but was removed from Shadow of War, making his name an example of this — unless your Nemesis or Ally from the Nemesis Forge happens to bear that name. The Forge's removal in January 2021 causes this trope to be played a little straighter.
  • Inverted with Akoth the Vile and Ûshak Fear Eater: not only are their names in both games' Nemesis name pools, but they also share them with notable orcs Akoth Slayer of the Dead (from the Blade of Galadriel DLC) and Ûshak the Ringmaster (from the Desolation of Mordor DLC) respectively. invoked
• Posthumous Character: Heavily implied, both due to the Distant Prologue setting^note Celebrimbor's insurrection occurred during the Second Age, several thousand years before the events of the games and Uruks' short life expectancies in general.
  • Played with in the case of the Warchiefs of Udûn; Celebrimbor kills them after Sauron reverts their Heel–Face Brainwashing, but Sauron promptly brings them Back from the Dead, possibly multiple times. It's likely that at least one or two of them will be alive during Celebrimbor's final victory/defeat.

Introduced in Middle-earth: Shadow of War

The Witch-king

The Witch-king of Angmar

Race: Men (unknown nationality, possibly Black Númenórean) (formerly)

"I come for you, Talion of Gondor!"

Voiced by: Matthew Mercer

Formerly one of the nine kings of Men gifted Rings of Power by Sauron, the Witch-king and his fellows were corrupted by both the Nine Rings and their own greed and ambition until they were transformed into the Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, monstrous revenants enslaved to the will of the Dark Lord. He appears in Shadow of War alongside the rest of the Nine with orders from Sauron to track down the Bright Lord and take the New Ring.

---

• Affably Evil: He's generally polite and civil to Talion, often trying to just verbally coax him into giving up in a manner that doesn't involve gloating or taunting. After Talion takes up Isildur's Ring and becomes a wraith, the Witch-king welcomes him at the start of the penultimate boss fight, calling him 'brother' and clearly not desiring (or seeing the point in) a fight. And when Talion finally gives into the ring's corruption, the Witch-king appears before him in a congratulatory friendly manner, placing a hand on his shoulder and sounding genuinely pleased that he's finally come around, but also sympathetic to his defiance, basically saying, "You fought the good fight, but it's over now."
• Arch-Enemy: To Talion. Unlike the Tower and the Hand from the previous game, he focuses more on the ranger than Celebrimbor and is the final boss for Talion when he seizes Minas Morgul.
• Carry a Big Stick: Like his book and film incarnations, the Witch-king's weapon of choice is a brutal looking mace similar to his master's.
• Demonic Possession: Can do this to fallen Orcs in order to speak to Talion. Even more disturbingly, the Orc in question doesn't even have to be dead, although he will be when the Witch-king's done with him.
  Witch-king: I come for you, Talion of Gondor.
• The Dragon: He's one of Sauron's highest-ranking lieutenants. Fittingly, he is the penultimate boss in the story mode fought just before Sauron.
• Dragon Rider: The Nine usually go to war mounted on the back of Fell-beasts, huge dragon-like reptiles. At the time of Shadow of War, they've traded up for drakes (infertile crossbreeds of dragon and fell-beast bred solely for war).
• The Dreaded: While the Nazgûl as whole all have this status, it's the Witch-king that people fear the most.
• Empty Shell: He's been so corrupted by his Ring of Power for so long that none of his original human self remains, unlike other Nazgûl. Talion can't even peer into his mind because of this.
• The Faceless: The faces of the Nazgûl are hidden behind the cloaks and masks they wear.
• Final Boss: He effectively serves as this to Talion, as the Ranger never fights Sauron or Celebrimbor directly and all the enemies he faces after his clash with the Witch-king are Nemesis orcs. Notably, the final boss battle is in two parts: Talion vs. the Witch-king, and Celebrimbor and Eltariel vs. Sauron.
• Foil: To Talion. The Appendices note that Sauron is to Celebrimbor as the Witch-king is to Talion.
• Front Line General: The Witch-King does not mind getting his armor dirty, and will fight when he can. That said, he's still a Combat Pragmatist.
• Godzilla Threshold: From Sauron's perspective, unleashing all nine of the Ringwraiths to deal with Talion and Celebrimbor is a clear indication the Dark Lord is done playing around trying to eliminate the Gravewalker.
• I Lied: General Castamir makes a deal with the Witch-king, offering to hand over the Palantir in exchange for his daughter's life being spared. You have to wonder how stupid Castamir was for thinking the Witch-king would actually uphold his end of the bargain.
  Castamir: You will hold to our bargain. My daughter's freedom...
  Witch-king: She is free to die with her people!
  • Invoked earlier during the Arena mission when the Witch-king's agents have seemingly taken Castamir hostage and will spare him if Talion faces the Witch-king's champion in single combat. The Gondorian defenders immediately start making plans to break their general out of captivity, not trusting the Witch-king to honour his word.
• It's Personal: The Witch-king holds a special hatred for all of Gondor. According to the Appendices, he especially wants to enslave Talion as a Nazgûl because of that animosity he's held against Gondor for over 4,000 years.
• Lightning Bruiser: Hits like a truck, and is deceptively fast despite his size.
• Spikes of Villainy: His armor comes with almost as many spikes as his master's.
• Voice of the Legion: His voice has a menacing echo to it.
• Was Once a Man: As is the case with all Nazgûl, he was once a human before being corrupted by one of the Nine Rings of Power. He even notes that he's so far gone that he is literally soulless. There's nothing there anymore, period.
• The Worf Effect: Subjects Talion to this during their first confrontation. After the Ranger takes on no fewer than five Nazgûl by himself and comes out on top, the Witch-king promptly defeats him before he can even touch him. Talion's story would've ended there and then were it not for a timely rescue from Eltariel, and even then, said rescue involves killing Talion.
• You Cannot Fight Fate: Invokes this when confronting Talion.
  Witch-king: Submit to your destiny!
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Castamir hands over the Palantir, the Witch-king wastes no time in killing him.

The Nazgûl

The Nazgûl

Race: Men (unknown nationality) (formerly)

Their default appearance

Voiced by: Darin De Paul, Clayton Nemrow

Sauron's most powerful and feared enforcers. Spoiler Warning!

