By: Allan "Orion" Maki, Senior Game Designer

Foreword

When we set fingers to keyboards several years ago and started working on The Lord of the Rings™ Online™, there was a single mandate: create a story that can stand alongside one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century. From that mandate Volume I: The Shadows of Angmar™ was born with a story that takes players on an incredible journey from their humble beginnings all the way to the apex of black iron castle of Carn Dûm, where they fight against a most unlikely character. This is the player’s story: the story of how a small group, or even one person, can make a difference in times that grow dimmer, darker, and bereft of Hope. Until now, the Epic storyline has been just outside the reach of some players, but that will change with the launch of Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers.

A Little Inspiration

It was some time after the revision to the Lone-lands that I realized our epic story required better accessibility for some of our players. I wrote a little blog about this on my my.lotro.com page that explained the problems I thought needed addressing. Looking back, that first effort was unrefined and would utilize tech that was functional but would require a fair deal of support to make it work. The recipe needed to be revised, and through the emergent dialogue of that first post a refinement of the idea was born and set for implementation.

The concept of inspiration comes from tales of people in extraordinary situations using superhuman qualities. The Lord of the Rings is rife with examples of this; Aragorn’s stand against the Nazgûl, Boromir’s stand against the Uruk-hai, Sam’s resolve both against Shelob and in Cirith Ungol. These examples provide the baseline for a new concept, Inspired Greatness, and what it will mean to players of The Lord of the Rings Online, at least through Volume 1 of the Epic story.