Council of Elrond

I've seen A Strident Spawn was errata'd to be unique at some point in the last 20 years.
Can anybody explain why this change was made? Seems like it makes playing the half-orc factions really difficult/draw dependent. Also seems like it would be a big NPE if both players were playing strategies dependent on playing it. Since it's a permanent event, you can't even try to influence it away from your opponent.

Also - can anybody explain what this card represents thematically? I've never understood what this card was supposed to be. Was there a chapter I missed reading somewhere when Saruman adopts a kid and turns him into a half-orc or something?

Strident Spawn got errata on 16 August 1998, effective 28 August 1998. This was included in the earlier set of MEWH "fixes," and not in the later set of "long expected fallen wizard squatter party nerfs" on June 2, 1999 (taking away Haven Palantir MP and Protected Haven region-type removing effects).

No reasoning was given for this round of errata but you can tell that Strident Spawn's errata was for balancing because the card "cannot be duplicated." I believe it's because Fallen Pallando, especially, can get a lot of MP without ever moving and Strident Spawn is a bottleneck. You get 1MP for Strident Spawn and with that you can get 6 Character MP for 8GI of half-orcs (taken from sideboard via discard pile) and the Half-orc factions for 1MP (2MP with Pallando's effect). And, at the time, the Palantir MP. You could not move at all and easily get 25MP. If you went to the Deep Mines you could get even more. People still play these FW Pallando type decks but it's not as consistent. It's a good deck for people that like to micromanage influence and don't like rolling dice.

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When Merry and Pippin are captured, it's actually by 3 different tribes. Saruman's orcs, Sauron's orcs, and the goblins. The "mountain maggots" complain they can't run in the sunlight so Ugluk says they'll run with him behind them.

Then when they meet with Treebeard he says:

I think that I now understand what he is up to. He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things, except as far as they serve him for the moment. And now it is clear that he is a black traitor. He has taken up with foul folk, with the Orcs. Brm, hoom! Worse than that: he has been doing something to them; something dangerous. For the Isengarders are more like wicked Men. It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and Men? That would be a black evil!