---

• Adaptational Badass: Their rings give each one unique powers, such as necromancy or the ability to control Mordor's beasts.
• Adaptation Deviation: In the books, they do not wear their rings. Sauron keeps the Nine (and the surviving Seven) in his own possession. Because of this, their roles cannot be usurped, and the existing Nazgûl are still the original nine bearers. In this game, not only do the Ringwraiths take their rings with them in serving their Lord, but a Ring is apparently capable of being transferred to a new host and turning them into a Ringwraith, as Talion does when he takes the Ring previously worn by Isildur. That being said, were the Nazgûl of the books to actually wear them, it would likely work as it does in the game, with the rings ensnaring anyone foolish enough to claim them.
• Adaptation Expansion: Their roles, personalities, powers and backstories come up more than they did in the books and films.
• Adaptation Name Change: A variation, as their identities differ from the source material. Notably, Helm Hammerhand, an ancient king of Rohan, and Isildur, the ancient king of Gonder that originally cut the One Ring from Sauron's hands. And much later, after defeating and finally killing Isildur, Talion is forced to take the Ring he wore and become a Nazgûl in his place.
• Adaptational Personality Change: When compared to their movie counterparts, at least. Instead of being practically the same character, each named Nazgûl here has their own unique personality and powers.
• Cool Mask: The generic Wraiths all wear face masks fashioned of jagged metal. The more fleshed out of the Nine wear masks that bear hallmarks of the cultures they originated from.
• Dark Is Evil: All of them wear black-concealing robes.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Of a sort. During Shadow of Mordor, Talion and Celebrimbor briefly discuss them shortly after the latter recovers the memory of his name, revealing that they're both aware of the Nazgûl and their origins — but Talion assumes that they were destroyed, which (as he discovers in Shadow of War) is unfortunately incorrect.
• Evil Counterpart: Talion with Celebrimbor's powers is practically a heroic version of them.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Just like Sauron.
• Expy: The three named Nazgûl (Suladân, Helm Hammerhand, and Isildur) are comparable to Shadow of Mordor's Black Captains, as they're elite servants of Sauron who were once Men (one member of each trio is known to be a former Gondorian who participated in the War of the Last Alliance and was present at the Final Battle against Sauron; ironically, the Hammer is the first Black Captain whom Talion fights in Mordor, while Isildur is the last of the named Nazgûl whom he encounters in War), and they appear together early in the story but are actually confronted individually as unique Boss Battles. However, the Black Captains are Canon Foreigners, while the Nazgûl come straight from the source material, the The Lord of the Rings books. (The Nazgûl's identities are also characters invented by Tolkien, although their histories are heavily altered — for one thing, the three characters in this game were almost certainly not Nazgûl in the source material. Suladân is an exception; see his entry below for details.) Also, while the Black Captains are the only ones that we know of (possibly excepting the Mouth of Sauron, who only has a voice cameo in Mordor), the named Nazgûl are known to be part of a larger group and even have a team leader in the Witch-king of Angmar. Furthermore, the Black Captains play a major role in Talion's Back Story (being the ones who killed him and all) while the named Nazgûl have no such history with him. Finally, Talion confronts each Black Captain on his own and defeats them in one battle each, while he has backup (usually Eltariel) during each fight with the named Nazgûl and his initial clashes with two of them (again, excepting Suladân) are inconclusive, necessitating rematches to take them down.
• The Faceless: Not only are their appearances concealed by black cloaks and hoods, they also now have metal masks covering their faces. The masks likely exist so players could tell them apart.
• Fallen Hero: Several of them were great warriors who stood against Sauron, but succumbed to his influence and now are his most powerful minions. When he becomes a Ringwraith himself, Talion qualifies as this as well.
• Fate Worse than Death: Become a slave for the Dark Lord, for eternity^note or until the One Ring is unmade, but at this point in the story, no one knows if that's ever going to happen, since no one knows where the One Ring is, and lose your identity in the progress? Yep.
• Flash Step: Their Signature Move involves flash-stepping to Talion, striking at him, and then flash-stepping back to their original position.
• Flat Character: The unnamed Nazgûl. They aren't really important to the story, have only a handful of lines, typically play backup to a named and more powerful Nazgûl, and have the same basic mask design (seen in the character image above).
• The Ghost: An interesting variant. All of the Nine appear in the game, but while some (see individual entries below) are identified, the only Nazgûl who was named in the books (Khamûl the Black Easterling) is not.
• In the Hood: They all wear black hoods to help cement their fallen status as servants of the Dark Lord.
• Klingon Promotion: As with Adaptation Deviation above, in the game's continuity, if a Nazgûl actually dies like Isildur and the two that the Sisters defeated, whoever puts on the ring they drop takes their place no matter how long it takes, since while Talion managed to stall his full transformation into a Nazgûl for 60 years, the Dark Lord's corruption eventually won out.
• Legacy Character: In this version of Middle-earth, several of the original Nine Kings of Men have been replaced in their roles as Sauron's elite servants, though only those who have fought them more than once would realize it.
• Mirror Match: Due to their powers being similar to Talion's, their boss fights have shades of this.
• No-Sell: As they exist in both physical and wraith worlds, they can see Talion if he is invisible and are not slowed down if he uses ranged weapons. They are also immune to status effects and cannot be knocked down.
• Resurrective Immortality: As long as they still have their rings on them when they die, they simply wake up in Barad-dûr some time later. As the flashback to Isildur's "induction" shows, this also applies retroactively.
• Sickly Green Glow: As in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, those who can see the wraith world perceive them to shine with an unearthly, pale greenish glow. The sky also changes color to a foreboding dark green when a Nazgûl is present and reverts to its original color when he leaves.
• Spikes of Villainy: While not as spiky as Sauron's, their armor still sports them to reflect their malevolent nature.
• Super-Empowering: Implied. After taking Minas Ithil, some of the Nazgûl perform rituals all over Mordor to turn selected Orc captains into "Chosen." It's unclear exactly what distinguishes the Chosen from normal captains, since Talion and Eltariel violently disrupt any ritual that they come across, though the name implies that they would have been troublesome nonetheless.
• Tragic Villain: Sauron deceived them all into becoming monsters. None of them asked to become what they are now. Talion is an exception, as his only choice was to take up Isildur's Ring, but the fact that he chose to become a Nazgûl and banish himself from death yet again is a tragedy in itself.
• Voice of the Legion: Their voices echo when they talk, adding to the otherworldly power they command.
• Walking Spoiler: Their identities and backstories, which are largely unmarked below. Especially one of them, the fallen Ranger-turned-Bright Lord Talion, who only appears in Acts III and IV.
• Was Once a Man: Although their identities differ from the source material, they still were all human before their falls.
• Worf Had the Flu: Their absence from Shadow of Mordor is explained in the Black Captains' Appendices entry as them still recovering from their whipping by the White Council at Dol Guldur. Unfortunately for our heroes, they've recovered by the time of Shadow of War and focusing all their attention on the Ranger, the Ring-maker, and the New Ring.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: An interesting twist on the Ringwraiths that is unique to this game, as Adaption Deviation states above. Aside from a handful, or possibly only the Witch-King himself, despite Eltariel's claims of their immortality, the Nazgûl can in fact be permanently killed, however, every single time, another comes along and takes up the rings to become a new Nazgûl as Talion did when he slew Isildur, and the two Sisters did in the past.

Talion

Race: Men (Gondor) (formerly)

^{Click to see spoilers} 

A ranger from Gondor, who took up the Ring of the recently killed Isildur to protect Middle-earth from both Sauron and/or his former ally Celebrimbor, after the latter betrayed him and left him to die. He and his army of orcs defended Middle-earth from Sauron's forces and resisted the Ring's influence for decades, before it finally won and he joined the Nine. His sacrifice would not be in vain, as his actions delayed Sauron's conquest of Middle-earth, allowing its residents to form a Fellowship and destroy the One Ring and Sauron.

See here for tropes about him.

Suladân

Race: Men (unknown nationality) (formerly)

Voiced by: Gideon Emery

A warrior-king, Suladân successfully waged war on Mordor to the point of marching his army right to the gates of Barad-dûr. Sauron surrendered to him and presented him with one of the Nine Rings as a gift. Suladân took Sauron as his captive and advisor, causing him to quickly fall under Sauron's influence.

---

• Adaptational Badass: He actually managed to conquer Mordor, but fell under Sauron's influence when he made the mistake of accepting Sauron's gift of a Ring of Power as a token of surrender.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the strategy board game, he was a Haradian vassal of Sauron. Here, his kingdom was opposed to Sauron and he only came into Sauron's service after being deceived with one of the Nine Rings.
• Bling of War: In the board game he's known for his Bling of War, which carries over into his appearance in Shadow of War. Even as a Nazgûl, his appearance is somewhat more ornate than the other Nazgûl, besides the Witch-king himself.
• Captain Ersatz: His backstory — a king who defeated Sauron militarily only to fall under his influence while the Dark Lord served as his captive and advisor — is essentially that of Ar-Pharazôn the Golden from The Lord of the Rings Appendix A and The Silmarillion. Notably, his game files are actually named "arpharazon," suggesting that his name was changed at the last minute due to copyright issues.
• Composite Character: Suladân was a minor character in the Middle-earth strategy board game; here, as noted above, his backstory also makes him a Captain Ersatz of King Ar-Pharazôn.
• Cool Mask: Wears one that evokes the crown he wore while still a human king.
• Younger Than They Look: After falling under Sauron's influence, he eventually suffers the same rapid aging that King Théoden and Queen Marwen did while under Saruman's control.

