Let's play "the game is dying"

P.S.: Saruman.

I don't think they will be allowed to mention the blue wizards directly, but we might see something on a quest card that gives us Help Unlooked For etc.

It sounds like we will might be using threat dials in a new way on some quests. I wonder if we will be tracking temps in Celsius or Fahrenheit?

Wandering around Harad for the next cycle makes me wonder where the following cycle will end up. If we head roughly northeast during the cycle, rather than returning to Gondor, that would put us in position to move north into Rhun, or even into Mordor itself from the south or east. My guess would be Rhun.

as i understand, blue wizards cant be displayed in lotr game due to copyright, but it could be released, not directly with the names (for example pallando), but yes as indirectly, for instance, 'legendary wizard' or 'wizard of the east' etc. of course, it would be ally

Fantastic!!!!!!

Love the desert theme and the chance for new varied monsters such as the giant scorpion. Fantastic!

Vigilant Dúnadan and Blade Mastery seems lika a nice combination.

Finally! A use for Blade Mastery!

Excellent.

Now let's play "Guess the heroes"!

The two extra wizards are attested to in the text and also Appendix B of LOTR. Name and color are not given. Here is the Appendix B passage:

---

When maybe a thousand years had passed, and the first shadow had fallen on Greenwood the Great, the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-earth. It was afterwards said that they came out of the Far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.

They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly, and they had many powers of mind and hand. They revealed their true names to few, but used such names as were given to them. The two highest of this order (of whom it is said there were five) were called by the Eldar Curunir, 'the Man of Skill', and Mithrandir, 'the Grey Pilgrim', but by Men in the North Saruman and Gandalf. Curunir journeyed often into the East, but dwelt at last in Isengard. Mithrandir was closest in friendship with the Eldar, and wandered mostly in the West, and never made for himself any lasting abode.

---

Gandalf himself had five names, not counting his actual name, and likely would've had six if he'd spent time going East. The Unfinished Tales give their names as Allatar and Pallando, but from Appendix B we know they would NOT have gone by those names in Middle Earth, and their hero/ally cards should no more have those names than Gandalf should be labelled 'Olorin'.

Per the Tolkien wiki, a letter gives an alternate set of names Morinehtar and Romestamo (Darkness-slayer and East-helper). FFG doesn't have the rights to those, but those are Elvish names, and not likely to be what they were known as among men. They're likely the equivalent of Mithrandir and Curunir. Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast are the names used in the North, if the other two ever spent enough time in the North to acquire names, they would not be those names either, and the names they acquired among men in the East (and were likely most commonly known by) would not be these.

Bottom line is that the names the two missing wizards *actually were best known by* are likely not known and FFG has a legitimate right to invent a name and use both wizards, who are attested to in TLOTR -- and the two names that *we* best know the wizards by are the very names they would NOT be known by in Middle earth. That doesn't mean FFG will ever create them (the fanbase would certainly expect Allatar & Pallando with blue robes), but they would be within their copyright rights and thematic fit to do so.

im glad to see side quests are still here!

Bottom line is that the names the two missing wizards *actually were best known by* are likely not known and FFG has a legitimate right to invent a name and use both wizards, who are attested to in TLOTR -- and the two names that *we* best know the wizards by are the very names they would NOT be known by in Middle earth. That doesn't mean FFG will ever create them (the fanbase would certainly expect Allatar & Pallando with blue robes), but they would be within their copyright rights and thematic fit to do so.

I personaly am respectfully against this type of design. I mean, you're totally right, it's totally possible for the developers to make the Blue Wizards with different names, and that is a logical reason why, but the thing is that, for good or ill, Alatar and Pallando just are their most iconic names and the ones that resonate with people the most. It comes down to the very nature of tcg's and lcg's of just trying to represent every, or most elements of its world with a card. It really is what it shares with, say, baseball cards (which are not a thing in my country). Having the Blue WIzards with different names or some other legal acrobatics would be incredibly awkward to me, much with what happened to Lotr tcg, in which they had "follower" card, essentially ally attachments, named Alatar and Pallando, but the images showed the moths Gandalf used in the movies to summon the eagles. I mean, it's just bad either way to me.

Finally! A use for Blade Mastery!

Tactomir?

