Raffyyy said:

This is a really interesting topic actually, and I'm glad you bought it up!


Personally, I believe that there would have been a network of tunnels, like you say, however I don't think they would have been as extensive as you're suggesting

I did some research into this, and here's what I came up with.



First of all, it's paramount that the difference between Goblins and Orcs is mitigated. There was little if any difference between the 2 creatures, as summed up in a reply by u/Berrytrunk to this reddit post.




For the sake of this post, I'll address the creatures as Goblins. Anywhere such as in quotes that describes Orcs should be viewed the same as a description of Goblins.


That aside, we first need to look at Goblins themselves. They would in my opinion not have been able to produce great tunnels that could survive thousands of years. The tunnels themselves would’ve been rudimentary, as Goblins were not the capable miners that Dwarves were, as seen in this Letter from Tolkien, that describes Orcs (Goblins) explicitly



In particular the adjectives "degraded and repulsive" suggests that they were incapable of carrying out large tasks, due to their physical stature and lack of ability.


Secondly, we need to remember that Moria wasn’t deserted yesterday. At the time the server is set, it had been ruined for thousands of years. Even the most mighty and well built halls in Moria would’ve been ruined to a moderate - large extent. A lot of Moria was inaccessible by the time the fellowship passed through it. It’s worth remembering as well that the Dwarves were “the creation of Aulë”. Obviously Moria was very grande, big and designed to house an entire race of people, and as a result, structural integrity was key. The halls of Moria were designed to be strong, however by the time the Fellowship passed through, as stated before, was ruined, and halls and passageways would’ve collapsed. If these corridors had collapsed, then it clearly suggests the tunnels created by the physically inferior Goblins would also have done. These tunnels being made by the dwarves would also be unlikely, as they were in the lower, less inhabited depths of Moria, and also, the dwarves would have no need to create nor interest in creating, tunnels to Goblin Town.


Finally, we need to have a look at Geography. If you have a look at a mileage graph from both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, you can work out distances. In The Hobbit, Thorin’s company travelled 102 miles after resting in Rivendell to the point of losing Bilbo in Goblin Town. The Fellowship travelled 376 miles from Rivendell to the point where the Chamber of Mazarbul is found. Assuming that the routes were both precisely straight from RIvendell (which of course they weren’t), we can conclude, using basic Pythagoras, that Moria and Goblin town were 361.9 miles away from each other. This is a hell of a long way. Of course, this is marked from the said locations above, and in reality would’ve been shorter, but not by much. The Goblins would not have the incentive to build a tunnel as long as that, unless they explicitly knew that something of note was there. Of course Moria was, but I doubt they knew an exact figure on how long they had to keep digging for. Even though Goblins appear as wondering creatures, the fact that they are somewhat absent from even nearby locations like Gollum’s Cave, suggests that they didn’t have the desire to massively expand out of their settlement at the time. As well, the dwarves would not have had the desire to increasingly span northwards. As described by Gandalf in the Fellowship of the Ring,



The heart of Moria was under Caradhras, still quite far away from Goblin Town, and we get the sense from the above quote that the dwarves much preferred to dig downwards, rather than across.


All in all, it would be foolish to completely rule out Goblin Tunnels, as by the late Third Age, it’d be a very reasonable assumption that there would be a network of Goblin Tunnels, maybe even a small settlement, just a large complex of passages that would span under the entire length of the Misty Mountains would be illogical.
I know this has been a rather long post, but with Moria being such a hot topic, as well as important project, background context and knowledge is vital.

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NicTheFifth said:

I think it will be possible, however this is so far in the future that it has little use making a decision already.

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