Celebrimbor (Shadow of Mordor)

"It is a gift. We shall use the enemy's weapons against him"

- Celebrimbor's spirit to Talion

Celebrimbor the Bright Lord is one of the two main characters of the video games Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.

Despite that fact, Celebrimbor is in fact a villain protagonist.

Having been corrupted by the One Ring long ago and now as an undead wraith,he is determined to get his revenge on Sauron but also reclaim the power that he lost and essentially replace Sauron as a would-be ruler of Middle-Earth. This is reflected in how he is the "Bright Lord" to Sauron's "Dark Lord".

He is voiced by Alistair McDuncan

Backstory
Celebrimbor is a descendant of the Elf Fëanor (specifically his grandson), and like him an expert forger but also prideful. One day, he was approached by Sauron in his fair form of Annatar. In this form, Sauron deceived Celebrimbor into forging the many rings of power, including the One Ring. Celebrimbor eventually became aware of Sauron's true nature and intentions and turned on him. However, he chose to take the One Ring for himself and try using it against Sauron. For a time, his efforts appeared to be successful...until in a climactic battle with Sauron, the Dark Lord reclaimed the One Ring, easily overcame Celebrimbor, and then viciously murdered him with his own smithing hammer (and not before killing his wife and daughter too).

As A Wraith
Years later, Celebrimbor's wraith would become bound to the recently killed Gondorian Ranger Talion. Joining forces with him, Celebrimbor convinced Talion they were on the same side, and they began waging war with Sauron's Uruks in the lands of Mordor. Eventually though, Talion learned that Celebrimbor was actively preventing him from passing on to be with his slain family, but even after this deception was exposed, Celebrimbor convinced Talion to maintain their bond so they could keep up the fight against Sauron (a fight in which Celebrimbor cared more for revenge than protecting Middle-Earth's people). After defeating Sauron, Celebrimbor and Talion maintained their bond for the purposes of forging a new ring of power to counter Sauron's own. With this, Celebrimbor secretly plotted to not only take his revenge on Sauron, but also amass more power for himself and take the lands of Mordor for his own as the Bright Lord. This stood in contrast to Talion's goals, as Talion wished to actually keep Middle-Earth safe. One of the many bones of contention between them was the fate of the Gondorian fortress Minas Ithil: Celebrimbor cared not for what happened to it, arguing that it would "go the way of all flesh", whereas Talion was set on keeping it safe.

Trivia

 * As an Elf corrupted by the One Ring and planning to overthrow Sauron as a power-mad Bright Lord to his Dark Lord, Celebrimbor is in essence the embodiment of everything Galadriel feared turning into, and indeed what she nearly became when offered the One Ring by Frodo Baggins.
 * His being an excellent Elven blacksmith who forged items of great power coveted by a Dark Lord and then went mad in his attempts to reclaim those same artifacts, is all quite similar to the story of his grandfather, Feanor, who like Celebrimbor is one of the few Elves in the mythos to qualify as a villain.
 * In Shadow of War, one of the ways for Talion to finish off an Uruk has Celebrimbor's form materializing and killing the Uruk with a ghostly apparition of his smithing hammer in a manner identical to how Sauron killed him.
 * His voice actor also voiced Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman. This is an interesting coincidence, as Talion (who Celebrimbor aids and works with), voiced Batman in Batman: The Telltale Series.