Severlin posted about Mordor on the LOTRO forums this week:

“I really shouldn’t be posting yet but… We really want the content leading up to the Black Gate to live up to the player’s expectations. That’s what we are working on now. But the crescendo of what happens to the Ring needs to be fantastic. Once the players have to enter Mordor itself… we feel that we need something “big” to do that justice. Sev~” – source

This post is fairly vague, but that might not be a bad thing. Players have been wondering if the plan for this year was still the same after the recent layoffs at Turbine. This post confirms the general plan for this year is still the same.

The post also gives information about Turbine’s plan for Mordor proper, describing the need to do something “big.” Turbine developer DrOctothorpe seems to be pretty excited about it.

“Well, I’m excited! That Severlin let this out, that is. We’ve got some serious work of us and we’re pretty darn psyched about it.” – source

DrOctothorpe doesn’t seem to give any details on the ‘big’ something, other than stating it is not an Epic Battle.

Also, according to his LOTRO forum title, Severlin seems to be the new Executive Producer for LOTRO. It is unclear if Severlin will be managing both DDO and LOTRO simultaneously, as he is still shown as the Executive Producer for DDO on the DDO forums.