The Nine Nazgul
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July 15, 2008 at 7:21 am #286
Figurines coming from “The Nine Nazgul” limited series.
Includes references from LR11-LR20.Special names :
Er-Murazor “the Witch-King” LR11 : The WITCH-KING™,
Nazgul Lieutenant: Khâmul LR12 : NAZGUL™ Lieutenant,
Adunaphel LR13 : Adûnaphel™,
Akhôrahil LR14 : Akhôrahil™,
Dwar of Waw LR15 : Dwar of Waw™,
Hoarmurath of Dîr LR16 : Hoarmürath™,
Indur Dawndeath LR17 : Indûr Dawndeath™,
Ren the Unclean LR18 : Ren The Unclean™,
Uvatha the Horseman LR19 : Uvatha the Horseman™March 19, 2009 at 7:16 pm #4627Er-Murazor “the Witch-King” LR11 : The WITCH-KING™
In life, his name was Murazor, and he was a prince of the great island kingdom of Numenor. He was born during a total eclipse of the sun, and his hair was as black as shadow. A second son, he would not inherit the throne of Westernesse. Instead, he turned to Endor seeking to carve out a kingdom of his own. He took ship to Lond Daer, at the mouth of the Gwathlo River. He attempted to assert control over the Numenorean colonists there, and for a time he may have been successful, even claiming the land as far north as the bitter plateau men would later call Angmar. But all too soon, he was driven out. Instead he attempted to conquer the great Numenorean port of Umbar. Here too, he was successful, for too brief a time. Declared a traitor and order to return to the island-kingdom, instead Murazor journeyed inland, guided by the Dark Lord’s will. In Mordor, he was given a ring of power, becoming one of Sauron’s kings of men. In the libraries of Barad Dur, he learned sorcery and lore of the ancient night. There, he learned the arts and lore that would one say earn him the title “the Lord of Morgul.” The ring of power gave him greatly extended life, but eventually his physical form dwindled and he faded into the shadow realm, becoming a Nazgul.
Not a true king in life, he became one in undeath, a king of sorcery and murder. He was Sauron’s most capable and most trusted servant, leading Sauron’s armies in conquest in the shadowy lands to the east and south. He fought against the forces of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men and passed, with his masters, into the shadows when the One Ring was cut from Sauron’s finger.
A thousand years later, Sauron and his Nazgul took form again in Middle Earth. While Sauron established himself in the ancient Dwarf Hold of Amon Lanc, Murazor travelled north into the harsh uplands of Angmar, where once he had dreams of ruling as conqueror. There, he worked a subtle web of treachery and intrigue, backed up by onslaughts of violence and war. One by one, he removed the noble Dunedain of Rhudaur who might oppose them. He removed Hillmen chieftains who were not pliable and destroyed Northmen tribes who would not bow. He fomented rebellion in Rhudaur and finally destroyed the Dunedain kingdom there. When the time was right, he struck a series of mortal blows to Rhudaur’s sister kingdoms of Cardolan and Arthedain. Cardolan fell within a mortal lifetime. Arthedain, saved by fate and the doughty fatalistic determination of its defenders, survived another five centuries until it too was destroyed in a cataclysmic war launched in the depths of winter. The Witch King never declared himself; he worked through proxies such as orc chieftains and Rhudaurim pretenders. It was not until close to the end of the Northern Wars that the Wise understood that one figure had driven the slow destruction of old Arnor.
But Angmar’s doom came quickly, as a host from Gondor destroyed Angmar’s armies in the field. Gondor’s vengeance razed the old witch-kingdom (as men came to call it) and slaughtered all of its inhabitants. But the witch-realm had served its purpose. The Dunedain kingdom of the North, Elendil’s beloved realm was no more.
During that final battle, the Noldo Elf Lord, Glorfindel prophecised that no man would ever slay Murazor, the Lord of the Nazgul. The Witch King came to hear those words, and exhult in them.
A generation,later The Witch King came forth from Mordor and claimed the fortress city of Minas Morgul from Gondor, putting its inhabitants and defenders to the sword. Gondor fought a long war to try and reclaim the city, but it was impregnable. For a thousand years, the Witch King ruled the city of Minas Morgul, making it a knife set to Gondor’s throat. But Gondor was a far more indomitable foe, compared to the weak North Kingdom. It took a thousand years before Mordor, ruled by a distracted Dark Lord, was able to challenge the Stone Land.
But Glorfindel’s prophecy was proven true on the battlefields beyond Minas Tirith. On the verge of his greatest, final, triumph, he was destroyed by Eowyn, the Lady of Rohan, and Meriadoc of the Shire. The first to become a Nazgul became the first to be destroyed. His soul was free at last, sent shrieking into the void.
Thus ended Murazor, the Lord of the Nazgul and the Witch King of Angmar.March 27, 2009 at 4:05 am #4671Khamul The Easterling, the Nazgul Lieutenant LR12 : NAZGUL™ Lieutenant
If the Witch King of Angmar is the Black Captain of Sauron’s armies, then Khamul is the lieutenant, the second in command.
Khamul’s background is a mystery. He was the king of a tribe of men from the lands beyond Rhun. Those amongst the wise believe his name is derived from the languages of the Ioriags of the wide hard lands due east of Mordor, a people whose territory centres on the Nurad river basin, hard against the marches of Upper Khand. Others tell a different story, of a fallen prince of an Avaradan tribe lured into darkness by an Elf lady who worshipped Morgoth. The truth of the matter is unclear, though the latter story seems fanciful.
What is known is that Khamul ruled over the Nuriag tribes in the middle of the Second Age. Khamul led his dragon-helmed warriors into battle with the Men of Numenor who had already attempted to conquer Khand. Khamul’s armies destroyed a Numenorean legion in the field. It was this act, or others like it, which drew Sauron’s attention to this powerful warrior-king.
In SA 2000, Khamul came to Barad Dur, and served as the Master of the Hold, the steward of Sauron’s fortress. He served in this role until Sauron’s defeat by Numenor. In the chaos of Sauron’s capture, Khamul returned to his ancient strongholds in the Nurad valley, and waited for his master’s return. He was not idle in those years. He gathered armies of Easterlings, ready for the invitable war of conquest that would soon come.
The war came, but it was not the war that Khamul envisaged. The Last Alliance of Elves and Men marched on Mordor. Khamul served as one of the Dark Lord’s generals, commanding armies in the field. When the One Ring was cut from Sauron’s finger, Khamul followed his master into the void.
