The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is a new mobile strategy role-playing game by EA and Capital Games, much like Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, where players can collect various characters from The Lord of the Rings universe and experience exciting stories, both told and untold, from Tolkien's novels. A large part of Heroes of Middle-earth's storytelling revolves around the question of "what if?" by presenting players with an opportunity to play through alternative storylines with their favorite LotR characters.
Very recently, the Haradrim were added to the game, and while many may know them as warriors of Sauron, their convoluted history goes back to a time before they worked for the dark lord. The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth producer Tim Lander spoke with CBR about the game, its new Haradrim characters, and how the team was inspired by Tolkien's writing in creating them.
Not many, even The Lord of the Rings fans, know a lot about the Haradrim. Please tell us more about the Haradrim and their convoluted history.
So, I'll start by just talking about "who are the Haradrim?" They're a people that come from the southern area of Middle Earth. It's said to be a very faraway land. Aragorn actually went there at one point and talked about the stars being different there. So, these people are incredible warriors. There are quotes about them, even when pushed to the brink in combat, they would laugh in the face of their enemies. They have literally been fighting for generations.
Now, unfortunately, often the portrayal of them has been of this kind of enemy because they were the enemy of Gondor—they allied with Sauron during the War of the Ring. There's a lot of time in the books where there's that fighting happening against them. But when you really dive into the lore, they're so much more than just the enemy of Gondor. They're these very proud, powerful people—great warriors—and we really sought to bring that out whenever we were designing these characters.
Can you tell us how the stories of the Haradrim fit into the existing canon for The Lord of the Rings, and how they are ultimately involved in Sauron's master plan?
We did a lot of deep-diving into the lore, and one thing that we really found is while they were allied with Sauron, there are a lot of elements in the lore that speak to how Sauron manipulated them—how he very much used his emissaries to get them all riled up and spread rumors about how Gondor was this terror and this awful group that needed to be stopped. We really focused on some of those aspects.
There's one aspect in the books that really resonated with me personally. This is when Sam first is introduced to the Haradrim. It's right after he meets up with Faramir and some of the other Gondorian Rangers, and they get into a skirmish and one of the Haradrim warriors is killed right in front of him. He's lying there, face down, and Sam has this moment of empathy where he's like, "I wonder what the name was of this man? I wonder if he wished to be at peace. What were the lies and the threats that drove this man to come here?" So, we really tried to focus on the humanization of the Haradrim and what it would have been like from their perspective. It's also worth mentioning that as a follow-up to that kind of wondering if they wanted peace, we know that King Aragorn actually does make peace with them after the War of the Ring. So, we were really trying to focus on some of those elements.
That's good because of their history. They weren't always who they're portrayed as in The Lord of the Rings, so it's interesting you all are considering that as you're moving forward with it. With the Heroes of Middle-earth being very focused on combat, how do the Haradrim fit into that? What is their combat style and maybe some of their skills that you could divulge?
I'm really excited about the combat that they have. So, we've got five total characters on the squad, and the element that really brings them together is their leader. Tibeb the Sage is a very strong female leader, and she has this ability that's called "Fight as One." Each of the Haradrim has a passive ability that gives them some bonus in combat. For instance, one of the bonuses Yeftu has is he's able to get additional Critical Chance every time he attacks an enemy. Well, whenever he's under Tibeb's leadership, he actually gets to share that with all the other characters in the squad. So, you see this multiplying effect where they're all sharing their abilities, and it really kind of speaks to this sense of teamwork and the tactical kind of military that they had from these many years of experience fighting.
I will say that I love that aspect of the game, even with Merry and Pippin working together. It's really great that you all thought to include that with the Haradrim as well. Now, how were you inspired by Tolkien's writing and even the original artwork for the Haradrim, to be able to create them in the game?
When Tolkien describes the clothing and the weapons of the Haradrim, there's a lot of mention of scarlet or red clothing and a lot of mention of gold, so you'll notice that in the different outfits that they have, there's a lot of scarlet and gold. There's also a lot of mention of them having painted faces, like war paint, and you'll notice that our tank character has some paint on his face. He also has this big shield with spikes on it, which was also very much influenced by Tolkien's writing. I believe it was when Frodo, Sam, and Gollum were watching the army going toward the Black Gate, he made a comment about the big spiky shields, so we were very much influenced by all these different elements.
Did you take any inspiration at all from the films?
I guess I will say I loved the films. I was a big fan of them. The approach that we took was focused on the books and the literary elements, so our inspiration was primarily taken from what was actually written in the books.
I really appreciate that about the game. So, how did the team for Heroes of Middle-earth conceptualize and bring to life the stories and personalities and the different unique characteristics of the Haradrim?
One of the things that comes to mind for me, you talked about Merry and Pippin having a team-up attack. So, there's a team-up attack that is between two of the Haradrim characters, Bekelu and Wubete, and what I really like about that in terms of connecting to their personalities is that these two clearly have been fighting together for a long time. They are so in sync with each other that they can anticipate each other's movements, so it was exciting to have the privilege of getting to be part of the group that was designing that team-up attack. We really thought about "How can we show such nimbleness and agility, and have them working together?" So, for those who have seen the attack or for those who haven't, the way it works is that one character jumps up on the shield of the other character and launches herself up in the air for an aerial strike coming down on top of her enemy. We felt like that very much embodied this sense of these incredible warriors who were so adept and so confident in their own skill set.
That is really amazing because I don't feel like casual people who pick up this game are going to realize the thought that went into these characters. And the way you're even describing how they work together—being connected to their characteristics and their history and the way they have functioned in the lore of The Lord of the Rings, so I really think that what you all are doing here is great and that you're bringing the books to life in a way that a film probably couldn't. Is there anything else that you want to add that wasn't in any of the questions that I asked so far?
I guess I just want to add that I'm just so excited about where the future of the game is going as well. So, right now, there are five Haradrim characters to collect, but that's just the beginning. We very much want to continue to introduce more in the future. There are also so many other exciting elements coming out.
You might be aware that we recently released the Mines of Moria raid, so Chapter 2, which involves a big Cave Troll, is actually a place where the Haradrim really shine—the way they work together, as well as this one technique that they have called "The Black Serpent's Poison," very much modeled after the Black Serpent flag that they would carry into battle. It very much makes them able to excel against this Cave Troll in Chapter 2, which is just awesome. And then going forward, leading up to eventually having the Balrog in Chapter 4 is just going to be so exciting. I think players are just going to absolutely love that kind of climactic battle that happens.
The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is available now on Google Play and the Apple App Store.