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Mordor Terrain

Hey Tryran,

The terrain along the path of Frodo and Sam is described in the book with a lot of details. I would really love to see these details at MCME. Not sure which of these things you can do with your mashine and which need to be done by hand later (Can I already claim that area? ):
  • At the entrance of Morgul Valley there is a prominent shoulder of the mountains. The road from Osgiliath to Minas Ithil turns around this. Frodo and Sam first notice it from the Cross-roads, which is quite far away:
  • At the east side of Ephel Dúath there is another very prominent feature, the Morgai. It is the most eastern ridge of the Ephel Duath and is quite important for the plot in the books. Frodo and Sam have to cross it to get to Mount Doom, but they can't as the eastern face is way too steep. Thus they are forced to walk all the way from Cirith Ungol ("2" at the map) almost to the old Castle of Durthang ("1" at the map). I marked the Morgai ridge in red and the valley Frodo and Sam walk a long in green. There is even a small stream in this valley which has it's source at point "A". It's almost dried out and bitter water, but is a very important water source for Frodo and Sam. The Road from Minas Morgul to Barad-Dûr crossed this narrow valley on a high bridge. After the escape from Cirith Ungol Frodo and Sam have to jump down from that bridge nearby the eastern end as there are pursuers at both sides of the bridge.
    Roughly half way between Cirirth Ungol and Durthang Frodo and Sam try to cross the Morgai ridge. They climb up and look down at the Plateau of Gorgoroth, but they can't get down as the eastern face is an almost vertical 500 m high cliff. The valley climbs up to the north and at point A it reaches the height of the Morgai ridge. But the eastern face is still high and steep. So the only way for Frodo and Sam is the old road down from Durthang Castle to the Isenmouth at the entrance of Udûn, which is cut into the vertical cliffs. On this road Frodo and Sam are overtaken by a group of Orcs who force them to march with them (thinking they are deserted orcs).

EDIT:
  • The plains of Gorgoroth are described as a VERY flat plain. Tolkien imagined something like a dried out lake. At the almost dry mud large rocks from Mount Doom were hauled to create a lot of holes making it possible for Frodo and Sam to hide cawling from hole to hole. I know it will be hard to make this looking nice, but I think we should try.
 
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Also just a little question, will the plateau of Gorgoroth be an actual plateau? Surely it's more than just a name. I get people want to have a massive Barad-Dur but just a thought. Isn't there also farmland around the Sea of Nurn, which would mean flat-ish grassland that's more fertile?
 
Ofc we will have a lot of non-canonical fortresses and towns in Mordorn. Its a large and realm with strict military order I would guess. With everything needed, mines, forges, storages and vast fields to grow supplies.
But I would not use Sindarin names for them. The names from the books are Sindarin as they are all for places well known in Gondor where places are commonly named in Sinarin. But I don't think that other places in Mordor were known in Gondor. The men of Gondor never occupied the realm of Mordor. Instead they guarded the borders during the first centuriest of the Third Age to prevent Sauron from returning. For this purposte they built the Towers of the Teeth at the Black Gate and also the fortress of Durthang and the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

Sauron invented the Black Speed for common use under his reign, but he failed with that project. Orcs ususally used clan languages or a cruel form of Westron to comunicate. Only the captains of Mordor frequently used the Black Speech. Thus places in Mordor should either have names in the Black Speech or probably more likely names in Westron with strong influences from the Black Speech.
For example the Orcs of Mordor say Lugbúrz instead of Barad-dûr.
An example of black speech in the debased form used by Orcs is this:
The Two Towers - The Uruk-hai said:
Uglúk au bagronk sha pushdug Saruman-glob búbhosh skai.

Not to many words are known in Black Speech, so I think it will be quite hard to use it for names
 
But we have always called the places as they were called in the books, like all the places in the Shire were called differently by Hobbits. And the Elves didn't call Rivendell Rivendell, but Imladris.
 
I didn't want to say that we should say Lugburz instead of Barad-Dur. Those names used in Gondor we should use ofc.

I was speaking about places that are not known in Gondor. The names Segegost, Thaurband and Nargroth doesn't make sense imo. There is no one who would introduce these names. Gondorian don't know the places, orcs will call them in their own language and captians of Mordor will name them in Black Speech.
 
We use a lot of non-canonical structures (Minas Tirith and Rivendell for example ). Both are quite different in the books and pictures by Tolkien. I don't have a problem with that.
 
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