Khamul and the other Nazgul took form again in Middle Earth in the year 1000 of the Third Age. The Easterling lord, who had served as Sauron’s steward in Barad Dur, served as the Necromancer’s lieutenant in Dol Guldor. While the first of the Nazgul plotted against the Dunedain kingdom in the North, Khamul laid the foundation for the destruction of the Dunedain realm in Rhovanion. When all was in readiness, when Dol Guldor’s defences were deemed strong enough, Khamul set out into the East, to walk amongst his descendants in the lands south and east of Rhun. There he built alliances and destroyed would be enemies, stirring wars and feuds, all in the name of his master’s grand schemes. He helped set in motion the events that would lead to the great Easterling invasions of Rhovanion all through the second millenium of the Third Age. He found himself in conflict with the Blue Wizards, whose influence undermined far too many of his plans.
Khamul returned to Mirkwood in the year 1636. The Great Plague followed in his wake. He did not linger there long. When Gondor abandoned its watch on Mordor, he returned to the Black Land to prepare the way for the Dark Lord’s eventual return. In TA 2000, he accompanied the other Nazgul during the assault on Minas Ithil.
In 2036, Gandalf the Grey entered Dol Guldor. Sauron, deeming that the time was not yet ripe for a confrontation, fled from Mirkwood, into the East. Sauron dwelled, for a time, in the Nurad valley. The Dark Lord and his servant saw to it that the Easterlings in all the lands south and east of Rhun would worship the darkness for a thousand years. The land was torn by constant warfare and atrocity. Tribes that dared stand against Khamul were destroyed, their children enslaved and their lands cursed.
Khamul returned to Amon Lanc three years before Deagol found the One Ring in the marshes of the Gladden Fields. The shadow fell on Mirkwood in earnest from that point on, and the ancient Greenwood became a terrible, hostile place.
When Sauron abandoned Amon Lanc and returned to Mordor in TA 2951, Khamul became the warlord of Sauron’s armies in Rhovanion and Rhun. Two other nazgul were sent to his side: Adunaphel The Quiet, and Uvatha the Horseman. Together, the three Nazgul harried the Elvish realm in the north, and the Northmen of the Vales and the eastern plains. Though Khamul left Dol Guldor in the winter of TA 3018 to hunt for the One Ring, he returned that winter to lead the Dark Lord’s armies in Rhovanion. He oversaw the assault on Thranduil’s realm, on Lorien, on the Dwarf hold at Erebor and the mannish kingdom of Dale.
At the Morranon, Khamul assumed command of the remaining Nazgul and fought in the last battle against the Free Peoples. But his defence of Mordor was in vane. The Ruling Ring was destroyed, and the Dark Lord was cast into the void. Khamul was destroyed in that instance too, and the long shadow of his bloody past could begin to lift. It would be long lifetimes of men before the Easterlings of the Nuriad basin could cast off their ancient feuds and bloody rites.March 28, 2009 at 2:26 pm #4691Adunaphel The Quiet LR13 : Adûnaphel™
The Story of the Quiet Nazgul, the Seventh of the Ulair, is perhaps the most vexed and least known of all the tales of those ancient Kings of Men. What is known is that the Nazgul was at one time the lord of the lands between northern Umbar and the Harnen River. At the height of the Quiet One’s mortal power, the Kingdom of the Harnen stretched well past the headwaters of that mighty river into what is now the heart of Lower Khand. Though this colony was small by the standards of Numenor’s empire, it was strategically important, and soon became very rich. The centre of this realm was the beautiful Numenorean fortress named Varnag by the tribes of Harad. The fortress looked out to sea and was impregnable. At first the Numenoreans saw it as a symbol of Numenorean superiority. Later they came to see it as an insult made by a would be rival. The king of Numenor, Tar Ciryatan, demanded that this upstart realm pay homage and taxes to him. The Kingdom on the Harnen’s lord refused. Refusal lead to tense diplomacy. Meanwhile, in the East, Sauron was moving. Armies of Haradan warriors assailed the land, all while the nobles of the Harnen looked to the west, expecting the king of Numenor’s wrath to descend upon them.
As the Numenorean kingdom fought border wars and prepared defences against an expected invasion from Westernesse, Sauron came to Varnag, and offered one of the Rings of Power.
In SA 2280, the Lord of the Harnen made war on the Numenorean colony to the south. The city of Umbar was a smaller affair then, perhaps even overshadowed by the influence of the Kingdom of the Harnen. The Nazgul at Varnag sent waves of Haradrim tribesmen against the Numenorean defenders. The outnumbered defenders should have been overwhelmed, but their superiority of tactics, equipment and training prevailed. Varnag’s army was destroyed. The Nazgul withdrew from Varnag, and Numenor reclaimed the entire bay of Umbar for the Crown. Umbar was strengthened against further assault. A lord of men and would be rival to Numenor slipped into the shadows, and was gone.
That much is known, and a matter of record.
Folk tradition amongst the Haradrim, however, holds that the Lord of the Harnen was no Lord, but a Lady. They speak of an ambitious lady of royal blood from the west-land who sought a crown of her own in the wide lands East of the sea. They speak of a woman so beautiful that some believed fate had cursed her.
Scholars who have investigated this story have drawn parallels between the tale of Adunaphel, a lady of the Royal House and kinswoman to Er Murazor, whose “beauty was alike the Eldar, and yet so unlike.” Adunaphel of House Forostar was a major figure in the “Adunaic” movement who sought to rid Numenor of Elvish influence. She, like others after her, was obsessed with immortality. And the stories hold that she went to Middle Earth and became a queen there. Little else is known. Perhaps Adunaphel became the Ringwraith known as the Quiet. Perhaps not. Certainly her name has been linked to the Seventh Ulair in many sources. The wise do not say anything definitive, either way.
The Quiet Nazgul ruled the realm of Ard, which claimed the entire Harnen River, from the citadel of Lugarlur, in the shadow of Mordor. For a thousand years the realm endured, growing rich again on tariffs from traders. The Harnen was the gateway to the empire of Khand and lands further east. Even Numenorean traders found it far safer and easier to pay the tariffs and traverse the river, than attempting the long road journey overland from Umbar. The realm of Ard served as a knife blade, cutting Umbar from the Numenorean colonies on the Bay of Belfalas. Indeed, the Quiet Nazgul shaped the future of the Dunedain: with the realm of Ard cutting off land communications between Umbar and Belfalas, it helped concentrate the Adunaic party in Umbar and the Faithful party in Belfalas and places further north. The Kingdom of Ard was destroyed when Ar Pharzon landed at Umbar and marched through the Harnen Valley to confront Mordor.
