Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a 2017 action-adventure video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Shadow of War is the sequel to 2014's Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, both of which are based on J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The game is set in between the events of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings film trilogies, from which the game also takes inspiration. The player continues the story of Talion, the Gondorian Ranger who bonded with the wraith of the Elf Lord Celebrimbor, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game builds upon the "nemesis system" introduced in Shadow of Mordor, allowing Talion to gain followers from several races of Middle-earth and command them in warfare.

Shadow of War expanded on the scope of Shadow of Mordor by introducing new game mechanics and extending the nemesis system, which procedurally generates orc characters for players to fight and recruit. Compared to its predecessor, the game features more light-hearted moments, and the five regions were designed to be bigger and more colorful. Locations in the game were inspired by the landscapes of eastern Washington, Alaska, and Iceland. Troy Baker returned to provide the voice of Talion, while simultaneously serving as the game's motion capture director. Other cast members include Alastair Duncan as Celebrimbor, Laura Bailey, and Pollyanna McIntosh.

Announced in March 2017, the game was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. Shadow of War had a generally favorable reception from critics, albeit more mixed than its predecessor. Reviewers praised the gameplay and improved nemesis system, while criticizing the game's microtransactions (which was removed in a post-game update in July 2018) and story, including changes to characters seen in Tolkien's books. Many critics noted that the game's increased scope caused it to feel bloated. The game was the best-selling video game in the United States in its month of release. Monolith supported the game post-launch with free updates and two story expansions.

## Gameplay

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action-adventure game set in an open world and played from a third-person perspective. The player controls the game's protagonist, Talion, who has several athletic and combative abilities as a ranger of Gondor. The combat system in Shadow of War is similar to its predecessor. Talion can use his weapons to strike enemies and build up his "might" meter. Once Talion lands eight consecutive strikes, they can perform a combat finisher move, massively damaging an enemy's health. When an enemy is about to strike Talion, a symbol will appear on top of their head, signaling the player to parry their attacks. Unblockable attacks are highlighted in red, and the player must try to dodge those attacks. In addition to melee combat, players can also utilize stealth tactics when approaching their targets. Talion also has unique abilities provided by the wraith of the elf lord Celebrimbor, with whom he shares his body. Through Celebrimbor, Talion can perform magical feats such as double-jumping, activating wraith vision to highlight nearby enemies, shooting spirit arrows, wielding a spectral glaive, draining an enemy's health, or dominating them. Players must use their combined abilities to complete various missions, typically aimed to disrupt the armies of Sauron. As players progress in the game and complete story quests, they will gradually gain points to unlock new skills and abilities. Each skill can be individually upgraded to provide more gameplay perks and bonuses.

The game features a currency called "mirian", which is earned by defeating enemies. Mirian can be used to purchase weaponry and other gear, as well as followers, in the game's market. Talion has access to five different types of gear in his inventory: a sword, a dagger, a bow, armor, and a cloak. The effectiveness of a particular piece of gear is dictated by both its stat and its rarity, which is categorized into: common, rare, epic, and legendary. Players can spend the mirian and finish "unlock challenges" in order to upgrade their weapons. In addition, gems can be slotted into Talion's gear. They can be used to either increase weapon's damage, Talion's health, or the amount of mirian Talion will gain through defeating enemies or completing quests. Several lower-quality gems can be combined into a gem of the next-higher quality. As players progress in the game, they will collect legendary gear. When multiple legendary gear of the same set are collected, combat bonuses will be granted to players.

Shadow of War is is made up of five different areas, which Talion can freely explored by players on foot or while riding tamed beasts. There are side activities that Talion can participate in, such as purifying Haedir towers, which unlocks a fast travel point for players and reveals locations of interest to players, He can also find lost Gondorian artifacts, solve puzzles to unlock "ithildin doors", collect Shelob's memories, and complete "Shadows of the Past" quests, which are challenges based on Celebrimbor's memories. Each of four of the five regions has a fortress operated by an overlord. Players must lay siege to these fortresses, and maintain control after capturing them. Each fortress has a "fortress level", which indicates how strong the warchiefs stationed inside the fortress are and how well fortified a fortress is. Players can send in their own followers to capture the fortress, and the combined strengths of their followers are reflected by the player's own "assault force level". If the fortress level and assault force level are similar, both sides would be even in strength, resulting in an even fight. After a fortress invasion has started, Talion and his followers must capture victory points, and kill the overlord in the throne room. Players can then appoint one of their followers to become the new overlord of the fortress, and improve their fortress with siege upgrades. Defense missions become available following a successful fortress conquest. After completing the game's main campaign, players can complete endgame content known as "Shadow Wars" (renamed to "Epilogue" in July 2018), in which players must defend their fortresses against hostile enemies 20 times before unlocking the game's bonus ending.

### Nemesis system

The nemesis system expands upon its introduction in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Similar to the first game, enemies in the game are procedurally generated. While "generic" orcs serve as cannon fodder, as part of Sauron's armies, the game will begin tracking the ones that have notable achievements within the game, such as killing the player, or surviving an encounter with the player. Enemies in the game will remember their interactions with Talion, and taunt him when they encounter him again later. Hostile orcs may also return, scarred, with some even cheating death to exact revenge on Talion. Once the player dies, orcs will advance up the hierarchy and become captains, who are characters with unique attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and names. Intelligence on these captains can be collected through interrogating characters named "worms". Enemy orcs will also ambush Talion, which is one of the random events that can happen at any point of the game. Players, upon learning a captain's traits, can avoid tactics that aggravate or enrage a captain, and exploit their weaknesses, causing them to be dazed and leaving them defenseless. Captains in the game will also adapt, as the artificial intelligence in the game will learn the player's preferred gameplay tactics and develop strategies to counter them. Enemy orcs can be dominated through Cerebrimbor's powers, allowing Talion to either recruit them, kill them, or shame them, which significantly lowers their level. Players cannot recruit orcs who have a higher level than Talion. A shamed enemy may also become a "maniac", a deranged individual whose level will increase significantly.

Shadow of War's nemesis system also extends to Talion's followers as he gradually builds his own orc army, which can be summoned to the battlefield, assisting Talion in combat. Players can recruit a captain and send them to infiltrate a fortress. They may be appointed as the bodyguard of a warchief, allowing said captain to betray the warchief in a subsequent mission. Following the death of a warchief, captains will battle each other for the position. Players will then unlock a Nemesis mission, allowing players to assist Talion's followers in battle to ensure their success. These warchiefs will then betray the overlord during fortress assault battles, thus making the fortress siege easier for Talion. There are a number of Nemesis missions, allowing Talion to perform tasks like exacting revenge on a captain who has previously killed him, or intervening in conflicts between orcs. Friendly orcs will also remember a specific encounter, saving Talion when he was about to be killed by a hostile captain, or attempting to take down a specific enemy captain on his own. Friendly orcs can also participate in fight pits, in which they battle another orc to death in order to earn gear and level up. However, friendly followers may also betray Talion. The player is able to transfer their top Nemesis and their most loyal follower from Shadow of Mordor into Shadow of War through the Nemesis Forge.

The game features two asynchronous multiplayer modes. In Online Vendetta missions, players can enter another player's nemesis system to defeat their nemesis. Once another player's nemesis has been defeated, players would receive a loot chest and "Spoils of War", Vendetta's form of experience. "Social Conquest mode" allows players to invade other players' fortresses and attempt to conquer them. This mode has two settings: friendly and ranked. Friendly allows players to invade someone's fortresses, without the risk of losing their army. Ranked, on the other hand, allows players to invade, but with a risk of losing some of their own orc followers permanently. When the game was released, players could purchase reward chests through the game's marketplace. This included Loot Chests that provide players with gear and consumables, War chests that unlock followers and training orders that improve a follower's attributes, and "Spoils of War Chests" that unlock high-level followers. In July 2018, the marketplace and all forms of microtransactions were completely removed from the game.

## Plot

Shadow of War continues the narrative from Shadow of Mordor, following undead ranger Talion (Troy Baker) who is still infused with the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor (Alastair Duncan). Talion and Celebrimbor travel to Mount Doom, where they forge a new Ring of Power that is free of Sauron's corruption. However, once the Ring is forged, Celebrimbor is abducted and held hostage by Shelob (Pollyanna McIntosh), who asks Talion to hand over the Ring in exchange for Celebrimbor. Talion reluctantly agrees and gives the Ring to Shelob, who claims they have a common enemy in Sauron. She uses the Ring to see into the future and directs Talion to the last Gondorian stronghold near Mordor, Minas Ithil. The city is under siege by Sauron's forces, due to the city's possession of a valuable Palantír that allows whoever possesses it to see anything they wish, making it either a valuable tool for Celebrimbor or a powerful weapon for Sauron.

