I reckon it has been a very wide-ranging discussion, and the fact of it being related to future content, pleases me even more. I can really sense the great anticipation that the Goblins always instil in people. Good thing, I say!
Anyhow, I tried to follow the salient sections of this thread of ours and read into anyone's objectives or motives, although I confess that some parts I have perhaps missed completely. Nonetheless, I am reading
The Lord of the Rings, at the moment, and have recently had the pleasure to go through the tense pages of the Fellowship's misadventures in Moria. Starting from such a premise, I would really like to give the debate a definite input, and then make it turn towards an even more unique direction, if you permit me.
1. First comes a very general question of mine: why do we need the Balrog to assume the role of neutral, faithless, and unbound enemy? Why do we have to turn him into, for lack of better descriptions, a 'game hazard'?
That is exactly what I feel like questioning, being it one of the major pillars which sustain several previous proposals and arguments.
While exploring the books deeper and deeper, the only official source, I never got the slight impression that Durin's Bane was so loose and untameable a threat for all the parties involved (Orcs and heroes). Actually, to my utter surprise, the fiery demon we all came to dread, seems to take a defined leading role among the lesser creatures he finds himself surrounded by. Not only is his arrival in the chamber cheered for by Goblins (he makes his appearance earlier, in the books), but the same swarm of foes are subsequently seen jeering and shouting against Gandalf, during the famous duel atop the bridge. Last, but not least, the Balrog is incontrovertibly evil, whether he be in league with other usurpers or not. As far as I grasped from my read, even if not directly affiliated, a sort of tacit consent or agreement between Orcs and Morgoth's blazing servant is quite tangible to be noticed (packs of Goblins chase the Fellowship even unto the western boundaries of Lothlórien).
Given the apparent status of the said demon as a force for evil, it would be pretty naïve to waste his potential. In other words, it is my opinion that taking the Balrog away from the player will not do any good; we have played with him for ages, making full use of his impeccable set of devastating abilities. He was never meant to be a side-feature of the game, nor an ornamental embellishment.
The Misty Mountains faction is supposed to include every peril, beast, Orc, and monster crawling either on or under those peaks. The Balrog does belong to the context in which he happens to be a part of.
2. Concerning the constructive aspect of my general consideration, there might be another path we could choose to proceed on. A more insidious route, yet indubitably much more creative.
The Balrog ought to stay as the playable calamity we have come to know throughout the eventful years of the BFME series. Be it a final spell or not, there is an ulterior candidate that would make for a dreadful, non-aligned concept...
"Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day."
Gandalf the WhiteThe
Nameless Things are one of the darkest riddles of Middle-earth. They are briefly mentioned by Gandalf in his recounting of the battle against Durin's Bane, from the utmost low to the highest top of the mounts, and they are not addressed anymore thereafter. The two Maiar fell in the immense chasm of Moria, down to the deepest recesses of Arda itself, which had not been mined by Dwarf, Orc, or wicked entities of any sort. There, the wizard told the Three Hunters that gigantic tunnels had previously been excavated by some 'Nameless Things', which Sauron himself has no knowledge of. Primordial creatures, as old as the very world, inhabiting the abyss even prior to the coming of the Ainur, whose ignorance of their existence indicates that, as the text infers, this mysterious kind could represent an imperfect by-product of the Music, which no Angel was directly involved in and which most likely stemmed from the original discord in the melody.
Gandalf appears quite loth to go into plainer details; almost terrified, since, in his words, reporting more of those secrets would 'darken the light of day'...
If we are to piece everything together, I would say that we are dealing with primeval horrors. A ruined, marred, and antique monstrosity, albeit taking neither side in the conflict between light and dark, which makes them a good deal more interesting. Neither benevolent nor malevolent by nature, despite being one of the most lethal species one could find in the lore. An unwelcome experiment that Eru only knows about, perchance?
If you see a possible scope for proposing another ultimate or tier-3 spell, I would be more than glad to craft a concept fashioned on such obscure fragments. As you may know, referring to the vanilla vision of Goblins themselves, there are still a few gaps of missing canonical material that we might fill in with official book-lore.
Speaking about animations and models, do not we already have an abominable earth-gnawing worm at hand? Like many times before, we had better use extant content in the best of the ways. There is a chance to come up with something extremely innovative. Needless to be reminded, we would not be compelled to lose control of the Balrog, in such a scenario.
What say you?