The Quiet Nazgul fought in the War of the Last Alliance, leading the armies of Sauron in southern Ithilien. When Sauron fell, the Quiet Nazgul passed from the living world into the shadow.
When the Quiet One took shape in Middle Earth again, it returned to the ruins of Lugarlur and set about undermining Gondor’s domininion in Near Harad and Umbar. Haradrim tribes made Gondor’s command of the Harnen a costly and bloody affair, fatally weakening Gondor’s hold. When the King’s Men sailed to Umbar following their defeat in the Kin-Strife, the hostile forces in the Harnen prevented any thought of Gondor attempting to retake Umbar by land. While the Great Plague ravaged the north, the Quiet One left Lurgalur and went to Mordor to prepare the way for Sauron’s return. In TA 2000, the Nine rode forth and besieged and later conquered Minas Ithil. The Quiet One remained there for more than nine hundred years.
In 2951, the Quiet One was despatched north to the Hill of Sorcery along with Khamul The Easterling and Uvatha the Messenger. There, the three Nazgul oversaw the preparations for Sauron’s war on the kingdoms of the Northmen, and the Elves of Lorien and Mirkwood. As the War of the Ring approached, the Quiet One rode forth searching for the One Ring. When the Nazgul were defeated on the Bruinen, the Quiet One returned to Dol Guldor and prepared for war. The Quiet One lead the assault on Lothlorien, but was repulsed by the power of the Lady Galadriel. A few days later, the Quiet One participated in the assault on Thranduil’s realm. Here too, the Nazgul were driven back, but the battle was far closer. The Quiet was summoned back to Mordor before the battle could be won.
The Quiet was amongst the eight Nazgul who guarded the Black Gate on that last, fateful day. The One Ring was destroyed and the Quiet One was banished from the world forever.March 30, 2009 at 7:45 pm #4726Akhorahil, The Storm King LR14 : Akhôrahil™
Akhorahil was the son of a Prince of Numenor and rose to become a King of the southlands of Middle Earth. His father was a cousin of Tar Ciryatan, and one of the king’s important allies. One of the Adunaic movement, Akhorahil’s father Ciryamir, was given royal permission to colonise the verdant lands around the Yellow Mountains in the south of Middle Earth. Ciryamir brought his family to the port of Hyarn and then moved inland. There, in the clear cool air of the heights of the Yellow Mountains, the family built Barad Cannanun and from there ruled the peoples of that realm of Far Harad.
Akhorahil fell in love with the lush verdant land, and loved the power his family wielded over the primitive Mannish tribes. This was how the Mannish kings of old should rule, the youth believed. A strong, ruthless, ruler willing to sacrifice all for the defence of his land. Akhorahil would one day rule this land, and rule as a king of men, strong and unyielding. Waiting for his father to hand over the sceptre of rulership, however, proved to be too much. He murdered his father, took the sceptre from his father’s corpse, and proclaimed himself the king.
Akhorahil proclaimed himself overlord of the territories north and south of the Yellow Mountains. His armies marched east and south, claiming the the land as far away as the land of the Mumakil and the shores of the Bay of Ormal. His victories, and his pride, drew him notice. Sauron of Mordor saw this Adan king as a threat to his plans in the south. The lords of Numenor looked on, seeing a loyal if ambitious subject carving out a great Empire for Numenor. Sauron appeared to Akhorahil in the 2000th year of the Second Age. Akhorahil accepted one of the Nine Rings of Power. From then on, his fearful subjects named him The Storm King.
The Storm King oversaw the transition of the realm from a Dunedain colony to the first true nation of the Black Numenoreans. Even though the king’s rule became more tyrannical and more violent, the core philosophies of the Black Numenorean people was forged under his rule. The idea of a people whose inherent strength of blood gave them a divine right of authority over “lesser” peoples was codified. The men of Westernesse were changed by the hot climes and terrible freedom. Whatever moderation existed in Numenor was forgotten. The Storm King’s empire grew and grew over generations until, it represented the greatest kingdom in the south, and rivalled Mordor in power and prestige. In 2250, Tar Atanamir, the new king of Numenor decreed that all of the Numenorean petty kingdoms in Middle Earth must renew their allegiance to the throne of Westernesse. The Storm King refused. Tar Atanamir planned war.
The war was short, and brutal. The Numenoreans defeated the Nazgul’s host with dismissive ease, and the Storm King fled to Mordor for sanctuary.
Akhorahil became Sauron’s overlord in Nurn. The realm of Nurn was the breadbasket of Mordor, free of the shadow of Mount Doom, but encircled on three sides by Mordor’s strange and hostile mountains. For nine hundred years, Akhorahil was a master of slaves, and the one who ensured that Mordor’s war hosts remained well fed, and Mordor’s slave population remained well broken.
Mordor’s army was broken during the wars with Ar-Pharzon and the War of the Last Alliance. Mordor was liberated and Akhorahil was banished into the void with his Master.
Akhorahil took form again in Middle Earth in the 1050th year of the Third Age. He set out from Rhovanion into the Deep South, making his home in the ruins of his ancient kingdom. From there, he set about recreating his empire of old. However, the task was far more difficult now. A host of principalities and kingdoms had emerged from the ashes of ancient war, and the men – Black Numenorean and Far Haradic alike – were in no mood to accept a new overlord. He set about destroying these nations, through war or intrigue or outright corruption. For more than six hundred years, Akhorahil ground the region under his heel, destroying the southland for his master. However, he was forced to return north in 1640. Sauron needed to prepare Mordor for his return. One again, Akhorahil became the master of the slave fields of Nurn. Three hundred years later, he and the other Nazgul assailed Minas Ithil, thus securing Mordor against the now fading power of Gondor.
Akhorahil became the Witch King’s most trusted lieutenant. The Storm King may have been the fifth of the Nine, but he was one of the greatest Kings of Men in life, and a powerful sorceror in death. Though his main task was the feeding and equipping of Sauron’s armies, he never ceased in his ambitions towards reclaiming the southlands. Akhorahil continued his ancient process of corruption and destruction in Far Harad through trusted agents and easily malleable petty kings. When the Lord of the Rings emerged victorious, he knew, he would rule the southlands again.
It was not to be. Akhorahil was one of the Nazgul who led Sauron’s hordes on the Pellenor, where he was defeated. He saw as his lord and kinsman, the Witch King, fall in combat to a mere girl. In the ruin of defeat, he fled back to Udun in Mordor to prepare for the final assault on the forces of the Free Peoples. In the skies above the Morannon, he fought in bitter combat with the Great Eagles. Too late, Sauron realised his true peril. The Nazgul swept south to destroy Frodo before he could claim or destroy the One Ring.
