Hours In: 40 Hours
Percent Complete: 83%
**Spoiler Warning**
Shadow of War has surprised me yet again. Being an enormous fan of lore and story behind characters, I was in for a treat today. Following Altariel’s questline I was able to discover some of the backstories of how the nine wraiths were turned into what they were. Some were given the power to do the things they wanted while others happend on the ring by chance. 
Helm the Hammer, a king, was to give his daughter up for marriage but refused. Falling into an ambush he appeared gravely injured and his daughter taken from him. Sauron in his fair form offered the power to get her back. To be able to write a story for a character that we believe so inherently evil and make us feel something for them. This was just something that blew my mind again with this game. On several occasions, we feel for the darkness and inner workings of each of these elusively bad characters.
Some smaller things that I really enjoyed in today’s session is just the fact that we can walk around our strongholds and see the orcs we have dominated stoking a fire or getting drunk off grog (No, I’m not entirely sure what it is). It makes the world feel more alive and believable. Of course, they have lives too, no matter how mundane or bloody they may be. 
The nemesis system also has a fun feature called blood-brothers. If you kill an orc that has one of these brothers, they will come after you shortly after. This has happened on numerous occasions to me. Today though, one of my own orcs betrayed me to avenge his blood-brother. The image below tells you just how well it went for him.
Hidden Gem Games 