Saturday, October 22, 2005

Orcstory: the fall of Sauron

Orcstory: the fall of Sauron, Fourth Age

The fall of Sauron and the unmaking of the one ring marked the end of the third age. With Sauron’s fall, the Orcs lost their main ally against the Elves. With Sauron gone most would have expected the Elves to strike deep and to destroy their orcish problem for once and for all. But Sauron's fall was a time of great joy for Elves and their allies. In such jolly times who would like to even venture inside the deep and desolate lands of Mordor, what to talk of waging a long drawn out war against the Orcs. And even without Sauron, the Orcs were not a problem to be dealt with in a day. It would have required a push against the Orcs in the unknown lands of Mordor. The elves weary of the long wars and ever ready to feast and to make joy almost forgot about the Orcs, whom they thought of nothing more than Sauron’s acolytes.
The Orcs retreated to their old strongholds of Mordor and Moria. The fall of Sauron though a great loss, also proved to be a blessing in disguise, as it freed the Orcs from an old but often and moreover lately fruitless alliance. The fall of Sauron, rearranged the political landscape of middle earth. The Valars powerful and proud, stopped looking upon Orcs as Sauron’s acolytes. It also made their giving unquestioned aid to the elves unnecessary. The Valars took lesser interest in the affair of middle-earth.
Meanwhile, the Orcs retrenched themselves in Mordor and Moria. The times of hardship bought out the better in them, as it had done many times before. To grow food in desolate lands of Mordor, for the increasing horde required extra-ordinary effort. But it also required something more, it required better tools. In the fire of Mount Doom, the Orcs forged tools unseen before. As new tools were formed, new secrets of smithing were learnt, which only the dwarves possessed previously. The Orcs surpassed all previous generations in this skill.
The victors during this time bickered amongst themselves to share the spoils of wars. Most of the races/parties got to retain what was previously theirs before the war. But the dwarves had not got back their most profitable mine, Moria.
The dwarves asked the elves and Gondor to help them recover Moria, a demand which was out rightly rejected by the elves and Gondor claiming lack of resources. This was partly true as they needed to rebuild their kingdom, but this angered the dwarves no end and they swore to never ally with the elves. Gandalf when asked about the Balrog said that he could not be sure if it returned to Moria or not. But the Balrog did not return to Moria. After sometime when the Orcs did not hear the Balrog’s noises, roamed freely in Moria and delved deep for mithril.
The orcish people were estranged during this time. Mordor and Moria were ruled by two different governments, with little or no contact between them.
The dwarves finally weary of waiting for help from their allies, decided to attack Moria alone. But even the dwarves in their hearts knew the futility of this attack with a insufficient army. The Orcs were ready for the attack, and easily repulsed the advance with both sides suffering little losses.
But this war and loss of the dwarves alerted the elves of the growing powers of the Orcs. The Orcs to started getting ready for the war looming on their borders. The Orcs of Moria had heard of the superior smithing skills of people of Mordor. The Orcs from Mordor had increasing need of better metals to work with, especially mithril. This necessitated communication and trade between the two orcish people. But this required passage through lands not controlled by the Orcs and hostile to them. For sometime the Orcs tried to move through these lands stealthily in those lands but were always caught. This loss of man and material made trade very costly. Still the trade increased and flourished owing to great need of both the orcish people for produce of the other.

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