Review of Dol Guldur by Chris Seeman
First published in Other Hands 12 (January 1996) p. 49-51

Every villain needs a lair, and every lair should reflect the magnitude and wickedness of its villain. Sauron is the biggest and baddest villain in Middle-earth; a citadel module that sets out to do justice to that fact has assumed no trivial task. With Dol Guldur, the first original release in ICE's "Citadels of Middle-earth" series, author David Woolpy succeeds admirably in plumbing the vast, unknown depths of what served as Sauron's inner sanctum for the greater part of the Third Age. Although based in part on conceptions and floorplans that originally appeared in ICE's 1983 release Southern Mirkwood, Haunt of the Necromancer, Woolpy has gone far beyond the initial design to render a fortress befitting the grandeur and power of the Lord of the Rings, even in the weakness of his slow recovery from the shadows. Dol Guldur is an achievement to be emulated.

A seventy-one page orgy of floorplans and site descriptions occupies the center of this tome, covering sixteen distinct levels of the Necromancer's hidden fastness as well as the subsidiary fortifications of the Nan Lanc which guard the approaches to the Hill of Dark Sorcery. But Dol Guldur offers much more than a mere cataloging of chambers and passages; it provides an extensive pre-history of the site, when Dwarves delved the roots of the dead volcano for precious ores. Woolpy also presents an elaborate account of Sauron's chief minions who command the hierarchy of Dol Guldur, and details the internecine strife (sometimes counterproductive to the Necromancer's designs) that plagues their ranks. On top of this, the module includes a three part adventure (set in T.A. 1640) for use as a vehicle to draw player characters into Dol Guldur's intrigues, and a lengthy narrative of Gandalf the Grey's two famous forays into the dark stronghold (in T.A. 2063 and 2850 respectively), which ultimately led the wizard to the climactic revelation of the Age: SAURON LIVES!

In a lucid preface to his overview of the site, Woolpy writes: "The history of Dol Guldur is to a large degree the history of Sauron in the Third Age (23);" and part of the great value of this module is that it provides the reader with a masterful interpretation of Sauron's evolving strategy over the course of his two thousand-year exile from Mordor—a much needed synthesis that has been absent from or addressed only in a rudimentary fashion by the existing corpus of MERP modules. Woolpy's execution of this goal is without a doubt the most sensitive and consistent treatment to date of the all-important issue of Sauron's anonymity prior to Gandalf's discovery of his true identity in 2850, an imperative which finds expression not only in the history of Dol Guldur, but in its very design, and even its iconography. To be sure, there are a few unresolved matters (which I will address shortly); but they do not seriously detract from the author's positive accomplishment.

As far as the nuts and bolts of the actual fortress description go, the logistics of Dol Guldur are quite sound. Meticulous attention is given not only to the layout of the place, but also to the methods by which essential preconditions for light, heat, water, and waste removal are met—no small task for a citadel that garrisons thousands of the Dark Lord's minions over a vertical stretch of more than seven thousand feet (from the lookout posts near the summit of Amon Lanc to the boiling sulfuric pools of the "Fifth Stratum"). We are also given a highly intricate account of the internal chain of command by which Dol Guldur's hosts are ordered, with the names of all ranks given in Black Speech and/or Orkish (as they ought to be for a module that purports to adopt the viewpoint of the subjects it describes). This is the ultimate "insider's guide" to the villain's secret base.

A final feature which I want to single out for special praise is the section entitled "Gandalf's Tales" (mentioned above), which comprises a twenty-one page story of Gandalf's uninvited visits to the Necromancer's stronghold. Apart from their intrinsic entertainment value, these two episodes serve an important integrative function for the module as a whole. In the author's own words: "They reflect the dangers facing anyone bold enough to embark on the secret penetration of the Necromancer's daunting lair (137)." As a reader, I found Woolpy's high-paced prose to be extremely helpful for envisioning how Dol Guldur's defenses might operate in an actual game. (It was also a great way to reinforce my mental picture of the vastly complex layout of the fortress, after having experienced overload from a forced march through the seventy-odd pages of floorplans and room descriptions.) Despite the length of "Gandalf's Tales," I found it to be (in its own way) a highly effective way of communicating ideas to a GM desiring to run an infiltration scenario.