Talion travels to Minas Ithil and is at odds with Celebrimbor. Talion wants to help his fellow Gondorians, while Celebrimbor believes the city is already lost and the retrieval of the Palantír must take priority. Talion reasons that protecting Minas Ithil will protect the Palantír, and he meets up with the city's defenders: General Castamir (Travis Willingham), his daughter Idril (Nicole Tompkins), and his lieutenant Baranor (Ike Amadi). Together, they sabotage any efforts by Sauron's forces to break into the city, until Castamir betrays them, allowing the orcs to breach the gates, and hands over the Palantír to the Witch-king of Angmar (Matt Mercer) in return for sparing Idril. Castamir is killed by the Witch-king and Talion is barely able to escape with the help of Eltariel (Laura Bailey), an Elven assassin working on behalf of Galadriel (Jennifer Hale). The Witch-king, having seized Minas Ithil, renames it Minas Morgul. With the Palantír, Sauron realizes that Shelob is holding Celebrimbor's Ring and sends the Nazgûl to attack her. Talion is able to save Shelob, who returns the Ring to him and tells him that the fate of Middle-earth is in his hands.

With the Ring back in his possession, Talion begins to use its power to dominate orcs and build his army. During this time, he assists Idril and Baranor in rescuing Gondorian survivors, helps the nature spirit Carnan (Toks Olagundoye) defeat the Balrog Tar Goroth and the necromancer Zog (Nolan North), is betrayed by one of his followers, and hunts the Nazgûl alongside Eltariel. Talion builds up enough strength to assault Sauron's fortress directly. During the battle, Talion faces Isildur (Nolan North), who has been corrupted into a Nazgûl. Talion manages to defeat Isildur, but upon seeing his memories of how he was corrupted by the One Ring, decides to destroy Isildur and release his spirit rather than dominate him. Celebrimbor remarks angrily that Isildur would have been a valuable asset to their cause, leading Talion to realize that Celebrimbor wishes to replace Sauron by dominating him rather than destroying him. Talion refuses to follow Celebrimbor's orders any more, causing the wraith to abandon him and possess Eltariel instead.

Without Celebrimbor or the Ring, Talion begins to die before seeing a vision of Shelob. She informs him that if he had gone on to fight Sauron, they would have succeeded and Celebrimbor would have enslaved Sauron and marched on the rest of Middle-earth. She implores Talion to continue to fight to contain the darkness within Mordor. Deciding to put his fate in his own hands, Talion picks up the ring Isildur was wearing to preserve his own life. He uses the power of Isildur's Ring to assault and seize Minas Morgul, defeating the Witch-king in the process. Talion takes possession of the Palantír and observes Celebrimbor and Eltariel making their assault on Sauron. The latter two manage to gain the upper hand and Celebrimbor attempts to dominate Sauron, only for Sauron to cut off two of Eltariel's fingers, one of which is adorned with the Ring of Power, and merge himself with Celebrimbor. As a result, Sauron and Celebrimbor remain trapped in Sauron's tower in the form of a flaming eye as their spirits continue to battle each other for dominance. Knowing he will not be able to resist the Ring, Talion decides to use Minas Morgul as a fortress to keep Sauron's forces contained in Mordor as long as he can.

Decades later, Talion succumbs to the corruption of Isildur's Ring, and joins Sauron's forces as a Nazgûl, where he goes with the others to hunt Frodo and the One Ring. However, with the destruction of Sauron and the One Ring, Talion dies with the rest of the Nazgûl, and his spirit is freed. He is last seen on the shores of Valinor discarding his weapons and armor as he walks off into the west.

### Blade of Galadriel

Following the final battle between Celebrimbor and Sauron, Eltariel recovers Celebrimbor's Ring, and receives orders from Galadriel to continue hunting the remaining Nazgûl, including Talion. Eltariel reluctantly confronts Talion, who manages to convince her that by working together, they can keep Sauron's influence contained within Mordor. However, he informs her that a new warchief is leading a massive army and has attacked many of his fortresses. Talion tasks Eltariel with defending one of his remaining forts while he goes to defend another fort in Seregost. Eltariel manages to recruit several new tribes of orcs to fight for her and she successfully defends her fort from enemy attack, though Seregost falls. A pair of rogue Nazgûl arrive, revealing they are the ones leading the new orc army, as they plan to take advantage of Sauron and the Witch-king's weakness to take over Middle-earth. After recapturing Seregost, Eltariel and Talion pursue the Nazgûl twins to their stronghold, where Eltariel is able to defeat both of them. Despite their defeat, Talion begins to succumb to the temptation of Isildur's Ring, forcing Eltariel to battle him. Though Eltariel is victorious, Talion tells her that he will inevitably be resurrected by Sauron. Afterwards, Eltariel continues to battle the forces of Mordor until she witnesses the destruction of the One Ring. Upon seeing Celebrimbor's spirit freed from Sauron, Eltariel decides to track him down.

### Desolation of Mordor

After the fall of Minas Ithil, Baranor seeks to hire mercenaries to help him seize the fortress of Shindram. On the way, he is attacked by wyrms and rescued by the dwarf Torvin (Adam Croasdell), who provides helpful inventions such as a grappling hook and a glider. Baranor continues to the Vanishing Sons mercenary camp, where he discovers that they are led by his estranged older brother Jagai, who now goes by the name of Serka (Usman Ally). Serka reluctantly agrees to help Baranor take Shindram in return for all of the loot stored inside. However, another mercenary, Zhoja, betrays Serka and sends him to fight in an orc fighting pit. Baranor rescues Serka, who reasserts control over the Vanishing Sons and executes Zhoja. After repelling an orc attack, Baranor and Serka lead their army and seize Shindram, doing so by destroying the fortress's overlord, Takra. However, rather than hold the fortress, they leave a trap for the orcs sent to retake it. Baranor and Serka leave to seize more fortresses, deciding that Gorgoroth will be their next target.

## Development

After the success of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monolith Productions returned to lead the development of the sequel. Creative director Michael De Plater said that the development of Shadow of Mordor was a learning study for Monolith in how to make open world games, and the development team limited themselves in the scope of what they could deliver for that game. With those lessons learned, de Plater said that Monolith was able to take a bolder step forward for Shadow of War, saying "[t]his was our ambition to do the big, blockbuster version of the ideas we'd begun to explore in the first game. It's kind of our Terminator 2 to Terminator." Monolith upgraded their game engine, named LithTech, from Shadow of Mordor, to the Firebird engine, which can support large-scale battles and more complex features in the nemesis system.

The team wanted the game's story to "evoke some of the most iconic and epic elements" in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. They created battle systems that enable large-scale battles where parts of the battle would be managed by the various Followers that the player has recruited, thus allowing the player to still focus on the violence and brutality of close-quarter combat. In addition, the team would weave these moments into the story of the game, and provide context for the nemesis system, whose ultimate goal was to facilitate Talion's complete conquest of Mordor. Explaining why the story deviated from the Lords of the Ring canon, de Plater described the story as an "adaptation" of the books. While the team wanted to capture the spirit of Middle-earth as much as possible, the team created an original story that explores "the darker side of Tolkien's works". As the game takes place in the decades between the end of The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring, the team believed that they could fill in some missing details without impacting the wider story depicted in Tolkien's novels, as this period was relatively less explored in fiction. The team further compared the game to the Star Wars movie Rogue One, whereby the story of Shadow of War would lead into the events of The Lord of the Rings. The story was also designed to be accessible, and players need not play Shadow of Mordor or understand any of the Tolkien's work before playing Shadow of War. The "Shadow Wars" endgame mode was created with the intention of giving players more reasons to continue playing the game and explore the nemesis system after they complete the main story. The team expected only a small percentage of players to unlock this final ending.

Talion returned as the game's central protagonist. The game's narrative follows a three-act structure, and provides a definitive ending to Talion's story that begins in Shadow of Mordor. According to de Plater, while Talion inherited the heroic traits of Boromir, he is ultimately an everyman like Samwise Gamgee. Troy Baker returned to provide voice for Talion, while also serving as the motion capture director for all story sequences in the game. Baker drew from his experience working with Naughty Dog on The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End while working on the project, while working closely with the game's writers and cutscenes directors. In addition to Baker, Alastair Duncan returned to voice Celebrimbor. In the game, Celebrimbor is an ambitious "figure of power", one who believes that he can be better than Sauron, once he takes the ring. The team wanted to take players to areas outside of Mordor and have Talion meet other new characters. New members of the cast include Laura Bailey, who played the role of Eltariel, an elven assassin working for Galadriel who fights to keep the Nazgûl within Mordor. Pollyanna McIntosh voiced Shelob, a spider who can shapeshift into a human woman in the game. While this decision was initially met with a backlash from fans of the series as Shelob is not a woman in the books, writer Tony Elias added that they could explore the character in a much more in-depth manner when she was in her human form, or they would have to dramatically reduce her role in the game.

