(First, I do not own Lord of the Rings or Warcraft or any of its lore so all credits goes to all the people who help make those two fantasy worlds. This story based on Shadows of War so if you have not played it then do not read this, this contains spoilers on some parts of the storyline so enjoy.)
In the lands of Mordor where the awakening of a new ring forged, triggering a serious awakening on many things that has been hiding for a very long time. New forces have begun to rise up, rising in power for dominance over others but one of these competitors is rising high, a woman who is challenging the champions who serves the Dark Lord. She has gain a lot of reputation over the years, seeing that she is one of the few oldest people here in Mordor right now, stuck as a servant of evil who has been brought back from the dead, from an age that nobody knows but her.
She is Sylvanas, the Dark Ranger of the banshee, and a servant to the Dark Lord and serves the necromancer in Barad Dur. She has gain a high reputation over the years, causing orcs to tremble in fear when she comes onto the field with her red eyes and her dark appearance, making her reputation equal to the Black Hand of Sauron. She would have gain higher status but was force to serve a necromancer who is the Mouth of Sauron; eventually she got new orders to serve someone else as a bodyguard and a spy. She travels to Gorgoroth to watch as a bodyguard to an Uruk named Zog the Necromancer, a very rare Uruk who has been gifted the powers of necromancy, allowing him to raise an army of the dead to serve Sauron.
Sylvanas travels to the region of Gorgoroth where Zog lies; there she rides in on a Dire Caragor, soon to dismount and walk through this desolate place, travelling to the center where Zog and his acolytes prepare for a ritual. Zog approaches Sylvanas with a smile on his face, feeling happy and pleased when seeing this undead elf approaching him.
"At long last I finally meet you for the first time." Zog speaks up, raising his hands up towards her then lowers them "You are a very powerful banshee; the Dark Lord has chosen you well. I am one of the few who have been chosen by the Dark Lord, one of the best who shall raise an army of the dead."
"Enough with your prominence." Sylvanas said "The Dark Lord demands progress, which you will do right now." She walks past him "Now let's get this over with."
"As you wish milady." Zog turns back and walks over towards the edge of the pit, looking down where the molten lava falls, creating a large pool of lava at the bottom of the pit.
Zog the Necromancer prepares for the ritual to begin, ordering his acolytes to get in position; there they could begin the ritual to awaken the Balrog of Morgoth. The Balrog lies at the bottom of the pit, covered in molten lava. Zog begins the ritual to awaken the Balrog out of the lava, planning to control it for himself, as he believes that the power he has, he could dominate Mordor.
One of the five towers in the area where the ranger and the wraith lies, standing on the edge of the tower and looking out at the view. Talion stands there with Celebrimbor next to him, looking towards Zog the Necromancer. Talion looks around the area where he notice one archer on each tower while Celebrimbor watches Zog for a time but soon realise that there is an elf down there next to him.
"What's the matter?" Talion asks when turning his head towards him
"There is a problem…" Celebrimbor said "He has brought an elf back from the dead."
"What?" Talion looks back towards Zog, using Celebrimbor to return into his body so he could use his sight to get a close look at the dark ranger. He mutters to himself "An elf…"
"Indeed." Celebrimbor said through his mind "She does look familiar however, but it doesn't matter…. She needs to be eliminated first in order to kill the necromancer."
"Then we put her to rest then."
"Yes… The more she stays with him, the more problems she will become later."
Talion goes into wraith form so he could take aim with his bow, aiming towards the archers on the tower so he could appear in front of them, using his sword to behead them. This here would get the attention from Sylvanas when she notices the wraith, thanks to her elf eyes that still has the sight to see far and could see Celebrimbor; she was able to see him kill the archer. She remain silent and watches the two while Zog continues the ritual, noticing them vanish and appear close by to another tower and took out the other archer. Sylvanas begins to act on the second to last tower by drawing an arrow from her quiver and takes aim with her bow, aiming towards the Uruk that was up there, waiting for the wraith to appear so she could release.
