Based on J.R.R.

Tolkien's MIDDLE-EARTHTM as detailed

in THE HOBBITTM and THE LORD OF THE RINGSTM.

near harad
Realms ruled by river and sun
 near harad
Realms ruled by river and sun([email protected])
1.0 REALMS RULED BY RIVER AND SUN 2

2.0 THE HISTORY OF THE SUMMER LANDS 4

2.1 Those that walked the Earth in twilight 4

2.2 THE KIBIC AND THE HARUZE TRIUMPHANT 11

2.3 IMPERIAL NUMENOR 19

2.4 THE FALL OF NUMENOR 25

2.5 THE REALMS IN EXILE AND THE WAR OF THE LAST ALLIANCE 28

2.6 THE THIRD AGE: GONDOR AND UMBAR 34

2.7 GONDOR'S SUPREMACY AND THE KIN-STRIFE 41

2.8 THE CORSAIRS AND WAINRIDERS 50

2.9 THE STRUGGLE OF A THOUSAND YEARS 54

3.0 TIMELINE 63

4.0 GEOGRAPHY 75

5.0 ANIMALS AND FLORA OF NEAR HARAD 76

5.1 THINGS THAT GROW IN THE EARTH 76

5.1.1 PLANTS OF THE DRY COUNTRY 76

5.1.2 PLANTS OF THE VALLEYS AND MOUNTAINS 76

5.1.3 CROPS, ORCHARDS, AND GARDENS 76

5.2 76

5.2.1 ANIMALS OF FARM AND HERD 76

5.2.2 ANIMALS OF THE WILD 76

Antelope 76
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Cattle 77

Sheep 77

Lion 77

5.5 THE AZHAN AND PERI 79

Those that walked the Earth in twilight 79

Naming the Immortals 81

The Colruh 81

The Devam 82

Wesley J. Frank: 60 Brookside Place, Springfield, IL 62704, USA

3

1.0 REALMS RULED BY RIVER AND SUN

An understanding in the ancient and renowned kingdom of Gondor is that their country is blessed to lie between the
Lands of Winter -- the cold, wild country of Northmen, Easterlings, Elves, Dunmen, and Hobbits -- and the Lands of
Summer -- Umbar of the Corsairs, Bellakar and the desert lands of Harad. Because they are so favored by the Valar,
the creators of the world, they are also cursed to dwell by haunted Mordor, the fortress-realm of the Dark Lord, and
to face the constant threat of invasion by the greedy, jealous hordes gathering just beyond their frontier.

In the epic adventure of the Lord of the Rings, the Haradrim are always there, just beyond the frontier of the tale, an
alien threat, serving the Dark Lord in some stories, submitting to Númenor and Gondor in others. They appear as
exotic invading armies, a whirl of color and flashing scimitars, or as the Corsairs of Umbar, brutal and relentless,
testing the courage of the Free Peoples of the West.

This book tells the tale of the Haruze, the chief people of Near Harad, the faceless alien hordes who weigh so
heavily in the struggle between Sauron and the nations of the West. The Haruze provide the mass of the armies that
threaten Gondor in the time of the heroes Elendil and Gil-galad, and again in the time of Frodo Baggins, the Ring-
bearer, and Aragorn, the returning king. When they do not threaten war and invasion, the Haruze make their own
way in the world called Middle-earth. Just a few days south of the famous cities of Pelargir and Minas Tirith, they
sow crops and herd sheep, shape pottery and glass, build towers and sing songs. Their songs tell of mighty heroes of
Haruze-kind, those who fight evil and those who embrace it; those who love war and those who seek to drive the
poison of it from the world.

The lands of Near Harad are ruled by the sun. Along the great rivers of the country countless peasants till soil as rich
as any in Middle-earth, raising bountiful crops of grain and feeding the people of numerous towns and cities. But the
sun that draws an abundant life from this soil punishes those who forget its power. Heat and barren desert can slay
the unwary; life and death in Near Harad begins and ends with water. Armies move from rivers to springs to wells to
oasis pools, or defeat themselves without giving battle. Foolish adventurers who wander into the desert without
provision will perish of thirst and hunger as surely as someone running unarmed into a troll cave.

Monsters and human evil abound in Near Harad, a land of many pleasures and many dangers. Its teaming cities of
sun-bleached stone hide riches. Here the traveler finds silver and gold, fabric and spice, curious artifacts, and
dangerous romances. Those who dabble in magic will find believers in the Haruze towns. One can seek out seek out
mystics and fortune-tellers, love potions, mysterious herbs, and strange enchantments sold in curtain-draped shops.
One might also find cutpurses and cutthroats, mad sorcerers and Dark Cultists. Across Near Harad, Merchants,
mercenaries, spies and assassins from Gondor, from Umbar, from Khand of the Variags and exotic eastern lands all
plot against each other. Haruze officials search for wrongdoers or intrigue with them, cynically seeking advantage
wherever it may be found. A friend may be a friend among the Haruze, or he may be a betrayer, selling the
adventurer to his enemies or worse.

Life is exotic and dangerous in Harad, drawing the curious from Western lands and calling forth bravery and
enterprise from among its own people. To survive here the adventurer must learn many things: the way of weapons,
and the ways of men and nations; lore of the mystical sort and the lore of the human heart. A strong sword arm
might defeat some enemies, but the dance of words or strength of spirit might defeat another. The dangers are many,
and only the clever and fortunate will find wealth and success.

Shavi's knee flexed slightly against her saddle. Chaee, her mount, dipped a wing and
rolled hard over left-ward. Shavi, leaning over Chaee's neck, suddenly was looking almost
fifty rods straight down at the tops of the wire-oaks of the Harmaka. She caught her
balance and pulled back the melon she'd been holding out at the end of her catch-switch.
Chaee had finished most of it, anyhow; it would give the great hawk enough water to keep
her airborne a while more in the hot Haradon sun. Shavi scooped a handful of the pulp out
for herself, then let the rind fall away and spin downward into the trees.

Prince Elatar and the Gondorian army were far away now, a plume of dust and a whisper
of song, marching along the distant red-blue ribbon of the River Carnen. Aside from
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Bregor's search party, toiling through bramble-filled ravines under Chaee's wings, nothing
moved in the sun-baked landscape.

What had caught her eye? Wing-scouts were supposed to pick up on small things, and
Shavi's dark Southron gaze had a reputation . . . There! Far up a gully leading out of the
oak wood onto the sandy, brush-covered hills, Bregor's squire had found a trail. A small
defect in the hillside as Shavi saw it, but the big Dunadan knight was anxious to find the
Gark assassin who'd so narrowly missed cutting Prince Elatar's throat in camp last
evening. Bregor, an axe-handle wide across the shoulders, looking as big as the great war
horse he rode, was bullying his way through his retainers and charging up the slope, his
billowing white cloak streaming out beyond his silver plate mail, his horsemanship
showing as the sand and scree tried to catch the animal's hooves and throw him.

Skilled, strong, and hopelessly blunt, like most Gondorians. Many strengths, bound up in
manner and tradition, contained by them even when not wrapped in white Dunadan steel.
But there was fire hidden within. Shavi had danced at the Hawk-wing tent last night,
danced the dances of Harondor and Harad with the other riders. But she also danced for
Bregor. He was there, a knight polite enough to visit the Hawk-wing and sup with its
officers. But he had kept his gaze on her and not on her captain. There was a light in his
eyes, for her alone among the dancers, and she danced for him and met his eyes and drank
of the light in them . . .

Something wrong, in the glittering sunlight along the crest of the hill. Shavi turned Chaee
and let him glide downwind, closing on the horse and rider struggling up the sandy ridge.
The situation smelled wrong: The Gark assassin was surely too skilled to take an obvious
path without cause . . . Bregor's retainers had been left behind, trying to climb the slope on
weaker steeds . . . and why would the Gark panic and make trail? He could not have been
readily seen from below, and since he surely had a bow, couldn't be afraid of a single
wing-scout and her vulnerable mount, floating high above.
Shavi grabbed her saddle band and lurched directly forward; Chaee's head dropped and
the hawk dove hard, answering her command with a furious pumping of wings and a
skull-shattering shriek.

Hidden from all eyes save the hawk-rider’s, a dust pocket was churning and moving where
the assassin's trail met the crest. Far under Chaee's wings the retainers' horses panicked at
the sound of the hawk's call and two of them began rolling down the slope. Just below the
crest and on the trail, Bregor's mount reared and began to slip, but the big knight grabbed
the animal's bridle, brutally forcing its head down. It dug in, surged up and over the crest,
directly into the dust pocket. Almost underneath the great-horse the beast Shavi had spotted
rose, yard-long pincers and stinger-tipped tail exploding in a volcano of gravel from its
hiding place. For a split second Shavi thought Bregor would rally and turn his staggering
mount, but a black dart suddenly appeared in its flank and it lurched forward directly into
the monstrous scorpion's claws.

The billowing dust was suddenly lit by bursts of alchemical fire; a human form, shedding a
sand-covered cloak, sprang out of the brush behind the claws of the scorpion, throwing
more flash pellets into the air and undraping a black-bladed scimitar. The great-horse
twisted in fear and agony, then toppled like some great tree into the heart of the pit. Its
rider rolled off but tumbled in after, Bregor's fist desperately grasping at his sword and
pulling the weapon clear of the kicking, screaming horse as the scorpion’s tail stabbed at it

The assassin, trying to duck in close to the helpless knight, keep his own feet, and make the
kill, suddenly froze and stared upward at the giant winged shadow swooping over him.
Shavi, sword out and feet already clear of harness, had a split second to appreciate the
look of astonishment on the Gark's face as she vaulted over Chaee's head and hurled
herself down at him . . .
5

2.0 THE HISTORY OF THE SUMMER LANDS

Surely the works and words of those gone before have become instances and examples to men of our modern day,
that folk may view what admonishing chances befell other folk, and may therefrom take warning; and that they may
peruse the annals of antique peoples and all that hath betided them, and be thereby ruled and restrained . . .
The Scholar of the West

2.1 THOSE THAT WALKED THE EARTH IN TWILIGHT

Those that walked the Earth in twilight

The story of Near Harad begins, as do all stories of Middle earth, with the Ainur (H. "Arizul," or "immortal spirits,")
the Servants of Creation whose songs and play brought about the World. In the Elder Times, when the world lay in
the Twilight, lit only by the stars, for the Sun and Moon had not risen, the Azhan, those of the Arizul bound by the
Creator to the substance of the World, wandered a mostly peaceful domain. The mountains that bounded Harad since
the beginning stood over a wide country of woods and savanna plains. Scrub and rock occasionally broke the green
expanse; this bursk and barrens, it was later said, was a remnant of the scars from the First War of Powers at the
beginning of time, left as a reminder of the imperfection of the world and to provide a haven for creatures sculpted
by the Arizul to dwell in such places.

The names the Azhan gave their countries are mostly unknown to the Wise of the mortal races. Indeed, it is said that
the Azhan of the Twilight had little need of names or even speech. For the most part, they knew all that was
important to them, and felt all that changed, and shared their knowing in thought and gesture. They were one with
the substance and flow of the World. If the Valar, the Gods of later ages, fought with each other, only a few of the
most powerful Azhan were sentient enough to take sides. The Peri, the spirits of rock, forest, and water who had less
power and lore, wept at the pain and turmoil that resulted and went on with their play.

The Azhan took many shapes in the world, some of earth, some of air, some of animals, some of trees and shrubs.
However, many, including the greatest of them, chose the Veafana, the "Speaking Incarnation" held by the Valar in
distant Aman, the Undying Lands at the western edge of Creation. This incarnate form, possessing a voice and hands
to handle words, tools and pen, was also like unto that of Men, Elves, and Dwarves, the Free Peoples, the mortal
races chosen by the One to inherit the rule of Middle-earth from the Arizul. This form held the greatest powers of
speech of all the fana of Middle-earth and allowed for the crafting of new elements to add to the Creation. While the
Elves made fullest use of the first of these powers and the Dwarves were unmatched in the second, many Azhan took
on the Veafana to enrich their own existence. A few, even before the coming of the Free Peoples, learned to speak
and write and build dwellings and artifacts, much as their Arizul brethren were doing in the Undying Lands. A few
of the structures built by the Azhan survived their wars and waning at the end of the Elder Days. In the Second and
Third Ages of Middle-earth they were valued for the knowledge and treasure that some contained, and also for the
remnants of the Song Arcane, of magical power and feeling, that might be drawn from their substance. Many of the
later holy sites of Men were built around fragments of Azhan ruins, often with little knowledge about their original
use or owner.

The naming of the country, and the first clear memories of the Twilight, came with the Elves, the First-born children
of the One and the first of the Free Peoples to enter Creation. Arom (Q. "Orome"), the Huntsman of the Valar,
traveled often across the World. He found the First-born soon after their birth and persuaded a number of them to
travel into the farthest west and dwell with him. Some of these Elves, being enamored of the forests of northern of
Middle-earth, turned aside from this journey. Most of them dwelt thereafter in the woodlands along the Great River
(S. "Sir Anduin,") hunting and fishing for their sustenance, but some developed a taste for the open country farther
south. They became the Hawnin, favorites of Arom, tamers of horses, the runners and riders of the Harfareth (S.
"Southern Dry Plains") that later become the hills and deserts of Harad.
6

The Harfareth, as the Hawnin knew it in the Twilight, was a mighty and fair realm, filled with game and clean water.
It was bordered on the west by the Sundering Sea and the south by the Yellow Mountains. To the east lay the
Mountains of Crossing, later called the Mountains of Golden Sunrise, and to the north lay the Anduin and the
highlands of the Fireshadow Massif, which included the haunted lands of Mordor and the Smoking-Spring Plateau
that later became Khand of the Variags. The Mountains of Crossing took their name from its many passes
connecting the Harfareth to central Endor. Avari Elves, belonging to a kindred who had shunned Arom's offer to live
in the west, came over the passes from the east of Middle-earth soon after the Hawnin laid claim to Harfareth.
Whether these Elves fought with the Hawnin over their hunting grounds no memory survives; it is only certain that
most of the Harfareth remained Hawnin territory right to the end of the age, and all of the Mountains of Crossing
remained in Avar hands until the coming of Men..

The next travelers in the Harfareth were Dwarves, lovers of caves and mines and no threat to any wood-wandering
Elf. Born of Mahel, the great smith and craftsman of the Arizul, they were makers of tools and collectors of gems
and minerals. They founded no great cities in the Harfareth of the Twilight, but explored much of it looking for
things precious to them. In trade for their safe passage, they created tools and weapons and trinkets for those
interested in such wonders.

The Harfareth proved a good field for the sowing of Dwarven wonders. The relative barrenness of this country
inspired some Azhan to create dwellings and protected gardens to make their living easier and allow more time for
the contemplation of their thoughts and pleasures. The greatest of these beings were the Colruh (Ha. for S.
"Gwaeridir," W. "Wind-pilgrims") spirits of air and wind of great power. The Colruh sought first to create open air
houses and manors to dwell in on wind-swept hills, like those of Aman, then learned to gather waters in cisterns,
pools and fountains, and to plant their gardens where these waters could be used to create abundance amidst the
scarcity of bursk and barren. They grew enamored of the objects that could be crafted and possessed. Eventually
they built villages and palaces, and took Dwarves and Elves and other Azhan into their service.

The Fireshadow Massif, on the northern bounds of the Harfareth, had been pushed up in the First War of Powers,
serving as a refuge and fortress for rebellious Azhan. The greatest of these spirits were known as the Devam (S.
"Narlthryg"), lovers of fire who made their homes in the many volcanoes of the massif. Melkor, the rebellious Vala,
had been their champion. Soon after the awakening of the Elves, the Valar brought on the Second War of Powers to
protect the World's new children. Melkor was taken and chained in the fastness of the Speaker of Dooms, the grim
Arizul Mandos, in his fortress in the farthest corner of Aman.

While the Devam dared not threaten the rule of the other Valar while Melkor was imprisoned, they could exert their
power in lands adjoining their haven. Arom punished the Devam when he caught them troubling the outside world,
but his hunts grew fewer and fewer with the passage of time. The chief rivals of the Devam, therefore, were
inevitably other Azhan. The Devam and Colruh became jealous of each other; they made no open war, but
occasionally fought arcane duels over favored lands and precious herbs, metals, and stones. They protected their
havens with powerful enchantments and sought to seduce each other's servants and allies.

The interests of all these peoples eventually focused on the Saromis, the great river that ran from east to west across
northern Harfareth, from the Mountains of Crossing to the Sundering Sea, and also boasted a northern branch that
drained the southern face of the Fireshadow Massif. The name was also given to the belt of forested land that lay on
either side of the river. Here the hunting was good and travel easy. Arom himself often took the passage of the
Saromis in his travels, both for the ease of the passage and the chance to keep watch on the Devam. Its name meant
"River of Arom" in the Hawnin tongue.

The Len Arome, a trail cut by the hooves of his steed and the paws of his hounds followed the river for many
hundreds of leagues. With the passage of time, the Dwarves improved this trail and they and the Elves used it in
their journeys. In the time of Twilight, when little changed and little of note happened but the passage of the stars,
Saromis seemed a relatively busy place. The rivalry between the Devam and Colruh became centered here. Much of
their conflict occurred out of sight of the mortal children of earth, fought in realms of thought and magic, but stories
of it passed down to lesser beings and eventually to Men, the Second Born, when they first arose in the world. In the
First Age of the Sun, the Twilight struggle of the Devam and Colruh was fully revealed and carried to a terrible
climax.
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The rising of the Sun and the awakening of Men

The cataclysm that changed Harfareth and its peoples forever originated in distant lands and distant quarrels. The
First War of Powers and the Second were fought of and by the Arizul. As revealed by the Elves, the Third War of
Powers came about when Melkor stole three mighty jewels, the Silmaril, from the lords of the Undying Lands.
There was theft, and murder, and evil deeds of pride done. The Noldor, a nation of powerful Elves, named Melkor
the Black Enemy -- Morgoth, in their tongue -- and pursued him to Middle-earth. Melkor built a fortress in the
farthest north of Endor and defied the Noldor. In the Twilight Melkor's power was too great for any of the Children
of the World to withstand, so the Sun and the Moon were revealed in Middle-earth for the first time, as a gift from
the Valar to the Free Peoples.

The Noldor could not defeat Melkor even with this aid, so they established kingdoms in Beleriand, the westernmost
land in Endor, and put a guard on Melkor's fortress. After centuries of relative peace Melkor renewed the battle. In
this conflict, known as the Wars of Beleriand or the Fourth War of Powers, the Noldor were utterly defeated and
Melkor's armies seemed on the verge of conquering all of Middle-earth. The Valar, who had stood back from the
conflict before, now called upon the One, the Creator, and brought a great host over the sea to invade Beleriand. In
this War of Wrath, called the Fifth War of Powers in eastern lands, Beleriand was broken and submerged beneath the
Sundering Sea. Realms were shaken and ruined all across Endor; Melkor was driven from the World and his
servants were slain or scattered.

All three of these wars had profound affects on Harfareth. First, the return of Melkor aroused the Devam, who
gathered Orcs, Trolls, and other creatures to their banners and threatened the Hawnin. Secondly, the convulsive
rivalries and defeats of the elvish nations brought shiploads of refuges down the coasts from the west. These were
Sinda, for the most part, from a powerful native realm of Beleriand that had attempted to defy the Noldor. They
founded a haven at Edhellond, on the coasts of the Bay of Belfalas west of the Anduin, but made alliance with the
Nandor and Hawnin of Saromis. Thirdly, and critically, the rising of the Sun caused a great drying to occur across
much of southern Middle-earth. In other lands this new blessing from the One caused rain and abundant growth. In
Harfareth the balance tipped the other way. The sun baked the scrub hills and savanna and dried up lakes and
marshes. Hills and prairie were now brown much of the year instead of green. The hardy creatures and plants of the
country scarred by the more ancient burnings began to spread over newly scorched landscape.

While the various races of Harfareth pondered these changes, a third mortal race appeared in Middle-earth. The
nations of Men had arisen in the farthest east with the first rising of the sun. Weaker than the Elves, shorter-lived
than the Dwarves, they were possessed of a fierce love of life and the ability to withstand enormous hardship and
indignity to survive and achieve their ends. The most far seeing of the Azhan foretold that this new race would one
day inherit all of Middle-earth. The proudest of the Colruh and Devam denounced the oracles among them and
instead considered how to use the newcomers to their advantage.

The first clans of Men to travel to Harfareth, sometime in the second century of the First Age, were Drughu, a small
and secretive hunting people. They carried few tools and often seemed to the Hawnin to be more like beasts than
men. The Hawnin hunted the Drughu at first, but the Colruh and some of their allies, the Peri of woods and field,
learned to speak to the newcomers and took up their protection.

The next group of Men to reach Harfareth entered it from the northeast, through a great gap in the mountains on the
eastern end of the Fireshadow Massif. These clans, the Daen, had learned more of weapons and tools on their travels
than the Drughu, or were simply more interested in such things. They hunted effectively and knew how to forage
effectively for grains, nuts, and fruits that their Drughu or Hawnin neighbors would ignore. By the fourth century of
the Age the Daen had learned to build villages boats, and hunting bows. Bands of them, known collectively as the
Donan, migrated over much of Harfareth; a number of clans settled along the Len Arome to trade stone tools and
woodwork with the Dwarves.

Much now happened in Middle-earth in less time. Events moved faster with the marking of days by the sun and
months by the phases of the moon. Some of the Azhan found the changes frightening or disgusting. They retreated
into the earth, spread their essence upon the winds, or fled westward to the Undying Lands. Others found themselves
pulled by strange passions or driven by events that were, for the first time in their existence, beyond their control or
8

understanding. The Elves made alliances with the Edain, three tribes of mortal Men, and forged arms to defend
themselves against Orcs, Trolls, and other monsters unleashed by Morgoth. The Black Enemy, in his turn, actively
encouraged Men to worship him and bind themselves to his service. The Devam did the same, seeking dominion
over the Donan and other Men of central Endor and threatening to build an army to conquer the Hawnin of Saromis.
The Colruh could, and did, summon powerful forces to oppose the Devam

There came about, matching the Elvish Wars of Beleriand and the squabbling of tribes of Men across Endor, a War
of Spirits in Harfareth. Mountains erupted in fire behind the walls of the Fireshadow lands. Mighty storms rose
along the Saromis and lightning played across the starlit heavens. Legends among the Elves told of black-stained
clouds and swirling dust devils sweeping across still blue skies, of tentacled horrors battling winged lions for the
rule of springs and pools in the desert. Witnesses remembered trees clutching at beasts and birds and attempting to
strangle the wind. Men and Dwarves were maddened by visions of titanic, god-like figures, large enough to stride
over rivers and straddle hills, wrestling and clawing at each other as the earth shuddered and crumbled under their
feet.

Ultimately, the Devam had no means to overpower their enemies without Melkor's intervention. However, while the
powers Melkor unleashed against his enemies broke Beleriand and sank much of the continent beneath the sea, they
could not subdue the Host of the Valar. In the end, the world shook and roared out its pain, the dust and debris from
shattered Beleriand fell from the skies across all the lands of Endor, and the Valar struck down the walls of Angband
and overthrew and bound Melkor with chains of adamant. The Colruh sensed weakness in the Devam amidst the
chaos and noise of Melkor's defeat and gathered to cross the mountain walls of Mordor. On that day, the Devam
called upon a mighty power and curse they had kept hidden in their fortresses. Volcanoes spouted flame and, all
across the Harfareth, the tortured landscape writhed. Mountains split asunder, pouring out lava that filled valleys and
engulfed forests; fire and red-hot ash rained down from the skies. The primary citadels of the Colruh were shattered
and consumed by the flames. The skies blackened with dust and smoke; for a few days, agonized survivors among
the Elves thought the Devam had somehow snuffed out the Sun.

The Devam succeeded in destroying themselves and crippling their immortal enemies. The bane they summoned
consumed most of them and devoured their citadels and servants. The Colruh, stricken and some maddened by their
losses, fled from the fires in the mountains and allowed the surviving Devam to hide themselves in dark, secret
places. The surviving halls and palaces of the Colruh, many of them knit together solely by the will of their creators,
crumbled or faded away with their master's tears. The glory of the Azhan had passed, and would not be seen again in
Middle-earth.

Winds and rain cleared the skies of Harfareth and revealed a blasted landscape. Here and there, Elves, Dwarves, and
Men still clung to life amid the choking dust and smoke. Grass and scrub shook off the filth to put down new roots.
Beasts drank from muddied streams and gave birth to new young. Mortal life renewed itself where immortal had
failed.

The Haradrim
The ruination of Harfareth left pain and madness in its wake. The Valar returned to Aman, leaving the ruins of
Beleriand to the surviving Noldor and other Elves. Some of the older powers lingered in the Summer lands,
brooding, weak, mostly in hiding. The Hawnin and Dwarves picked their way among tainted bursk, cursed wells and
haunted vales. The fiery sun, they said, was the true ruler of the Summer lands, and in that irony the worshipers of
fire had triumphed over their enemies. The sun now rose day after cloudless day over the Mountains of Crossing and
baked the naked earth without mercy. The Elves and Colruh renamed their country the Haradwaith, after a Sinda
phrase meaning "Southern Waste." The walls of the Fireshadow Massif, most of its volcanoes now asleep or extinct,
became the Mountains of Shadow and the Ash Mountains. The knot of high peaks that marked the eastern rim of the
Haradwaith and the southeastern corner of the Fireshadow Massif became known as the Suncrown. Here the harsh
new ruler of the Haradwaith rose each morning in the east, and here its last lights touched each evening as it set. The
Mountains of Crossing, now the border between the dry country and the richer lands beyond eventually became
known as the Mountains of the Golden South (S. "Ered Harmal").

Much land that had been dry became desert; much that had been steppe became scrub and bursk. The best country
remaining lay in river valleys (Ha. "Ayn," "earth" of blessed nature.) Here regular floods and constant sunshine
produced fertile soils, trees, and abundant herbs. In Near Harad, the greenest of these fertile valleys lay along the
9

Saromis, the richest of them along its lower course. Other water sources formed isolated oases, or “sud,” places of
dew.”) Here springs of various sizes and qualities could produce sheltered hollows of greenery. In a land where heat
and desiccation could kill a man in a day or so, the oases became the focus of life for travelers and nomads.

Some Drughu and Donan survived in Harad, mainly in coastal and riverside villages, now virtually outnumbering
the Elves and Dwarves. Animals and trees that could not cope with the changing landscape died off, leaving no
memory save in legends. The land had the means to heal itself, and, in its healing, attracted new Mannish peoples
from over the eastern mountains. These were Apysani (S. "Meek Wanderers.@). They were shepherds, for the most
part. Little was known of this people, and little was expected. even among the Avari who kept some watch on their
travels. They had no horses, in those days, and little metal. They had learned to fear these things in the First Age,
when minions of Morgoth had used both against them in nameless wars on the high plains of central Endor. But the
Apysani did know animal husbandry and the ways of seed and root. Their little clans brought sheep and goats with
them into the foothills of the Suncrown and down the valleys of Orome's Trail. They troubled the Dwarves little and
shunned the Hawnin. They worshiped and feared the Azhan and Peri, all at the same time and with the same prayers
of praise and incantations of warding.

From this inauspicious beginning the Apysani grew, slowly at first, then swiftly, into a mighty race. Two centuries
after their passage over the mountains they were trading skins and wool at in the Ayn Arom, where the northern arm
of the Saromis met the eastern. By the fourth century of the Age they had domesticated the dromiss, or camel, an
animal that had flourished in the dry climate of the new Haradwaith, and the camels and their herdsmen were soon
spreading into the southern scrub-deserts. They harvested the wild grains and fruits along the rivers and some took
up a settled life cultivating them. This rude farming increased their numbers; the river-clans soon had enough
strength to make war on the Orcs of the Ash Mountain foothills and build fortified villages along the Dwarven
trading routes. Apysani shepherd clans absorbed or swept away the Drughu and Donan hunting tribes of the
Haradwaith interior and crossed the Yellow Mountains to the south.

By the seventh century of the Second Age the Apysani immigrants had traversed all the vastness of the Haradwaith,
from the Ash Mountains in the north to the Yellow Mountains in the south. They were now many nations, speaking
many tongues and worshiping many gods, having little in common but their shepherd past and the constant daily
struggle to draw life out of lands burned by the heat and drought of a perpetual summer. The Wandering Dwarves,
who spoke the Sinda language of the western Elves as a trade speech, may have been the first to name the desert
peoples the Haradrim. Harad was too vast and desolate to be joined under a single ruler or culture, but some sharing
of its scattered resources was necessary for any tribe or nation to create wealth; all Haradrim needed trade to
prosper. The camel was the key to travel across the wastelands that lay between the population centers of Harad. The
first camel caravans began crisscrossing Harad soon after the animal was domesticated, following in the wake of the
shepherds and town-builders. With the caravans came merchants, and trade treaties, and village and city markets.
The settled peoples of Harad, from the beginning, spoke the languages of strange visitors, and learned to cope with
them and deal in their goods and currencies.

With wealth came ambitions and conquerors. The old shepherd clans were traditionally led by Chaks, clan elders
who earned their right to power by providing sound leadership and wise judgment in the little disputes of their
tribes. With increasing population, some Haradrim gained power as war leaders, and others held power through the
prestige of their families and their wealth. Kingdoms were built around the cities of Harad, and other kingdoms were
formed among the nomad shepherds to prey on the people of the cities.

Near Harad (S. "The Near South") was originally a name used by the Elves of Edhellond and the Anduin vales. A
string of Haradrim farming villages and trading towns grew up along the Len Orome in the sixth century after the
War of Wrath, and the Elves were obliged to deal with them if they were to continue using the river trail to travel
into the east. For a time, the Sinda of Edhellond were able to overawe the Mannish rulers of the Ayn Orome. They
secured the eastern passage for Elves and Dwarves and were able to guarantee the frontiers of the Nandor of the
lower Anduin. The elites of the river towns learned to write in elvish script and developed a common language for
trade and diplomacy. The speakers of this language eventually saw themselves as a single race, culturally if not
politically. They called themselves the Haruze, the "Godly People," a name derived from both Elvish and Apysani
roots. The Sinda of Edhellond, for a time, considered themselves the patrons of the Haruze. However, the name itself
indicated the pride of the emerging culture, pride in its growing wealth and its distinctive view of life in Middle-
earth.
10

The first Empires

It was a grim omen that the Talmorng, the first great conqueror to dominate the Haruze, was a relic of the Elder
days, a Devam, attracted, like the ambitious mortals who followed him, by the wealth and power that could be
drawn from the lush river valleys of Near Harad. Throughout the seventh century of the Second Age, Ioriag tribes
from the steppes south of the Sea of Rhun had been moving south into Mordor and the adjoining highlands linking it
to the Ered Harmal. Several Devam and Colruh had influenced these peoples in the Elder Days. Those clans that
immigrated into the lowland basin of Nurn were the most mystical of their kindred. Their holy men awakened a
dangerously wild Devam, a Maia spirit of Fire, born in the heart of an ancient volcano and newly drawn to the
surface world. He came to them burning with heat but with the beauty of the first children of Creation. The Nurniags
soon became enthralled with this creature. They named him the Talmorng, a name speaking, in their tongue, of both
beauty and pain. His promises of empire, accompanied by gifts of steel weapons and enchanted trinkets, brought
him worshipers all across the massif and beyond onto the high steppes of Endor. He built a tower on the plateau of
Gorgoroth, mocked the power of the Colruh, and sent armies south across the southern passes into the Saromis.

The Haruze folk of the towns along the Saromis possessed no weapons to defeat such a being. The Colruh,
despairing of any hope for peace in Middle-earth, withdrew into their secret havens. Swarms of Ioriag cavalry, the
first of their kind seen in Harad, swept down the Saromis and washed their bronze scimitars in the Sundering Sea.
Orcs walked the streets of the river towns and all shrines turned to the worship of the Talmorng, the Lord of Fire. A
few Devam followers came south with the new ruler, built palaces and accepted tribute from mortal men. The Lord
of Fire, proud and emboldened by his success in the new age of the World, established a stronghold at Korb Devral,
in the valley of the Ayn Arom, where the northern and eastern branch of the Saromis met. Here the Talmorng cut a
great stone fortress out of a cliff. He ordered his Devam minions to pay court on him and the Haruze to bath him in
wines and clothe him in jewels. In his pride, and seeking greater wealth than the Haradrim and Nurniags could
provide, he sent threats and then warriors against the Elves of the Nan Anduin.

The Talmorng's fate might have been sung in poems of the Elder Days. In response to an appeal from the Sinda of
Edhellond, a fleet of swan-ships carrying a company of Noldor warriors sailed down the coasts of Endor from the
west, sent by Gil-galad, High King of Lindon. The Talmorng, foolishly believing the remnants of the Noldor to be as
helpless as the Nandor hunters he had fed on in the past, strode into the fleet's encampment, somewhere on the
shores of the Bay of Belfalas, cloaked in an aura of fire. He demanded that their chieftain come forth and worship
him. However, the Captain of the Noldor company was Glorfindel, an ancient warrior who had been born under the
light of Aman and dueled Balrogs and Dragons in the wars of Beleriand. He fell upon the Devam and wrestled him
into the sea, quenching his fire and strangling him with his bare hands.

The death of the Talmorng at he hands of a mortal being stunned the surviving Devam. Many of them fled to hiding
places in the Mountains of Shadow. The Noldor sailed up the Saromis to Korb Devral. Here the Nurniags, in spite of
the failure of the new god they had created, gathered an army and defied the warriors from the west. Glorfindel
withdrew, convinced that he had guaranteed the lands of the Elves and wishing to avoid the needless shedding of
elvish blood.

The Talmorng's minions were in chaos for a short time, but new leaders quickly arose. Some Devam had taken
mortal women as wives, in their few decades in power, and their offspring, known as the Orag, the Spiritborn, had
proved wondrously gifted in intellect and magic. The Orag divided the conquests of the Talmorng among themselves
and fought over them. One of them, Meklak, one of the Talmorng's many sons, seized control of most of the lands
along the Sir Orome. He forced the other Orag to band together against him and then defeated their Nurniag hordes
with Haruze armies. Meklak wished to secure Mordor as a haven of his kindred, so he did not slay his opponents,
but instead took their allegiance and set bounds on their ambitions, all under his rule. The Orag of Nurn thereafter
established towns and cities all through their country, establishing local cults and traditions for their glorification.
Their rule could not last, for the taint of their mixture of mortal and immortal bloodlines drove most of them to
madness. In the end, most of the Orag perished in wars with each other or were slain by their own servants.
However, though the ages that followed, their memory of the Spiritborn was ennobled. All the lords and chiefs of
Nurn traced their bloodlines to the Orag; their worship of power and madness made them useful servants for the
Dark Lord who would one day rule Mordor.
11

For his own lands in Near Harad, Meklak had greater dreams. He took council with folk of all races at his court, a
palace of obsidian built over the caves of Korb Devral. At Meklak's court one could hear Elvish and Dwarven
voices, Haruze and Nurniag, Avar and Sinda. Meklak drew upon all these sources of lore, for his appetite for
knowledge and diversion was immense. Proud of his heritage as heir to the Arizul, he sought to rule the Haradwaith
as the Valar ruled Aman and, he imagined, Melkor would have ruled Beleriand. Meklak devised laws suitable to the
rule of an empire larger than the vision of a single chak or king, then inscribed them in stone and sent Tarbs (Ha.
"Ordainers," or governors) out to the towns of the Saromis to proclaim his justice. Meklak's Orag vassals brought
him regular tribute and tidings of the most distant corners of his domains; he shocked them by accepting similar gifts
and speech from his mortal subjects. To make travel simpler, he ordered the building of stone-faced roads where
there had only been tracks, wells and reservoirs where muddy springs had supported only camels, and enforced a
brutal code of laws and manners from the Sundering Sea to the Suncrown.

All of this willful creation might have made Meklak as revered as a god, but his lust for power and life proved a
terrible burden on the Haruze. As Autarb (Ha. "Greater Ordainer" or Lawgiver) Meklak ruled much of Near Harad
for a century and more; while his accomplishments were great, his vices and evils were greater. He grew to treat all
the peoples and goods of his realm as his property and subject to his passing whims.. His appetites were immense;
the loremasters spoke of him drinking rivers of wine and consuming whole bullocks at table. Warriors slew each
other in staged battles for his entertainment. He kept a stable of concubines and ordered that all the comely women
of his empire be judged and listed against his future needs of his household. The peace he brought along the Saromis
became proved transient; the fear of war had been replaced by the fear of the tyrant.

The Dunedain
In the Wars of Beleriand, the third, fourth, and fifth Wars of the Powers, three clans of Men took up the cause of the
Elves and shared in their defeat. These were the Edain, tall by blood and blessed in wisdom by their association with
the Eldar. Their descendants, through centuries of brilliance and folly, would become the most important race of
Men in Middle-earth for most of two ages of the World.

After the fall of Melkor, the Valar granted the survivors of the Edain an island to dwell in, a haven and refuge to
serve as a reward for their courage and faithful service in the doomed cause of the Noldor. This island in the western
seas, near the shores of Aman, took the name of Numenor (S. "Westernesse," ) and its people became known as the
Dunedain, (S. "Men of the West.") The Line of Elros, the royal family of the Dunedain, carried the blood of ancient
heroes of the Edain, Noldor, and the Azhan.

The legacy of their bloodlines, as well as the virtues of living close under the radiance of the Undying Lands, gave
the Dunedain great strength and endurance, great wisdom (at first) and a lifetime thrice that of other Men. Those of
the pure Line of Elros lived a century longer than the eldest of their subjects. These gifts made the Dunedain
superior, in many practical ways, to the Mannish races of Endor. As long as the men of Westernesse stayed on their
island and lived according to the principles of the ancestors, their gifts posed no threat to the Haradrim or other
peoples of Endor. However, the Dunedain also became great ship-builders, and in the 7th century of the Second Age,
they began to sail over the seas.

Aldarion, Crown Prince of Numenor, led the first of these voyages. He founded a guild, the Company of Venturers,
to build and man his ships and pressure his father, King Tar-Meneldur, to allow further voyages. After much debate,
Tar-Meneldur allowed a limited amount of exploration and trade. Aldarion at first confined his voyages to the lands
of the Elves in Northwestern Middle-earth. In S. A. 730, however, he rounded the Cape of Andrast and entered the
Bay of Belfalas, visiting the Sinda haven at Edhellond. Whether Aldarion was curious about the new empire of the
Talmorng is not recorded. However, Glorfindel's expedition to the Saromis, which took place after Aldarion's return
to Numenor and eventually led to the Talmorng's death, may have been partly motivated by a desire to protect the
prince from an unfortunate meeting with the Devam.

A reaction in Numenor against the Guild of Venturers restricted voyages to Endor in the years after Aldarion's return.
However, the ships of the guild still sailed into the Bay of Belfalas from time to time. While the Dunedain debated
the wisdom of contact with other peoples, Meklak was stabilizing his empire. He knew little of this new race, save
that they were Men and therefore weaker than himself. He had cultivated friendly relations with the Elves, but the
Sinda, friends of the new race, shunned him and his court. The Autarb of All Harad therefore proclaimed a reward
for any Dunadan brought to his citadel.
12

The names of those first unfortunate captives were not recorded, but rumor of their fate eventually reached distant
Westernesse. The island realm boasted no soldiery or ships of war, and its kings felt no great drive to rescue errant,
wandering children. However, the descendants of the Edain had not forgotten their warrior heritage. The Guild of
Venturers gathered what weapons they had and forged new ones. The next ships to sail the Bay of Belfalas were
prepared to defend themselves; their willingness to risk all in the name of adventure soon produced a momentous
confrontation.

Meklak, in spite of his growing madness, still traveled his domains and dispensed his own vision of rough justice.
The peoples of his empire grew fearful of his judgments; the path of his court was now marked by the hung remains
of trivial sinners, tortured and executed for minor or imagined crimes. It happened, in a winter season, that the
Autarb ordered his pavilions set up on the shores of a great embayment on the southern coasts of his domain. This
great gulf, known in later days as the Nen Umbar, was the home of the Sakalai, coastal peoples of Donan descent.
They hid in the hills while the Autarb's minions gathered their fish and sheep for his feasts. Meklak, while conscious
of the strange fate of his sire, the Talmorng, was nonetheless unafraid when a great Numenorean ship drove into the
bay. He sent soldiers to capture the ship as it lay becalmed. The Autarb was overjoyed to collect so many of these
unusual folk "in a single cast of the net," the more so since a woman led them.

The captain of the lost explorers was Baian of Syntar, a cousin to Prince Aldarion and a fiery spirit herself, the only
female ship's master in the Venturers. Trapped by the tides of the Nen Umbar, she settled on a desperate chance to
save her crew. She surrendered to the Nurniag warriors of Meklak, giving only the condition that she be allowed to
lead her people to his pavilion unchained. The soldiers, seeing that the Numenoreans wore no armor and carried
neither bows nor spears, felt them helpless. Their swords and daggers, unlike the black and bronze scimitars of the
Nurniags, were, silver, white and gilt, weakly colored. Meklak, himself little understanding the qualities of
Numenorean high steel, allowed the captives to enter his pavilion and stand before his throne unimpeded. He
demanded obeisance from the Dunedain, and Baian rebuked him, demanding to know what laws of hospitality
allowed a host to enslave his guests. Meklak rose from his throne, enraged, and spoke words of power to curse and
bewitch the mortals standing before him. Some of the Dunedain fell before the force of his will, but some did not.
Baian drew her sword and sprang forward, striking Meklak down before his guards could overcome her companions
and come to his aid. Meklak thought himself impervious to mannish weapons, but Baian's blade was a great
heirloom of her house, forged in Aman and last used against dragons in the War of Wrath. Meklak died from Baian's
blow, as the Talmorng had under the hands of Glorfindel, and his court and courtiers fled from the pavilion into the
deserts of Harad.