The team tried to devote resources to new regions as much as possible. The locations in the game were inspired by the landscapes of eastern Washington, Alaska, and Iceland. De Plater added that each region in the game was larger in size when compared to that of Shadow of Mordor, and was more environmentally diverse. The five regions were also designed to be more colorful, contrasting with the gritty artstyle of Shadow of Mordor. The human city of Minas Ithil was designed as the first location that Talion will visit. The team took inspiration from Minas Tirith, from the films, and Roman architecture, while designing the look of the city. They also consulted illustrator and architect Ted Nasmith. The team also planned for the city to be attacked and captured by Nazgûl, becoming the fallen city of Minas Morgul. Seregost was a snowy location that had changes in elevation not previously seen in its predecessor. Cirith Ungol was a massive cave complex where remnants of an ancient civilization can be found. Núrn returned in Shadow of War as a tropical island. Through Núrn, the team wanted to explore the theme of nature destruction, as orcs are destroying its lush forest to provide supplies for their war effort. Gorgoroth was described as a "hellscape", and "the culmination of all of these iconic locations and structures that everybody knows and loves from the lore made real". Gorgoroth was heavily industrialized, as the team wanted to show how the orcs are preparing for war by building different engines of war and factories. The nemesis system also influences the world itself, with each environment changing depending on the tribe of the orc overlord controlling each fortress.

### Development of the nemesis system

Monolith aimed to improve the nemesis system by increasing the emotional intensity and variety of the emergent stories. Lead designer Chris Hoge explained that the best relationship between Talion and orcs is similar to a roller coaster, one that is filled with "ups and downs". He added that the more trouble an orc caused to the player, the more rewarding it would be for players when they eliminate that orc later in the game. This created a "revenge loop", where the player needs to know how to exploit an orc's weakness and break the loop. The game introduced a system named "player interaction score" (PIS), which tracks how much players interact with each individual orc in the game. The orc that a player interacts with the most is more likely to "cheat death" as they return to life to taunt the player. Certain orc archetypes were designed to appear only once per game. For instance, an orc with "the Claw" title is one whose arm has been dismembered by Talion, but nonetheless returns to face Talion with a metal prosthetic. According to Hoge, the dialogues and the in-game text were written to be "as natural and shareable as possible", so that players would share these personalized moments with their friends.

The team wanted enemy encounters to be challenging and varied. Compared with the enemy traits in Shadow of Mordor, traits in Shadow of War were more predictable, making them less likely to be completely undefeatable. This was achieved through the tribal affiliations of each orc, as each tribe has their own unique appearance and preferred approaches to combat. In addition, the team also significantly expanded Talion's combat skills, and introduced an "easy" difficulty mode to avoid frustrating players who are less competent. Monolith also curated content in the nemesis system, removing boring scenarios, while handcrafting certain scenes that the team wanted to happen in the procedural generation. While the nemesis system has been significantly expanded, the game remained a third-person action-adventure title. The team did not want players to over-strategize. The nemesis system was described as a "story-generating machine", but its calculations are not fully revealed to players.

To rectify a situation in Shadow of Mordor where competent players would rarely be killed by enemies and therefore never get to explore the nemesis system, Shadow of War's system will track a player's gameplay style and have enemies adapt to these tactics, making for a more challenging experience. The system was designed to track the player's progress and send a particular type of enemy after the player. This was designed to ensure that all types of players, regardless of their competency in the game, would get to experience the nemesis system, and create a nemesis that is "personable" and "memorable". The nemesis system was also expanded to include Talion's followers. A personal story for each orc continues after they have been recruited, as they will rescue Talion in his dying moments, deliver gifts to him, and sometimes betray him. According to de Plater, this allowed the nemesis system to further tell stories about "loyalty, betrayal and friendship", a process that does not necessarily include being killed by a hostile orc. By having orcs betray Talion, players are also given a target for revenge. When playtesting the game, the nemesis system sometimes generated unexpected results. Instead of correcting these issues, the team instead embraced these results and wrote extra dialogues for such outcomes.

Monolith strived to give each orc their own unique personality. The team wanted them to be "genuine characters", with traits of humanity. De Plater described them as "soldiers in the trenches", and the "manifestation of what happens to human beings when they get controlled completely by the emotions of hatred and fear". While orcs in the game lack empathy and a moral compass, they do not see themselves as villains. Recognizing the violence inherent in the Middle-earth setting, Monolith aimed to include light humorous elements that play off the thirst for violence that the orcs have, so that the game would not "wallow in it, or feel sadistic". Some of the orcs have to be likeable, as they will join Talion's army, fighting alongside him. In addition to the orcs, other enemies appear in the game. John Howe, the principal artist of the Lord of the Rings films, was recruited to design the appearances of ringwraiths. The Olog-Hai was a group of smart trolls created specifically for the game; their design was inspired by the super-soldiers from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine.

## Release

Shadow of War was officially announced by Monolith Productions and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in March 2017. The title was originally scheduled to be released in August 2017, but in June of that year, the publisher announced that the release would be put off for two months, to make sure the game meets "the highest quality experience" for players. The game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. A free-to-play companion game for iOS and Android devices was also released on September 28, 2017, ahead of the console/PC versions. Developed by IUGO Mobile Entertainment, mobile companion versions of Shadow of War are played as a real-time strategy role-playing video game from a top-down perspective, where players can recruit characters from the console/PC versions of the game and other characters from its predecessor and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy to fight Sauron's forces in small-scale battles.

On March 3, 2016, Monolith's executive producer, Michael David Forgey, died of cancer. To commemorate the loss of Shadow of War's executive producer, Monolith, and Warner Bros. announced a downloadable content (DLC) named "Forthog Orc-Slayer". Originally selling for \$5, Warner Bros. promised to donate \$3.50 of the proceeds from each sale of the DLC made from any of the majority of the U.S. states to the Forgey family through December 31, 2019. Warner Bros. was criticized for attempting to cash in on Forgey's death. Following a public backlash, on September 27, 2017, the DLC was made free to all who purchased the game and all proceeds were refunded to those who purchased it beforehand, in favor of Warner Bros. making a lump sum donation to the Forgey family.

The game was released alongside an expansion pass, which grants players access to several pieces of downloadable content. Slaughter Tribe Nemesis and The Outlaw Tribe Nemesis were released in November and December 2017, respectively, introducing new orc tribes and gear. In February 2018, Blade of Galadriel, a story expansion was released. In this expansion, players would assume control of Eltariel as she fights to uncover the mystery behind the Nazgûl. In May 2018, Monolith released an expansion named Desolation of Mordor. Players assume control of Baranor, the Captain of Minas Ithil, who must work with his allies to fight against a new orc threat to the east. Several free updates have been released, introducing content such as infinite Shadow War and Online Fight Pits. In April 2018, Monolith announced that they would gradually remove all forms of microtransactions and the marketplace from the game, citing that they "compromise" the game by undermining the nemesis system, as such transactions provide players a fast shortcut to build their army. Following the change, WB Games bundled all expansion pass content with the base game, releasing it as the "Definitive Edition" in August 2018. A demo for the game, which allows players to complete all missions in the Núrn region, was also released for Steam users in August 2018.

## Reception

Middle-earth: Shadow of War received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Many critics noted the game's ambitious scope and its significant expansion of the nemesis system, but criticized the game's story and bloated size. The introduction of microtransactions and lootboxes (war chests) were widely criticized by critics. Commercially, Shadow of War was the best-selling video game in the US in October 2017, with sales being 20% higher than its predecessor. In the UK, it was the second best-selling video game in its week of release, behind FIFA 18.

The nemesis system was often singled out as the highlight of the game. Matt Miller from Game Informer described Shadow of War as "a playground of intense and emergent action scenes" shaped by player's choices. He was impressed by the variety of orcs he encountered in the game, and wrote that interacting with them through the game's nemesis missions helped deepen players' engagement with the game's world. Hurley also enjoyed the nemesis system for creating personalized stories on top of the main narrative, noting that each encounter with an orc may potentially develop into a unique story depending on players' decisions. Stapleton praised how the nemesis system generated numerous colorful characters and adversaries, with each having their own voice and appearance. He further applauded the system for introducing a layer of surprise and unpredictability to the game. PC Gamer's Andy Kelly described the nemesis system as the "best part" of Shadow of War. The tribal systems was singled out for producing orcs that feel like "distinct, original characters, therefore, making the relationships forged with them more "personal". Christian Donlan from Eurogamer praised the nemesis system for making the game's world feel "wonderfully, comically, teeteringly alive". However, several critics questioned the morality behind building an orc army by essentially brainwashing and enslaving them.

