Let me tell you the tale of Ugakuga Flesh Lover.
And unremarkable orc I got from the market, save for his poison weapon and his name. I'd had him for a while before I deployed him to fill out my ranks in Nurnen. I chose a Mystic for Overlord of that region. Remember that.
Ugakuga started causing me trouble from almost the minute I put him in the region. He'd formed a Blood Brother bond with an Orc I was planning on killing, and I didn't know it until it was too late. I'd had his level maxed and he was doing pretty good for a non-epic or legendary orc.
So I began the tortorous process of breaking him, because of course killing his Blood Brother gave him Iron Will. (Weird aside but it wasn't actually killing his Blood Brother that turned him...his Blood Brother was alive when he betrayed me. I'd only injured him. However, someone ELSE's Blood Brother had died the second before Ugakuga turned on me, and I think it's a bug in that he mistakenly got mad about a Blood Bond he didn't hold. Just the first oddity in the tale of Ugakuga Flesh Lover.)
I had to take him from level 33 to 6, with some experimentation with death threating him to keep his level up, before he lost Iron Will. Between experimenting and occasionally having to retreat, it was almost a dozen shaming attempts on him. And the process did irreversible damage to him. While his mind held, he gained not one, two, or three mortal weaknesses. He gained four. So when he finally lost Iron Will and I brought the wayward Ugakuga back in to the fold, he was a shell of his former self but still eager to orc it up.
I took him on a few missions, got his level back up to 20 something. I'd planned another mission against a recent arrival for him. What I didn't know is that 4 of my other captains were coming along to assist.
Normally this wouldn't be an issue.....except one of them was Ugakuga's rival. Which I didn't realize at the time. Ugakuga fled from the mission enemy captain and straight into the arms of an enraged marksmen who proceeded to stuff him full of crossbow bolts, and all hell started breaking loose. When I realized what was going on I jumped in to stun and grab his rival (who outclassed him so badly it wasn't even funny.) But it was too late. Poor Ugakuga's health was almost gone, he'd been poisoned...and then to add insult to injury the mission enemy rolls up, runs straight through a dense knot of my troops all packed together on a stair way and shoves a halberd through his chest.
This would be the end of most orcs' stories. Not Ugakuga Flesh Lover.
Dismayed I exited the mission failed screen to the chaos still going on at the site of the battle. The enemy captain was still alive (though not for long), I had 4 other captains there, one of them enraged and going crazy and about 8 of my archers on a vantage point just pouring crossbow bolts into anything with a pulse: the enemy captain, my captains, me. I swear to god those things are more dangerous to you than they are to the enemy sometimes.
Anyways I clear out the trash, check some things out.....
When I notice Ugakuga's rival is still engaged and attacking one of my captains. Some level 18 guy with a bag on his head I don't recognize. Annoyed I grab him and toss him around, thinking he's just in a berzerk rage attacking anyone stupid enough to still be next to him.
And that's when I get a good look at his opponent.
It's Ugakuga. In the flesh and loving it. Sporting a stylish new canvas sack on his head.
I'm overjoyed, but kind of puzzled. I mean, a return from death is epic. Shadow Of...rarely passes up the chance to make some drama out of stuff like this, so why did he just literally stand up and silently start fighting right where he died? I've never seen anything like this.
And that's when I check his stats and see the tag....Undead.
Remember which tribe the overlord I promoted was? Well, I think I know what their regional bonus is now.
I knew you could raise the dead in Shadow of War but in the livestream it was specifically said the undead couldn't be captains. Well, that is patently and clearly false because I have one. Undead normal uruks may not be able to become captains by killing Talion, but the Bright Lord's army will literally take any walking stiff as a captain because I've got one.
And the more I think on it the more prophetic it seems to be. Ugakuga Flesh Lover, the Undead Orc. You might even say he's a....zombie orc.
Sadly being undead is a pretty crippling handicap for an orc. They can no longer level up, they're vulnerable to fire and they can't be dominated. Oh and despite gaining some new abilities, Ugakuga still has 4 mortal weaknesses. Four.
I'm fairly sure his story is over at this point, it just needs an epilogue.
Still I'm deeply curious to know if he's still sentient or if he's like a mute now. This is by far the most interesting character arc I've gotten out of a Shadow Of...game.