With the death of Meklak, much changed in Near Harad. Baian founded a station to trade with the Sakalai; centuries
later the haven of Umbar was founded on this site. Meklak's empire dissolved in chaos; no being of Azhan blood,
save for Sauron the Dark Lord, ever again attempted to openly rule lands beyond the Mountains of Shadow. Most
importantly, the ascendance of Numenorean arms over the lesser Men of Harad was firmly established. In the wake
of Meklak's fall, the Haruze would come into their own as a great nation, but the power from the west would return
again and again; peacefully at first, than armed with ungodly pride and an iron gauntlet.

2.2 THE KIBIC AND THE HARUZE TRIUMPHANT

Hidden by the drama of Meklak's rule, Haruze culture had grown and taken on a shape that would last through two
ages of the world. At the heart of it were the urdwan and the utarf. The first were clans of shepherds, the heirs of the
first wandering folk who came into the Haradwaith over the Mountains of Crossing. In the barren Inner Lands and
dry bursk hills of Harad, they adopted a life of ceaseless movement, taking their herds from grass to water to new
grass and fresh springs. . With the passage of time, some of these folk took up the settled life in the ayn and sud,
becoming the utarf, the tillers of the soil. The utarf, it was said, were the true immortals of Near Harad, singing
ancient, rhythmic work songs as they churned water out of the river and into their furrows of their fields. They had
already seen Devam, Orag, and Nurniag rulers pass by in their finery, and would be bent over their harvests of grains
and roots through untold generations of heroes and kings.

The abundance created by the utarf, both in foodstuffs and in their ever-growing numbers, had already conquered
13

the Saromis for Men even before the coming of the Nurniags. Even in Meklak's day, Elves and Dwarves were
disappearing from the paths along the rivers. The Saromis was now an alien world; they were withdrawing from it to
their havens in distant forests and mountains. Replacing them as artisans and traders were the feswan, Haruze
making a living in the river towns by trading their skills for goods, food, and coin.

A few Haruze had risen to power in the courts of the Orag. More held power of their own, by fortune of war or trade
owning flocks tended by urdwan of their clans or by owning the fields tended by less fortunate utarf. On the fringes
of Orag and Nurniag culture these Haruze recorded the legends of their own people and studied the lore of their
oppressors seeking weaknesses. They built secret shrines to the Gods of their ancestors and to any other deities who
might aid them in the struggle. Secret societies conspired against the Orag. Gold and silver flowed from the feswan
of the river towns to refuges hidden under their streets and far out in the deserts. Assassins struck out at cruel
Autarbs and slave-takers. In turn, nameless heroes were "sniffed out" by Nurniag Dark Priests and tormented by
Orag sorcery. Blood flowed, but the Orag gradually learned to fear the people they ruled.

In the end, the doom of the Orag rose up out of the sands of Harad, rather than the towns. The fighting skills of the
desert urdwan had never been in question. Both the Talmorng and the Orag had made good use of them in their wars
with the Devam of Mordor and with each other. The decades following Meklak's death saw a wave of exiles from
these war-bands fleeing into the desert to avoid the Orag's oppression and endless squabbles. A league of warriors
and sorcerers, the Kibic (Ha. "Righteous Followers") rose among these refugees, making use of the knowledge,
wealth, and weapons secreted by the other secret societies. The Orag, suspicious of their remaining Haruze
auxiliaries, began to disband them in favor of more trustworthy Nurniag, Variag, and Orkish mercenaries. But, as
Meklak had shown, the tribesmen of the haunted lands lacked the strength of numbers needed to defend the
expanses of Near Harad. As the tenth century of the Second Age began, nomad armies captained by Kibic veterans
struck out along the length of the Saromis, taking towns and slaying Orag lords whenever they found them. Within a
generation, the Kibic drove their enemies out of Near Harad; the Orag were gone forever and Haruze banners now
flew from all the towers between the Suncrown and the sea.

While the Kibic never created a unified empire, the lands they ruled blossomed as never before. Wealth that had
been hoarded by the Orag now flowed into the coffers of the feswan and out again, doubling and redoubling itself as
they raised new buildings, shops, mills, and counting houses. New towns arose and older towns became cities. The
utarf, protected by the Kibic, cleared lands along the Saromis and other rivers that had previously been under threat
of Orc and bandit raids. The lower reaches of the Saromis, where the richness of the valley was already known, was
cleared of Donan and urdwan and put to the plow. It was now called Haruzan, for the pride of its new masters. New
sources of tin had been located in the Ausk Dubat, the hill country north of the middle Saromis. The Orag had
reserved its output to make bronze weapons for their elite warriors, but now the mines turned out metal for sickles,
shears, and other tools. The middle Saromis was opened to cultivation along its entire length. The river here was
renamed the Ode Pezar -- River of the Knife -- either after the bronze blades its villages produced, or for the sight of
the blades flashing in their thousands to harvest the fields around the villages, by or the Orcs slain by these blades to
secure those fields. By the end of the first century of Kibic rule, the traveler could ride from the Ayn Arom to the
mountains without losing sight of fields or peasant huts. The wild valley of past ages had vanished forever.

With abundance came change and greed and troubles of many kinds. The Azhan, the Devam, Colruh, and Peri had
already vanished into legend, repelled by the hordes of mortals overrunning their country. The Hawnin, who had
always wandered the edges of the cultivated lands, sharing that frontier with the nomadic urdwan, now vanished as
surely as the Azhan, retreating into hidden oases in the hills. The Dwarves, growing more leery of Men as their
relative strength faded, hid themselves in mountain fortresses. The balance of their remaining trade was handled by a
few wandering clans, known collectively as the Ehazt. The Ehazt cultivated a reputation for detachment from the
politics of Near Harad, but served the powerful as providers of potent, expensive, steel-edged scimitars and spears.

The greatest changes in the country came about as the Kibic and other powerful Haruze wrestled over the spoils of
power. As the apparent victors in the defeat of the Orag and Nurniags, the anointed leaders of the Kibic forces
claimed their lands and rights. As sihad (Har. "Chosen Few," "knights" in the western tongues,) they established
themselves as a military aristocracy throughout Haruzan and Pezarsan. The utarf villages and such urdwan as lived
on the frontiers of the settled lands supported the sihad and their retainers with tithes and taxes. The sihad, in their
turn, defended the utarf, their customs, and laws against outsiders, judged disputes between peasants and villages,
and maintained local shrines, canals, levees, and bridges. The feswan of the river towns, who had given much to the
14

struggle against the Orag and were used to handling their own affairs, had no wish to be ruled by rural landowners
of any race. Their assemblies and guilds were dominated by the fezir, the most powerful merchants and guild-
masters. Each Haruze city, in its turn, struck agreements with the Kibic over their rights to rule themselves and work
the surrounding town-lands that fed their families. With the passage of time, Haruze laws of inheritance created an
aristocracy of birth among their landowners and merchant princes. In general, the Kibic sihad had the advantage in
the early days of the conquest. Most of the lords and princes of Near Harad (Har. "Tarbs") and its overlords and
kings (Har. "Autarbs") claimed Kibic and sihad ancestry for their bloodlines. The cities, however, always remained
the greatest source of usable wealth in Near Harad. In time, the name of fezir applied to all aristocrats; a sihad who
had no interests in nearby towns was considered impoverished and socially suspect.

This new Haruze society had great potential for greed, corruption, and other abuses, but the centuries of the Kibic
hegemony were considered an age of heroes and glorious legends by scholars of later times.

The triumph of the Kibic also saw the establishment of formal Haruze religious traditions. The oldest Apysaic
shepherds had paid homage indiscriminately to spirits of the creation, of nature, and to all wielders of power of all
kindreds. The people of the new realms of Near Harad still practiced such cautionary ceremonies, but the learned
among them had evolved more sophisticated beliefs, focusing on the most powerful of spirits, the Arizul of the
Undying Lands. The most important of the religious sects fostered by the Kibic was that of Ladnoca, the Moon
Goddess. She was said by the Shamans of Bozisha-Miraz, in southern Harad, to be the goddess who weeps for the
sun-blasted inner lands of the Haradwaith. Her opponent in Far Harad was Vatra, the sun, said to be Ladnoca's
jealous husband. His blessings of light and warmth were tainted by the searing intensity of his jealousy; he was said
to burn the face of Harad every day because, like Melkor, he could not live in the world and rule it or his wife.
Worshipers of Vatra were plentiful, for the Haruze never expected love from the powers that ruled the world. Rather,
they respected the strength of the Arizul and only hoped that the good they brought would outweigh the evil. In this
same fashion Arom, the Huntsman and Master of Beasts, was entreated for the strength he conveyed and feared for
the power of his servants, the lions, hawks, and serpents. Lilis, the Mother of Harvests and Keeper of Passions,
represented the cycles of nature, for good and ill. She brought food up from the soil and love of children to the
hearts of mortals, but also cleansed the lands with floods and plagues and drove lovers to anger and murder.

All of these greater sects boasted shrines and temple in every Haruze city. Others shrines and niches could be seen in
public places, intended to allow the passerby to placate death, fate, luck, the spirits of good air for boats on the river
and spirits of rich earth for those who labored in the fields. Melkor, Meklak, the Devam, and the Colruh were also
supplicated by Haruze seeking to gain access to their wisdom and power, but most often in home reliquaries or
hidden sanctuaries. These beings, after all, had once walked the earth and might do so again. Those who spoke to
them might be challenging the power of the Autarbs and the fezir.

The Heroic Age

The Haruze civilization founded by the Kibic prospered and expanded for some five centuries. It did not do so
peacefully; the Wise among the Haruze said that war and strife were as much the Doom of Men as death itself.
However, the various kingdoms, city-states, and merchant-leagues of Near Harad seldom inflicted great harm on
each other, such was the power of their common custom and religion. The Poganin (Har. "foreigners" or
"barbarians,") on their frontiers seemed little threat when the Kibic were at the height of their power. Indeed, the
Haruze expanded their lands at the expense of the Poganin, and drew wealth and knowledge from them. The wisdom
they gained, however, told them that they had enemies, and that these enemies were gathering strength that they
might use against the "Godly People. "This last bit of knowledge eventually brought down the Kibic and brought
the Heroic Age of the Haruze to an end.

The tenth century of the Second Age, the decades immediately after the expulsion of the Nurniags, saw the Haruze
dominion unquestioned from the mouth of the Saromis to Korb Devral and across Pezarsan. The coastlands of the
Sundering Sea harbored Sakalai, Donan fisher-folk, while Elvish and Numenorean ships sailed its waters. More
Elves lived northwest of the Saromis, mostly in the wooded hills and valleys leading down into the great river
Anduin. They avoided contact with men, but were nonetheless considered magical and dangerous. North of the
Saromis, between the river valley and the Mountains of Shadow, lay the Ausk Dubat where Orcs were a constant
danger. The Nurniags might make excursions from the mountains, but distance and frequent bloody clan-wars left
them little more than a nuisance. South of the Saromis lay a great expanse of bursk, desert, and scrub-covered hills.
The urdwan wandered here from oasis to oasis, some of Haruze blood, some not. When the Apysani had first
15

wandered these barren lands, they put little effort into warring among themselves. However, the clans had brought
horses down from the plains of Endor, and now they bred them strong enough for war. These nomads formed the
core of the Kibic armies that swept away the Orag. They now had the means to raid the settled lands to add to their
meager wasteland existence and the pride to claim a right to their plunder. While the fezir and kings of the valley
realms might cow them or buy them off when strong, they waited only for signs of weakness to take up the life of
raiding and pillage again.

Far up the Ode Pezar, east of Pezarsan, the first of the three great enemies of the Haruze arose. The Variags were
Talathrim of the high plains of Endor, of a different blood from either Apysaic or the Donan. Servants of Melkor in
the dawning years of Men, they eventually found themselves impoverished exiles, eking out fragile existence on the
Pustrava, the steppes on northeastern slopes of the Fireshadow Massif. Their legends told of a shining rider, a
Colruh, perhaps, who had blocked their path south for a time, but in the seventh century of the Second Age their
clans began to press south onto the vast salt grass plateaus bordering on the deserts of the Haradwaith. Nameless
Apysaic shepherds dwelt there, having driven out the Orcs and wicked Peri in the wake of the War of Wrath. They
had no horse-skills, and poor weapons. Gradually, the Apysaic were enslaved or driven south. The highlands
bordering on the Ered Harmal as far as the Suncrown took on a new name: Kha-on (V. "Land of Horses and Sun")
or Khand.

Meklak's Nurniag hordes had driven numerous Variag clans into Khand, and so the Variag migration reached the
high deserts of eastern Harad just as his empire was reaching its peak. Here they faced stronger opposition: Ehazt
Dwarves, Avari Elves, and Haruze city-states ruled by Orag lords. The frontier stabilized; some of the Variags took
up agriculture in the valleys of the Golden Mountains and around the headwaters of the Saromis. The great river
became known to them as the Noz Peka (V. "Knife River") in translation of its Haruze name. With the fall of the
Orag, the Variags began to move south again. However, the Kibic, in alliance with Dwarves of the Ered Harmal
summoned by the Ehazt, now led a campaign to make secure the trade routes and mineral wealth lying south and
west of the Suncrown. The Variags were drive back into Khand, and the Kibic lords established the new realm of
Lurmsakûn, a sprawling domain of river valleys and oases resting precariously between the mountains and the
desert. In S. A. 1050, at the height of Kibic success, the Variags built a fortress city around Sturlurtsa, their chief
trading center in a valley near the headwaters of the Noz Peka. The Variags did not forget their defeat, and would
return to Lurmsakûn in strength; the name of Sturlurtsa would mean terror to a hundred generations of Haruze. For a
time, though, Haruze merchants passed unhindered the length of the Golden Mountains, even exchanging exotic
goods with the green countries of Chy and Acaana and the spice jungles of the southernmost shores of Middle-earth.

Even as the Haruze and Variags began their ages-long quarrel, the second of the Great Enemies had secret begun his
rise to power. Sauron, later known as the Dark Lord, the Master of Lies, the Deceiver, and the Lord of the Rings,
was Azhan, a powerful Maia who had once been the chief lieutenant of Melkor in the Wars of Beleriand. After the
catastrophe of the War of Wrath, he had repented of evil and wandered freely in the world. However, ambition and
lust for power and revenge gnawed at his spirit. He determined to make himself ruler of Middle-earth, and sought
sources of power in all of its lands. After the slaying of Meklak, in which his lies and flatteries may have played a
part, he considered using the remaining Orag as tools. Their uncontrollable madness deterred him, as did his fear of
discovery by the few Colruh still roaming Harad. Instead, he traveled secretly to Mordor, secretly making alliance
with the surviving Devam. Sauron, using his powers of disguise and persuasion, manipulated the holy men and
women of Nurn and Khand, gradually turning the shamans of these races to his worship. He began to build a fortress
in Gorgoroth, using the foundations of an old Devam tower. When the Haruze began a long campaign to drive the
Orcs out of the Ausk Dubat, he aided the evil folk at first, than withdrew. His presence was needed elsewhere, and
he foresaw the need for a powerful, yet compliant nation of men on his southern border. In time, he felt certain he
would master the Haruze as he had mastered the Ioriags.

The Haruze conquest of the Ausk Dubat and the river valley beyond was the last of the Heroic Age. The river that
flowed west through most of this country had long been called the Ode Lugal (H. "River of Gloom. ") Orcs and
other creatures of Darkness lived here, and fearsome stories were spun of haunted caverns, cursed vales of walking
trees, and secret paths across the Mountains of Shadow into Nurn. From the 11th to the 13th centuries of the Second
Age, Haruze adventurers cleansed the hills and valleys of their monsters, creating glorious legends in the process.
They renamed the country Sheltered Home (H. "Chelkar,") and its river the Ode Auchel (H. "River of the Great
Sheltering. “) Its fortified towns provided havens against Orcs, Variags, and nomad bandits, as well as ambitious
kings from Pezarsan.
16

The strength shown by the Haruze reflected their growing wealth. This was reflected in flourishing trade, attracting
the attentions of the Numenoreans. The Guild of Venturers founded by Aldarion had never captured the imagination
of the mass of the people of the great island in the western sea. Still, the Dunadan produced a steady trickle of
restless spirits, a select number willing to risk the perils of Middle-earth in quest of knowledge and curiosities. The
Kibic realms befriended these explorers, allowing them to found trading stations around the mouth of the Saromis
and giving them leave to travel inland to Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn. The Dunedain, great sailors in mighty ships,
eventually rounded the southwestern cape of Middle-earth and explored the southern seas. In the 13th century,
traders from the Guild of Venturers wintered in the Bay of Ormal, within reach of the high plains of central Endor,
and in S. A. 1250 journeyed by land north along the Mountains of Sunrise into Khand. Here they met, at the Oasis
of Ovatharac, with a second party traveling northeast from Lurmsakûn.

This meeting had several important consequences. First, it brought elvish writing to the Variags, who had previously
considered such things the province of spirits and the weakling Haruze. Second, it caught the attention of Sauron.
The ambitious Azhan, troubled over a challenge to his manipulation of the Variag shamans, now traveled to Haruzan
to seduce and win the loyalty of a few Dunadan mystics. These folk, deluded by pride and curiosity, were the first of
what were later called the Black Numenoreans. Falling under Sauron's spell, they became addicted to power and the
service of their own darkest desires. In time, Numenor would attempt to outlaw contacts between its people and the
ambitious Azhan, but edicts of this source could not be long enforced in the vastness of Endor. Third, the meeting at
Ovatharac triggered an outpouring of anger among the Haruze, who were beginning to be troubled by the foreign
ideas flowing into their cities. The Numenoreans, who had acted out of curiosity and the desire to share the gifts of
their culture, were baffled by Haruze resentment, realizing too late its terrible possibilities.

By the thirteenth century of the Second Age most of the Kibic orders had become bound to the service of the
wealthiest Haruze city-states and the richest Haruze lords. Their decadence weakened them and destroyed their
prestige among the ruling classes of the Haruze. The defense of the frontiers was more and more left to the Griz,
irregular cavalry companies who patrolled border regions for pay. They were recruited from among the urdwan and
often as dangerous to the peasantry as the bandits they were suppose to fight. The Variags grew stronger; in 1278 the
whole of Lower Khand, facing Lurmsakûn, united under a single king. The petty Haruze realms along the Ode Pezar
had fought each other too often to do the same, but the wealthiest merchants forced the their rulers to form a League
of Princes to protect trade. Eventually, new military/religious orders were formed, the "Nuzhaj" (H. "Brethren of
Clarity") consisting of warriors and priests dedicated to the harsher, more fatalistic Haradon gods and beliefs,
particularly Vatra, the Sun, and Makusset, Speaker of Dooms. All Nuzhaj denounced corruption and witless pursuit
of pleasure. Much of this they blamed on the Poganin, declaring glorious any blows struck against foreign
domination. Their Holy Teachers preached to the Godly a consistent theme of Harad for the Haradrim, but, thanks to
Sauron's influence, pictured the "lesser" races of Harad as allies against the Numenoreans and Elves, whom the
Nuzhaj blamed for the fires that had burned Haradwaith in ancient times. The Nuzhaj had followers all through the
Haruze lands, among the Griz and their Nurniag foes, among the desert urdwan and the settled folk of Far Harad, the
Donan of the Haruzan Hills and the Apysaic mountain clans of the Ered Harmal. They were suspicious of all not of
their orders, but were given some unity by their shared hatred of the Poganin and desire to cleanse Harad of
"unclean" and "weakening" influence.

When the end came, in the 14 th century, it came swiftly. Like the Orag, the Kibic failed to read the omens of their
enemy’s strength. Riots sprang up in peaceful cities and Numenorean merchants were burned alive in bonfires made
of their luxurious woolens and fur-trimmed cloaks. Armed gangs seized Fezir who had too much fondness for elvish
songs and Dunadan poetry and flogged them to death in the streets. The sihadin of the old aristocracy died in battle
or, more often, renounced their Kibic roots to keep some share of their wealth and power. One after another, the old
princes fell and were replaced by new, harsher lords.

The Numenorean trading havens in Haruzan, most in small port-towns along the coasts of the Sundering Sea, were
also obliged to bargain for their lives. Fortunately for the refugees who made the dangerous overland trek to these
havens, the Dunadan had the foresight to fortify the most important of their treaty ports and garrison them with
Numenorean warriors. The Nuzhaj attempted to bully or capture several of them, but the giant Dunadan soldiers,
warded by white steel plate mail and matchless weapons of the same metal, were the finest in Middle-earth. As the
first wave of Nuzhaj ferocity spent itself, the Dunadan havens drove off the fanatics and made deals with the
pragmatists. The Nuzhaj took out their fury on the Sakalai of the coastlands, nominally under Dunadan protection,
17

and then turned away into the country north and west of the Saromis.

In the temperate, forested Harithilien (H. "Mist-lands") along the lower Anduin Nuzhaj crusaders fought another
small war, tragic for those involved, minor in the affairs of the time, but important for the future. The Ausk
Harmaka, the hills bordering the valley of the lower Saromis, had been Haruze domain for centuries. Korb Ugarta,
an ancient Colruh site and the holiest shrine of Ladnoca in Near Harad, lay near the sea at the western end of the
Ausk Harmaka. The Eraguk steppes on the plateau beyond, known as the Aegardh (S. "Fell Region") to the Elves
and Dunadan, were urdwan grazing lands. Beyond them lay true boundary of Harad, the Emyn Laer (S. "Summer
Hills") separating the lush, green forests of the Nan Anduin from the Aegardh. The Kibic of the Ausk Harmaka and
the Eraguk nomads of the Aegardh had never ruled these hills. The Nuzhaj dared far more. They slew or scattered
the hillmen of the Emyn Laer and swept into the valley beyond, slaughtering Donan fisher-folk and killing Elves
whenever they could catch them. A Nuzhaj Etemer (Ha. "Warlord" or "Warcrafter") proclaimed to his followers in
Haruzan that he had watered his horses in the mightiest river of the world, then crossed it in search of new realms to
conquer.

His triumph was short-lived. The Nuzhaj armies that crossed the Anduin into Lebenninn (S. "Land of Seven
Rivers") burned a hundred peaceful Daen villages, but found little sustenance in the lands of these simple
farmer/hunters. Elvish swan-ships from Edhellond swept up the Anduin like ghosts in the night, destroying Haruze
boats and ferries and singing songs that caused herds of horses and cattle to stampede into the river and drown. A
damp fall and chill, wet winter closed in on the Nuzhaj, striking down hundreds with chills, flux and fever. Those fit
to stand guard found that the surviving Daen and Nandor were masters of woodcraft and willing to use a knife in the
dark when open battle was hopeless. With the passing of another summer the surviving Nuzhaj were driven beyond
the Emyn Laer, carrying stories of its abundance and a terror of its defenders. Behind them, a stricken country wept
for its losses and welcomed a few Numenorean traders to establish safe havens like those along the coasts of Harad.
In this fashion, the Haruze learned to covet the green Mist-lands of the north, and the Dunedain first came to the
land that would one day be Gondor.

The rise of the Shadow and the triumph of the Dunedain

In the midst of the Nuzhaj triumph the plots of Sauron came to fulfillment. In the 8th century of the age Noldor
Elves unsatisfied with the rule and ambitions of Gil-galad of Lindon founded a new kingdom, Eregion, near the
doors of the great Dwarven city of Khazad-dum. They were led by Celebrimbor, a master smith who had learned his
skills in the Undying Lands. These Elven smiths wished to forge magical devices of great beauty and power, works
of craft that would provide a glimpse of the glory of the Undying Lands the Noldor had abandoned and a memory of
the perfection of Middle-earth's first Creation. . Their kingdom lay in Eriador, a land that, since the fall of Beleriand,
lay in the farthest north and west of Middle-earth. The Noldor of Eregion might have been nothing more than a
rumor to the peoples of southern and eastern Endor, save that they attracted the attention of Sauron.

The renegade Maia, in the early years of his wandering, had convinced himself that Humankind would be grateful
for his benevolent rule and serve him adoringly in his chosen role as Lord of Men. However, his venal
manipulations of the beliefs of the Ioriags and Haruze revealed the arrogance and moral bitterness at the core of his
thoughts. Memories of his humiliation at the hands of the Elves and Edain in the First Age poisoned his thoughts
even more. He hated them, and was jealous of their power and fearful that they might rise to challenge his dominion
over the world. Numenor, while grown skilled in arms since Baian Syntar's day, was a self-absorbed island race
trapped near the far edge of the world. Consequently, the Noldor became the chief focus of Sauron's intrigues and
attention. All of his careful manipulation of the beliefs of Men was tied, at some secret level, to the elimination of
the Noldo threat. Even as the Nuzhaj unknowingly carried out his designs in Near Harad, Sauron was living among
the smiths of Eregion in disguise, under the name Attanar (S. "Lord of Gifts,") offering them knowledge, fostering
jealousy and pride with well-chosen words, and learning their secrets and weaknesses. Attanar's links to Mordor
were known to only a few trusted servants. The influence of powerful spirits in the workings of the Nuzhaj and the
Ioriag shamans was suspected by the Haruze and Dunedain opposed to these orders and cults, but the spirits in
question were believed to be the surviving Devam. For two hundred years, Sauron lived among the smiths of
Eregion as an equal while keeping up his guise as a demigod among the peoples of central Endor.

In Near Harad, the Nuzhaj served Sauron's purposes from the 15th century on. Their initial onslaught was checked,
somewhat, by more traditional lords who took up their causes, cleared their domains of corrupt officials, and banned
the Poganin from their courts. The lords along the Variag frontier, in particular, had strength and prestige enough to
18

keep Nuzhaj "witch-namers" and "Purifiers" from wandering their towns and striking down lovers of lust and
pleasure. The Nuzhaj thought their ultimate victory was assured, but their own rulers quarreled among themselves.
In S. A. 1477, a conclave of Etemeran (H. "Warlords,") met to resolve their differences along the Huk Saromis near
the roads that led through the passes into Nurn. Etemer Karm, a Nurniag Nuzhaj, suddenly called up a force of
warriors who had been secreted in the nearby hills. The Etemeran were slain or captured and the survivors forced to
declare Karm the Autarb of all Haruzan. A Nurniag, in a single blow, had made himself the most powerful of the
Nuzhaj lords. The outcry among the Haruze was terrible, for most remembered the tales of the Talmorng and the
Orag and consider the Nurniags barbarians and beasts. A bloody war ensued, but Karm was a brilliant warlord and
possessed an abundance of iron and steel weapons acquired from Sauron's Orkish smiths. He secured all of Haruzan
and Pezarsan over the ensuing three decades, executing his enemies by the thousands and establishing a network of
spies and informers to prevent conspiracies against him.

Karm's political strategy, and that of the heirs of his dynasty, the Karmilan, matched neatly with Sauron's. The
Numenoreans had been building up their fleet and military to protect what was now a worldwide network of
travelers, traders, and merchants. Karm allowed them to take the Harfalas, the coastlands of Near Harad inhabited
mainly by the Sakalai, under their protection. Without Numenorean guardianship the Nuzhaj may well have
exterminated the surviving Daen of Near Harad; with it, their native culture gradually dissolved into the richer
civilization of the Dunedain. The Nuzhaj defended Haruze culture, binding it to its own traditions of architecture,
philosophy, art, song, and poetry. Numenorean traders traveled unhindered in only a few of the major river cities of
Haruzan. They met suspicion everywhere, and could only make tenuous contacts with those Haruze still resisting
Nuzhaj rule. The Karmilan married Haruze brides and eventually took up Haradrim customs and languages at their
court. Shielded by Nuzhaj paranoia, they built up their armies, speaking always of Haruze pride in being Haruze, all
the while keeping a careful, secret guard on Sauron's new holdings in Gorgoroth.

The Karmilan sacrificed much to their own ambition and their labors on Sauron's behalf. Everywhere in Near Harad
traditional native loathing of the Nurniags tainted feswan loyalty to their lords. In spite of Nuzhaj moral strictures,
government became dependent on bribery and corrupt manipulation. Kibic and independent Haruze lords still held
out against the Nuzhaj in Chelkar and Lurmsakûn; they became heroes to the oppressed utarf of Pezarsan. The
nomads of the southern deserts resented Nuzhaj law and discipline. Raids and warfare was constant along the desert
frontier. The Nuzhaj dream of Haruze or even Endorian unity faded into the misery of constant turmoil and
oppression.

While Nuzhaj power stagnated, Sauron's plans for the subjugation of the Noldor came to fruition. All through the
16th century of the Second Age, the smiths of Eregion worked on the forging of Rings of Power, enchanted marvels
capable of focusing the fea, the magical energies still adrift in the world, to the service of the will of their wearer.
This mighty work neared completion as Celebrimbor forged three rings for the mightiest of the Elvish lords -- of
which he now considered himself one -- that could turn the auras and airs of an entire realm to the will of their
masters. This was power that had long been considered the domain of the Arizul. Sauron carried the Elven smiths'
logic to a cold and awful conclusion; he determined that he could combine the power of the rings with his own
Azhan strength and use them to rule Endor and all its peoples, as Melkor might have done had he not been destroyed
by the Valar.

In the Chambers of Fire of the volcano Orodruin in Mordor, he completed his own forging. Then came, as the
chroniclers of the Dunedain recorded, "the words that the Smiths of Eregion heard, and knew that they had been
betrayed:"

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them. "

It was said that on that night, four sacred mountains erupted in fire in Nurn, and six stars fell flaming from the skies
of Harad, and ten holy mystics of Pezarsan went mad and threw themselves from the walls of their sanctuaries. The
Noldor of Eregion sensed the power that Sauron had summoned a thousand miles distant from Mordor; many fell to
their knees and cried out as if from a painful blow. Gil-galad, sitting in court in the far-away realm of Lindon, laid
down his scepter and wept for the doom of his people.

The terrible consequences of the forging of the One Ring took a mortal lifetime to reveal themselves. The Noldor
learned, all too swiftly, of the nature of the enchantments the Azhan had cast. Sauron, in his turn, found that the
19

smiths of Eregion hid their rings rather than risk submission to his will. Furious, he demanded that they surrender
the rings to him. The Elves refused, but instead of forming a united front against Sauron, fell to bickering among
themselves. Sauron used his newfound power to seal the foundation of the Barad-dur, the great tower built by his
servants in eastern Gorgoroth. He declared himself Lord of Men, and Master of the World, but spent his time hidden
in Mordor, baffled by the failure of his great design. For a few decades, life in Harad carried on as before, and a few
Haruze and their Dunadan friends hoped against hope that the new Dark Lord would remain in his citadel

It happened, behind the walls of secrecy that cloaked Near Harad, Khand, and the Ioriag steppes north of Mordor,
that rumor came forth in S. A. 1693 of great events, beginning with the movement of vast herds of sheep, cattle, and
horses from east to west. Numenorean sea captains had, for two years, been loading grain from ports in the Harfalas
for destinations in the wild lands west of Edhellond. Most had taken the gold offered for the voyage and carefully
avoided any talk of its purpose in this country of Trolls and wandering hunting tribes. A war broke out among
barbarous men in the plains country northwest of Mordor, so that the Wood Elves of the north dared not take boats
down the Anduin to trade with their kin in the southern vales. Then, in T. A. 1695, the Nuzhaj began to march,
answering the voices of many prophets and mystics, taking up their arms and riding north on trails across the Emyn
Laer and the Mountains of Shadow and into the wild country beyond. They told their families that they were going
on a great crusade to rid the world of evil. When they reached the passes leading out of Gorgoroth to the west, they
were surprised to find that Variags of Khand and Orcs of Mordor, ancient enemies of the Haruze, marched with them
on their holy quest. The road was hard, for in spite of Sauron's preparations grain and meat were thinly rationed. In
the end, a near-starving army passed through the gloomy forests of Fangorn and Enedhwaith, ruled by Ent, Troll and
Uhr-giant, and gazed in wonder on the white citadels of the Noldor in Eregion. The invasion of Eregion by Sauron's
forces should have been foreseen by Celebrimbor and his fellow smiths, but pride and shamed arrogance blinded
them. It was thought an impossible march, across hundreds of miles of wilderness, for any army of mortal men. To
late, they sent to Gil-galad for aid, but Sauron and the most powerful of his servants were present. Celebrimbor was
slain and his citadel put to the sack. The surviving Elves were pursued across Eriador. Few Haruze had heard of
these chill, rainy lands even in stories; they marveled that they were so close to Lindon, the heartland of Elvish
power, and that they now possessed the power to destroy it.

Yet even as the most fanatical of the Nuzhaj reveled in their adventure, forces as distant as Lurmsakûn and Numenor
plotted against them. The Karmilan grip on Pezarsan was feeble by the time of the war; the more so since the
Variags not called to Eriador had invaded Haruze territory and seized important cities. The Dunedain, reacting to the
Nuzhaj threat to the Harfalas and Sauron's bellicose threats to their holdings elsewhere in Endor, were building a
small but potent army and a powerful navy. In 1700 Tar-Minastir of Numenor used his ships to deploy mercenaries
from southern Endor to protect his treaty ports in Near Harad and sent the bulk of his fleet and army into Eriador,
striking at its heartland, the valley of the River Gwathlo. This counter-invasion destroyed the bases of Sauron's
armies just as the chill of the northern climate was devastating its Haruze soldiers. The Sauronic army was
annihilated, only a few refugees returning to their homes with the passing of years.

All of this Nuzhaj might have survived, but the Autarbs of Haruzan also had ambitions. They sent an army against
Umbar, the chief Numenorean port, and sent raiding forces into Harfalas and north across the Emyn Laer into the
Vale of Anduin.

These invaders were repelled, after much bloodshed, and the economic chaos that insured finally gave the Haruze
resistance their opportunity. Aided by Numenorean spies and adventurers, they staged uprisings across all the
Haruze lands between the Mountains of Sunrise and the Western Sea, seizing power while the Nuzhaj armies were
out in the field.

Sauron fled to his stronghold in Mordor, leaving chaos and misery in his wake. Of his surviving enemies, the Elves
of Lindon and the Numenoreans lacked the manpower to force an entry into Gorgoroth. The Haradrim and various
other aggrieved tribal peoples of Endor lacked weapons and other tools of war needed for such a terrible siege. The
western powers dressed their wounds and rebuilt their trading networks. The Haradrim turned inward; they had
learned of the forging of iron from Sauron's armorers, and were richer as a result, but used the new metal to fight an
endless series of dynastic wars that left them vulnerable to outside forces. Sauron, whose appetite for conspiracy and
power had not been abated by his defeat, took full advantage of Haruze weakness.

The cycle of violence began with the defeat of the Nuzhaj of Haruzan. Meklak's old capital of Korb Devral had long
20

been renamed Korb Taskrel, after the local dynasty of "Stone Kings" who had ruled here for centuries. The Taskrels
prospered with the increase in Numenorean trade, becoming the richest kings in Near Harad. They now became the
most powerful rulers in Haruzan, driving out or subduing the Nuzhaj and sensibly not overextending themselves by
attempting to bring all the Haruze lands to heel. Instead, they directed the energies of their more violent sihadin in a
crusade, the Zinazpesar, or “Laying of the Knife,” against the remaining Nuzhaj of Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn. The
Zinazpesar consolidated Haruze power as far as the slopes of the Suncrown, driving Variag clans uprooted by
Sauron's wars back almost to Sturlurtsa Khand. Further east, the Zinazpesar extended their conquests along the oasis
towns and valleys on the southern flanks of the Mountains of Sunrise, establishing Haruze Autarbs and Tarbs in a
string of oasis towns. Haruze civilization now extended to within a hundred leagues of the Bay of Ormal and the rich
trading nations of the southern seas. However, the Zinazpesar dissipated their strength fighting among themselves
and attempting to conquer Pezarsan from the relatively loose and benign domination of the Taskrels. Within a
century, their political power, so momentously founded, was on the wane.

In their weakened state, the Zinazpesar and the Haruze sihadin and feswan who squabbled with them for control of
the Haruze cities were both defeated by yet another Poganin conqueror. This was Tuchik Cheyan, son of a Chey
warlord and an exiled Haruze princess. Tuchik conquered all of eastern Near Harad and marched down the Ode
Pezar to humble the kings of Korb Taskrel. Along the way he encountered, trapped, and defeated, for the first time in
known history, a small Numenorean army. The military boldness of the Dunedain, despite the folly of committing so
many soldiers so far from the coast, proved a greater portent of Harad's future than Tuchik's victories; his empire
disintegrated soon after his death.

Tuchik’s briefly gathered empire marked an end and a beginning in the history of Near Harad. The lands from the
shore of the Sundering Sea to the High Plains of the mid-continent were now bound economically and culturally by
a string of Haruze trading cities. Each city, in turn, was run by Haruze feswan and surrounding by fields tilled by
Haruze utarf. The Haradrim, not the Nurniags, Variags or Chey, would dominate trade and society along the caravan
trails of central Endor. However, this history would never again be a purely Haradon story, for in the wake of the
collapse of the Zinazpesar and Tuchik’s Cheyan empire the third of the Great Enemies of the Haruze would arise.
The Numenoreans might be praised for their dignity and honor in one breath and damned for their pride and folly in
the next. But they and the Haruze would have the strands of their destinies intertwined, and the threads would be
entangled forever and throughout two ages of the world.

2.3 IMPERIAL NUMENOR

The conquests of Tuchik Cheyan demonstrated that "civilized" weapons such as steel-tipped spears and siege
catapults had spread across Endor as far as the steppes of the mid-continent. They also revealed that notions of
empire and conquest had become universal among Mannish rulers. In songs and poems of the time, the merchants
and people of Near Harad sought worthy leaders to oppose the Poganin. Sadly, their own fezir and sihadin were
corrupt and selfish, so they would not find leadership among their own kind. Their country became the prey of
foreign adventurers, one from each of the nations of the three Great Enemies of the Godly People. These three
would determine the balance of power in Near Harad for a thousand years.

The third millennium of the Second Age of Middle-earth had begun, and much had changed in the Island Realm of
Numenor since the days of Aldarion the Mariner and Baian Syntar. A harmony of thought and faith, centered on the
Valar-blessed authority of the Line of Elros, had been taken for granted in earlier times. Beginning with the first
voyages of the Guild of Venturers, this consensus broke up into factionalism. The factions, over the course of
centuries, coalesced around two opposing principles. The Nimruzîrî, or Faithful, hearkened back to the older
Numenoreans who were befriended by the Elves of the Undying Lands and said to have lived simple, righteous
pastoral lives of contemplation. The Aruwanai, or Kingsmen, sought to see all there was of Middle-earth, and to
create mighty works that would glorify their land and honor their people. Aldarion's memory was venerated by both
factions. He was a great explorer and builder, but one who sacrificed the love of his wife to make his voyages and
who cut down the forests of Numenor to build his ships. However, all his undertakings sought to rekindle his
people's ancient friendship with the Noldor and Sindar of Lindon, to share the wisdom of the Valar with other
nations of Men, and to aid the peoples of Middle-earth against the Shadow, the taint of evil he saw rising from
Melkor's ashes.
21

In truth, by the 18th century of the Second Age, Aldarion would have scarcely
recognized the motives of either the Faithful or the Kingsmen. The Dunedain
could still be readily described as the "Lords of Men," a title Sauron
consciously took for himself. Man and woman, they commonly stood six feet tall
and more, twice as strong and living twice as long as the "lesser men" of
Endor. Even the poorer of the Numenoreans were well educated and diversely
skilled, speaking several tongues and writing in most of them. The Dunedain
showed few signs of aging, of any mortal frailty or infirmity, until late in
their lives. Many still followed the old practice of "laying down their lives"
voluntarily -- dying by effort of their own will -- before infirmity could
weaken them. Tragically, the Numenorean lifespan, long as it was, had become a
national obsession. Mortal death, the "Gift of Men," was now seen as a curse
by many. The Dunedain who came to Middle-earth often sought to lose themselves
in accomplishment and wealth before their time in the World ended. Sauron had
only a few Numenorean followers in his war with the Elves, but those who did
serve him had been seduced by the promise of power, power over immortals like
the Elves and Azhan, and possibly even the power to defeat death.

The difference between the Faithful and Kingsmen, as the Haruze and other peoples of Middle-earth came to see it,
was between folk who simply felt themselves better than other mortals and those who saw that superiority as
justification for arrogance and conquest. As late as the time of the Nuzhaj dominion, only a handful of Dunedain
regularly left their "blessed island" to risk their lives in Middle-earth. Even fewer had reason to serve there as
soldiers. However, by the reign of Tar-Minastir, Numenor's population had grown to the point where migration
seemed a viable option too many. Further, Sauron's betrayal of the Elves of Eregion seemed to many to fulfill
Aldarion's prophesy of the return of the Shadow. Tar-Minastir, realizing that he would one day have great need of
warriors and warships, now offered lands and position in Middle-earth to any who would enter his service. The
Guild of Venturers, which controlled most of Numenor's treaty and trade relations, resented this intrusion of royal
power but kept silent in the face of Sauron's growing strength in central Endor. Tar-Minastir's fleets, intervening in
the War of the Elves and Sauron in S. A. 1700, ruined Sauron's armies with operations along the coasts of Eriador
and the Harfalas, but lacked the strength to influence events far inland.

