LotRO and Lore: Skorgrim’s Origins

As a long-time player of LotRO, I have many fond memories of a game that has inspired me to look deeper into the world that spawned from the highly-detailed mind of J.R.R. Tolkien. One of my favorite recollections was the first time I ever played; I anxiously waited for my download to finish, logged in to one of the recommended servers, and quickly rolled my first character: a dwarf.
I remember one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind as I ran the intro: “Who’s this Skorgrim guy? Where did he come from?” For those unfamiliar, Skorgrim is an ancient lord of the Dourhand dwarves. He has been dead for ages; but the Dourhands hold out hope that he is soon returning. During the introduction, a gaunt-lord ‘resurrects’ his body by possessing it with ethereal spirits that pretend to be him. This creates a sort of false-Messiah situation for the dwarves of Ered Luin; the Dourhands are now entirely devoted to following their great king that has returned to them, but in reality they are being led astray by the forces of evil, which seek the destruction of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth.

 
You may be surprised, as I was, that the origins of Turbine’s Skorgrim are steeped in the lore from the deep places of Tolkien’s expansive mythos. In fact, the more I researched this strange tale, the more intrigued I was by the subtle ways that Turbine has crafted a new story but kept with the spirit of it’s source. In order to understand the choices Turbine has made, it is important to have some background.

 
When the dwarves were created in the distant past, there were very few of them. The Seven Fathers of the dwarves were the first among them, and these seven each created a great clan of their people. These clans were clearly important to the dwarves, for even during the time of the War of the Ring, they maintained their clan-culture. The clan we are most familiar with is the Longbeards, Durin’s Folk, whose Father is Durin the Deathless; from this came every dwarf we see in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, including Gimli, Thorin, Balin, etc. But there are still six other clans; these are named only in the Silmarillion. Turbine was faced with a dilemma; they have the rights to Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, but not the rights to the Silmarillion. To combat these legal issues but still keep to the spirit of the works, they essentially created a new name for one of the other clans of the dwarves: The Dourhands. In addition, they crafted a new ‘Seven Fathers’ figure by creating Skorgrim.

 

Here’s where things get interesting. The dwarves of Tolkien’s works already have a deep-seated belief in the resurrection of the Seven Fathers; Durin himself would supposedly come back to life six times throughout the course of history, and the dwarves believe he had already resurrected five times (ending with Durin VI, killed by the Balrog of Moria.) After the War of the Ring, some time into the future, Tolkien wrote that Durin VII, the last incarnation of the greatest of the Seven Fathers, would lead the dwarves back into Moria and his folk would prosper. Knowing this as the mythological background Turbine would work with to create their story, they knew that the Dourhands they designed would gladly follow their resurrected leader. The problem is, however, that he is not truly resurrected; he is possessed.

 
When LotRO was first released, it was under the title “Shadows of Angmar”. Angmar was, at that point, the ultimate end-game and the nation of Angmar was the ultimate enemy. What knowledge we know of Angmar from the books, however, is scarce, and Turbine would have to face this issue head-on. One of the few things we know with certainty is that Angmar used spirits to infest the Barrow-downs during its war with Cardolan. In a stroke of genius, Turbine introduces us to the supernatural power of Angmar, creates an immediate conflict, and masterfully ties in the intricate lore of the dwarves in a single character.

 

He may not be the most important villain in LotRO (and he isn’t around for very long,) but he will stick around in my mind for a long while. After I realized the angle Turbine is going for with this particular story thread, I have a much deeper respect for the work that they have done in keeping with the spirit of the works while also fleshing out new content for the players to explore and the lore-junkies to devour.

(Information gathered from Appendix A, part III: Durin’s Folk.)