Now, what would I like to have seen more of? First of all, given the amount of Black Speech that gets bandied around in this module, a Black Speech dictionary (modeled after the Orkish dictionary in the Angmar module) would have been a nice touch. The setting, of course, is ideal: prior to Sauron's reoccupation of Mordor, Third Age Dol Guldur was the living "heartland" of that secret language, used only by the Dark Lord's most trusted servants.

Secondly, I would like to have seen more "bird's eye" views of the exterior of Dol Guldur (of the centerfold sort that appeared in all of the 1^st edition MERP citadel modules—very handy for orienting the players to the spatial relationships involved in complex fortifications).

Thirdly, I would like to have heard more about Sauron's own conception or intention regarding the alias he chose to adopt in order to fool everybody (including the majority of his own servants). Just who WAS this "Necromancer" supposed to be, if not the Lord of the Rings? This (it seems to me) must have been a central key to Sauron's successful two thousand-year concealment. And it is not at all a moot question, since Woolpy (like the authors of the Angmar module) posits religion as Sauron's principal tool for guiding and controlling people's perceptions of him. In this regard, it is well to remember that not all the inhabitants of Dol Guldur were servile Orcs or superstitious "Lesser Men;" Black Númenóreans, whose historical connection to Sauron had always been via the Cult of Melkor, occupy central leadership positions in the hierarchy of the Necromancer's hold.

This lacuna leads me to criticisms which I have voiced elsewhere (See my review of Angmar.) concerning the depiction of Sauronic religion as a motivational force for the Dark Lord's minions during the Third Age. In taking issue with the author's treatment, however, I want to emphasize that (unlike the authors of Angmar and other MERP modules) Woolpy stands practically alone in sustaining (within the framework of his own assumptions) complete consistency in his conception of Sauron.

My own view is that, in a fantasy universe, religion (like magic) should "work." The problem with Dol Guldur is that it postulates that the worship of the Necromancer—the Burlaugash (B.S. "Dark Sorcerer") in the lingo of the natives—is the main ideological "glue" that holds the military hierarchy of Dol Guldur together, without defining what that deity is, what he promises to his worshippers, and how he makes good those promises with genuine, "Spell Law" efficacy. The basic premise of religion is that power is bestowed upon the worshipper directly from his or her deity ("Channeling," in MERP/Rolemaster mechanics); and yet the officiants of the Necromancer's cult (like the "priests" of Angmar) are not priests at all, but sorcerers (33). If this is the case, then there is no cult of the Necromancer. It's all a sham to delude the weak-minded.

By contrast, the "good guys" have cults that do actually work. For instance, as Tolkien points out in his Letters, the kings of Gondor function as divinely sanctioned priests for their people: they have the power to bless and curse, to damn or to heal. Or take the Elven veneration of Elbereth, the utterance of whose name does real damage to evil creatures. Of course, Sauron is not Ilúvatar, nor even one of the Valar; but he is a powerful Maia, and if he expects to keep his more intelligent allies on his (or "Melkor's") side, he had better be able to demonstrate (under whatever alias) that he possesses tangible power that his worshippers can channel. Dol Guldur would have been an ideal occasion to explore this aspect of Sauron's presence during the Third Age.

In fact, in Dol Guldur Woolpy does provide some food for thought on this question—through his detailed description of the religious iconography and the visual representation that accompanies the many shrines and temples that pervade the Necromancer's citadel. Woolpy himself devotes quite a bit of thought to these, as he makes use of them as the critical turning points in "Gandalf's Tales," which lead the wizard to his awful realization of the Necromancer's true identity. The first of these indicators is fairly straightforward (a representation of the lidless eye); but the second, more determinative sign appears to my mind more problematic, and in fact nicely illustrates my overall criticism. This is a statue of Ar-Pharazôn which bears an inscription reading: "Great Betrayer of the Edain (112)." In "Gandalf's Tales," Woolpy has the wizard react in the following way: "To Gandalf, who knew well that Sauron's beguilement of Ar-Pharazôn led to the Downfall of Númenor, the statue told much. One thought then dominated the Wizard's mind: who but Sauron would display such a grotesque mockery (153)?"