The Ring was destroyed and Sauron and the remaining Nazgul passed from this earth into the void, this time forever.
In the south, the terrible empire of Men was a cherished memory and cherished ambitions of the Black Numenoreans for long years of Men, and Akhorahil’s descendants would clash with the Reunited Kingdom on many occassions during the Fourth Age of the Sun.March 31, 2009 at 3:43 pm #4735Dwar of Waw, the Hunter LR15 : Dwar of Waw™
AKA the King of Dogs, the Hunter, the UndyingFar to the south and East, of Endor, in a land unknown to the wise and forgotten by most, there dwelled a tribe history records as the Wolim. They appear in no other tale, save this one. Some place their land as east of the Land of the Mumakil. The truth is little known. They appeared in the chronicles for one reason alone: their king became a Nazgul.
History names him Dwar, or Dwaw; this is almost certainly a corruption. Some sources say he was the first King of Men to receive a Ring of Power.
The Hunter’s story begins in his homeland, amongst the Wolim tribes. In those ancient days, the Wolim were under constant threat by raiders from another, more powerful tribe. The young Dwar saw his people killed and enslaved, and his own family maimed and killed. In the ruins, Dwar made an oath of vengeance. He would see his enemies destroyed, even if it cost him his soul. Fleeing his homeland, he travelled north, seeking aid from his kin. There, under the tutelage of warriors and hunters, he learned many things. He trained as a scout, leading packs of war dogs hunting criminals. He trained as a warrior, becoming a captain of armies. He finally trained as a sorceror, learning the dark arts of death and destruction. When he was ready, he returned to the sea, to his homeland, and began his campaign of revenge and murder. When his armies marched, his great war hounds came with him.
The more powerful tribe of seaborn raiders met defeat again and again at the hands of the sorceror-king. Dwar’s army swelled. His victories grew more impressive. So too did his ambition. Dwar built an empire in that distant place, in that distant time warring with men – and Elves – and destroyed all who would not bow to him. He exterminated the remnants of the raider peoples and proclaimed himself the High Lord of all he surveyed. He had destroyed his enemies, fulfilling his oath. And it would cost him his soul.
Sauron the Deceiver came to him and offered him a greater kingdom, and immortality. Dwar accepted a Ring of Power, and his humanity was slowly eaten away. As the Ring slowly corrupted his humanity, the man named Dwar died and the Hunter was born in his place. Even after Dwar departed, his empire grew further, a hungry and violent thing warring with all the lands around, subjugating and destroying. In that dark time, there were wild stories of a ghostly apparition hunting through the carnage of battle, a shadowy figure leading huge packs of war dogs.
Sauron summoned The Hunter to Mordor in the year 2250 SA. There, in the hidden places, The Hunter helped create a new breed of war wolves, part warg, part werewolf and created in mockery of the natural animals of the wild. Smaller orcs were trained to ride them. Smaller orcs were, indeed, bred to ride these wolves.
The Hunter lead these orc-ridden war wolves, and his war hounds from the south, into battle in the Last Alliance. They were decimated, but not before claiming the lives of many Elves and many Edain. When Barad Dur fell, the Hunter was cast into the void, and his hounds all slaughtered.
The Hunter took form again in Middle Earth along with his master and his brother wraiths in TA 1050. He returned to his homeland and spent close to six hundred years fomenting war and strife there. Again the night was alive to the sound of baying hounds lead by a dark shadowed terror. It is said that he took especial pleasure in hunting down and destroying the small bands of Avar elves who had made their homes in that place.
In 1640, Sauron recalled The Hunter to Mordor, where he once again set about breeding new lines of war wolves. The descendants of his initial experiments had spread far and wild through Wilderland, Angmar and the east. He worked to bring many back to the breeding pits of Mordor, creating bigger and stronger wolves who could communicate with their orcish masters.
In 2063, Sauron’s plans were shaken by Gandalf’s entry into Dol Guldor. Sauron fled East, and The Hunter went with him. There, in those distant lands, the Necromancer and the Nazgul came into conflict with the Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, and their followers. When Sauron returned to Amon Lanc, the Hunter remained in the East, continueing his campaigns of murder and conquest, and opposed all the while by the Blue Wizards. It was a long war. Neither side truly prevailed. However, the destruction of certain forces in those distant lands ensured that no threat to Mordor would come from the East. Equally, the Hunter’s failure to destroy the Blue Wizards meant that Sauron’s armies were smaller than they might otherwise have been. The Hunter returned to Mordor in 2951, when Sauron began the task of rebuilding Barad Dur.
In the spring of 3018, the Hunter and the other Ringwraiths crossed the bridge at Osgiliath and stormed north up the Anduin Valley, seeking the One Ring. Later that year, they overtook the Ringbearer and his companions at Weathertop. The Hunter was one of the five to surround Frodo Baggins. They were driven off by Aragorn.
Following the disaster on the Bruinen, The Hunter returned to Mordor where he watched the approaches to the Black Land, flying on a Fell Beast or riding out with his wolves. While the other Nazgul assailed Minas Tirith, the Hunter remained in Mordor to watch for spies and guard the entries to the Black Land.
Like his brethren, the Hunter took part in the aerial battle with the Great Eagles over the Black Gate. Like his brethren he was summoned, too late, to Mount Doom. When the One Ring was destroyed, the Hunter was destroyed, forever.April 1, 2009 at 7:51 pm #4756Hoarmûrath of Dir LR16 : Hoarmürath™
AKA: the Ice King, the Cold One, the Sixth, the DwimmerlaikThe hunters of the utter north, around the Bay of Illuin, were a matriarchal society. The chiefdom passed from mother to daughter, in the manner of the ancient days. The men of Númenor called these people the Urdar and they dwelled about the forest of Dir near the Iron Mountains, and ranged across land and sea. In those days the men of Urd were in constant competition with the Umlir of the north, for space, for food and for power. Wars came and went.
The Ruling Chief, Emurath, marched away to war, leaving her daughter and her eldest son to watch over her household. The men of Urd were victorious, but Emurath perished in battle. Emurath’s daughter, Amurath rose to power, and was acclaimed as ruling chief. Her brother, Hoarmûrath became master of the royal house, guardian of the royal line and the most powerful man amongst the Urdar tribes.
