Morgoth

**Morgoth** was the great fallen Vala, the beginning of evil as well as the first **Dark Lord** - the domineering leader of most forces of Darkness in Middle-earth in the First Age. His envy of the works greater than those he could ever conceive and his hubris turned him to a nihilistic rebellion, the devising of the marring of all he could not possess being his sole goal.

To this purpose, Morgoth unleashed his untamed armies to spoil Middle-earth and hoped to perhaps eventually bring the same ruin among those living across the Great Sea in Valinor. Through treacheries and the strength of his agents, he shattered mighty kingdoms such as Gondolin, but when it seemed that Morgoth would prevail, the Valar interfered with his plans and defeated him at last. No longer capable of assuming a corporeal form to threaten Middle-earth, the broken Morgoth was then cast into the timeless Void.

## History

### Origin

Morgoth was one of the angelic beings brought into existence by the One before the world was made. He was one of the Valar, the chief spirits whose task was to guard and act as their maker's regents upon Middle-earth. But Morgoth was not content with this in the grand scheme of things and in his wounded hubris he resented his role as a creation and not its lord.

### First Age

Not willing to suffer the existence of the world since it had no origin in him as its architect, Morgoth rose in defiance of the One and the other Valar. Seeking the utter destruction of everything in Middle-earth, he wreaked great havoc across the land as the first Dark Lord, brandishing the terrible mace known as Grond to dispatch anything that stood in his way. The fortress of Angband he raised in the far North as his seat of power, from here plotting against the denizens of Middle-earth and perhaps even Valinor beyond the Great Sea.

To himself he gathered many foul things tainted by the evil he had helped weave into the world: the horrible Orcs and Trolls formed the hordes at his call and so were the most dreaded Dragons and many other such creatures. The Balrogs, demons cloaked in flames and shadows, were by far his fiercest warriors and generals, while his most-trusted ally and servant was Sauron.

With the aid of Sauron or through other foremost commanders such as Glaurung, Morgoth warred with the Elven realms as well as their friends among Men, fighting off the siege upon his fortress of Angband and bringing down the fabled kingdom known as Gondolin during these conflicts. However, when victory for the minions of Darkness seemed near, the Valar intervened by sending their host from Valinor to the defense of the races of Elves and Men. Morgoth was vanquished and his crippled spirit was thrown into the Void.

### Legacy

During the Second Age, Morgoth's former chief captain, Sauron, took his place as Dark Lord in Middle-earth and would continue to rule forces of Darkness from Mordor and Dol Guldur until his final vanquishing in TA 3019 during the War of the Ring. The Orcs of Minas Morgul would name a large battering ram with a wolf's shape carved into it after Morgoth's mace - Grond. One of the Balrogs (if not the last) who survived the first Dark Lord's downfall hid at the roots of the Misty Mountains, where he remained until he was woken from his slumber by the Dwarves in Moria; the wrathful demon drove them out earning the epithet of "Durin's Bane" and continued to plague the mines until he met his end at the hands of the Wizard Gandalf.