I don't follow this logic. The Faithful Dúnedain-in-Exile also viewed Ar-Pharazôn as their betrayer, as is evidenced from The Akallabêth (supposedly written by Elendil). Conversely, the only Númenóreans that DIDN'T view Ar-Pharazôn as the Great Betrayer would have been those that continued to serve Sauron after the Downfall. To them, Ar-Pharazôn was their greatest hero, a man who had helped to establish the Cult of Melkor, and who suffered "martyrdom" for it at the hands of the Valar. If Sauron hoped to retain the allegiance of such men (much less command their religious devotion), he would hardly have allowed such a statue to be set up in the foyer of the main temple of Dol Guldur.

This leads me to my final criticism regarding the problem of sustaining the religious loyalty of Sauron's chief servants; namely, the presence of the Mouth of Sauron as one of the main "overlords" in Dol Guldur in the T.A. 1640s setting. To begin with, Tolkien clearly states that this Black Númenórean did not enter Sauron's service until T.A. 2951 (RotK: 164; the year the Dark Tower "first rose again;" cf. RotK: 370). Putting that issue aside for a moment, Woolpy's dating of the Mouth's involvement in Dol Guldur to T.A. 1035 raises the central problem of the religious expectations of all Númenóreans that worshipped Melkor: the promise of deathlessness. This goal was the entire raison d'être for Númenórean allegiance to Sauron in the first place; and, paradoxically, it was the one thing that Sauron could not in truth grant.

If indeed the Mouth of Sauron entered the service of Sauron several centuries prior to the time when Tolkien says he did, then an explanation for his longevity must be provided. The explanation Woolpy gives (following that outlined in the Gorgoroth module)—that, as a mortal sorcerer, the Mouth was in fact able to prolong his life by his own sorcerous arts—is unacceptable within the underlying assumption of Tolkien's mythology. Mortals must die, otherwise they can no longer exist as "living men," but became undead (e.g., the Nazgûl, the Oathbreakers).

For myself, I would much prefer that this glaring contradiction with Tolkien's published writing be excised from the record in future MERP modules; this, however, is impractical, given the central (and, indeed, fascinating) role the Mouth plays in Dol Guldur. Therefore, adopting a "rationalizing" tactic, let us attempt to account for the presence of the Mouth of Sauron in 1640. The easiest and most satisfactory solution that occurs to me would be to reconceptualize the Mouth as an office rather than a single individual. In this respect, the "amnesia" of the Mouth towards his own individuality works to our advantage. The other argument in favor of this is that the emissarial function which the Mouth serves is something Sauron would have had need of even before the Gorgoroth/Dol Guldur candidate had been born; this makes it all the more likely that others had acted in the same capacity at other periods of Sauron's Second and Third Age dominion.

The other alternative (less satisfactory as far as Tolkien's writing is concerned, but more in keeping with Woolpy's portrayal) would be to give the Mouth a Ring of Power. Now, on a few occasions in Dol Guldur, the author draws upon this ploy to immortalize a select few among Sauron's servants. Unfortunately, this too openly contradicts Tolkien. In the opening discussion of the Rings of Power in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf singles out mortal longevity as THE principal power that differentiates "the Great Rings" (i.e., the Nine, the Seven, the Three, the One) from the many other "Lesser Rings" that had been forged (56). Woolpy wants the Lesser Rings to extend natural longevity, which is the one thing they most certainly cannot do. However, Woolpy also narrates at least one episode in which Sauron recovers one of the Seven Dwarf Rings during his sojourn at Dol Guldur. So why not give the Mouth et. al. recaptured Dwarven Rings? As I said, this is a less-than-ideal solution, because that would make the Mouth a Wraith by the time of the War of the Ring, which is exactly what Tolkien says he was not (op. cit.).

Whatever logical flaws may exist in Dol Guldur, it remains a massive achievement. If nothing else, it is the best possible warm-up one could ask for for tackling the ultimate evil citadel we are all eagerly awaiting: Barad-dûr!