Under Amurath’s rule, there was peace. She had lost her mother to war, and did not wish to see anyone else suffer so. She made a fair peace with the Umlir, and made peace with the other tribes of the north. Hoarmûrath became a rich man, honoured and feted, respected by all. But he wanted more.
He travelled abroad; lived amongst the Avar Elves of the north, lived with northern Easterling tribes, saw the ways of the world beyond the cold lands of the Urdar. In any of those tribes, in any other lands, he thought, he would be king. And a king did not rule by making fair peace. A king of other men ruled by fear, by violence, and took what was necessary to keep his people safe.
Hoarmûrath and his sister quarrelled often. In the end, she ordered him exiled. He refused. She summoned her house-guards to escort her brother away. Hoarmûrath’s companions slew the Ruling Chief. The penalty for such murder was death on the ice of the northern sea. There was no time for conscience. He proclaimed himself the first king of Urd, and by morning, Amurath’s retainers were all dead.
It took Hoarmûrath years to solidify his control of the realm, but eventually he was lord of all the lands of the Urdar and the Umlir and the plains beyond. Only one power stood in his way: the Avar elves of the great Northern Forests. Two campaigns were waged against them, and the Elves dealt the Urdar two bloody defeats.
Hoarmûrath looked abroad for aid. He asked Sauron of Mordor to come to his aid. Sauron sent Khamûl the Easterling to the realm of the Urdar with a gift: A Ring of Power. Hoarmûrath accepted the gift, and became the sixth of the Nazgûl.
Hoarmûrath’s warbands swept into the forests again, and this time they had victory. For fifty years, the Nazgul drove the Avar elves from the north, decimated the Umlir and created an empire for his new master. He raised great stone hill forts, the first ruler ever to do so in the utter north, carved the rock out of the permafrost. The forts hung like a noose around the empire, creating an impregnable realm unlike any the Urdar or Umlir had ever seen. When the north was secure, Hoarmûrath was summoned to Mordor. Hoarmûrath helped construct the great fortresses of Mordor: the Black Gate and the watchtowers of Udun.
During the War of the Last Alliance, Hoarmûrath led his Urdar armies through Rhovanion and against Northern Ithilien. When Sauron was defeated, Hoarmûrath departed into the void.
Hoarmûrath returned to the North in 1050, as Sauron and the Nazgûl took form again in Middle Earth. He came to a land that had forgotten him, save as some vague memory of blood and madness. He set about rebuilding his empire. Elves, dwarves and Umlir who had drifted into the old Urdar realm were driven out again, and once again the Urdar Empire spread far across the high boreal and tundra of Middle Earth.
In TA 1640, Sauron despatched him to Mordor to prepare the way for Sauron’s eventual return. When the Witch King returned from the ruin of Angmar and Arnor in 1975, they prepared for the great assault that would smash Gondor. In 2000, the Nazgûl rode forth and claimed Minas Ithil for Mordor.
Hoarmûrath dwelled in Minas Ithil for 900 years, occasionally venturing into the north, hoping to reclaim his empire. He was not successful, but in his time the Umlir fell under the shadow at last (Umlir marched south to assail Gondor during the War of the Ring – the Gondorians remember them as the bearded Easterlings who wielded great axes). Hoarmûrath found himself opposed by the Blue Wizards, the dwindling but still strong Avar Elves and strange music drifting from the utter north. Even though the great Empire of Urd never returned to greatness, Hoarmûrath’s legacy cast a dank shadow over the region for long lifetimes of men afterwards.
Like the other Nazgûl, Hoarmûrath stormed the bridge at Osgiliath in the spring of 3018, and rode north, seeking his master’s Ring. He came close to capturing the Hobbits in the Shire, but was foiled. Like his fellows, he was engulfed in the enchanted flood tide of the Bruinen River. Caught between Elrond’s command of the river, and Glorfindel’s revealed wrath, Hoarmûrath’s horse was killed and his naked spirit fled back to Mordor.
Hoarmûrath led mercenaries and warbands from Urd in the assault on Cair Andros, the Causeway Forts of Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. He was on the Pelennor when the Witch King was destroyed. Summoned back to Mordor, he helped defend the Black Gate.
Hoarmûrath’s spirit was cast into the void when Frodo Baggins destroyed the One Ring. The Nazgûl’s story was over, but his dark legacy remained to haunt the north through the long centuries of the Fourth Age.April 3, 2009 at 1:36 pm #4787Indûr Dawndeath LR17 : Indûr Dawndeath™
AKA: the Lord of Shadows, the Mûmak-king, the Death of Dawn, the Shadow of the South
Indûr’s people dwelt along the southern coast of the great Belegaer. They dwelt near to the land Gondor calls “the land of the Mûmakil.” They built a city there on a sheltered bay looking out towards the Southern Sea. They were a merchant people, trading with all the peoples of that distant coast, growing rich all the while. The port city was old by the time the Númenoreans came there.
The Númenoreans came, at first, as traders and teachers. They found receptive partners amongst Indûr’s people. Their realm was not powerful, but their wealth and trading activities gave them great status. Indûr was born as one of the merchant princes of the city, descended from the ancient founders of the city. In his lifetime, the ships from Númenor became ever more numerous and their new haven at Sarûl became ever larger.
Indûr foresaw that the Númenoreans would soon come as conquerors, not as traders. Indûr was an ambitious young man. He wanted to create a centralised authority capable of challenging the Númenoreans. Of course, he also dreamed that he would be the one of ruling this centralised authority. Indûr spent years building support amongst the mercantile concerns of his home and cultivating the friendship of more warlike tribes in the hinterlands.
When he was ready, he seized power from the city assembly. A year later, he was proclaimed king.
The change was not popular. A full scale revolt broke out later that year, and it devolved into a twenty three year civil war. He was driven from power, in the end. He fled east, deep into the Mûmakan.
The rich jungles of Mûmakan were ruled by tribes of men who had already had long dealings with Sauron of Mordor and who feared the rise of Númenor. The exiled king found a ready home there. Sauron also saw the Indûr represented a perfect figurehead with whom to unite the fractious Mûmakan tribes. Sauron gave the young king a Ring of Power. With the fell sorcery imbued in the ring, Indûr’s words rang with fear and promise, and one by one the divided tribes offered their allegiance. The exiled king gained a new throne
Indûr ruled for more than a thousand years. Under his rule, he repulsed Númenorean envoys and would be colonists. His elephant riding cavalry broke Númenorean infantry formations time and time again. He came to rule most of the lands about the southern sea. He could never directly challenge the Númenorean realm of Miredor that had arisen on either side of the Yellow Mountains, but his power was enough to keep them out of the inland realms in the eastern foothills. Also, in truth, Mûmakan was never a sufficiently worthwhile prize for the Men of Westernesse to spend blood and treasure to conquer. The West-men and the people of the Mumakan dwelt in an uneasy peace. In Mûmakan the Lord of Shadows ruled absolutely. Men fearfully called him the Dawndeath, the shadow that clouds the dawn.