Helm Hammerhand

Race: Men (Rohan) (formerly)

"Of all the Nazgûl, his fall was the most tragic."

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore

The namesake of Helm's Deep and the ninth king of Rohan. After he refused to let Siric marry his daughter Bernwyn, Helm was fatally injured in an assassination attempt by Siric and his men, who also kidnapped his daughter. On his deathbed at Edoras, Helm was visited by Sauron and Celebrimbor who offered him a ring as a way to rescue his daughter and exact revenge on the man who took her. He accepted. After his recovery, he stormed Siric's castle with some of his own men, but in his rage he missed the killing blow and accidentally struck his own daughter dead. Furious about what had happened, Helm slaughtered everyone in the room, including his own men.

---

• Accidental Murder: Of his own daughter, no less.
• Adaptation Deviation: Other than the changes to the timeline, he is the subject to a smaller change as well. In the original lore, his name came from his skills in unarmed combat, as the sheer power of his punches was comparable to being hit by a hammer. Here he uses an actual hammer, though the fact he punches one of his soldiers hard enough to draw a decent amount of blood even with a helmet on suggest he still has great strength.
• Adaptational Villainy: While only two Nazgûl were ever named, there was no indication in the books or films that Helm Hammerhand was ever a Nazgûl, or that he was aligned with Sauron at all. Shadow of War includes him in their ranks, with his Tragic Villain status depicting a descent from his deeds in life to becoming one of the Nine.
• Badass Boast: Has plenty of these to go around.
  Helm Hammerhand: You cannot hide from the huntsman!
• The Beastmaster: Summons caragors, ghûls and drakes during Talion's battles with him. His beast-mastery seems to have a mystical element, for if Talion manages to mount any beast during those battles, they die almost immediately afterwards.
  Helm Hammerhand: I have hunted every beast in Middle-earth. And none has ever escaped me!
• The Berserker: Becomes this under the influence of the ring Sauron gave him.
• Composite Character: The original lore does state that after his death, there quickly rose legends of him becoming a wraith who continued to protect Rohan against its foes^note Helm froze to death during an overnight solo raid, and the next morning, his frozen corpse was found on its feet. The game fuses this with him being one of the Nazgûl.
• Cool Helmet: Wears a horned mask, which calls back to a more impressive horned helmet he wore as a human king.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: The influence of the Ring of Power that saved his life after an attempted assassination exacerbated his rage and bloodlust during his attempt to rescue his daughter to the point that he accidentally murdered her, then in grief he killed her husband and even his own captains when they tried to stop him.
• Empowered Badass Normal: The strong hunter and warrior-king became an implacable undead.
  Celebrimbor: Hammerhand was known for his strength in life. If anything, he has grown more powerful in death.
• Foil: Word of God states that he is intended to be a parallel to Talion's story. invoked
• Godzilla Threshold: Helm's arrival at Khargukôr is serious enough to cause its Overlord to exit his throne room and personally participate in the fort's defense, one of the only times in the story that such an event occurs^note Your Overlord also participates in the defense of Sharkhburz during the "Best Defense" quest in Núrnen, and during the Shadow Wars, losing all but one of a fort's victory points during a fort defense will cause its Overlord to enter the fray. Downplayed in that the Overlord explicitly (and wisely) refuses to take on Helm himself, leaving him to Talion while the orcs handle the invading beasts.
  Overlord: Attack the beasties, lads! The boss has the Shrieker!
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Talion's initial confrontation with Helm inevitably ends with the Nazgûl striking the Ranger down but getting driven away by Eltariel before he can finish him off, forcing the heroes to track him down for a rematch.
• Horns of Villainy: He wore a horned Rohirrim helmet back when he was human, though he only counted as a villain once Sauron corrupted him. As a Nazgûl, he wears a horned mask.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Utters a variation of this when Talion finally defeats him, and it's not just that he's undead and thus can't die:
  Helm Hammerhand: My torment ends — yours is simply beginning!
• My God, What Have I Done?: He had this reaction after realizing that he'd killed his own daughter in anger.
• Mythology Gag: Borrows several elements from the canonical Helm Hammerhand.
  • In general, his beastmaster abilities allude to Rohan's canonical notoriety as horse-masters.
  • See Adaptation Deviation for a discussion of his preferred fighting style, and Composite Character for the circumstances surrounding his death.
  • His status as The Berserker is a nod to his canonical personality.
  • His daughter being the catalyst for the conflict that ultimately dooms him (which also involves a belligerent nobleman) is lifted from the lore, although the details are significantly different.
  • Both of the story quests involving him are set in the snowy region of Seregost, a nod to his Last Stand at the Hornburg during the Long Winter (in the ravine afterwards named Helm's Deep after him). Bonus points for the first quest involving Seregost's fort Khargukôr, although in this case, Helm's assaulting the fort rather than defending it.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He repeatedly summons ghûls during both of his Boss Battles. Said ghûls are One-Hit-Point Wonders who deal Scratch Damage, and if you have Life Drain gear or gems equipped, they effectively turn into free health packs, allowing you to survive much longer than you otherwise might. Downplayed in that this does involve specific action on your part (namely, the gear setup described earlier), the ghûls will kill you if you ignore them for too long, and dealing with them may distract you and leave you open to a hard-hitting attack from Helm or a drake.
• One-Man Army: Significantly downplayed due to the hordes of beasts that he summons, but Helm essentially besieges Khargukôr all by himself. It's even more impressive given the Godzilla Threshold mentioned above.
• Papa Wolf: How Sauron corrupted him; Sauron gave the dying Helm a Ring of Power with the promise it would give him the power to free his daughter from the man who had seemingly abducted her.
  Sauron (placing the ring on Helm's finger): For your daughter's safe return.
• Small Role, Big Impact: While the "small role" part is downplayed due to Helm's Boss Battles being among the toughest in the game, his primary importance to the narrative occurs during the flashback that Talion sees when peering into his mind after defeating him; namely, Celebrimbor standing beside "Annatar" as he gives Helm the Ring of Power that seals his fate, revealing that Celebrimbor was complicit (if ignorant at the time) in Sauron's scheme to use the Rings to enslave Men, something that Celebrimbor had conveniently neglected to inform Talion of prior to creating the New Ring at the beginning of the game.
  • From a lore purist's perspective, the presence of a live Celebrimbor at Helm's deathbed reveals that Helm (and, by extension, the Kingdom of Rohan) existed during the Second Age in the games' continuity.
• Tragic Villain: Said to be one by Celebrimbor and confirmed by the flashback that Talion sees during his final encounter with him. Specifically, his daughter Bernwyn was kidnapped by a warlord who wanted to marry her and become king, and Helm himself was ambushed and fatally wounded. On his deathbed, Sauron and Celebrimbor visited him and gifted him a ring of power, which restored him and enabled him to launch a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Unfortunately, Hammerhand eventually became so corrupted that he ended up killing his own daughter when she tried to stop him from getting at his rival.
• Unwanted Rescue: It's strongly implied that his daughter was in love with the man who "kidnapped" her.
• Villain Has a Point: He's only a villain in light that he's a Nazgûl, but back when he went after the man who took his daughter, he had a compelling argument for behaving so violently: If they wanted peace, they really shouldn't have attempted to murder him in the first place.
• Was Once a Man: As with the other Nazgûl.

Isildur

Race: Men (Gondor, formerly Númenor) (formerly)

Your armies become mine.

