Just because Shadow of Mordor is full of bleakness, darkness, and unrelenting violence doesn't mean it doesn't have its moments of warmth.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The opening tutorials:
- Combat: a flashback teaching Dirhael, Talion's son, how to spar, complete with good-natured ribbing.
- Stealth: sneaking up on Ioreth, Talion's wife, to give her flowers and a kiss.
- Not long after, the loading screen has a voiceover revealing that Talion had killed a nobleman in Ioreth's defense, a crime her father is duty-bound to report. She goes into exile (and tries to assume blame for the crime) in order to stay with Talion.
- On top of this was that her father had initially been offered the post assumed by Talion - it was only through his pulling strings for his daughter's sake that Talion wasn't simply executed.
- Saving slaves from the orcs. As you build up reputation with the Outcasts, the slaves will start coming to your defense and even whispering of how you'll save them all. The best part is you CAN actually save them all, over the course of almost 30 missions.
- The culmination is that the slaves start attacking Uruks back.
- The reunion of Hirgon and Eryn, even despite Talion looking sad in the background. You can clearly see that the two are Happily Married. Additionally, the fact that the Wraith tries to comfort Talion in his own way.
- The artifacts "Basket Fragment", "Musty Tome" and "Ranger's Reading Primer" detail how the two came together. Hirgon turned a blind eye to Eryn when he was a Ranger, later deserting because "duty clouds kindness in these parts." He met her again while trying to make sense of an old almanac, and later taught her to read. During one lesson, he slipped in a note asking her to marry him. She accepted.
- This exchange:Hirgon: When I was first rescued by the Outcasts, they told me you led the search party for my head.
Talion: I volunteered. Were you caught our fellow Rangers would've killed you. I could not let you suffer that fate.
- Some of the orcs can come across as less monstrous and are considerably more considerate than others.
- The Coward hates violence, although this may be more of a case of him being a DirtyCoward he does actually apologize after killing you.
- The orcs in the Beast Hunt DLC are considerably less horrible. The Ghul Lover kills his pets when they become possessed, not out of pragmatism, but because he would rather they be dead than in your thrall. Similarly the Graug Catcher's pet Graug Stompy, which he rides into battle is his beloved pet. He calls it his best friend and swears vengeance when he is killed.
- More intelligent orcs don't like the fact they have to kill you, and would've preferred to have studied you. They're only killing you out of obligation and actively resent war.
- Orcs level up if they kill another captain, caragor, or some other enemy of significant danger. This applies to branded orcs. Meaning that if you weaken something to the point it can be easily killed, you can have your branded grunt finish them off to power up. Typically orcs deliberately empowered like this take on a title like Frog-Blood. Afterwards you can help them through missions, and fights and eventually raise them to be a powerful warchief guiding their rise to power like a Fairy God mother.
