The Sauronic Empire

_{Map of Arda and the Sauronic Empire, c. FO 174}

Hail Sauron; Great King, King of Kings, King of Men, King of the World!

As the Third Age waned, the Shadow in the East came forth to cover all the wide earth. The Free People fell under the dominion of Mordor, and the greatest empire the world has ever known was forged, spanning sixteen hundred leagues from the Sundering Seas in the west to the foothills of the Orocarni Mountains in the east, and more than four thousand and eight hundred leagues from Forodwaith in the north to Far Harad in the south. This document attempts to present an overview of the state of the Sauronic Empire in its first two centuries, in an effort to preserve the Lore of one of the more remarkable times in the history of Arda.

The End of the Third Age and the Beginning of the Fourth

Inherently, due to the nature of the event, it is impossible to definitively state when Sauron reclaimed the One Ring. It was not within his grasp during the events of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, on March 15^th, TA 3019. By March 25^th, when Sauron’s hosts issued forth from Morannon once more and launched the Second Invasion of Gondor, he had clearly gained it. The forlorn hope that Aragorn had led to the Black Gates in a desperate attempt to buy time for the Ringbearer found itself transformed into a rearguard, and fought a brutal and vicious fighting retreat through Ithilien and across the Anduin. On April 11^th, the Second Siege of Minas Tirath began, and ended. Though the fighting was fierce, and the forces of Mordor grievously hurt, the White City fell, as did King Éomer of Rohan and Aragorn, son of Arathorn, last scion of the House of Elendil. It was a great and terrible triumph for Sauron, and marked the end of any of true hope of resisting his dominion. And yet, it was not a victory entire. For while Aragorn and his warriors fought to the last, holding the Eye of Sauron in place, Faramir and Éowyn led a great host of the people of Gondor and Rohan in retreat into the west.

The last year of the Third Age was a dark and desperate time. After the fall of Minas Tirith, Sauron’s armies marched south, capturing Pelargir, Dol Amroth, and the other cities of Gondor, and overrunning the fertile heartland of the Kingdom. A great force of cavalry, both warg-riders and horsemen from Rhûn and Khand, rode north of the Ered Nimrais, burning Edoras and laying claim to the plains of Rohan. In the north, Orcs from the Misty Mountains and Easterlings marching up out of Rhûn seized and sacked Dale and the Lonely Mountain, overran the lands of the Beornings and the Iron Hills, assailed the Woodland Realm in Mirkwood and Lothlórien. Many glorious last stands were made then, as men and women died to protect their homes or cover the flight of their fellows, in battles that would be sung of in story and song if the Shadow had not covered them. But now the only true hope left for the Free People lay in flight.

Faramir’s great cavalcade, consisting of all the men and woman of Minas Tirith and Edoras, and all those who could be gathered from the lands around, rode north down the ancient Old South Road. It was a desperate and dangerous journey, in which they rode hounded by the servants of the enemy, but the son of Denethor and the last daughter of the House of Eorl would not allow them to falter or fall. They forded the Isen River and crossed through the Gap of Rohan, so entering Eriador. Following the directions of Masters Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took they forded the Greyflood and marched north into the Shire. There, there was a short but sharp affray with a collection of ruffians who had attempted to establish control of the region, but they proved no match for the veterans of the War of the Ring, and many of the Hobbits joined with their host, along with Dwaves from the Ered Luin. Others from Gondor fled south along the coast, while others fought their way through the Misty Mountains; the Elves of Lothlórien who came together in a body, those Elves of Thranduil’s realm who escaped the sack of the Elvenking’s Halls, woodsmen and Beornings, men of Dale and some Dwarves. In great armed companies they fought their way through the High Pass and the Redhorn Gate, coming down into Eriador.

Thus began the Great Exodus. For the Elder Kin, this was the time they had long awaited, the final passing over the Sundering Sea to Valinor. For those of the younger Kin, most had fled merely seeking a respite from the armies of Mordor that marched at their heels. Some hoped to establish a new realm in safety across the Misty Mountains. It was soon clear, however, that the mountains were no barrier to the power of the Dark Tower. It was Faramir who first proposed to his fellow lords that they emulate the Firstborn. Long had the son of Denethor delved deep in the archives of Gondor, and while few remembered now that Númenóreans had begun their reigns in Middle-earth as Sea-Kings, the tall ships of Gondor and Arnor had once ranged all the oceans of Arda. Númenor lay sunken far beneath the Sea, and Valinor lay beyond the reach of any but the Elves, but new continents had risen in the Far West after the Changing of the World, lands far beyond the ken of Sauron. Few were eager to set sail beyond the edge of the known world, but even as they debated Sauron’s troops advanced.

