"Far, far below the deepest delvings 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 White
I salute you all, kind attendees of the Edain community! After having hinted at the general topic in other miscellaneous threads, now comes the time to put flesh on the bones of what I imagine might interest some, here. Coincidences not seldom bring about favourable chances for rethinking or reshaping extant concepts; on such note, I have recently had the pleasure to read Gandalf's exact words on his eventful duel against Durin's Bane, and it immediately clicked in mind that we could draw from pure canon another conceptual pearl to work on, as we ever strive to perfect details in the best of the ways and fill in any 'lore gap' that one may encounter along the path.
The Misty Mountains faction has long been suffering, as it was initially envisioned during previous Edain eras, from unfocused features, great dispersion of canonical potential, and outright fictional content, serving the latter as patch or filler in the face of scarcity of means and sources. Therefore, however necessary it may have been earlier, future plans revolving around Goblins will reasonably comprise much more consistent concepts (feeding majorly from official founts). This we have been trying to attain so far, by the own reordering of both spells and heroes (in the main), which no other suggestions might exemplify better than those centred on Smaug and the Balrog. Another wave of clever reshuffling consists, I suppose, of all the mechanics tied to the third principal folk that the very faction is made of: hunting Orcs, of the like led by the Defiler (as we know him in Edain) in the Hobbit trilogy.
It should naturally follow that further polishing proposals would function and exist in a similar rationalising spirit. So, getting to the kernel of the topic, today I present you my personal suggestions on an ulterior piece belonging to the greater mosaic.
NAMELESS THINGS
Lore:
The starting quotation makes undoubtedly for a considerably obscure passage to examine. Nevertheless, I believe it does give us enough to speculate about within the frontier of the canons, albeit dealing with strangeness and sheer mystery, and said cryptic insights may actually work in our favour; the less we are told, the fewer unimportant facts or less nitpicking we are going to be bound to. Let us turn it to our good.
Book- and lore-wise,
Nameless Things are described by Gandalf the White as ancestral creatures which abide in the deepest recesses of Arda and gnaw at its lowest rocky layers, ending up with boring vast and long caverns/tunnels into the abyss. According to the wizard's limited knowledge on the matter, such uncanny breed of monsters do everything they do in the full ignorance of the upper world, unbeknownst even to the Dark Lord himself, who certainly fears no rival in terms of unveiling tenebrous secrets and discovering foul beasts to enslave for his purpose.
What has eerily unsettled me, is how Gandalf almost recoils and hesitates before the prospect of telling all of what occurred beneath Moria, as though terrified by his firsthand experience (concluding that bringing more reports of it would 'darken the light of day').
Speculations:
1. We can infer that, given the extraordinary alien context at issue, neither the Valar nor their archenemy were aware of non-affiliated monstrosities dwelling in nether-places, which also implies that Nameless Things themselves may have come to be as an aberrant by-product of the First Music (once harmonious melodies had been blemished through discord and malcontent). That is, we are with near certainty speaking about old, immensely old entities, that have supposedly been mining the pits of the earth for thousands of forgotten years. Older than the very Angels, which places them on the newly-crafted world prior to the arrival of the Ainur. Possibly, the eldest bit of lore that we could expect from Tolkien's mythology.
2. Despite their absolute neutrality and them being untouched by outer evil, it is quite consequential to assume that Nameless Things are nonetheless one of the most lethal kinds of abominations which one might ever incur. Without much digressing, they embody ancient, reckless, wild, and feral horror as never others might do in their stead, driven by primordial instincts and by nothing pertaining to a thinking, conscious intellect. If we were to compare that idea of irrational violence to Sauron's cunning and complex machinations, it should strike us quick how so apparent and colossal a dissimilarity exists between the two types of 'danger'. It is, indeed, their very primeval ferocity that renders them a bit of a norm-defying outsider, and a mind-challenging section of Middle-earth's tales which is all the more worth shedding light upon, especially if put beside the more common definition of treacherous malice, widely spread throughout the ages of Eä.
3. Thirdly, just to elaborate more on the previous point, being inherently indomitable and of 'prehistoric' nature, is supposedly translated into very simple forms of life, the adjective signifying raw, basic, and rudimentary beasts. I shall go through this in plainer fashion, later in the presentation. Now, suffice it to say that Nameless Things might be widely deemed less complex than some of the Enemy's infamously-renowned servants, such as winged Dragons, Vampires, or Werewolves. Whenever I look at the latter typology of creatures, I cannot help picturing in my mind the fact that a superior will has first shaped them in an unusual guise and imbued its making with a certain reason to be, whether it be wings to fly huge distances and defy air resistance, fire-breathing capabilities, dreadful claws to rip preys apart, and so on. In other words, the more structured a 'product', the likelier said creation had been given life by the work of magic (pervasive, long-lasting magic), with magic abiding by every rule and custom that Tolkien prescribed.
On the contrary, the less characterised/quixotic they are, the more plausible that no deity or high power has presided over their coming into being. An example to cite would be worms; semi-shapeless, uncharacterised worms, which surely represent life in its former, initial stages.
Ergo:
Nameless Things were neither brought to existence by divine powers (other than the One himself), nor do they exist to carry out specific functions. They are known by none, save Gandalf, and they obey nobody. That is the founding premise behind their concept. Stressing their essential spirit will be relevant to the well-conceptualising of this proposal.
In the game:
I beg your pardon for the lengthy disquisitions on lore, but I wanted to get those points across as best as I could. Moving aside from it, it is good time we spoke of in-game mechanics.
First and foremost, I think it is by now clear which existing BFME concept I am aiming at: the ground-devouring Wyrm.
That subterranean horror falls magnificently in the aforesaid categories, being itself an excavating beast that inhabits the underworld and happens to come in the appearance of a gargantuan worm, qualifying outlandishly for primordial early-age creature. Furthermore, let us not the following consideration slip off our mind: relying on older material would spare us toil, troubles, and strife connected to the devising of new models/graphics/animations. Why should we trouble ourselves with a quest of little use, when the solution lies directly before our very eyes?
The own spell, which is to occupy either the third or final tier, will permit players to summon three or four Nameless Things from the abysses of the world. They will be much sturdier and resilient than how the feature used to be in the vanilla, and their emerging on the surface will be accompanied by a series of quakes and the temporary darkening of heavens, causing units in their vicinity to plunge into despair, and casting a sense of desolation in the other surrounding enemies (whose effects I would like to discuss with the community). In addition, I think it wiser to retain their fire-breathing attacks, unless other alternatives are shown to be feasible, otherwise there would most likely be deficiencies related to offensive capacity and overall impact.
Needless to say, this is to be a double-edged weapon: Nameless Things will not make any difference from friends or foes, due to their untamed and deadly temper, if 'temper' we may say. Players, be ye warned!
Here is my comprehensive suggestion, despite being still a bit sketched, especially for anything that concerns gameplay. Notwithstanding flaws to get right, I hope we shall debate together and allow the thread to join the family of all honourable concepts which have, in the end, found their proper place in the modification. In case we conceived other possible skills to endow Nameless Things with, I would cherish that wholeheartedly.
What say you?