Bottom line is that the names the two missing wizards *actually were best known by* are likely not known and FFG has a legitimate right to invent a name and use both wizards, who are attested to in TLOTR -- and the two names that *we* best know the wizards by are the very names they would NOT be known by in Middle earth. That doesn't mean FFG will ever create them (the fanbase would certainly expect Allatar & Pallando with blue robes), but they would be within their copyright rights and thematic fit to do so.

I personaly am respectfully against this type of design. I mean, you're totally right, it's totally possible for the developers to make the Blue Wizards with different names, and that is a logical reason why, but the thing is that, for good or ill, Alatar and Pallando just are their most iconic names and the ones that resonate with people the most. It comes down to the very nature of tcg's and lcg's of just trying to represent every, or most elements of its world with a card. It really is what it shares with, say, baseball cards (which are not a thing in my country). Having the Blue WIzards with different names or some other legal acrobatics would be incredibly awkward to me, much with what happened to Lotr tcg, in which they had "follower" card, essentially ally attachments, named Alatar and Pallando, but the images showed the moths Gandalf used in the movies to summon the eagles. I mean, it's just bad either way to me.

I think your sentiment is likely in the majority, which is why I don't expect to see the wizards in the game unless they somehow got the rights to all Tolkien's works (not at all likely in Christopher Tolkien's lifetime). Though we do have the advantage in this game of not being bound to any images in the movie, thankfully, so if they ever made the blue wizards they would certainly look like wizards with blue robes.

At the same time, I can't help be sad that their presence is precluded not really by copyright, but rather by fan attachment to names that they weren't actually known by. The game could really use more Istari, and not just a hero Radagast. What would be coolest is if they could get the rights to use Morinehtar and Romestamo, because then it would both be actual Tolkien names and also a thematic fit.

I also think there's no good thematic reason to join the two wizards at the hip, just because they share a color. The LOTR wiki suggests the etymology has Pallando connected with foresight and Alatar with trees(!). Would I like an Istari with scrying powers and an Istari that boosts Ents? Yes, yes I would. Though if Alatar was the Radagast of plants, as the wiki suggests, its odd that Treebeard calls Gandalf "the only wizard that cares about trees." Then again, Treebeard might not have seen him in a few thousand years and assumes him dead. Maybe he's hanging out with the Entwives.

I can dream that the cycle taking us into the East runs into the other two wizards. And finds the hidden location of the entwives, only to be sworn to secrecy so that the annoying menfolk won't show up....

If the blue wizards were added to the game they should be enemies of our forces.

Radagast was explicitly the odd one out in that he didn't raise armies in conflict with the other Maiar in Middle Earth, and there is no reason to believe even he wouldn't eventually be pushed to wage war with the victor.

It seems pretty nice so far, seems like FFG is making cycles based on parts of middle-earth that we don't know much about right now

If we get a Rhun cycle after Harad that would be awesome:D!!

Unlikely Friendship is good enough that, leaving theme aside, it's worth looking at Bifur as possibly the best Lore hero for a tri-sphere Silvan deck.

When Silvans first game out Bifur was already the best Lore hero for a tri-sphere deck and I haven't seen anything to change my mind since then. Depending on deck makeup, I typically Steward on to spirit hero and ues O'Lorien for the leadership Silvans. But yes, it isn't not exactly thematic in terms of pure traits.

If the blue wizards were added to the game they should be enemies of our forces.

Radagast was explicitly the odd one out in that he didn't raise armies in conflict with the other Maiar in Middle Earth, and there is no reason to believe even he wouldn't eventually be pushed to wage war with the victor.

Saruman is the only Istari who is known (canon) to have raised armies against "our forces", and we both have him as an ally and also spent a cycle serving him. And given the blue wizards went to Sauron-influenced territory, if they had raised armies they'd have no one to fight but Sauron's servants. There's no reason to think they "should" be enemies of our forces.

Let's look at the textual evidence. First let's look at a letter written in 1958 (letter 211 to Rhonda Beare, answering the question of what colours the two other wizards had. Tolkien then wrote:

---

I have not named the colours, because I do not know them. I doubt if they had distinctive colours. Distinction was only required in the case of the three who remained in the relatively small area of the North-west. (On the names see Q5.) I really do not know anything clearly about the other two -- since they do not concern the history of the N.W. I think they went as emissaries to distant regions, East and South, far out of Numenorean range: missionaries to 'enemy-occupied' lands, as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.

