Nazgûl (31 July 2007)

[WilliamOfOrange]

Congrats Plotinus! Well done. I was worried Kool-Aid Man was going to beat you out!

 

[P-51D]

Wow, great unit. We shall have to lock you up and be forced to make more; too bad it would encroach on you liberties.

 

[Azmorg]

I think Tolkien does describe the beast as having some kind of beak, although by no means all pterosaurs had beaks. He apparently thought of it as a sort of surviving prehistoric animal, suggesting that he was thinking along pterosaur lines, although obviously anything large enough to carry a rider would have to be bigger even than a quetzalcoatlus, the largest known pterosaur (assuming that a Nazgul weighs as much as a human being). Also, his description of the beast's wing structure is completely unlike that of a pterosaur, being more like that of a bat. I suspect that Tolkien had little understanding of palaeontology and didn't know the difference.

At any rate, I did give it batlike wings and I tried to make the head more like that of a dimorphodon than anything else, which I thought a fair compromise. Though in the event it doesn't really look like that either.

Tolkien was all about good vs evil. The orcs were perverted elves, the uruk-hai, perverted men (perhaps), trolls perverted ents. Maybe the Nazgul beast is a perverted eagle? Just a thought.

 

[Plotinus]

That's a cunning idea, though to my mind the beast is just that - a beast, neither good nor bad, which has simply been trained to carry the wraiths. Which is why I feel a bit sorry for them...

 

[Azmorg]

Don't want to stray too far off topic, but it might be argued that Tolkien aligned all creatures, animals included, to either good or evil. In The Hobbit, the crows were on the side of the goblins against Thorin & Co., and in the Ring trilogy, they did the bidding of Saruman. In both tales, the eagles were definately good. The spiders in Mirkwood served the shadow of Dol Gurdur (Sauron returned). Saruman expressed contempt for the creatures that were befriended by Radagast the Brown, one of the order of wizards and on Gandalf's side. So, there it is, my argument.

 

[jubbjubb2]

This is awesome! Can someone tell me how to use it once downloaded?

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Try this: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=473404&postcount=2

Or the full thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=31576

 

[gopher72]

I love this unit, It will go great in a mod i'm making. Is there any way you could make it in a smaller size? Its a little big for what i want. That would be awesome if you could! Thanks

 

[T-mun]

Hi gopher72, and welcome to this forum! As you can see, this unit was made in 2007 and the discussion about it ended in september of that year. Posting 3 years later might be considered as bumping (or "thread necromancy") and you request may not be heard...

 

[Plotinus]

No problem bumping a thread if there's some particular reason to do so. But I'm afraid in this case I don't have time to re-do any units in a new size. I think it's possible to resize units using Flicster and other tools, but I'll have to leave that to someone else.

 

[gopher72]

ok, Thanks! I'll get flicster and see if i can figure it out.