Voiced by: Nolan North

Formerly one of the greatest heroes of Gondor, Isildur vanquished Sauron during the War of the Last Alliance, but was corrupted by the One Ring which he had taken as a trophy of victory. He was killed after the Ring betrayed him during an Orc ambush, but his body was recovered and brought to a still-recovering Sauron, who then put one of the nine Rings of Power on Isildur's dead finger. This brought him back to life, but as Sauron's servant.

---

• Adaptation Deviation: Like Helm Hammerhand, in the novels Isildur lived long after all of the Nazgûl came into existence. In this Alternate Timeline, Sauron turned him into one of the Nine after he was killed in an Orc ambush and they brought his dead body before Sauron.
• Climax Boss: He's the first boss that Talion faces in the "Bright Lord" quest, which is the game's definitive Point of No Return. Gameplay-wise, he shares this role with the Witch-king and Sauron; story-wise, he's the final boss that Talion fights as a dead man bound to an Elf-wraith.
• Composite Character: Isildur and the Nazgûl he became were likely separate characters in the books.
• The Corruptible: He defeated Sauron, but rapidly succumbed to the One Ring's influence, refused to destroy it, and claimed it for himself.
  Isildur: [wreathed in a Sauron-like aura of flames] I am the Lord of the Ring!
• Disproportionate Retribution: Presumably the reason Sauron turned him into one of the Ringwraiths was punishment for daring to take the One Ring as a trophy.
• Fallen Hero: He won the War of the Last Alliance by cutting off Sauron's finger and separating him from the One Ring.
• In the Back: Like his book counterpart, Isildur is killed after Orc archers shoot him multiple times in the back.
• Ironic Hell: The man who became a hero after he defeated Sauron is now forced to serve him.
• Klingon Promotion: His permanent defeat leads to Talion being able to claim his Ring of Power.
• Mercy Kill: After seeing his memories, Talion opts to put him out of his misery rather than dominate him as Celebrimbor intended.
• Necromancer: He can summon and control the spirits of the dead to serve him in battle, similar to how Helm Hammerhand can control Mordor's wildlife. Notably, during his first encounter with Talion, he commands wights (undead Men) rather than revenants (undead Orcs).
• No-Sell: While fleeing the Orcs while wearing the One Ring, the arrows bounce off of him. The moment it leaves him, however, they find their mark.
• Oh, Crap!: The look on his face screams this trope when the One Ring slips from his finger, leaving him visible and vulnerable to Orc archers.
• Tragic Villain: He was once a great king and hero of Gondor, but his corruption by the One Ring made him squander the opportunity to destroy Sauron for good and resulted in his becoming Sauron's slave as one of the Nine.
• Undeath Always Ends: In a unique fashion, Talion and the Wraith actually manage to Dominate him; but then Talion releases his spirit to death, cutting his ties to Sauron. This leaves an opening in the Nine...
• Wreathed in Flames: When he claims the One Ring as his own, he becomes surrounded by an aura of flames that make him look distinctly like Sauron.

The Nazgûl Sisters

Race: Men (Kingdom of Shen) (formerly)

"We thank you for bringing us the Ring!"

Voiced by: Cissy Jones, Angela Lin (Riya), Toks Ologundoye, Elizabeth Pan (Yuka)

A pair of female Ringwraiths who originated from the Kingdom of Shen in Middle-earth's equivalent of the Far East. They killed two Nazgûl and stole their Rings of Power for themselves before assassinating their father to take the throne from him. After ruling the region for some time, they inevitably succumbed to the Rings' power and became Nazgûl like the others, but even then, their ambition could not be completely suppressed...

---

• Adaptation Deviation: There was no indication that the Nazgûl had female members and all of its members were said to be male. That said, they are shown to have taken their rings from male Nazgûl, so it technically still follows their idea as "kings of men" who took the Nine Rings.
• All There in the Manual: Their names (Riya and Yuka) and that of their homeland (the Kingdom of Shen) are only found in the Appendices.
• Ambition Is Evil: To the extent they were willing to use the Rings of Power from two of the Nine to advance their goals.
  • This continues even after they became Ringwraiths; the Sisters note that with Sauron distracted by his battle for supremacy with Celebrimbor and the Witch-king weakened by his defeat at Talion's hands, their plan is to raise an army of Orcs and conquer Middle-earth for themselves.
    Rogue Nazgûl: The Dark Lord and the Ringmaker burn atop Barad-dûr. The Witch-king is diminished. We are ascendant!
    Rogue Nazgûl: You face the army we have assembled to dominate all of Mordor, and you will have the honour of being its first triumph. And when your bodies lie broken on the battlefield, we will hack the Rings from your fingers and begin our conquest of Middle-earth!
• Arc Villain: They are the actual villains in the Blade of Galadriel DLC. Although Talion is the Final Boss fought right after they are defeated, he is an ally for most of the DLC's story.
• Badass Normal: In their backstory, they somehow managed to take down two Nazgûl despite not possessing any supernatural abilities.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: They aim to rule Middle-earth together.
• Chain Pain: They are capable of summoning chains to restrain Eltariel in combat.
• Creepy Twins: Specially after their fall.
• Dark Action Girl: Notable in that they are the only explicit female enemies in the entire series.
• Dual Boss: They fight as one against Eltariel.
• Early-Bird Cameo: They almost certainly appear during the Nazgûl fight during the Fall quest and during Talion's conquest of Minas Morgul during the Bright Lord quest^note voice lines for both battles were recorded but were apparently Dummied Out. On both occasions, they look identical to the generic Nazgûl, so their presence is easy to miss.
• Evil Counterpart: To Eltariel and Talion. Like the former, they are formidable female fighters that managed to defeat Ringwraiths in direct combat; however, they turned against their masters due to ambition and thirst for power. Like the latter, they are rogue Ringwraiths themselves, but while Talion dedicates himself to safeguarding Middle-earth from the forces of darkness, the Sisters want to command this darkness to overthrow Sauron and rule Middle-earth themselves.
• Evil Power Vacuum: With the Witch-king diminished by his defeat, Sauron locked in a eternal duel with Celebrimbor's spirit on top of Barad-dûr, and Talion waging all-out civil war throughout Mordor, the Nazgûl sisters swoop in to fill the gap... and hopefully go up from there.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: They speak in this way, for added creepiness factor.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Sisters are encountered by Talion during the events of the main game (see Early-Bird Cameo above), but he deals with them with little difficulty. During the Shadow Wars, they conquer the fortress at Gorgoroth and give Eltariel — herself a veteran Nazgûl hunter — a hard time during their clash.
• Gender Flip: In the books, there is no mention of any queens among the fallen kings of men that fell to Sauron's corruption though this is slightly justified as they aren't one of the nine original Nazgûl.
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: They killed their father and took the throne from him, which shows that their newly-obtained rings had corrupted them.
• Off with His Head!: They kill their father by first stabbing his chest and back, then using the chains attached to violently garrote his head off.
• Patricide: Culturally, the biggest crime they could commit. In this case, it also doubles as regicide.
• Samus Is a Girl: Since they wear full-body concealing robes like their male counterparts, it should come to quite a surprise that they are actually women. Their voice sounds different enough that you can tell them apart.
• The Starscream: They seek to steal any Rings of Power they can so that can usurp Sauron for control of Mordor, and eventually take over Middle-earth.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Befitting their Wutai origins, they seem to wield kusarigama.
• Too Dumb to Live: Even after being warned by the Ringwraiths they defeated that the Rings of Power would control them, not the other way around, the sisters still took and willingly wore the rings they claimed as trophies of victory.
• Undying Loyalty: To each other, surprisingly enough. In life and in undeath, while backstabbing every authority figure in their way, they never turn against each other. They even share rulership of the fortress at Gorgoroth.
• The Usurper: When their father and emperor demanded the Rings of Power they'd claimed as trophies, they instead chose to kill him and take his throne, ruling and slowly becoming more corrupted by the Rings until Sauron eventually came to claim them for the Nine.
• Wutai: Their realm of origin looks distinctly Asiatic and draws visual cues from Chinese and Japanese cultures.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Like Talion, they are unique in that they obtained their rings by defeating the previous Nazgûl bearers in combat rather than actually being given them by Sauron. That doesn't stop "Annatar" from visiting when they're corrupted enough by the Rings.

