The History of Mordor - Region Spotlight

[Music] far away now rising towards the south the sun piercing the smokes and haze burned ominous a dull bleared disk of red but all mordor lay about the mountain like a dead land silent shadow folded waiting for some dreadful stroke hey everyone joyce in here and i hope you all are doing well wherever you are in middle earth today we will be discussing the history of the region of mordor from how it and its infamous volcano came to be how he knew them in the third age and what happened to that land afterwards i'll leave some related articles and videos in the description and cards to further outline this topic my friends thank you all for joining me today let's begin our tale where the shadows lie mordor meaning the dark land in sindarin was a region in the south east parts of middle earth that are recorded in maps it was a fenced in land having the arid lithuay the ash mountains and the fl duoth the mountains of shadow on its northern and western to southern sides respectively within these mountains were the sub-regions of udoon in the threshold of the land beyond the black gate gorgoroth and its plateau that housed amman amarth or orodruin or mount doom as it was best known and nigh on its northeastern side was the fortress of baradur and gondor would even build other strongholds to keep watch in this land which we shall discuss more later there too was lithlad the plane of ash the conned road a lands of nirn and the inland sea of nernen now with the ash from the volcano most of mordor was inhabitable by men as much of it was barren producing things like sparse rambles and beyond that the land had a chill and dread upon it during the reign of sauron nirn however was partially fertile from the ash blown southwards from mount doom but the sea of nirnin was a saltwater sea instead of one of fresh water west of mordor sat gondor and anduin northwest was daggerlod and north rovanian east was ruin southeast was conned and south was harad as told in the peoples of middle earth book mount doom was a construct of the devastating works of morgoth and the long first age or so say those notes i could better picture it being a work of melkor from the elder days air the first age when melkor had mastery over middle-earth and the valar and their people dwelt in the uttermost west with their trees of light but we will go with the idea that mount doom was created during some moment in the first age as that is what those notes say being the most canon idea we have perhaps it was during the corrupting of the hearts of men in the east when morgoth went abroad from his fortress of angband when he created the volcano either way orodruin was always a powerful feature of mordor being the only other definite volcano in tolkien's works besides than gorodrim which melkor had also created this volcano would be the reason sauron malkor's greatest servant fled to mordor and built mighty evils in that land in later days he would not however be the first denizen of the dark land the mighty spawn of angoliant shelob would flee from the west during the war of wrath at the end of the first age and she would live in the fl duath feeding off of men and elves who lived or journeyed near eventually after fleeing the mercy of eonway the bearer banner of manwe sauron would also go to mordor around the year 1000 of the second age as his allegiance to the evils and teachings of morgoth held fast within him in such a time sauron began the original building of his stronghold baradur the dark tower and the forges of mount doom and samuth naur baradur was nigh an impenetrable fortress built out of some kind of strong substance with many pits and prisons and battlements around the year 1600 of the second age sauron forged the one ring in mount doom the only place where that ring could thusly be unmade and he completed baradur with the power of the ring and constructed the black gate quite possibly also with the power of the ring soon after the war of the elves and sauron took place and sauron had great victory until the men of the west the high men of numenor defeated him driving him back to his land of mordor thus rather than sending his power north and west as he had been doing sauron rather sent his power and domination south and east of mordor conquering many tribes of easterlands and horadrum for indeed many men who flocked to sauron's banner did not do so by choice but by force as they had no true choice and their people were conquered in 3262 of the second age sauron would be captured by the numenoreans and brought to their island only for him to spread further influence and cause the downfall of numenor and his spirit would find its way back to his tower and dark land while the faithful numenoreans came to these hither shores and created the kingdoms of gondor and arnor sauron dwelt in mordor and rebuilt his power then in the year 3429 of the second age mount doom erupted to signal his attack on the west and ministhil a fortress of gondor built on the outskirts of mordor was then taken starting the war of the last alliance after many battles and sieges the west came into mordor and defeated sauron in his own land a theodore took the one ring as a wereguild for the deaths of his brother and father and the tower of baradur was leveled but that was not the end of the master of mordor for while the ring lingered that which could have been destroyed then and there sauron endured after the war no men came to settle in mordor for the dreadful memory of the dark lord his works and his volcano besides those men who already lived in nirn but gondor attempted to remain vigilant building strongholds into towers to keep watch upon the land should any danger return thus the men of gondor built and maintained dur thing a mountain fortress above udoon the towers of teeth to keep watch on the murano and kirathungal watching the past between mordor and menesyphil the men of gondor even repurposed the black gate of mordor now redesigned not to guard mordor but to keep the evils of mordor in these places kept watch on the dark land ensuring the servants of sauron never returned there but in an ever-changing world with new dangers at hand even the most important and dutiful of watches falter after the population altering events of the kinstrife and the great plague the populations of gondor diminished and the forces from these outposts were recalled and so after his final defeat in angmar the witch king returned in 1980 of the third age and recalled the nine together then they besieged and took menocephyl thus calling it menace morgal in 2002 thereafter they made mordor ready for the return of its master as evil things came back there the old strongholds of gondor to keep watch on mordor were then used by the servants of sauron to maintain a strong and fortified position in mordor things like the watching stones outside of kirithungal would be placed as new powers of evil and so after sauron was ousted from guldur by the white council in 2941 he went back to mordor made ready for him by his servants ten years later in 2951 sauron would declare himself openly in mordor and begin the reconstruction of baradur and its pinnacle was so tall that only fell sorceries held it to loft while the eye of sauron was a symbol for mordor it does not seem that there was actually an eye atop baradur as there was in the movies sauron regathered his servants and the slaves of the dark lord were forced to farm or fight for him and his armies new forges armories and garrisons of mordor were made there were no armies in those later days of the world strong enough to conquer sauron's strategic position and have a military victory so the best that could be done was to hold the forces of mordor at bay but constantly beyond the defensive as gondor was only stealth could defeat the dark lord the war of the ring took place in 3018 through 3019 of the third age and the nine were mordor's greatest servants abroad searching for the ring and commanding the dark lord's armies while others such as the mouth of sauron served the dark lord in mordor for while sauron was still powerful he was not yet powerful enough or courageous enough to leave the confines of his dark tower and mordor not unless victory was assured and was at hand even before the battle of the pelinor fields frodo sam and gollum felt a great eruption of mount doom from near the pass of kirathungle as it signaled the movement of the armies of the east and the hammer stroke of doom even though the mountain of fire erupted sporadically from 2954 to the end of the war this eruption was more than that it was a signal of fire and command from golgoroth the hobbits and golem continued through their secret path through shelob's lair for they had been unable to go through the well-guarded black gate after the battle of the pelinor fields the host of the west went to the black gate and fought the last battle of the war to give the ring bearer a chance but of course the ring bearer was successful in his quest to return the one ring to its place of creation from an age past and to destroy it there even after sam defeated mordor's oldest denizen shelop and saved frodo from the clutches of the tower of kirith ungul after the destruction of the one ring in sabbath now by gollum's accidental fall a large portion of mount doom exploded and the ends of baradur the black gate and the towers of teeth on either side of the black gate were also brought about sauron and his ringwraiths whose power and survival were bound to the one ring of the second age were also destroyed in the time after the defeat of the dark lord fredo and sam were rescued from mount doom and the dark land stayed mostly empty as the remaining servants of sauron were slain or driven off but even after everything the land had been through it would eventually be able to live again itself and provide life to others gondor freed the slaves of nirn and gave them their own lands back as this was one of the kingdom's deeds of the late third age and early fourth age in repairing relations with the men of the east and south and so it seems mordor became a better place than it had been since the elder days for it was free from the dominion of the evils it had always known and thus we come to the end of our tale about mordor from the history of mordor we see how lands unchecked by good hearts and justice can bolster further evil in the world we must never fail in our vigil to protect what is good in this world or evil will find its way in thank you all so much for watching i really hope you all enjoyed this video if you did please be sure to hit that like button and share this with a friend what are your thoughts questions additions and corrections about mordor and its history let me know in the comments below as a land for the antagonist it is quite interesting and i enjoy how it is a literary foil for gondor in the dichotomy of gondor and mordor and furthermore it is the antithesis of the shire the land of our protagonist please check out our music channel facebook twitter merch and patreon for podcasts and discord server links are in the description below i wanted to shout out our valor to your patrons adrian de la tour chris ortner peter shepard cal wetzel lane grimes samuel mcbee jonathan putnam and mark kralick thank you guys so much it means a lot to me finally don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell button to join the men of the west and all of the free peoples today and i'll see you all again next week with the video on the kin strife the gondorian civil war my friends as always thank you all so much for joining me on this adventure until the next one my great friends

Channel: Men of the West

Views: 184,718

Keywords: Yoystan, Men of the West, Region Spotlight, Mordor, Sauron, Lord of the Rings, Third Age, Second Age, First Age, Shelob, One Ring, Mount Doom, Melkor, Morgoth, Nazgul

Id: eW2etYwWeLI

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020