Uruk-hai shield
[ Uruk-hai shield 
| |
|---|---|
| Appearance | white-handed shield |
| Slot | shield |
| AC | 1 |
| Special | (none) |
| Base price | 7 zm |
| Weight | 50 |
| Material | iron |
The Uruk-hai shield is a kind of shield. When unidentified, it is a white-handed shield. (This is not an error for "white-handled"—the shield does not have a white handle but the image of a white hand, which is reflected in the default tileset image for the item. Compare the red-eyed shield.)
As its name suggests, the Uruk-hai shield is usually encountered as part of the starting inventory of Uruk-hai (with about a 2/3 chance). Orc-captains may start with an Uruk-hai shield or an orcish shield, with a 1/3 chance of each. Since Uruk-hai tend to be more dangerous than Mordor orcs, because of their use of poisoned arrows, one might expect the Uruk-hai shield to be superior to the orcish shield used by Mordor orcs, but in practice the two shields are identical in all but name and appearance.
Uruk-hai shields are considered racial equipment for orcs, for purposes of the racial armor unofficial conduct and the racial AC bonus in UnNetHack[1].
Mythology
The white hand is the symbol of the wizard Saruman, one of the antagonists of The Lord of the Rings, who raised an army of Uruk-hai in an attempt to rival the titular "Lord of the Rings", Sauron. The white hand was a deliberate imitation of the red eye used by Sauron.