With Sauron's flight to Mordor the war effectively ended, though without a final victory. Tar Minastir now used the
promises made to his veterans to anchor his strategic position. In Eriador, Tharbad on the Gwathlo was re-
established as a Numenorean colony. In the Harfalas, the small colony of Umbar, already well situated to control the
caravan trade between Haruzan and the southern lands, grew rapidly; the trading havens at Ramlond and Mírlond,
on either side of the estuary of the Saromis, now had small Dunadan populations. On the north bank of the lower
Anduin, in a good harbor once used by Elvish wanderers, Dwarven ferrymen, Daen fisher folk, and Nuzhaj raiders,
the Numenorean fleet had, during the war, converted an obscure trading post into a naval station. The new port,
named Pelargir (S. "Garth of Royal Ships") seemed to lay far enough from Mordor, Nurn, and Haruzan to be
relatively safe from conquering armies, while the region around it held seemingly unlimited supplies of timber,
pitch, hemp, and other naval stores. The withdrawal of the King's forces after the war left this new port, along with
Umbar and many others, under the control of the Guild of Venturers, subject only to the King's orders.

The Guild's leadership found the problem of governing the colonies ever more difficult. Wealth flowed into the
trading havens, and with it the power and temptation to interfere in the surrounding native realms. The veteran
colonists resented Guild authority and sought to undermine it by treating with local rulers themselves and appealing
to the king for ever more freedom. In Haruzan, some Dunedain removed themselves from Guild authority entirely,
establishing themselves as Savants (mentors and advisors) to Haradon lords, and even becoming rulers of petty
dominions in their own right. The Guild's military arm, with evermore land and goods to protect, was troubled by a
persistent shortage of Dunadan manpower. It found itself obliged to subsidize local rulers for security and to hire
more and more Haruze and Daen mercenaries to protect its stations and caravans. A century after the War of the
Elves and Sauron, the Guild found itself beset by unrest in all its domains, while controlling a scattered but vast
army of sell-swords loyal primarily to its venerable name and its dependable purse. The stage was set for corruption
and disaster.
22

The royal family of Numenor, with a lineage unmatched among mortal men, had seemed for centuries to be immune
to the jealousies and conspiracies of lesser dynasties. This aura of purity was shattered in S.A. 1880 in dramatic
fashion. Murazor, third son of King Tar-Ciryatan, unsatisfied with his powers and authority at the royal court,
determined to build an empire of his own Middle-earth. His twin brother, Imrazor, Captain of the Venturers, seemed
unable to control the restless, ambitious colonial traders and landowners who now dominated the Guild. Murazor
saw them as potential supporters for his dreams of wealth and conquest. He sailed eastward to Eriador, to the great
naval base of Vinyalonde at the mouth of the Gwathlo, seized it, then moved south to besiege Pelargir, where
Imrazor had taken refuge. Frustrated here, he took his small fleet and army to Umbar and took the larger port in T.A.
1882. Tar-Ciryatan hastily assembled the ships and warriors immediately available to him in Numenor and sent them
across the sea. Murazor, steeped in the traditions of the sacredness of his homeland, never considered a counter-
invasion of near-defenseless Numenor. Instead, he allowed his ships to be blockaded in the Nen Umbar and fled
across Harad. In time, he choose the only revenge on his family that was left to him: he became a servant of the
Dark Lord, dwelling at the court of Sauron in Mordor. Imrazor, last captain of the Venturers, became the first
colonial leader of Pelargir; making his home a few days journey from his traitorous brother's refuge.

Tar-Ciryatan, determined to end any future threat to the pride of his nation, dissolved the Guild of Venturers and
instituted direct royal rule over Numenor's trading havens and colonies. Further, he was no less ambitious than his
son. His great plan for the "safety" of Numenor involved the building of more ships, and the recruitment of more
soldiers, and the settlement of "loyal" subjects in the colonies to secure them against further treason. All of this, and
more, was paid for by tribute collected from the coastal peoples of Endor. Haruzan paid its tribute in gold and gems,
for the time being, but less wealthy nations paid in land for the new colonies. Treasure in vast quantities moved to
Numenor. The Dunadan, in their turn sent out waves of new "explorers" to Endor, most eager for wealth and power
rather than knowledge.

By the 20th century of the Second Age the native kings of Haruzan were faced with the choice of collusion with
greedy Dunadan immigrants or conspiring against them. The Jelut urdwan of the deserts east of Umbar proved the
best allies of the western colonists. Their barren lands offered little to Numenor save for their strategic position; the
governors of Umbar controlled them with a yearly "gift" of gold and steel. The Haruze realms of the Ausk Harmaka,
and particularly the kingdom based on the holy shrine of Korb Ugarta, were most threatened by Numenor. In the
past, this rough country had been a Nuzhaj stronghold. Nuzhaj power had dwindled, but others had inherited their
fierce temperament and hatred for foreigners. Korb Taskrel, which had become the richest city in Near Harad thanks
to its western trade, dealt with both sides, gaining some security but become famous for its duplicity.

In S.A. 1913 another Dunadan adventurer landed in Umbar, carrying a silver lute and burning with ambitions.
Adunaphel of Forostar, a cousin to Tar-Ciryatan, believed in the songs that told of the greatness her talent could
bring. She bought lands, hired warriors, and bribed chaks and mystics. Within a decade she had secured the rule of a
dozen Sakalai villages in Formendor, the coastland between the mouth of the Saromis and the Cape of Umbar. While
nominally answerable to the Numenorean governor in Umbar, Adunaphel was essentially a sovereign lord. By
seizing control of the coastal trade and using her Dunadan bodyguard as an elite military force, she carved out a
sizable domain owning allegiance solely to her. By the end of the century she became the effective ruler of all the
country between Ramlond and the Nen Umbar, paying tribute, as an Autarb of the Haruze, directly to Tar-Ciryatan.
She took up the name of Ard Vedaraba (Har. "Ard (Adun) the Shining Lady") and ruled from the ancient
Daen/Haruze holy site of Vamag. A skilled politician, brilliant at music, song, or poem, and darkly beautiful, she
cultivated friends and lovers among the Haruze, claimed Colruh ancestry through her royal forbears and spread the
story that she was an unacknowledged daughter of Tar-Ciryatan by a Haradon mistress.

As Adunaphel consolidated her hold on western Haruzan, an even greater leader was rising among the Variags of
Khand. Endless generations of conflict on the frontier between Lurmsakûn, Chelkar, Lower Khand, and the
mountain realms of the Suncrown had wounded but not ruined these countries. Trade along the Noz Peka flowed
northeast through Sturlurtsa Khand and southeast along the Ered Harmal regardless of who ruled the land. The
merchant princes of the League of Cities in Lurmsakûn took in great wealth, but lacked the martial ardor to fight for
it. Tuchik Cheyan had revealed their weakness and humiliated the Variags. The Variags sought retribution and the
restoration of their fearsome reputation. Uvatha Achef would regain it for them, and also damn them to ages of
servitude under the Shadow.

The wealth of the plateau of Khand was concentrated at its southern, or lower reach, but its best warriors were raised
23

on the harsh grasslands of Upper Khand, lying along the mountain frontier as far as the Gap of Khand and the
Pustrava, the great passage between the mountains lying between Nurn and the northern steppes. A rebellion against
the King of Upper Khand ended in victory in S.A. 1989 at the Battle of the Knife River (V. "Noz Peka") on the
borders of Lower Khand. Uvatha Achef, hero of the battle and nephew to the new king, fled to Sturlurtsa Khand to
avoid being murdered by his uncle. Given a command in the armies of Lower Khand, Uvatha took it upon himself to
start a war of conquest against the Haruze of Lurmsakûn. Uvatha, unusually for a Variag, proved adept at siege
warfare. Attempts to form a united front against him failed and Hamat Meresh, the chief city of Lurmsakûn, fell to
him in 1994. Uvatha put Hamat Meresh to sack and sold most of its population into slavery. The Merchant Princes
of Lurmsakûn and Pezarsan, terrified and cowed, offered tribute to the upstart lord. He took it and their allegiance.
Urig Urpof of Lower Khand, blinded by the mounds of gold and silk set before his throne, failed to realize the threat
this "northern goat-herder" posed to him. By 1999 Uvatha forced his recognition as Warlord of the southern
kingdom, and a year later he tired of Urig's attempts to poison him and ordered the surviving members royal family
thrown into a pit of leopards. Then, he struck north against his uncle's kingdom and broke his armies in a single
battle. Khand was united, for the first time in its history, with all the wealth of eastern Harad at its disposal.

Tar-Ciryatan took little notice of these events, a thousand miles east of his coastal colonies, but Sauron watched with
great interest. Through his manipulation of the priesthoods and cults of the Ioriag and Daen peoples, he had acquired
great influence. However, in the aftermath of his defeat in Eriador, influence did not translate into dominion, save in
the tribes living in or near Mordor. The Dark Lord considered it a great injustice that he should have been cheated of
the three rings of the Elves and the power over all life they might have given him. To rebuild his empire, he needed
new servants, capable of ruling nations without his constant oversight but never the less loyal and certain to follow
his plans for conquest. To this end, he proposed to use nine of the Rings of Power made by the smiths of Eregion
and taken during the sack of their citadel at Ost-in-Edhil. To what use the Noldor planned to put these had not been
recorded. It mattered little, for Sauron intended to use them to entrap and enslave nine great rulers of Men. On
mortal hands, the rings would provide extended life, and so the mannish lords would accept them. They would
provide heightened powers of the minds and body, making their wielders ever more powerful in their domains.
However, the nine rings were now the property of a powerful Azhan; in the end, his will would triumph and the
spirits of nine mighty lords would be his to grasp and rule.

The first of these rings was given to Murazor the Traitor, who had served usefully in rebuilding Sauron's strength in
Mordor and remained his most conspicuous triumph in the long rivalry with Numenor. The others had to be
carefully chosen. Uvatha Uchef was one; his conquests in Khand and Lurmsakûn already made him Sauron's most
powerful ally among men; as a slave he would remain so for centuries. Two other Dunedain, Adunaphel of Vamag
and Akhorakil of Ciryantandor, in Far southern Harad, were also chosen. They were the most powerful independent
Numenorean lords in western Endor, and both were arrogant enough to believe they could match wits and wills with
the Dark Lord and survive. The remaining rings went to lesser lords scattered north, east and south across the
continent, all going to ambitious, cold-blooded talents who might be useful as tools for the subjugation of their
peoples.

Initially, the gift of the rings seemed a great boon to those receiving them. Uvatha, in particular, used his newfound
strength to glorify his position as Khurdiag of all the Variags. He snuffed out any resistance to his rule in Khand,
drove south to the farthest reaches of Lurmsakûn to treat with the Emperors of the Chy nations, and then subdued
the Avar Elves of the Ered Harmal. After 2005 he accepted the vassalage of the free cities of Chelkar, then invaded
Pezarsan with a vast army. After he destroyed two cities as an example, Korb Taskrel suddenly changed sides and
allowed the Variags within its walls. The allied forces of the lords of Haruzan, suddenly deprived of half their
strength, fled westward. A token Numenorean force, sent to the aid of the supposedly loyal "stone kings" of Korb
Taskrel, was cut off and slaughtered. The Governor of Umbar died with it; for the first time in its history, the Variag
nation stood ready to wash its horse's hooves in the sea.

Into the chaos strode Ard Vedaraba, proud and beautiful and shaming all who would not fight for the hearths and
fields of Haruzan. The Jelut and other nomads struck at Uvatha from the desert and prevented him from marching
down the caravan roads to Umbar. With Umbar safe, a fleet from Numenor was able to land an army at Mírlond and
fight its first battle in defense of Korb Ugarta. The captain of the army of deliverance was shocked to find his native
allies less than subservient, and was obliged to wage his campaign under Ard's banner. She led the Dunadan-Haruze
alliance on a new drive eastward, forcing Korb Taskrel to change sides once again and then driving into Pezarsan.
Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the war, which dragged on for another twenty years, but
24

Adunaphel was the clear winner in Haruzan, where she became first among the many lords of the land. Uvatha,
confident that the ring he wore had made him immortal, bided his time.

Indeed, a semblance of peace soon spread across the burnt and impoverished landscape. As the years passed, the
relentless forces of commerce and greed reasserted themselves; the caravans resumed their endless journeys along
the rivers and across the deserts. Uvatha, who might have been expected to die of old age, did not do so but instead
became more cold and secretive. It was suggested that his mother might have conceived him by some Devam or
devil-spirit. To the Variags, this seemed a portentous but not unwelcome event; Uvatha continued to make the
necessary offerings to the Gods of Darkness and drew all the wealth of the world to Sturlurtsa Khand. Stranger,
because her kindred had different views on such matters, was the peculiar aging of Ard the Shining Lady. She came
from a long-lived line, but as decades passed she withdrew from the pursuit of music and pleasure that had long
filled her time. Now commonly called Ard Once-vain, she ruled her Haruze subjects well but terrified Dunadan
visitors not used to the exotic habits and superstitions of Harad.

It was not clear until centuries had passed that the transformation of the two great rulers into silent, mysterious
shadowy figures was accomplished by the baneful effects of their Rings of Power. Successive colonial councils in
Umbar sent pleas to Numenor warning of the growing influence and bizarre behavior of Adunaphel, or of the
continued arrogance of Uvatha. Yet they could also report that tribute did not cease and that war had become a small
matter in Near Harad. Numenor could not know that the calm settling over the Haruze lands resulted from its two
most powerful leaders being slowly, torturously enslaved by the will of Sauron. And the "Blessed Isle" was being
tormented in its turn by the open breach building between the Faithful and Kingsmen.

For centuries political debate in Numenor had centered on its colonial policy: whether colonies and trade were
needed, how the "Lesser Men" should be treated, and whether contact with other races would glorify the Dunedain
or corrupt them. But underlying this conflict were the essential matters of the Gift, or Doom of Men and the Gift of
the Valar, which was the Blessed Isle itself. Living longer and fuller lives than other men, the Dunedain were
nonetheless mortal. Dwelling on Numenor, westernmost of the Lands of Men, they were reminded regularly that the
Undying Lands were only a few days' sail away. Further reminders were the continuing visits by the Elves of Aman
and routine trade with the Noldor of Lindon. If the immortality of the Valar lay beyond human reach, that of the
Elves was always present and symbolically, at least, near enough to touch. Resentment against the Elves led to fewer
swan-ships sailing to Andunie, their favored port in the west of Numenor, and an erosion of relations with Gil-galad
of Lindon. By the 23rd century of the Second Age, the quarrel over relations with the Elves had merged with the
debate over the colonies. The parties solidified; Tar-Ancalimon, the new king, was a staunch ________ who would
not allow Elves or Elvish speech at his court. His loyalists now formally took the name of "King's Men" and made
agreement with their beliefs a test of loyalty to the Line of Elros. The Faithful, ever fewer in number, felt at risk in
their own country.

While they no longer spoke against the colonies, the Faithful still pressed for humane treatment for the tributary
peoples. More and more of them immigrated to colonies where they could live in relative peace with their neighbors
and their beliefs. Eriador took some of them, for here they could build homes and practice their philosophy
alongside the Elves of Lindon. Others came to Pelargir, on the Anduin, where the local Daen were few in number
and the Elves of Edhellond and the Nan Anduin were close at hand. The southern colony had the advantage of
autonomous government, for they were still ruled by the charter of the guild of adventurers. Here the Faithful could
criticize Dunadan morals in relative safety, and here the King's officers could keep careful watch on all potential
troublemakers.

The crisis that finally set the bounds of Near Harad as they stood through the third millennium of the Second Age
came only a few decades after the founding of Pelargir and Tar-Ancalimon's ascension to the throne. Adunaphel,
alarmed at the new king's talk of empire and the growing numbers of Dunadan flowing into Umbar and Pelargir,
declared herself, by divine voice of prophesy, Autarb of all Haruzan. Harbor forts were seized, oases garrisoned,
caravanserai searched and merchants forced to swear oaths of loyalty to the new regime. Numenorean travelers from
Korb Taskrel to Ramlond died under assassins' knives or were burned alive on altars of the Dark Cults. However, the
broom failed to sweep clean; a young Dunadan knight of the Border Watch rode three horses to death to escape
pursuers and warn a guard post outside Umbar. Stripped of their Haruze cavalry by Ard's intrigues, the colonial
garrison of the Nen Umbar marched with a gathering of Dunadan militia to the Pass of the Gleaming Shore (S.
"Glinfalas,) the last narrow passage between the dry uplands of Formendor and the coastal plain of the Nen Umbar.
25

Here Adunaphel's lightly armored Haruze masses, unable to use their archery to full effect, broke like waves upon
the rock of the Dunadan shield-wall. The slaughter was great, and many of the Jelut, in the wake of the defeat,
switched sides again and proclaimed their allegiance to the King of the Dunedain. Adunaphel fled to Mordor,
leaving her supporters to grovel or perish at the feet of Tar-Ancalimon, who personally led his fleet and army in a
crusade of vengeance against the Haruze.

The Dunadan now decided to make a permanent resolution to the continuing threat of Haruze nationalism. All of the
key cities in Haruzan as far as Korb Taskrel were captured and garrisoned by Numenoreans. The westerners had
long referred to the lower Saromis as the Sir Harnen (S. "South Water,") after a name given it by Aldarion in his first
explorations. Now all the lands on either side of it became the Numenorean colonial province of Harnendor. The
Stone King of Korb Taskrel, whose family had for centuries ably played all sides in the wars of Haruzan, was slain
with his sons at the Dagor Glinglas and his army was destroyed. Korb Taskrel was taken and fortified by the
Numenoreans; it was given the Sindarin name of Amrun (S. "Sunrise,") to emphasize its new position as the eastern
outpost of the authority of the Kings of Men. The holy cities of Vamag, on the coast of Formendor, and Korb Ugartu,
in the Ausk Harmaka, had been the foci of Ard's conspiracy to make herself a Haruze god; they were razed and their
people sold as bondsmen to the desert nomads. To secure the passage of the Harnen estuary, two trading havens
were fortified as Dunadan towns: Gobel Mírlond, on the northern shore, and Ramlond, on the southern. Midway
between the Ethir Harnen and Amrun, the town and fortress of Gobel Ancalimon rose on the south bank of the great
river. The new governor of Lower Harnendor had his seat there, equal in authority to the new governor of Upper
Harnendor at Amrun and subservient to the governor of Umbar. His principle task was the ordering of the country
and the building of stone roads and bridges to connect its cities, made with such skill as to survive many lifetimes of
men.

The Haruze, following the fury of the war, groaned under the weight of new taxes and work drafts to build this
mighty engine of commerce and oppression, but the peace and rule of law that Tar-Ancalimon brought to Harnendor
soon brought prosperity to all the lands along the great river. An expedition into Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn forced the
Variags to recognize extra-territorial rights for Dunadan merchants, allowing them to pass safely into the Ered
Harmal and onto the Chey prairies. East of Uvatha's empire, Ren the Unclean, the Mad, the Fire King, ruled the high
steppes of central Endor. It took a steady nerve to travel through realms ruled by madmen, particularly since both
were now believed to be enchanted slaves of the Dark Lord, but Numenorean prestige and confidence had never
been higher. Their arrogance did not stem from bluster, but from strength, knowledge, and skill. Humbler men
bowed to them, and lesser kings usually let them pass without hindrance.

Only Sauron himself could match the might of the Kings of Numenor. Adunaphel's defeat in Haruzan could not
obscure the awful triumph of the Lord of the Rings. Nine great kings, the Ulair (or Nazgûls) stood at his command.
If not all of them kept their thrones in the aftermath of their enslavement, all would exist -- if not truly alive -- for
many lifetimes of their mortal foes. Only peoples strong enough to face a test of centuries could stand against them
or their master. Independent realms were still plentiful in Middle-earth, but most of these walked a knife's edge,
borderlands lying between the claws of the dragon of Mordor and the dragon of the sea.

The borderlands in Near Harad were four in number. The most troubled was Pezarsan, its cities left free and
unaligned as open ground between Harnendor and Khand. To the north, Chelkar, which collected swarms of
refugees from the disasters in Lurmsakûn and Haruzan, fell heir to one other. The Dark Lady, a mysterious priestess
of the Cults of Mortality, founded a dark sanctuary in the gorge of the Kres Lugal, where the Ode Auchel flowed
into the canyons of the Huk Saromis, now renamed as the upper Harnen. The fortress of Lugarlur she built over her
temple lay a week's march upriver from Amrun but only a day away from Sauron's fortress of Tegormaglur, on the
border of Nurn. In time, it became known that the Dark Lady was the shadowy remnant of Adunaphel of Vamag.
With her doom as a bound minion of Sauron ever more evident, the governors of Amrun, who desired no direct
contact with such creatures, saw no point in seeking revenge against her. Her "Domain of Ard" ruled Chelkar in
relative peace for a thousand years. West of Lugarlur, the scrub hills of the Ausk Dubat were a wild country, the
home of Donan hill folk, Eraguk nomads, and stray Orcs from the Mountains of Shadow. The only significant lord
here was Berkalimur of Porosardh, a renegade Numenorean sorcerer who claimed to have lived in the Barad-dur and
escaped. Like Ard, he was suspected of being some undead creature, but he served no dark master and troubled no
one. Beyond the bounds of Near Harad, east of the growing colony of Pelargir, lay Elvish country, the domain of the
Moonstone Nandor. They were few in number, but their land was warded against the taint of Mordor and they
permitted the Numenoreans to build a road, the Hyarmentie (Q. "South Way") linking Pelargir to Gobel Ancalimon
26

and thence to Amrun and Umbar.

A balance of power had been struck in Near Harad, and the Haruze soon learned its ways. The cities controlled or
protected by the Numenoreans flourished; the Haruze who formed the bulk of the population grew wealthy with
them. The drain in tribute and taxes sent to Numenor, a distant island with many other sources of wealth, was never
pushed to destructive levels. Lurmsakûn suffered from the yoke of Variag oppression. Power and wealth passed to
Sturlurtsa Khand, temples to bleak foreign gods stood in every city square, and the people lived in a dark twilight of
poverty and fear. The rest of Near Harad went about the business of living as it always had. Under the gaze of the
Dunadan and Variags, and sometimes beyond it, harvests went on, sheep gave up their wool and cattle their milk,
children were taught the old songs, and poets created new ones. If the fezir bragged less of their martial prowess, if
the mystics and scholars were obliged to argue only on matters that would not trouble the Poganin, not everyone
thought that a bad or important thing. The world continued, and most Haruze lived with what the world gave them.

2.4 THE FALL OF NUMENOR

The might of Numenor grew for century after century, until virtually no memory remained in Harnendor of a time
when the Dunedain had not ruled the country. If the Haruze took their existence and fate for granted, the powerful in
Numenor did not. The wealth of Numenor did not buy immortality. The lives of the Dunedain were long, but their
allotted years dwindled, slowly, generation after generation, and the Dunadan morbid fear of mortality grew
inversely. By the 30th century of the Second Age, the Aruwanai's bitterness towards the Ban of the Valar had
become the public position of the royal house and the ruling elite. The new king took the Adunaic name Ar-
Adunakhor instead of a traditional high-Elven name. The Faithful, once simply an unpopular minority, were now
persecuted, often shunned socially and held to lower ranks at court. No Elves came openly to Numenor from Aman
and few Dunadan dared travel openly to Lindon. The Sindarin tongue fell out of favor in Harnendor. The dialect of
Adunaic spoken along the coasts of Harad, named Westron by the scholars, incorporated Elvish, Haradon, Daen, and
Eriadorian elements. It was rejected in official speech in favor of "classical" Adunaic, the "pure" form spoken at the
court of Ar-Adunakhor.

In response to the persecutions, more colonies of the Faithful were founded west of the Anduin and south of the
White Mountains. The broad stretch of country they controlled took on a new, Sinda name: Gondor. The scattered
settlements had common interests, so a Pelargirean League was formed to provide a form of unified leadership,
under the domination of its namesake city but roughly representative of all the Dunadan in the colonies. By the 31st
century, the restrictions placed on the Pelargireans dampened their trade along the Hyarmentie, so that Haruze
merchants could make a profit carrying goods between Pelargir and Amrun that were once carried by Numenorean
caravans.

Under Ar-Gimilzor, the new king, the oppression grew steadily worse and the conflict among the Dunedain more
obvious. To the astonishment of local Haruze leaders, some Numenorean colonial officials refused to obey royal
edicts requiring them to hunt down, torture, and execute citizens considered traitors or renegades. In 3175 Ar-
Gimilzor died as he had lived, bitter and suspicious. His son justified his fears, taking the high-Elven name of Tar-
Palantir and offered public repentance to the Valar at the Meneltarma, the holiest site in Numenor, and at the Old
Tower of King Minastir. Violence and riot broke out, then occasional fighting between soldiers loyal to the king and
others loyal to Ar-Gimilzor's supporters. Garrisons were stripped from outlying forts and outposts in Harnendor,
while reserves of treasure disappeared to pay for weapons. A governor of Umbar brought Jelut horsemen to
Numenor with his fleet; his own men assassinated him for violating the sacred soil of El -Sahn. For a time, most of
the petty Haruze states not ruled directly by Numenorean legates found themselves without overlords. Some drank
too deeply of freedom and declared themselves independent. Pharazon, a nephew of Tar-Palantir, came to Harnendor
from the Mumakan in southern Endor, where he had made his reputation in several colonial wars. He suppressed the
rebels with fire and carnage, then struck against the lords of Pezarsan who had sympathized with them. Pharazon
extended the frontiers of Harnendor eastward a hundred miles, then planned a campaign against the Realm of Ard,
who he perceived to be the source of most local unrest. A strategic massing in Nurn of swarms of warriors from
Sauron's other vassal states forced him to temper his ambitions. For a time, peace returned to Near Harad.

Tar-Palantir brought peace back to Numenor, of a sort. He organized a court of many parties to rule the kingdom, but
his beliefs offended the pride of many of his subjects and he was obliged to spare too many enemies. Subversion,
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assassination, open defiance of the law, and minor revolts occupied his years of rule. Miriel, Tar-Palantir's daughter
and only child, was worthy of him in mind and spirit, but no warrior. This left her with too few friends and loyalists
in the fleet and army. Her father eventually died of weariness, the image of impending doom ever in his thoughts.
On Tar-Palantir's death, Pharazon returned to Numenor from the colonial wars, dreaming of glory. He scoffed at the
old king's dire prophecies and seized the kingship for himself. Miriel was forced to marry her close cousin and
despotism of the foulest sort came to Numenor. Ar-Pharazon put chains and yokes upon many powerful Dunedain to
secure his grip upon the throne, and drove others into exile, and slew others accused of treason, with little heed to
their guilt or innocence.

In the midst of this turmoil, Sauron saw opportunity. He renewed his claim to be the King of Men and Master of the
World. Across the continent armies moved. War came to many lands that had know peace for centuries. The greatest
of these armies moved toward Near Harad: Nurniags and Variags, Haruze patriots and Chey warriors eager for
plunder. Smoke billowed from the fiery mountains of Shadow, and rain poured down on Harnendor. The floods that
resulted slew tens of thousands, but the Orcs who moved south under the clouds slaughtered even more. Amrun fell
to the invaders after a fierce siege; its governor escaped by boat with a few survivors. All the Ausk Harmaka rose in
revolt, and Mírlond was besieged. The governor of Gobel Ancalimon, a brave and resourceful soldier, now took over
the defense of Lower Harnendor. He held onto Gobel Ancalimon and ordered counterattacks against Sauron’s
armies, using the Harnen as a high road for the movement of his soldiers. The Governor himself struck down Ard
the Dark Lady in the battles along the river. The best of the Haradrim forces were slaughtered in bloody attempts to
storm the Numenorean fortresses. Sauron, whose power might have broken the gates of Gobel Ancalimon, refused to
risk himself close in under the walls. Instead, he ordered his armies to drive west to Ramlond and south to Umbar.
This they did, suffering greatly from thirst and hunger, for the floods and the Dunadan had destroyed all the crops
and beasts in their path of march. When the Sauronic hordes reached Umbar, they heard tales of disasters upon
disasters. The wars on most of the coasts of Endor had gone against the Dark Lord, and it was known that Ar-
Pharazon was approaching with a mighty fleet. The Jelut nomads, who still remembered the Kibic and the Nuzhaj
and knew Sauron as a Devam and a betrayer of mortals, struck against his armies from their havens in the desert,
cutting off the mass of them from their homelands in Harnendor and beyond. When the Dunedain besieged along the
Harnen learned of this, they took the few reinforcements the king has spared from his armada and re-captured
Amrun.

And so the mighty hosts Sauron had so carefully built over the course of centuries melted as snow against the
blazing fire of Numenorean arms. The dissension that he thought would cripple the Dunedain was swept away by
the hand of Ar-Pharazon, even as the King of the Island Realm summoned all its strength against his rival for the
title of the King of Men. The great army that Sauron led into Harnendor knew that it was stranded between the
desert and the sea, and that across that sea one of the fiercest foes any Haradon could remember approached in
wrath.

The dissolution of Sauron's host was sudden and hideous. Deserters lurked around every desert well, murdering and
robbing soldiers and utarf alike. Companies of Men sent to hunt down stragglers vanished into the wilderness. The
caravan roads leading north to the Harnen through the scrub hills were lined with discarded weapons and the bodies
of Men, horses, and camels. Numenorean ships patrolling the Ethir Harnen swept up bodies with nets and deck
hooks, all of them drowned trying to escape the rumor of Ar-Pharazon's coming.

Ar-Pharazon, who thought that a glorious campaign awaited him in Harad, now landed at Umbar in command of a
vast armada, boasting hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of battle-hardened, steel-clad warriors. No foes
awaited him. Scarcely believing that his grand strategy had succeeded so brilliantly, he marched northeastward along
the Hyarmentie for seven days. "Empty and silent" were the lands he crossed, but littered with the rotting debris of a
war that had been won before it was fairly begun. On the seventh day, Ar-Pharazon halted the march of march of his
advance guard around a hill boasting a few good wells. He accepted the homage of few local nomads, people who
seemed relieved to find that the knights in their red and gold silks and their shining armor were not going to rob
them. He then considered the difficulty of marching his army across this barren country and sent out scouts to
demand that all his remaining foes surrender to him. Sauron he did not expect to catch, for an Azhan capable of
summoning flood and earthquakes could easily fly to the far corners of the world at need. To the king's amazement,
the scouts brought back tokens indicating that the Dark Lord was still in Harnendor and was ready to discuss a truce.
Suspicious, Ar-Pharazon sent out royal heralds in their gaudiest robes, led by Jelut guides wrapped in bleached wool
and sheepskin, ordering "Sauron, claiming to be the Master of the World," to "yield up his person" and swear fealty
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to "the True King of Men." In due course, the heralds returned, and to the wonder of all, the Dark Lord, bareheaded,
riding a white horse and wearing only an Elven tunic, came with them. The beauty of his fana astonished and awed
all who saw him, but Ar-Pharazon was not moved; he made Sauron bow to him, and surrender himself as hostage for
all his people still at war with Numenor.

Now the Dark Lord's reign seemed at an end, and with it all the kingdoms of his servants and slaves. The King of
Numenor took Sauron in golden chains to a distant island across the sea. Ard Once-vain fled to Mordor, where no
Dunadan troubled to pursue her. The Haruze rose in revolt against their oppressors in Chelkar and Pezarsan. Uvatha
of Khand, staggered by his master's surrender, sent a Variag army to suppress the Haruze but hid himself in his
palace in Sturlurtsa Khand. A Numenorean army, led by colonial officers eager to settle ancient scores, struck out
from Amrun against Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn. They were far from the sea and the dreaded fleets of Ar-Pharazon,
and the Haruze were led by desperate men. There was war and pillage, and cities ruined. The Variags fought the
Dunedain when the Haruze fell before their swords, and were beaten in their turn. Sturlurtsa Khand, long a hidden
place of immense wealth, the greatest city east of the sea, lay within reach, and Uvatha could not bring himself to
defend it personally as long as his master's oath of fealty bound him. Others, living Variags, still matchless for their
savage bravery, fought for their homeland and died for it. On a summer's day heavy with the scent of blood and
burning flesh, the greatest of the many capitals of Sauron's empire fell to the Men of Westernesse. They sacked it
and it struck back with curses and demons summoned from the lintels of its temples and the footstones of its wells.
Temples that had seen ten thousand living sacrifices were burned, and the fume sickened and slew those who held
the torch. In the end, the Dunedain left the smoking rubble of Sturlurtsa behind them, and went home across
Lurmsakûn. The eastern Haruze cowered and then marveled at their passing, for amid the ruin of their country they
saw the destruction of the Variag empire and the hope of freedom after a thousand years of fear.

An Elf of Edhellond, accompanying Ar-Pharazon's army in hopes of securing the release of Elves captured or
seduced by Sauron over the years, witnessed the surrender of the Dark Lord, and the pride of the King of Numenor,
and the weakness of Men faced with the beauty and inner light of an Azhan. He had performed a similar service in
the Talmorng's court, centuries before, and remembered how easily that immortal had toyed with the hearts of the
men of Harad. He felt a cold terror when Ar-Pharazon announced that Sauron was to be taken to Numenor, and
carried a prophesy of misery and doom to his folk and to the Faithful of the Pelargirean League.

This foretelling, echoed by Haruze seers and desert mystics of the urdwan, came true all too soon. Sauron, playing
on Dunadan pride and Ar-Pharazon's fear of death, convinced him, in a bizarre revelation, that Melkor, not Eru, was
the true ruler of the darkness beyond the Walls of the World, and that the Ban of the Valar was a fraud conceived to
prevent the Second Born from inheriting a world and an immortality meant for them. The King, seeking to
communicate with Melkor, founded a Cult in his name after the pattern of the "heathen" religious sects he had
known in Harnendor. Sacrifices to Melkor, Lord of All, Giver of Freedom, were made in a great temple, and mighty
lords and sorcerers of the Dunedain became Mulkerhil, priests worshipping the Shadow. There was blood sacrifice
in Numenor, first of the Faithful and then, with time, of captives from Endor. Those who had been in awe of the
Dunedain now fled in terror from them. They came now not to rule and build, but to steal, enslave, and destroy.
Those who had rejoiced at the fall of Sauron and aided the Dunedain against him were repaid with death and
destruction.

All through Harad, those who could find the means to fight back did so. In Near Harad, the nomads of the deserts
dwelt farther from the hand of Numenor than the folk of the cities; as in the days of the Kibic and the Nuzhaj, they
harbored fugitives and harried the colonial authorities on the frontiers of Harnendor. For the five decades of the
Madness of the Mulkerhil, the Haruze lived in fear, but were never without hope.

The Faithful of the Pelargirean League also knew the terror. The three thousand year-old tradition of Numenorean
law gave them some protection from the worst atrocities of the Mulkerhil, but many who spoke openly against them
were taken for sacrifice under laws against sedition. Other Faithful fled into the wilderness, seeking protection
among the wild folk of Gondor, among the Elves, and among the urdwan of Harnendor. Foremost among these
exiles were Fuinur and Herumor, two descendants of Imrazor, the prince who was the first Governor of Pelargir.
While proud and bigoted as any of the traditional Kingsmen, they possessed Ard's gift for taking on the trappings of
a Haruze leader and gaining the loyalty of the urdwan. Under the assumed names of Stormheart and Windsword,
they became the leaders of the nomads of Haruzan and the southern deserts in their war against the slavers of
Numenor. Because their families were in constant danger of reprisals, their names could only be whispered in
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Pelargir, now garrisoned by a strong company of Ar-Pharazon's guardsmen.

Ar-Pharazon grew older and the terror of the Mulkerhil failed to create the joys of eternal youth for the king and his
followers. Then Ar-Pharazon conceived of finding another use for the power he had gathered; he decided to conquer
the Undying Lands as he had conquered Endor, and subjugate the Arizul as he had subjugated Sauron, and by that
means seize life everlasting for himself. He called up ever more tribute, and took ever more slaves, and felled whole
forests to cut timber for his ships. Harnendor seemed to its women a land without men, so many of them had been
taken to man the oars of slave galleys. Three entire harvests were taken to feed the armies and the slaves sent to
Numenor. Famine struck the valley of the Harnen for the only time in mortal memory.

Ar-Pharazon's Great Armament could not be hidden from Men or Gods. Prophets forecast doom or glory; omens
grew ever more frightening. Great eagles flew over Umbar, of a sort never seen south of the Anduin before. Spirits
moaned above the tombs of ancient kings, calling for judgment on the Kings of Men. More and more Dunadan of
conscience fled into the hinterland of Gondor and Near Harad, hoping to avoid the coming war. Stormheart, now the
acknowledged leader of the Haruze resistance to the pillaging of Harnendor, helped many to escape, sealing his
reputation as a romantic hero of both races.

After ten years of preparation, the Great Armament made ready to sail into the Uttermost West. Incredibly, a few of
the Faithful still lived in remote parts of Numenor. Their leader, Amandil of Andunie, was of the House of Elros and
had, to the last, spoken in council against Sauron and the Mulkerhil. Now he fled court to avoid being sent to the
sacrificial fires. Amandil conceived of a plan to take a ship to the Undying Lands himself and beg forgiveness from
the Valar. Elendil, his son and heir, thought this voyage one without hope. He prepared for himself and his people
nine ships, and sailed east towards Middle-earth as Ar-Pharazon made ready to sail west to Aman. Amandil sailed
before either of them, but his mission failed, and he was lost. The Great Armament put out to sea, carrying with it
thousands of Haruze soldiers and slaves, cursed to be pawns to the mighty of the world. In their homeland, prayers
for their safety echoed through silent shrines, as even the Gods seemed to hold their breath.

2.5 THE REALMS IN EXILE AND THE WAR OF THE LAST ALLIANCE
The world changed, in many ways, with the fall of Numenor. The world had been made round, so said the
geographers and sailors; Aman and Elenna had disappeared, so that ships could not find them, instead making a
circle of the oceans and coming back to Middle-earth. In like fashion, the shock of the loss of these two realms
would ripple around and across Endor over and over through the following century.

Foremost among the changes was the loss of the Island Realm and its people, along with much of their lore, their
skills, their marvelous devices and engines. As many Dunedain lived in the various colonies scattered around the
coasts of Endor as had been lost in the Downfall, but they were a scattered people, surrounded by hostile nations and
lacking the blessings the Valar had given to their homeland. Over time, they would gradually merge their bloodlines
and culture with those of the "lesser" races of Men. Much that had been good and useful would be lost forever, and
much that had been evil and destructive.

The Valar and the other Arizul had removed themselves from the world, and would have little direct influence on it
in future ages. The Elves, by divine grace, could still sail westward from Endor and follow "the straight path" to
Aman, but a source of constant hard evidence of the existence of spirits and gods was lost. The Azhan remaining in
Middle-earth became even more reclusive; the Colruh and Peri were weakened. Arcane lore became a convoluted
and mysterious thing, so that some could claim it no longer existed save in the domain of ghosts, evil sorcerers, and
market-stall tricksters.

Religious beliefs and peasant superstition remained in the world, often the only path through which the power and
will of the Creator and the Arizul could make itself felt. Word of the Downfall passed rapidly among the mystics and
priests of Haruzan. The force that had unified the country for a thousand years had dissolved; a judgment had been
passed by the Gods, and those who spoke for them stood ready to interpret the will of the gods to utarf and fezir
alike. The first to feel the effects of their revelations were the followers of Melkor, the slave-takers and the sorcerers
who traveled the land seeking sacrifices for the altars of the Mulkerhil. In village after village, along the great roads
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and caravan trails, they were pulled screaming out of their beds and tents by native Holy Men, warriors, and
peasants who no longer feared them. Some were torn to pieces by mobs, some burned alive, some flayed until their
flesh lay open and then staked out as food for ants and jackals. In Ramlond the local Dunedain garroted them all in
the town square. In Gobel Ancalimon they were thrown from the city walls into the arms of an angry Haruze mob.

Only in Amrun and Umbar were the Mulkerhil able to make a stand. In both cities enough soldiers and citizens loyal
to the memory of Ar-Pharazon remained to enable the old regime to hang on to power. However, Umbar was large
enough to hide many factions and individuals willing to conspire against the Mulkerhil, and the country surrounding
it was home to thousands of Dunedain loyal to the older beliefs of the Kingsmen. Civil war broke out, taking three
years to resolve, while the authority of the governors of Umbar collapsed in outlying towns and the Jelut raided
freely throughout the countryside. Finally, the Mulkerhil were broken and a Council of Captains, patterned after the
old ruling council of the Guild of Venturers, took control in all the lands of the Nen Umbar. The coastal lands of
Formendor as far as Ramlond also accepted the rule of this new government, but Mírlond did not. Ancalimon's
ruling captains attempted to join the council, but Dunadan landowners from the city's hinterland, fearing a bloody
Haruze uprising against the specter of Numenorean colonialism, seized power from the ship-owners and declared
the city independent. An Umbarean expedition had already moved up the Harnen to Amrun and took the city by
storm after local Haruze let them enter over the walls. The Mulkerhil of Amrun fled or were slain, but the
Umbareans saw themselves surrounded by enemies; when Gobel Ancalimon was lost Amrun was abandoned to the
Haradrim. A local hero named Akil re-established the line of the Taskrels, the Stone Kings, and rapidly made Amrun
the most powerful city between the mountains and the Sea.