The combat of the game received critical acclaim. Matt Miller from Game Informer praised the diverse combat skills, which provided a "potent power fantasy". He also enjoyed the progression system, which kept the gameplay experience fresh despite the game's long length. Leon Hurley, writing for GamesRadar, also enjoyed the upgrade system for significantly deepening the "simple" yet "effective" counter-based combat system. He remarked that each combat scenario could be different due to the unique traits of each orc, forcing players to improvise and adapt. Dan Stapleton from IGN praised Talion's agility, calling the transversal options "quick and fun". Fortress assault was praised by critics for being epic in scale, though Stapleton was disappointed by the lack of planning and strategy involved. Johnny Chiodini from Eurogamer wrote that the game often overwhelmed players with upgrade points and skills, causing the gameplay experience to be relatively easy. As a result, this undermined the nemesis system, as he had never encountered a "nemesis" character that caused him significant trouble or could repeatedly kill his Talion.

The story of the game received generally negative reviews. Hurley remarked that the game's tone was incoherent and felt the story did not respect the source material, citing Shelob's change from a spider to a human woman as one of his disappointments with the game's narrative. Stapleton added that the game played "fast and loose" with Lord of the Ring lore, while criticizing the game's dialog as "clunky" and "derivative". Kelly also disliked the game's tone, feeling that it was "overly-serious" and lacked a sense of playfulness. Johnny Chiodini from Eurogamer also called the story "dreadful", "self-indulgent", and "bombastic nonsense". He suspected Monolith only added certain plot points "for the sake of doing things bigger for the sequel", and wrote that "the lore had been thrown out the window for the sake of a couple of schlocky and unnecessary reveals". Chris Carter from Destructoid disliked Talion, calling him "bland", and remarked that the story was "nonsensical", with "rings upon rings and comical retcons". Phillip Kollar from Polygon remarked that fans of the Tolkien's legendarium will likely find Shadow of War's story and twists to the existing canon "distasteful". Writing for GameSpot, Justin Haywald liked the stories featuring the game's side characters and orc companions, but lamented that players did not get to spend enough time with them and that these quests end abruptly.

Critics had mixed feelings about the scale of the game. While some reviewers noted the distinctiveness of the game's five regions, they also noted their lack of new enemy types or gameplay. While Miller praised the location design and described the locations as a "visual treat", Kelly criticized the uninspiring environment design and the game's "sludgy, muted look". Kelly felt that despite the abundance of systems in the game, many were not integrated properly. Elaborating on the game's bloatedness, Kelly added that the game was "constantly screaming at [players] to do things", and described its side content as a "fantasy to-do list". Carter, likewise, felt that some of the systems, such as the gear featured in the game, were overly convoluted. Andrew Webster, writing for The Verge, added that Monolith's intention to introduce more content to the game unexpectedly backfired and diluted the experience, causing great moments in the game to be overshadowed by unnecessary content, boring missions, and map markers that failed to elevate the experience.

### Accolades

2017 action role-playing video game

Middle-earth (film franchise) video games

Video games developed in the United States


Emilie Autumn

Emilie Autumn Liddell (born September 22, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, poet, author and violinist. Autumn's musical style is described by her as "Fairy Pop", "Fantasy Rock" or "Victoriandustrial". It is influenced by glam rock and from plays, novels, and history, particularly the Victorian era. Performing with her all-female backup dancers The Bloody Crumpets, Autumn incorporates elements of classical music, cabaret, electronica, and glam rock with theatrics, and burlesque.

Growing up in Malibu, California, Autumn began learning the violin at the age of four and left regular school five years later with the goal of becoming a world-class violinist; she practiced eight or nine hours a day and read a wide range of literature. Progressing to writing her own music, she studied under various teachers and went to Indiana University, which she left over issues regarding the relationship between classical music and the appearance of the performer. Through her own independent label Traitor Records, Autumn debuted in 1997 with her classical album On a Day: Music for Violin & Continuo, followed by the release in 2003 of her album Enchant.

Autumn appeared in singer Courtney Love's backing band on her 2004 America's Sweetheart tour and returned to Europe. She released the 2006 album Opheliac with the German label Trisol Music Group. In 2007, she released Laced/Unlaced; the re-release of On a Day... appeared as Laced with songs on the electric violin as Unlaced. She later left Trisol to join New York based The End Records in 2009 and release Opheliac in the United States, where previously it had only been available as an import. In 2012, she released the album Fight Like a Girl. She played the role of the Painted Doll in Darren Lynn Bousman's 2012 film The Devil's Carnival, as well as its 2015 sequel, Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival.

## Life and career

### 1979–2000: Beginnings

Emilie Autumn was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 22, 1979. Autumn grew up in Malibu, California. She has stated that "being surrounded by nature and sea had a lot to do with [her] development as a 'free spirit.'" Her mother worked as a seamstress, and she has said that her father was a German immigrant with whom she did not share a close relationship. While not musicians, her family enjoyed various genres of music.

When Autumn was four years old, she started learning the violin, and later commented: "I remember asking for a violin, but I don't remember knowing what one was. I might have thought it was a kind of pony for all I know, but I don't remember being disappointed." Four years later, Autumn made her musical debut as a solo violinist performing with an orchestra, and won a competition. At the age of nine or ten, she left regular school with the goal of becoming a world-class violinist. On her time at the school, she remarked, "I hated it anyway, what with the status as 'weird,' 'antisocial,' and the physical threats, there seemed to be no reason to go anymore, so I just didn't." She practiced eight or nine hours a day, had lessons, read a wide range of literature, participated in orchestra practice, and was home-schooled. Growing up, she owned a large CD collection of "violin concertos, symphonies, chamber music, opera, and a little jazz". She began writing her own music and poetry at age thirteen or fourteen, though she never planned to sing any of her songs. She studied under various teachers and attended Indiana University in Bloomington, but left after two years there, because she disagreed with the prevailing views on individuality and classical music. She believed that neither the audience nor the original composer would be insulted by the clothing and appearance of the performer.

While convinced that she would only play violin, eighteen-year-old Autumn decided to sing on one of her songs as a way of demonstrating to a major music producer, who wanted to sign her on a label, how it should sound. She became unhappy with the changes done to her songs, and decided to break away from the label and create her own independent record label, Traitor Records. Through it, she debuted with her classical album On a Day: Music for Violin & Continuo, which she recorded in 1997 when she was seventeen years old; its title refers to the fact that the album took only a day to record. It consists of her performing works for the baroque violin accompanied by Roger Lebow on the baroque cello, Edward Murray on harpsichord, and Michael Egan on lute. She considered it "more of a demo despite its length", and released it as "a saleable album" after fans who enjoyed her "rock performances starting asking for a classical album so that they could hear more of the violin." She also debuted with her poetry book Across the Sky & Other Poems in 2000, later re-released in 2005 as Your Sugar Sits Untouched with a music-accompanied audiobook.

### 2001–04: Enchant and collaborations

As part of a recording project, Autumn traveled to Chicago, Illinois, in 2001, and decided to stay because she enjoyed the public transportation system and music scene there. She released the 2001 EP Chambermaid while finishing Enchant—she alternatively labeled the musical style on Chambermaid as "fantasy rock" and cabaret—and wrote the 2001 charity single "By the Sword" after the events of September 11, 2001. According to her, the song is about strength, not violence; the act of swearing by the sword represents "an unbreakable promise to right a wrong, to stay true".

On February 26, 2003, Autumn released her concept album Enchant, which spanned multiple musical styles: "new-age, pop and trip hop chamber music". Written during her late teenage years, Enchant revolved around the supernatural realm and its effect on the modern-day world. Autumn labeled it as "fantasy rock", which dealt with "dreams and stories and ghosts and faeries who'll bite your head off if you dare to touch them". The faery-themed "Enchant Puzzle" appeared on the artwork of the album; her reward for the person who would solve it consisted of faery-related items. Her bandmates consisted of cellist Joey Harvey, drummer Heath Jansen, guitarist Ben Lehl, and bassist Jimmy Vanaria, who also worked on the electronics. At the same time of Enchant's release, Autumn had several side projects: Convent, a musical group for which she recorded all four voices; Ravensong, "a classical baroque ensemble" that she formed with friends in California; and The Jane Brooks Project, which she dedicated to the real-life, 16th-century Jane Brooks—a woman executed for witchcraft.

On the night of the Enchant release party, Autumn learned that Courtney Love had invited her to record an album, America's Sweetheart, and embark on the tour to promote it. Contributing violin and vocals, Autumn appeared in Love's backing band The Chelsea— along with Radio Sloan, Dvin Kirakosian, Samantha Maloney, and Lisa Leveridge—on the 2004 tour. Much of Autumn's violin work was ultimately not released on the album; she commented: "This had to do entirely with new producers taking over the project after our little vacation in France, and carefully discarding all of our sessions." She performed live with Love and The Chelsea on Late Show with David Letterman on March 17, 2004, and at Bowery Ballroom the next day. In September 2004, her father died from lung cancer, even though he had quit smoking twenty years earlier. Near the end of 2004, she was filmed for an appearance on an episode of HGTV's Crafters Coast to Coast, showing viewers how to create faery wings and sushi-styled soap—both products she sold in her online "web design and couture fashion house", WillowTech House. On December 23, 2004, she appeared on the Chicago-based television station WGN as part of the string quartet backing up Billy Corgan and Dennis DeYoung's duet of "We Three Kings".