Talion appeared in front of the archer by lunging his sword through the neck, just about to pull the sword out to remove the head, the arrow appeared flying past his eyes, so close of hitting him, causing him to back away. He looks in the sky then looks back down towards the ground, seeing the dark ranger looking directly towards them.
"She saw us." Talion said
"She has good eye sight… For an elf who is dead."
Talion looks back to the dead Uruk on the ground then did a one more time with the vanishing shadow strike by appearing close by to the ones on the ground. He sent his sword through the back of the Uruk, through the back of the leg to send the Uruk in the air, giving Talion enough time to slice off the head before it hit the ground. Sylvanas did not do anything to stop Talion due to her red eyes not seeing him on the tower, she just lowered her bow and waited for him to come down, which he would when he comes to the edge and jumps off. He jumps down off the tower and lands on top of one of the acolytes, sending his dagger through it while using Celebrimbor to stealth kill two more by himself.
Zog stops the ritual when seeing Talion appearing before them, turning towards him when he stands there, and drawing his long sword. Zog would speak out. "What an honour to meet the most famous dead man in Mordor! You really shook the world with that 'ring forging' trick of yours! After that, Tar-Goroth only needed a little coaxing. Now, it rises to the surface. And it comes, for you!"
Zog retreats and so does four acolytes who are still alive while Sylvanas takes on Talion and Celebrimbor by herself. She starts off by firing an arrow towards them, causing Talion to swing his sword to cut it, after that she step forward while firing a second arrow but he blocks it again and would roll out of the way when she fired a third time. She was about to fire her fourth arrow to hit him when he rolled to an area where she knew he would stop to, only to fail when he threw a dagger towards her, hitting her chest and sending that arrow past Talion, giving him a cut on the side of his face. Talion rushes towards her before she could get another arrow, swinging his sword, hitting against her bow as she blocked it, he quickly uses his other hand to send a blast to push her back then a kick to her chest, sending her falling as she was at the edge, falling to the ground at the bottom. Talion runs to the edge and jumps down to land on top of her, planning on stealth killing her but she rolls backwards and gets up on one knee. Talion lands to the ground and threw a dagger at her when seeing her drawing an arrow, hitting her chest again and he charges, swinging his sword at her and cutting her shoulder. Sylvanas grabs his sword with her hand then lays a kick to his chest, pushing him back and quickly drawing an arrow to shoot at him, only to miss when he rolled out of the way. He continues rolling while she keeps shooting, firing four times but he shoots back when he decides to run to the edge, jumping off the edge and doing a quick fire. He went into the air and turns towards Sylvanas, firing an arrow in the air while Sylvanas fires her arrow back at him, getting the two to hit each other. Talion fell back and fell further within the cavern, quickly landing on the ground on his feet while Sylvanas fell back after taking that arrow to the gut.
Talion stays on one knee while slowly pulling the arrows out of his chest, he moans when pulling the arrows out, leaving his hand to his chest for the moment while Celebrimbor stands in front of him.
"I don't want to hear it." Talion said while looking back at his hand, seeing it covered in blood
"With the strength you have, you won't defeat the Balrog."
"I know…" He slowly gets back up and starts walking forward
"We have to move. These fools have no idea what they are unleashing."
Sylvanas rises up off the ground, pulling the arrow out of her and moves towards the edge where Talion jumped off, standing on the edge and looking down at the bottom, looking down at Talion as he walks away. She would back away but stops when hearing the roar from below, hearing the awakening of the Balrog known as Tar-Goroth. Tar-Goroth rises from the molten lava, rising from the pits and bringing fear to the Uruks that was nearby, soon to be incinerated by the flame whip the Balrog created, removing them and turning its attention towards Talion.
"Let's see how he handles this." Sylvanas mutters to herself and moves away from the sight, moving away and going to a high point where she stays for now, noticing that the Balrog has reach to the top surface. It has survived its enemies and because of this whole mess, nobody is commanding the Balrog, causing it to go running amuck across the lands. Sylvanas watches as the Balrog leaves, causing Talion to give chase after the Balrog as it starts leaving the region and travels to the north to Seregost.