Zog the Eternal

Zog the Eternal

Race: Uruk-hai

"The dead aren't dead. They're just waiting for someone who will listen."

Voiced by: Nolan North

A Cursed Mystic Trickster orc and a recurring antagonist in Shadow of War. When the forging of the New Ring awakens the dormant Balrog Tar Goroth beneath Gorgoroth, Zog and his cabal of acolytes emerge to try and harness the Balrog's power, as well as perfect a means to create an army of the undead.

---

• Arc Villain: For the Carnán quests.
• A Villain Named "Z__rg": His name fits the convention.
• Back from the Dead: Using his necromancy, he can resurrect orcs as revenants, including slain captains. In the final chapter of Carnán's questline, his acolytes succeed in bringing him back from the dead as well, and it seems to be a perfect resurrection — he can revive repeatedly even from decapitation, and he's in full possession of his mental faculties (whereas most revenants are groaning, wretched monsters).
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Invokes this in regards to using undead mooks to fight an undead protagonist.
  Zog: You're the inspiration for all of this! What better army to defeat a dead man than a legion of undead orcs?
• Berserk Button: The player pinning him to the ground causes him to become enraged.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Sauron, Shelob and Celebrimbor for Shadow of War.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Zog is overly ambitious for an orc to presume he could enslave a Balrog and overthrow the Dark Lord, an indestructible Maiar. To his credit, Celebrimbor does mention he can pull off the first objective, and he does prove to be a very persistent opponent.
• Came Back Wrong: Mostly averted, surprisingly enough. No matter how many times he dies, he always resurrects with his mental faculties and (irritating) personality intact, rather than becoming a mindless brute like other revenants. However, he's just as Flammable as all revenants^note It's possible for him to be Flammable in life as well, in which case this trope is completely averted.
• The Cat Came Back: After his story missions, he'll cheat death and join the Nemesis roster, and he'll continue to come back over and over, even when decapitated or dismembered. He'll brag that he's a Necromancer and that Talion is too stupid to understand that cheating death is fairly simple for someone like him.
  Zog: Look at you; that teeny mind of yours, struggling to understand what's happening. "B-b-but, I killed him!" NO!! Death was but a minor inconvenience, and always will be. I am your better, Talion. You will never see the end of Zog!
• Catchphrase: "Dimwit!"
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Zog is an orc with several invulnerabilities: he is Unbreakable for one, meaning he can't be weakened, branded or shamed. He can also possibly develop immunities to stunning, ranged attacks, executions or being jumped over. After becoming a revenant, Zog gains Resurrective Immortality that, among other things, allows him to recover from decapitations.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Has a brief Early-Bird Cameo during the mission "The Fall", where he and Talion briefly stare at each other from a distance as he and other uruks ride past on caragors to prepare for assault.
• Continuity Cavalcade: In the final major encounter with him, his acolytes resurrect several orcs that died during the battle for Minas Ithil. This results in each necromancy totem in the area being guarded by various zombified captains, each of which you killed during the first act of the game.
• Early-Bird Cameo: During the final mission of Minas Ithil, Talion will lock eyes on a green-eyed Uruk, who turns out to be Zog later.
• Evil Counterpart: Can be considered one to Talion himself; both of them seek to raise an army against Sauron, but while Tallion does so out of a desire to protect Middle-Earth, Zog is just making a power grab. Talion dominates the living to sway them to his side, while Zog raises the dead to do his bidding. Talion uses the New Ring to dominate Uruks, while Zog uses necromancy to raise the dead. And finally, by the end of his questline, Zog has become as unkillable as Talion and will keep coming back after defeat, no matter how many times he dies.
• Evil Laugh: Lets out two of these during his final quest of his life, once at the end of his monologue when he initially spots Talion and then at the end of his last words.
• Evil Sorcerer: A Mystic Tribe Uruk who is well versed in necromancy.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes glow green when he's doing necromancy.
• Hate Sink: Zog is specifically designed to make players absolutely hate his guts.
• Hijacking Cthulhu: Zog seeks to ensorcel Tar Goroth and use him as a weapon to usurp control of Mordor from Sauron. Carnán and Celebrimbor indicate that he would be able to control Tar Goroth with dark magic, but whether he could use the Balrog to overthrow Sauron is another question.
• Insufferable Genius: Always ready with a quip insulting Talion's intelligence (or the perceived lack thereof). And not just Talion's, if Enemy Chatter is anything to go by.
  Grunt: [Zog] Spends half his time talking about how smart he is, and the other half reminding you how stupid you are.
• Invincible Villain: Downplayed when Zog joins the Nemesis roster after you complete his quest line: you can (re-)kill him like any other captain, but he can keep coming back due to his Resurrective Immortality — even if decaptated or dismembered.
• Necromancer: He can use dark magic to resurrect dead orcs, including himself.
• Night of the Living Mooks: His game plan in a nutshell: raise an army of dead orcs (and a Balrog) to conquer Mordor. The final mission in his quest line occurs in the Always Night city of Minas Morgul and features several undead captains — including Zog himself — alongside the undead grunts.
• One-Steve Limit: His title is unique to him.
  • His name is an interesting case, as it was in the pool of Nemesis names in Shadow of Mordor but removed in Shadow of War. As such, he's the only Zog in War — unless your Nemesis or Ally from the Nemesis Forge happens to bear that name. The Forge's removal in January 2021 causes this trope to be played a little straighter.
• Plot Parallel: Zog trying to dominate Tar Goroth mirrors Celebrimbor trying to dominate Sauron. Both plans fail.
• Resurrective Immortality: After becoming a revenant, Zog can return to life as many times as he wants and can even survive decapitation — normally the one thing that can definitively kill off most orcs.
• Smoke Out: As a Trickster, he's equipped with smoke bombs, which he uses to make his exit from his first two confrontations with Talion.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Heavily downplayed, but Enemy Chatter indicates that Zog's necromancy antics are depriving the vat keepers of corpses that can be recycled in the vats, which they're not too happy about.
• The Starscream: He seeks to use Tar Goroth to overpower Sauron and rule Mordor himself.
• Too Dumb to Live: Subverted. Trying to raise a Balrog for your own ends just reeks of a bad idea, and it's not surprising that Tar Goroth's first action upon emerging from the lava is to wipe out the Mooks who summoned him. However, Zog is clever enough to not be anywhere near the action, and it's hinted that he would be able to gain control of the weakened Balrog using his dark magic.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Talion and Celebrimbor end his quest to raise Tar Goroth as his minion, he loses his composure altogether and just tries to outright kill them.
  Zog the Eternal: I was about to pull life from death, and you ended it! He was to be my masterwork, and you ended it! This is how you die, Gravewalker.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's afraid of fire, stumbling around in a blind panic if he's ignited.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Downplayed. Shadow of War's quest lines offer skill upgrades for completing all of their side quests, and the Carnán quest line's skill upgrade (Dragon Rider) unlocks after you kill Zog — but there's still one more quest to go. Turns out that Zog's acolytes managed to recover his body and cart it to Minas Morgul, and said quest begins with them successfully bringing him Back from the Dead.

Baz, Gaz, and Daz

Baz, Gaz, and Daz

Race: Olog-hai

Baz and Gaz are a pair of Olog-hai who identify themselves as Brûz the Chopper's Blood Brothers. They ambush Talion after he has Shamed Brûz into inconsolable misery, seeking to avenge him. Daz is Brûz's oldest friend, and appears after the Blood Brothers have been dealt with.

