The first major variant was FAngband, now long dead, but which introduced many ideas later adopted into Angband.
#Angband map code#
This includes ignoring Angband's lack of an inherent clock and placing a limit on the number of turns one will take to win a game, considering it a loss if not finished in this time.Īngband has many variants - games based on the original's code - which have split off in different directions. The more advanced players attempt various challenge games, some of which are supported by the game's many options, others of which must be self-monitored. Nevertheless, most players still find the game challenging. Angband is a game of infinite resources - you have as much time as you like and the game will continue to provide new monsters and items. An Angband game requires more patience and time than most roguelike games. The dungeons are large and are composed of halls and passages of different shapes. After slaying Morgoth, the player may retire from the game as a winner, or continue playing (usually to try to find some rare artifact).Īngband's dungeons are not persistent every time the player moves up or down stairs, a new dungeon is randomly generated. The player must explore the 100-level dungeon, and become strong enough to finally face Sauron and, after defeating Sauron, Morgoth. The player starts in a town with different kinds of shops, a house for storage, a few inhabitants, and the entrance to the dungeon. Some of these are Tolkien-inspired, others draw from D&D or basic fantasy archetypes. The Iron Mountains were known as the Ered Engrin in Sindarin which meant 'Mountains of Iron'.The player may choose a character from several classes and races. The only people known to have lived in the cold climates of the Forodwaith were a Mannish people known as the Lossoth, the descendants of the people known as the Forodwaith who once lived in the area around the Iron Mountains of the Icebay of Forochel. These remnants were unaffected by the Change of the World and ever after.
Remnants of the great mountain range in the Third Age included the Mountains of Angmar in northern Eriador, as well as the Ered Mithrin and the Iron Hills of northern Rhovanion. North of the range lay the Forodwaith, a region of everlasting cold. Īfter the War of Wrath the Iron Mountains and Thangorodrim were destroyed and the vast mountain chain was broken and disappeared for a great part of their length. Morgoth's forces also captured Elves and brought them through the mountains to Angband. Because of its perilous heights, frightening looks, and foul winds, no Elf ever passed through the mountains for any reason but the spies of Morgoth would always find ways into Beleriand, by unknown ways through the mountains. In the days of the War of the Jewels, the mountains protected Morgoth from being outflanked from the rear and with no enemy behind him, he was able to concentrate on the south. Afterwards, the mountain range was distorted but was still long with lengths stretching from the Helcaraxë in the far northwest to the Orocarni in the far east and rising to immense and frightening heights, with enormous peaks such as Thangorodrim. Much later when the Valar decided to protect the Elves from Melkor by defeating him and imprisoning him, the changing of the shape of Middle-earth affected the Iron Mountains as well. After Melkor's destruction of the Two Lamps, the Iron Mountains were connected to the Blue Mountains of the West to the Orocarni of the east. Angband was also delved into these mountains west of Utumno. After returning to Arda from the Outer Darkness with his allies through the Door of Night, Melkor created the Iron Mountains and behind these walls safe from the light of the northern lamp Illuin he delved the great fortress of Utumno.