They live only to feed, fight and breed and like the roach, they're remarkably successful at all three and almost impossible to wipe out. The way Tolkien describes them, they may be intelligent, but their character, morals and society more resemble cockroaches. The Orcs of Middle-earth are a special breed, however. Orcs, naturally, are one of the most recognizable bits of Tolkien lore that so suffuse modern fantasy that many may not even realize that it was Tolkien who gave these creatures their modern interpretation. "The Hobbit," Over Hill and Under HillĪh, the classics. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. Goblins and Orcs Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. The worst tragedy that can befall one, however, is not death, but to be corrupted by Angmar, lured by the promise of a new purpose into the service of the Witch-King. They live a solitary life separated from their masters, bereft of purpose and wait to fade away. When the Ents they used to assist retreated from Eriador into Fangorn, the bog-lurkers remained. In many ways, the bog-lurkers are the saddest of Middle-earth's fantastic creatures. To the casual observer, the body of the bog-lurker is seemingly made of root and bramble, its back is alive with marsh-plants and its limbs seem formed of bark and wood. There the bog-lurker lives a concealed existence in the darkened wilds, ordinarily bothering no one. The Bog-lurkers natural habitat is the forested wetlands of western Middle-earth. Unfortunately, the speaking races don't always return the favor and with Angmar rising again in the north, its dark influence has begun to seep into the wetlands of Eriador, corrupting even the bog-lurkers. In the current days of Middle-earth, there are few bog-lurkers left, and they try to stay out of the affairs of the speaking races. Apparently what Ents were to the forest, the bog-lurkers were to the marshes: the living shepherds of reeds and rushes and the deeply rooted standing trees like the banyan. The bog-lurkers were designed to be visually reminiscent of the Ents and other living plants. Bog Lurkers The Bog-lurkers are the quintessential example of those creatures that represent the "natural" magic of Middle-earth. The team then worked these descriptions into a bestiary where the operative design principle was that everything in the game would either be a natural force given form, a natural force corrupted by darkness, or a wholly unnatural ethereal presence (such as the wraiths) created by conscious acts of evil. When it came time to develop monsters and antagonists for The Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine scoured Tolkien lore and pulled out every reference to the creatures of the world, no matter how obscure. Those who abuse the power of nature, (such as the forces of Sauron) twist and corrupt its power, creating monstrously twisted versions of natural phenomena. Those who work in harmony with nature can use its powers to enhance its effects toward a directed end. Instead magic in Tolkien's world is the power of nature, and nature itself, in the form of Ents like Treebeard of the cruel malevolence of the mountain Caradhras, can actually take a direct hand in events. Tolkien's world is suffused with magic, but it's a magic far different than the flashy pyrotechnic wonders that constitute "magic" in derivative fantasy works. Tolkien, the more one comes to realize that despite superficial similarities, Middle-earth is not Earth. The more one delves into the incredible trove of lore and mythology created for Middle-earth by J.R.R.
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