---

• All in the Manual: Much of the Back Story of Baz, Gaz and Daz can only be found in the online Appendeces.
• And This Is for...: They'll occasionally spout lines about avenging Brûz's death in combat dialog, whether or not the player actually killed Brûz. Justified, since in their eyes, the Brûz they knew is long gone.
• Avenging the Villain: They only show up after Brûz has been shamed into madness, with the explicit intent of killing Talion to avenge his fall.
• Awesome Aussie: Just like Brûz, all three of these Ologs speak in heavy Australian accents. Daz even throws in some Australian slang here and there.
• Blood Knight: According to the Appendices, "whatever scheme or stratagem Brûz devised, Baz could be found in the middle of it, blood on his hands and a smile on his face."
• Catchphrase: They each say a certain thing when they confront Talion.
  Baz: Coo-ee!
  Gaz: Oi! Gravewalker!
  Daz: Crazy-maker!
• Consummate Professional: Gaz is considered the more serious-minded soldier of the two.
• Dual Boss: Baz and Gaz will show up to introduce themselves and fight you at the same time. Both of them also are Blood Brothers to themselves, which means one of them might show up to help the other.
• Fantastic Racism: Gaz hates Men even more than Brûz.
• Loss of Identity: Deranged Gaz will think he is Brûz, even trying the Australian accent.
• Madness Mantra: If Baz goes deranged he will keep repeating that Brûz is fine.
  Baz (on his last chance ability): I'm just glad it's me, not Brûz. Brûz is fine, that's what matters.
• Red Baron: Baz and Gaz both have the title of "the Ocker", which is Australian slang for aggressive people. Daz has the more intimidating title of "the Ripper".
  • One-Steve Limit: Their titles are unique to them.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Ologs want to destroy Talion for Shaming Brûz into ruin.
• This Is Unforgivable!: The Shaming of Brûz makes them go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  Gaz: War's war; but what you did to Brûz, you took it past all that.
• Undying Loyalty: To Brûz the Chopper, even after he's been reduced to an insane wreck, and after all of his other followers have presumably abandoned him.

Tar Goroth

Tar Goroth

Race: Maiar (Balrogs)

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore

A Balrog that previously laid quiescent, until Celebrimbor's creation of the New Ring imbalanced the world enough to awaken and free him to menace the world again. Oops.

---

• Advertised Extra: Despite being featured heavily in the promotional material, Tar Goroth is not a major antagonist, but merely a secondary villain in the sidequests he is featured: he only appears in two missions and the very start of Carnán's questlines before being disposed of, while Zog is the actual Arc Villain.
• Arch-Enemy: Of Carnán, due to the fact his fire is burning her forest.
• Attack Its Weak Point: In the first fight, he has areas on his lower back and chest that can be damaged by arrows. However, when you catch up to him later, he has covered those places with armor.
• Combat Pragmatist: The first encounter with him ends this way — after taking a pounding from Carnán and Talion, he tricks them into a point where he can ambush them by giving Carnán's Graug form a headbutt and slinking off while she regenerates. In the second, he uses his own flaming trail of footprints as a trap, doubling back when he enters an ice cave and trapping Talion inside when he goes in to follow them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The result of leaving Carnán's Graug form to fight him without Talion's intervention.
• Elemental Weapon: Uses a flaming whip as a weapon. He also swings it around to fling Fireballs.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Zog the Eternal is the one who provides the final push to unseal Tar Goroth, planning to present him to Sauron in expectation of great acclaim for himself. Sadly for him, the Balrog has no interest in his schemes, and wipes out several members of his cult before engaging Talion and Carnán and then taking off to work some havoc of his own.
  Celebrimbor: They are summoning Death. But it will be Death for all.
• Hot Wings: His wings are literally made of flames, and they flicker off whenever Talion shoots him from behind.
• Implacable Man: A fight with Carnán, which also had Talion shooting at his weak point, failed to killed him. In his second encounter with Talion and Carnán, he takes giant icicles getting dropped on his head, gets blasted with intense cold from Carnán, and gets pushed into the water of frozen lake. He's only beaten when Carnán forces him far below the water.
• It Can Think: Tar Goroth is far from a mindless monster, and is quite adept at turning the tables. In their first encounter, Tar Goroth ambushes Talion and Carnán as they try to climb out of his pit, ripping the head off Carnán's Graug form and forcing Talion to concentrate his efforts on staying alive, allowing Tar Goroth to make his getaway. On their second encounter, Tar Goroth leaves a trail of tracks luring Talion and Carnán into a cave, then doubles back, waits until they have taken the bait and then launches his attack, forcing the pair to run for it.
• It's Personal: With Carnán as she buried him back in the Second age. In fact, during his otherwise unintelligible Boss Banter in the first fight, you can hear him say Carnán's name if you listen carefully.
• The Juggernaut: Talion's attacks don't affect him unless they hit his weak point, which Talion can't reach without Carnán's help. When he manages to separate Talion from Carnán, he's an Invincible Villain.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's bigger than a Graug, but despite that he's very, very fast.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: He flees when he senses he can't win.
• Monster in the Ice: After being defeated by Carnen, he's sealed away underneath the icy surface of a frozen lake. One of the surviving Orc acolytes later tries to free him but Celebrimbor and Talion slay him before he can do it, leaving Tar-Goroth to remain frozen forever.
• Our Demons Are Different: As far as can be seen, he's like any other Balrog, apart from the fact that his actual name is known and that he wears a skull-like helm.
• No Indoor Voice: While you can never understand what he's saying, he is always shouting it at the top of his..lungs?
• Playing with Fire: He shoots absurd amounts of fireballs in his second fight and he can ignite wood just by being near it.
• Really 700 Years Old: One of Morgoth's minions, some in-game dialogue hint that he was the very first Balrog.
• Roar Before Beating: He does this frequently. He actually does this literally when he roars at Carnán, then starts repeatedly punching her in the face after charging at her.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Previously slumbered deep beneath the earth, but Talion and Celebrimbor unknowingly awoke him. He gets trapped once again after being defeated by Talion and Carnán, this time in a lake of ice.
• Time Abyss: As a Balrog, he would have served Morgoth many thousands of years ago, and technically is older than the universe.
• The Unintelligible: Tar Goroth speaks some form of twisted and guttural Black Speech that appears in subtitles, but goes untranslated (unlike Ranger's lines). Talion actually asks what he is saying, but Celebrimbor replies, "Does it matter?"
• Worf Had the Flu: Celebrimbor thinks that Zog can enthrall him after being frozen in the lake by Carnán. Before, Celebrimbor said that waking him up would cause death to all, and Tar Goroth kills Zog's acolytes the moment he wakes up.

Fallen Blades Captains

Fallen Blades Captains

Race: Orcs (Uruk-hai, Olog-hai)

The captains whom Eltariel encounters over the course of the Fallen Blades legendary gear Side Quest in the Blade of Galadriel DLC. These guys are static characters instead of the randomized orcs Talion meets, although they may have different names depending on the playthrough. Each captain holds a single piece of legendary gear looted from a fallen former Blade of Galadriel, and Eltariel must defeat each of them to retrieve the equipment and avenge her predecessors.

