In Middle-earth, even the forces of evil get their own language. In our latest collaboration with Middle-earth Enterprises, that language gets its own keycap set. Brand your board with Drop + The Lord of the Rings MT3 Black Speech: a menacing set of keycaps reserved for the most unruly residents of Mordor. Crafted by Sauron himself, “black speech” is a language without script, spoken only by Orcs, Wraiths, and others loyal to the Dark Lord—and written (seldomly) in the Elvish script Tengwar. That’s how it appears most infamously on The One Ring: in a scrawl that can only be described as sinister. It’s in this style that Matt3o created the legends for MT3 Black Speech, retaining the wording from MT3 Elvish, but rendering it in a twisted font befitting of Middle-earth’s most evil tongue. Also changed is the spacebar, which now features The One Ring’s inscription in full. Made from durable, dye-sublimated PBT and finished in an ashen black-and-gray colorway, MT3 Black Speech is available in a wide range of novelty-filled kits—including both Training and Hardcore variants—to bring any setup into shadow.
On this kit, all legends are Tengwar. It covers standard 60% through TKL layouts and will work as a base for full-size layouts. There are also alternative modifiers for enthusiast layouts like HHKB, Winkeyless, 65%, 75% layouts. Finally, the set also contains an ISO enter key and other keys for ISO layouts.
Translations for the Tengwar modifiers are as follows:
Enter > minno
Escape > awartho (“abandon”)
Control > tortho
Insert > nest (abbr. of nestegi)
Home > bâ
End > meth
Pause/Break > daro (“stop”)
Page Up > cebi am (“leap up”)
Page Down > cebi dad (“leap down”)
Caps Lock > pedi caun (“speak loud”)
Scroll Lock > hebi yred (“hold running”)
Num Lock > hebi gwenyd (“hold numbers”)
Alt > eichiad (a neologism that means “change” based on Tengwar roots)
Function keys > phui-1, phui-2, phui-3
Shift > ortho (“raise”)
Delete > geli (“shine clear”)
Backspace > gwo dan (“go back”)
Print Screen > teitho parf (“write a book”)
FN > esgail (“literary veils”)
Super (OS key) > orchal (“superior”)
Menu > Phonetically transliterated the word “menu”
Tab > sarf (“table”)
This kit contains the exact same key makeup as the Hardcore Black Speech Base Kit—except all keys have have Latin sublegends for the alphas and side-print legends for modifiers.
This is a standard numpad kit with legends in Tengwar only. It also includes an Eye of Sauron novelty keycap.
This kit fits both Preonic and Planck keyboards, as well as many other ortholinear layouts. The alpha legends have Latin sublegends and modifiers have side-print Latin legends.
This kit contains an extensive range of novelty keycaps with artwork inspired by the Lord of the Rings. Some of the novelties included also appear in other sets—but several are unique to MT3 Black Speech, including keycaps depicting the Ring Wraiths, Shelob, and Barad-dûr.
This kit contains a number of accent keys in a fiery orange color. It contains a spacebar with the One Ring inscription on it, as well as an extra Enter keycap depicting Narsil, accent arrows, and more.
This kit includes a host of extra spacebars in the standard Black Speech color.
Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings, and the characters, items, events, and places therein are trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC used under license by Drop.
We get it. Sometimes what you ordered just doesn’t work out. If that’s the case for you, don’t fret! All customers (both US and international) may return this item in new, unused condition within 30 days of delivery.
Estimated ship date is Nov 4, 2024 PT.
Payment will be collected at checkout. Cancellations are accepted up to 2 hours after checkout for in-stock items, or up until pre-order ships.