---

As you can see, this is far removed from the conception of Allatar and Pallando, joined-at-the-hip wizards who went East to fail. Tolkien doesn't know the colors, doesn't know the names, doubts they have colours, has them possibly going different directions, thinks they failed but doesn't know it, but if they failed thinks they "doubtless" failed in different ways than Saruman.

In Unfinished Tales is printed an account of the Istari that mentions them, and "was written, as it appears, in 1954", so previous to the above-quoted letter.

---

Of this Order the number is unknown; but of those that came to the North of Middle-earth, where there was most hope...the chiefs were five. The first to come was one of noble mien and bearing, with raven hair, and a fair voice, and he was clad in white; bearing, with raven hair, and a fair voice, and he was clad in white; great skill he had in works of hand and he was regarded by well-night all, even by the Eldar, as the head of the Order. Others there were also: two clad in sea-blue, and one in earthenr brown; and last came one who seemed the least, less tall than the others, and in looks more aged, grey-heared and grey-clad, and leaning on a staff....

Of the Blue little was known in the West, and they had no names save Ithryn Luin 'the Blue Wizards'; for they passed into the East with Curunir, but they never returned, and whether they remained in the East, pursuing there the purposes for which they were sent; or perished, or as some hold were ensnared by Sauron and became his servants, is not now known. But none of these chances were impossible to be....

---

A separate passage written in the margin of the 1954 story adds that of all the Istari "one only remained faithful" and explains about Radagast focusing on the beasts. Obviously it's not necessary to become an enemy to the free peoples to become unfaithful to the errand.

Christopher Tolkien also records in Unfinished Tales about an undated sketch of a narrative of a council held for selection of the Istari, where Alatar was sent by Orome, and Alatar took Pallando as a friend. I would guess that this is later than the 1958 letter, but it is more consistent with the 1954 essay than the 1958 letter, so it could well be earlier.

The Unfinished Tales is much better known and read than The Letters of JRR Tolkien, which explains why the account there has dominated the conception of these two wizards. However, according to the Tolkien wikis, in the last year of Tolkien's life he revisted these two wizards again (reference to Last Writings in "The Peoples of Middle-earth", which I don't own.) This gives the names I had above, retcons their arrival to the second age with Glorfiendel, and is emphatic that they were on the side of the free peoples. Their interference helped the Last Alliance succeed, and although they failed to find Sauron's hiding place after his defeat, they managed to cause lasting weakness and dissension that ultimately was critical to success at the end of the Third Age, as East and South contained many, many more people than those Southrons and Easterlings that Sauron was able to bring to fight against the free peoples.

In short, I don't think the blue wizards "should" be enemies instead of allies or heroes. I think it also would be defensible to encounter them in our journeys East or South, and not to use the names they were known by in Valinor. And I think it would be incredibly cool if that happened. But I don't expect it.

Sauron and Gandalf are both Maiar that raise armies and vie for dominance over Middle Earth. Saruman is not unique in the books.

Nice! I like the location of the cycle. And temperature stuff seems cool

Most exciting news for this year！

And I will say to him "Hello... my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

There is one little question bugging me... Why can't this be out like now? So I can play it?..

If the blue wizards were added to the game they should be enemies of our forces.

Oooh I like that idea. The article does say our heroes will have a twist which makes us question our beliefs. Our belief that Wizards are the allies of the Free Peoples, perhaps?

I'm just glad that they phrased it to where elf-friend on a dwarf wouldn't fill the requirements for that event.

As I read it, Elf-friend on a unique Dwarf hero would fulfill the requirement (as long as you also have a 2nd Dwarf hero around). Right? Or were you just saying you're happy that you have to actually have 2 different characters? (as in, the Dwarf cannot be friends with himself)

Finally! A use for Blade Mastery!

Tactomir?

Well, I really had to think twice what Tactomir means. Is it so hard to write Tactics Boromir or even T-Boromir, haha?

Anyway, I totally agree. Before Gondorian Shield (and later Captain of Gondor), Blade Mastery was my number 1 combo with Tactics Boromir (then referred to just Boromir). In those times and quests, it usually did the trick.