--- title: Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System Tells a New Tale of Middle Earth description: In Monolith's Shadow of Mordor, any enemy could become your arch foe. canonical: https://time.com/2865462/shadow-of-mordor-lord-of-the-rings/ author: Corey Protin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-12T19:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:02:30.557Z article:section: Business og:title: Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System Tells a New Tale of Middle Earth og:description: Any enemy can become your arch foe. og:url: https://time.com/2865462/shadow-of-mordor-lord-of-the-rings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System Tells a New Tale of Middle Earth twitter:description: Any enemy can become your arch foe. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # _Shadow of Mordor's_ Nemesis System Tells a New Tale of Middle Earth by [Corey Protin](/author/corey-protin/), [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) and [Harry Swartout](/author/harry-swartout/) Jun 12, 2014 7:00 PM CUT by [Corey Protin](/author/corey-protin/), [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) and [Harry Swartout](/author/harry-swartout/) Jun 12, 2014 7:00 PM CUT Middle Earth as described in _The Lord of the Rings_ is vast and rich in history and lore. It only makes sense that there are stories left untold. Monolith delves into Tolkien’s world to bring its new game, Shadow of Mordor, to life, telling the story of Talion, a ranger with wraith-like abilities whose family is killed by Sauron’s army. In order to get the depth and feel of Middle Earth, Shadow of Mordor introduces the “Nemesis System,” which allows players to shape their own story. Every minion, Orc, and Uruk-hai players fight is named, and if they survive the encounter they will change, grow, and appear later in the story. As you get better, so do your enemies, and the story takes another turn. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2865462/shadow-of-mordor-lord-of-the-rings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2865462/shadow-of-mordor-lord-of-the-rings/"},"headline":"Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System Tells a New Tale of Middle Earth","datePublished":"2014-06-12T19:00:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:30.557Z","description":"In Monolith's Shadow of Mordor, any enemy could become your arch foe.","url":"https://time.com/2865462/shadow-of-mordor-lord-of-the-rings/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","xbox","Playstation","e3","e3 2014","Lord of the Rings"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Corey Protin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/corey-protin/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry Swartout","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/harry-swartout/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2865462/shadow-of-mordor-lord-of-the-rings/","name":"Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System Tells a New Tale of Middle Earth"}}]}] ```