WheneverMiddle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’sNemesis System is brought up in conversation, it’s inevitably also highlighted that WB has the mechanic under lock and key,yet has refused to do anything with it since 2017’sShadow of War. It’s alsoshut down the only studio to ever use itbefore its game could be launched, leading to a fascinating mechanic gathering dust.
The Nemesis System is the mechanic of grudges, allies, and revenge between yourself, the many Uruks of the game, and even between themselves. Each Uruk and Uruk captain will have a procedurally generated name, along with a hierarchy, and any one of them is capable of rising in the ranks, remembering you and even sporting battle scars from your previous fights as they hunt you down.
But while people wonder if we’ll ever get to see the Nemesis System used again, I urge you to look towards the Goblin Wars ofOblivion- and in light ofOblivion Remasteredresurfacing the RPG’s popularity, there’s a chance for this feature to be praised while the long road toThe Elder Scrolls 6gets ever longer.
Goblin Wars Are A Subtle Constant Of Oblivion
In The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, there are seven Goblin factions. They have lairs dotted throughout the map, and some of the Goblins you find in caves can be a part of one of those tribes, having current control over that cave - but this isn’t set in stone, and many of the Goblin caves are also not affiliated with any tribe.
Each tribe owns a Goblin Totem Staff, which will be protected within the main lairs of the tribes; if the Totem Staff is stolen, the tribe will send out a party to retrieve it, led by that tribe’s War Chief. This will mean trouble for any settlements or travellers the Goblin party encounters along the way, but once the Totem Staff has been retrieved by the War Chief, they will return it to their lair.
If the War Chief is killed, the remaining Goblins will return to their lair, and another War Chief will set out in time.
However, if the Totem Staff ends up in the lair of another Goblin tribe, then both tribes will become hostile with each other. If they are not able to retrieve it, then this will begin a Goblin War, in which both factions will battle until the Totem Staff is recovered, potentially inflicting a long-ongoing war and dangerous groups of Goblins in the countryside. The war will end when the Totem Staff is recovered, or if the attacking tribe’s Shaman is killed.
The Perfect Playground To Play With Control
The best part about this system is that it can be manipulated. The player can sneak into a lair, steal the tribe’s Totem Staff, and then leave it somewhere for the tribe to recover. If you drop it into another tribe’s lair, you can single-handedly begin a war, whether that’s for some tactical reasons or just to see what happens in the chaos.
It’s an incredibly complex feature, especially to be included in Oblivion way back in 2006 - and stranger still, is that it’s not predominantly highlighted. There’s one single side quest you can come across in the world, titled Goblin Trouble, in which the idea is briefly explained to you as you’re tasked with stopping a Goblin war, but the mechanic is active right from the start of the game, and you might never even notice it.
As we head towards The Elder Scrolls 6’s inevitable release, now is the perfect time to leave the Nemesis System and WB alone; instead, sing the praises of the Goblin Wars and urge Bethesda to include something like this in the upcoming title. It’s been almost 20 years since Oblivion, and even eight years since the last Middle-earth game, so a new iteration of a dynamic factions-based system in 202X is an exciting premise, and one that could be a huge draw for such a significant RPG.