### 2005–09: Opheliac, Laced/Unlaced, and A Bit o' This & That

`Autumn began work on her concept album Opheliac in August 2004, and recorded it at Mad Villain Studios in Chicago. In August 2005, she created the costumes for Corgan's music video for the track "Walking Shade"; she also contributed violin and vocals for the track "DIA" from his 2005 album TheFutureEmbrace. In late 2005, Autumn also recorded vocals and violin for "The Gates of Eternity" from Attrition's 2008 album All Mine Enemys Whispers: The Story of Mary Ann Cotton, a concept album focusing on the Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton. Autumn later protested the release of the song, claiming that it was unfinished, "altered without her permission", and had been intended only as a possible collaboration with Martin Bowes.`

In January 2006, Autumn performed a song from the album, "Misery Loves Company", on WGN, before the album's release by the German label Trisol Music Group in September. She released the limited-edition, preview EP Opheliac through her own label, Traitor Records, in spring 2006; while the Opheliac EPs were being shipped, Autumn claimed that her offices had been robbed, causing the delay in the album release and the shipping of the EPs. According to her, Opheliac "was the documentation of a completely life-changing and life-ending experience". At one time, Autumn did have plans to film a music video for her song "Liar", which included "bloody bathtubs". Her song "Opheliac" later appeared on the 2007 albums 13th Street: The Sound of Mystery, Vol. 3, published by ZYX Music, and Fuck the Mainstream, Vol. 1, published by Alfa Matrix on June 19. On October 9, 2006, she appeared on the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse as a guest artist and on the subsequent 2007 album The Dethalbum. November 2006 saw the release of the EP Liar/Dead Is the New Alive, which featured remixes of songs from Opheliac and new material.

Autumn released her instrumental album, Laced/Unlaced in March 2007; it consisted of two discs: Laced, the re-release of On a Day..., and Unlaced, new songs for the electric violin. She decided to re-release On a Day as Laced because she "felt that it made a nice contrast to the metal shredding fiddle album, "Unlaced", and [...] loved that it was the perfect representation of "then" versus "now". She also performed live at the German musical events Wave Gotik Treffen and M'era Luna Festival in 2007. She later released A Bit o' This & That: a rarities album of her covers, including songs from The Beatles and The Smiths, classical pieces, and her own songs. In 2008, she released the EP 4 o'Clock, which contained remixes of songs from Opheliac, new songs, and a reading from her autobiographical novel The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. She also released another EP, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun &Bohemian Rhapsody, the same year. A year later, Autumn broke away from Trisol Music Group to join The End Records and re-release Opheliac in the United States on October 27, 2009; previously, it was only available there as an import. The re-release included extras such as pictures, bonus tracks, an excerpt from The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, and a video.

In addition to releasing her own material, Autumn collaborated with other musicians. She contributed backing vocals and violin to the track "Dry" by Die Warzau and made an appearance in the band's music video for "Born Again". She played violin on the song "UR A WMN NOW" from OTEP's 2009 album, Smash the Control Machine. Additionally, two of her tracks appeared in film soundtracks: "Organ Grinder" from 4 o'Clock on the European edition of Saw III and a remixed version of "Dead Is The New Alive" from Opheliac on the international version of Saw IV.

### 2010–present: The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls and Fight Like a Girl

Autumn's debut novel, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, was self-published in late 2009, with a second edition following in 2010. Because of the book's nature and possible autobiographical sections, she claimed its release was delayed because some did not want it published. The book combines Autumn's own real life journal entries, including those chronicling her time in a psych ward, and the diary of a fictional Victorian-era asylum inmate named "Emily". Autumn has said that the intent of the book was to show "there’s very little difference from asylums for ladies in 1841 and the ones for us now," and that the subject of mental illness remains misunderstood.

In June 2010, Autumn released the acronym of her upcoming album, F.L.A.G., on her Twitter account, before revealing the full title as Fight Like a Girl. In her words, the meaning behind the title is "about taking all these things that make women the underdogs and using them to your advantage". Based on her novel, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, the album has been described as "an operatic feminist treatise set inside an insane asylum, wherein the female inmates gradually realize their own strength in numbers". On August 30, 2010, she announced that she would be undergoing jaw surgery, and had to postpone her North American tour dates while she recovered. In September 2011, she posted the full lyrics to the album's title track, "Fight Like a Girl", on her Twitter account. Autumn appeared at the 2011 Harvest Festival in Australia, and had planned to debut two songs from Fight Like a Girl during those performances. On April 11, 2012, Autumn released the single "Fight Like a Girl", with the song "Time for Tea" appearing as a B-side.

On April 16, 2012, Autumn announced her plans to debut a three-hour musical adaptation of her autobiographical novel on London's West End theatre in 2014. According to her interview with Mulatschag, she has plans to play the roles of both protagonists, Emilie and Emily.

In late 2011, a twelve-minute teaser was released for Darren Lynn Bousman and Terrance Zdunich's project The Devil's Carnival, featuring Autumn as The Painted Doll, her first major acting role. The film was released in April 2012. "Bloody Crumpets" members Beth "The Blessed Contessa" Hinderliter and Maggie "Captain Maggot" Lally also appear in the film as Woe-Maidens.

On June 13, 2012, Autumn announced on her blog the release date of Fight Like a Girl, which was on July 24 of the same year.

In 2013, Autumn produced and starred in her first ever music video, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, for the song "Fight Like a Girl". Also appearing in the video are Autumn's Devil's Carnival co-stars Dayton Callie and Marc Senter, as well as Veronica Varlow, among others.

In 2014, it was announced that Autumn would be appearing at a handful of dates on the 2014 Vans Warped Tour with an installation called "The Asylum Experience", which will include music, burlesque, circus sideshow attractions and theater.

On September 22, 2018, she released The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls: Behind the Musical, an album with songs made for her upcoming musical. In 2018, she also published a short story titled The Gown.

On November 3, 2021, Autumn released the single "The Passenger", a cover of the song by Iggy Pop, marking her first official release in three years.

In January 2022 she released We Have Instructions, Who's a Little Leech?, and Portraits.

## Influences and musical style

Her music encompasses a wide range of styles. Autumn's vocal range is contralto, but also has the ability to perform in the dramatic soprano range. Her vocal work has been compared to Tori Amos, Kate Bush, and The Creatures. She has released two instrumental albums (On a Day... and Laced/Unlaced), and four featuring her vocals: Enchant, Opheliac, A Bit o' This & That, and "Fight Like a Girl". The 2003 album Enchant drew on "new age chamber music, trip hop baroque, and experimental space pop". Autumn layers her voice frequently, and incorporates electronics and electronic effects into her work on Enchant; she also combines strings and piano for some songs, while others feature mainly the piano or violin. The 2006 release Opheliac featured "cabaret, electronic, symphonic, new age, and good ol' rock & roll (and heavy on the theatrical bombast)".

A classically trained musician, Autumn is influenced by plays, novels, and history, particularly the Victorian era. She enjoys the works of Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and husband Robert, and Edgar Allan Poe. She incorporates sounds resembling Victorian machinery such as locomotives, which she noted was "sort of a steampunk thing". While a young Autumn cited Itzhak Perlman as an influence because of the happiness she believed he felt when he played, her main musical influence and inspiration is the English violinist Nigel Kennedy. Her favorite singer is Morrissey from The Smiths. She takes inspiration for her songs from her life experiences and mixes in "layers and layers of references, connections, other stories and metaphors". Autumn has variously described her music and style as "Psychotic Vaudeville Burlesque", "Victoriandustrial'", a term she coined, and glam rock because of her use of glitter onstage. According to Autumn, her music "wasn't meant to be cutesy" and is labeled as "industrial" mainly because of her use of drums and yelling. Her adaption of "O Mistress Mine" was praised by author and theater director Barry Edelstein as "a ravishing, guaranteed tearjerker".

For her live performances, which she calls dinner theatre because of her practice of throwing tea and tea-time snacks off of the stage, Autumn makes use of burlesque—"a show that was mainly using humour and sexuality to make a mockery of things that were going on socially and politically"—to counterbalance the more morbid topics discussed in her music, such as abuse, suicide and self-mutilation. Her shows feature handmade costumes, fire tricks, theatrics, and her all-female backing band, The Bloody Crumpets, a group whose members have variously included burlesque performer Veronica Varlow as The Naughty Veronica, performance artist Maggie Lally as Captain Maggot, Jill Evyn as Lady Amalthea (or Moth), actress and performer Beth Hinderliter as The Blessed Contessa, actress Aprella Godfrey Barule as Lady Aprella, German musician Lucina as Little Lucina, cellist Sarah Kim as Lady Joo Hee, German costume designer Vecona as Captain Vecona, Jesselynn Desmond as Little Miss Sugarless, and Ulorin Vex. Her intention is for the live shows to be a statement of "anti-repression" and empowerment.