That the Free People has as long to prepare as they did can be credited to the Stand of the White Council, who went forth in the last glory of the Elder Days and met the armies of darkness in Enedwaith, along the track of the Old South Road and put forth the true measure of their power for the first and last time. With fire and light and earth and stone they smote the vanguard of Sauron’s armies, driving them back in confusion and woe. For months they stood athwart the main road North, buying time for timber to be felled and ships to be laid down. It was not until January, TA 3020 that the Lord of the Dark Tower Himself grew impatient and came forth, girded with the Ring of Power and arrayed with His servants and Nazgul. Of their final battle, none can say beyond that the sky blazed with fire and the earth shook for hundreds of leagues in all directions. But Sauron the Deceiver emerged triumphant, and the land of Southern Enedwaith was blackened and burned to this day, becoming known as the Scar. 

With the White Council’s fall, the hosts of Mordor resumed their march, and by April, they had reached the shores of Lindon, leaving all behind them burning or enslaved. Many tens of thousands were slain, or trapped upon the shores of Middle-earth, but many thousands escaped as well. As the banners of the Red Eye crowded the horizon, two great fleets of ships set sail from the Gulf of Lune. The elvish armada took the Straight Road home, and passed out of recoded history. The ships of the Free People set their courses southwest, and tacked for the Western Lands. With the passing of the Elvish people from Middle-earth at last, the Third Age of the World was brought to an end. The Fourth Age; the Age of Man, the Age of Sauron, the Age of the Machine, was born.

_{Map of Western Middle-earth, c. TA 3019}

A Geographical Overview

The Sauronic Empire was the largest single dominion in recorded history, stretching sixteen hundred leagues from the Sundering Seas in the west to the foothills of the Orocarni Mountains in the east, and more than four thousand and eight hundred leagues from Forodwaith in the north to Far Harad in the south. It was larger than any of the Eleven realms of the First Age, or the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor at their height, or the domains of Morgoth during his rule from Angband, representing an unprecedented consolidation of power and territory under a single ruler. It should be noted here that, for convivences sake, historians use the term ‘Sauronic Empire’ to refer to the regions of Middle-Earth under the dominion of the Dark Lord Sauron during the Fourth Age, but it must be understood by readers this is an anachronism. No contemporary used it, and there was never a single integrated political entity under the reign of Barad-dûr, rather a shifting patchwork of tributaries, fiefdoms, and vassals.

The Black Lands

The Black Lands are the personal demesne of the Lord Sauron, those lands over which He rules directly and from which He projects His strength and power. At their core is the land of Mordor, His ancient stronghold, but after the events of the War of the Ring they were expanded to include all of Ithilien as far north as the Emyn Muil, South Gondor, Cair Andros, Minas Tirath, Tolfalas, Lossarnach, and Lebennin as far west as the River Gilrain. Here is found Minas Morgul, the Tower of Sorcery, and the other great cities and citadels in which dwell Sauron’s servants and soldiers. None is greater than Barad-dûr, the largest fortress constructed in Middle-earth since the First Age. “Wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong, mountain of iron, gate of steel, tower of adamant.” The capitol of Middle-earth, the Home of Sauron, here the Great King sits in rulership and judgement over His realm, and here are found His treasures and armories and storehouses. The Black land is home to Orcs in great numbers, and the remnants of the Men of Gondor, who have been either reduced to servitude or become debased and corrupted. Though a grim region, covered ever in smoke and shadow from Orodruin, it is also a wealthy one. In the cities here are many furnaces and foundries, ceaselessly churning out tools and machines to expand the Great King’s power, and fine mansions and halls in which dwell those who have grown rich and prosperous from service to the Great King. From it many roads lie, upon which travel tribute from all the nations of Arda. It lies roughly at the center of Middle-earth, the beating heart of empire.