The tide of Haruze revival was now at its peak. Korb Ugarta had been re-founded, while local fezir created new
kingdoms and principalities throughout Haruzan and Pezarsan. The Nuzhaj, long a vestigial scholar's society, was
reborn as a military order; its new converts began to harass Dunadan lords trying to hold onto power in areas at a
safe distance from the Umbarean-controlled towns. There was even talk of a revival of the old Merchant Leagues,
and of campaigns against Umbar, into the Mist-lands and Nurn.

Even as the Haruze factions quarreled among themselves, older powers were re-establishing themselves. In
Lurmsakûn, cities freed by Ar-Pharazon's forces discovered, to their horror, that Uvatha the Undying had returned to
Khand. While they desperately tried to organize a coalition against him, he reunited most of his tribal lands in
northern Khand and re-took Sturlurtsa Khand in S.A. 3345. The ruins of that city provided him with limited
resources for conquest, but the destruction of Numenor left Lurmsakûn without a protector. Within fifty years of the
Downfall, most of the eastern lands of Near Harad were again paying tribute to the Variags. Farther west, the Cult of
the Dark Lady rose again in Chelkar and Pezarsan. Lugarlur, the dark fortress hidden in the canyons of the Kres
Lugal, became the stronghold for Nurniags immigrating south out of Mordor and seizing control of Chelkar towns.
The fortress began to take tolls from passing caravans, while certain sovereign lords of Chelkar began making secret
obeisance to the shadows of night. Umbar, freed of the Cult of Mulkerhil, reasserted its control over the inland
frontiers of Formendor, and the trade routes south of the Harnen. The success of the counciliar government derived
from a surprising source: Fuinur and Herumor of Belfalas, once leaders of the resistance to the Mulkerhil, had
gathered lands, friends, and enormous wealth in their years of exile. They now used these resources to make
themselves powerful in Umbar and southern Haruzan. For most of the 34th century of the Second Age, they
dominated the Council of Captains and dreamed of ruling kingdoms in their own right.

The strange journey of Fuinur and Herumor to Umbar had been triggered by a momentous change in their
homelands of the Pelargirean League. Through the last century before the Downfall, the established colonies and
frontier settlements of the league had been absorbing a steady flow of immigrants from Numenor. While most
shared the basic beliefs of the Faithful, many had simply grown weary of the corruption and madness of their island
homeland. The Guild of Venturers, from whose members the Pelargirean League drew its most honored families,
was favored by the Azhan Uinen, a guardian spirit of the sea and ships. When the destroying waves came to Endor
from the fall of Numenor, the colonies of the Faithful were little-damaged. This the Faithful took as a sign of grace
from Uinen and the Valar. Even more portentous was the arrival of six storm-tossed ships, bearing the last of the
refugees from Numenor, including Isildur and Anarion of Andunie and their families. All who lived in the lands
around Belfalas knew the tales of Amandil of Andunie, of Elendil and his two sons. One of the chief duties of the
Lords of Andunie at court was to defend the rights of the Faithful and the colonies of the league against the whims
of ever more hostile kings. That they should have been delivered out of the wrack was understood as a omen of great
consequence and a sign of divine favor. Further, the Lords of Andunie were direct descendants of the Line of Elros
31

through many branches. Isildur himself had once dared enter the court of Ar-Pharazon to steal a fruit of the White
Tree, a gift of the Valar that stood as a symbol of the royal line.

Elendil, in the aftermath of the Downfall, saw these portents as an revelation; he proposed to the various
communities of the Faithful between Eriador and Pelargir that his family had been chosen by the Valar to recreate
the divine kingship of the Line of Elros, restoring the virtue lost by Tar-Ciryatan, Ar-Adunakhor, and Ar-Pharazon.
The kingship lay at the center of Dunadan religious belief; Elendil, a respected leader and one obviously favored by
the Valar, offered the Faithful a second chance, a way to renew what had been corrupted and lost.

Thus, to the astonishment and alarm of all the peoples dwelling south of the Nen Belfalas, the Faithful created the
Realms in Exile: Arnor, comprising most of Eriador, and Gondor, comprising all the colonies of the Pelargirean
League and such adjoining territories as could be persuaded to declare their allegiance to a Dunadan king. Many of
the Daen nations west of the Anduin had already been thoroughly subdued by Ar-Pharazon's soldiers before the
Downfall. Most of these superstitious folk held both Sauron and the Dunedain in awe. With the Dark Lord
supposedly destroyed by Isildur's "Gods," he easily cowed their rulers and accepted their submission. The Elves of
the Nen Belfalas and the Nan Anduin saw harsher omens for the future than any mortal, but they were weak and
readily accepted the guardianship of Elf-friends as powerful and respectful and the Elendili.

Only the Dunedain of Umbar, supported by a meager opposition in Pelargir and Belfalas, stood against Isildur and
Anarion. Umbar, proud of its heritage as mistress of western Middle-earth, reviled the Elendili and would not accept
their legates. Elendil spoke to his sons of a show of military force against the Counciliar Domain, but neither their
resources nor his conscience could steel them for such an undertaking. Too much Dunadan blood had already been
shed in folly; Umbar was allowed to go its own way.

The local resistance in Gondor, however, had to be dealt with. Much of it could be mollified simply by guaranteeing
the sanctity of the rights of the Pelargirean League. Isildur and Anarion took oaths to preserve the liberties of the
league, even agreeing to build their crown territories on old Elvish and Daen land far up the Anduin. Two provinces
were created here. West of the Anduin lay Anorien, centered on a fortress named Minas Anor, built where a great
spur of the White Mountains reached near to the great river. It faced north, towards the fens and grasslands of the
middle Anduin and beyond them to the Elvish Kingdoms and Arnor. East of the Anduin lay the greater part of the
green Mist-lands of Haruze legend. This country Isildur named Ithilien (S. "Moon-land.") Its principle fortress was
Minas Ithil, sited on a hill protecting a breach in the Mountains of Shadow. Ithilien guarded the western entrances to
Mordor, while providing access northward onto the Taloth Harroch, westernmost of the dry grasslands of central
Endor, and southward to the Emyn Laer and the Aegardh beyond. With a few swift strokes of diplomacy, Isildur and
Anarion had created a powerful kingdom, controlling vast resources and strategically situated to dominate trade and
political across much of western Endor.

After the establishment of the new provinces, only a handful of the Faithful still opposed the Elendili. Two of them
were Fuinur and Herumor, the young heroes of the struggle against the Mulkerhil. Fuinur could trace his lineage to
Imrazor, son of the great King Tar-Ciryatan, and founder of the Pelargirean League. His fierce temper, taste for
intrigue, and curious fascination with the barbarian "Sand Folk" of Haruzan had served him well in the dangerous
times just past, but they had also eroded his reputation among his own people. Fuinur attempted to put himself
forward as an alternative choice for renewing the line of the kings, but he was mocked and ignored. Humiliated, he
fled with his brother and a few allies to Umbar, where he soon became the leader of the faction resisting any
connection with Gondor.

Fuinur's talents and Umbar's quick recovery from the rebellion against the Mulkerhil allowed the people of the city
to think they would soon again be the masters of the Sundering Sea and the coastlands of western Endor. But
Gondor, freed of the yoke of Numenorean taxes and possessed of vast, fertile hinterlands, now began to show its
strength. The new kingdom grew like a flowering vine planted by the Valar, bursting forth from its old bounds,
attracting Daen farmers down from the dales of the White Mountains and Dunadan refugees from less prosperous
colonies in southern Endor. Every year its people put more land to the plow, opened mines and quarries, laid out new
roads and towns. The Elendili renewed old Edain concepts of justice and freedom that been almost forgotten; even
the basest of peasants in Gondor had hope of building a life for their families; all had some right to their own land
and enough food and goods to be content on it. The population of Gondor grew by leaps and bounds. Fifty years
after the Downfall it had doubled, and nearly again after a century. Fuinur, who as a young man once whispered of
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taking the throne of Gondor away from the Elendili, in his middle age began muttering about the threat the new
realm posed to Umbar and all of Harnendor. Among the Haruze, many shared Fuinur's fears of Gondor; in Mordor, a
being more dangerous than any mortal took his own measure of the threat, and carefully made plans to crush it
before it grew too strong.

Sauron came flying back to Barad-dur on a dark wind from the Fall of Numenor, too weak and pain-wracked to dare
announce his existence to the world. He reclaimed the One Ring, buried in a Place of Might in the Black Tower
during his captivity. No longer, after the horror and agony of his destruction in the fall of the Temple of Melkor,
could he take on a worldly form considered fair by mortals. He instead built a new Veafana, strong, dark, and
fearsome, but also tortured, damned by the Creator, bent by eternal pain. Slowly, over decades, Sauron gathered
power again.
Isildur and Anarion, fully aware of the hatred their southern neighbors bore the memory of Numenor, settled on a
policy of carefully cultivated peace on their southern frontier. In spite of Fuinur's whispers of conspiracy, they had
no desire to rule over any number of Haruze; in spite of the flowering of their new Kingdom, both brothers felt it
would take generations before Gondor could afford foreign conflict of any sort. While a few Dunadan settlers had
drifted south across the Anduin into the Emyn Laer, neither brother made any attempt to claim the hills. Isildur
instead chose to mark the southern limits of Ithilien by the river that ran along the base of the Summer Hills. He
renamed it the Sir Poros (S. "Boundary River") and built a small tower to guard the ford (S. "Arthrad Poros") where
the Hyarmentie crossed it.

For a century and more the heirs to the shattered remnants of the Numenorean empire maneuvered with relatively
little conflict. If a Dunadan merchant noted twenty-three pennants and twenty different excise-men between
Ramlond and the Ered Harmal, the wars fought there were small and the Haruze lands as a whole prospered.
However, suspicions grew amongst the wise that Mordor was not haunted ruin that it had first seemed, and there
came a day when Orcs of the Red Eye once again stood guard in the Cirith Ungol, the pass leading to Gorgoroth east
of Minas Ithil. Fuinur's network of influence in western Haruzan seemed relatively stable, as did Amrun's on the
border between Haruzan and Pezarsan. Elsewhere, however, the darker beliefs of the Nuzhaj began to dominate the
politics of the cities, and the Cultists of the Dark Lady walked openly in the streets. Orodruin, the volcano that stood
over the heart of Gorgoroth, erupted in a great gout of flame and soot, spreading beyond the Mountains of Mordor
and announcing that the Dark Lord had returned.

For a time, the more innocent folk of Gondor and Near Harad could hope that peace was still possible. As the 35th
century of the age began, Isildur and Anarion met with the servants of Sauron on the crest of a hillock in the Cirith
Ungol; the Taskrel of Amrun stood between them and spoke of the destruction that had passed in all the Wars of
Powers since time began. Elendil himself came to Gondor, to listen to the envoys and confer with his sons. They
agreed that they could put no faith in the honeyed words of the Dark Lord's lackeys, but the ambassadors of three
Elvish and two Dwarven kingdoms stood by Elendil's side in the negotiations, and this seemed to put a fear into the
legation from Mordor.

All this exchange of words could do was delay the inevitable. Sauron's hatred of the Dunedain was not appeased by
the destruction of Ar-Pharazon. Elendil, whose family had fought him in Numenor, and Gil-galad, whose people had
humiliated him over and over again through the ages, were now allies. Sauron resolved to crush them before they
could ruin him again. The memory of the Madness of the Mulkerhil was strong in Harad and elsewhere in Middle-
earth. Ard, and Uvatha, and a hundred other servants of the Shadow played on the fears of the peoples of Endor,
telling them that the tyranny of Numenor had not died; in Elendil, Ar-Pharazon the Golden, the Bloodmad, the
Witch-king, had been reborn as a tool of Elvish sorcery. Some lords of the Haradrim spoke of the Shadow, and the
terrible dark thing that Sauron had become, but the scars left by Numenor were more terrible than any words they
could summon. Most, over the course of the next twenty years, were murdered or fled into hiding.

The hope of the Elendili was that the war could put off for another generation. They knew that, for all their labors,
the strength of the Dunadan kingdoms was but a fragment of what Numenor had brought to Harnendor two centuries
earlier. However, Sauron gauged that his enemies would become stronger with time, while the numbers of men he
could march across Endor were limited by what the dry lands north and south of Mordor could support. He struck in
S.A. 3429, before marshalling all his might and all his sorcery, aiming to overrun Gondor before Elendil could bring
enough force south to stop him.
33

The first assault of the Seventh War of Powers, known in the west as the War of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,
caught Gondor off its guard through the adroit use of treachery. The Taskrels of Amrun, having fought Ard's
minion's in Harnendor and Pezarsan for three generations, struck terms with her at a moonlight conference on a
spring night. They retained their kingdom and the forces of Ard and Uvatha were given leave to pass through the
city unhindered, marching west, bearing the head of the Gondorian ambassador with them in a basket. Amrun had
capitulated to overwhelming numbers; two days later so did the Dunadan masters of Gobel Ancalimon, opening a
path for the Haruze of Pezarsan and Arysis to move across the Harnen. Fuinur of Umbar, aging and embittered to the
point of madness, ordered the forces of the Counciliate to march and sail forth against Pelargir; within a week, a
coup was organized in Umbar that overthrew his authority. Undeterred, he left Umbar to lead his Haradon
contingents north to the war. Sauronic fleets from southern Endor now arrived, combining with the ships still loyal
to Fuinur to blockade the coasts of Gondor, while the balance of Umbar's forces declared their neutrality.

Anarion and Isildur, to assure the Haruze of their good will, had never taken or fortified the Summer Hills on their
southern frontier. Sauron's armies now struck at Ithilien from the Taloth Harroch in the north, Gorgoroth on the east,
and over the Poros in the south. The population of Ithilien fled over the Anduin, while Isildur and Anarion mustered
all their strength for a defense of the few good crossing points along the great river.

Here the Dunedain held fast. Fuinur led raft-borne assaults on Pelargir that ended in mass slaughter and masses of
bodies floating down the Anduin and lodging in the swamps of its delta. Farther north, Murazor the Renegade, now
called the Morgul Lord of Gorgoroth, attempted crossings near Minas Anor led by a Water Drake. The dragon was
slain by boiling lead poured from the walls of a watch-tower and Orcs drowned in their thousands in the riverside
swamps. More attacks followed, and more attempts at assassination and sorcery. Large assaults were repelled
without result; small parties crossed the Anduin to burn villages, but the Gondorians struck back and punished the
raiders, storming fortified camps by night and slaying their captains. The war that had begun so promisingly broke
down into a stalemate by the end of its first year.

The Dark Lord's Eriadorian allies and a sorcerous cloud exhumed from Orodruin hid the opening battles of the war
from the eyes of the Men of Eriador and the subtle magics of the western Elves. Isildur himself, breaking the
Sauronic blockade in a ship of Edhellond, came to Tharbad with clear word of the invasion only a few weeks after
opening blood. Only after hearing his sworn word that Gondor would stand against Sauron's onslaught were the
terms of the Last Alliance finally settled all the powers of the west marshaled against the Dark Lord. Elendil
summoned the manhood of Arnor to his banner, while Gil-galad marched forth with all the surviving strength of the
Noldo and Sinda Elves of Lindon. Nando Elves came south from Lindon and the upper Anduin, Dwarves from the
great city of Khazad-dum in the Misty Mountains. Great Eagles of the northern mountains and the Ents, Treeherds
of the ancient woodlands, servants of divine powers set free when the Arizul removed themselves from the world,
harried the servants of the last Azhan lord.

Sauron, to prepare for their onslaught, called up all the evil folk, beguiled nations, and spirit-allies he had made in
his centuries of rule. Dragons and Giants, Trolls and Orcs came to Mordor from their hidden lairs, while ghouls and
wights and other haunts rose from evil shrines in Chelkar and Pezarsan to hunt men under cover of Sauron's wizard-
summoned night. Variags, Chey, Northrons, and plainsmen answered his call to slay the hated Dunedain. Forest-
hunters from the rain-soaked Mumakan in the distant south dragged elephants and jungle-cats across the deserts of
Harad to join the fighting.

The chroniclers recorded a great battle being fought on the Dagorlad, at the Northwestern gates of Mordor, to decide
the victor in this terrible war. However, for the peoples of Harad, the Dagorlad marked the disastrous climax to five
years of misery. Like the Nuzhaj of an earlier age, the Haradrim who came to the Mist-lands for the Siege of Gondor
found themselves lost in an alien world, where an Elvish arrow could strike them out of the darkness and the chills
of winter brought sickness and death to their campfires and tents. Many of the most fanatical of the Haruze warriors
died in the first months of the campaign in Ithilien. More were recruited, some to revenge the dead and some drawn
by the pageantry of the armies gathering for the climactic struggle, but by the end of the second year conscripts and
mercenaries had to be gathered in Pezarsan to fill out the ranks of Ard's forces. The majority of the Haradrim lost
faith in the war effort, which drained their lands of treasure, foodstuffs, and all useful goods. Fuinur, Herumor, and
Ard mastered their soldiers in Ithilien by force of personality, but the gathering and collecting of supply had to be
enforced by fear and the lash. The Ritual Hallow at Korb Ugarta was guarded day and night by great Demon-bats,
tall as horses with wings like the sails of a ship. The Taskrel of Amrun and his family spent the months of the Siege
34

of Gondor in hiding in the Umbarean trading haven of Tiras Argon, across the river from their city. On top of their
castle a great statue of a winged lion had appeared on a stormy night, and it was said to hunt the streets for the
enemies of Ard during the dark of the moon.

The coastal peoples knew even more pain from the war. Soon after Isildur's journey to Arnor, an Elvish and
Dunadan fleet appeared off Edhellond. It struck Sauron's ships at night, sinking many and driving the rest
southward. The Council of Umbar, which had been allowing Fuinur's ships to use its docks for fitting and victualing,
now decided to enforce its neutrality. Sauron's navy disappeared from the Bay of Belfalas; Gondorian and Arnorian
ships now raided the coasts of Harad without mercy, driving the people inland and stealing stored fish and livestock
for the use of their armies. After two years of such raids, the Falaj, the coastal plain north of the Ethir Harnen,
seemed primarily the domain of ghosts.

In S.A. 3434 the combined armies of Elendil and Gil-galad finally moved down from the north for the decisive
clash. The better part of the Haradon armies in Ithilien marched north to join the already immense forces Sauron
had already mustered on the Dagorlad. Anarion, reinforced by an Elvish contingent from Lindon, struck at the
moving army and ruined much of it. The survivors who fled south across the Poros told frightful tales of their defeat,
but all awaited word of the fate of the armies gathered in the north. The great conflict on the Dagorlad was savage
and unrelenting, but in the end the valor of the Dunedain and the Noldor proved too much for the minions of the
Shadow. Herumor fell at the head of his soldiers, pierced by a volley of Arnorian arrows. Sauron refused to risk
himself in open battle and his Ringwraiths fled into Mordor before the white light of Elvish swords could burn them.
Some of the men of Harad died valiantly and some were slaughtered like cattle as their lines and squares broke
under the weight of Dunadan steel. The plain of battle lay soaked in blood under the sun, so that generations would
pass before the charnel stench of it would wash clean.

As word of the catastrophe reached the south lands, Near Harad dissolved into chaos. Fuinur fled over the Summer
Hills with most of his Haradon army, then disappeared, ending his days in some unknown exile . Ard and Uvatha
attempted to rally their forces in Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn; after their humiliation in the north, their aura of fear and
power meant little to the mercenaries remaining under their command. The main body of the Alliance armies passed
into Mordor and began the siege of the Barad-dur. Isildur retook Minas Ithil and led an army that ravaged central
Mordor as far as the Sea of Nurn. A small force of Gondorians reinforced by Elves of Lindon marched across
Ithilien and entered Haruzan. Glorfindel, their Noldor captain, had dueled dragons in the Wars of Beleriand in the
First Age; many in the Summer Lands feared him and the powers he represented, but nothing could stand against
him. He slew the Lion-Demon that guarded Amrun and scattered the Variag army Uvatha led against him. All of
Near Harad rose in revolt against the forces of the Shadow. The Alliance army, like the Umbareans before them,
possessed neither the strength nor the will to tame the forces of hatred unleashed among the Haruze. They allowed
the Taskrels to resume the throne of Amrun and withdrew to Ithilien.

The siege of the Barad-dur dragged on for seven more years, devouring Men, Elves, and Dwarves slowly, like
breads, herbs and cloth fed slowly and helplessly to some slow-burning sacrificial altar. Sauron's most fanatical
disciples, his monsters and creatures, his stone walls knit close by a thousand years of sorcery, had to clawed down a
corpse and a stone at a time. In the end, the sacrifice was not made in vain; the Dark Lord was driven from his deep
chambers and to bay on the slopes of Orodruin by a small, desperate band of mortals. Elendil was brutally slain in
that battle with a God, and Gil-galad fell burned by the fire of his touch, but Isildur struck Sauron down with the
hilt-shard of Elendil's sword. The Azhan's body disintegrated in a pillar of fire and reeking smoke, and his reign was
ended.

Few there were who did not feel their hearts lifted in that hour and on that day; the utarf working in their fields along
the Harnen stopped their labors and sang to the glory of the sun and the river that nurtured them. Across Haruzan
Sauron's few remaining servants went mad and threw themselves from precipices, while the mystics of the Moon
Goddess and other savants of Near Harad left their temples and danced joyously in the streets. Ard and Uvatha
shrieked and their bodies withered away into the substance of shadows, unable to bind themselves to the world
without their master's strength. The Dunedain, in the midst of their joy, wept for their losses and the Haruze for
theirs. But Numenor was gone and the Dark Lord was gone; both races saw clearly how much the world had
changed.

"In an hour unlooked for by Men this Doom befell." The earth trembled and children cried with nightmares of an
35

awful judgment, as the shores of the Undying Lands were sundered and the oceans rose to engulf the Numenoreans
and their ships. Rushing winds passed over the sea, blowing storms across the desert, drowning men with rain and
mud and suffocating them with sand. Along the Harnen ten thousand widows wailed, knowing that their men had
perished with Ar-Pharazon the King. The shrines that had been silent glowed with fire or spoke in the shrieks of the
damned of Numenor, so the mystics knew that the great Island Realm had foundered and fallen into the depths.
Following the wind came great green waves, carrying, as flecks of dust on a stream, the wrack of the wealth of
Numenor, painted wood and colored cloth and the limbs of trees hung with silver lights. But the wrack had to be
collected by the fortunate survivors among the coastal peoples; the waves broke upon all the shores of Harad,
ruining villages, crushing fishing boats, swamping harbors, and drowning all who failed to heed the omens and
winds and flee inland to the hills. Thus, even with its destruction, Numenor struck at Near Harad one last time.

Behind the waves, seemingly as a last jest of the Gods of Harad, came two more castings of fate. The spirit of
Sauron, his body crushed by the fall of the black temple of the Mulkerhil, wafted to Mordor, lamenting its pain as it
relished the supposed annihilation of the Men of the West. Soon after, washing ashore in Gondor and Lindon, came
"Tall ships and tall Kings, three times three." This was Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anarion, carried finally to
Middle-earth, saved with their nine ships from the downfall of Numenor. If the Dark Lord had survived to trouble
the world of Men, the Line of Elros, the Lords of Men, survived to give him battle. The conflict between these two
great powers would rage on, and the Haruze would ever be caught up in it.

2.6 THE THIRD AGE: GONDOR AND UMBAR

To the mighty, the Third Age of Middle-earth seemed a lesser glory compared to the Second, which, to its first
generations, seemed a dimmer light than the First. The last Lord of the Azhan had been utterly overthrown, along
with the mightiest empire of Men. The Colruh and the Peri were seen less in the world, now crowded with Men and
their works. The power of the Elves had been broken. The survivors, in Lindon, Edhellond, the Ered Harmal, and
other lands, turned their eyes inward and thought of the days past when they had glory and the days to come when
they would flee the world for the safety of Aman. Wizards and sorcerers were fewer and the miracles and
summonings of mystics and holy men less spectacular. The priests and servants of the Shadow frightened the
common folk more, and often hid themselves when they could not call on the protection of kings and princes. They
saw others with dealings in magic and the supernatural as rivals, and plotted secretly to ruin and destroy them.
If the mysteries of the creation seemed more distant in the new age, the lot of the peoples of Near Harad
changed little. The utarf more often plowed their fields behind oxen instead of digging the furrows themselves. They
harvested with wrought iron sickles instead of flint or bronze, and leavened their diet with fruits once grown only in
the Chy lands and roots once known only in the mountains of Eriador. The urdwan of Haruzan now kept a dozen
breeds of sheep and goats, bringing a selection of wools and hides to market. They routinely guarded their wells
with fine steel knives and scimitars instead of spears and bronze falchions. Their horses, now large enough to bear a
Dunadan's weight in full armor, were the finest in the world and a source of great wealth to their chaks. The peasants
of the Haruze cities suffered few famines and fewer plagues, drinking water from Numenorean-designed aqueducts
and living in well-tended cities with fountains and drains. Vast quantities of gold sank into the ocean with Numenor.
The fezwan of Near Harad conducted business in silver and copper, for the most part, but summed their dealings on
a Dunadan abacus and kept records on parchment. They wove wonderful fabrics on tall looms, so the weavers’ mark
was no longer a gnarled hand; their pottery was glazed in subtle ways and decorated in scenes of pleasant lives
instead of heroic ones. The fezir ruled the Haruze lands land in slightly less splendor then before, but, sadly, with no
more wisdom or virtue. They knew for the most part, to protect trade and manufacture, to use their people well
enough to keep food on all tables and mobs off the street. However, the principles of good government, learned at
the feet of teachers and mystics, were too often turned to the services of greed and ambition. The habits of deceit and
cynicism learned under Sauron and Numenor colored the deliberations in every ruling house and every council
chamber.

For the first centuries after the fall of the Dark Lord, the four Lands of the River, Haruzan, Pezarsan, Chelkar, and
Lurmsakûn, healed and grew under native rule. Umbar dominated the coastal trade, while Gondor controlled the old
Numenorean roads leading north. Nurn was ruined, its cities lost in swamps and the Nurniags reduced to a nation of
nomads and beggars. Khand and the Chey steppes, stripped of their undying rulers, dissolved into tribal chaos. The
Urdwan of the southern deserts fell back into their old habits of banditry when the kings along the river were weak,
36

but no great leaders rose among them to trouble the greater world. If not for the incessant quarreling of the Haruze
Tarbs and sihadin, the Wise of Near Harad might have seen this time as a new Heroic Age. But their moral
preachments on unity fell on deaf ears until new threats developed on the frontiers of Harad. Then, the diatribes
seemed to come too little and too late.

Gondor, by all measures but one, grew to be the greatest power in western Middle-earth in the early Third Age. Its
kings were the descendants of Meneldil, the fourth son of Anarion, who was a child in Minas Anor when his father
was slain in the siege of the Barad-dur. Meneldil and his heirs had little taste for foreign adventure and no great urge
to bully their neighbors. Their reigns, for the most part, were four times as long as those of "Lesser Men," giving
their lineage honor among other kings and their realm a stability unheard of in any other nation.

The only rival to Gondor in any field was the Realm of Umbar, a Dunadan state itself, the greatest sea-trading nation
in western Endor. The Dunedain of its ruling Council of Captains considered themselves to be the true heirs of
Aldarion the Mariner in Middle-earth. They proudly preserved the culture and governing traditions of the Kingsmen,
rendered less arrogant by more humble circumstances, and carefully distanced themselves from the Mulkerhil and
the tyranny of Ar-Pharazon. Umbar's chief weaknesses as a nation were its lack of a monarch, which diluted its
prestige and rendered its policies uncertain, and its vulnerable position as a thin line of coastal enclaves on the edge
of a vast desert wasteland held by Haradrim with a limited interest in its survival.

Power in the Councilate of Umbar lay with a small elite of Dunadan ship-owners and feudal lords; the language
spoken in their Council Chambers was Adunaic, the classical form of the speech of Tar-Ciryatan's court. A smaller
number of Dunadan feswan lived in the cities of Umbar, while a larger number of Per_________, people of
primarily Dunadan descent with some "impure" ancestry, owned small estates and shops. The Sakalai, now a coastal
people of mixed Daen, Dunadan, and Haruze bloodlines, made up the bulk of the population from Umbar around the
coasts of Formendor to Ramlond and Gobel Ancalimon on the Ethir Harnen. Behind the coastal strip lay a number
of settled Haruze clans; beyond them, the Jelut nomads, occupying much of the Urdwaith, the dry bursk and hill
country between Umbar and the lower Harnen,. While the overt policy of Umbar, throughout its years as a sovereign
state, was to wrest control of the trade and wealth of Haruzan away from Gondor, its underlying cultural goal was to
keep itself alive as a Dunadan state, rather than a Haradon one. This doomed struggle colored the decisions of the
Council of Captains throughout its history.

Relations between Gondor and Umbar remained relatively peaceful through the first centuries of the Third Age.
Isildur, last High King of the Realms in Exile, died in an Orkish ambush only two years after the fall of Sauron. He
was the last Dunadan to remember the days of the Numenorean court, and the last man to dream of united all the
Numenorean lands in Middle-earth under one king. For hundreds of years after his death, Arnor, Gondor, and Umbar
remained independent and sovereign, occasionally rivals but always at peace.

While both Gondor and Umbar established themselves as centers of trade and power in western Middle-earth,
Gondor's empire was inland and filled with a burgeoning, industrious population. Umbar's spanned much of the
coasts of Endor, but most of it consisted of a network of trading havens and factories. More so than Numenor in its
years of expansion, Umbar lacked the manpower to create and hold a great empire. For many years, however, it
made good use of its monetary and diplomatic strength to compete with Gondor in important areas, such as Haruzan.
As long as Gondor's kings remained disdainful of Haradon politics and uninterested in territorial expansion, Umbar
remained the dominant power along the Harnen.

Beginning with the 6th century after the fall of Sauron, the balance of Power in Near Harad changed, slowly but
inevitably. In Lurmsakûn, a new dynasty, the Varjev, united a dozen scattered Haruze states under a series of Autarbs
who claimed both Dunadan and Elvish ancestry. The Varjev conquered most of Pezarsan and crossed the Ered
Harmal to invade the Chey steppes. They declared protectorate over the Avari Elvish tribes of the mountains --
something even Uvatha had never achieved, and cleared the way for a sudden burst of trans-continental trade. The
Varjev proved fond of Gondorian glass and metal wares, helping to create a new merchant faction advocating a
strong southern policy for the Dunadan kingdom. Near-continuous political turmoil in the Laergardh (S. "Summer
Land"), as the Gondorians named the highland country south of their traditional border, also held Gondorian
attention. To the surprise of Umbar and Amrun, the only stable regimes in Haruzan, the kings and lords of Gondor
began to assert themselves in the Laergardh. After a few decades, they even began to purchase villages from local
warlords and garrison their keeps.
37

Tarannon, the son of King Siriondil, led the faction in Gondor advocating an aggressive southern policy. "Colonies"
in the Laergardh smelled to much of the Kingsmen tradition to some Gondorians, but their kingdom had, for
centuries, been the "protector" of any number of Daen tribal lands on its northern and western frontiers. Further, a
resurgence of Easterling activity on Ithilien's northern border in the fifth century resulted in a series of vicious wars
over the old ground of the Dagorlad and the Taloth Harroch, leading to the death of King Tarostar Romendacil in
battle in T.A. 541. The Taloth Harroch thereafter became the Gondorian protectorate of Rhun. The concept of ruling
the barbarians through their own kings brought peace on that frontier. Possibly it could do the same in the
Laergardh?

Umbar's increasing influence along the shores of the Nen Belfalas further aggravated Gondorian feeling. They were
even blamed for instigating local quarrels in Anfalas, Gondor's western domain, in hopes of securing local access to
timber and naval stores. This was almost certainly untrue, but the damage was done and the rivalry between the two
powers was fueled by growing paranoia and suspicion.

Tarannon resolved the problems in Anfalas in T.A. 752 by subduing the local lords and establishing royal rule in the
region. To create a legal basis for Tarannon's rule, Siriondil ordered the dissolution of the Pelargirean League. While
this shocked conservatives in the coastal domains, the league had been created seventeen hundred years before as a
substitute for royal authority the Faithful no longer trusted. The heirs of Anarion now had sufficient prestige and
practical support in Gondor to do without it. Marked by few observers at the time was the presumption of the royal
family, eliminating a body that had provided them with restraint and criticism not matched elsewhere in their
government.

Tarannon, ambitious and confident in his own wisdom, paid little attention to the nay-sayers. He set out instead to
feed the pride of the traditionalists of southern Gondor by taking a more aggressive pose in the Laergardh and
standing against Umbarean influence all through the lands of ancient Harnendor. In T.A. 754, as Siriondil was
dissolving the Pelargirean League, Tarannon resolved a dispute with the Tarb of Mírlond by besieging and capturing
the city. Umbar protested loudly, for Mírlond lay on the Ethir Harnen and squarely in their sphere of influence.
However, the Council of Captains could do little else but complain. The balance of power had irrevocably changed;
neither side had the strength or inclination to make open war, but Umbar was now on the defensive. Both sides now
concentrated on securing and manipulating Haruze allies. Hostility replaced trust, such little trust as Kingsmen and
Faithful once had in each other, and hatreds long suppressed rose again to trouble the Dunadan.

The success of the Varjev against the horse-nomads of central Endor and that of Gondor against the Easterlings of
Rhun gave the civilized nations a taste of the wealth that had been possible in the days when Numenor and Sauron
brought law to farthest reaches of the continent. The court of the Varjev at Maresh, on the river Rysis in the foothills
of the Ered Harmal, became a questing point for Dunadan travelers in search of exotic experiences. The summer
palaces of the fezir of the Varjev, high in the southern peaks of the Suncrown became a place of pilgrimage for
Dunadan mystics and scholars seeking knowledge of the world. The exotic goods that traveled along Varjev caravan
routes began to remind the descendants of the faithful of the sophistication of the world destroyed at the end of the
Second Age.

Umbar, too, felt the pull of wealth and foreign influences. With a large Haruze population and lacking the stolid
moral tradition of the Faithful, its elites felt constant temptation from exotic pleasures and esoteric philosophies and
beliefs. Amid the furor over the increasing dilution of Dunadan blood in Umbar and growing Gondor influence in
Harnendor, there grew unsettling whispers about the "Creed of Kings," a curious underground movement that sought
open war with Gondor and the summoning of ancient powers as an aid. The old beliefs, it was said, those of
Aldarion, Tar-Ciryatan, and Ar-Pharazon, had power over the earth, the oceans, mortal men, and the Maiar (Azhan)
themselves. If Gondor became too great to conquer with ship and sword, perhaps this power could lead Umbar to
victory and empire? From this question, the Cult of Melkor, in a new and twisted form, was reborn in Umbar.

Events now moved slowly but inexorably towards open conflict. Tarannon built up Gondor's fleet, ostensibly to deal
with corsairs, or pirates, but many of his ships were large enough to sail Umbar's trade routes to Far Harad and
beyond and even face Umbar's fleet in battle. In truth, most off the pirates assailing the coasts of Gondor sold their
captured wares on Umbar's docks, for the Mistress of the Sea no longer looked down on sailors who struck blows
against the enemies to the north. Tarannon struck back by conquering most of the coastline of the Laergardh. He also
38

acquired more territory inland, taming the Eraguk nomads and capturing the ancient town of Amon Eithel, situated
on the Hyarmentie near the mid-point of the lands lying between the Anduin/Poros and the Harnen. With these
victories he was prepared to assert Gondorian authority in a new form. In T.A. 830, after King Siriondil's death,
Tarannon took the throne with the sobriquet Falastur (Q. "Lord of the Coasts") and declared his lands south of the
Poros to be a new province of his kingdom, called Harondor (S. "Harondor.")

The captains of Umbar responded with outrage. The more fanatical of them called for war, as much over the
insulting title Tarannon now bore as much as the threat to their interests represented by the vast new province.
Taskrel Eben Fensayk of Amrun, the strongest of the native kings of Haruzan, put himself forward as a mediator
between the two powers. Foreseeing the terrible effects of a major war on his people, he persuaded the Dunadan
powers to agree to a truce along the Harnen and acted as a neutral judge to avoid incidents and provocations. Instead
of open fighting, the two realms sabotaged each other's seaward trade, using legal trickery to drive rival ships from
ports, seizing cargos and impressing sailors on false pretenses. Both sides secretly encouraged privateers to prey on
unescorted ships. The damage done to commerce and the death and pain inflicted on sailors and merchants further
poisoned relations and frustrated Eben Fensayk's efforts to promote peace.

Overt warfare did not break out until nearly the end of the century. Tarannon began to settle Gondorians along the
Harnen, usually on lands confiscated from disloyal or dishonest Haruze sihadin. Umbar encouraged local resistance
to this policy, comparing it to the colonial settlements of Ar-Pharazon. Small battles broke out along the river, as
border lords of both countries attempted to intimidate or occupy the last free Haruze lands west of Amrun. At the
same time, the trading companies of both realms took sides with local chiefs and attacked each other's merchants
and trading stations. If the Fensayk had been allowed to continue their policy of reconciliation, much bloodshed
might have been avoided. However, a Haruze soldier, Hamaluk Lengur, took it upon himself to "correct" what he
saw as Fensayk weakness. The Varjev regime in Pezarsan was breaking up, and Hamaluk made a name for himself
conquering cities in the name of Amrun. In T.A. 896 he brought his elite soldiers to Amrun and murdered the
Fensayk Taskrel and his family in their palace. Hamaluk saw opportunity for the Haruze in Dunadan rivalry. He
encouraged the aging Tarannon to strike out at his enemies, while sending money and provocateurs to Umbar to
support the followers of the "Creed of Kings."

Riot and assassination broke out in Umbar. The Council of Captains, hoping to placate the seething unrest in their
city, ordered the seas off their coast closed to Gondorian shipping in T.A. 903. Sudden attacks by squadrons of
Umbarean warships captured or sank merchantmen as far north as Tolfalas, the island guarding the mouth of the
Anduin. Tarannon retaliated by seizing Umbarean ships in his own ports and sending his southern army to storm
Tharven, the fortified town protecting the approaches to the Iant Harnen, the great bridge connecting Gobel
Ancalimon to the north bank of the river. War had begun, and would not end for a century and a half.

Tarannon became known to later generations as the first of the four Ship-kings, all brilliant captains who brought
Gondor to its height of imperial power. Tarannon's great success was the creation of Harondor and the establishment
of a settlement program to provide it with a Gondorian population. Umbar defeated him at sea, in the opening
campaigns of the war, however, and he died pondering the folly of making war against an enemy stronghold a
thousand miles from home.

The throne of Gondor now passed to Tarannon's nephew, Earnil Breithlagos (S. "Stormbreaker"), who was young,
vigorous, and a skilled administrator. He saw to the construction of a fleet of larger ships, capable of striking at the
Umbareans far across the ocean, and personally trained and led his warriors out to battle. Earnil's new fleet won
Gondor's first great victories at sea, driving Umbar's sea raiders back to their bases in Formendor and the Nen
Umbar. He cleared the Harnen frontier of Umbarean enclaves, seized a few coastal villages in Formendor, and
annexed towns in the Ausk Harmaka belonging to Amrun. The sons of Hamaluk Lengur now had cause to regret
their father's role as provocateur; they could only hope that both Dunadan powers would exhaust themselves and
give Amrun a chance for survival.

In the midst of the war a brilliant opportunity presented itself to the King Earnil. With the war going against the
Counciliate, the followers of the Creed of Kings, now identifiable as the true Cult of Melkor, gained many adherents
in Umbar by presenting itself as the fiercest possible foe of the "Betrayers of Numenor," the Faithful of Gondor.
From 920 to 933 the old factions and the Mulkerhil had struggled for power, fighting sometimes breaking out
between rival nobles and their retinues. In T.A. 933 the Cult of Melkor seized control of most of the city of Umbar,
39

declaring their temple to be the glorious palace of a new Numenor. The Council chambers fell to the rebels; both
sides rushed men and ships to the city, leaving the sea entrance to the Nen Umbar unguarded for a few fateful days..

On a dark night, in the midst of fighting and flame, Earnil and the larger part of his fleet sailed into the great
___________ harbor. A cloaked woman stood by the king on his flagship, providing the harbor watch with the
correct signals for passage between the guard towers. She was said by some to be a manifestation of Uinen herself,
although Umbarean chroniclers spoke instead of a noble lady whose family had been murdered by the Mulkerhil.
Earnil, gambling all for the sake of victory, brought with him on this desperate voyage most of the elite companies
of the Gondorian army. His soldiers stormed the docks of Umbar, burned or captured most of the ships in the harbor,
fought their way into the city, and burned down the Temple of Melkor. In two days time, all of Umbar was in
Earnil's hands.

The cataclysm of the city's fall should have ended the war, but bitter pride ruled the Umbareans. Most of the
followers of Mulkerhil perished in the first battle for the city, but the surviving traditionalists still controlled
considerable resources in the Nenfalas Umbar, the coastal regions on the shores of the Bay of Umbar, as well as in
Formendor and along the Ethir Harnen. Earnil turned his fleet back west as soon as Umbar was secured, fighting
several battles to clear the sea lanes to Gondor. The Umbareans could not defeat him, scattered as they were by the
civil war, and their surviving great ships fled to distant harbors. However, powerful Umbarean land forces could
now be moved south, as the best part of Earnil's army was tied down defending his prize. Umbar was invested by
hostile forces, often under close siege, and remained an island in a sea of enemies for decades after its fall.