---

• Canon Immigrant: In a sense. Their titles were originally unique to the Blade of Galadriel DLC, but the July 2018 update added them to the pool of possible Nemesis titles in the main game. Interestingly, their appearances (see Theme Naming below) appear to be tied to their titles; for instance, all orcs with the title of the Chill are Savages in the Marauder tribe who sport horned helmets with white skull masks, pauldrons on their left shoulders, white hand body paint, and piercings on their right arms like the Unashamed.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Three of the Fallen Blades captains in Cirith Ungol run a mining operation that Ar-Baruk the Thrall wants Eltariel to disrupt, and they make it that much harder to recruit him — unless Eltariel dispatches them individually beforehand. Different dialogue plays during Ar-Baruk's recruitment quest depending on whether Eltariel kills one, two, or all three of them before encountering him.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The point of the Fallen Blades Side Quest is to defeat every one of them and retrieve their equipment. It's enforced by the fact that Ratak the Lawless, the Final Boss of the Final Blades side quest, is inaccessible until they're all dead.
• Interesting Situation Duel: Some of the Feral tribe captains in Gorgoroth bring unusual allies to their confrontation:
  • Scar-Hide brings no fewer than six Olog lackeys, all of whom are stronger and tougher than usual thanks to his Mighty Ologs Epic Trait. In terms of captains' Olog gangs, this is equivalent to three gangs of Ologs.
  • Earth-Scorcher is a big Olog, but even he's dwarfed by the fire graug who accompanies him. Not only is this the only instance in the game where an elemental graug is allied with the orcs, but Earth-Scorcher is a Tracker, and Epic Graug Call is a Beastmaster Epic Trait (although this means that he's thankfully incapable of summoning additional graugs after you kill the fire graug). Oh, and he's Enraged by Light, too.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: It's entirely possible to mount the fire graug that accompanies Earth-Scorcher to his Boss Battle and use it to stomp him flat. Yes, even on Gravewalker difficulty.
• Literal Metaphor: Invoked by Jungle-Rot before his Boss Battle:
  Jungle-Rot: Núrn. "Bread basket of Mordor," they always say. Well, I hate bread, and I hate baskets, almost as much as I hate Elves!
• One-Steve Limit: As mentioned under Canon Immigrant above, their titles used to be unique to them — but they're not anymore, although the captains in the main game who bear their titles also look and behave like them.
• Set Bonus: The unique legendary Fallen Blades gear that they hold features two- and four-piece set bonuses like their main game counterparts. (This is the only legendary gear in the Blade of Galadriel DLC; Eltariel can encounter legendary orcs, but they do not drop legendary gear when killed.) Additionally, defeating all of the captains in a given region unlocks a piece of the Light Bringer legendary gear set — with its own set bonuses, naturally — on top of the other gear that Eltariel accumulates.
• That One Boss: As Eltariel's light is the orcs' Kryptonite Factor, and as many of her special abilities involve light, any orc who's Immune to Light and/or Enraged by Light can become this. However, special mention goes to the Snowflake, who's immune to pretty much everything except fire — and, as a Defender Slayer, his shield means that you can't set him on fire from the front and he eventually adapts to finishing moves and attempts to vault over him. You also encounter him in a tunnel system, making it extremely difficult to flank him. invoked
• Theme Naming: Their titles, tribal affiliations, and appearances are all uniform depending on their native region; for instance, all of the Fallen Blades captains in Cirith Ungol belong to the Machine tribe, wear yellow war paint, and sport anti-Shelob/anti-spider titles like Web-Breaker, the Deep Delver, and the Wasp. Ironically, their names are pretty much the only thing about them that aren't themed.

Ratak the Lawless

Ratak the Lawless

Race: Uruk-hai

Voiced by:

The Final Boss of the Fallen Blades legendary gear Side Quest in the Blade of Galadriel DLC, aligned to no tribe.

---

• Always Chaotic Evil: He believes that orcs should be this, and that tribes and other organizational structures are imposed by the higher-ups as a deliberate tactic to weaken them and keep them in line.
• Anticlimax Boss: Due to his Weaksauce Weakness, he's one of the easiest Fallen Blades captains to defeat. Definitely not what you'd expect of a Final Boss, especially since other captains in the Side Quest can be extremely difficult to put down.
• Battle Trophy: Discussed. He explicitly refers to the Fallen Blades legendary gear as trophies, and it's presumably why he keeps a few pieces for himself.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Downplayed in that he doesn't seem to hold any aspirations to leadership, but he does hype himself up as a superior orc due to his rejection of tribal affiliation, and he's the Final Boss of the Fallen Blades Side Quest — and he's actually easier to defeat than many of the Captains whom Eltariel has to finish off to get to him.
• Dual Wielding: As a Savage, he's armed with two giant cursed axes.
• Final Boss: Of the Fallen Blades legendary gear Side Quest. He's inaccessible until you kill all of the other Fallen Blades captains and collect the other legendary gear pieces.
• Hero Killer: Claims to have killed other Blades of Galadriel. It comes off as something of an Informed Ability given his extremely poor showing against Eltariel, unless Galadriel didn't equip previous Blades with the Light of Galadriel.
• I Work Alone: Only in the sense that he's the first Orc in the game to belong to no tribe at all. Otherwise, it's completely averted, as he doesn't seem to have any issues working with Mooks.
• National Weapon: Averted. As a Tribeless orc, he's the only Nemesis Uruk in the game to not possess a tribal weapon. So... good going with that Lawless shtick, Ratak.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Is not Immune to Light or Enraged by Light. Downplayed in that he's not particularly vulnerable to Light either, and Immune to Light and Enraged by Light are relatively rare traits; however, the lack of those strengths means that he's almost completely helpless against Eltariel, even accounting for all of the Mooks that accompany him to their confrontation.

Takra the Sandspider

Takra the Sandspider

Race: Uruk-hai

Voiced by: Nolan North^note Uncredited; Takra uses the Professional 1 voice type in-game, which is voiced by Nolan

The main antagonist of the Desolation of Mordor DLC, Takra the Sandspider rules Lithlad from the fortress of Shindrâm and has hired the Vanishing Sons Mercenary Company to guard his treasure caravans against bandit raids.

---

• An Arm and a Leg: Baranor detonates a barrel of grog next to him, and it blows his left hand off. Unfortunately, that's not his weapon hand.
• Anticlimax Boss: Despite being the Final Boss. He's a Warrior^note Read: no gimmicks like Dual Wielding, shields, or long-range weaponry with no weapon element and no bodyguards^note Ironically, the capability for overlords to acquire bodyguards was added to Shadow of War with the update that accompanied the Desolation of Mordor DLC, and with Fear of Executions to boot. As he's going up against a fully upgraded Baranor, Serka, and up to three merc bodyguards, the entire confrontation appears to be set up to be as much of a Curb-Stomp Battle in the protagonists' favor as possible. It's arguably justified on a meta level since the Desolation of Mordor DLC is about the journey rather than the destination, and Baranor has had to cut through no fewer than fifteen outpost commanders and six warchiefs^note All of whom most likely have bodyguards without ever dying to get to the throne room, so Takra's design is probably an Anti-Frustration Feature to reduce the likelihood of players losing right at the end of the campaign.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Baranor enters Takra's throne room, he snarls that he'll tear off all of Baranor's limbs as payback for Baranor blowing his arm off earlier. Serka promptly lampshades it.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He speaks to/yells at his Mooks during Baranor and Serka's infiltration of Shindrâm, allowing them to search the fortress with only minimal resistance. It's downplayed at the end of their mission, when Baranor blows his arm off.
• Final Boss: As soon as he is dead, the DLC finishes and calculates your score.
• Foil: To Akoth Slayer of the Dead. Both are DLC orcs from the Marauder tribe who are overlords of their respective regions, killed their own blood brothers, and changed their titles based on those killings in their backstories. However, Akoth arguably granted his blood brother a Mercy Kill (he had previously been killed and reanimated by a necromancer) and embarked on his war against the undead that gained him his new title, while Takra arranged for his blood brother's murder due to resentment that he was gambling away their fortune and then claimed his title as a trophy; Akoth underwent Heel–Face Brainwashing at Talion's hands, successfully defended his fortress, and (so far as we know) survives the Blade of Galadriel DLC, while Takra stayed loyal to Sauron and ultimately dies while defending his fortress. Notably, Akoth is the first notable orc encountered during Blade of Galadriel while Takra is the Final Boss of Desolation of Mordor, and Akoth's region of Cirith Ungol is closest to Talion's stronghold of Minas Morgul while Takra's region of Lithlad is farthest.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Gathers almost all of Shindrâm's orcs in its inner courtyard to hear him deliver a long-winded series of drunken ramblings, allowing Baranor and Serka to discreetly scour the fortress and scrounge up intel on its defending warchiefs with only a few stragglers to deal with.
• One-Steve Limit: His title is unique to him.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Delivers a really long speech to his Mooks in Shindrâm's inner courtyar. Some of it is relevant to their current situation, but a lot of it is drunken nonsense. Enemy Chatter indicates that this is a common occurrence.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He hired the Vanishing Sons to guard his treasure caravans, although neither side (including Takra himself) particularly likes the arrangement.
• Weaksauce Weakness: He's afraid of Executions, probably so his fight wouldn't be too difficult to avoid player frustration.