The tense peace, and Indûr’s rule ended with the reign of Ar-Pharazôn the Golden. The king of Númenor’s fleets crushed petty realms like Mûmakan as one by one Mordor’s allies were defeated. Mûmakan became a Númenorean subject state. Indûr was driven away, seeking sanctuary in Mordor.
Indûr commanded the remnant of his Mûmak riding warriors in the War of the Last Alliance, but in vain. The vales of Harondor were littered with the corpses of the great elephants.
When Sauron fell, the Dawndeath passed from the world of mortal men, into the void.
The Dawndeath was perhaps the least powerful of the Nazgûl. His realm was small and his power limited. Of all the kings of men who received a Ring of Power, Indûr benefited from it the most. The Ring offered the petty king real power and real prestige. As a Nazgûl, he was far more powerful in death than he was in life. Of all the Nazgûl, he was the one who remained closest to his former kingdom. He returned to the south, and set about re-establishing his kingdom. Númenor was gone, and his old enemies were but memories. No one would challenge him this time. He took his time reforging Mûmakan into his kingdom again. An assassination here, a border war there; Mûmakan and its surrounding kingdoms were guided by a deadly, subtle hand. Though a slave to Sauron. Indûr pursued his own agenda. At times, he ruled openly, surrounded by cults of dark priests and oathbound warriors. At other times, he stood behind the throne of some high chief or other guiding policy. Always he counselled war. His realm might have emerged as something far greater, had not Sauron’s frequent summons called him to Mordor. Each time he departed, his vision of a united empire fragmented. Sauron had no care for the dreams of a petty king of a far off place. Sauron only cared about the herds of Mûmakil. Allowing his slave the freedom to dream of empire ensured that when the time came, the Mûmak would march at his command.
Indûr lead his people and their mighty Mûmakil at the Battle of Pelennor Fields. He saw his people die beneath the walls of the White City, his mahud-riders slaughtered and his tall, powerful infantry men, the pride of his nation, die beneath the hooves of the Riders of Rohan.
Perhaps he knew what would come next. He defended Mordor against the Eagles and then flew south, too late, to try and intercept Frodo Baggins. The One Ring was destroyed and the ancient King of the Mumakan departed Ea, exiled to the void forever.
Even after his final death, his fractured realm endured, but remained the playground of warlords and regional powers seeking to claim the power of the Mûmakil battle elephants, and the legacy of Indûr Dawndeath.April 14, 2009 at 9:27 pm #4944Ren The Unclean LR18 : Ren The Unclean™
Ren was born in the Ered Harmal, (sometimes called the Ered Ormal) in the Second Age. The Ered Harmal stretch (it is said) from the eastern hills of the realm of Khand to the Sea of Ormal in the distant south. The Harmal mountains separate Khand from the Chey lands to the East. Few travellers in the late Third Age have made such a journey. The truth, or lack thereof, is unclear. In life, reports go, Ren was a scholar, musician and would-be prince. His uncle was an overlord of the Chey tribes of the plains.
Ren had little interest in the affairs of a the tribes and their politics. He lived for knowledge, for music and life. He married young and raised two fine children.
His life changed in the year SA 1998. Plague slithered across the plains and took so many of the plainsmen. Ren nearly died. He spent a year deep in feverish madness. He recovered, but his sanity was frayed. He started to have visions, fuelled by delusions. He was king, he would say, no, an emperor of all the world. He spoke in strange tongues and uttered prophecies. In calmer times, some might have noted that these prophecies were snippets of epic poems in other tongues and elements of other legends of other lands. These were not calm times. Men came to the prince, to listen to him speak. All the while, his wife and children struggled to keep Ren within the realm of sanity. There was a sickness in Ren, and that sickness spread to those who listened to him.
In the 2000th year of the Second Age, Ren set out with a few hundred followers, seeking the fulfilment of one of Ren’s own prophecies. His poisonous words found fertile soil wherever he roamed. The plague had left a broken, demoralised people in those distant lands. Ren’s strange words seemed to offer hope. They called him the Fire King, and he claimed the realm from his uncle. He made his throne in the ancient holy place of his people, an extinct volcano in the Harmal range. Now he was king in name, but his madness drove him further. He would be master of all the tribes of all the lands. His followers formed armies and spread out in all directions driving away all “foreigners” and all who would not heed the Fire King’s words.
Blood and madness perverted those lands, and Sauron of Mordor was watching.
He sent agents to the Fire King, offering alliance, and offering greater rewards. He offered the solution to the riddles that preyed on Ren’s mind, offered secrets that even Ren did not know.
Ren became a Nazgûl in the 2001st year of the Second Age. He would be the Eighth Nazgûl. Now immortal and possessed of terrible power to match his already infectious madness, he demanded he be worshipped as a god, a speaker of the fire and enemy of the unbelievers. Those who did not bow to him were slaughtered. Ren’s realm grew and the shadow fell heavily there. For more than a hundred years, Ren ruled the Chey people, and watched over an empire of slaughter and terror.
His realm over-reached itself. Haradic tribes beyond the Ered Harmal resisted him, prompted, perhaps, by the men of Númenor. There was resistance at home too, where warlords sought power for its own sake, or freedom from the death and insanity haunting the Chey people. Ren’s armies were defeated in several wars. Ren’s realm might have fallen, but Sauron of Mordor had need of Ren’s madness for a little longer. Ûvatha the Horseman lead a host of warriors from Mordor and Khand to Ren’s aid, and eventually resistance was crushed. Ren ruled supreme in all the lands about the Harmal mountains.
However, events elsewhere doomed Ren’s domain. The King of Númenor landed his fleet at Umbar, and Sauron surrendered. Ren’s hold on his people started to fracture. Before he could reclaim control, however, Sauron returned to Middle Earth out of the ruin of Númenor. Ren was summoned to Mordor to help prepare the Black Land for the coming war.
