Transcript from Session 3-26 concerning Tevildo:
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Corey: So, Tevildo. With Tevildo we're not quite as locked into the pure beast form. Tevildo is, presumably, a spirit who has manifested himself as a cat? Or are we imagining that Sauron imprisoned these spirits, some in the bodies of wolves, and some in the bodies of cats? Since Tevildo is ultimately a rejected concept in Tolkien, we kinda have a little bit of freedom. We don't ever really see where Tolkien would have gone with it. Marielle, I agree, that's an interesting way to say it. Marielle says, "A spirit that has chosen to manifest as a cat is unlikely to deign to change into a merely humanoid form." Anything that would choose a cat as a form would see humanity as lesser. That seems to me to capture the feline attitude. I can see that. So, basically, our conception of Tevildo is that Tevildo could theoretically take human form if he wanted to, he just doesn't. We will never see him do that. I can live with that. Keep in mind, by the way, we talk about Draugluin as this opposite number of Huan, and in a sense he is, in that Huan is a wolfhound and Draugluin is the father, or at least the godfather, of the wolves, but of course on a more literal level Tevildo is actually his opposite number. The original conception of Huan was Huan vs Tevildo. Tevildo was his archenemy, and this was a dog vs cat thing. This was not a hound vs wolf thing, it was a dog vs cat thing.
Trish: I'm glad he didn't do that. I'm glad he finally left that idea behind. It's a little bit too cliche. Tolkien was obviously a dog person.
Corey: Obviously a dog person.
Trish: I know you're a dog person.
Corey: I am, I am. Though that's really kinda by constraint. I can't pretend that I give cats a fair shake, because half my family is deathly allergic to cats, so we run whenever we see cats. I have not interacted significantly with a cat in 25 years. So I'm totally not pretending to be objective on the dog and cat thing.
So, Nick says, "We had decided on Tevildo being a project of Morgoth's which Sauron imitates to make werewolves." Huh. I don't have the faintest memory of that, but I believe you.
Trish: Tony says that the difference between them is that Tevildo chooses to become a cat, whereas Draugluin is forced into the body of a wolf as punishment. I like that.
Corey: Yeah, that Tevildo is a cat and smug about it, whereas Draugluin is a slave, essentially. So, the dynamics that that introduces are kinda interesting. You think about the relationship between Sauron and Tevildo and Draugluin. On the one hand, Draugluin is Sauron's slave, and yet there's going to be some resentment there. So the kind of tension with Draugluin is that he's resentful and might be disobedient or intransigent, but he's a slave at the end of the day. Tevildo is not a slave. Tevildo would see himself as an ally. But therefore would have his own ideas, and isn't always guided by Sauron and doesn't always listen to him. In his own mind, like every other cat in the world, he would see himself as a free agent, doing his own thing.
Marielle says that Tevildo should definitely torment Draugluin, whenever he can. Yeah, we had talked about it, Tevildo being the torturer, who should enjoy inflicting suffering on others. Here again, I'm not just trying to be anti-cat, but Tevildo needs to be a distillation, and an exaggeration, of all of the worst elements of cat personality. That element of cats playing with their prey before they kill them. Tevildo has that exponentially expanded.
So, Tevildo should certainly be....what do you think? So we've got this picture of Tevildo here. I do like there being sort of lionish elements. Lion-like, leonine let me say, elements to Tevildo. And I think that he shouldn't be identifiably any modern cat species. I like the idea of him having black panther elements, but we don't want him just to be associated with black panthers. Especially in the wake of the Black Panther movie, I would add! But it's really, I think...
Oh, interesting, Tony says "What if he's a saber-tooth cat?" See again, I wouldn't want to go too distinctive, not the actual saber-tooth look *gestures towards mouth*, because then we would be calling up more particular associations.
Trish: How about something more toward the leopard side of things? Like even a snow leopard kind of look, where it's more black-and-white than brown?
Corey: Yeah, maybe. Maybe. So this picture we have up here on the right, I really kind of like, with not a full lion's mane, but a kind of suggestion of a lion's mane. I really kind of like that. Zach, I've always pictured Tevildo as more sleek and aloof, too. I don't think exactly the body type of a lion. Lions are heavier looking. Something more leopard-like or more mountain lion-like I think would be good too. But again, he should have something of the, I don't know, regal-ness of one of the bigger great cats, like a tiger.
Trish: Or a tiger. I was gonna say, tiger might not be.... Tiger, yeah, tiger would be good. Or something basic tiger derivation.
Corey: The body shape of a tiger. But without the markings of a tiger. Something like a tiger, but maybe black or mostly black in markings. I think that would be good. Cool, alright.