## Personal life

She keeps a ritual of drawing a heart on her cheek as a symbol of protection.

Autumn became vegetarian at age eleven after being unable to rationalize why she should eat farm animals but not her pet dog; in her late-teens, she became vegan. She has stated she believes that there is a link between the treatment of women and animals in society. In August 2014, Autumn said she had developed copper toxicity and was no longer vegan, although still a committed vegetarian.

In 2021, Autumn adopted a Toy Manchester Terrier, who she named Darjeeling.

She has endorsed companies such as Manic Panic and Samson Tech.

Autumn has bipolar disorder, which she has discussed in a number of interviews.

## Discography

Studio albums

- Enchant (2003)
- Opheliac (2006)
- Fight Like a Girl (2012)
- The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls: Behind the Musical (2018)

Instrumental albums

- On a Day... (1997)
- Laced/Unlaced (2007)

## Concert tours

- The Asylum Tour (2007)
- The Plague Tour (2008)
- The Gate Tour (2008–2009)
- The Key Tour (2009)
- The Door Tour (2011)
- The Fight Like a Girl Tour (2011–2012)

## Filmography

- 11-11-11 as 11'er in Video (2011) Uncredited
- The Devil's Carnival (2012) as Painted Doll
- Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival (2015) as June / The Painted Doll

American musician


John Marshall Harlan II

John Marshall Harlan (May 20, 1899 – December 29, 1971) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan is usually called John Marshall Harlan II to distinguish him from his grandfather, John Marshall Harlan, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911.

Harlan was a student at Upper Canada College and Appleby College and then at Princeton University. Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, he studied law at Balliol College, Oxford. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1923 Harlan worked in the law firm of Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland while studying at New York Law School. Later he served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as Special Assistant Attorney General of New York. In 1954 Harlan was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a year later president Dwight Eisenhower nominated Harlan to the United States Supreme Court following the death of Justice Robert H. Jackson.

Harlan is often characterized as a member of the conservative wing of the Warren Court. He advocated a limited role for the judiciary, remarking that the Supreme Court should not be considered "a general haven for reform movements". In general, Harlan adhered more closely to precedent, and was more reluctant to overturn legislation than many of his colleagues on the Court. He strongly disagreed with the doctrine of incorporation, which held that the provisions of the federal Bill of Rights applied to the state governments, not merely the Federal. At the same time, he advocated a broad interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, arguing that it protected a wide range of rights not expressly mentioned in the United States Constitution. Justice Harlan was gravely ill when he retired from the Supreme Court on September 23, 1971. He died from spinal cancer three months later, on December 29, 1971. After Harlan's retirement, President Nixon appointed William Rehnquist to replace him.

## Early life and career

John Marshall Harlan was born on May 20, 1899, in Chicago. He was the son of John Maynard Harlan, a Chicago lawyer and politician, and Elizabeth Flagg. He had three sisters. Historically, Harlan's family had been politically active. His forebear George Harlan served as one of the governors of Delaware during the seventeenth century; his great-grandfather James Harlan was a congressman during the 1830s; his grandfather, also John Marshall Harlan, was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911; and his uncle, James S. Harlan, was attorney general of Puerto Rico and then chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

In his younger years, Harlan attended The Latin School of Chicago. He later attended two boarding high schools in the Toronto Area, Canada: Upper Canada College and Appleby College. Upon graduation from Appleby, Harlan returned to the U.S. and in 1916 enrolled at Princeton University. There, he was a member of the Ivy Club, served as an editor of The Daily Princetonian, and was class president during his junior and senior years. After graduating from the university in 1920 with an Artium Baccalaureus degree, he received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Balliol College, Oxford, making him the first Rhodes Scholar to sit on the Supreme Court. He studied jurisprudence at Oxford for three years, returning from England in 1923. Upon his return to the United States, he began work with the law firm of Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland (which became Dewey & LeBoeuf), one of the leading law firms in the country, while studying law at New York Law School. He received his Bachelor of Laws in 1924 and earned admission to the bar in 1925.

Between 1925 and 1927, Harlan served as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, heading the district's Prohibition unit. He prosecuted Harry M. Daugherty, former United States Attorney General. In 1928, he was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General of New York, in which capacity he investigated a scandal involving sewer construction in Queens. He prosecuted Maurice E. Connolly, the Queens borough president, for his involvement in the affair. In 1930, Harlan returned to his old law firm, becoming a partner one year later. At the firm, he served as chief assistant for senior partner Emory Buckner and followed him into public service when Buckner was appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As one of "Buckner's Boy Scouts", eager young Assistant United States Attorneys, Harlan worked on Prohibition cases, and swore off drinking except when the prosecutors visited the Harlan family fishing camp in Quebec, where Prohibition did not apply. Harlan remained in public service until 1930, and then returned to his firm. Buckner had also returned to the firm, and after Buckner's death, Harlan became the leading trial lawyer at the firm.

As a trial lawyer Harlan was involved in a number of famous cases. One such case was the conflict over the estate left after the death in 1931 of Ella Wendel, who had no heirs and left almost all her wealth, estimated at \$30–100 million, to churches and charities. However, a number of claimants, most of them imposters, filed suits in state and federal courts seeking part of her fortune. Harlan acted as the main defender of her estate and will as well as the chief negotiator. Eventually a settlement among lawful claimants was reached in 1933. In the following years Harlan specialized in corporate law dealing with the cases like Randall v. Bailey, concerning the interpretation of state law governing distribution of corporate dividends. In 1940, he represented the New York Board of Higher Education unsuccessfully in the Bertrand Russell case in its efforts to retain Bertrand Russell on the faculty of the City College of New York; Russell was declared "morally unfit" to teach. The future justice also represented boxer Gene Tunney in a breach of contract suit brought by a would-be fight manager, a matter settled out of court.

In 1937, Harlan was one of five founders of a eugenics advocacy group called the Pioneer Fund, which had been formed to introduce Nazi ideas on eugenics to the United States. He had likely been invited into the group due to his expertise in non-profit organizations. Harlan served on the Pioneer Fund's board until 1954. He did not play a significant role in the fund.

During World War II, Harlan volunteered for military duty, serving as a colonel in the United States Army Air Force from 1943 to 1945. He was the chief of the Operational Analysis Section of the Eighth Air Force in England. He won the Legion of Merit from the United States, and the Croix de Guerre from both France and Belgium. In 1946 Harlan returned to private law practice representing Du Pont family members against a federal antitrust lawsuit. In 1951, however, he returned to public service, serving as Chief Counsel to the New York State Crime Commission, where he investigated the relationship between organized crime and the state government as well as illegal gambling activities in New York and other areas. During this period Harlan also served as a committee chairman of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and to which he was later elected vice president. Harlan's main specialization at that time was corporate and antitrust law.

## Personal life

In 1928, Harlan married Ethel Andrews, who was the daughter of Yale history professor Charles McLean Andrews. This was the second marriage for her. Ethel was originally married to New York architect Henry K. Murphy, who was twenty years her elder. After Ethel divorced Murphy in 1927, her brother John invited her to a Christmas party at Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland, where she was introduced to John Harlan. They saw each other regularly afterwards and married on November 10, 1928, in Farmington, Connecticut.

Harlan, a Presbyterian, maintained a New York City apartment, a summer home in Weston, Connecticut, and a fishing camp in Murray Bay, Quebec, a lifestyle he described as "awfully tame and correct". The justice played golf, favored tweeds, and wore a gold watch which had belonged to the first Justice Harlan. In addition to carrying his grandfather's watch, when he joined the Supreme Court he used the same furniture which had furnished his grandfather's chambers.

John and Ethel Harlan had one daughter, Evangeline Dillingham (born on February 2, 1932). She was married to Frank Dillingham of West Redding, Connecticut, until his death, and had five children. One of Eve's children, Amelia Newcomb, is the international news editor at The Christian Science Monitor and has two children: Harlan, named after John Marshall Harlan II, and Matthew Trevithick.[^1] Another daughter, Kate Dillingham, is a professional cellist and published author.

## Second Circuit service

Harlan was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 13, 1954, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by Judge Augustus Noble Hand. Harlan knew this court well, as he had often appeared before it and was friendly with many of the judges. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 9, 1954, and received his commission on the next day. His service terminated on March 27, 1955, due to his elevation to the Supreme Court.

## Supreme Court service

Harlan was nominated by President Eisenhower on January 10, 1955, as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to succeed Robert H. Jackson. On being nominated, the reticent Harlan called reporters into his chambers in New York, and stated, in full, "I am very deeply honored." He was confirmed by the Senate on March 16, 1955, by a 71-11 vote, and was sworn into office on March 28, 1955. Despite the brevity of his stay on the Second Circuit, Harlan would serve as the Circuit Justice responsible for the Second Circuit throughout his Supreme Court capacity, and, in that capacity, enjoyed attending the Circuit's annual conference, bringing his wife and catching up on the latest gossip. Additionally, he served as Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit from June 25 to June 26, 1963. He assumed retired status on September 23, 1971, serving in that capacity until his death on December 29, 1971.