Ren lead Chey warriors in battles in Ithilien and on the Dagorlad. He proved a terrifying foe. That strange poisonous madness seemed to spread through his armies, making them far more dangerous, far less predictable. Armies of the Free Peoples fell back in disarray at the rumour of his coming. In the end, however, Sauron’s armies were defeated, and the One Ring cut from Sauron’s finger. Ren and the rest of the Nazgûl followed their master into the void.
Ren took form again in his ancient throne, in the echoing depths of the volcano. Ren set about re-creating his ancient kingdom. Times had changed and memories were short. The horrors of the plague and the wars of millennia before had become legend, and mostly forgotten. His words did not find such an easy audience. He did not rule openly, in the Third Age. Instead, he ruled through proxies and through the utterings of priests.
Under his guidance, if not his rule, Ren returned some prosperity and unity to the Chey peoples. Warlords and raiders from Khand and Nûrad were driven off, and the people grew wealthier. The shadow lay on the Chey peoples again, but perhaps it lay lightly. The Chey realm was a corrupt place, where men worshipped the memory of the ancient Fire King and Morgoth openly, but there was peace. The concerns of Sauron of Mordor and his plots against the West seemed so distant and so easily forgotten. Life went on, for the most part, as it had done before the plague and before Ren’s return from the void.
Eventually, though, Ren departed his kingdom and returned to Mordor. News had come of the One Ring’s discovery. Sauron would reclaim it, and crush all the world.
Ren rode out with the other Nazgûl seeking the One Ring in Wilderland and Eriador. He was with the Witch King on Weathertop. His horse was swept away at the Ford of the Bruinen.
Ren returned to Mordor where he marshalled the great host of the Morannon, readying it for the day when it would march out in the hour of Sauron’s victory. Instead, he was there when Aragorn lead the Lord of the West to the Black Gate to demand Sauron’s capitulation. He was there when the Great Eagles swept out of the north. And he was there when Sauron knew he was doomed. Ren flew south, trying to reach Mount Doom before the end.
He was too late. Ren was cast from this earth, and his poisonous madness died with him.April 18, 2009 at 5:22 pm #4965Ûvatha the Horseman LR19 : Uvatha the Horseman™
Ûvatha was the ninth of the Ringwraiths, the last King of Men to accept a Ring of Power. Ûvatha was the son of an exiled prince from the land men now called Khand. Khand lay across the strategic trade routes from the east towards the ports of the Harnen valley and Umbar. It has been fought over by many tribes since the beginning of time. Ûvatha’s father was Achef (chief) of the Uigyar, one of the Talathrim (S. Plains-people) tribes who commanded the area around what would later be called Lâorkí. The Lâorkí tribes roamed the lands between the Ered Harmal and the Harnen tributaries. Lâorkí was little more than a vaguely defined range for the nomadic Talathrim, but it was Ûvatha’s homeland, and he would see little of it, as he grew. His father’s small tribe was under constant attack from the king of the tribes around the city of Amrûn. The Amrûn tribes were more numerous, and had grown rich on trade with Númenor. But the Amrûn tribes wanted to secure the arid Lâorkí highlands, and thus Ûvatha’s early life was one of constant skirmishing and running.
Ûvatha grew to manhood in a hard time, grew up in a time of pain and war. He rode a horse before he could truly walk, and killed his first enemy at the age of seven.
By the time Ûvatha turned 18, however, his people’s fortunes were changing. The men of Lâorkí had grown tough, wily and warwise. Slowly they had retaken their old ranges and stolen enough silver from their enemies to hire mercenaries from the Chey lands to the East, and bribe the Amrûn king’s allies into truces. At last, the Lâorkí tribes met their enemy in open battle on the Knife River in the central valley. Ûvatha’s light cavalry broke the enemy flank and won the battle.
Alas, Ûvatha’s father died in battle that day, and Ûvatha’s uncle Mionid claimed the kingship of their people. Ancient Talathrim tradition had it that younger heirs were to be ritually executed, as both a sign to the gods, and a way to prevent brothers fighting brothers, or uncles fighting nephews. Ûvatha escaped from the war-camp and fled downriver to the great tribal meeting ground at Sturlurtsa. The chief there had remained neutral in the war between Amrûn and Lâorkí, knowing that whoever won would emerge weaker. The Sturlurtsa chief welcomed Ûvatha into his home. There, the young warrior made a name for himself as one exceptionally brave, charismatic and devious. The chief appointed him Warlord of the tribes, riding forth to raid Amrûn lands and driving away raiders from Chey and Harad. When the chief of Sturlurtsa died, Ûvatha claimed his throne.
From there, Ûvatha lead an army east into the Lâorkí lands and conquered his father’s people. His riders spent two years conquering each of the small Talathrim tribes between the Númenorean outposts in the Harnen River and the Gap of Shadow (between the Ered Harmal and the Ephel Dúath). The strategic route from the East to Umbar was secured and the land united. Ûvatha became the first king of the new realm, which he merely called the empire, or Khand. The Gap of Shadow would later be known as the Gap of Khand.
Within a year, Ûvatha received a messenger from Sauron of Mordor. The messenger bore a Ring of Power, a gift to the mighty king of the new realm neighbouring Mordor. Sauron had watched Ûvatha’s progress from afar. Uniting the Harnen watershed and the highlands beyond was long a goal of the Dark Lord. Now this young warrior had achieved it for him.
The Talathrim of Khand were already a brutal and violent people before Ûvatha united them. (Indeed their name survives in later legend as the Hobbit word “ogre.”) Under the ring-gifted king and Sauron’s growing direct influence, they became even more dangerous. The Khand-men with their violent ways and great horsemanship swept south and east, destroying anyone who threatened Sauron’s interests. Their existence was a rumour of fear and blood, and their reputation spread far. Not even the mighty Númenoreans dared attack them directly. For twelve hundred years, Ûvatha ruled a nation of mercenary warriors, who controlled trade from the Sea of Rhûn and the Nûrad river valleys heading to Umbar, Harad and along the Ered Harmal. The old tribal hill forts became mighty cities with strong walls and tall towers.
It was not to last. In SA 3261, Ar Pharazôn the Golden landed his armada at Umbar, and his warriors defeated the Khand tribes at Amrûn. The tough, deadly horsemen were no match for Númenor in full battle panoply. Khand was spared total destruction when the Númenoreans marched north, and Ûvatha withdrew from battle and hid his forces in the small stronghold of Olbamarl near the Gap of Khand.
He emerged from hiding to a sundered land, its people broken and defeated. He had scarce time to try and reclaim his realm before events elsewhere once again summoned Ûvatha into Mordor’s affairs. The Downfall of the Númenor was followed by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Ûvatha lead his horsemen north into battle in Ithilien and Rhovanion. The men of Khand took horrific casualties. Ûvatha’s reckless and aggressive tactics merely added to the death toll. The Khandish warriors fared poorly, and were driven back in every battle.
