Know Your LotRO Lore: Nazgul in the game

You first encounter the Nazgûl very early in Lord of the Rings Online. In fact, regardless of your starting race, you will encounter them in your very first instance, introducing you to the storyline of the game. They appear as black-robed riders on black horses, and while you can't actually fight them, their dread aura will effect you greatly.

They are considered of the race Unseen, which includes all wraiths, spirits and illusions in the game. Just as in the Introduction, you don't have very many opportunities to fight the Nazgûl until a bit later, but you will see them periodically throughout the Epic questline, or Book content.

For the sake of fairness, the remainder of this paragraph and the next contain spoilers for the Epic storyline. If you'd rather not see them, skip ahead two paragraphs and continue reading. Ready? Ok. In Book 5, Chapter 8: Fire and Ice, you will encounter your first real Nazgûl boss fight. He has 38k Morale and requires some actual tactics for even a decent group. I'm sure everyone has their own best methods for defeating this boss most efficiently, but just realize that his dread will bring your Morale down to 1/3, so don't forget the Hope tokens! You can watch a decent 5-minute video of this final battle to get an idea of how it's done, although the low-res nature of YouTube is restrictive in that sense. The fact that you can kill a Nazgûl in this Book 5 quest has many hardcore lore buffs upset, as Tolkien's stories plainly detail the demise of all Nazgûl during the final battle. This is just another of example of how Turbine has expanded upon the license to create exciting encounters in lieu of lore faithfulness. Whether you agree or disagree with this liberty taken by Turbine is up to you, but remember, it's just a game!

Speculating wildly, I would imagine that the Nazgûl will continue to play a prominent role throughout the future of LotRO. We still have many encounters throughout the books that coincide with Nazgûl spottings. Plus, I would imagine that we'll be able to fight more of them, as was done in major battles throughout the trilogy. Whether our characters would have the opportunity to destroy any more is up in the air, but I just don't see that happening.

I hope you've enjoyed this trek into the origins of the Black Riders and have at least learned a bit more about what they are and what they represent in the game. In addition to the links provided throughout this article, be sure to check out this wonderful video tribute to the Nazgûl, as well as some deep reading on their origins in The Silmarillion. Next week's Know Your LotRO Lore will center around the Hobbits and where they came from exactly. Being the main protagonists of Tolkien's story, their importance is high, yet they weren't always around in the form you may know them today. You can find out how and why on next's week's installment.