Survey: Sauron's downfall promoted by vitamin D deficiency!

[caruso]

There is an interesting survey in the Medical Journal of Australia: It argues that the baddies in fantasy literature tend to lose because of their hatred for sunlight and their unwholesome diets, both of which cause various ailments due to vitamin D deficiency ^^

As exemplary material the authors have chosen The Hobbit. I know the demise of Sauron and his henchmen only took place after the events of the novel, but surely the results of the study are applicable to LotR.

[gglibertine]

There is an interesting survey in the Medical Journal of Australia: It argues that the baddies in fantasy literature tend to lose because of their hatred for sunlight and their unwholesome diets, both of which cause various ailments due to vitamin D deficiency ^^

As exemplary material the authors have chosen The Hobbit. I know the demise of Sauron and his henchmen only took place after the events of the novel, but surely the results of the study are applicable to LotR.

While I'm not a fantasy villain, I *am* a hermit who rarely emerges from her cave, so I can attest that Vitamin D deficiency will tend to make a person depressed and lethargic at the very least. (Very high doses of Vitamin D are recommended for people with depression.) Other effects, I should think, would be sensitivity to bright light (eyes accustomed to the dark, you see) and agoraphobia. There's also the social awkwardness, but I'm not sure how that would really affect gameplay now that Charisma has been removed from Angband