Ûvatha was there when the Last Alliance defeated Sauron at the foot of Barad Dûr, and followed his master into the void.
The Horseman took form again in Middle Earth in the year 1050 of the Third Age. He took form again in a land changed utterly. The princes of Khand ruled by consent of mercenary Northmen, tall blond warriors who had served alongside Gondor’s legions as that empire grew in the first millennium of the Third Age. These axemen who fought on foot as heavy infantry had come to Khand as traders and mercenaries. They had found a rich yet fractured land ruled by divisive warlords.
The Gondorians called these men Varangians. The men of Khand called them Variags.
Ûvatha set about recruiting these newcomers to his cause. He offered gold, glory and great renown. He offered them conquest and dominion of the entire land, for was he not the great Horse-king of old returned? Marching south from Olbamarl, Ûvatha came to Lâorkí and offered the chief there (a distant descendant of his father’s house) the kingship of a reunited Khand – providing he undertook to pay the Variags well and allow Ûvatha to guide him. The chief of Lâorkí accepted, and Variag and horsemen swept down the Harnen river until they confronted the richest chieftain in the land, Irbo, at Sturlurtsa. Ûvatha slew Irbo through dark sorcery and the city fell.
Ûvatha’s new realm, commanded by his kinsman and defended by the axes of the Variags, soon grew rich again. The warhosts of Khand moved east and south, gnawing away at the exposed borders of Gondor’s empire. Tribute came to Ûvatha’s realm from lands beyond the Sea of Rhûn and the deserts of Harad. Tribute and slaves came from the Nûriags of Nûrad and the Asdriags of Rhûn; those tribes were the closest akin to the Talathrim of Khand. Trade still came from the East to Umbar. With that wealth, Ûvatha rebuilt his great cities of old.
Were it not for the presence of the Chey realm beyond the Ered Harmal and the Nazgûl Adûnaphel’s kingdom at the mouth of the Harnen River, the Empire of Khand would have commanded much of central Endor. The empire, however, was not a centralised authority: rather it was a loose arrangement of fiefs who all owed their wealth through patronage from Ûvatha and constant fighting and raiding beyond Khand’s borders. This meant that Ûvatha could rule with a light hand. It also meant that when the Horse-king was summoned back to Mordor in TA 1640 to prepare the way for Sauron’s return, the realm quickly devolved into strife. Ûvatha returned to Khand in TA 1854, to find a realm deep in internecine war. Once more, he recruited the Variags (now barely distinct from the Talathrim population around them) and the men of Lâorkí, and once more he set about reconquering his land. However, the violence in Khand set in motion a chain reaction of events which culminated in an Easterling migration into Rhovanion. Violence in Khand drove Khandish tribes north. There, they raided Easterling tribes who in turn were pushed further north again. Thus Sauron’s subtle designs were fulfilled. The Easterling migrations drove the Dunedain across the Anduin out of Rhovanion. The Northmen kingdoms were destroyed and the people enslaved.
When Ûvatha returned to Mordor in TA 1940, the land was once again vulnerable to strife. The Igath, part of the Wainrider federation, pushed through the Gap of Khand seeking new pastures. This time the Nazgûl did not return: instead his descendant Ovatha marched north from Lâorkí with Variag retainers and made a treaty with the Igath. Together, the Igath, Variags and Haradrim would assail Gondor from the south while the Wainriders assailed Gondor from the North. The alliance thus assembled was so much bigger than Gondor’s entire combined army. Victory seemed assured.
Alas, even Ovatha’s wiles and the Variag’s axes were no match for the tactical acumen of Eärnil II of Gondor. Ovatha was deposed. Ûvatha the Horseman returned to rule Khand openly in TA 2003. His realm never again claimed the heights of riches and prowess of ancient days. But it was a land somewhat united and secure from enemies. Sauron fled East, away from Gandalf the Grey. Sauron’s attentions were torn from his grandiose schemes of reclaiming Mordor. While Mordor was ignored, Khand was of little importance. The Variags (now a term associated with the aristocratic warrior elite of Khand) fought wars with the Haradrim and the Corsairs of Umbar over petty slights. Occasional invasions and rebellions were brutally suppressed. By the time Sauron had returned to Dol Guldur, the Dark Lord’s mind was turned utterly to recovering the One Ring. It had been found, the Dark Lord knew, but he did not know by whom, or where. For five hundred years Sauron searched in vain, until finally the White Council united and drove him from his fortress in Rhovanion. Sauron returned to Mordor and declared himself openly.
In 2951, Sauron sent Ûvatha, Khamûl and Adunaphel to Dol Guldur to reopen the fortress and assemble Sauron’s army in Rhovanion. Sauron’s armies took command of Khand directly and the formerly independent Khandish kin-bands were recruited into Mordor’s armies. Ûvatha’s peerless speed and horsemanship made him a perfect candidate to serve as Sauron’s messenger between Sauron and his generals. For sixty years, the Horseman rode between Dol Guldur, Barad Dûr and Minis Ithil conveying Sauron’s secret plans where no prying eyes could see and no listeners could hear.
In Spring TA 3018, at Sauron’s command, the Nine rode out from Minas Ithil and drove the Gondorian garrison from Osgiliath and raced north, seeking the One Ring. Their trail took them up the Anduin vales and south again through Rohan into Eriador. The Nine almost captured the bearer of the One Ring on three occasions, but each time they were foiled.
At the Ford of the Bruinen, Ûvatha almost made it across the river before he was overthrown and his horse drowned.
Ûvatha resumed his duties as a messenger before the true outbreak of war. He helped coordinate the search for the ring and the preparations for war in Rhovanion. He led his army of orcs in several skirmishes before being summoned back to Mordor as the battle for Minas Tirith began. He waited for news of victory on the Pelennor. No news came, save rumour of a great massacre of his people at the hands of the Rohirrim.
Ûvatha watched from the Black Gate as the Host of the West marched to challenge Sauron. He fought in the great aerial combat with the Great Eagles in the dusty sky. He flew south to attempt, vainly, to capture the Ring-bearer before the end.
When the One Ring was destroyed, Ûvatha the Horseman was finally cast from the mortal world into the abyss of the void. His name remained as a distant rumour of horror and blood. His empire never recovered from its many defeated, but it remained a place of violence and terror for many long centuries. -
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