As the Dunadan war collapsed into another stalemate, the Haruze could now make another bid for power. The Jelut
of the Urdwaith, the desert country east of Umbar, had been unified by a far-sighted nomad dynasty, the Muargiz.
The Muargiz, experts in cavalry warfare, had been the key to Umbar's successful defense of the Ethir Harnen,
defeating Earnil's attempts to cross the river. The "Exiles," the lords of Nenfalas Umbar leading the siege of the great
city, were utterly dependent on the Urdwaith for communication with the outside world. The Muargiz and other
friendly Haruze leaders could now demand to be treated as equals by the Dunadan. A "Southron Alliance" came into
being, including realms as far east as Pezarsan, guaranteeing its members freedom to rule themselves in exchange
for a share in the hard labor of defeating Gondor.

Amrun, the one Haradon nation possibly strong enough to stand against Gondor on its own, refused to openly join
the Southron Alliance. However, the new alignment of powers, followed soon after by Earnil's death and the
crippling of his fleet in a storm off Formendor, turned the stalemate into a prolonged truce, one that dragged on for
almost a century. Umbar remained "invested," that is, in a state of nominal siege for most of this time. When the
truce weakened, an Umbarean/Haruze army moved in close to the city walls; in other times, local peasants worked
farms around the city and sold grain and goat-cheese to the garrison.

All during the reign of the Ship-kings, events moved in Near Harad with the slow precision of a chess game. Earnil
had followed Tarannon, was succeeded by his son Ciryandil, who was followed by his son Ciryahir. While both
Earnil and Ciryandil suffered early deaths, the four kings kept to their grim purpose for generations, outliving entire
dynasties of their opponents. The Varjev collapsed in eastern Pezarsan, allowing Amrun to expand eastward,
strengthening itself and the Southron Alliance. However, Tallas Lengur, the last Taskrel of his line, foolishly
challenged Gondor with open war in T.A. 987, at a time when his allies were quarreling among themselves.
Ciryandil mustered the strength of his southern fiefs the following spring and broke the army of Amrun at Taloc
Passage, on the lower Carnen river just above Gobel Ancalimon. Tallas Lengur was slain with all of his male kin
during the rout, leaving no heirs to the throne of the Stone Kings. Ciryandil then annexed all the lands between the
Carnen and the Middle Harnen, securing for Harondor all the Laergardh as Gondor traditionally knew it. By
establishing a fortress at Tiras Amrun, just across the Harnen from the ancient seat of the Taskrels, he hoped the
Haruze threat to Harondor would vanish. However, the world was changing again; even grander victories would be
needed to tame Near Harad.

Chelkar remained a peaceful backwater during the rise and fall of the Varjev and much of the great contest between
the Dunadan realms. Mysteries peculiar to the Haruze, such as the Cult of the Dark Lady, never faded here. The
Imocra, the fezir rulers of the city of Engiz, became known in the 9th century of the Third Age for a "familiar spirit"
peculiar to their blood and family. Said to be an manifestation of the Dark Lady, she foretold their greatness, advised
them on political matters and warned them of the plots of their enemies. Aided by this supernatural advisor, the
40

Imocra brought most of western Chelkar under their rule in alliance with the Lengur of Pezarsan. When Tallas
Lengur died, the Verdant Throne of the Stone Kings was open to any Tarb with a vague claim to the bloodline of the
Taskrels and a competent army. Eben Imocra slew four rivals in a murderous night's fighting in Amrun and signed
the treaty establishing Tiras Amrun the next morning, pledging friendship to Ciryandil's legates still in his blood-
stained armor.

An air of dreadful expectancy disturbed the dreams of the mystics of Near Harad as the second millennium of the
Third Age approached. The fall of the Varjev and the imperial ambitions of Gondor troubled many, but beyond such
mundane tragedy the priests and prophets saw deeper peril; a strengthening of dark powers, a deepening of the
Shadow of Evil that had always doomed the world to perpetual pain. Unknown to all but the leaders of the High
Elves of Eriador and Lindon, the Arizul sent five of their own from Aman to Middle-earth to seek out the source of
the Shadow and council mortal men against its rise. These were the Istari, the Wizards of Color, the greatest of
whom were called Curunir and Mithrandir in Gondor, but Saruman the White and Gandalf the Grey in northern
lands. Unknown to all but a few mad priests and earth-bound evil spirits, the Shadow was manifesting itself in a
familiar form. The Azhan Sauron and his Undead Nazgul, building up their strength bit by bit, were creating new
fana in Middle-earth. For the time being, the minions of darkness would be secretive and carefully manipulative in
all their acts. Unlike the Istari, they would someday walk the world openly, contesting with men for the rule of the
world. They had patience, centuries of it, and drowned Numenor could no longer stand against them.

In Near Harad, the heirs of Numenor had the advantage, for a time. The Umbarean exiles, the Muargiz, and the
Imocra all stood against Gondor. Of the three parties, the Umbareans of the Falas grew weaker with each passing
season. Ciryandil, his resources drained by war, built up his naval strength slowly, sealing off the coasts of
Formendor and striking into the distant south against Umbarean outposts in Far Harad and beyond. Along the
Harnen, he founded military colonies, giving Harondor a new population of Gondorian descent. These "Outhame,"
as they were called by the Gondorians of the "Home Provinces" of Lebennin, Ithilien, and Anorien, solidified
Ciryandil's frontier defenses but created a new faction in Gondorian politics dedicated to forcing its involvement in
Haradon politics. Farther south, the Jelut and their Haruze allies, dominated by the Muargiz, held the whip hand in
the Urdwaith, demanding more and more from the Umbareans as the price of their friendship. As the 11th century of
the Age began, the "subsidies" paid by the Exiles appeared more and more like tribute.

The leaders of the Southron Alliance in the new century were Desul Muargiz, an urdwan Chak with the education
and tastes of a city Autarb, and Taskrel Eben Akil of Amrun, an Imocra who began his reign by conquering all of
Pezarsan. Both warlords were thought somewhat mad; Desul, the grandson of a captured Dunadan woman,
considered the subjugation of the coasts of Haruzan his life's work and made no secret of his contempt for the Exiles
of Umbar. Eben Akil spoke frequently with his family spirit and the sounds of their matched lutes wafted often from
a tower in his palace. His son and heir, Talasc, named the spirit Ard the Shining Lady, after the goddess destroyed in
the Second Age. Talasc was said to have taken on his "Shining Lady" as a tutor, promising to conquer all the lands of
Near Harad in her name.

The storm broke in T.A. 1012. Eben Akil invaded distant Lurmsakûn in that year, leading the Gondorians to relax
their vigilance on the frontier. Desul Muargiz, seeking and achieving strategic surprise, drove on Umbar and
besieged the city. Ciryandil took the field against him, but the Muargiz, aided by Aruwanai allies from southern
Endor, overran most of the small coastal forts the Gondorians had seized over the years to support their coastal fleet.
Ciryandil, forced to fight on Desul's terms, sailed south with most of his army and navy to defend Umbar in person;
in 1015 a Haruze arrow slew him during a sortie under the walls of the city.

Desul saw to it that word of his triumph spread to the far corners of Harad. Eben Akil marched his army back from
Lurmsakûn, smelling glory and conquest on a heroic scale. He would find neither.

Desul proclaimed himself Autarb of Haruzan, a title held last by the Dunadan lords Ard Vedaraba and Fuinur
Stormheart. He summoned the leaders of the Umbarean Exiles to his camp and demanded their formal allegiance. To
seal the bargain, he commanded that one of the noblest of their women become his third wife. Surrounded by a
Haruze army, the legation of the Lords of Falas Umbar could resist neither the demand nor the insult. Virian of
Fellond, a Dunadan woman of high blood, volunteered to sacrifice herself to save the remainder of the legation. Her
brother Arbregor, a young knight, offered to stay with her while the rest of the Umbareans marched back to their
homes. As soon as the others were safely distant, Arbregor presented himself to Desul as a supplicant and stabbed
41

him through the heart with a dagger.

Chaos and murder swept through Haruzan. The sons of Desul defeated their Haruze enemies and punished the Falas
Umbareans with raids on their lands. The sons of Ciryandil broke the siege of Umbar and raided southward over the
Harnen from Harondor, but the Muargiz, aided by "volunteers" from the Imocran armies, forced them back across
the river. The Exiles, taking advantage of the weakening of the Gondorian blockade caused by the loss of their
coastal outposts, sent corsairs out to ravage shipping as far north as Arnor. Gondor, obliged to keep its sea passage to
Umbar open or abandon the city to the Muargiz, was forced to call for a truce.

On a winter day late in T.A. 1016, legations from Gondor and the Southron Alliance met on the bridge connecting
Tiras Amrun to the city on the far side of the Harnen. Ciryaher, the new, young king of Gondor, tall and resplendent
in his white armor, exchanged gifts with Eben Akil Imocra. By him stood his mother Neralis, clad in black silks and
wearing a black laen breast plate as a symbol of a queen widowed by war. They saw the nine year-old Prince Talasc
standing nearby, occasionally speaking quiet words over his right shoulder to an unseen companion. Ciryaher turned
to the boy, and, seeing him without a token of the exchange, bent to present him with a drawing tangent shaped from
Dwarven Mithril. Talasc, looking up at the Dunadan giant with a steady gaze, took the instrument, then drew the
sharpened point of it across the palm of his hand, drawing a trickle of blood that fell on the stones at his feet.
Neralis, blessed with the foresight of the Dunadan, pulled the stunned Ciryaher away from the boy, saying: "Blood
he shall have and she shall have, enough to drown in. You must prepare."
Ciryaher studied the campaigns of his fathers for years while rebuilding his fleet and sending squadrons of great
ships down the coasts of Middle-earth to sweep away the few vessels of the Umbareans still roaming free. The
Imocra and Muargiz consolidated their holdings and gathered weapons, sensing another storm. In 1039 Ciryaher
struck into the Ethir Harnen, landing a great army around Ramlond and capturing the city after a short siege. The
loss of Ramlond, the largest city of the Falas Umbar, virtually bankrupted the Exiled Umbareans and left many of
them without hope. The Muargiz seized control of the towns and castles around Ramlond; this, along with threats of
Imocra intervention and a sudden outbreak of Nurniag raids across the Mountains of Shadow, forestalled any further
Gondorian conquests, but Ciryaher was only biding his time. Among the Exiles, his agents spread word of pardons,
Dunadan fellowship, and protection against Haradon tyranny.

Eben Akil Imocra went to his deathbed in 1042 warning his son against the influence of the Whispering Spirit that
haunted their family. Unknown to him, Ard the Dark Lady had already become incarnate in the ruins of her old
temple at Kres Lugal. Talasc Imocra now listened to her words above all else, even visiting her haunted lair in
secret. Chroniclers of a later time knew the Nazgul only as cold, terrifying shadows, given human shapes only by
their clothes and wrappings. What sorcery Ard used to convince Talasc of her divine beauty and purpose could not
be guessed, but his courtiers recorded that he adored her above all things in the world save his own lust for power.
To foster his cause, she brought the Nurniags, faithful servants of the Shadow in past times, into alliance with the
Imocra. In Khand, the Variags were again being influenced by Uvatha the Undying, reincarnate in his old cave
stronghold at Olbarmal. The Variags, resurgent in power with the decline of the Varjev, ceased to trouble the Imocra
domains and many agreed to serve him as mercenaries.

Talasc's now readied himself for the final confrontation with Gondor; it only remained to reduce the remainder of
the Southron Alliance to obedience. Here Eben Akil, no stranger to treachery, had balked at the most extreme
measures. The Muargiz and the Imocra, ever jealous of each other, had always stood together against the common
enemy. Talasc and his Whispering Spirit needed no such free-souled allies. At the Oasis of Five Palms, in T.A. 1045,
the leaders of the Muargiz slept in their tents at a great council of Haruze lords. A company of black-robed Imocra
guards rose from the surrounding camps of soldiers and slaughtered them in their beds. Talasc stood in the
moonlight and proclaimed to the outraged witnesses that the Muargiz had plotted to slay him by sorcery. He
declared himself to be the true heir of the Kibic, the Nuzhaj, and all the Warlords of the past, and forced all present
to swear allegiance to his clan, who would scourge the Poganin from all of Haruzan.

Ciryaher of Gondor, hearing of a threat that could only be directed at him, and listening to Outhame advisors who
urged immediate mobilization for war, spoke these words: "He plants tainted seed; wait a season and another, and
we shall see whose harvest bears bitter or sweet fruits."

As it happened, only four years passed before Ciryaher considered his harvest ready. By T.A. 1049, more men were
under arms in Near Harad than in Ar-Pharazon's time. Talasc mustered his armies around Amrun against a rumored
42

attack out of the East March of Harondor. Instead, Ciryaher gathered the great ships of Gondor and brought all his
strength to Ramlond, gambling, as Earnil had, that his sea power would keep his armies fed long enough to force a
decisive battle. In other times a Gondorian army on the south bank of the Harnen would have been assailed by
Haruze and Umbarean cavalry on all sides. But the treachery of Talasc had its price; the Exiles and the Jelut came
late to the campaign and Ciryaher marched unhindered along the estuary towards Gobel Ancalimon. Here he might
have stopped for a time to besiege the fortress, but Talasc feared that the fortress would betray him and surrender the
great bridge leading to Harondor. He moved by forced marches down from Amrun and assaulted the Gondorian van
in the Vale of Blacksand, west of the great citadel. For three days the great armies clashed between the dry hills and
the river. Gondorian shield-walls held the field again and again against showers of Haruze arrows and wild charges
of Pezarsan footmen. The Outhame cavalry of Harondor proved agile enough to force the Haruze horse to stand and
fight, and the mail-clad knights of Gondorian Belfalas and Calenardhon crushed them when they did. Blood washed
down the streams of the valley, and flowed like a fouled river into the Harnen. Talasc Imocra died in a last desperate
charge, and his body had to be pulled from a corpse-choked, scarlet-puddled streambed.

The slaughter was immense and the victory complete. A Harondorean general led troops to Amrun, accepting its
surrender and installing a descendent of the Fensayk on the Verdant Throne. Ciryaher took the mounted arm of his
army south and west to defeat the last defiant lords of the Falas Umbar and Urdwaith at Kruk Fedalk, a month after
Blacksand. The Exiles struck what deals they could with the King; a company of Haruze cavalry carried Ciryaher's
banners to Umbar through the heat of a Haradon summer, ending the century-long siege. Ard, the "Whispering
Spirit," disappeared into the Shadows, a rumor of ghostly hate that most Gondorians scarcely believed in. Ciryaher
returned to the Mist-lands, taking with him the name Hyarmendacil, "South-victor." For six hundred years, the
Dunadan would reign virtually unchallenged in Haruzan. Near Harad would never be free of the shadowy
conspiracies of the Haruze cults and of Ard and her secret master, Sauron, but the great enemy of Gondor would be
its own arrogance and greed.

2.7 GONDOR'S SUPREMACY AND THE KIN-STRIFE

In a sad irony, it could be said that Near Harad achieved its apogee of wealth and comfort under the dominion of the
Poganin. The peace guaranteed by imperial Gondor ended for centuries all but the most trivial wars in Haruzan,
Pezarsan, and Chelkar Even Lurmsakûn, faced with the continuous threat of the Undead warlords Uvatha of Khand
and Ren of the Chey, knew decade after decade of strength and prosperity. Scholars, unfettered by fear of cruel,
vindictive monarchs and fanatical priests, wrote eloquently on all subjects of worth, and corresponded with the Wise
of other nations. Poets sang in every city, and dancers swirled in every marketplace and theater. Wealth flowed
unfettered along the caravan routes from the Suncrown to the sea and beyond. Yet, the Shadow of ancient evil never
left the land, and prophets foretold that lives fettered to the good will of the Dunedain could be forfeit on Dunadan
whims.

The great victor in the Imocra War that ended in T.A. 1050 was Ciryahir Hyarmendacil of Gondor, a Great Captain,
indeed, but also a thoughtful and prudent monarch whose appetite for conquest vanished with the fall of the last free
lords of Umbar. After his victory, Hyarmendacil set the borders of nations in Near Harad as another man might have
divided the ground in his garden for the best crop of herbs.

The crown jewel of imperial Gondor was the province of Harondor, lying between the Poros and the Harnen. For the
most part, it fell under the rule of a royal governor in Mírlond, on the north bank of the Ethir Harnen. The people he
ruled were strongly divided ethnically and social. In the north, in the Laergaladrin on the south banks of the Anduin
and Poros, the common folk considered themselves true Gondorians, sharing culture and history with their kin in
Lebennin and Ithilien, north of the rivers. In the lowlands along the north bank of the Harnen, and in scattered fertile
pockets in the interior of Harondor, settlers from Gondor made their homes. These "Outhame," or Harondoreans,
were often military veterans, leather-tough and world-wise by the standards of their homeland. The Outhame
acquired some culture and tastes from the Haradrim, tainting them as foreign and strange to other Gondorians.
However, they remained fiercely loyal to the scepter and the powerful national and mercantile interests in southern
Gondor who supported a strong policy against the Haradrim. Finally, there was always a large population of Haruze
in the Gondorian province. The Dunadan kingdom never imposed on the Haruze Variag slavery or Umbarean
serfdom, but neither did they grant them the citizenship or freedoms allowed true Gondorians. Since Haruze utarf
43

had little expectation of civil treatment from their rulers, Gondorian rule seemed a blessing to many. While Gondor
ruled well, its Haruze subjects remained loyal.

South of Harondor lay the old domains of Umbar. The Ethirist, Formendor, and the Nenfalas, all lands of the Second
Age Harfalas and long ruled by Umbar. These were the homelands of Gondor's fiercest enemies in earlier times, but
they had been humbled. They were Westron-speakers, of Sakalai and Dunadan descent, looking to the sea for much
of their sustenance, with much in common with the coastal peoples of the old Pelargirean League. Their country,
now carefully governed by officials sent from mainland Gondor and salted with immigrants from Lebennin and
Belfalas, rose from the ashes of a century of war. Their lesser citizens, relieved of the immediate threat of being
overrun by the Haruze, became as fiercely nationalistic, in their way, as the Outhame of Harondor. The upper classes
of the former Umbarean provinces gradually won a voice in Gondorian politics. Seen with the hindsight of later
generations, they served either as an energizing force in the kingdom, driving it to the heights of power, or as a
corrupting poison, tainting Gondorian virtue with the vices of fallen Numenor.

Neither Hyarmendacil nor any succeeding king of Gondor felt the need to impose direct provincial rule over the vast
territories of Near Harad. The Umbarean lands were inhabited by folk similar to themselves, and Harondor, thanks
to the Ship-kings' settlement policy, someday would be. Amrun, Pezarsan, and the Urdwaith, on the other hand, were
exotic and dangerous lands, their numerous peoples Haradrim and absolutely alien. Policing these realms would be
corrupting and expensive. As long as the "Tall-King's" wishes were respected and a modest tribute paid, the Haruze
lands would be best governed by their own Autarbs.

There were factions in Gondor of a different mind. Mercantile houses saw enormous profit in the Southern trade and
the "River Road" into the distant east. Ambitious army officers and noble families of warlike tradition became
restive in the peace created by Hyarmendacil, seeing little chance for glory and a weakening of Dunadan manhood
in the peace he created. Pride of race colored the thoughts of many, especially in the new provinces of Harondor and
Umbar. If the Dunedain were truly the "Lords of Men," would not the rich but troubled lands of Pezarsan and
Lurmsakûn be naturally improved by their rule? And why not the lands beyond, where mountains and forests grew,
and Elves roamed, and new principalities and even kingdoms might be built to equal the glory of Gondor?

Ciryaher, at the height of his powers, could indulge some of these dissenters while suppressing those he thought
dangerous. With age, however, he traveled little, and trusted affairs in the southern part of his domains to whoever
wished to govern there. Worse, his son Atanatar was a weakling, interested in the pleasures to be found in his royal
capital of Osgiliath and allowing his relatives and courtiers to use Near Harad as a political playground. Their folly
never threatened the power of Gondor, now the mightiest nation in Middle-earth, but it humbled and divided the
royal family at a time when more dangerous forces were rising in the world. The terrible tragedies of the Kin-strife
and the Morgul Wars were spawned in the reign of Atanatar the Glorious.

The Arbitrars and the Sacred War

Gondor, in the 11th century of the Third Age, still saw Near Harad in the romantic, decadent images of the vanished
Varjev. Travel beyond Harondor was dangerous, at best, during the Umbarean Wars. Maresh had become the
plaything of Haruze warlords, and its glory was much diminished. Worse, the flow of wealth from the steppes and
the Chey lands shrank with the Varjev collapse. The high plains east of the Ered Harmal fell under the rule of Chey
and Ahar nomads. The Chey understood the benefits of the long-pack spice and silk caravans that crossed the
continent from east to west, but their warrior code drove them constantly to theft and extortion. Similarly, the
urdwan of the Mirror of Fire, in eastern Harad, conquered towns in Lurmsakûn and failed to keep the orchards and
irrigated fields in order. The only conquerors wishing to keep up the old system were the Variags, now reunited
under a ghostly imitator of Uvatha the Undying.

"Safe Passage" for caravans and traders became the rallying cry of the "Arbitrars," a political coalition built from
disparate forces in Gondor wishing to extend the kingdom's power along the Ode Pezar to the Suncrown. The
Arbitrars marked their descent from the advocates of the southern policies of the Ship-kings. Now, in a less
dangerous time, they could use the issue of safe travel along the Rath Harad to unite cynical merchants, adventurous
knights, and zealous mystics eager to expand Gondor's empire. The "Purists," those standing against the Arbitrars,
put forth arguments mainly based on racial pride, arguing that all of Harad was not worth a Dunadan guardsman's
life and that putting more Haruze inside Gondor's boundaries would taint the kingdom's culture and bloodlines.
44

For their part, the Haruze played all sides in the conflict. Some fought bravely against any Gondorian intrusion.
Others, like the Merchant Oligarchs of Lurmsakûn, offered money and rank to any Dunadan who would come to
their land and fight for them. Still others, like the Naekil dynasty of Amrun, played both Poganin factions against
each other in an endless cycle of intrigue and groveling, seeking only to keep their throne secure.

Hyarmendacil's initial policy, upon his victory at Blacksand in 1050, was to let Pezarsan work out its own destiny.
However, when it dissolved into a dozen quarreling tarbates after the fall of the Imocra, he sent a large army out
from Amrun to discipline the warring fezir. This expeditionary force marched as far as Maresh during the 1050's,
subduing the cities along the Ode Pezar, driving the Agan into exile in Chelkar and bringing knowledge of exotic
coffees and fruits to Gondor from Lurmsakûn. As Haradon diseases and vices whittled away at the army, Ciryaher
grew disgusted with the wastage of warriors and gold and withdrew it. Despite civil wars breaking out throughout
Near Harad, the king steadfastly refused to commit his southern army east of Amrun. To replace it, the Arbitrars
decided to finance the intervention of non-royal adventurers. Their wealth persuaded mercenaries and sihadin to
enlist under their banners, and also the military orders known as the Communes of the Brethren.

The tradition of keeping soldiers outside royal control dated to the Guild of Venturers, themselves a chartered band
with more freedom than casual Numenorean travelers. The Guild subsidized local lords, hired mercenaries, and
organized colonial militia to protect its trading havens and eventually its colonies. The king's ministers tolerated
such activities providing local matters remained local and taxes and tribute continued to flow to royal coffers. After
the rebellions of Murazor, Adunaphel, and Akhorahil, all colonial militia and native hirelings of Dunadan merchants
fell under stricter royal authority and were watched by "regulars," garrison troops from Numenor. However, the
colonial governors could seldom discipline sell-swords and adventurers living beyond the colonial frontiers.

Four "unofficial" warrior types were particularly notable in the long history of imperial Numenor in Near Harad.

Two were fully native. The oldest were the Griz, the urdwan frontier mercenaries created by the Kibic to keep
nomadic raiders and bandits away from the farmlands of the Saromis. These irregulars sported Haradon religious
totems and garb, but most fought for whoever paid them. The Dunedain could not trust them in times of Haruze
revolt against colonial rule, but they served well in other times. More trustworthy were the Krita, originally Daen
mercenaries organized and equipped by Dunadan captains to defend the Sakalai lands against the Haruze. Over time,
their peoples became the common folk of Gondor and the Umbarean hinterland. The Krita changed as well, over the
centuries, becoming Westron-speakers led by officers of their own kindred and captained by Dunadan adventurers.
They served colonial Umbar and the Pelargirean League in the Second Age and then Counciliar Umbar and Gondor
in the Third.

When the need arose for more trustworthy soldiers in the colonies, wealthy Dunadan landowners and merchants
formed orders of what were called "Sacred Brethren" or "Communal Orders." These were elite bands of knights and
yeomen, their orders deliberately reminiscent of the holy warriors of the Kibic and Nuzhaj. Some of these
companies were little better then mercenary companies operating under banners bearing Dunadan mystical symbols,
interesting only in protecting valuable caravans. Others matched the discipline of the Nuzhaj and added it to the
near-mythical traditions of the First Age Edain, legendary warriors defending their homes and kin against wild men
and creatures of the Shadow. The Orders took on a semblance of the power of Nuzhaj sihadin, holding lands, castles,
and towns on both sides of the frontier and treating with Haruze lords on an equal basis. While the Brethren alarmed
colonial officials with their independence and mystical fervor, their loyalty to the Line of Elros was seldom in
question. Most Numenor governors welcomed their freely provided manpower and made good use of their prowess
and expertise.

Two Communes of the Brethren rose to lasting importance in Near Harad: the "Riders of the Marches" or "Red
Justins," the eldest Commune, and the Keepers of Justice or "White Justins." The March-riders were first organized
to protect Dunadan and Haruze merchants after the collapse of the Nuzhaj in the 19th century of the Second Age. A
Red Justin squire, serving with the Border Watch in Formendor, gained fame as the hero who warned Umbar of
Adunaphel's rebellion in S.A. 2280. The rising influence of the Shadow became known in Adunaphel's time, leading
to the founding of the Keepers of Justice to counter its influence in Harnendor and Pezarsan. Their white-fletched
arrows and white-blade swords became known though all the western lands of Middle-earth, from the borders of
Lindon to the southernmost reaches of Harad. Few among the Dunedain knew the hatred of Sauron as did the
Keepers of Justice, and few were better at rooting out his spies and assassins.
45

Both Communes survived the corruption of Numenor, maintaining their strict moral discipline through the terror of
Ar-Pharazon's reign while carefully avoiding the wrath of the Mulkerhil and their allies in the royal government.
Brethren from both orders held lands and titles in Umbar, Gondor, and Haruzan after the Downfall. They worked for
reconciliation between the two Dunadan regimes and battled Adunaphel's resurgence in Near Harad. After the War
of the Last Alliance, some Brethren continued to work for peace in Haruzan, while others took up the causes of
various rulers and factions. The White Justins came to side with Gondor after the fall of the citadel of Umbar in T.A.
933, and the Exiles of the Falas did not forget this. The Red Justins splintered, some siding with Gondor, some with
the Falas Umbar, others trying to remain neutral. The rise of the Imocra, suspected of being in alliance with the
Shadow, drove most of the Brethren into Gondor's camp. None the less, the red banners of the March-riders flew
over both armies in the final battle at Kruk Fedalk.

In the Gondorian peace that followed Blacksand and Kruk Fedalk, the White Justins kept up their pursuit of Servants
of Darkness while the March-riders allied themselves to the general cause of peace and commerce. Both Communes
came to support the cause of the Arbitrars, who grew ever powerful in the southern provinces of Gondor, becoming
a subversive alliance of glory-hungry nobles and moneyed interests. In the fading years of Hyarmendacil's reign, the
Justins became arrogant, openly taking their companies to wars in Pezarsan and Lurmsakun and calling for the
king's troops to join their crusade against Uvatha and his Variag hordes. An Arbitrar-run trader's guild of southern
Gondor, the Mercantile Unity, joined their call for intervention in Pezarsan, even putting their own people in harm's
way in hopes of provoking violent incidents. Hyarmendacil, as his last years of life, exposed and ruined the men
responsible for this sordid plot. However, his son and heir, Atanatar, held the position of Captain of the Hosts,
allowing him control of Gondor's fleet and direct access to those engaged in trade with Harad. The Crown Prince
had gained much wealth from the Mercantile Unity and failed to break up the conspiracy. Atanatar lent the March-
riders troops from his own household to fight in Lurmsakun. Hyarmendacil, on his deathbed, privately rebuked his
heir; the prince withdrew his soldiers, but the war had already been won and the Arbitrars knew they would have a
free hand in Near Harad after the King's death.

Hyarmendacil had done well in his long years of rule. Gondor in the time of Atanatar Alcarin stood at the apex of its
wealth and power. Gold and gems, silks, spices, exotic herbs and woods flowed into its cities from across the
continent. Embassies from Gondor treated with the Seven Kings of the Dwarves and visited exotic lands beyond
Harad in the Mumakan and around the great Bay of Ormal. Osgiliath, Atanatar's royal seat, was said to be a place
where precious stones were the playthings of children.
But rot had set in at the heart of Gondor's empire. Atanatar had been corrupt as a prince, something rare in the Line
of Anarion. The two sons who followed him on the throne, Narmacil and Calmacil, were like him. Far worse, all
three men were weaklings, fond of their pleasures, feeble in action, indulging the whims of stronger spirits in their
courts. Gondor's might was so great that the failings of three feeble kings in succession could not directly threaten it,
but dark forces began to gather on Gondor's frontiers.

The greatest enemy of imperial Gondor was not known and named until a millennium and more had passed. Sauron
the Azhan, heir to Melkor, once the Dark Lord of much of Endor, had re-gathered his physical body and hidden
himself in a cavern underneath the old Dwarven hold in Amon Lanc, a hill in Greenwood the Great on the northern
borders of Gondor. From here Sauron spread a taint of Shadow across the forest, driving the Nandor Elves of the
country northward and causing the plains-folk of Rhun to rename the forested country Mirkwood. Elvish and
Gondorian expeditions to Amon Lanc slew Orcs and other evil things but could not cleanse the forest of the Shadow.
Eventually, attempts to garrison Dul Guldur, the ruined tower on Amon Lanc, failed. The tower became known as
the abode of an undead sorcerer, the Necromancer, secretly a wraith-slave of Sauron, secure in his underworld
chambers.

Sauron's greatest wraith-servants, the Nazgul, had returned to Middle-earth with him. Adunaphel had already been
active in Near Harad, corrupting the princely family of the Imocra and rebuilding the Cult of the Dark Lady. Uvatha,
re-uniting the Variags under the name Ovatha Kionid, attacked Lurmsakun repeatedly in the 12th century, but the
Varjev successor states, strengthened by Gondorian contingents provided by the Arbitrars, defended themselves ably.
Sauron, not wishing to alert Gondor's rulers to the extent of his conspiracy, instructed Uvatha to keep his true nature
and appearance a mystery and to avoid facing Gondorians on the battlefield.

Farther east, the Nazgul Ren the Unclean had returned to the Chey lands in secret, but two great tribal clans, the
46

Rosethorn and Whitetail, hunted down his fire-priests and assassins and even defeated Ovatha's first attempts to
overrun their western pastures. Murazor the Traitor, greatest of the Ulair, spent decades in Amon Lanc and Mordor
re-building Sauronic cult-worship among the Devam and the Orcs. He also fostered dissent and subversion among
the Dunedain of Eriador. Here Arnor, the northern Realm in Exile, had split into three realms in T.A. 861. Of the
three successor kingdoms, Cardolan, centered on Tharbad and the Gwathlo basin in the south, was the wealthiest,
while Rhudaur in the east was poor and badly ruled. Arthedain, in the northwest, controlled the chief religious
talismans of Elendil and considered itself the keeper of the traditions of the Faithful in Middle-earth. Murazor,
acting through his agents in Eriador, provoked wars among the three kingdoms while his Gondorian servants
encouraged Atanatar and his successors to rebuke Arthedain for its pride and poverty.

Of all this Gondor's Haruze foes were virtually as ignorant as Atanatar Alcarin. Haruze heroes were plentiful in this
age, for success or failure brought peace and prosperity whether they hindered or aided Gondorian dominance. The
Agan, who kept up a desultory resistance to Gondor in the name of Ladnocan purity, gained fame. The Merchant
Guildsmen of Maresh, who manipulated Gondor to fight their wars as surely as Uvatha used the Variags for Sauron's
purposes, also became the subject of legends. The Seraf, feswan and fezir sons of the great Haruze universities, took
up the tradition of the Kibic and Nuzhaj, cleansed of any overt hatred of the Dunedain. "Warriors by day, scholars at
evening, and poets by night," they filled ministerial posts in a score of governments and made alliance with the
Arbitrars, playing them against the Dark Cults and the Variags. It was their hope that the Haruze might gain enough
power in the "Great Game" of Haradon politics to face Gondor and Khand as equals. Arbitrars, Variags, and Seraf
legations took wine together at ambassadorial feasts for generation after generation, talking of peace and knowing
that their dreams of power could only be realized by their companions' humiliation or destruction.

In the second half of the 12th century, the Arbitrars saw their vision coming slowly to reality. Gondorian warriors
fought in Lurmsakun and Far Harad without hindrance from royal officials. Gondorian traders established
"factories" in the towns along the Rath Harad, free of local law and tariffs. Maresh again became the destination of
choice for those seeking exotic mysticism. Adventurers established small fiefs in Pezarsan and the foothills of the
Suncrown, ruling Haruze peasants while speaking Sindarin among themselves. Telgir the Mystic, an Outhame of
mixed Dunadan and Haruze ancestry, rumored to be an illegitimate son of Hyarmendacil, befriended the Avar Elves
of the Suncrown and founded a retreat for exiled Dunedain in one of their mountain valleys. He named it Velarith (S.
"Gods Safety."). in later, more violent times its beautiful, Faerie-haunted meadows became a mythical refuge for
enslaved and hunted folk of many races.

With the pacification of Lurmsakun, Gondorians seeking after knowledge and adventure could dream of crossing the
continent by land. After quarreling with his royal father, Erenvil, Atanatar's third son and Second Master of the
Keepers of Justice, dwelt in the distant Chy lands for years as a guest of its royal family. Atanatar renounced his
wayward son, but doted on Erenvil's daughter Erenin, a fiery shield-maiden of the order. In T.A. 1216 Renin traveled
across Endor by way of the Haruze and Chey lands and then eastward, pursued by priests of the Cult of the Fire
King, servants of Ren the Nazgul. She slew ten of them in a series of duels in the cities of the Lochas Drus, on
Endor's eastern shores, then sailed home on an Umbarean ship with a sack of exotic jewels and another of Lochan
books. Renin returned to Osgiliath famous and wealthy. She begged her grandfather for warriors to defeat the
minions of the Shadow she saw in every eastern land. The King refused, and Renin left for Maresh in 1222, joining
her father, Grand Captain Turgon of the Red Justins, and other lords loyal to the cause of the Arbitrars. Here, a
thousand miles from Osgiliath, they plotted a war most sacred and holy, intended to crush the savages of the plains
and make a final cleansing of evil from the lands of Middle-earth.

Knights and adventurers, ignoring Atanatar's edicts of neutrality, listened to tales of the Sacred War and began
drifting eastward along the caravan routes to Lurmsakun. Sons of the Mercantile Unity joined them, eager for
opportunity to ennoble their families by fighting in a great cause. Sihadin of Lurmsakun and Pezarsan flocked to the
Gondorian banners, offered their scimitars in the service of the greatest warriors in all of Middle-earth. Companies
of Griz and, traditional blood enemies, rode together on the adventurers trail towards the mountains. The Merchant
Princes of the Haruze provided mercenaries and money, expecting that, whatever the outcome of the coming war,
they would see trade and profit.

On the Chey prairies, Pell Vuk, High Chief of the Rosethorn, and his ally Pegan of the Whitetail heard of the
Dunedain gathering west of the Suncrown. They made peace with the Variags on their western frontier and the Ahar
to the east, then sent stern letters to Maresh, warning the Holy Warriors gathered there to consider that the Chey
47

lords, in their way, also fought the forces of evil. They reminded the Justins and their allies that even Numenor, with
all its power and arrogance, had never attempted to subdue the High Steppes of Endor. All warnings, from west and
east, went unheeded.

In the spring of T.A. 1223 the Sacred War began. Few in Gondor took any note of it save as a tail of high adventure.
Prince Minalcar, son of Calmacil and a respected voice in council, traveled south from Osgiliath hoping to speak
reason to the Arbitrars. Instead, he found officials in Harondor who delayed his journey by refusing him supplies
and members of the Mercantile Unity who fed his horses spoiled feed that sickened them. He cursed the Outhame
and all "Sons of Greed and Lust," then abandoned his mission. The Grand Master of the White Justins saw strange
omens in the stars and hid holy relics of his order to keep them from being carried to the war. Tasam Agan, Autarb of
Chelkar, whose brother had joined the Arbitrars in a bid for Gondorian recognition, raided the ruins of Lugarlur,
where Nurniag disciples of the Dark Lady had been making blood sacrifices. A dying priest laughed and screamed at
him as he burned on a pyre, swearing that his revenge was already written on the grassland winds.

From Maresh the Sacred Band, some four thousand Gondorians and ten times that number of Haradrim, marched
onto the Plateau of Khand. They broke the Variag forces near the fortress of Ovarthrac in sight of the peaks of the
Suncrown and advanced on Sturlurtsa Khand. Ovatha, brooding in his dark palace, ignored Erenvil's challenge to
single combat. After a second bloody victory outside Sturlurtsa Khand ruined the main Variag army, plague broke
out in the city and the Sacred Band's leaders refused to risk a siege. Satisfied with their work, they marched down
from the plateau and into eastern Lurmsakun. That fall they crossed the Ered Harmal, bypassed the Avar forests, and
secured quarters and supply in the Araana country east of the mountains. The Spring of 1224 saw letters of farewell
written by the Sacred Band carried west into Pezarsan. Tasam Agan's brother, seeing how few Chey scouts and
guides Erenvil had recruited for the campaign, felt the hand of fate on him and sent his family talismans home to his
mother.

Pell Vuk and Pegan Whitetail had taken the measure of their foes during the winter lull. Turgon and Erenvil struck
out across the steppes and found nothing as their enemies retreated before them. A hot wind blew down from
Mordor and Khand, drying the steppes in an early summer. The Sacred Band marched for weeks, seeking the sacred
volcano called Ulk Chey Sart, anticipating that the Chey and their allies would defend it. Instead, they found the
mountain spewing fire and ash, burning the grass and fouling the springs and streams. Horses sickened and cattle
perished as if from a plague. Suddenly, Chey and Ahar warriors appeared, attacking Turgon's camps at night. The
Red Justins drove them off, capturing the wounded Pegan Whitetail. Turgon, taunted by the Chey chieftain, ordered
a pursuit northeastward, intending to drive the Chey across their eastern frontiers and water his horses in the great
river Numahar. But he had chosen the longest, driest route to the river, the path chosen for him by Pell Vuk. Turgon,
Erenvil, and all their knights and servants, marched out across trackless, waterless country swarming with steppe
warriors. A wounded sihad of Amrun, hidden by a mud-fouled spring as Chey outriders searched for stragglers,
watched the banners of the Sacred Band pass into a cloud of dust on the horizon and vanish from the sight of
western men.

The summer passed; the wounded sihad came to Velarith and was healed. Autumn saw him in Lurmsakun and winter
saw his story inscribed and passed on to Atanatar Alcarin, Master of the Western Lands. The Chey appeared to raid
the borders of Lurmsakun, bearing white swords and gilt Haruze scimitars, and all now knew that the Sacred War
had ended tragically. In Osgiliath, few save Minalcar dared to interrupt the king's entertainments to ask him what
should be done. Atanatar demurred; he was old and content to await whatever signs the Valar would give him.

Spring came in 1225 and with it merchants from Near Harad brought tribute to the Hall of Stars in Osgiliath. Two
nervous feswan of Maresh begged Atanatar's forgiveness, saying they possessed a steel-bound cask that they had
been oath-sworn to present to the king. Atanatar, pale, sick, foreseeing ill news, dismissed most of his servants.
Minalcar stayed by him as a witness and guardian, but most of those present were fawning courtiers of little worth;
better men seldom came to the court of Gondor in those days.

The cask was set down, then the bands on it were struck off. They fell, and a rotting stench filled the room. White
robes and armor, stained with grave-mold, moved within the cask; a dead thing that had once been Erenin, Princess
of Gondor, stood up and spoke to the king. All who saw it recoiled; Minalcar and a few others drew weapons, but
none dared to strike at it.
48

In a deep, tearing voice it called Atanatar by his title: "King, Lord of Free Men, but thief of other men's freedom." It
raised a hand to him as if pleading: "Do you rule others, oh king, when you cannot rule your own house and kin?"
Then the revenant raised its arms, a moldering white silk tunic splitting around its shoulders and sagging, tugging
long wisps of dried hair from its scalp. "Here I am," it rasped; "I am here, grandfather, as you knew me." Then its
knee broke and it fell forward, shattering its jaw and face on the marble floor of the chamber. Those who could
master themselves moved to succor the king. But he hid his face in his robes, and cried out, and had to be borne
from the chamber.

Only with the passage of years did the full tale of the Sacred Band's destruction reach Osgiliath. Turgon and Erenvil,
Erenin and thousands of others, had died in a desperate attempt to reach the water and pastures of the Numahar
while in constant battle with Pell Vuk's warriors. Pegan Whitetail might have been given in ransom or parley, but he
died from a Chey arrow while walking beside Grand Captain Turgon in chains. In the end, the last Gondorian
knights went down fighting over a featureless high steppe called Calterc Prairie, named for a clan that grazed goats
on its sparse grass. While Chey and Ahar warriors took care to stripped the dead as they fell, bones and fine steel
helms would still wash out of the buttes and ravines centuries later, to be scavenged by the goat-herders.