Rhûn

In many ways the true heartland of Sauron’s Empire, Rhûn is the great region of steppes and grassland stretching east from the borders of Rhovanion to the feet of the Orocarni Mountains and the shores of the Inner and East Seas, centered around the great inland Sea of Rhûn. This land is home to a great multitude of tribes and kingdoms, nearly all of which have pledged allegiance to Sauron since His first dominion in the Second Age. The men of these lands, the Easterlings, are fierce fighters, and loyal to their liege-lord. They are ruled by their own chieftains and kings, and many of their rulers are high in the Great King’s councils. In the time of the Sauronic Empire they maintained their old tradition of loyalty, providing many regiments of men to help garrison the conquered lands in the West, and sending treasure, foodstuffs, and tribute in trains of wains to Mordor.

Khand

Khand is a desert realm to the southeast of Mordor. Much like Rhûn (of which it is oft considered part of) the people have long since sworn oaths of fealty to the Dark Tower. The chief tribe is Variags, who rule many of the cities along the scattered oases.

Near Harad

A great expanse of desert and scrubland to the south of Mordor and Gondor, covering the northern half of the continent of Harad. It is inhabited by the Haradrim, tribes of bitter men who willingly serve Mordor. They are skilled horsemen and riders of Mûmakil, and dwell in nomadic bands or small villages. They do not build in stone, but are skilled metalworkers, though less sophisticated than their Easterling cousins. In the time of the Sauronic Empire their land and customs changed little, but the Great King built roads south through this realm to harvest timber from the jungles of Far Harad and ore from the mines of the Grey Mountains.

Far Harad

The southern half of the continent of Harad, even now little is known of it. It is a land of vast jungle, inhabited by tribes of Haradrim and Half-trolls, who like their northern kindred pledge their oaths of loyalty to Barad-dûr. Sauron has built fortresses and encampments here, and takes tribute of their fine timber, their rubber, ivory, and other goods. His servants have also built ports and havens along the coast to speed and succor His ships.

Umbar

Of all the realms of Sauron’s allies, few are more important than the Havens of Umbar. Located on a great bay on the coast of Near Harad, Umbar the City was founded long ago by the Númenóreans. After the Downfall of Númenor the city was taken by those of that people who worshipped Morgoth, and so it has been ever since. The Black Númenóreans mingled and interbred with the Haradrim, forging the race of the Corsairs who for so long ravaged the coasts of Gondor. Since the final Fall of the West, Umbar has grown fat and rich. There are few of Sauron’s servants who are skilled in matters of watercraft, and the Men of Umbar have built for their master many fleets of ships, both for war and for trade, and they conduct the great majority of the Empire’s seaborn commerce. The ships of Umbar now range across the Sundering Seas, and around the tip of Far Harad and into the Inner Sea and the East Sea, everywhere carrying the banner of the Red Eye, though even they hesitate to journey too far into the West.

Belfelas

The rich realm of Belfelas in Southern Gondor was granted by Sauron to Umbar as part of their dominion, along with the city of Dol Amroth. The Corsairs appointed Lords of their own to rule this land, and the natives were reduced to servitude.

Langstrand

West of the River Morthond and east of the Lefnui, Langstrand is a sprawling, if lightly-populated coastal region of Old Gondor. When its ruler, Lord Golasgil, did not return from the Second Battle of the Pelennor Fields there was great strife among his vassals. A number of them, fearing the coming wrath of the Dark Lord, came upon their fellows and slew them, petitioning then Sauron for clemency. The leader of that treacherous number was made King of Langstrand, where his descendants rule as great tyrants to this day.

Lamedon

A valley lying in the vales south of the Ered Nimrais, the land of Lamedon had been a fiefdom of Gondor before the War of the Ring. The Great King granted it as boon to one of his Captains, who took possession of it and the title Lord of Lamedon. He rules from the city of Calembel, and pays homage to Sauron.

Andrast

Like Lamedon, the peninsula of Andras was granted by Sauron to one of his vassals as a fiefdom in reward for loyal service. The Kingdom of Andrast is large, extending from the Lefnui River north to the Isen, but is inhabited by few people, mostly bands of Púkel-men and clans of Orcs upon whom the rule of the King lies light. Along the coasts some towns and small cities have been constructed.