Harlan's nomination came shortly after the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. James Eastland (the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary) and several other southern senators delayed his confirmation, because they (correctly) believed that he would support desegregation of the schools and civil rights. Unlike almost all previous Supreme Court nominees, Harlan appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions relating to his judicial views. Every Supreme Court nominee since Harlan has been questioned by the Judiciary Committee before confirmation. The Senate finally confirmed him on March 17, 1955, by a vote of 71–11. He took his seat on March 28, 1955. Of the eleven senators who voted against his appointment, nine were from the South. He was replaced on the Second Circuit by Joseph Edward Lumbard.

On the Supreme Court, Harlan often voted alongside Justice Felix Frankfurter, who was his principal mentor on the court. Some legal scholars even viewed him as "Frankfurter without mustard", though others recognize his own important contributions to the evolution of legal thought. Harlan was an ideological adversary—but close personal friend—of Justice Hugo Black, with whom he disagreed on a variety of issues, including the applicability of the Bill of Rights to the states, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause.

Justice Harlan was very close to the law clerks whom he hired, and continued to take an interest in them after they left his chambers to continue their legal careers. The justice would advise them on their careers, hold annual reunions, and place pictures of their children on his chambers' walls. He would say to them of the Warren Court, "We must consider this only temporary," that the Court had gone astray, but would soon right itself.

Justice Harlan is remembered by people who worked with him for his tolerance and civility. He treated his fellow Justices, clerks and attorneys representing parties with respect and consideration. While Justice Harlan often strongly objected to certain conclusions and arguments, he never criticized other justices or anybody else personally, and never said any disparaging words about someone's motivations and capacity. Harlan was reluctant to show emotion, and was never heard to complain about anything. Harlan was one of the intellectual leaders of the Warren Court. Harvard Constitutional law expert Paul Freund said of him:

> His thinking threw light in a very introspective way on the entire process of the judicial function. His decisions, beyond just the vote they represented, were sufficiently philosophical to be of enduring interest. He decided the case before him with that respect for its particulars, its special features, that marks alike the honest artist and the just judge.

## Jurisprudence

Harlan's jurisprudence is often characterized as conservative. He held precedent to be of great importance, adhering to the principle of stare decisis more closely than many of his Supreme Court colleagues. Unlike Justice Black, he eschewed strict textualism. While he believed that the original intention of the Framers should play an important part in constitutional adjudication, he also held that broad phrases like "liberty" in the Due Process Clause could be given an evolving interpretation.

Harlan believed that most problems should be solved by the political process, and that the judiciary should play only a limited role. In his dissent to Reynolds v. Sims, he wrote:

> These decisions give support to a current mistaken view of the Constitution and the constitutional function of this court. This view, in short, is that every major social ill in this country can find its cure in some constitutional principle and that this court should take the lead in promoting reform when other branches of government fail to act. The Constitution is not a panacea for every blot upon the public welfare nor should this court, ordained as a judicial body, be thought of as a general haven of reform movements.

However, Harlan was not a social conservative. He wrote the plurality opinion in Manual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day, ruling that photographs of nude men are not obscene, one of the first major victories for the early gay rights movement. Despite Harlan’s conservatism, he opposed the Vietnam War and along with Justices William O. Douglas, Potter Stewart and William J. Brennan Jr. unsuccessfully pushed for the Court to hear challenges to its legality.

### Equal Protection Clause

The Supreme Court decided several important equal protection cases during the first years of Harlan's career. In these cases, Harlan regularly voted in favor of civil rights—similar to his grandfather, the only dissenting justice in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson case.

He voted with the majority in Cooper v. Aaron, compelling defiant officials in Arkansas to desegregate public schools. He joined the opinion in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, which declared that states could not redraw political boundaries in order to reduce the voting power of African-Americans. Moreover, he joined the unanimous decision in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state laws that banned interracial marriage.

### Due Process Clause

Justice Harlan advocated a broad interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. He subscribed to the doctrine that the clause not only provided procedural guarantees, but also protected a wide range of fundamental rights, including those that were not specifically mentioned in the text of the Constitution. (See substantive due process.) However, as Justice Byron White noted in his dissenting opinion in Moore v. East Cleveland, "no one was more sensitive than Mr. Justice Harlan to any suggestion that his approach to the Due Process Clause would lead to judges 'roaming at large in the constitutional field'." Under Harlan's approach, judges would be limited in the Due Process area by "respect for the teachings of history, solid recognition of the basic values that underlie our society, and wise appreciation of the great roles that the doctrines of federalism and separation of powers have played in establishing and preserving American freedoms".

Harlan set forth his interpretation in an often cited dissenting opinion to Poe v. Ullman, which involved a challenge to a Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives. The Supreme Court dismissed the case on technical grounds, holding that the case was not ripe for adjudication. Justice Harlan dissented from the dismissal, suggesting that the Court should have considered the merits of the case. Thereafter, he indicated his support for a broad view of the due process clause's reference to "liberty". He wrote, "This 'liberty' is not a series of isolated points pricked out in terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints." He suggested that the due process clause encompassed a right to privacy, and concluded that a prohibition on contraception violated this right.

The same law was challenged again in Griswold v. Connecticut. This time, the Supreme Court agreed to consider the case, and concluded that the law violated the Constitution. However, the decision was based not on the due process clause, but on the argument that a right to privacy was found in the "penumbras" of other provisions of the Bill of Rights. Justice Harlan concurred in the result, but criticized the Court for relying on the Bill of Rights in reaching its decision. "The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment stands," he wrote, "on its own bottom." The Supreme Court would later adopt Harlan's approach, relying on the due process clause rather than the penumbras of the Bill of Rights in right to privacy cases such as Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas.

Harlan's interpretation of the Due Process Clause attracted the criticism of Justice Black, who rejected the idea that the Clause included a "substantive" component, considering this interpretation unjustifiably broad and historically unsound, one of the few issues in which Black was more conservative than Harlan. The Supreme Court has agreed with Harlan, and has continued to apply the doctrine of substantive due process in a wide variety of cases.

### Incorporation

Justice Harlan was strongly opposed to the theory that the Fourteenth Amendment "incorporated" the Bill of Rights—that is, made the provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. His opinion on the matter was opposite to that of his grandfather, who supported the full incorporation of the Bill of Rights. When it was originally ratified, the Bill of Rights was binding only upon the federal government, as the Supreme Court ruled in the 1833 case Barron v. Baltimore. Some jurists argued that the Fourteenth Amendment made the entirety of the Bill of Rights binding upon the states as well. Harlan, however, rejected this doctrine, which he called "historically unfounded" in his Griswold concurrence.

Instead, Justice Harlan believed that the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause only protected "fundamental" rights. Thus, if a guarantee of the Bill of Rights was "fundamental" or "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," Harlan agreed that it applied to the states as well as the federal government. Thus, for example, Harlan believed that the First Amendment's free speech clause applied to the states, but that the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause did not.

Harlan's approach was largely similar to that of Justices Benjamin Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter. It drew criticism from Justice Black, a proponent of the total incorporation theory. Black claimed that the process of identifying some rights as more "fundamental" than others was largely arbitrary, and depended on each Justice's personal opinions.

The Supreme Court has eventually adopted some elements of Harlan's approach, holding that only some Bill of Rights guarantees were applicable against the states—the doctrine known as selective incorporation. However, under Chief Justice Earl Warren during the 1960s, an increasing number of rights were deemed sufficiently fundamental for incorporation (Harlan regularly dissented from these rulings). Hence, the majority of provisions from the Bill of Rights have been extended to the states; the exceptions are the Third Amendment, the grand jury clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Seventh Amendment, the Ninth Amendment, and the Tenth Amendment. Thus, although the Supreme Court has agreed with Harlan's general reasoning, the end result of its jurisprudence is very different from what Harlan advocated.

### First Amendment

Justice Harlan supported many of the Warren Court's landmark decisions relating to the separation of church and state. For instance, he voted in favor of the Court's ruling that the states could not use religious tests as qualifications for public office in Torcaso v. Watkins. He joined in Engel v. Vitale, which declared that it was unconstitutional for states to require the recitation of official prayers in public schools. In Epperson v. Arkansas, he similarly voted to strike down an Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution.

