Is Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor before or after the orignal LOTR?

[CommanderBlack19]

This is probably a dumb question, but you see characters like Golem, and we know that he died from falling into lava, but he is still there. is this a remake of the original, like it is supposed to be in place of the first?

also, where is the sea of Nurnen? I looked on a LOTR map and saw nothing.

Just a simple question, but I want to get it where I know it.

[Serrated Silver]

I'm by no means a LOTR expert, but from my understanding, the game happens before the original story written by Tolkien. From in-game dialogue, we can hear that Gollum has alreadt lost the one ring to Bilbo Baggins.
Also, Sauron is still gathering power and preparing for his return. This theoretically puts the game sometime before or at the beggining of the events of The Hobbit, which, in turn, happens before the original story.
Keep in mind, this game is extremely liberal with its use of the source material, and might as well take place in a different universe from the original story.

The sea of Nurnen is really just a big lake, and it's located in Mordor.

[CommanderBlack19]

thanks a lot!

[Jivebot]

This story takes place many years before the movie trilogy from my understanding. And one article I read says that according to the developers they do indeed consider this a completely different universe from both the movies and the novels. So they may really change things around in the next game as far as the larger mythology goes.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by みなみ:

I'm by no means a LOTR expert, but from my understanding, the game happens before the original story written by Tolkien.

It occurs before the trilogy, but after The Hobbit.

[CommanderBlack19]

Thanks for all the info!!!!

[Lateralus]

This game take place right after the Hobbit, Sauron returns to morder after his defeat at Dol Guldor in Murkwood. Also the sea of Nurnen is on the map its a southern region of Mordor might not be on the map you are looking at but i have seen it on other maps. Hope this helps.

[CommanderBlack19]

thanks guys!

[KRBHI]

Originally posted by Lateralus:

This game take place right after the Hobbit, Sauron returns to morder after his defeat at Dol Guldor in Murkwood. Also the sea of Nurnen is on the map its a southern region of Mordor might not be on the map you are looking at but i have seen it on other maps. Hope this helps.

I just want to point out that Sauron's "defeat" was actually according to his plans. He had been using henchmen to destroy the kingdoms of men, elves and dwarves since TA 1,000, but had kept his own identity secret. When he was unmasked by the White Council in "The Hobbit", he decided there was no use pretending anymore and he occupied his old seat of power. So far from a "retreat" it was an advancing of his plans. Shadows of Mordor and Shadows of War are the beginning of Sauron consolidating the power of his armies and building the war machine that we will see attack Gondor in LOTR. The games fits in with the origial canon 99% without conflict If anything the Jackson LOTR and especially the Jackson Hobbit Trilogy are the ones that're severely messed up and nonsensical in places. Sure, the games take liberty with a certain Mythical Elf and characters that were never mentioned in the origial books, but the games aren't ever in direct contraditcion with the books in the way the movies are in many places.

[Al Gore]

It's while Sauron is consolidating his power in mordor, after Gollum lost the ring and Bilbo found it, after the events of the Hobbit, but before the events of the LoTR series. There's like a 50 year gap between the 2 book series it falls somewhere in.

[YARRRjun]

I have a feeling this is going to be a trilogy that ends with Talion and Celebrimbor getting utterly crushed by Sauron while in Mordor, if this series actually does stay within the Middle-earth (tm) (ie the movies) canon. Or even Tolkien's canon, tbh.

I'll be quite fine either way, or even if Monolith decides this is a completely alternate universe created when the Valar kicked Morgoth, Sauron's own master and the one who started, and came close to ending all life on the planet, out of reality by opening a portal to the null-space outside the universe during the Silmarillion.