Shadow of War developer who died of cancer immortalised as an in-game orc slayer

A Shadow of War developer who died of cancer has been immortalised as an orc slayer in the game.

Monolith executive producer Michael Forgey, who died from a brain tumour last year aged just 43-years-old, appears in Shadow of War as DLC character Forthog Orc-Slayer.

If you have the £3.99 DLC, Forthog will on occasion appear to one-hit kill whichever enemy the player character is up against. Think the Mysterious Stranger from the Fallout series.

Forgey, who was married with three children, was a music enthusiast who played in a band made up of Monolith staff called Orc Slayer. Accordingly, Forthog Orc-Slayer wields a devastating guitar axe, which you can see in the video below. (The song was written and performed by Forgey himself.)

WB Games will donate $3.50 of every Forthog Orc-Slayer purchase to the Forgey family through 31st December 2019, Monolith said.

In the video below, Monolith studio head Kevin Stephens and director of art Phil Straub remember Forgey, celebrate his life and explain how Forthog came to life.

"Mike was larger than life," Stephens said. "Mike was an incredible inspiration to our team. He was our front man in many respects. Everybody loved Mike."

"Mike was a fantastic guy," Straub added. "He was a guy who always wanted to help people. He was a great manager of people."

The cinematic trailer created by Monolith staff for the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC was designed to represent Forgey's personality, Straub explained. At the end we see Forthog smirk before running towards a number of enemies, the image eventually concealed by a blizzard.

"He's going to the Undying Lands," Straub said. "He's embracing that."

You can pre-purchase the Forthog Orc-Slayer DLC on Steam and Xbox One now. He'll be available to buy on PS4 when the game launches in October.