In many cases, Harlan took a fairly broad view of First Amendment rights such as the freedom of speech and of the press, although he thought that the First Amendment applied directly only to the federal government. According to Harlan the freedom of speech was among the "fundamental principles of liberty and justice" and therefore applicable also to states, but less stringently than to the national government. Moreover, Justice Harlan believed that federal laws censoring "obscene" publications violated the free speech clause. Thus, he dissented from Roth v. United States, in which the Supreme Court upheld the validity of a federal obscenity law. At the same time, Harlan did not believe that the Constitution prevented the states from censoring obscenity. He explained in his Roth dissent:

> The danger is perhaps not great if the people of one State, through their legislature, decide that Lady Chatterley's Lover goes so far beyond the acceptable standards of candor that it will be deemed offensive and non-sellable, for the State next door is still free to make its own choice. At least we do not have one uniform standard. But the dangers to free thought and expression are truly great if the Federal Government imposes a blanket ban over the Nation on such a book. ... The fact that the people of one State cannot read some of the works of D. H. Lawrence seems to me, if not wise or desirable, at least acceptable. But that no person in the United States should be allowed to do so seems to me to be intolerable, and violative of both the letter and spirit of the First Amendment.

Harlan concurred in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which required public officials suing newspapers for libel to prove that the publisher had acted with "actual malice." This stringent standard made it much more difficult for public officials to win libel cases. He did not, however, go as far as Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, who suggested that all libel laws were unconstitutional. In Street v. New York, Harlan wrote the opinion of the court, ruling that the government could not punish an individual for insulting the American flag. In 1969 he noted that the Supreme Court had consistently "rejected all manner of prior restraint on publication."

When Harlan was a Circuit Judge in 1955, he authorized the decision upholding the conviction of leaders of the Communist Party USA (including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn) under the Smith Act. The ruling was based on the previous Supreme Court's decisions, by which the Court of Appeals was bound. Later, when he was a Supreme Court justice, Harlan, however, wrote an opinion overturning the conviction of Communist Party activists as unconstitutional in the case of Yates v. United States. Another such case was Watkins v. United States.

Harlan penned the majority opinion in Cohen v. California, holding that wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words "Fuck the Draft" was speech protected by the First Amendment. His opinion was later described by constitutional law expert Professor Yale Kamisar as one of the greatest ever written on freedom of expression. In the Cohen opinion, Harlan famously wrote "one man's vulgarity is another's lyric," a quote that was later denounced by Robert Bork as "moral relativism".

Justice Harlan is credited for establishing that the First Amendment protects the freedom of association. In NAACP v. Alabama, Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court, invalidating an Alabama law that required the NAACP to disclose membership lists. However he did not believe that individuals were entitled to exercise their First Amendment rights wherever they pleased. He joined in Adderley v. Florida, which controversially upheld a trespassing conviction for protesters who demonstrated on government property. He dissented from Brown v. Louisiana, in which the Court held that protesters were entitled to engage in a sit-in at a public library. Likewise, he disagreed with Tinker v. Des Moines, in which the Supreme Court ruled that students had the right to wear armbands (as a form of protest) in public schools.

### Criminal procedure

During the 1960s the Warren Court made a series of rulings expanding the rights of criminal defendants. In some instances, Justice Harlan concurred in the result, while in many other cases he found himself in dissent. Harlan was usually joined by the other moderate members of the Court: Justices Potter Stewart, Tom Clark, and Byron White.

Most notably, Harlan dissented from Supreme Court rulings restricting interrogation techniques used by law enforcement officers. For example, he dissented from the Court's holding in Escobedo v. Illinois, that the police could not refuse to honor a suspect's request to consult with his lawyer during an interrogation. Harlan called the rule "ill-conceived" and suggested that it "unjustifiably fetters perfectly legitimate methods of criminal law enforcement." He disagreed with Miranda v. Arizona, which required law enforcement officials to warn a suspect of his rights before questioning him (see Miranda warning). He closed his dissenting opinion with a quotation from his predecessor, Justice Robert H. Jackson: "This Court is forever adding new stories to the temples of constitutional law, and the temples have a way of collapsing when one story too many is added."

In Gideon v. Wainwright, Justice Harlan agreed that the Constitution required states to provide attorneys for defendants who could not afford their own counsel. However, he believed that this requirement applied only at trial, and not on appeal; thus, he dissented from Douglas v. California.

Harlan wrote the majority opinion in Leary v. United States—a case that declared the Marijuana Tax Act unconstitutional based on the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

Justice Harlan's concurrence in Katz v. United States set forth the test for determining whether government conduct constituted a search. In this case the Supreme Court held that eavesdropping on the petitioner's telephone conversation constituted a search in the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and thus required a warrant. According to Justice Harlan, there is a two-part requirement for a search: (1) that the individual have a subjective expectation of privacy; and (2) that the individual's expectation of privacy is "one that society is prepared to recognize as 'reasonable.'"

### Voting rights

Justice Harlan rejected the theory that the Constitution enshrined the so-called "one man, one vote" principle, or the principle that legislative districts must be roughly equal in population. In this regard, he shared the views of Justice Felix Frankfurter, who in Colegrove v. Green admonished the courts to stay out of the "political thicket" of reapportionment. The Supreme Court, however, disagreed with Harlan in a series of rulings during the 1960s. The first case in this line of rulings was Baker v. Carr. The Court ruled that the courts had jurisdiction over malapportionment issues and therefore were entitled to review the validity of district boundaries. Harlan, however, dissented, on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that malapportionment violated their individual rights.

Then, in Wesberry v. Sanders, the Supreme Court, relying on the Constitution's requirement that the United States House of Representatives be elected "by the People of the several States," ruled that congressional districts in any particular state must be approximately equal in population. Harlan vigorously dissented, writing, "I had not expected to witness the day when the Supreme Court of the United States would render a decision which casts grave doubt on the constitutionality of the composition of the House of Representatives. It is not an exaggeration to say that such is the effect of today's decision." He proceeded to argue that the Court's decision was inconsistent with both the history and text of the Constitution; moreover, he claimed that only Congress, not the judiciary, had the power to require congressional districts with equal populations.

Harlan was the sole dissenter in Reynolds v. Sims, in which the Court relied on the Equal Protection Clause to extend the one man, one vote principle to state legislative districts. He analyzed the language and history of the Fourteenth Amendment, and concluded that the Equal Protection Clause was never intended to encompass voting rights. Because the Fifteenth Amendment would have been superfluous if the Fourteenth Amendment (the basis of the reapportionment decisions) had conferred a general right to vote, he claimed that the Constitution did not require states to adhere to the one man, one vote principle, and that the Court was merely imposing its own political theories on the nation. He suggested, in addition, that the problem of malapportionment was one that should be solved by the political process, and not by litigation. He wrote:

> This Court, limited in function in accordance with that premise, does not serve its high purpose when it exceeds its authority, even to satisfy justified impatience with the slow workings of the political process. For when, in the name of constitutional interpretation, the Court adds something to the Constitution that was deliberately excluded from it, the Court, in reality, substitutes its view of what should be so for the amending process.

For similar reasons, Harlan dissented from Carrington v. Rash, in which the Court held that voter qualifications were subject to scrutiny under the equal protection clause. He claimed in his dissent, "the Court totally ignores, as it did in last Term's reapportionment cases ... all the history of the Fourteenth Amendment and the course of judicial decisions which together plainly show that the Equal Protection Clause was not intended to touch state electoral matters." Similarly, Justice Harlan disagreed with the Court's ruling in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, invalidating the use of the poll tax as a qualification to vote.

## Retirement and death

John M. Harlan's health began to deteriorate towards the end of his career. His eyesight began to fail during the late 1960s. To cover this, he would bring materials to within an inch of his eyes, and have clerks and his wife read to him (once when the Court took an obscenity case, a chagrined Harlan had his wife read him Lady Chatterley's Lover). Gravely ill, he retired from the Supreme Court on September 23, 1971.

Harlan died from spinal cancer three months later, on December 29, 1971. He was buried at the Emmanuel Church Cemetery in Weston, Connecticut. President Richard Nixon considered nominating Mildred Lillie, a California appeals court judge, to fill the vacant seat; Lillie would have been the first female nominee to the Supreme Court. However, Nixon decided against Lillie's nomination after the American Bar Association found Lillie to be unqualified. Thereafter, Nixon nominated William Rehnquist (a future Chief Justice), who was confirmed by the Senate.

Despite his many dissents, Harlan has been described as one of the most influential Supreme Court justices of the twentieth century. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960. Harlan's extensive professional and Supreme Court papers (343 cubic feet) were donated to Princeton University, where they are housed at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library and open to research. Other papers repose at several other libraries. Ethel Harlan, his wife, outlived him by only a few months and died on June 12, 1972. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the last seven years of her life.

## See also

- List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
- List of United States Supreme Court justices by time in office
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Warren Court
- List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Burger Court
- Clay v. United States (1971)
- Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight'' (2013 television film)

[^1]: Matt Trevithick . Boston University Terrier Athletics.

US Supreme Court justice from 1955 to 1971

Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States

Neurological disease deaths in Washington, D.C.

Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)

Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium)

United States Army personnel of World War II

United States court of appeals judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower