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The Sauron Strategies: One War to Win Them All, Except... - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

But Gondor was also very powerful. Even when the Kin-strife broke out, and Eldacar eventually drove his enemies south, Sauron was in no position to take advantage of the conflict. He was too far away from Umbar, where the defeated rebels sought refuge, to make contact with the dissidents. Though it was a safe haven, Dol Guldur was very confining. The Great Plague of 1636, which Sauron unleashed in the east and sent westward, opened up new opportunities for him. Gondor lost so many people it could no longer sustain the garrisons in Mordor. When the Dunedain left, Orcs other creatures moved in. But rather than return there himself, Sauron merely used Mordor as a corridor for further expansion. He probably began sending agents south at this time to make overtures to the Haradrim. 200 years after the Great Plague, the Wainriders attacked the Northmen and Gondor. The western peoples were defeated and Sauron achieved complete control over the lands between Mirkwood and Mordor. The Lord of the Nazgul soon afterward brought about the final overthrow of Arthedain, the last of the northern Dunadan realms. But though Lindon and Imladris remained in the north, and had both played significant roles in the defeat of Angmar, Sauron turned his attention to Gondor, whose intervention was responsible for the destruction of Angmar. The northern lands had not been entirely ruined, but they became less of a threat. Also, when the Dwarves of Khazad-dum released the Balrog in 1980, they unwittingly shifted the balance of power in the north. Although Khazad-dum had not (apparently) taken an active role in the wars with Angmar, it had stood with the Last Alliance of Elves and Men against Sauron, and might yet again oppose Sauron. The Balrog's destruction of the Dwarven civilization, and the subsequent flight of many Elves from Lothlorien, virtually ensured that Sauron would have almost no enemies of significant power in the north. Tolkien suggests that it was because of the Necromancer's presence in southern Mirkwood that Galadriel decided to intervene in Lothlorien. Had she and Celeborn not restored order to the Elven realm, there would have been no one left to oppose Dol Guldur except for a few woodmen and the still small people called the Eotheod, who were themselves only a remnant of Vidugavia's once great Northman kingdom of Rhovanion. Thranduil's realm in northern Mirkwood remained strong, but he had not participated in a major war since the end of the Second Age.

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