The rivalry of North and South in Gondor

Those who had joined the Sacred War did not return, and those who mourned them lived chastened lives. The most
militant Gondorian imperialists perished on the High Steppes. The Arbitrars fell silent; they had achieved most of
their aims in Near Harad, but they remembered mainly their losses and humiliation. Gondor continued as a great
power, and Near Harad flourished under its lightly-born dominance. However, the seeds of division and resistance
had been planted.

Atanatar died less then a year after Calterc Prairie, the tale of his granddaughter's return stricken from official
records but passed in whispers among the populace. His feckless son Narmacil took the throne but showed little
interest in ruling. The powerful elites of southern Gondor, the old nobility and citizens who still remembered the
Pelargirean League, thought back to a time when they ruled themselves without the burden of a king in Osgiliath.
Their bitterness was aggravated in T.A. 1240, when Narmacil named his nephew Minalcar as regent to handle the
day to day business of governing. Minalcar was the only member of the royal family to command any respect
among the citizenry, but he disliked the Outhame and Umbareans and was hated by the remnants of the Arbitrars.
Narmacil, to disperse the power of the regency, made Minalcar's brother Calimehtar Captain of Ships, giving him
control of Gondor's navy and access to power and patronage all across Gondor's trading empire. The two brothers
soon became rivals, Calimehtar allying himself with the "Traditionalists," the dissenters in southern Gondor, and
Minalcar with other factions in the north.

Near Harad found peace in the wake of Calterc Prairie and remained peaceful for generations. Haruze nationalists
among the Nuzhaj and Seraf lost influence as the threat of direct Gondorian rule faded in Pezarsan and Chelkar. The
Variags had been bloodied and seemed content with the frontier left behind by the Sacred Band. The Chey, as well,
had suffered terrible losses defeating the Sacred Band. They kept to their side of the Ered Harmal and concentrated
on rebuilding their flocks and trade.

The great victor in the Sacred War was Sauron. Of his Ulair servants, Ren the Unclean gathered in the major spoils.
He revealed himself to the Chey gathered in worship at the foot of Ulk Chey Sart after its eruption, proclaiming
himself as Odhâren the Fierce (Ch "Fire King"), the Devam spirit of the volcano. With Pegan Whitetail's death, his
son, a devout follower of the Fire King, pledged his clans to the revealed god's glory. By T.A. 1264 the Nazgul in the
guise of the divine Al Chey Sart ruled all the Chey; he kept his power for centuries. Ovatha, whose armies had been
thoroughly savaged by the Sacred Band, fared less well, though he drove some Easterling clans from the Pustrava
into Rhun in 1240 and took their lands. Ard faded back into the shadows, waiting better times, while Murazor took
advantage of Gondor's turning inward, founding the Kingdom of Angmar in distant Eriador in T.A. 1276 as the first
move in a centuries-long campaign to destroy the Dunedain of divided Arnor.

Over many lives of lesser men, the rivalry grew between the kings in Osgiliath and the Captains of the Ships in
Pelargir. Minalcar defeated the Easterlings uprooted by Uvatha in T.A. 1248, but then allied himself with the
Northmen of Rhun as a counter to his brother's influence among the Umbareans and Haradrim. The southern
Traditionalists were ever ready to use Haruze servants as long as they honored their inferior status, but murmured
against Minalcar's use of Northmen in positions of real power. Even worse, Minalcar's son and heir, Valacar, married
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a Northman princess in 1264. His son, Eldacar, showed the vigor and longevity of the Line of Anarion as he
matured, but his "tainted" blood was not forgotten through the peaceful years of the 14th century of the Age. As
Valacar approached death in the 1430's, Traditionalist agitation focused on his son's fitness to rule the Dunedain.
Popular feeling in Lebennin and Pelargir, Harondor and Umbar turned against Eldacar, leading to riots. Castamir,
Captain of the Ships and heir to the political power gathered by his grandsire Calimehtar, led an uprising in Pelargir
and was declared king. His followers, collectively known as the confederates, were determined to recreate the shared
government of Meneldil and the Pelargirean League. Instead they created oppression and war. The long Gondorian
peace now came to an end in Near Harad, replaced by an endless cycle of bloodshed and suffering.

The Kin-Strife
The cataclysm of the Kin-strife, while forecast by any number of doomsayers over the years, seemed to catch the
prosperous fezir of Near Harad unawares. Taskrel Jusan Akil of Amrun attempted to reconcile Eldacar and Castamir,
but was ignored. Other Tarbs excoriated Jusan in secret letters, seeing opportunity in the division of their overlords.
Castamir gathered the scattered companies of Gondor's southern army to fight in Lebennin and Ithilien, taking
advantage of Jusan's peacemaking to strip the frontier. The Jelut of Urdwaith offered to fight for Castamir, but the
thought of nomadic warriors pillaging the fair vales of Gondor appalled the Traditionalists. Instead, they bided their
time, raised native forces in Lebennin and Ithilien, and used them to drive Eldacar from Gondor in the third year of
the war.

Even after three years of bloody civil war, Gondor's prestige in Near Harad still held the Haruze in check. However,
Castamir proved to be a clumsy and monstrously cruel ruler. He imprisoned or executed thousands, allowed his
loyalists to corrupt the civil service, and deliberately allowed Osgiliath to fall into ruin; only his favored supporters
in the southern provinces prospered under his rule, and even many of them began to doubt his sanity. Worse, he
failed to catch Eldacar. Most of Gondor's cavalry had been Northman mercenaries; when these companies fled into
Rhun with Eldacar, Castamir could mount no effective pursuit. Only after his inept, oppressive regime began to
alienate the Gondorian commons did he deploy Haruze horsemen on the northern plains. The passage of the
Haradrim through Ithilien further enraged the populace and the desert warriors were defeated by disease brought on
by the cooler, damper climate of Rhun before Eldacar could be brought to battle.

Both royalists and confederates now recruited more soldiers and sent secret envoys to undermine each other's
support among the Gondorian nobility. Castamir's position worsened with each passing season; he was obliged to
deploy his Gondorian soldiers to secure towns and cities and hire large numbers of Haruze mercenaries to strengthen
his field army. In 1447 Eldacar returned to Gondor, bringing his Northmen with him, collecting allies, and gathering
deserters from Castamir's forces. In 1448 the main armies clashed decisively at the Crossings of Erui, midway
between Pelargir and Osgiliath. Castamir and much of the Gondorian nobility died on the battlefield, while the
survivors fled to the southern provinces and attempted to set up a government in exile.
Eldacar now held the throne of Gondor, but the confederates controlled its trade links to the south. The immediate
effect was a economic collapse all across Gondor and Near Harad. In the midst of the chaos, Gondor's influence in
Harad dissolved and new powers appeared.

The first great victor was Ovatha, who organized a massive invasion of Lurmsakun coincident with Eldacar's return
to Gondor in 1447. He swept across the country in a year, sacking Maresh and threatening Pezarsan. Jusan Akil of
Amrun organized a Haruze alliance against him. When he died in battle, his son Jusan Turaz, showed unexpected
talent, subduing Pezarsan and driving the Variags eastward. Ovatha, content with regaining the borders of his
Second Age empire, turned his attention to the High Steppes.

Haruzan, particularly Harondor, suffered the worst effects of the Kin-strife. The heirs of Castamir failed to
consolidate their rule over Umbar, which quickly fell under the rule of a new Council of Captains. Castamaite,
grandson of the usurper, seized Gobel Mírlond for himself and used it as a base for raiding and pillaging the coasts
of Gondor. The majority of confederates were appalled at the death and devastation visited on land and people they
considered their own. However, they had been cut off from the bulk of Gondor's manufacture and manpower and
could not build an army large enough to invade Ithilien with any hope of success. Indeed, the loose alliance of
confederate warlords controlling Harondor barely held their own against Eldacar's feeble attempts to cross the Poros.
In T.A. 1479, Jusan Turaz conquered the East March of Harondor from the confederates, the first victory of a Haruze
ruler over Dunadan forces since the days of the Muargiz. The desperation of the confederates became evident when
they offered to subsidize an Amrun invasion of Ithilien. However, Jusan Turaz turned eastward to deal with Ovatha,
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and the opportunity passed.

A half-century of stalemate in Harondor bled the land instead of healing it. Aldamir, Eldacar's son and successor on
the throne of Gondor, inherited a stable realm, but one too weak to regain its southern provinces or its empire. The
confederates, unable to make a unified effort to topple Aldamir, instead used Castamaite's corsair tactics to drain his
resources. The Haruze of Harondor, their trade crippled by constant war and crippling taxes, increasingly spoke of
freedom from the Dunedain. The confederates responded with brutal oppression. Sihadin officers deserted the army
and Seraf officials were driven from government; some fled to Amrun, while others joined the Dark Cults, now
presenting themselves as liberators from the madness of the Dunedain.

It remained for another generation of leaders to break the stalemate and bring on the complete ruin of Harondor.
Emig Cosrah, leader of a mercenary army in Pezarsan, led a revolt against Amrun as the 16th century began, then
drove Ovatha's southern armies from Lurmsakun in a series of brilliant campaigns. When Jusan Tezar died childless,
Emig turned against Amrun again and this time subjugated it. Jusan had favored Umbar in the western conflict,
hoping to keep the Dunedain divided, but Emig Cosrah held more land and possessed more confidence. He sent his
grandson Temer to Gondor to study with Aldamir's children and considered an open alliance.

In 1523 the Umbareans, to counter the rising power of the Cosrah, conspired with Amrun to murder them. Emig
succumbed to a poisoned arrow, but Vinyarion, Gondor's crown prince, helped his friend Temer Cosrah slay the
assassins who stalked him in the streets of Osgiliath. Temer, aided by Gondorian rangers, made his way in disguise
through hundreds of miles of enemy country to reach Pezarsan. There he rallied his loyalists, defeated Amrun, and
put his own puppet on the throne of the Stone Kings. Punishing campaigns against Harondor and the Ethirist
followed. The Cosrah now ruled more territory than any Haruze since the Varjev, a thousand years before. Sauron,
watching with alarm from distant Amon Lanc, ordered his servants to break up the new power. Temer sensed the
conspiracy closing in on him from north and east. He turned away from his grievances with the Dunedain to conquer
Chelkar, ruin a Chey army in the passes of the Suncrown, and defeat Ovatha personally on a battlefield in southern
Khand.

With the Cosrah distracted on their eastern frontier, Aldamir mustered all his strength for a major blow in Harondor.
In 1540 his army struck across the Aegardh and besieged Mírlond. Aldamir was slain directing the final assault, but
Castamaite and his ships fled to Ramlond and Vinyarion, taking up the crown on the battlefield, crushed all
Umbarean resistance north of the Harnen. The Gondorian victory, which might have brought peace to western
Middle-earth, instead brought only more desperate pirate raids on Gondor's coasts. Vinyarion denounced the
surviving confederates as corsairs in his official documents, making them subject to execution if captured and
ensuring that the grim, hate-drenched conflict would continue.

To complete his conquest of Harondor, Vinyarion needed to neutralize the Umbareans of the Ethirist and regain the
East March from Amrun. In 1545 the Taskrel of Amrun foolishly refused Gondor's claims of free passage of the
Harnen and Vinyarion broke their army at Gaunt Valley. Gondor regained the ancient fortress of Tiras Amrun and its
king hoped that Temer Cosrah, a friend and admirer of Gondor, would accept the traditional frontier. For a time,
peace seemed possible. However in 1549 Vinyarion successfully crossed the Harnen and besieged Gobel
Ancalimon. Temer Cosrah, now the most powerful ruler Near Harad had seen since the Second Age, remembered
that he had promised to drive the Umbareans into the sea himself. He began moving vast forces westward towards
Harondor. Vinyarion granted Umbar a twenty-year truce and stripped manpower from frontiers as far away as
Eriador to meet the threat. Temer, after a belated personal appeal from Vinyarion failed, crossed the middle Harnen
at Oud Ilaz and brought an immense army over the river into the East March. The siege of Tiras Amrun looked to be
a long one, but Vinyarion did not wait. He struck across the Aegardh into the foothills of the Ausk Dubat, forcing a
battle in the rocky valley of the Grave River. Here Chelkar "Mountain Goats," scouts from the foothills of the
Mountains of Shadow, infiltrated Vinyarion's camp and nearly slew him in his tent. They were driven away,
however, and the following morning Gondor's steel-clad infantry hacked their way directly down the valley through
a sea of Haradon footmen and cavalry hemmed in by the surrounding hills.

Temer Cosrah was among the slain at the River of Graves, bringing up memories of Blacksand to the Gondorian
bards. Vinyarion buried his friend with honor and took the name Hyarmendacil II. He knew, however, that his losses
were great and his reach was shorter than Ciryaher's had been. Gondor honored the truce with Umbar and
Hyarmendacil spent the rest of his reign attempting to rebuild Harondor and the rest of his kingdom.
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The Great Plague

The Kin-strife ended, officially, with the conquest of Harondor and Vinyarion's condemnation of the surviving
confederates as Corsairs. Support for Castamir's line in Gondor had effectively been erased by the terrible suffering
the corsair raids brought to its coasts. The Corsair Realm, while making most of its living in the southern trade, now
took pride in is punishing raids on Gondor. Its children, many now of only limited Gondorian descent, were brought
up to hate the great kingdom to the north. Gondor, in its turn, regarded the Umbareans as barbarians, little better than
Easterlings, and made much of their habit of taking Haruze wives and concubines.

The Haruze lands, after a shining moment of triumph under the Cosrah, collapsed into corruption and chaos. In the
latter part of the 16th century, Ovatha regained control of Lurmsakun, but his Variag hordes were weaker than they
had once been. A local revolt drove them out in 1622. Farther west, Amrun regained some of its strength, but the
miserable, endless war in Harondor and the Bay of Belfalas went on year after year, interrupted only by local truces
and persistent smuggling. In T.A. 1633 two great-grandsons of Castamir, Castamaite and Sangahyando, attempted to
break the stalemate by launching the Great Raid, a fleet-sized assault on Pelargir that ruined much of the port and
slew King Minardil. Castamaite perished in the fighting, but Sangahyando, the more gifted of the two captains,
pressed the offensive in Harondor; he beat Gondor's southern army and captured Mírlond in 1637. In the midst of
the fighting, a Great Plague swept out of the east along the caravan routes. The Dark Cults claimed it had been sent
by their gods to destroy the Dunedain, and it did strike them harder than other races, even forcing the Gondorian
kings to abandon the ruins of Osgiliath. The mystery of the Bane's origin was of was of little concern to the Haruze,
as the plague slew every fourth man, woman, and child in every city in Near Harad. Fevers, bleeding, and painful
death struck every city in every household in the land. Two kings of Gondor and three Haruze monarchs perished.

In the mid-17th century of the Third Age, for the first time in decades, no great wars troubled the exhausted lands of
Near Harad. Even Sangahyando, still plotting the conquest of Harondor, had to pause and rebuild his forces in the
wake of the pestilence. Gondor, under a new, young king, moved its capital to Minas Anor, seeking to heal itself
after the deadly blows it had suffered from the Corsairs and the Great Plague. The Haruze, ever stoic in the long run,
grimly went about their harvesting and trading. If there were fewer hands to plant the fields, there were fewer
mouths to feed. Tarondor, in Gondor, Sangahyando, in Mírlond, and Ovatha Ito, the new ruler of the Variags, bore
watching, but life would continue its endless rhythm regardless of the whims of kings.

2.8 THE CORSAIRS AND WAINRIDERS

The history of the later Third Age, save for the heroic struggle that brought it to an end, could be written in meaner
language than the legends of its first centuries. The Haruze scholars of the millennium after the Great Plague, the
Seraf, Nuzhaj, and thoughtful feswan and fezir, all knew that their kingdoms and cities boasted less wealth, built
fewer great works, had fewer ambitions than in times past. Their counterparts in Gondor and Umbar felt the same
humility. The prosperous farmers of Lebennin and the lowliest utarf of Pezarsan could see what had been lost in the
ruined villages and castles visible all through their countries. If a Gondorian could ponder the ruins of Osgiliath, the
Haruze could wander the pillars of ancient palaces hidden in the valleys around Amrun. The last Dunedain of Umbar
could cross the ancient high bridge at Gobel Ancalimon, almost a mile long and ______ feet above the Harnen, and
marvel at what giants had wrought it in some long-ago time. In all of Endor, only one great lord, Sauron the Azhan,
could hope to create an empire like those of past ages. Too twisted with the pride of a god to think himself less than
he had been what he had been, Sauron none the less acted the part. This immortal spirit, who had once walked
unguarded into the cities and camps of his enemies, now spent the centuries of his great conspiracy against the Free
Peoples of Middle-earth gnawed by fear and doubt. He trusted no one, relying on his slaves rather than free servants
and allies. He hid himself from mortals until he could summon vast, overwhelming armies to protect him from their
little weapons.

Because the wisdom and folly of men had not changed with their decline in numbers and wealth, the wars they
fought were no less fierce. Most of them, even those created by the manipulations of Sauron, were fought over old
causes and old rivalries.

In Near Harad, the blood feud between the Corsairs of Umbar and the Kingdom of Gondor dominated the first
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centuries after the Great Plague. Sangahyando of Umbar seized Mírlond and southern Harondor as Gondor lay
prostrate after the twin blows of the plague and the Great Raid of T.A. 1634. He lacked the resources to conquer any
more of Harondor. King Tarondor and his son and successor, Telumehtar, possessed Ciryaher Hyarmendacil's
patience and methodical turn of mind. Tarondor concentrated on defending his seaward defenses after the plague and
rebuilt his stricken kingdom behind a new wall of coastal fortifications. In 1720, after decades of unofficial truce
along his southern border, he reopened the war in Harondor with overwhelming force. Mírlond fell and
Sangahyando, bitter with the knowledge that his grand strategy had failed to give him Castamir's throne, died
defending Mírlond's citadel.

The Corsairs, even the most fanatical descendants of the old confederates, mustered no new forces and no new
strategies in the next century. In 1809 Telumehtar collected a sizable navy and defeated Umbar's main fleet. He
seized several small ports in Formendor and then, while his enemies gathered soldiers to retake them, sailed past
them and took Umbar by storm. Some of the most fanatical of the Corsair lords, including the descendants of
Castamir, died defending the city. The survivors of the Council of Captains fled their castles in the Ethirist and
northern Formendor. The best known and fiercest enemies of Gondor still among them were murdered or forced into
exile, which allowed the remaining captains to offer a token submission to Gondor. This Telumehtar accepted; his
strength had been utterly spent in the great war, and trouble was now brewing on other frontiers.

In eastern Near Harad, the Merchant Princes of Lurmsakun lived in constant fear of a Variag revival. Ovatha the
Undying spent the decade before the plague in seclusion. Many of the wise felt that Sauron himself summoned the
epidemic with his sorceries, and that Ovatha, tied to his master's spirit through the rings of power, had some part in
its creation. While none can truly fathom what thoughts might trouble the minds of the undead, it is also likely that
Ovatha was aware that the plague would soon ravage the cities of central Endor. It would be well, in that case, for
other leaders to take the blame for the suffering that would ensue. So it was that in the years of the plague, a new,
young, and mortal Khurdriag, Ovatha Ito, rose and unified the tribal warriors of Khand. Older leaders, attempting to
hold on to power in the corpse-littered streets of Sturlurtsa Khand, were swept away. Ovatha Ito reorganized the
Variag empire along tribal lines, for conquest, but declined to expend his strength on the walls of the corrupt trading
cities of Lurmsakun. Instead, he accepted their tribute and struck out to the north and east. Over a forty year span, he
rebuilt Ovatha's empire, forced the Chey into a subservient alliance, and made plans to invade both Rhun and
Pezarsan. The Haruze and their neighbors, the mountain folk of Velarith, paid Variag tolls for their caravans and
waited for the conqueror to turn south, but he was defeated by the Ahar leader Parnelion Sey in 1672 at the Grass
Tombs and was crushed by his own falling horse in the retreat. His empire fell apart soon after, but ambitious
chieftains now lusted after the throne of the Khurdriags, where they had before only wished to stand at the side of
Ovatha the Undying.

At the bidding of Sauron, both Ovatha and Ren the Fire King secretly hid themselves in Mordor during the 17th
century of the Third Age, leaving generations of bloody-handed horse-clansmen to forage in Ovatha Ito's wake for
the spoils of the high plains of Endor. For a time, this arrangement suited the Dark Lord well enough, as his plans for
this part of Middle-earth now involved little more than keeping more civilized folk from troubling the Pustrava and
his caravan routes into the distant east. When events in Khand grew too chaotic in the 19th century, Ovatha returned
to Sturlurtsa wielding the vengeance of an angry god. He resolved the disputes of the clans with a bloody wave of
assassinations and executions. Almost accidentally, he also set in motion a firestorm of violence and killing that
swept across Near Harad and nearly achieved Sauron's dream of destroying the southern Dunedain.

Since the plague, Gondor's hold on the plains of Rhun had been mainly a bluff. Most of the grasslands were held by
the Ewathrumi, a Northman nation, the descendants of King Romendacil's mercenary cavalry and the core of
Eldacar's army of reconquest. Tall and blond, as fine a body of horseman as could be found in Endor, they boasted a
legendary fighting spirit but could not summon nearly enough warriors for a prolonged conflict. In T.A. 1851
Uvatha struck north from Khand and uprooted three entire nations of Wain-Easterlings. These grim nomads -- called
the Wainriders, for the wagons that carried their homes and goods -- rallied around a group of talented chief-kings
and swept out over the plains north of Mordor, driving the Ewathrumi into the vale of Anduin and slaughtering the
remnants of Gondor's colonists east of the river. In 1856 they crossed the Dagorlad and struck into Ithilien. The
Gondorians drove them back, but King Narmacil II, Telumehtar's successor, was slain by a Wainrider arrow in the
midst of the fighting.

This disaster virtually ended Gondor's attempts to re-build its defenses in Harondor, but worse was to come. Ovatha,
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after securing his northern frontiers, struck south into Lurmsakun and subdued it after a decade-long struggle. 1899 a
Northman revolt and Gondorian raids drove the Wainriders back towards the Pustrava and Khand's frontier. Ovatha
accepted the allegiance of the destitute nomads as mercenaries, using them to conquer Pezarsan and Chelkar in the
opening years of the 20th century.

Ovatha had been wary of facing Gondor in direct battle, but his nomadic vassals were eager to try. In T.A. 1921 the
God-king left Khand once again. The Variag leaders immediately fell to squabbling among themselves, but Avas III
of the Igath, youngest of the Wainrider chieftains, saw a grand opportunity. He had traveled the caravan routes from
Sturlurtsa to Pelargir in 1931 and envisioned an invasion on two fronts that would destroy the Dunedain and bring
all of their riches into his tent. Ovathar Acheff, after T.A. 19__ Ovatha's anointed successor and undisputed
Khurdriag of Khand, became enamored of Avas's idea and committed all of his influence and riches to the new holy
war.

Rumors of the armies gathering in Lurmsakun and Rhun filtered west to Gondor, but little could be done beside
shoring up the defenses of Harondor. Ondoher, Gondor's new king, struck a bargain with Akil VI Agan, the Taskrel
of Amrun, promising a permanent and equal alliance with Gondor if he stood against the oncoming hordes. Akil
faced resistance from angry sihadin hoping to join in the sack of Gondor, along with an assassination conspiracy
fostered by the Mahurk, a fanatical branch of the Cult of Melkor. Determined to win by the stroke of a pen the rights
and power Talasc Imocra and Temer Cosrah had failed to win with the sword, Akil fought against the conspirators
with mass arrests and executions by bonfire. All of Near Harad now rose in revolt against the depredations of the
Variag and Igath armies moving west into Lurmsakun. Swarms of refugees fled westward from the savage fighting.
In past centuries Gondor might have sealed her borders against them, but Ondoher could not muster a fragment of
the strength of Ciryahir Hyarmendacil or Castamir. The caravan routes were overrun by urdwan clans and the
villages of Harondor were enveloped by tent camps guarded by armed and desperate Haruze.

In the midst of the confusion, catastrophe struck. The Jelut of the Urdwaith, goaded by the Mahurk and servants of
the Dark Lady, changed sides and allied themselves with Ovathar. The Jelut had already struck a deal with the
Umbareans of Formendor and the Ethirist, who then declared themselves free of Gondorian rule. In T.A. 1940, as
Ondoher tried to find the resources to attack Ramlond, the center of the revolt, the Umbareans and Haruze moved
along desert paths and besieged Umbar. The storming of the city and the brutal execution of the knights of the
garrison stunned Gondor, but Ondoher and his captains still proposed to recapture the city. The Wainrider forces in
Rhun and along the Harnen north and west of Amrun timed large scale raids to defeat Ondoher's plans, delaying him
until Lurmsakun and Pezarsan could be pacified and made ready for full scale war.

The Wainrider whirlwind struck in T.A. 1944. Akil VI had fought well proven as honorable a man as could be found
in Harad, but a Mahurk assassin had stabbed him to death the previous winter. Amrun's bridges and warriors now
served the Wainriders. Worse, Avas and Ovathar proved to be as captains as skilled as their ancestors. They crossed
the Harnen at many points, rapidly overwhelmed the border forts of Harondor, and drove its Outhame population
before them to terrorize and burden the soldiers manning Gondor's frontier defenses. Earnil, Captain of Gondor's
Southern Army, abandoned Harondor and concentrated what strength he could still muster in Harithilien, between
Arthrad Poros and Pelargir. This was country difficult for the Wainriders to scout, but they crossed the Poros anyhow
and rode into the trap. Earnil caught the Haradrim and Easterling forces on the march, as Anarion had done in the
War of the Last Alliance, and destroyed them. Ovathar died at the hands of a Gondorian knight. Avas fought his way
back into Harondor and was murdered in his bed by a Haruze Tarb.

The devastation the Wainrider invasion brought to Harondor might not itself have been decisive, save for the second
disaster on Gondor's northern frontier. Ondoher, facing the lesser of the two Wainrider armies, deployed poorly on
the Dagorlad and was taken in flank. The cream of the Gondorian army and nobility, including the king and his sons,
were slain on the battlefield or driven into the nearby Dead Marshes to drown. So complete was the Wainrider
victory that their chieftains failed to send more than a token force south to ravage Ithilien and watch for Gondorian
reinforcements. Earnil's exhausted army, making forced marches along the ancient roads of the province, came upon
the Wainrider army still in night-camp and drove in among them through a foggy, rain-soaked dawn. Most of the
Easterlings were cut down as they fled through the woods or drowned in the marshes. Some, it was said, were pulled
into the murky bogs by the lifeless, ghostly hands of the Gondorians they had slaughtered just days before.

The war ended on that blood-sodden battlefield; a chronicler lamented that "all who had wished for war were dead,
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and also many who begged for peace, and all who craved vainglory were humbled by grief." A Haruze physician
traveled from Minas Anor to Amrun in that year, treating the sick for his passage and searching for a daughter
carried off by the Variags. "What town does not know the misery and folly of men?" he wrote, "Is any road without
its ghosts? Find a house, if you can, from the Mountains of Mist to the Crests of Shadow to the Crown of the Sun
that does not wail for some lost brother or son?"

The wrack and ruin of war littered the country from Rhun to Umbar and Umbar to the Suncrown. Gondor, at least,
still boasted a functioning army. The direct Line of Anarion had ended with Ondoher's death, but Earnil was of royal
blood and was made king. Naiv II Agan, grandson of Taskrel Akil VI of Amrun, regain the throne of the Stone Kings
for his family and brought peace to eastern Haruzan. In Pezarsan and Lurmsakun, Variags and Igath who survived
the war were hunted down and slain like wild dogs. Umbar claimed Harnendor, Sangahyando's old province along
the lower Harnen, but the Outhame of Harondor had been swept away by the Easterling invaders. Mírlond, now
primarily a Haruze town, eventually became known Kas Marzuk, and what had been southern Harondor now took
on the name of Harmaka, after the range of hills just north of the Harnen. Petty squabbles among little kings still
troubled Near Harad, but, for the most part, a melancholy peace gave now settled in along the rivers.

Sauron's conspiracy and the Morgul Realm

The great victor of the Wainrider Wars proved to be Sauron the Azhan. Although any evil that fell upon the western
lands could be blamed on the hidden ill will of the Shadow, Sauron could not be said to have foretold how
successful his plots would be. Hidden in the secret labyrinth beneath Amon Lanc, the Azhan had been focusing his
attention on Mordor and Angmar, the realm of the Witch-king in northern Eriador.

Angmar had been warring against the northern Dunedain, ruled by the heirs of the Line of Isildur, since the 13th
century. Cold, rocky, and barren, it had been a constant drain on the hidden Dark Lord's meager resources. However,
the relentless patience of the Undead and a sorcerous worsening of the northern weather ate away at the resistance of
Arthedain, the last of the Dunadan realms in Eriador. In T.A. 1974 disease and relentless Orc raids opened the way
for a major Angmarean effort. Earnil of Gondor, sent his son, Prince Earnur, north with a fleet and as much strength
as could be loaded for such a long journey. The Council of Umbar, still building up its own fleet after its successful
revolt, made only a token effort to block Earnur's sailing. Some among the captains favored aid to Arthedain, as a
kindred realm; others simply hoped that the fleet would be lost in the storms of the Sundering Sea.

Earnur, a competent military leader with a streak of unholy pride, arrived too late to save the Arthedain from a
decisive defeat. The northerners had died bravely, however, and the Witch-king's hordes had been brutally handled
in the fighting. At the Battle of Lake Evendim, in the spring of 1975, Earnur, supported by an Elvish contingent from
Lindon and a few companies of Arthadan refugees, took the Angmarim in flank and scattered them. Earnur himself
caught the Witch-king fleeing the battle and was humiliated when his horse panicked at the scent of the Nazgul. The
Prince returned to Gondor speaking loudly to cover the essential failure of his expedition. Angmar was destroyed,
but so was Arthedain, and the Witch-king had escaped. The old lands of Arnor were in ruins; for the rest of the Third
Age, Gondor would have no allies of note in northern lands.

Both the Wainrider Wars and the fall of Arthedain served as distractions from Sauron's main effort. Mordor had been
a backwater for two thousand years, a cursed place, dry and desolate. Its Orcs feared Gondorian arrows and seldom
showed themselves. Even Nurn, which had been Sauron's bread-basket in the centuries of his first empire, lay
fallow, the levees of its ancient irrigation systems used as goat-trails by nomadic herdsmen. After the Great Plague,
however, Gondor evacuated its outlying fortresses and stopped sending patrols into the haunted deserts of
Gorgoroth. Even Cirith Aeglir, the pass between Gorgoroth and Ithilien, was abandoned after the awakening of an
Azhan, a Demon-spider hidden in the caverns under its foundations. The pass was renamed Cirith Ungol (S.
"Spider’s Cleft"). Minas Ithil, the capital of Ithilien and the third city of Gondor, lay only few hours march from the
edge of the haunted lands.

Rumors continued to drift out Mordor after the plague, mainly through Chelkar and Amrun, that a unified "Morgul
Realm," consisting mainly of Orcs and Trolls, had been formed in north-central Mordor. Its rulers were said to be
mainly spirits of sorcery, not the fire-dwelling Devam of Haruze legend. Ovatha the Undying of Khand was said to
be one of the spirits, but little more could be said on the subject.

Thus, western Middle-earth reacted with surprise and horror when, in T.A. 2000, a Morgul army issued from Cirith
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Ungol and hidden passes in the Mountains of Shadow and besieged Minas Ithil. Its leaders now revealed themselves
openly as the Nazgul of legend, and few could withstand their sorcerous magics or their aura of undead terror. Earnil
and Earnur had the strength to face the Nazgul, and counterattacked vigorously. However, nothing could be done to
save the city, and Gondor could only seal off the valley leading to it. It took the name of Minas Morgul, and
seemingly existed to remind the Dunedain of the weakening of their realm.

Earnil died in the midst of this Morgul War. Earnur, now king, was haunted by the knowledge that Murazor the
Witch-king, who had shamed him at the Battle of Lake Evendim, now led the army that had destroyed Minas Ithil.
Murazor challenged the new king of Gondor to personal combat. Earnur allowed his counselors to persuade him to
refuse the challenge. Forty-eight years later, all other means of driving the Shadow away from Ithilien had failed, he
persuaded himself that Murazor would face him honorably and that he could defeat the three-thousand year old
abomination. He took a small escort in past the gates of Minas Morgul and did not return.

Earnur's loss also ended the line of kings descended from Anarion and his son Meneldil. For the Dunedain, whose
religion and identity centered on the kingship, this was a grievous blow. Instead of selecting a new king, the Council
of Gondor appointed Mardil, Steward of the Realm, as sovereign until "the King should return." Mardil and his
family would rule well, but the prestige of Gondor in Harad and Rhun was damaged by this as much as by the loss
of Minas Ithil. Gondor's reach had grown short; Mardil's policies were defensive ones; Minas Anor, his capital, was
renamed Minas Tirith, "Tower of Guard," referring to the Stewards' responsibility for the legacy of the Kings and
their lack of goals beyond that responsibility. All hope of regaining Harondor and Umbar was lost. The kings of the
Haruze could not hope to equal the steward's strength, his long lives, or the mystique of the Dunedain, but they no
longer feared Gondor.

2.9 THE STRUGGLE OF A THOUSAND YEARS

As the third millennium of Third Age of Middle-earth began, the enemies of the Haruze had clearly weakened, their
strength wasted in endless, destructive wars. For the first time since the age of the Ship-kings, the threat of outside
domination no longer preoccupied the minds of Haradon kings. Scholars and priests, mystics and philosophers all
prophesied mighty deeds and great empires in Near Harad. Instead, for generation after generation, the more ruthless
and corrupt among the fezir and feswan fought over the spoils of government, while the thoughtful among them took
up the quarrels of religious difference. For this failure, Sauron and Ard bore some of the shame, for they relentlessly
promoted the Dark Cults, seeking to master Near Harad and use it as a storehouse and arsenal for their prophesied
final struggle against the Lords of the West, the Dunedain and Elves. However, the wise among the Haruze could
only place the blame on themselves. If the Dunedain, faced with mystical warnings of the rise of the Shadow, only
waited for the deadly blow to fall, so too did the Haruze. Faced with an endless cycle of conspiracy, corruption, and
murder at the center of power, those of worth and influence either joined in or spoke with resignation of fate and the
evil that stained every human soul.

No Haruze empire of the later Third Age grew to match those of the Varjev, Imocra, or Cosrah. Borders changed,
dynasties appeared and passed away. In Haruzan, Amrun remained the most important city, the focus of trade and
intrigue. In Lurmsakun, Maresh retained its reputation as an exotic city of vice and pleasure, even as other cities
succeeded it as centers of political power. For most of the age, the Dunedain of Gondor and Dwarves and men of
many nations moved freely along the caravan roads. They never felt as safe as they had been in the centuries of
Numenorean, Varjev and Gondorian domination, but overt prosecution of foreigners occurred only when the harsher
religious factions were in power. If the Poganin might have be armed against cult assassins lurking in dark alleys,
the risks merely added to those of the thieves and cut-purses found in every city. As the end of the age approached,
as the confrontation between the Shadow and the Lords of the West drew near, Near Harad, broken into many petty
realms, lacked the strength to stay free of the conflict, and became its pawn.

The most important change through the centuries occurred in Umbar and Mordor. The Dunadan Council of Umbar,
seeking to reclaim its ancient Aruwanai heritage free of the heirs of the Faithful, instead condemned their bloodlines
and culture to a slow death. Their alienation from Gondor left them a small minority in a sea of Haradrim and other
foreign influences. Marriage with Dunedain from elsewhere in Endor, and eventually with Gondorian captives of
pure birth, could only delay the mingling of Dunadan and Per______ blood with that of their Sakalai and Haruze
56

subjects. More so, the bitterness of the long conflict with Gondor, as well as the cynicism and brutality of the corsair
tradition, corrupted Umbar, fostering a debauched and cruel view of the world, one more recognizable as the "Black
Numenorean" tradition of Gondorian diatribes. Gradually, with the passage of generations, Umbar became
something its founding Elders would not have recognized, something that Sauron and the Cult of Melkor could use
to their advantage.

The Morgul Realm grew slowly over the centuries. Mordor, a wasteland even in its best times, possessed the
resources to support a swarm of Orc tribes and, in Nurn, a system of desert rivers that could be made productive if
enough slaves could be secured to work them. The Nurniags themselves, scattered, superstitious, and warped by
centuries of life in a haunted land, grew slowly in numbers and performed poorly as servants. Not until Sauron's
conspiracy was near to being revealed in the 29th century was Nurn rebuilt into the grain-mill of Mordor and the
evil tower of Barad-dur rebuilt. Until then, Minas Morgul, a loathsome, poisonous citadel, a perversion of the
beautiful city Minas Ithil had once been, served as the earthly focus of Servants of the Shadow.

With the passage of years, the souls of the Haruze remained a great prize, contested between the Dark Cultists and
gentler creeds. The most determined combatants were the Ladnocans, the traditional followers of the Moon
Goddess, along with the devotees of the Dark Lady, the Cult of Melkor, and the Audrat Vatra, the Sun-worshipping
sect from Far Harad. Other beliefs, some esoteric and emotional, others pragmatic and worldly, also flourished, as
did the ancient superstitions concerning spirits of nature and the earth.

Powers waxed and waned in Near Harad for a thousand years, each passage of history marked by a change in the
balance of faiths among the Haruze. The 21st to 25th centuries became known to mystics of Near Harad and the
West as the time of the Watchful Peace. Sauron hid himself in eastern Endor for much of this time, while the
Ladnocans grew in power among the Haruze. In the 24th century, the Ladnocan Omrusin clan came to dominate the
lower Harnen and the Urdwaith. Umbar was obliged to pay "subsidies" -- a euphemism for tribute -- for a time.
Steward Hador of Gondor and Naiv V of Amrun both saw a chance to bring a permanent peace to the coasts of
Haruzan, one useful for the trade of all nations, but a fiercely talented family of corsairs took control of the Council
of Umbar and the moment passed. The 25th century saw Ithilien attacked again from Minas Morgul. The Krita, who
had long provided most of the manpower for the defense of the Summer Hills, were worn down by attacks by new
generations of Griz. These Griz war-bands, Vatraic fanatics employed by the Lords of the Harmaka to harass
Gondor, eventually established strongholds in the Emyn Laer, threatening the villages along Poros. In the early 26th
century, Easterlings and Orcs invaded Gondor from the Plains of Rhun. They were defeated after the intervention of
the Rohirrim, a Northman nation descended from the Ewathrumi driven from Rhun by the Wainriders. The Rohirrim
established the nation of Rohan on Gondor's northern frontier. Companies of Rohir cavalry enabled Gondor to
dominate the Aegardh for a time and weaken the Vatraics in Haruzan. The 27th century saw a new Ladnocan
dynasty, the Taminids, dominate much of Haruzan west of Amrun. Three Taminid Autarbs in succession kings defied
threats from the Dark Cults and allied themselves with Steward Ecthelion of Gondor. With his support they
succeeded in clearing the last Umbarean strongholds north of the Harnen and went on to subdue the Ethirist and
northern Formendor before Mulkerhil assassins slew the last of their line.

From 2730 on no peace could be had in Haruzan and the lands of Near Harad grew more and more dangerous for
anyone from the West. The Varazin, a Sun-worshipping dynasty from an obscure town in the Harmaka, seized power
in the Taminid lands and allied themselves with Umbar and Amrun against Gondor. A mad prophet who claimed to
have had personal speech with the Dark Lady warned the Haruze that a Bane of Power from the Gods can be
summoned to aid in their holy war, but Tescel Varazin, their fiery young leader, could not wait. He struck against
Gondor's defenses in the Emyn Laer in 2741 and swept away their coastal settlements south of the Ethir Anduin by
2744. He then attempted to take his army across the Poros on rafts. At the Battle of Hyand Byth, his camp was
surprised by ship-born rangers of Ithilien attacking from the river. The Varazin army lost an immense herd of horses
and many of its best soldiers. Under Steward Beren, Gondor launched a counter invasion and, two years later, its
cavalry watered their horses in the Harnen for the last time in the Third Age. The Haruze rallied behind Tescel in the
aftermath of Beren's victory and drove the Poganin back over the Poros.

Tescel was soon murdered by agents of Amrun and the Varazin domains broke up. However, the Poros now became
Gondor's southern border, subject to constant Griz raids. The Krita had vanished from history, and with them the last
traces of Outhame and Sakalai culture in Middle-earth. The blood-feud between Haruze and Dunadan went on, and
few took time to mourn the passing of a nation that had been trampled out of existence between them.
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In 2758 and 2759 the Corsairs of Umbar, now dominated by the Mulkerhil,
launched a devastating attack on the coasts of Gondor and as far north as
Rohan and Eriador. The Bane of Power prophesied to the Varazin then made its
appearance. A Long Winter, cold as those that had crippled Arthedain eight
hundred years before, ravaged much of northern Middle-earth, killing people
and livestock by the thousands. The Corsairs and Haruze could not take any
advantage of the Bane, as the storms it caused in more southern regions
crippled their fleets and caused destructive floods along the length of the
Harnen. Utarf mobs lynched priests of the Dark Lady in the streets of Amrun
and burned Mulkerhil mystics on bonfires in Kaz Marzuk. The disaster led to an
informal truce across Haruzan and brought the Ladnocans into ascendance for a
few decades elsewhere in Near Harad. Gondor and Rohan recovered their
strength, but Sauron, weighing his advantages and mistakes carefully, decided
that the time had come for the great confrontation he had so long planned.
When his servants struck again, they would strike openly and everywhere in the
name of Melkor, of Vatra, and of the Dark Lord. Gondor would have no respite
from war, and Sauron's empire in Middle-earth would be reborn.

The struggle against the Shadow and the War of the Ring
Behind the long saga of Third Age history, the warring tribes and the quarrels
of kings and the building and destruction of nations, there occurred a long
duel of will and wisdom. It was fought between minds mortal and immortal, some
expecting to survive through endless years of struggle, others passing from
the world hoping their children's children's children might see an end made of
it.

In this contest of Light and Shadow, Near Harad proved a key battleground.

In the beginning, as the ancient Elves taught the first men and as Haruze mothers taught their children in the cradle,
there was disharmony. The First Creation boasted both sweet music and angry song. The lullaby a mother might sing
to her babes touched on the harmony of the world, while the screams of men in battle resounded with the
disharmony. The Arizul of ancient times and their servants, the Azhan, were puzzled by this, unsure if the voices
singing apart from their own had blessed the world with freedom or soiled it with pain. The wisest of Mortal Men
declared in works of philosophy that their kind could live with both freedom and pain; it was for this reason they
inherited the world from the immortal spirits who had created it.

The Arizul had withdrawn from the world they did not understand, save for Melkor, and in the Second War of
Powers, the Arizul bound him and hurled him into the outer darkness. Lesser immortal beings, the Azhan, both
Colruh and Devam, the Peri, the demons and devils and spirits of haunted springs and mountains, all faded with the
passage of time. Only Sauron the Dark Lord refused to fade with the rest of the Azhan, seeking instead to create a
new harmony attuned to his desires, one that he could rule as a god. Because mortal men should not have the
vainglory of slaying a god by themselves, the armies that brought down Sauron at the end of the Second Age were
aided by divine messengers and weapons forged by servants of the Arizul.

The disharmony of Melkor, and later that of Sauron, left Creation stained with the essence of their immortal
substance. This lingering essence was named the Shadow. The philosophers of the West, particularly the Elves and
Dunedain, said the Shadow was a permanent marring of Creation, so that the world could never be glorious as it
once was. It could only be made tolerable, and its pain lessened. But few in Harad saw the Arizul as wholly good, or
the Shadow as wholly evil. Prophets and Holy Men among the Haruze preached that, whatever the nature of the
Arizul, the Shadow refused to fade because of the folly of Men. The Ladnocans and other religious sects preached
that with greater virtue among the Godly People, the Haruze and their kindred races of Far Harad, the Shadow
would fade. Creation, if scarred in the memories of the Azhan and Elves, would be a garden of peace and plenty for
mortal creatures.

Middle-earth failed to fulfill either of these visions in the Third Age. The Shadow did not fade, but became stronger
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with the passage of years. Mystics sensed its strength, but not the power that nourished it. The hidden source was
Sauron the Azhan, Master of Lies. In the battle that ended the Second Age, he had been defeated but not destroyed
by Elendil and Gil-galad on Mount Doom. After the passage of thousand years, he returned to Middle-earth in
secret. His continued existence, all but unsuspected by the Wise, fed the Shadow, and gave it purpose.

The Dark Lord's identity could be kept secret; his servants and the baneful effects of his evil could not be hidden.
The Seers of the West and of Harad eventually came to see, somewhere in their future, a final struggle. In this
cataclysm, the evils that stained Creation might triumph, or they might be purged or reduced to small, whimpering
things. To this end, the priests and mystics of Near Harad vied for the hearts and hearts of the people in temples and
in public preaching. Moon-worshippers, Sun-worshippers, those besotted of nature and fate, all eventually
prophesied an ending to the age. In the West, the Dunedain, defeated and weakening, found reason to conserve their
strength, seeing some ultimate future time when it would be needed. Some of the mightiest of the Elves, who might
have sailed for the Undying Lands and lived there in bliss, stayed in Middle-earth to fight "the long defeat" against
the Shadow, until a final ending could be made of it.

Sauron had advantages in the contest, because of his immortality and the strength of his Azhan nature. Orcs, Trolls,
and other evil things fell inevitably under his sway. The Nurniags and many of the plains peoples of central Endor,
bullying, brutal cultures in the best of times, were easily converted to his cause. Other peoples had to be seduced or
destroyed. On the side of the West, favored by the Arizul, fell the High Elves, their Nandor subjects, and the
Dunadan descendants of the Faithful. These forces were powerful, but few in number. Allies had to be found.

The Arizul had foresworn direct intervention in Middle-earth after the destruction of Numenor. However, to combat
the unknown forces behind the Shadow, they sent five emissaries, known in Elvish as the Istari, to gather lore and
provide council to whoever might join in their struggle. These emissaries took the form of aging mystics and
conjurers, allowing them to pass among the ignorant without facing useless demands for god-like power and divine
lore that they could not provide. Rujimin Mirak, known as Saruman the White or Curunir in western lands, was the
most involved in Gondor and Near Harad. He arrived in Harnendor in time to observe Hyarmendacil's victory at
Blacksand, and wandered freely across the western lands of Endor for nearly two thousand years, ferreting out the
secrets of the Dark Cults, striving to reconcile Gondor and Umbar, and counseling mercy and wisdom to such
Haruze lords who would listen to him. His counterpart north of the Poros was Garigen Mirak, known as Gandalf the
Grey or Mithrandir, who came less often to Near Harad but was instrumental in securing Eriador and Rhovanion
north of Rhun for the West. A third wizard, Kirun Arom, known as Helaman or Alatar the Blue, contested the rule of
eastern Endor with the Servants of Shadow, but was also instrumental in the founding of the Refuge of Velarith and
ensuring the survival of the Avar realms of the Suncrown.

The Wise of the West suffered many defeats over the course of the Third Age. They could not prevent the darkening
of Mirkwood, fall of Arthedain, the extinction of the Line of Meneldil, or the loss of Umbar to the Mulkerhil. Most
important, they failed to prevent the fall of Near Harad to the Dark Religions. The shortness of vision, the
immediacy that characterized the live of mortal men stood against them. Saruman failed to convince generation after
generation of the Taskrels of Amrun to purge their cities of corrupt officials and secret shrines to the Dark Lady.
Likewise, Gandalf could no persuade the Stewards of Gondor to secretly subsidize lords of the despised Haradrim in
times when such sponsorship might have bought them allies along the Harnen.

So it happened, in the wake of the suffering of the Long Winter, that most of the important rulers in Haruzan and
Pezarsan took up the worship of Vatra or made alliance with those who followed the Sun-God. The Vatraic beliefs
had changed often since its Second Age origins in the deserts of Harad, but its emphasizes on endurance in the face
of pain, cold strength of will and the holy nature of power served Sauron's purposes well. The Cult of the Dark Lady
and its kindred Haruze sects suffered from direct association with Melkor and Sauron. Vatra, an abstract, fiery,
conquering god, could be translated into the persona of the Dark Lord whenever he chose to reveal himself.

The opening decades of the 29th century of the Third Age saw an increase in omens and visions among Elvish seers
and Haruze mystics, many suggesting that the final conflict between Light and Shadow was at hand. Many Haruze
princes and nobles joined the Davamra, the Sunfire cult, an elitist Nuzhaj society which promised to unite the two
concepts in a final harmony. Its political expression was known as the Sunfire Coalition, dedicated to the destruction
of Gondor and the harnessing of all Harad to the common glory of Vatra. Any who opposed Vatra would enslaved or
destroyed. The grim brutality of these Vatracin beliefs suggested to outside observers that the Davamra stood far
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closer to Shadow than Light. However, it offered the kings and nobles of Harad opportunities for war and the
gathering of power, powerful intoxicants for even the most cynical among them.

As the Sunfire Coalition consolidated its grip on Haruzan and Pezarsan, Gondorian traders found that even the
bravest Haruze merchants refused to deal with them. The few Gondorians who still dared to travel to Amrun fled
across the Poros, many caught and murdered along the way by the Griz. In T.A. 2885 a vast Haruze army, led by the
black serpent on a scarlet banner that was now the favored standard of the Taskrels of Amrun, crossed the Aegardh
and the Hills of Summer and attempted to seize the Crossings of Poros. Turin, Steward of Gondor, had prepared
carefully for their onslaught. In spite of diversionary threats from Rhun and Mirkwood, the greater part of the Host
of Rohan had journeyed eight hundred miles to support their allies. The twin sons of King Folcwine of Rohan led
the Northman cavalry. They struck the Haradon host as it crossed the Poros and attempted to deploy among the grain
fields north of the river. Both Princes died in the melee of ten thousand horsemen, but the Haruze line was broken
and their footmen slaughtered attempting to get back across the river.

A score of Haruze princes also died in the battle; the survivors straggled home across the Harmaka in a mid-summer
drought. The Griz, little better than bandits in the best of times, covered the retreat by ambushing and murdering
soldiers of both sides. The fezir of Haruzan fought among themselves over who was to take the blame for the defeat.
Gondor sang praises to the Valar and the Rohirrim buried the Sons of Folcwine at Arthrad Poros. The Barrow of the
Princes, the Haudh-in-Gwanur, served as a ward against further invasions for seventy years, along with the wastage
and civil war in Haruzan. However, the Gondorian frontier had been driven across the Poros and Griz raids over the
river soon rendered southernmost Ithilien uninhabitable.

The great weakness of the Vatracin beliefs and the Dark Cults in general was the lack of any serious moral sanction
against robbing and killing your own comrades. In fact, Sauron encouraged jealousy, conspiracy, and betrayal
among his underlings, ever fearful of some great mortal leader, like Ovatha Ito or Temer Cosrah, setting himself up
as a rival. Fratricidal warfare kept Near Harad in chaos for decades after the Crossings of Poros. Sauron now
resorted to siege tactics. His followers attempted to seal of the frontiers of Gondor, closing it off to all foreign trade.
Smuggling became a more dangerous business in the Harmaka, and the Mulkerhil-led Corsairs of Umbar swept what
was left of Gondor's merchant fleet from the seas. The Morgul realm in Mordor, at their master's behest, committed
newly bred fighting Orcs, the Uruk-hai, to raids in Ithilien and as dependable mercenaries in Near Harad. Orcs
walked the streets of Amrun and Maresh freely for the first time since the Variag occupation of the Wainrider Wars.
Unafraid of the Haradon sun, the Uruk-hai served as enforcers for the Vatracin, torturing and murdering scholars,
mystics, and fezir opposed to the new regimes.

Gandalf the Grey determined, as early as T.A. 2850, that the Necromancer of Dul Guldur was Sauron. The word of
the Azhan's existence -- and of the nature of his conspiracy -- spread slowly across Endor. However, in course of the
30th century, even the most humble peasants in Gondor and Near Harad came to know that the time of reckoning
was at hand. Large-scale conflict on the plains of central Endor gradually ceased; more and more nations waited for
their leaders to call for war on the rotting hulk of Dunadan arrogance hiding somewhere west of the River Anduin.
The last resistance to the Vatracin in Near Harad was forced underground. Gondorian soldiers left Arthrad Poros to
the Griz and the last peasants fled Ithilien. Only Ithilien's ancient Elvish woodlands and fierce, fell-handed
Gondorian rangers kept the Uruks and Haruze from camping on the shores of the Anduin within sight of Pelargir and
Minas Tirith. Strange declarations in an almost forgotten tongue -- the Black Speech of Mordor -- passed among the
lords and common folk of western Endor. Sauron, returning to Barad-dur, announced the return of the Lord of Men
to his ancient glory. He demanded the obeisance of all who lived on Mordor's borders, and all of Near Harad had
little choice but to obey.

West of the Anduin, Steward Ecthelion of Gondor marshaled what resources were left to him, including refugees
from Haruzan and stray mercenaries from Eriador and Rhovanion. Gondorian preparations, born of a fatalistic sense
of gathering doom, seldom involved any aggressive action. Few Gondorians of Ecthelion's generation had ever
traveled in southern and eastern lands. Saruman the White, who knew them with an immortal's long experience,
withdrew to a tower on the northern border of Rohan. Here he planned treason; he gathered Orcs and wild men into
an army and prepared to win a share of the spoils from the destruction that would inevitably come to Gondor.

What little hope the West had of defeating the Dark Lord now rested on
prophesies as old as the War of the Last Alliance and the small benefices from
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the powers Saruman thought had abandoned the world. The source of this hope
would be the long ignored, virtually uninhabited wilderness of Eriador.
The Communes of the Brethren, the White and Red Justins, had Second Age counterparts in other Numenorean
colonies. Eriador, a haven for the most ascetic and passionate of the Faithful, boasted a commune of border rangers
who shared the duties of Gil-galad's Guardians of Lindon. This commune eventually became the Company of Royal
Rangers of Arnor and later Arthedain. After the fall of Arthedain, a remnant of the northern Dunedain formed the
Faradrim Forod, the Rangers of the North. They used the statutes and trappings of the old Sacred Orders to create a
secretive wilderness society, dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage and bloodlines of the Realms in Exile.
Among the artifacts preserved by the Rangers of the North were the Shards of Narsil, Elendil’s sword; among the
bloodlines preserved was that of the heirs of Elendil, through Isildur and Valandil, first king of Arnor.

From this forgotten clan, few in number but steeped in the knowledge and traditions of four-score generations of the
Faithful, came a leader worthy of his grandsires. In 2933 Aragorn son of Arathorn became Chieftain of the Rangers
of the North. Raised as a warrior and scholar in an Elvish haven, versed in the prophesies of the final conflict, he
saw the rise of the Shadow as clearly as any man and committed his life to its defeat. Aragorn, guarding his identity
carefully, spent twenty-three years serving the kings of Rohan and Gondor as a mercenary, using the Sinda name
Thorongil. His knowledge of varied Northman and Elvish tongues awed the Rohirrim. He gained powerful friends in
Gondor with recitals of ancient rituals of the Keepers of Justice and the holy ceremonies of the Dunadan court. Once
he was allowed to serve, his powers of strength and intellect overcame any doubts the southerners might have had
about him.

In the guise of Thorongil, Aragorn gave new, fierce life to the defenders of the West. He led Rohir cavalry in raids
across the plains of Rhun and Gondorian rangers in attacks on Griz strongholds along the Poros. In a time when few
Gondorians troubled to speak Haruze even to their prisoners, Aragorn learned the language and traveled in disguise
among the Haradrim. Under the name of Helak-il-Auatzin, which was Helak, the Master of Spirits, he fomented
Haruze resistance to the Vatracin and slew the chief Wraith-Servant of Ard in the catacombs of Amrun. Little could
be done to slow the mustering of armies in Near Harad, but Il-Auatzin also made allies in Umbar. In T.A. 2980,
Thorongil, who had studied accounts of Earnil's assault on Umbar some two thousand years earlier, used stolen
lantern-signals to pass a small Gondorian fleet in the harbor of the Corsair city at twilight. The warriors he led
ashore burned most of the finest ships of the Umbarean war-fleet before resistance could be organized. Thorongil
slew the Captain of the Council of Umbar in single combat, then fled with his ships to avoid the coming of dawn
over the harbor forts.

In the aftermath of his victory, Thorongil left Gondor to pursue his campaign against the Shadow in other lands. The
Gondorians pressed their counterattack and scored a number of small victories. In 2984. Ecthelion's dynamic son
and heir, Denethor II, led a company of rangers into Arthrad Poros under cover of a thunderstorm and sacked the
citadel, slaying a number of Griz leaders and extirpating a coven of Dark Sorcerers. Denethor forced the Haruze and
Umbareans on his immediate southern frontier to agree to a twenty-year truce, but no power left to the West could
break Sauron's siege. Gondor, with the passage of generations, grew weaker and weaker, its population drifting away
from the cities along the Anduin to till safer fields away from the threat of Orc and Haruze raids. Denethor, as he
grew older, saw no means of defeating the vast armies gathering along the Ode Pezar and Harnen. Like many
Gondorians, he saw the doom of his nation before him and spoke all too often of glorious defeat rather than
deliverance and victory.

The chance of deliverance came, however, and from a most outlandish chance and an obscure corner of Middle-
earth. The key to defeating the Azhan Lord of Men lay in his own most precious creation: the One Ring of power he
had forged an eon past, in the mid-Second Age.

Sauron's ability to withstand death and even dismemberment at the hands of Isildur stemmed from the powers he
had built into the Ruling Ring. When the towering waves that crushed Numenor destroyed his first body, the Ring
held his soul in the world and allowed him to create a new one. When Isildur cut the ring-finger from Sauron's hand,
the Azhan knew agony and loss inconceivable to mortal men. The leaders of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men
could not comprehend a being who would put so much of his soul into an inanimate object. They failed to destroy
the Ring. Isildur took it, instead, and was slain at the Battle of the Gladden Fields. The ring, so the legend went,
betrayed him and was lost in the River Anduin.
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Sauron, a lost and maddened spirit for a thousand years after losing the ring, eventually returned to Middle-earth. He
knew that the Ruling Ring had allowed him to regain his form, but he also thought it lost in river or ocean. He
survived two thousand years without it, hidden in Dol Guldur, plagued by thoughts of his weakness and
vulnerability.

The Wise who gradually began to suspect the true fate of the Ring knew dread and disbelief, especially at the
curious beings who came to possess it. The Piram, a diminutive folk called Periannath in Sindarin and Halflings in
Westron, long dwelled in the northern lands of Eriador, near Perilann, the old Elvish lands of Lindon. Indeed, the
Haruze, who heard of them from Umbarean sailors familiar with the northern trade, thought of them as Peri, Faerie
creatures best left alone. The Piram were actually a mortal race, similar to Men but only half normal height. They
avoided lands dominated by warriors and thugs, and thus seldom came to Near Harad.

Astonishingly, sometime in the 25th century of the Third Age, one of the Piram came across the One Ring while
fishing in the Anduin. He was murdered by his brother, who, haunted and consumed by the unearthly power of the
ring, fled to a hiding place under the Misty Mountains. He could not die while possessing it, but four hundred years
of hiding in a dank cavern turned the Piram into a crawling, gnawing animalistic thing. The Ring sought another
wielder, and fell into the hands of a third Piram. He, feeling "stretched" by the Ring after sixty years of extended
life, turned it over to his nephew, a member of the gentry of their homeland. This Piram, Frodo Baggins, was on
good terms with Gandalf the Grey, the last Istari still faithful to the cause of the West. As the 31st century of the age
opened, Sauron and the treacherous Saruman the White Wizard gathered forces ten times and more the strength of
Gondor and its allies, expecting to crush the Dunadan and Elves by strength of numbers. In the midst of their
preparations, both immortals learned of the Ruling Ring's existence, in a strange land on the edge of civilization. In
the spring of T.A. 3018, vast armies began to move, omens predicted the doom of the world as it was, and the
attention of the most powerful beings in Middle-earth focused on the Piram homeland, the Shire.

The final drama, as it played out over the course of eleven months, involved names as famous as any in the long,
violent history of western Middle-earth. Murazor the Witch-king, the Traitor, along with Ard the Dark Lady and
Uvatha the Undying, left the command of Sauron's armies to mortals for a while to hunt across northern Middle-
earth for the Ring-bearer. Gandalf the Grey and Aragorn, Chieftain of the Rangers, struggled to protect the Ring and
the Frodo Baggins, its bearer. Gandalf was slain by a demon and returned to Creation as Gandalf the White, taking
up the powers once held by Saruman. Saruman's plots were exposed; Gandalf and Theoden of Rohan led the
Rohirrim against him and destroyed his army. The Sword of Elendil was reforged by Noldo smiths and revealed to
Sauron by Aragorn, the heir of Isildur, as he traveled south to Gondor. Sauron remembered his ancient agony. He
ordered vast armies to march from Harad, Umbar, and the Morgul Realm forward to crush the Dunedain in their
few remained forces, unaware that the Ringbearer and a single servant were bringing the Ruling Ring to Mordor, the
only place in Middle-earth where it might be destroyed. Denethor of Gondor and his sons, Boromir and Faramir, had
fought battle after battle in Ithilien to delay the onslaught. Now Boromir was slain attempting to seize the Ruling
Ring for himself and countless enemies poured across Gondor's frontiers. Denethor, aged and despairing,
contemplated taking his own life to avoid witnessing the fall of his realm.

Pelargir and Minas Tirith had been promised, after centuries of struggle, to the warriors of Near Harad. Taskrel Akil
Blade of Amrun, the three-hundredth monarch of the line of the Stone-kings, led the armies of Haruzan against the
royal city of Gondor. A fanatical follower of Vatra, he little resented the dominance of the Nazgul in Sauron's
armies, proudly flying the black serpent banner in obedience to their accursed spirits. The Mulkerhil families who
ruled Umbar, still proud of their shreds of Numenorean heritage, led the Corsair fleets against Pelargir. The Griz of
the frontier and the Nuzhaj-led levies of Pezarsan marched across southern Ithilien to join them, hoping to cross the
Anduin as their ancestors had done five thousand years before.

But the West, calling up secrets and strength beyond the understanding of those stained by the Shadow, could still
fight back. A forest of Peri tree-spirits aided in the destruction of Saruman's forces and scattered an army of
Easterlings sent to keep Rohan from marching to the aid of Gondor. Aragorn, calling upon the powers of the Line of
Isildur, led a horde of Daen ghosts against the forces besieging Pelargir, drowning most of the warriors of Umbar
and routing their Haruze allies on the east bank of the Anduin.

The primary strength of Harad and the Morgul Realm now besieged Minas Tirith; here a great battle raged on the
Pelennor Fields, before the walls of the citadel. Denethor, on the morning the gates of the city were breached,
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burned himself alive on a funeral pyre. Murazor the Traitor stood ready to enter the city and, at long last, make
himself ruler of a Dunadan kingdom. However, the cavalry of Rohan, led by a Druag guide, struck the besiegers in
flank. Akil Blade, thinking of vengeance for the Crossings of Poros, charged the banners of Rohan and was slain by
King Theoden. Murazor, full of the power of his Azhan master, scattered Theoden's bodyguard and mortally
wounded him. He, in turn, was stabbed by a Piram wielding an enchanted Arthadan blade and struck down by
Eowyn, Theoden's beloved niece, who had ridden with the Rohir muster in secret. The infantry of Haruzan and
Khand rallied against the Rohirrim, but were attacked from the river by Aragorn and a fresh Gondorian army, sailing
ships captured from the Corsairs and flying a banner fashioned after that of Elendil and the lost kings of Arnor,
Arthedain, and Gondor. The soldiers of Harad and hordes of Morgul were trapped; their best warriors fought to the
death near the river and the rest drowned in its bloody waters as they tried to flee.

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields was a glorious victory for the Lords of the West. Only a favorable wind allowed
the people of Minas Tirith to stand the stench of the thousands of corpses scattered about their green fields. Yet there
were barely enough fighting men left in the allied armies to tend to their wounded. Aragorn and Gandalf, meeting
with the collection of nobles and knights who constituted the remains of Gondorian government, advised them that
they had no hope of marching on the Barad-dur or forcing a combat with Sauron, as Gil-galad and Elendil had done.
They lacked even the strength to defeat the reserves of Haradrim and Easterlings now gathering at Arthrad Poros and
the Morannon, the fortress leading into Mordor from the Dagorlad. Instead, a token force of some seven thousand
footmen and horse marched out to challenge Sauron and draw his attention.

Few in that sacrificial host understood exactly why there was a need for such an obviously doomed assault on
Mordor. Such was their fate, it seemed, so few of them questioned it, and such was the awe in which Aragorn and
Gandalf were held by the Gondorians and Rohirrim whose nations had just been saved from destruction. Thus it was
that on a spring day in T.A. 3019, the force of the Lords of the West marched onto Dagorlad. A day later, it found
itself surrounded by a Sauronic host ten times and more its strength, and the ancient battle plain again rang with the
shouts and screams of war. For a time the army of sacrifice did appear doomed. Then it seemed like Sauron, whose
malevolent will lay over the battlefield like a shroud of hatred, suddenly wavered.

An and two millennia earlier, the Ruling Ring had been forged in the volcano of Orodruin, only a few miles from the
Barad-dur on the plateau of Gorgoroth. While armies clashed and men perished in their thousands from the mouths
of Anduin to the cold lands of the distant north, Frodo Baggins and his servant, Samwise Gamgee, had made their
way across Dagorlad and Ithilien guided by the creature named Gollum, the revenant Piram who had once murdered
his brother for the ring’s sake. They passed into Mordor by slipping through a fortress virtually emptied of Orcs by
the siege of Minas Tirith. As Theoden, Murazor and Aragorn played out their roles in the Battle of the Pelennor
fields, Frodo and Samwise walked and crawled across Gorgoroth. On the day the Host of the West was being
overwhelmed by the Armies of Mordor on the Dagorlad, Frodo Baggins reached the forge-rooms where Sauron had
worked the betrayal of the Noldo smiths in that long-ago time. Here they found vents filled with lava and noxious
fumes, the marks of the anger of the Devam, since before the Rising of the Sun. On the edge of a crevasse,
staggering over a rubble of scorched, tormented rock, Frodo and Gollum fought each other, each overwhelmed with
the power of the ring, each attempting to claim it for his own.

Sauron the Azhan, after dwelling so long in gnawing fear, hidden in the fortress of the Barad-dur, suddenly found his
plotting revealed as blind folly and his destruction near to hand. The fighting on the Dagorlad virtually ceased, as the
memories of a God's pain washed over the Forces of the Shadow. Then, Gollum and the Ruling Ring fell into
Orodruin, and a God's dying agony struck down his followers and maddened his slaves. The volcano erupted, and
the Nazgul plunged into the fire and were burned. The army gathered on the Dagorlad panicked. The Orcs and Trolls
fled or were slain, the more fanatic or less disciplined of the Haradrim fled with them. Those that remained, stunned
by the destruction of something they thought so endlessly powerful, treated with Aragorn and humbled themselves
before him.

Knowledge of Sauron's fall came swift as thought to Near Harad. The walls of the Temple of Vatra in Amrun
cracked and the shrine exploded in fire as Orodruin erupted. Dark Priests ran screaming into the streets and flailed
about them with scimitars. Locals who had long feared them did so no longer, not understanding why, and many
were torn to pieces by mobs. Revolts broke out in Maresh and across Lurmsakun. The forces left behind to hold the
populace in terror of the Dark Lord could do so no longer. City after city cast them out.
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Aragorn, soon to be crowned as Elessar, King of Arnor and Gondor, was generous by nature and lacked the
manpower to deal harshly with his enemies. The Haruze who surrendered to his forces in Mordor obliged him by
slaying the Dark Priests who accompanied their armies, then agreed to withdraw to their lands and trouble Gondor
no more. Most took weeks to make the journey, fighting the Easterlings and surviving Orcs for the Dark Lord's
supplies of food and fodder. Many did not make it. The road across Ithilien became known as the Trail of Bones, the
debris and misery of war scattered through the forests. The survivors returned to a land changed and in the process
of changing. There would be peace in Near Harad, but first old hatreds and ambitions, which obedience to Sauron
had suppressed, would have to be dealt with.
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3.0 TIMELINE
Before the Sun and the Moon

The Creation of Ea. The Arizul (Ha “Ainur”), the Servants of Creation enter Ea. The Azhan, those of the Arizul
bound to the substance of the World, dwell in Harad and lands around it. The Azhan takes many shapes. Many,
including the greatest of them, choose the Veafana (Q “The Speaking Incarnation”).

The Elves awake in Cuivienen. Arom (Q “Orome”), the Huntsman of the Valar, discovers the Elves.

The Sundering of the Elves. Some of the Eldar arrive in Aman. Some Elves become enamored of the forests of
Northern Middle Earth : the Sindar flourish in Beleriand, the Hawnin, favorites of Arom, tamers of horses, dwell in
the Harfareth (S “Southern Dry Plains”), a mighty and fair realm, filled with game and clean water. Avari Elves
settle in the Ered Harmal mountains

The dwarves born of Mahel enter Harfareth. They found no great cities in the Harfareth of the Twilight, but explore
much of it looking for things precious to them.

Some Azhan, among them the Colruh (Ha “Wind-pilgrims”) create protected gardens and open air houses, and grow
enamored of these things crafted. This might have or not some relations with the female Ent of the West, perhaps
referred as the Peri, who created some beautiful and protected gardens, of no traces survived in later ages.

The Battle of Powers. Melkor is taken and chained in the fastness of the Speaker of Dooms. But the Devam (Ha
“Lovers of Fire”) who had been at the side of Melkor, escape in the northern bounds of Harfareth. They grow
jealous of the Colruh.

The rivalry of the Devam and the Colruh is centered on the Saromis (Ha “River of Arom”), a relatively busy place,
and is fought in realms of thought and magic.

The Years of the Sun and the Moon

Men awakes in Hildorien. Morgoth appears to Men, walking amongst them, worshipped as a god. Eventually,
Morgoth departs, leavening the seeds of evil within the Men tribes and a few of his followers to helping to nurture it.

c.100-200 The Drughu migrate into Harfareth. The Hawnin consider them as wild beasts, and hunt them at first,
before being stopped by the Colruh.

c.200-300 The first wave of Daen people (Dônan, Daan Mor) migrate into Harfareth and Gondor.

c.300-500 While the Wars of Power happen in Beleriand, several Wars of Spirits occur in Harfareth between the
Colruh and the Devam. Legends are recorded about these Wars by the Hawnin.

c.550 War of Wrath, the Great Battle and Fall of Beleriand. During the last war of Spirits, most Devam are
destroyed, but are able to strike the Colruh. Most citadels and servants of the Colruh are consumed by the fire. The
glory of the Azhan had passed.

c.550 Harfareth turns to desert, though some fertile valleys (like the one around river Saromis – later called Harnen)
remain. The land is renamed Haradwaith (S “Southern Waste”) or Harad.

Second Age

c.1-200 Apysan people (S “Meek Wanderers”, the later Haruze) migrate through the Gap of Khand and the Ered
Harmal into Harad. Some of these settle the Vale of Harnen (Saromis) and its adjoining lands to the north and south.

c.350 The first camel caravans begins crisscrossing Harad.

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c.500 The Sinda calls the inhabitants of the Vale of Harnen the Haruze (Godly people), a name derived from both
Elvish and Apysani roots.

500 – 1000 Sauron resurfaces in Endor and is soon, once again, bent on its domination. Through his works, many
dark religions and ways flourish amongst the Aravador.

c.600 The Wandering Dwarves are the first to name the desert peoples the Haradrim.

680 Two Variag tribes, the Ororath and the Omodath, migrate through the Gap of Khand (v. Khandu Prakhod).

c.700 The Iorag tribes of Nurn and Pushtrava awaken a dangerously wild Devam, a Maia spirit of Fire, The
Talmorng (Io “Beauty and Pain”), or a Narlthryg in human fana. The Talmorng leads orcs and the Iorag tribes into
the Vales of the Saromis (Harnen, Ode Pezar) to the conquest of the First Empire of Harad.

c.710 In the valley of Ayn Arom, where the northern and eastern branch of the Saromis meet, the Talmorng
establishes the stronghold of Korb Devral. The Talmorng rules Men and the few surviving Devam followers.

725-27 First Voyage of Aldarion, Prince of Numenor, near the Cape of Andrast.

c.730 In response to an appeal from the Sinda of Edhellond, a fleet of swan-ships sent by Gil-galad and commanded
by Glorfindel, is sent to confront the Talmorng, who foolishly considered the Noldo Host as weak and asked them to
worship him. The Talmorng is defeated by Glorfindel, Captain of the Noldors.

c.730-740 Civil war in the Realm of the Talmorng between the Heirs of the Talmorng, the Orag (Ha “the
Spiritborn”) born of Devam and mortal women. Meklak son of the Talmorng seizes control of the Realm.

c.740 The rules of Meklak the first Autarb (Ha “Greater Ordainer”, or “Lawgiver”) first established in Harad. His
accomplishments (the building of stone-faced roads) are great, but his vices and evils are greater. The fear of war is
replaced by the fear of the tyrant. Meklak declares all Dunedains as enemies of his realm.

750 Founding of the Guild of Venturers.

750 - 80 Several more Variag tribes make their way south to avoid the aggressions of Meklak, settling along the
Noz Peka (Ha “Saromis”, V “Knife River”) and the fertile vales of the Ered Harmal. Fighting and raiding between
tribes is incessant, each struggling for premium pastures and water supplies. the Variag enslave or drive south the
Apysaic tribes living on the borders of the Ered Harmal. These desert lands of the Haradwaith are renamed Kha-on
(V “Land of Horses and Sun”) or Khand.

c.860 Capture by Meklak warriors on the Nen Umbar Bay of a Venturer ship, commanded by Baian of Syntar, a
cousin to Prince Aldarion and a fiery spirit herself. Baian of Syntar kills Meklak.

871 – 878 A Numenorean expedition, led by Er-Endohir of Nindemos, explores Central Middle-Earth. The
contingent rides through the Gap of Khand in 873 and encounters Variag raiders in the following year. Their strong
arms and armor save them from slaughter and soon they push south, to Harad.

c. 900 The Variag tribes of Khand, long-steeped in dark worships, begin to lessen their warring ways and unite
through their common religious beliefs. A true society begins as the first set of laws, devised by clan Vracarathi
(V.Woman of Power), spreads through the tribal confederations. Sauron, passing through Khand, has much influence
on these developments.

c..900 Moon-worshipping Haradrim clansmen, the Kibic (a league of warriors and sorcerers, Ha “Righteous
Followers”), appear out of the southern desert and destroy the reign of the Narlthryg-worshippers (Meklak and Orag
Lords) in Near Harad. The middle Saromis is renamed Ode Pezar (Ha “River of the Knife”).
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c.930 The Haruze traditions (law, religion, trade) are established during the first century of Kibic rule. Development
of the religion of Ladnoca the Moon Goddess, Vatra the Sun God, Arom the Huntsman, and Lilis, the Mother of
Harvests and Keeper of Passions, for the most known.

c.930-1350 The Haruze Kibic Heroic Age. War and strife between various kingdoms, city states and merchant
leagues (as the Kibic never created a unified state).

c. 1000 Sauron, the second of the Great Enemies of the Haruze, alarmed by the growing power of the
Numenoreans, chooses Mordor as a land to make into a stronghold. He begins the building of Barad-dur.

1033 The Kibic, an alliance of Haruze lords manage to drive Variag raiders away from the eastern lowland reaches
of the Ode Pezar. They gather the help of the Ehazt Dwarves and the Chyans of the Ered Harmal. The Kibic lords
establish the new realm of Lurmsakûn, whose capital is the beautiful city of Korb Devral.

1050 Sturlurtsa (somewhat nicknamed the City of Terror by Haruze and Chyans), the chief Variag fortress city is
built in a valley near the headwaters of the Ode Pezar. This is from that fortress that the Variag start their deadly
offensive against Lurmsakûn and the Chyan Empire.

1050-1240 The Haruze drives out the Orcs from Ausk Dubat, who are helped in secret by Sauron. This conquest is
the last of the Heroic Age. The Haruze cleanses Ausk Dubat from their monsters, creating glorious legends in the
process. The valley is renamed Chelkar (Ha “Sheltered Home”), and the river the Ode Auchel (Ha “River of the
Great Sheltering”).

1123 Korb Devral is renamed Korb Taskrel, after the local dynasty of Stone Kings.

1150 The Kibic realms allow the Numenoreans (and especially the members of the Guild of Venturers) to found
trading stations around the mouth of the Saromis., and authorize them to travel inland to Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn.

1200 Sauron as Annatar endeavors to seduce the Eldar. Gil-galad refuses to treat with him; but the smiths of Eregion
are won over. The Numenoreans begin to make permanent havens.

1250 Two small Numenorean expeditions -- one marching eastward from the Nan Harnen, the other moving
northward from the Bay of Ormal -- meet at Ovatharac, an oasis in Southern Khand. After a very tense meeting with
the local Variag Osvodar (v. Lord), they exchange gifts and establish agreements on trade. The Tengwar is first
introduced to the Variags at this time.

1278 The whole of Lower Khand is united under a King. First League of Merchants is formed in Near Harad to
oppose Variag expansion.

1281 New military and religious orders are formed. The most important is the Nuzhaj (Ha “Brethren of Charity”),
composed of warriors and priests dedicated to the harsher Haradon gods, particularly Vatra the Sun and Makusset
the Speaker of Dooms. Their Holy Teachers preach Harad for Haradrim, and blame the Elves and the Numenoreans
for all the evils that occurred in Haradwaith.

1330-50 Except for some small Kibic realms in Pezarsan, riots occurs in all Kibic cities. All people who are fond for
elvish songs or friendly with Numenoreans are condemned to death by the Nuzhaj. A new aristocracy replaces the
Kibic lords.

1350-80 All the Numenorean trading havens in Haruzan are unsuccessfully besieged by the Nuzhaj armies. Instead,
the Nuzhaj appeases their fury on the Sakalai of the coastlands, nominally under Dunadan protection.

c.1400 Brief Nuzhaj conquest of the Emyn Laer, never ruled by the Kibic and slaughter of the Donan fisher-folk and
Hawnin elves. The Nuzhaj are repelled the following year by the Daen and Nandor populations.

1477 The Nuzhaj Etemeran (Ha “Warlords”) try to resolve their quarrels during a Conclave along the Huk Saromis
near Nurn, but they are all slain or captured, and forced to declare Karm of Nurn as the Autarb of all Haruzan.
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c. 1480 The Autarb Karm of Nurn (from the Karmilan dynasty), secretly oath-sworn to Sauron, extends his
domains from the northern reaches of Mordor across the Harnen and Pezarsan, subjugating both Nuzhaj and Kibic
rulers. His oppressive rule bars most outsiders from entering these lands save along the river trading routes,
effectively masking the workings of his master in Mordor.

c. 1500 The elven-smiths, instructed by Sauron, reach the height of their skill. They begin the forging of the Rings of
Power.

c. 1600 Sauron forges the One Ring in Orodruin. Several proofs are seen in all the West lands.

1693 – 99 At Sauron's bidding, Variags, Haruzes and Orcs join his armies in the assault upon Eregion.

1700 A great fleet from Numenor lands at Lindon. The elves and men of Numenor unite to defeat Sauron.

1701-70 Haruze, assisted by Numenorean adventurers, reclaim the Harnen valley and drive the Variags back into
Khand. The Kings of Korb Taskrel become the most powerful rulers of Near Harad. The Haruze embarks on a
crusade (the Zinazpesar, or “Laying of the Knife”) against the remaining Nuzhaj of Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn.

1772-1803 Tuchik Cheyan, the son of a Chey warlord and a Haruze mother, leads a major migration of plains tribes
into Lurmsakûn. He subdues Pezarsan and Chelkar and defeats Korb Taskrel (Amrun) and allies lords of Haruzan.
Since both Numenorean and Sauronic minions are slain in his wars, Tuchik becomes a legendary hero among the
indigenous peoples of western Endor. After his death, most of his conquests in Near Harad are lost to local
dynasties, but Numenorean influence is also reduced.

1880 Mûrazôr, third son of King Tar-Ciryatan, seizes Vinyalondë, and besieges his brother Imrazôr, Captain of the
Venturers, at Pelargir.

1882 Mûrazôr relocates to Umbar, claiming royal authority on the basis of his command of the Venturers.

1883 Tar-Ciryatan quells Mûrazôr’s rebellion. The King rewards Imrazôr with the guardianship of Pelargir, but
dissolves the Guild of Venturers.

1914 Adûnaphel arrives in Middle-earth and establishes her dominion from the ancient Daen/Haruze holy site of
Vamag on the peninsula of Umbar, holding the coastlands as far north as Ethir Harnen. She takes the name of Ard
Vedaraba (Ha “Ard (Adun) the Shining Lady”).

1968 Kionvad Achef, Khur of the Lâorkí seat, is murdered by Khodid Uprava. Khodid assumes the throne, sending
Kionvad's sons, Kionid and Mionid, into exile.

1970 Uvathar Achef is born in the Caves of Olbamarl. His father Kîonid Achef was an exiled Variag Prince from
Lâorkí in Eastern Khand.

1988 Battle of Noz Peka – Khodid King of Upper Khand is overthrown by Kionid's rebel army. Kionid is killed in
the battle, leaving his younger brother, Mionid, to assume the throne. Following tradition, he orders Uvatha slain.
Uvatha flees to Sturlurtsa.

1989 Uvatha joins the army of the Khurdriag of Lower Khand, Urig Urpof.

1989-99 Uvatha’s reputation grows, fed by his victories won against the Haradrim tribes of the south. Uvatha
conquers Lurmsakûn from the last of its Chey-Haruze Warlords.

1994 Uvatha Achef besieges and sacks Hamat Maresh, the chief city of Lurmsakûn. Most of its population is sold
into slavery. The Merchant Princes of Lurmsakûn and Pezarsan offer tribute and allegiance to the warlord.

1999 Uvatha is appointed Warlord (v. Osvodeg) of the Lower Khand Army.
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2000 Uvatha deposes and kills Urig, ending the Urpof Dynasty. Next he leads his army north and crushes the horse
warriors of Upper Khand and slaughters his uncle in the Battle of Olbarmal Plains ( v. “Long Rider”). Khand is
united under one ruler for the first time in it's history.