Rohan

The Rohirrim were effectively destroyed as a distinct people during the course of the War of the Ring. Many of their number fled across the Sea, and the remainder were reduced to slavery or serfdom. Their land was settled by several tribes of Easterlings, who crossed the Anduin and took possession of the land from Sauron. The famed grasslands of Rohan continued to serve as horse-breeding pastures, but now those steeds were raised for the armies of Mordor and Rhûn. Isengard was repaired, and Sauron appointed a Lieutenant to serve as its warden, and a great host of Orcs and wolves was garrisoned there to guard the Gap of Rohan. Much of Fangorn Forest was burned or laid waste, but the ancient depths of the old woods are still shunned by most men in terror of the stories of the wood-demons.

Dunland

The men of Dunland serve Sauron as they have for generations. They live in small, scattered villages west of the Isen River along the edge of the Misty Mountains, under the rule of hereditary chieftains, and they send fighting men and tribute to the Great King.

Mirkwood

Since the War of the Ring the forests of Mirkwood have become ever more a haven of dark things. The Silvan Elves were slain or fled, and the woodsmen and Beornings the same, and all the forest became a place of terrible and loathsome magics and an abode of giant spiders and trolls and other fell creatures of Sauron. In the south, the great fortress of Dol Guldor guards over the northern reaches of the Great King’s realm endlessly, and is host to a great number of Orcs and other soldiers. Even the servants of Sauron do not dare to go into the deep forests, traveling only by the highways that are maintained by the magic of the Dark Lord.

Rhovanion

Rhovanion east of Mirkwood has been taken and settled by the Easterlings to its  south, who have long looked west at it covetously, and who destroyed the old Kingdom of Rhovanion in the second millennium of the Third Age. The Kingdom of Dale was destroyed, and the lands between the Celduin and Carnen Rivers and along the Long Lake were claimed by Kings of Rhûn, with the Men of the North who dwelt here reduced to servitude. The Lonely Mountain has become a fortress of Sauron, like Isengard or Dol Guldor, it is held by a high Lieutenant and well-garrisoned. Rhovanion west of Mirkwood had become a desolate wasteland and made subject to the Goblin-tribes of the Misty Mountains. Those settlements of men that remain here pay tribute to them. This holds true as far south as the River Nimrodel, where the forest of Lothlórien once stood. Between Nimrodel and Limlight is the Kingdom of Celebrant, bounded to the east by the Anduin and to the west by the Misty Mountains. This a realm of men, Northmen in main, who made obeisance to Barad-dûr, but it is said that they have mixed their blood with that of the goblins of the Mountains. It is a foul land of mills and manufactories and mines.

Iron Hills

The great majority of the Dwarven people resisted the coming of the Shadow, but not all. Some few swore allegiance to Sauron, for they saw in His clever machines and vast furnaces the proof that this was the true Lord of craftsmen and artisans. Those Dwarves who served the Great King were granted the halls of the Iron Hills as their personal demesne. 

Misty Mountains

Some of the tallest mountains in Middle-earth, the Misty Mountains split the continent in twain. Since the beginning of the Third Age, they had increasingly become a dangerous and inhospitable land, inhabited in chief part of Orcs, goblins, trolls, and other foul creatures. Since the coming of the Fourth Age and the establishment of the Sauronic Empire this has become ever more true. The mountains are ruled openly now by many tribes and bands of Goblins, who swear allegiance to Sauron and guard this vital natural barrier for him. Their chief strongholds are at Moria and Gundabad, the latter being their capitol and the dwelling-place of their great chieftains. They dig vast warrens, deep beneath the mountain roots, and mine ores for the use of Barad-dûr, and craft clever and cruel devices for the use of Sauron’s armies. This improvement alone has the advent of the Empire brought—they no longer pillage and raid their neighbors, lying together as they do under the Peace of Sauron, and the Great Highways through the mountain passes they now guard and maintain for travelers who serve the Great King. The highest peeks are still inhabited by the Great Eagles of old, though Sauron hates them and sends fell beasts and bats to assail them whenever He is able, fearing them as messengers and servants of Manwë.

Ered Mithrin & the Withered Heath

Much like the Misty Mountains that lie to their south, the Grey Mountains are the abode of many Orc tribes that pledge fealty to the Great King in Mordor. The veins of ore are lesser here, and no highways pierce the mountain passes, and thus the tribes of the Ered Mithrin are, for the most part, lesser in status and power than their southern counterparts. Here also in the Withered Heath, where the dragons breed. They too have sworn service to Sauron, if grudgingly.

Forochel

The great wasteland of snow and ice that covers the north of Middle-earth. It is inhabited only by the Lossoth, the Snowmen of Forochel, nomadic tribes who live by hunting and fishing amidst the tundra. They pay tribute to Sauron, but are little involved in the wider affairs of the world.

Angmar

In the years after Sauron’s victory He caused the old realm of Angmar to be raised once more from the ashes. The dark city of Carn Dûm was rebuilt, and many evil men and Orcs came there to dwell. From there, the Witch-King was given dominion over northern Eriador, as far south as the northern border of what had been the Shire, including Rhudaur, Breeland, and Eregion. It is a dark land of foul sorcery, and the men who dwell here are known to have an evil aspect. Of Sauron’s tributaries and allies in Western Middle-earth, it is undoubtedly the most powerful.

The Fiefdoms of Eriador

This land encompasses the southern half of Eriador, including Enedwaith, Miniriath, the former Shire, and the Tower Hills, as far north and west as the Lhûn River. This land was for the most part unpopulated when Sauron stretched out His shadow over Middle-earth, but fertile and unspoiled. In the time of the Fourth Age it has become the breadbasket, storehouse, and buttery of the Empire. A vast patchwork of estates, mills, plantations, and manufactories, worked by peasants and slaves under the rule of Sauron’s captains and lords. There are many towns and villages here, but they are grim, crude dwellings built to house unhappy workers and nothing more. Men and Hobbits live in this land, and goblin-men, bound to the land, or laboring in the mills for little pay. Many of the Great King’s liege-men own great estates here, and the produce of these territories feeds the armies and workmen of the Great King across the length and breadth of Middle-earth.

Lindon & Ered Luin

The furthermost western reaches of Middle-earth, the lands surrounding the Gulf of Lune were home to the Grey Havens, from whence the Elves sailed West, and many Dwarf holds had been built in the Blue Mountains. It was from here that the Great Exodus departed Middle-earth in the last year of the Third Age, and it was the final land to fall under the dominion of the Shadow. Since the coming of Sauron, He had turned these lands into a monumental fortress and armed-camp, erecting citadels upon the mountains, affixing many batteries of weapons upon the shores, and stationing a host of troops mighty beyond imagining in the lands surrounding. Even now, Sauron dwells in ever-present terror of the Powers in the Utter West.

The Colonies in the Dark Land

East of Harad and across the Inner Sea lies the mysterious continent known to the men of Middle-earth merely as the Dark Land. Even the Elves and Númenóreans recoded little in their lore about this land. The men of Umbar and those other of Sauron’s servants who know ship-handling have made many voyages here since the conquest of the West. They found a land covered in dense, nearly-impenetrable jungle, inhabited by fell beasts and fierce tribes of men who have no love for any of the strangers out of the West. Conquest of the interior has proven impractical, but the men of Umar have built forts and settlements along the coast, and brought some of the flatlands under their sway. They skirmish still with the jungle-tribes, and trade with them.

The Age of Sauron

For much of the Second Age, Sauron had dominated the lands of Middle-earth, but that was a very different state of affairs than the one that prevailed during the Fourth Age. Sauron’s dominion then was far from absolute, Númenór and the Elven Kingdoms still stood free to oppose Him, and the rule of Mordor was very much a construct of shadows and darkness throughout much of Middle-earth, a brooding presence rather than the iron-clamp of Imperial Rule. When the Fourth Age began, Sauron had succeeded in uniting the vast majority of the inhabited lands of Arda into a single Empire under His suzerainty. It was a world far different than any that had come before.

The Peace of Sauron

In truth, no feature of the Sauronic Empire was more noteworthy than that of the Pax Mordora, the Peace of Sauron that lay across the lands of Middle-earth. For the first time in recorded history, no wars were fought, no clash of arms, no dance of raid and counter-raid across the Wilderland and Mountain. Under the dominion of the Great King, no realm was permitted to levy war upon another, and no man was allowed to raise arms against his fellows without the gainsay of the Dark Tower. It was the first, and perhaps the only, benefit of Unity. Many have argued that the Peace was no more than a shadow laid upon the land, a mirage of the Great Deceiver. It is true that practice oft differed from proclamation. Far from the gaze of the Eye of Sauron, tribes still maintained blood-feud with tribes, and bands of Orcs did not always disdain ransacking nearby settlements. Moreover, if peace it was, then a peace held by swords and iron fist. If all lands are ruled by tyrants and all men are slaves, what value is peace? Still, it must be said: for the first time in historical memory, a merchant who bore the token of the Red Eye or a messenger carrying a courier’s baton could ride unmolested from the Gulf of Lune to the foothills of the Orocarni, and that is no small accomplishment.

The Imperial Highways

Of note to that is the Imperial Highways, the single greatest engineering feat of the Sauronic Empire, and one of the principle ways in which the Great King has put His stamp on the face of Middle-earth. Paved and built of graven stone, warded by powerful wrights and watchful toll-keepers, they are alike nothing that has been since before. In the earlier Ages of the World, those dwelling in Eriador often knew little to nothing of the lands beyond the Misty Mountains, and the world east and south of the Anduin may as well not have existed. Even in Gondor, which fought often with the Easterlings and Haradrim, knowledge of their native lands was scant. Now commerce and trade travels swiftly across all realms, borne by rivers of stone.

Rule & Governance

To speak of the government of the Sauronic Empire is to speak in contradictions. For there is the machinery of state, and then there is the truth of rulership. As related above, Sauron holds dominion over a multitude of lands, ruled by a host of kings, lords, captains, and chieftains. Some hold their office by blood, some by the grace of the Dark Tower, others by coin, but all in the end are but servants of Barad-dûr. The Great Eye watches all, and His will is the Law, at the first and last. Sauron styles Himself as Great King, King of Kings, King of Men, King of the World, and wears upon his brow a four-sided crown of iron and mithril, symbolizing thus the totality of His dominion.

In sooth, all those who dwell between the Mountains and the Sea are slaves of that Eye, but many have become prosperous, powerful slaves. The kings of far-away Harad and Rhûn have for long found great reward in their service to Sauron, and many nobles in Western Middle-earth have joined their ranks, but there is another class of men who have found success in the Fourth Age, smallholders and burghers, petty-merchants who have found that the wave of mechanization and industrialization has produced many opportunities for those willing to grow fat on the misfortune of their fellow-men.

The Age of Machinery

Sauron, the Great King Himself, is immeasurably old, a Maia from before the World itself was shaped. And yet, the lore-masters teach us that even then, when the world was young and unformed, He hungered for change and perfection and had a love for clever things and fine crafts. Under His tutelage, men have forgotten any love for the natural world or the old ways, and have embraced His hunger to yoke the world to their (or truly, His) desires. Mills and manufactories and fiery furnaces have been built in every city and town, and many new machines have been devised, tools of spinning gears and wheels that hammer and cut metal or weave cloth. Goods and commodities can be produced far cheaper than ever before, albeit more shoddily, and the proceeds from this have swelled the coffers of Sauron and His vassals. Of late, the Great King’s artisans have begun experimenting with strange engines driven by the vapor of water. The cities of Middle-earth, Tharbad and Fornost, Abrakhân and Mundburg, have swelled with workingmen seeking labor, driven from their landholdings by lords who seek by force and coercion to enclose the yeoman-farms and incorporate them into their estates.

It will be of no surprise that it is the tools of war that Sauron has been most eager to expand upon as His mind dwells ever in fear that His Empire will be cast down. During the War of the Ring the Wizard Saruman created a deadly weapon, the ‘Fire of Orthanc’, a strange substance which could rip apart stone when it exploded. The armies of the Great King now march equipped with many of these fire-powder weapons, rockets and explosive crossbow-bolts and mines. His goblin artificers have devised other fell arms as well, poisonous vapors and liquid fires.

Languages

In the Second Age, during His first reign, Sauron created the Black Speech, hoping it would be a tongue to unite his servants. In this task, He failed, but the Black Speech endured as the language of sorcery and power in the Empire. It is spoken by Sauron, the Nazgûl, and his other most powerful servants and vassals, and it is the Official Language of Governance, but only a small tithe of the population of Middle-earth can speak or comprehend it. The great masses of goblins and Orcs speak as they always have, in the many dialects of Orkish. Those Black Númenóreans who still serve the Great King speak Adûnaic, the ancient language of lost Númenor, which they jealously guard, though many speak the Black Speech as well, being high in the service of Sauron. The common tongue of Middle-earth remains as it ever-has been, Westron, though it has been corrupted and debased since the coming of the Empire, and now contains many Orkish loan-words and inflections. Knowledge of the Elven tongues has been utterly suppressed, and they remain known in Middle-earth now only to Sauron and a few of his most trusted sorcerers and lore-masters.

The Cult of Melkor

Sauron has expunged, to the best of His abilities, all knowledge of and reverence for the Valar and Eru Ilúvatar. He has revived the worship of Melkor that he inspired in Númenor millennia ago, teaching His acolytes that “Darkness alone is worshipful, as it was from the Ancient Darkness that the World was made. Melkor is the Lord of All, the Giver of Freedom.” He has erected great domed temples of obsidian and jasper, wherein are kindled braziers of fire that burn everlasting, and upon which foul sacrifices are made. This is no religion of the masses though, and the secret rites of Morgoth are barred to all but the great and powerful lords in every land. Many men of common stock worship Sauron Himself, knowing little about the Great King beyond his omnipotence. The Orcs sneer at religion of all kind.

_{Map of the Imperial Highway, c. FO 174}

The Free Kingdoms of the Orocarni

When the Children of Aulë awoke in the First Age, four of the seven Dwarf Clans dwelled in the Far East of Middle-Earth, in the mountains of Orocarni, along the shores of the East Sea. Here the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots built their halls and, knew or cared little of what transpired in the West, though they maintained ties of kinship with their fellow Dwarves. With the coming of the Empire, all Middle-earth was closed to them, but the hardy folk of the mountain had little interest in bowing to the Great King. They banded together and drove back the attempts by the Easterlings of Rhûn and the Orcs of Mordor to subdue them. Sauron, concerned with other matters, did not unleash His full might against them, leaving the War in the East to his vassals, and so the Dwarf clans were able to remain free of the Shadow. The mountains of Orocarni they fortified, building ramparts and bastions into the hard rock that not even the fire-powder bombs of Sauron could easily breech, and have warred on and off now for nigh-on two centuries. The four Dwarf clans are aided in this endeavor by some men, escaped slaves of the Easterlings in the main, who have found sanctuary in the mountains and earn their keep by aiding in the War, and those clans of Avari Elves who still dwell in the far eastern woodlands. Wild and free, knowing no lore of the Valar or the Ancient Days, the Avari care naught for the ancient grudge between Elf and Dwarf. The servants of Sauron have built a line of forts along the frontier in the East facing the wall of the mountains, and each year each side sallies forth to raid and skirmish.

_{Map of Dúnadór, c. FO 174}

The High Kingdom of the Westlands

When Middle-earth fell beneath the Shadow, the fleet of the Exodus fled westward across the Sundering Seas, carrying an enumerable host of the Free People hoping against hope to find the Western Lands raised up from the sea by Eru after the Changing of the World. They sailed for many weeks without success, seeing nothing but endless ocean, and it was many who thought that Faramir had led them astray. But at last, the horizon was crowned with green, and the ships came upon a vast land that few other mortal eyes had seen. There they settled, and strove to make a life far from the threat of Sauron.

The line of Elendil had ended forever, and the days of Númenor were gone at last, and thus the people chose Faramir as their ruler. He was wise, and fell in battle, and his marriage to Éowyn united the peoples of Gondor and Rohan, which provided the greatest part of the Exiles. He took the title High King of the Westlands, and all swore oaths of fealty to him. All agreed that there must be a king, to protect the realm, but there was little desire for a tyrant, or for the majesty and glory of Imperial splendor. Many of the folk who had come where Hobbits, or men of Bree and the North who had had little use for potentates, and the Dwarves bowed only with reluctance to a human lord. Thus, a confederal kingdom was forged. Faramir and his heirs reigned as High Kings, but their people lived under their Lords, and the High King ruled in consultation with his Council only.

The lands of Dúnadór were wholesome and fair to dwell in, and the people spread out upon them, building many towns and tilling the rich earth. The royal seat is at the inland city of Elessar, but the largest city and the center of commerce is the great port of Westhaven, built on the bay where the ships first dropped anchor in this new world. By the second century of the Fourth Age, the Kingdom held all of the lands east of the Great River and south of the Inland Seas, though much of this was thinly-settled. Beyond that, the Dwarf-clans of the Longbeards, Broadbeams, and Firebeards make their mansions and strongholds in the mountains to the west, though small few number of their kin also dwell in the cities of the Kingdom. To the south, outposts and settlements were made upon the islands of the Middle Sea, and upon the shores of the southern continent. There is some small trade and contact with the Kingdoms of the Orocarni, though the Eastern Sea is wide and treacherous, and few ships dare to traverse it.

The Men of the Westlands are a mixed breed, mingling the blood of Gondor and Rohan and Dale with that of the Beornings and Bree-men. They are brave fighters and hard-workers, ruddy and fair, and if they lack the longevity or wisdom of the men of Westernese, as well do they lack the philosophical compulsions that so doomed the Men of Númenor and Gondor. They would rather sing and drink than brood on death, rather farm the earth or build a house than study the stars and meditate on the dimming of the past. The study of lore is not disdained, and the halls of Elessar and Westhaven contain many volumes brought out of the Middle-earth, but few are the scholars that read them or lead Sindarin or Quenya. They are respected, those who do, but rarely emulated. They are fine mariners, though they dread to venture too far East in fear of the Shadow, and clever craftsmen. They live closely with Dwarven-kin and Hobbits, and it is likely that they have been affected by that, for better and worse. They are a simpler folk than their forebearers, but one clean of unwholesome influences. Since the coming over the Sea there has been little strife and war, and though they remember the Shadow of Mordor and fear it, they have put their vital force in growing and building rather than fighting, for the most part.

As of FA 174, the High King is Boromir II. He reigns with the Royal Council, which now consists of the Thane of the Hobbits, the three Dwarf Kings, eight Lords and Princes of Men, and three Captain-Admirals, elected by the seamen of the Kingdom. The lands prosper as never before, but there is great fear in the hearts of the wise and powerful, for the Shadow in the East may be growing yet again. Ships of Umbar sail west, and there have been clash of arms upon the High Seas. This has happened since the Exodus—from time to time—but the Enemy’s ships are growing bolder, and they now come plated in iron armor and spewing liquid fire and explosive bolts at the ships of the West. Valor is of little use against such fell designs. The High King has commissioned a great armament of new ships, and caused for a store of weapons to be produced, and has called on his Dwarven artisans to see what new devices can be crafted to counter the devilish machines of the Enemy. For the Long Peace may at last be ending.

What Is Yet To Come?

With the coming of the Fourth Age, Sauron took up rulership of nearly all of Arda, and yet He was not contented. For Sauron was old, and He remembered His Master, Morgoth, who in the waning years of the First Age defeated His enemies utterly and was poised to rule Middle-earth for eternity—only to be cast down at His moment of triumph by the Valar riding with terrible glory out of the Utter West. Since the last Elvish ships departed, Sauron has been in terrible fear that history will turn again as it once did, and all of His works will be cast down. But the Great King is not idle in His fear. He has fortified the shores of Lindon and the Ered Luin, erecting monumental fortifications and garrisoning the region with host upon host of Men and Orcs and foul creatures of blackest night, breed by alchemy in the pits of Barad-dûr. He had prepared unceasingly for the coming of the Lords of the West—and yet come they do not. Now, the Great King is beginning to wonder if the Valar have not truly departed from the spheres of the earth, and His Eye is reaching elsewhere.  

To the South, the Dark Lands remain unconquered, but they are a wilderness of impenetrable jungle and savage men, of little use to Sauron. It is to the East and West His thoughts are straying. To the East, the Dwarves of the Orocarni have long resisted His incursions, and He has tolerated their existence as a necessary aggravation that would take too much blood and treasure to expunge. To the West, Sauron has long known that some Men escaped His coming and fled across the Sundering Seas. He has paid them little thought. But in recent years, as His ship-captains have grown bolder, He has begun to realize his mistake. Several Western ships have been taken and seized, and the interrogations of the crew-folk suggest that far more Free Folk escaped Middle-earth than He had known, and that they have created a truly strong realm in the West.

In Sauron’s heart, fear of the Ancient Enemy and greed for new conquests war together, as He ponders whether to risk sailing West and ending the War of the Ring once and for all….