Very soon, one Nazgul shows up behind Sylvanas, approaching her while she stands there with her arms crossed, looking out at the view. The Nazgul stands next to her, watching the view as well while speaking to her. "The experiment failed." The Nazgul said "The Balrog. You are to track it down and return to the necromancer once you found its location. Stay by his side. Watch him; make sure that he does his job by serving the Dark Lord's wishes. If he should betray us, then eliminate him."
Sylvanas speaks up "The one who killed the three Black Captains… Was it him?"
"The man killed them all, they underestimated him and because of that, they died."
"Sounds like you and the others are also underestimating him."
"Watch your tone!" The Nazgul turns to her while she still looks out at the view "He is an enemy who will eventually join us, it is his destiny to serve the Dark Lord just like you."
"Very well then. I will track down the Balrog but if that man spots me and asks for a fight…" She turns her head to the Nazgul "I will end him."
"Do whatever you want." The Nazgul turns back "But if you should kill him, retrieve the ring he possess and deliver it to the Dark Lord."
The Nazgul vanishes in a gust of smoke of black and green fire in the middle, flying out of there, travelling to somewhere else in the region while Sylvanas stands there. She lowers her arms and turns back and walks away, soon to call upon her Caragor where she begins to travel to Seregost to track down Talion and the Balrog. She follows the burning tracks of the feet of the burning demon, following it all the way towards the snowy region, populated by thousands of Uruks and Gondorian slaves.
Sylvanas arrives in the cover of the night, riding through the fields on the Caragor, chasing after the Balrog as it starts destroying many places wherever it goes. Sylvanas found it quite easy to track this demon down, unknown on how she was going to deliver the message to the Nazgul since it does not look like it is stopping anytime. She would continue but she dismounts her Caragor, walking into this area with old ruins that was here long ago, a location that is abandoned but has signs of the Balrog being here. The whole camp is burning, having many dead Uruks on the ground, especially a captain that lies in the middle, a captain who has been dead for a while now, getting Sylvanas to inspect the body.
Very soon, this camp turns to violent when Sylvanas looks up and notices a handful of Uruks entering the camp, seeing several of them with two Olog-Hai and a captain that is leading the group. These Uruks appears different from the others, wearing bluish armour instead of red, under the control of Talion and Celebrimbor.
"Well, well… The Bright Master has sent the dead to test us?" The captain said, aiming his spear towards her "You do not scare us, elf witch. We kill your kind, and you are about to join them again. If you come back then I'll be waiting for you!"
Sylvanas turns her eyes to the left towards a barrel of grog, quickly firing an arrow towards it, exploding on impact and burning half the group of Uruks, killing three of them while the others run around on fire. The captain looks back to Sylvanas, he felt irritated at the hate of fire, because of that, he yells out and orders his Uruks to attack her. She stands there looking at the Uruks, soon to step forward when drawing an arrow and firing towards them, not hesitating on killing them, she shot most of them through the head. The captain blocks her arrows with his shield while moving towards her, once he got closer, Sylvanas stops shooting and she runs up to him, using the shield to jump over him and while in the air she fires an arrow while she was upside down, firing an arrow through the back of the head, killing the captain instantly. Sylvanas lands perfectly on the ground before the captain collapses forward, she had her back towards the dead captain, looking towards the others, causing what is left of his group to run in fear of her.
Sylvanas takes her leave from this place while the Uruks run away from her, afterwards she returns to her duties on chasing after the Balrog. She returns to her Caragor and rides off, moving inside the caves where she knows that is where the Balrog lies. She rides through and follows the burning tracks of the feet of the Balrog, riding through the icy caves until she hears the loud roar from a far. She haste through the caves, riding faster until she comes across a battle that is outside.
