Monolith drew inspiration from various movies, including Tarantino's movies, where the characters are cranked up and taken to an extreme.ДЄ common preconception of Uruk in The Lord of the Rings is that they are highly unintelligent. This allows Monolith to push the personalities of the Uruk to the extreme, which aids in making the Uruk interesting and memorable villains, while also creating a dynamic sandbox environment. The Uruk are pushed to the extreme, to the point where their society is ruled by power and fighting, a society where every Uruk wants to prove their dominance.

Monolith draws a comparison with the Great War, where the situation of soldiers in the trenches are similar to those of the Uruk under Sauron's control. Uruk in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor aren't the typical highly aggressive, unintelligent creatures that they are often portrayed as, but are instead what human beings become when they are driven by fear, domination and power. While creating the Uruk, Monolith wanted to avoid fantasy clichГ©s, and aimed to create realistic Uruk that are more interesting and complex than the typical fantasy archetype. For many centuries the Uruk were a mere minor problem, until Morgoth returned and took charge of the Uruk, using them in the First Battle of Beleriand. They reproduced and spread throughout the entirety of northern Middle-earth. Many Uruk, as well as other servants of Melkor, lived in the deep caves and tunnels of the fortresses of Utumno and Angband. Only when Sauron regained power did the Uruk become a considerable threat to Middle-earth. When Morgoth was defeated, the Uruk were confused and were easily scattered by their enemies, after which they went into hiding in the Misty Mountains, showing the dependence of Uruk on the Dark Lord. Uruk were highly dependent of Sauron in multiple ways. A similar interpretation of 'Trolls' was made by Treebeard, informing the Hobbits that they were a failed copy of Ents, although again, this isn't mentioned by any other source. However in Lord of the Rings, Treebeard's account may have been his understanding of it, as it contradicts Tolkien's writings in The Silmarillion. However, the Ent Treebeard tells the Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, that Uruks were an attempt by Morgoth to copy the Elves. Morgoth created Uruk by breeding Elves he had captured and corrupted through torturing and mutilating them.

Shadow of mordor 2 characters