Mordor

**Mordor** is the realm and base of the arch-villain Sauron. It was located in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth, east of the great river Anduin. Mount Doom, a volcano in Mordor, was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring.

## Description

Mordor was a plain east of Anorien inhabited by the Dark Land, Sauron and his underlings.

It was a volcanic country bordered by mountain ranges; it became Sauron's stronghold in the Second Age. Before the cataclysm at the end of the First Age, the Northern part of Mordor was apparently at the bottom of the inland Sea of Helcar, which was then drained into the ocean.

From here, Sauron extended his control over Rhûn and Harad, and during the Dark Days, extended into Anorien and the Brown Lands.

Mordor was protected from three sides by mountain ranges, arranged roughly rectangularly: Ered Lithui in the north, and Ephel Dúath in the west until turned to the east, forming a southern range. A narrow pass led through Ephel Dúath and the city of Minas Morgul (earlier Minas Ithil) was guarding that; an even more difficult pass was guarded by the giant spider Shelob and the fortress of Cirith Ungol. Another known fortress was Durthang in northern Ephel Dúath.

In the north-west corner of Mordor the deep valley of Udûn was the only entrance for large armies, and that is where Sauron built the Black Gate of Mordor. In front of the Morannon lay the Dagorlad. Sauron's main fortress Barad-dûr was at the foothills of Ered Lithui. To south-west of Barad-dûr lay the arid Plateau of Gorgoroth and the volcanic Mount Doom (also called Orodruin); to the east lay the plain of Lithlad. The land in the western parts of Mordor were largely infertile, producing only sparse brambles.

The southern part of Mordor, Nurn, was slighly more fertile, and moist enough to carry the inland sea of Núrnen. Nurn was made somewhat fertile because the ash blown from Mount Doom left its soil nutrient rich, thus allowing dry-land farming. Unfortunately, the inland sea of Núrn was salty, not freshwater.

To the west of Mordor was the narrow land of Ithilien with the great river Anduin, to the east Rhûn, and to the south-east, Khand.

## History overview

Melkor created Mount Doom in the First Age. The first being known to occupy the mountains of Mordor was Shelob, fleeing from the War of Wrath in Beleriand at the end of the First Age. She fed herself on Elves and Men living or passing nearby until these became scarce.

Mordor and some of the areas around it in southern Rhovanion had been called the **Southlands** before the making of the Rings of Power and the One Ring. The geographic bounds of the Southlands are not yet specified, but are implied to encompass at least some of Mordor. The characters Bronwyn, Theo, Rowan, Tredwill, Waldreg, and Halbrand are among the lands' inhabitants.

Sauron, having hidden in the East for the early years of the Second Age, chose Mordor as his abode in SA 1000, given that it was landlocked and so not vulnerable to the Numenorean navy. Sauron settled in Mordor 1,000 years after the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, and it remained the pivot of his evil contemplation for the rest of the Second Age (and throughout the Third Age). In the northwestern corner of this land, near the volcano Mount Doom (Orodruin), Sauron built his great stronghold Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower. After this time, Sauron was known as the Dark Lord of Mordor.

In about S.A. 1600 Sauron forged the One Ring in Orodruin. He then set about conquering Middle-earth. In 1697 he launched an attack upon Eriador (a region far to the west of Mordor), and in particular the Elves of Eregion. Initially he conquered most of Eriador, but in S.A. 1700 he was eventually repelled by the Men of Númenor, an island kingdom far to the west of Middle-earth. Sauron returned to Mordor, which continued to dominate the surrounding lands. Retreating to Mordor, Sauron then directed his power over the far south and east of Mordor conquering and dominating the savage tribes of the Easterlings and the Haradrim.

Over a thousand years later, in S.A. 3261, the Númenóreans under Ar-Pharazôn sailed to Middle-earth to challenge Sauron's claim to the title of "King of Men". Sauron realized that they would overthrow him if he decided to fight, so he let them capture him and take him back to Númenor, where he eventually caused its destruction in S.A. 3319. Immediately after Númenor's destruction, Sauron returned to Mordor as a spirit (the last of his living being having been bound to the One Ring) and resumed his rule.

The Kings of Gondor built watchtowers and fortresses around Mordor, such as the mountain fortress of Durthang, the Towers of the Teeth at the Morannon, and the Tower of Cirith Ungol, in order to prevent Sauron's servants from returning to Mordor.

However, Gondor had failed in the long run; during the Great Plague, the population was so diminished that troops were recalled and the fortresses abandoned. eprived of guard, Mordor began to fill with evil things again, and it is said the first shadow was the Lord of the Nazgûl (TA 1980) who summoned the other Ringwraiths, first appearing since the War of the Last Alliance, to prepare the return of Sauron. Minas Ithil was conquered by the Ringwraiths in TA 2002; other fortifications that were supposed to defend Gondor from the menace inside Mordor were captured and turned into a means of shielding Mordor.

In TA 2940, Sauron settled in Dol Guldur under the pseudonym of the Necromancer, intending to reclaim the lands of Angmar to attack the realms of Rhovanion and Eriador before he returns to Mordor to assail Gondor and Rohan. However, the White Council attacked it in TA 2941 and Galadriel banished Sauron. He fled into the East, evading Saruman, before returning to Mordor in TA 2951. Barad Dur was rebuilt in TA 3001. By that time Mordor was protected too well to be captured by any military might that was available to the Free Peoples; in the north of Mordor during the War of the Ring were the great garrisons and forges of war, while surrounding the bitter inland Sea of Núrnen to the south lay the vast fields tended for the provision of the armies by hordes of slaves brought in from lands to the east and south.

During the War of the Ring, Sauron gathered all his forces to Mordor. After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, a Host of the West went to the Black Gate. Sauron sent his army to destroy the Men of Gondor and Rohan, but then Frodo Baggins destroyed the One Ring and Mordor fell. The Dark Tower, the Black Gate and the Towers of Teeth collapsed to ruin. Mount Doom exploded. Both Sauron and his Ringwraiths were apparently destroyed.

After the ultimate defeat of Sauron, Mordor became mostly empty again as the Orcs inside it fled or were killed. Crippled by thousands of years of abuse and neglect, but capable of sustaining life, the land of Mordor was given to the defeated foes of Gondor as a consolation, as well as to the freed slaves of Nurn who were formerly forced to farm there to feed the armies of Mordor.