Utumno and surroundings (Including Angband)

OK, had a stray thought on bathroom talk that I promise won't get gross.

What if, once they get bound as strongly in their physical forms as the Balrogs and Morgoth do, they also become subject to the... indignities of mortal bodies, to which the other unbound Valar/Mair are not?

Just throwing it out there.
 
OK, had a stray thought on bathroom talk that I promise won't get gross.

What if, once they get bound as strongly in their physical forms as the Balrogs and Morgoth do, they also become subject to the... indignities of mortal bodies, to which the other unbound Valar/Mair are not?

Just throwing it out there.
Hmmm.... Interesting thought. Maybe that's a thing the Balrogs don't have to deal with. They don't have to eat either. I'm not sure we have to give too much thought to what they're up to on a regular Tuesday. On a side note, I think we should introduce foul smelling with the orcs.
 
When I read about the Orcs I was a bit surprised they seem to have jolly feasts... singing loud songs and roasting birds... seemingly being an orc wasn't all bad.
 
The unpleasantness of being an orc is that all of your companions are back-stabbers who hate you. And all of the cleverness of your people is devoted to coming up with torture devices. And everyone complains and no one does anything to make the situation better. Low standards of cleanliness result from a 'not my problem' approach to cleaning. And there is a strictly enforced hierarchy, so most of them are literally slaves. And so despite being rather strong and having remarkable endurance, no one wants to get anything done unless it is under extreme duress. They are thieves, not craftsmen.

Sure, they do eat, and they do have some vestiges of culture - their own languages, at least. But it wasn't that much fun, either.
 
So what are the implications regarding sets for season 2? We don't really have orcs yet...
 
what sets do we actually need?

utumno:
-gates
-main entry hall
-long staircase
-waiting room
-throne hall

angband:
-main gates
-council hall
-sauron's laboratory
...
 
Right - Utumno is Season 1. The only vestiges we see of it is in the opening of Episode 2, when the Valar decide to invite the elves to Valinor. They are standing in the ruins of Utumno when that happens, so.....that is our last view of the place.

For Season 2 Angband, we will need a pre-Thangorodrim exterior. The place should be fairly hidden, as most of it is underground. I imagine it is fairly dark and non-descript aboveground, but it still needs some sort of entrance gate (which we will see in Episode 3).

Interior can have lots of dimly lit corridors (lined with torches?), echo-y, with sounds making the layout confusing/deceptive.

Balrogs need a place to hang out.

Sauron needs a lab. (already discussed)

Captive elves need a dungeon.

Other spaces are optional, but we could have private spaces for Thuringwethil, Telvildo, Draugluin, etc. Sauron could have a non-lab private space as well.
 
So As I was saying earlier...
I want something different than typical fantasy dungeon dungeons. This is a defensive stronghold and built to be used by the primary aggressive forces of Melkor - the Balrogs. I want something that is chaotic, with rooms and passages that risk hurting others than Balrogs. I want Hell.
 
That's actually an interesting word. "Defensive". Defensive against what foe, at the time of its construction? The Valar? The Children? Are they anticipating Tulkas, or Fingolfin, or both?
 
Well the defensive aspect is perhaps not on target... Dr Olsen was very clear that he wanted a difference between the beautiful Utumno and Angband, but I'm not sure about his exact phrasing... well... Perhaps it is defensive... and in that case I think we need to go back and realise that it was built while Utumno was still intact, but part of a system kept from the view of any visitors. And given that Melkor understood that if the uglier parts of his realm and especially the Balrogs who were the ones who destroyed the Lamps were to be found, there would be trouble...he would want to keep it secret and hidden and hard to penetrate.
So to sum it up: Inconspicuous on the outside, hard to get into, Hell on the inside.
 
Angband is the Hells of Iron, so....yes. Now what does that look like?

As for the 'defensive' aspect - against the Valar. It was built prior to the War of the Powers, and kept secret from them, as Haakon explained.
 
Yeah where I was leading with that was that it might be... accidentally defensive? It's built in a way that ends up being defensive, or easily adapted to defense, but for different reasons than defense at construction. Something Balrogs have a hand in will be like that.

Nice and vague; notice no specific details. That's just how I roll.
 
I think you might call it accidentally defensive, since a lot of its defensive qualities are effects of the nature of the super aggressive Balrogs, and the nature of the Vala of Extreme Heat and Cold. It's a hostile environment.
 
Last edited:
I think we will need to further develop the idea of Angband as an underground fortress with layers. The hosts took it as 'hole in the ground' a little too...literally.
 
Yes I lost contact during that part of the session but I wanted to say that while we should see Angband as in a way similar to Dante's Inferno, it should also be chaotic and not as structured as Inferno. The uppermost layer doesn't have to be the broadest, for example, and each level doesn't have a particular theme.
 
as you may guess i'm streaming the podcast right now...

thinking of it i love the image of satans fall from dante...

i'd love the idea if we hadmelkor enter arda in shape of a meteor... the steam hithatown,his icy armour all would reflect that meteoric image. as we don't have valar vs melkor fight each other in bodily shape before the fall of the lamps the first wars could be imagined as contests of naturepowers such as vilcanic activity,storn,flood&earthquake instead.

thunking about it angband should be the labyrinth&bunker and utumno should be the crater (i mean utumno literally means the undeep,right?)
 
Back
Top