The Balrog is off fighting against Talion, Celebrimbor and Carnan that flies as a drake, flying around with Talion on board, attacking the Balrog and going in for a dive to send the demon into the water. The team has already sent the Balrog inside the icy cold water but it still persists, rising out of the water and continues attacking with its flaming whip. Sylvanas stays back and watches, watching the Balrog swinging its flaming whip and creating fireballs into the air to try to knock them down while the drake sends a breath of cold to the demon. The Balrog could not handle the pressure anymore, soon to be sent back into the water by the third time; this time the drake comes down into the water with it, diving into the icy water with the Balrog, trying to stop it from rising back to the surface. The two go deeper within the water, eventually causing the two to freeze where they stay in stasis. Talion would stand on the ice, looking down through the ice to see the two stuck in the water where they remain, finally sealing the Balrog within the ice where the enemy could not get their hands on it.
Sylvanas looks over to Talion and slowly draws out another arrow, ready to kill him however, she decides to stop what she was doing and withdraws, turning back and riding away into the shadows while Talion takes his leave from the sight, re-joining with his branded Uruks, and finding out that his captain is dead. Talion would hang around here in Seregost for a time, branding more captains and taking them all to Cirith Ungol where he could begin the invasion on claiming the fortress of Cirith Ungol.
In the region of Cirith Ungol, Sylvanas has arrived to the region before Talion could begin his invasion, only a few captains and a handful of Uruks are under the command of the Bright Lord. Sylvanas returns to the fortress, returning to Zog the Necromancer as he lies inside this fortress, dealing with an argument with the Overlord of this fortress. Sylvanas arrives just when there argument was over, having the Overlord to turn back and walk away from Zog, looking at Sylvanas as he comes towards her but said no word, he walks past her and returns to his throne.
Zog turns back to Sylvanas while she approaches him "Your back. I have already heard that this Bright Lord has imprisoned Tar-Goroth. It does not matter. He can still be brought back to life once again." He turns back and looks back towards his dead warriors that was behind him "The Bright Lord will get what is coming to him… A legion of dead warriors, all coming for him."
"Now then…" Zog turns back to Sylvanas "I already have a handful of warriors and also the archers of Morgoth as my disposal, they are in the ruins of the south of here. You are to make sure that the Bright Lord does not interfere. I am taking these bodies elsewhere, the Mouth of Sauron demands that they should be move elsewhere."
"Afraid that he might take your toys away from you?" Sylvanas asks "He already has placed the Balrog in ice."
"These are just minor setbacks." Zog turns back and walks to his undead Uruks "We will take care of the Bright Lord." He then looks back to Sylvanas "And as for you… If the Bright Lord should take this fortress, then you are to lead the undead army to retake it."
"Well then… That sounds like fun."
"Do not fail the Dark Lord, this man must die and he will join us, there we can finally create an army of the dead just like you."
Sylvanas nods her head then turns back and departs from this room, leaving the fortress and making her way towards the south where a large group of undead warriors wait for her. She travels to the southern region where the dead lies, stationed in these ruins, having many archers standing on high points while the dead warriors and acolytes protect the totems that are station in three areas. Sylvanas arrives and decides to go into a high point, there she waits and remains there until Talion arrives.
The Bright Lord has taken the fortress of Cirith Ungol; Talion has just invaded the fortress and has claim dominance over it. The Overlord of this fortress now serves Talion, branded to serve him and remains as the ruler of this fortress. When Talion and Celebrimbor looked through his mind, they discover that he saw Zog and Sylvanas together in his mind, giving them information on where Sylvanas is right now. After the fortress is now under his command, he begins to go after Sylvanas, gaining the allies of Carnan and a handful of branded Uruks to join him on attacking the armies of the dead before they could attack his fortress.
Talion finally reveals himself to Sylvanas while riding on a flying drake of Carnan, flying right into the fire of the archers that was waiting for him. Talion controls the drake and uses its frost breath on the archers, also using his powers to bring his warriors of branded Uruks into battle with the dead. Two captains and a large group of Uruks came rushing into battle, joining the Bright Lord on fighting against the armies of the dead, allowing Talion enough time to jump down into battle and destroy the totems, once they are gone then the dead will fall.