Zhója

Zhója

Race: Men (formerly Rhûn)

Voiced by: Adam Croasdell

A member of the Vanishing Sons Mercenary Company who successfully overthrows Serka the Unkillable.

---

• All There in the Manual: Pretty much all of Zhója's backstory is only found in his entry in the Appendices.
• Consummate Liar: Although you'd never know it unless you read his article in the Appendices. During Zhója's Motive Rant, he claims to have seen Serka as "a brother" only for Baranor to have upset the happy relationship, but the Appendices article reveals that Zhója had always hated Serka and was waiting for an opportunity to overthrow him.
• Cutscene Boss: He only shows up in cutscenes, never in the actual game.
• Defector from Decadence: Completely averted. Zhója was a former archer in the Easterling military, but he was caught selling weapons acquired from the fortress of Dorwinion Rhún and sentenced to a very well-deserved execution.
• Establishing Character Moment: When Baranor returns to the Vanishing Sons' great hall at the Oasis, Serka's chair is first obscured by shadow, before revealing a mercenary who is decidedly not Serka slouching in it. Baranor is thus clued in immediately that something happened to Serka, and this guy almost certainly had something to do with it. The mysterious man then greets Baranor with a polite "Welcome, sir," displaying his Faux Affably Evil nature.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite overthrowing Serka and handing him over to the orcs, Zhója doesn't seem to be overly enthusiastic about working with them either, if his comment about "that stinking overlord" is anything to go by.
• Faux Affably Evil: He greets Baranor with a certain cold politeness, even though Baranor (and the player) has been tensing up ever since noticing him sitting in Serka's chair. (After all, despite anybody's personal feelings, Baranor is a paying customer of the Vanishing Sons.) Even after going on his Motive Rant and essentially blaming Baranor for upsetting the Vanishing Sons' status quo, Zhója still informs him of Serka's whereabouts and refers to Baranor as "my friend" (although that seems to be more of a taunt).
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Zhója is a Cutscene Boss who is never fought directly (since he only appears in said cutscenes), has maybe thirty seconds screen time tops, and is only relevant to a single quest (although he gets a throwaway mention in the next quest) — but he still gets his own article in the Appendices... in the Main Characters section.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Although it's not known how much of the Vanishing Sons' (and Serka's) mistreatment of Zhója was undeserved.
• Monster of the Week: By the end of the quest that introduces him, he's dragged off to be executed. He only shows up in said quest's intro and outro cutscenes, and slightly downplayed as Serka mentions him in a throwaway comment during the next quest.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While Zhója first makes Baranor endure a Motive Rant, he then tells him that Serka has been taken to the Circus. Presumably, he hopes that Baranor will attempt to rescue his brother and get killed as well; unfortunately for him, Baranor manages to survive and rescue Serka, who promptly reasserts his authority over the Vanishing Sons and orders Zhója's execution.
• Oh, Crap!: When Serka — whom Zhója had overthrown and sent to be killed by the orcs — unexpectedly returns, Zhója knows that his life expectancy has decreased dramatically.
• Only One Name: Unlike Serka or any of the Vanishing Sons mercenaries, Zhója does not seem to have a title.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Can only blubber this when a Not Quite Dead Serka returns and orders his execution.
• The Resenter: Zhója came to hate his place in the Vanishing Sons soon after joining, leading directly to his Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal mentioned above.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Serka returns alive and fires a crossbow bolt into his shoulder, then orders the Vanishing Sons to throw him to the were-wyrms, Zhója is last heard helplessly screaming that the Overlord will kill them all.
• You Sound Familiar: He's voiced by Adam Croasdell, who also voices Torvin, and it's pretty much impossible to not hear an accented Torvin every time he opens his mouth.

Ûshak the Ringmaster

Ûshak the Ringmaster

Race: Uruk-hai

Voiced by:

The Repulsive Ringmaster of the Circus, Lithlad's local fight pit.

---

• All There in the Manual: Par for the course, all of Ûshak's backstory is only found in the Appendices. He actually doesn't have his own Appendix entry.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Downplayed, but as his title suggests, Ûshak is in charge of the Circus, and he's by far the most serious threat to Baranor and Serka during their escape attempt.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He manages to be both this and Final Boss of the quest that features him, as he pulls a Smoke Out relatively quickly upon getting overwhelmed, leaves Baranor and Serka to their own devices for a while, and reappears at the head of a sizeable army (including several decoys) for a final showdown.
• Dual Wielding: As a Savage, he wields two axes.
• Establishing Character Moment: He somersaults into position, gets his axes thrown to him from offscreen, and lets loose with a hamtastic and almost friendly greeting, establishing him as a playful yet brutal individual.
• The Exile: His backstory reveals that he was exiled from Shindrâm at some point. He doesn't seem to mind.
• For the Evulz: In his backstory, back when he was Ûshak Flame Suitor, he released a drake within Shindrâm "to see what would happen." Aside from killing a dozen orcs, it also got him banished from the fortress.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite being arguably more important to the plot than Zhója (he's certainly more of a direct threat, at any rate), Ûshak doesn't even get his own entry in the Appendices; all of his backstory can be found in the Circus entry... in the Locations category.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He keeps several caragors and graugs caged up in and around the Circus, which Baranor and Serka free during their escape. Downplayed in that he's not directly affected by the mayhem, although it certainly helps the heroes.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: As a Trickster, he employs several Decoys, all of whom accompany him to his final confrontation with Baranor and Serka.
  Ûshak the Ringmaster(?) 1: Many come to join our Circus...
  Ûshak the Ringmaster(?) 2: ...but none last long...
  Ûshak the Ringmaster(?) 3: Death by blade...
  Ûshak the Ringmaster(?) 4: ...or fang...
  Ûshak the Ringmaster(?) 5: ...or bomb!
  Ûshak the Ringmaster(?) 6: We all bleed together!
• Large Ham: When Serka (a Large Ham himself) compliments your showmanship, you know you're this.
• One-Steve Limit: His title is unique to him. His former title, Flame Suitor, is also unique to him.
• Meaningful Rename: In his backstory, he was originally named Ûshak Flame Suitor, but after his exile from Shindrâm and subsequent creation of the Circus, he adopted the title of Ringmaster.
• Monster of the Week: He's taken down in the same quest that introduces him.
• Smoke Out: As a Trickster, he's equipped with smoke bombs, and he makes good use of one when Baranor and Serka start getting the better of him.
• Start My Own: A variation. According to the Circus's Appendices entry, the Lithlad fight pit was abandoned by the local orcs in favor of another fight pit within Shindrâm, but after Ûshak was banished from the fortress, he took up residence in the disused fight pit and turned it into the Circus.