Sylvanas stands and watches from where she is, watching the drake flying over the area, taking out the archers while they shoot back at it while Talion was on the ground. Talion just remove the second totem, killing a handful of dead Uruks instantly but he has lost a captain all the sudden. There was one totem remains and Talion returns to the drake, getting Sylvanas to take aim with her bow, ready to shoot the drake out of the sky. She let loose her arrows towards the drake from the side, hitting the drake a few times, getting the attention from Talion when he notices Sylvanas is here.
"It's the elf." Talion said when controlling the drake to turn to the side, trying to avoid her arrows
"She is persistent." Celebrimbor said "You have to get rid of her first."
"Not until all the totems are gone." Talion looks down at the drake "I will help with the archers on the ground; you should back away if you can't handle it anymore!"
Talion begins to use his shadow strike on the archers on the buildings, appearing in front of one of them with his sword through the neck then swings out and removes the head. Talion vanishes again before Sylvanas could fire an arrow at him, he appeared near another one and he struck it down then does it again. After he killed the third one, he runs along the wall and attacks the other two archers, killing them quickly then jumps off the wall and lands behind it so Sylvanas cannot hit him if she cannot see him. He makes his move towards the last totem in the area, protected by a few Uruks while the rest of them are busy fighting against his branded Uruks. The branded captain with his flaming sword continues striking down the undead Uruks, burning them and removing their heads but he is losing more of his warriors, almost overrun by the dead. Talion would help in this matter by removing the Uruks around the totem, once they are dead for now; he quickly purifies the totem, destroying the Uruks on the ground and saving his warriors but the archers still remains.
'There still alive." Talion said when noticing the archers continues shooting at Carnan the drake
"Then we must remove them ourselves." Celebrimbor said, taking over for now by drawing his arrow and shooting two of them in the head.
Celebrimbor removes some of the archers with his bow while Carnan the drake takes care of the others, close of finishing them off but Sylvanas continues firing her arrows towards Carnan. Carnan could no longer handle it much longer; one more arrow from Sylvanas causes her to break into pieces, causing Talion to fight alone for now. He ordered his branded Uruks to withdraw for now while he dispose the last archers, once they are down; he could finally take on Sylvanas who was waiting for him.
"And now it's just us now…" Talion looks over to Sylvanas who was standing on the edge of the high ground, looking back at him for a moment but she turns back and walks away.
"Talion, she must not leave." Celebrimbor said to him "She might have information on the necromancer."
"I thought we were going to kill her." He starts running after Sylvanas
"She might prove useful to us."
"No. We are not doing that, she must rest."
"She will rest only if she tell us where the necromancer lies."
Talion runs up the cliff and stands on the high ground where Sylvanas was before, seeing her standing in the distance with an arrow ready to fire. She let loose an arrow towards Talion, he quickly evaded and retaliates by reverting to Celebrimbor and his archery, aiming his bow towards her, the two appear in front of her, sending his sword hitting against her chest. His sword dug through, she only sighs a bit when taking a step back from that hit but she continues attacking. She uses an arrow she held on her right hand, hitting Talion through his left arm then jumps up slightly to knee Talion in the chin, pushing him back away from her. She drew another arrow, ready to fire but Talion charges at her, the moment she was about to release, Talion used his wraith push with his left hand, damaging her slightly and knocking her arrow out of her hand. Talion rushes to her and swings his sword, stabbing her in the chest then hits her in the face and sent her to the ground. He stops for the moment and takes out the arrow out of his left arm, soon to move up to Sylvanas while she tries to get back up, soon to stop when Talion places his hand over her face, using his wraith powers to dominate her.
"Now… Where is the necromancer?" Celebrimbor speaks out, whispering his voice through her mind, dominating her mind but realise that she has a strong will "You will tell me where…." He said while still trying to dominate her. He eventually unlocked her mind and triggered him to look through her mind of her past, to a time when she was a beautiful elf who fought against the enemies of Middle-Earth.