2000 – 3200 Khand's first Great Age - With Uvatha leading, the Variag expand their borders deep into the north and
south (Lurmaskûn, Arysis and Siakan), exacting brutal tolls and steep tribute from their conquered enemies. Khand-
Khurvesra rises to empire. In the north, the Nuriag of Nurad and many Asdriag lords fall under the Variag shadow.
South of Khand, the trade routes of the Ered Harmal fall within Uvatha's grasp, as do the tribes of the Clean and
lands. Many princes of the Harad kneel before Khand-Khurvesra's might. Soon the Variag Empire stretches from the
Oasis of Sudu Cull and Pelepelplu in the south, up to the banks of the Talathrant and the shores of the sea of Rhun in
the north, bordered between by the Ered Harmal and the Deserts of Haradwaith. Many important trade routes pass
through this vast region, each adding to the strength and riches of Uvatha's domain.

2002 Sauron gives the final ring of power to the new Variag Khurdriag.

2005 The free cities of Chelkar become vassal of the Variag realm.

2005-2031 The First Pezarsan Wars. Uvatha conquers Pezarsan and drives down the Harnen. Adunaphel of Vamag
organizes a resistance among the Haruze after Korb Taskrel (later called Amrun) switches sides and the Numenorean
governor of Umbar is slain in battle. Most of Pezarsan is free of the Variags after a support force arrives from
Numenor, but Adunaphel remains the most powerful force in Western Near Harad.

c.2100 Conflict between Uvatha and Adunaphel virtually ceases as their rings of power bring them both under
Sauron’s control. Uvatha extends his power deep into central Harad.

2155 – 2693 The First Chey Expansion The Chey, led by Ren Jey, a.k.a. the Fire King, attack to the northeast and
southwest, conquering and incorporating the regions of Dalpygis, Heb-Aaraan and Orgothroath into their kingdom.
Thanks to Sauron's influence, their is little pressure from the Variag, allowing the Chey conquests to proceed
unimpeded.

2221 Upon Tar-Ancalimon’s ascension to the throne of Numenor, the Numenoreans are divided into two parties : the
King’s Men and the Faithful. Many of the Faithful begin to emigrate to Pelargir to live under Imrazôr’s authority.
Numenoran settlement of Eriador, Lebennin and Anfalas expands.

2251 Rebellion and division of the Numenoreans begins. About this time the Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, slaves of the
Nine Rings, first appear.

2280 Adunaphel declares herself Autarb of all Haruzan, and orders to the Haruzan tribes to start an assault against
Umbar. At Dagor-i-Glingalas (Battle of the Gleaming Stone), her troops are defeated. Adunaphel is forced to
abandon her coastal dominion of Vamag for the safety of inland Lugarlûr in Chelkar, where she is soon known as the
Dark Lady of Chelkar. The Numenoreans establish the domain of Harnendor. The Iant Carnen is built. Umbar is
made into a great fortress of Numenor.

2281 Following the battle of the Gleaming Stone, the Numenoreans subdue the strategic city of Korb Taskrel,
renamed Amrûn (S “Sunrise”), and establish the fortress of Tirith Argon at Amrûn to watch over the western Haruze.
Gobel Ancalimon is founded as a Numenorean colony at Iant Harnen.

2284-2285 Construction begins on the Hyarmen. Fortification of Gobel Mírlond and Ramlond. Governors of Lower
Harnendor (Gobel Ancalimon) and Upper Harnendor (Amrûn) are subservient to the governor of Umbar.

2285 The Numenoreans pave the Rath Khand from Umbar to Amrûn.

2287 The Men Harnen built between Amrûn and Tharven.

2295-2302 The Second Pezarsan War. A Numenorean expedition is sent to hunt out the servants of Adunaphel in
Pezarsan and defeats a Variag army and drives into Lurmsakun.
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2374-84 The Third Pezarsan War. After local squabbles interrupt trade, the Numenoreans destroy the western army
of the Variags. A fifty year truce establishes extraterritorial rights for Numenoreans from the mouth of the Harnen
eastward onto the Chey Prairies. Pezarsan is left under the rule of Haruze ‘Merchant Princes’ while Lurmsakûn is
left to Uvatha.

2432 The Hyarmen completed at Hyarpendë.

2899 Ar-Adûnakhôr takes the scepter. As the persecution of the Faithful increases, many seek new homes in Endor
and build manor or farms in Lebennin.

2899–3261 The Second Chey Expansion. During this period, the Kingdom of Chey Sart reaches its greatest size.
Vaag Acaana and Western Gaathgykarkan fall by S.A. 2936. Ren's armies then turn northward to concentrate on the
incorporation of the Kargagis Ahar and the rich territory of Rycolis. These wars last two centuries. By S.A. 3260,
Ren lays claim to the entire Talathrant Valley.

3102 Ar-Gimilzôr places Pelargir under military supervision. Restrictions placed on the Pelargirian League dampens
their trade along the Hyarmentie, to the profit of Haruze merchants.

3177 Repentance of Tar-Palentir. Civil war in Numenor.

3192 The Men Harnen is extended from Tharven to Mithlond.

3210 Methiant Rath Khand built.

3230-35 The lords of Pezarsan declare themselves independent. Pharazôn, a nephew of Tar-Palantir who had made
his reputation in several colonial wars, suppresses the revolt with fire and carnage. He plans a campaign against the
Realm of Chelkar, but must renounce to his ambitions due to the force of Sauron’s vassal states.

3250 Uvatha leads his Variag across Relmether and over the Talathrant. For the next two years, the Variag fight
beside the Chey warriors of the Fire King, leading to the Chey conquest of the Kargagis Ahar. These final battles
come to be known by the Ahar as the First Variag Wars.

3255 Ar-Pharazôn the Golden seizes the scepter. Sauron renews his claim to be the King of Men and Master of the
World. An army composed of Nurniag, Variag, Haruze and Chey move towards Near Harad.

3261 Ar-Pharazon, leading the vast Numenorean fleet, lands at Umbar. His army pushes deep into Endor, sending
Sauron's servants fleeing before its might .

3262 Numenorean armies drive as far as the Ered Harmal over the next few years, slaughtering the cream of the
Haruze aristocracies and sacking most of their important cities, including Sturlurtsa. Sauron is taken as prisoner to
Númenor.

3265 Sauron and Ar-Pharazôn found the Cult of Melkor in Numenor. Faithfuls first, and captives from Endor
second, are sacrificed to the glory of Melkor. The Haruze live in fear for five decades, but never without hope. The
Faithfuls seek protection among the Elves, among the wild folk of Gondor or the urdwan of Harnendor.

3265-3319 Fuinur and Herumor, two descendants of Imrazôr, become the leaders of the nomads of Haruzan,
assuming the names of Stormheart and Windsword. They lead a war against the slavers of Numenor.

3310 Ar-Pharazôn begins the building of the Great Armament.

3319 The Downfall of Numenor. Uvatha briefly returns to Sturlurtsa, then rides to Mordor to serve his master.

3319 – 3434 Uvatha serves as a messenger and general, calling upon allies and organizing troops in preparation for
the wars against the Last Alliance. During his absence Khand's authority structure begins to crumble. Osvodar of
regions distant from Khand become more and more confident in their own power. By the early 3400's small
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dictatorships are splintering off the empire and many tribes are ruling themselves.

3320 Foundation by Elendil of the Realms-in-Exile, Arnor and Gondor. Only Umbar, supported by a meager
opposition in Pelargir and Belfalas, stands against Isildur and Anarion. Fuinur attempts to put himself as an
alternative choice for renewing the Line of Kings, but he is ignored. Fuinur and Herumor steal the Karma of
Aldarion, fleeing with their followers to Umbar, where civil strife has erupted between the adherents and opponents
of the Cult of Melkor. Fuinur and Herumor play the deciding role in the defeat of the cult, and later use their
newfound influence to establish a kingdom for themselves among the Haruze.

3321 A local Haruze hero, Akil, reestablishes the line of the Taskrel, the Stone Kings, in Amrûn. Korb Ugarta is
refounded. The Nuzhaj are revived in Near Harad. Harnendor, Pezarsan, and Lurmsakun are liberated from Dunadan
colonials and Variags.

3322 A Council of Captains, patterned after the old ruling council of the Guild of the Venturers, takes control of all
the lands of the Nen Umbar.

3345 Uvatha returns to Sturlurtsa, and gathers the Variag tribes under his command. The cult of the Dark Lady rises
again in Chelkar and Pezarsan, and subtly influence their Lords.

3365 The Eastern lands of Near Harad (Pezarsan and Chelkar) pay again tribute to the Variags.

3400 Fuinur sends an embassy to Isildur and Anarion, declaring his independence from their rule, and advocating a
peaceful coexistence between Gondor, Umbar and Harad. Isildur and the Council of Pelargir grudgingly accept his
terms, having neither the desire nor the strength to make war upon Umbar.

3429 Beginning of the Seventh War of Powers, known in the West as the War of the Last Alliance. The Taskreels of
Amrûn take side with the forces of Ard and Uvatha. Sauron attacks Gondor, takes Minas Ithil. Anarion defends
Minas Anor and Osgiliath, but Harithilien is ravaged by the forces of Sauron, led by Adûnaphel and Uvatha.
Lebennin is also attacked, and Pelargir is unsuccessfully assaulted by Fuinur and Herumor’s forces, though the
haven’s outer defenses suffer great damages.

3430 The Last Alliance of Men and Elves is formed.

3434 The host of the Alliance crosses the Misty Mountains. At Sauron’s defeat on the battle of Dagorlad, Fuinur
withdraws to Umbar with the Karma of Aldarion then disappears. All Near Harad rises in revolt against the forces of
the Shadow.

3441Barad-Dur is broken and Sauron is overthrown. The Nazgûls pass into shadow.

Third Age

1 – 470 Continuing decline of Khand. Its borders are pushed back to the Gap of Khand (v. Khandu Prakhod) in the
north, and to the banks of Noz Peka in the south.

1 For the first centuries of Third Age, Umbar dominates the coastal trade, while Gondor controls the old
Numenorean roads leading north. The four lands of the River Haruzan, Pezarsan, Chelkar and Lurmsakûn are
independent. Nurn is ruined, and the Nurniags reduces to a nation of nomads and beggars. Khand and Chey lands
are in tribal chaos. This could have been a new Heroic Age, if there had not been incessant quarrelling of the Haruze
tarbs.

2 Disaster of the Gladden Fields. Isildur is killed during an Orkish ambush.

5-600 The Variags are driven from Lurmsakûn; Haruze princes occasionally establish dominion over parts of the
Lower Khand and the middle Ered Harmal passes.
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c.50-700 The Lords of Umbar seek to reconsolidate their old sphere of influence along the coasts and Harnendor, but
many of the Haruze Kings now look to the Gondorian kings for patronage and stability, drawing the men of Gondor
into frequent conflicts with Umbar and its clients.

500 – 900 Periods of war and aggression flicker along the borders of Khand, involving the Variags with the Nuriag,
Asdriag, Chey, and Haradrim. As well, conflicts between the seven Orodriag further destabilize Khand.

550 – 950 The Varjev of Lurmsakûn conquer a dozen of scattered Haruze states, most of Pezarsan and cross the Ered
Harmal to invade the Chey steppes. They declare protectorate over the Avari Elvish tribes of the mountains,
something even Ûvatha had never achieved, and clear the way for a sudden burst of trans-continental trade.
Standstill in the vales of the Ered Harmal between the Varjev in the north-west and the Chyan in the south-east,
preserved only by their common interests in maintaining trade. During the following 400 years the uneasy peace is
only broken by occasional Varjev raids against the Chyan Empire and unsuccessful attempts of conquest by the
Chyan Great Kings.

748 The rise of the ship kings in Gondor, starting with Siriondil. Siriondil appoints his son Tarannon Captain of the
Hosts, and Tarannon begins to extend royal influence into the old spheres of the Pelargirean League.

754 King Siriondil officially dissolves the Pelargirean League. Tarannon captures Mírlond.

830 Tarannon Falastur gives the name of Harondor to the newly-acquired provincial domain south of the Poros.
Lond Tolfalas, Mírlond and Glanhir receive township status from Tarannon. In Umbar, the Captains call for war, but
Taskrel Eben Fensayk of Amrûn is able to promote a policy of reconciliation between Gondor and Umbar. This will
lead instead to some incidents and provocations (sabotage, piracy) instead of open fighting.

830 (fall) The Zâur an-Anî (the Creed of Men), a Mulkhêrite cult, starts again to influence the Council of Captains
of Umbar, in the course of actions to take against Gondor and Bellakar.

831 Taskrel Eben Fensayk of Amrûn tries to maintain peace between Gondor and Umbar, through a truce agreement,
but he is unable to avoid incidents and provocations from both realms.

845 Zagarkhâd, member of the Council of the Captains, ally with the Nuzhaj, a venerable order of Haruze scholars
that had its roots in the Dark Years of Second Age.

861 Arnor is sundered into three sister-realms.

896 Hamaluk Lengur takes with his elite soldiers the city of Amrûn, and kills Eben Fensayk. He supports both
Gondor and Umbar for an upcoming war. The war is declared seven years later.

913-933 Eärnil I succeeds Tarannon, repairs the haven of Pelargir, and builds a great navy.

918 The Jelut of the Urdwaith, the desert country east of Umbar, are unified by a nomad dynasty, the Muargiz, who
are experts in cavalry warfare.

933 The Zâur an-Anî seizes control of Umbar and rebuilds the temple of Mulkhêr.

933 Eärnil of Gondor invests Umbar as a fortress of Gondor. Defeated by Eärnil I, the lords of Umbar and their
forces retreat to bases around the Nen Umbar (Dûsalan, Mardruak), to Ramlond (Abârlôni) and to Tirith Argon
(Târik an-Ârûrud), and as far as the Thânî Hazaj in farthest Harad, where they try to build a Southron Alliance
against Gondor. Amrûn refuses to join openly to the Southron Alliance. The Mulkhêr temple in Umbar is destroyed.

950 The Varjev disintegrates in Pezarsan. Several petty realms claim the succession of the Varjev realm.

987 Tallas Lengur, the last Taskrel King of his line, foolishly engages into a conflict against Gondor. He is defeated
at Taloc Passage, on the lower Carnen just above Gobel Ancalimon, and Cyriandil annexes all the lands between the
Carnen and the Middle Carnen. Ciryaher founds the settlement of Barad Harn.
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988 Tiras Amrûn established to counter Umbarean influence in Amrûn. Eben Imocra of Engiz signs an alliance and
claims friendship with Gondor, and becomes the new ruler of Amrûn.

990-97 Eben Akil conquers all Pezarsan, and unofficially joins the Southron Alliance.

c.1000 Sauron and the Nazgûl stir again in Middle-earth. The Arizul send five of their own from Aman to Middle-
earth to seek out the source of the Shadow and council mortal men against its rise. Among the Five wizards, Rujimin
Mirak (Saruman) is the most involved in Gondor and Near Harad. His counterpart is Garigen Mirak, very active in
Gondor, who comes less to Near Harad, and a third one is Kirun Arom (Helaman or Alatar).

1012 (spring) The meeting of Desul Muargiz, leader of the Southron Alliance, and of Khêruzôr of Dûsalan is
recorded in both the King’s Men and the Haradrim archives. It prepares the upcoming war against Gondor.

1012 The War of the Exiles. Desul proclaims himself Autarb of all Haruzan, a title held last by Ard Vedaraba and
Fuinur Stormheart, but is killed by one of his Umbarean allies.

1016 In Tiras Amrûn, Gondor and the leaders of the Southron Alliance agree to a truce in the conflict.

1033 A mercenary army coming from Khand invades Heb Aaraan. Entoj Adun, descendant of Queen Ard the Vain,
establishes the realm of Alkyad. His descendants will dominate the valleys of the Ered Harmal during six centuries.

1039 King Ciryaher defeats the Exiles of Ramlond (Abârlôni) and occupies their haven.

1045 The Southron Alliance is revived under a new warlord, Talasc Imocra, son of Eben Akil of Korb Taskral.
Under inspiration of the Shining Lady, those refusing his leadership are massacred at the Oasis of Five Palms. Talasc
Imocra claims to be the true heir of the Kibic, the Nuzhaj and all warlords of the past.

1049 Kadar an-Bêlabâr (Ancalimon’s town) is taken by the Bellakarâni, while Cyriaher achieves a great victory at
Blacksand vale against the Southron Alliance, and is therefore called Hyarmendacil, the South Victor.

1050 Hyarmendacil I, the last Ship-king, conquers Harad and forces its Kings to accept Gondor as overlord. Gondor
is at the height of its power. A descendant of Eben Fensayk is crowned in Amrûn.

1055 Rise of the Arbitrars (those wishing to extend Gondor’s power) and of the Purists (those considering most the
racial pride) in Gondor, after a failed attempt of pacification of Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn. The Arbitrars are in truth
used by the Haruze, and particularly the Seraf (warriors by day, scholars at evening, and poets at night)), to fight
their wars as surely as Uvatha used the Variags.

c. 1150 Telgir the Mystic, of mixed Dúnadan and Haruze ancestry and rumoured to be an illegitimate son of King
Hyarmendacil of Gondor, befriends the Avar Elves of the Suncrown and, with the support of the Wizard Alatar the
Blue, he founds a retreat for exiled Dúnedain in one of their mountain valleys. He names it Velarith (S. Gods
Safety). It will become a mythical refuge for enslaved and hunted folk of many races.

1216 Erenin, daughter of Erenvil, third son of King Atanatar, travels across Endor by way of Haruze and Chey lands
and then eastward, pursued by priests of the Cult of the Fire King, servants of Ren the Nazgûl. She slays ten of them
in a series of duels in the cities of the Lóchas Drûs, then sails home on an Umbarean ship. She begs her grandfather
for warriors to defeat the minions of the Shadow she saw in every eastern land. The King refuses.

1222 Erenin leaves for Maresh, joining her father and the Grand Captain Turgon. They prepare a Sacred War for a
final cleansing of evil from the lands of Middle-earth. Pell Vuk (or Rosethorn as he is called in the chronicles in the
West) and Pegan Soy (or Whitetail) hear of the Dúnedain gathering west of the Suncrown. They make peace with
the Variag on their western frontier and renew their alliance with the Ahar to the east, then send stern letters to
Maresh, warning the Holy Warriors gathered there to consider that the Chey warlords, in their way, also fought the
forces of evil.
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1223 The Sacred War begins. From Maresh the Sacred Band, some four thousand Gondorians and ten times that
number of Haradrim, marches onto the Plateau of Khand. They break the Variag forces near the fortress of
Ovatharac in sight of the peaks of the Suncrown and advance on Sturlurtsa Khand. Ûvatha, brooding in his dark
palace, ignores Erenvil’s challenge to single combat. After a second bloody victory outside Sturlurtsa Khand ruins
the main Variag army, plague breaks out in the city and the Sacred Band’s leaders refuse to risk a siege. Satisfied
with their work, they march down from the plateau and into eastern Lurmsakûn. That autumn they cross the Ered
Harmal, bypass the Avar forests, and secure quarters and supply in Heb Aaraan, east of the mountains.

1224 Turgon and Erenvil strike out across the steppes and find nothing as their enemies retreat before them. They
head first for Ulk Chey Sart, anticipating that the Chey and their allies will defend it. Instead, they find it erupting
and spewing a foul smoke, polluting the springs and streams and killing the horses and cattle. After a battle at the
foot of Ulk Chey Sart and the capture of Pegan Soy, the Holy Warriors pursue the seemingly retraining Chey to the
north-east, intending to drive the Chey across their eastern frontiers and water their horses in the great river
Numahar. After days of painful walk across trackless, waterless country swarming with steppe warriors, Turgon,
Erenvil and Erenin and thousands of others, are all killed at the Battle of Calterc Prairie.

1225 The corpse of Princess Erenin is brought back in a cask to King Atanatar. In the aftermath of Calterc Prairie, all
of the high plains of central Endor are aflame with war.

1240 Narmacil creates the office of Captain of Ships, and hands it over to Calihmetar and his descendants, thus
severing the rule of Pelargir and the fleets from the royal house.

1264 – 1640 The Nazgûl Ren, in the guise of the divine Al Chey Sart rules all the Chey; he will keep his power for
centuries.

1432 – 1448 The Kin-strife in Gondor, between the royalists of Eldacar and the confederates (or traditionalists) of
Castamir. Taskrel Jusan Akil of Amrûn attempts to reconciliate Eldacar and Castamir, but is ignored.

1447 – 1451 Variag under Ûvatha conquer Lurmsakûn. The second Variag empire is at its greatest extent. Jusan Akil
of Amrûn organizes an alliance against Ûvatha. Pezarsan remains an Haruze territory.

1479-80 Taskrel Jusan Tural of Amrûn conquers the East March of Harondor from the confederates, who offer out of
desperation to subsidize an Amrûn invasion of Ithilien. But Jusan Tural turns eastward to put an end to the Variag
raids into Pezarsan.

1490-1508 Emig Cosrah unites Pezarsan in revolt against Amrûn. He then takes Lurmsakûn from the Variags, then
subjugates Amrûn. Emig sends his grandson Temer to study in Gondor.

1523 Emig Cosrah is murdered by an Umbarean assassin. Temer Cosrah reaches in disguise Pezarsan.

c. 1530-1540 The Cosrah rule more territory than any Haruze since the Varjev, a thousand years before. Sauron,
watching with alarm orders his servants to break up the new power. Temer Cosrah subdues much of Chelkar.
Intervention by Uvatha leads to a war with the Variags, started at the behest of Sauron. This destracts Temer from his
plans to conquer Harondor and the Ethirest, but drives Uvatha back into Khand.

1540 Aldamir retakes Harnendor from the rebels, capturing Amon Eithel, Barad Harn and Gobel Mirlond but is slain
in the process. In reaction, the Umbarean Council appoints Castamaitë Admiral of the Ethir Fleet. Vinyarion fortifies
the Men Harnen.

1545 Vinyarion captures Tiras Amrûn.

1549 Near Harad is united under Temer Cosrah. He forms a new Southron Alliance to prevent Gondor from
regaining its dominance in Harad. The Grand Autarb gains allies among Variags, Umbareans, and Chey . Vinyarion
of Gondor grants Umbar a twenty-year truce to gather strength against the Southron Alliance. Umbar uses the truce
to rebuild its military and solidify its trading position in Western Endor.
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1551 Vinyarion defeats the united armies of the Haradrim on the River of Graves, slaying Temer Cosrah. He accepts
the nominal allegiance of several cities in Near Harad and takes the name Hyarmendacil II.

1551-95 The Variags gain a tenuous control over Lurmsakun.

1572 Ûvatha regais control of Lurmsakûn, but his Variag hordes are weaker than they had once been.

1613-1622 An alliance of Haruze lords lords rises in Pezarsan and drives Variags out of Lurmsakûn. The invading
barbarians return to Khand, greatly weakened.

1634 The Corsairs attack Pelargir and slay King Minardil.

1636 The Great Plague passes through Harad, slaying perhaps a quarter of the population. Earthquakes destroy
cities of Amrûn and Gobel Ancalimon. Corsair raids begin again, as factions quarrel within the government of
Umbar.

1671 – 1672 Parnelion Sey comes out of his refuge at Red Holes and leads his people in a rebellion that sweeps the
Chey out of Ahar territory. Parnelion lieutenant, Alafar Mem, leads his hard-riding army to victory, invading Chey
Sart in utter fury. An aging, but still vigorous Ovatha Ito leads an army against the Aharin in order to preserve and
protect his holdings in Chey Sart. The united Variag and Chey armies are defeated and routed when, ironically,
Ovatha, the horse-slayer himself is crushed under his own horse. This defeat at the Battle of the Grass Tombs in
Central Chey Sart marks the beginning of the Empire of Khand’s decline and decay. During the next 54 years, the
bard enjoys the unprecedented honour of being the master of all the Ahar Warrior-kings.

1810 Teluhmetar at least captures Umbar, destroying the last descendants of Castamir and subjecting the haven to
military rule. The defeated Umbarean artistocracy withdraws to Ramlond and Gobel Ancalimon.

1851-1856 The First Wainrider War. Easterlings conquer Rhovanion. Narmacil II falls in battle and is succeeded by
Calihmetar. Gondor loses its eastern territories to the Wainriders.

1856-1899 Wainrider kingdom in Gondor

1865 – 1921 With the ebbing of Gondor's power, Uvatha strikes out into the Harad, capturing the Res and caravan
routes along the Ered Harmal and isolating Valarith. In his invasions he uses his Brygath Wainrider thralls.

1899 Calihmetar defeats the Wainriders at Dagorlad, whose hold on Rhovanion collapses.

c. 1935 Amrun is the last Haradim realm not under Variag domination. Uvatha and the priestesses of the Temple of
the Lord of Darkness assist the members of the Cult of Melkor in their attempts to seize control of the kingdom.
These attempts ultimately fail.

1940 Uvatha, satisfied with his gains in the Harad and feeling (mistakenly) secure in the strength of his northern
holdings, returns to Mordor. Umbar falls to the combined forces of the Harruze and the surviving rebels based at
Ramlond. The Wainrider-Variag-Haruze alliance sweeps westward through Harad.

1943 Taskrel Akil VI of Amrûn is assassinated by the Mahurk, a fanatical branch of the cult of Melkor, by whose
machinations the men of Amrûn join the Wainrider Alliance.

1944 The Wainriders invade Gondor. An army of Igath invades Gondor from the north, while an allied force of
Igath, Variags and Haradrim attacks from the south. Gondor drives out the invasion, at the Battle of the Camp and
drives them into the Dead Marches, but at the cost of King Ondoher and both his sons. Ovatha is killed in battle
against Eärnil.

1946 Naiv II Agan, grandson of Akil VI, recovers the throne of Amrûn, and brings peace to eastern Haruzan. The
abandoned site of Mirlond is settled by Haruze, who rename the town Kas Marzûk. In Pezarsan and Lurmsakûn,
Variags and Igath are hunted and slain like wild dogs.
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1974 End of the North-kingdom. The Witch-king overruns Arthedain.

2002 Fall of Minas Ithil, afterwards known as Minas Morgul.

2060 The power of Dol Guldur grows. The Wise fear that it may be Sauron taking shape again.

2063-2460 The Watchful peace. Sauron retreats and hides in the East. The Ladnocans grow in power among the
Haruze.

2300-2375 The Ladnocan Omrusin dynasty of Amrûn dominates lower Harnen and the Urdwaith, and Umbar is
obliged to pay subsidies, at least for a time.

2360 Steward Hador of Gondor and Naiv V of Amrûn prepare an assault against Umbar, but is thwarted at the last
moment when a talented family of corsairs take control of the Council of Umbar.

2475 The attack on Harithilien is renewed. Osgiliath is finally ruined.

2660-2720 The last Ladnocan dynasty of Haruzan, the Taminids, dominate much of Haruzan west of Amrûn. The
three Taminid Autarb defy threats from the Dark Cults and ally themselves with Gondor.

2730 Tescel Varazin seizes power in an obscure town of the Taminid lands, usurps the Taminid throne, and allies
with Umbar and Amrûn against Gondor. A mad prophet, claiming that he inspired by the Dark Lady, claims that a
Bane of Power – The Long Winter - will be soon pronounced to come to the help of the Goldly People.

2735 Tescel Varazin is murdered by agents of Amrûn.

2741 The Haruze seize the coastal settlements of Harondor, thereby terminating the last vestige of Gondorian control
south of the Poros. Tescel Varazin starts the invasion of Ithilien.

2744 The Battle of Hyand Byth. The army of Tescel Varazin is defeated on Ithilien, and forced to retreat.

2758-2759 The Long Winter. The Corsairs, now dominated by the Cult of Melkhor, launch a devastating attack on
the coasts of Gondor and as far north as Rohan and Eriador. The Ladnocans briefly retake power in Chelkar.

2885 Stirred up by emissaries of Sauron, the Haruze, led by the men of Amrûn, cross the Poros and attack
Harithilien. They are defeated at Athrad Poros by the Gondorian hosts, aided by the men of Rohan. In the aftermath
of the Haruze defeat, Sauron extends his dominion over the Haruze and ruins southern Gondor’s economy by cutting
off trade with the southern lands.

2951 Sauron declares himself openly in Mordor and starts the rebuilding of Barad-dûr.

2954-3018 Sauron completes his domination of Near and Far Harad and builds up his forces in Rhovanion, Umbar
and Harondor for a final war of conquest against Gondor.

2957-2980 Aragorn, Chieftain of the Rangers of the North and last heir of the line of Elendil, travels from Gondor to
farthest Harad and aids the few remaining defenders of the old traditions. Under the name of Helak-il-Auatzin
(Helak, Master of Spirits), he foments Haruze resistance to the Vatracin.

2980 A Gondorian attack on the Haven of Umbar led by Helak-il-Auatzin destroys much of the gathered fleet.

3018 – 3019 War of the Ring. Destruction of the One Ring. The Ringwraiths pass out of Arda forever.
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4.0 GEOGRAPHY
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5.0 ANIMALS AND FLORA OF NEAR HARAD

Near Harad can be seen in two ways. Most Pogannin remember it as a barren and blasted land, where man
and beast can perish and wither from thirst. To the Bozishnarod and the merchants who trade with them, Near Harad
is a land of matchless riches. Its valleys provide a plentitude of grain for its many cities and shiploads of fruit, nut,
fiber, and hide for export to Umbar and Gondor. The landscape of Near Harad, therefore, provides a contrast and
variety unmatched in any realm of Middle-earth.
The flora and fauna of Near Harad also boast a history of its own. In the beginning of time, the Gods
created a Middle-earth rich in greenery, a realm barely touched by the harsh climates of mountain and desert. The
conflict with Melkor changed the world, however. The Harfareth of the First Age was a vast savanneh country, some
of it lush and forested, some of it scrub and grassland. The rising of the sun made the land drier and forced the forest
back towards the river valleys. The War of Wrath blasted vast strechs of the Harfareth with volcanic brimstone and
ash, while the wreck of Beleriand, in the distant north, changed the winds so rain seldom fell on southwestern Endor.
Harfareth had become Harad; the water-loving trees and foliage vanished or clung to stream-side and oasis.
Man came to Near Harad in great numbers in the Second Age, bringing more change. The forests of the
Saromis were felled by thousands of axe-blows and a hundred marshes were drained and plowed.

5.1 THINGS THAT GROW IN THE EARTH

5.1.1 PLANTS OF THE DRY COUNTRY

5.1.2 PLANTS OF THE VALLEYS AND MOUNTAINS

5.1.3 CROPS, ORCHARDS, AND GARDENS

5.2
5.2.1 ANIMALS OF FARM AND HERD

5.2.2 ANIMALS OF THE WILD

ANTELOPE
As the deer are the archtypal grazing animal of the temperate forests, so the antelope is in the dry southern
country. The Gamekeepers Guild of Pezarsan names thirty kinds of antelope found wild in Near Harad. They range
in size from the Kingshorn of the desert oases of the Marg Murak, to the Lise, the Fern-dancer of the Pezar
Cataracts. A Kingshorn bull can match a war horse in strength, while the Lise is not much larger than a cat.
Listed below are the most notable of the antelopes of Near Harad, all of them fair game for travellers where
local law permits. They are here classified as large (ox-sized,) medium (sheep-weight,) or small (half the weight of a
sheep or less, half of that edible.)
Gazelle -- The bush gazelle is the most common antelope in Third Age Near Harad, found in herds of
twenty to a hundred in semi-arid country from the Aegardh to the _____ hills and eastward to Chy. A darker breed,
the marsh gazelle, lived in herds of a thousand or more along the length of the Saromis in the Second Age, but is
now a secretive creature, found only where swamp or rough ground make farming impossible along the rivers. The
bush gazelle has two short, straight horns and a white double stripe on its forehead. While only a little larger than a
goat, It serves as common totemic animal amng the urdwan, praised for its ability to find food on barren bursk and
steppe and to run for an hour or more at twice the speed of a horse. The marsh gazelle has a narrower, brighter stripe
between its horns. Sihadin who wear its horns and stripe on their pennants are bragging of their ancestry,
remembering a time when the Bozishnarod first conquered the river-lands and the gazelle was still common enough
to provide them with food and hide.
Gembuck -- a smallish, flat-hoofed lowland antelope with grey skin, forked horns and glittering eyes.
Preternaturally sensitive to sound and smell, it still flourishes even among the grain-fields and olive groves of the
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Harnen and its tributaries, grazing at night and hiding from men by day. Small families of a half-dozen or fewer can
suddenly hop up from behind a shrub-knot anywhere in settled Near Harad, confounding the farmer or hunter by
making repeated five and ten foot leaps over stone walls, fence-rows, and any oxen, horses, or men too slow to get
out of the way. Local utarf take gembuck with snares, but they do not take many. The gembuck figures in
Bozishnarod folk tales as a symbol of luck and cunning, as the red fox does in Gondor and Eriador. Gembucks with
Azhan blood (S. "Kelfaen," or fairy beasts) are said to be able to climb tall trees and take olives and dates from the
top branches. They are also said to be able to mimic the songs of birds and the chirping of insects to confuse hunters.
As a last resort, an enchanted animal too closely might whisper the names of his tormenter's loved ones and plant
thoughts of their their deaths in his mind.
Kingshorn -- In the age of the Kibic, the Kingshorn ruled the Saromis. Chieftains proved their worth by
slaying a Kingshorn buck and taking its spiralling, four-foot horns as a trophy to mark the entrance to their tents. In
the Third Age, they are quite rare, protected by the lords of Pezarsan. Only fezir may hunt them. The kingshorn is a
black-eyed and black-faced animal. Its massive forequarters bespeak great power; it can gut a horse with its horns or
crush a man's skull with a kick if troubled in its domain of wood-knot and brush-tangle.
Aryx -- The lord of the sands, the aryx is not as bulky as the kingshorn but has longer legs and cleaner
lines. A magnificently handsome animal, it boasts striking silver and white diamonds on its face, black, swept-back
horns and a black crest along its spine to its tail. The aryx is said to almost never drink, drawing water from the
twist-grass and thistle it grazes on in the open desert. The aryx bull strikes itself into the memory by posing on hill-
tops and dune-crests at sunset while watching over its herd of five to ten females. The first urdwan to cross the
deserts of Harad were said to have followed an aryx that beckoned them every evening in the twilight as they
camped. The wise suggest that the beast, if not just a legend, was possessed by the spirit of the Vala Yavanna.

CATTLE
Not as ubiquitous in Near Harad as sheep and goats, cattle are
nonetheless important to the utarf. The bullock protects the herd and breeds
new cattle. The ox, a bull shorn of his manhood as a young calf, pulls the
peasant's plough and cart. The cow provides more milk than a ewe and more
fertilizer than a goat. When worn out from bearing calves, she can be sold to
the sihadin as beef, providing hard cash for the peasant. The hides of all
cattle provide the best common leather in Harad. The hump-shoulder Haruzan
breed is the most common, standing shoulder-high to a Bozishnarod, grey-brown
in color, protecting itself with short, high horns. The Dunadan of Harondor
prefer a larger breed, the Summerland brown, with a straight back and broader,
more massive horns. For a greater variety of leather, the horn and hide
dealers of Harad look to the black, white, and spotted animals brought over
the eastern mountans into Lurmsakun by Variag and Chey drovers every summer.

SHEEP
This animal is the focus of life among the urdwan, the first thought to trouble the nomad's mind on waking
and the last blessing he thanks the gods for at night. The utarf are only slightly less obessed with their sheep, having
to devote part of their time to fussing over their grain and melons. Sheep of one or more of a dozen breeds are found
in every village and encampment in Harad. On shearing or drover's days in Bozishnarod towns, sheep may
outnumber the human population by a factor of five or more. At these festivals the oily reek from the wool and
waste of thousands of ewes and rams is said to make the air shimmer, to curl the leaves of date palms, and to drive
off evil spirits. It certainly keeps the sensitive noses of magistrates and sihad away from the shepherds as they dance,
gamble, and revel.
Haradon sheep have shorter and finer wool than those from Gondor and the northern land. The urdwan
breeds sometimes boast patches of straight hair, mottled coats, and an emaciated look that belies the enduring, stoic,
toughness that allows them to survive the harshness of desert grazing.

LION
It is said among the Haradrim that the Dark Lord, at the dawn of time, chose the wolf as the mount for his
goblin cavalry because the lion proved too proud to serve any god. The most magestic of hunting animals, the lion,
in some form, once ruled the lands from Lindon across the vales of Anduin to the Easterling plains and the deserts of
Harad. Man, the lion's eternal enemy, has driven him from most of his ancient hunting grounds. A few spotted lions
still roam the remote wilds of Gondor and the hill country north and east of Mordor. The tawny lion of Near Harad is
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a slightly smaller beast; it roams the fringes of the desert all across Harad, eastward into the Suncrown and south to
the Yellow Mountains. Most lions live in small prides of three to six adults; young males are driven from their prides
to hunt alone. Lions need to hunt grazing animals to live. When drought burns away the sparse grass of the wadis
south of the Harnen, lions follow the starving herds of antelope and sheep down nearly to the banks of the great
river. The big cats risk urdwan arrows and sihadin horse-spears to take sheep, cattle, and sometimes unlucky
peasants. Some lions become so adept at taking human prey that they terrorize entire provinces and become the stuff
of legend. A few of these man-eaters are "Ferath" truely possessed by evil spirits, either devam or the ghosts of men.
Only the bravest and most resourceful mortal hunters dare pursue them. If the Ferath slays such a hero, his appetite
may be sated, and he disappears back into the desert.

Here is a smaller bit from _Near Harad_: the outline for the geography section I did not write. It serves as a sort of
glossary for the basic terrain of the Haradwaith.

I read an interesting description of the Siwa oasis (in Egypt) the other day. Michael Wood, the writer, describes it
as a valley in the middle of a trackless, waterless wasteland, a belt of green 10 kilometers wide by 100 kilometers
long, covered with several hundred thousand date palms. The heat (and fleas) are incredible, but several thousand
people have made a living here since the days of the Pharaohs. The shrine at which Alexander the Great found out
he was a god still stands amid the mosques of Siwa.

It takes only a little local relief to generate oases like this, so you can plant them as you see fit in the interior of
Bellakar.
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5.5 THE AZHAN AND PERI

A scholar of Amrun once said that the Haradrim and their Dunadan rivals are were divided by opposed
views of a common mortality. The traveler who crosses the Fords of Poros moves between differing visions of the
world beyond humankind.
The Dunedain and their allies in northern Middle-earth view the supernatural, the world of immortal spirits
and ghosts, as something strange, occasionally dangerous, but generally under the control of Eru. Their ancestors
once fought a war in alliance with the Valar. In that war evil was mastered and its remnants, dangerous in small
ways, lost much of their power over mortal men. The rise of undead lords in Middle-earth, the existence of haunted
places like Mordor, Mirkwood in northern Gondor, and the Barrow Downs in Arthedain, has eaten away at Dunadan
confidence. However, the people of Gondor and Umbar still think themselves the masters of Creation, under the
Valar. Most still pass their days heedless of spirits and haunts, looking down on the "superstitious" folk around them.
The Haruze live their lives with much less assurance. They have been often conquered; at times, conquered
by immortal beings. The Arizul, as the Valar and their servants are known to the Haruze, are seen as powerful but
distant forces. The Azhan, the Maia of Middle-earth, along with the spirits of the dead, are perceived as near and
more often dangerous than benign. Every Haruze child knows the chants for warding off ghosts. Every village healer
hangs charms against evil spirits. Haruze houses are decorated with protective sigils and fetishes. Those who can
afford to leave gifts of food and wine out from time to time to placate the house-peri and garden-trogs. Sand-devils
devour desert travelers in Harad and the Gul steals the corpses of the dead from poorly warded tombs in its cities. If
these supernatural beings have not threatened mortal existence in recent times, they are still ready to take the unwary
and unprepared. Some Azhan might still yearn for the ancient days when they ruled the world and Men were only
their servants. A few might still be conjuring ways to bring that world back.

THOSE THAT WALKED THE EARTH IN TWILIGHT

The first thinking beings of Near Harad were the Azhan, the Servants of the First Creation, the immortal spirits,
known to the Elves as the Ainur, Maiar, and Faerie. The Azhan surviving in the world in later ages rarely speak of
the times before the Sun and Moon, seeming to remember it mainly as a perpetual dreaming. They lived under
eternal starlight, through endless cycles of benign seasons and sensation. Beauty and terror swirled together in their
dream, time passing and occasionally fusing into some image of reality as mortals might understand it.
The Azhan of this Age of Twilight lived in a land bountiful for their numbers and needs. The valleys and
hills, plants and beasts lay mostly untroubled by thought and memories, playing their roles in Creation much as they
did in later times. The names the Azhan gave their countries are mostly unknown to the Wise of the mortal races.
Indeed, it is said that the Azhan of the Twilight had little need of names or even speech. For the most part, they knew
all that was important to them, and felt all that changed, and shared their knowing in thought and gesture. They were
one with the substance and flow of the World. If the Valar, the Gods of later ages, fought with each other, only a few
of the most powerful Azhan were aware enough to take sides. The Peri, the spirits of rock, forest, and water who had
less power and lore, wept at the pain and turmoil that resulted and went on with their play. The greater
Azhan and the Peri took many shapes in the world, some of earth, some of air, some of animals, some of trees and
shrubs. However, with time, many chose the Veafana, the "Speaking Incarnation" held by the Arizul in distant
Aman, the Undying Lands at the western edge of Creation. This incarnate form, possessing legs to stand on the
earth, hands to wield tools, and a voice to speak words and song, was also like unto the forms selected by the One
for Men, Elves, and Dwarves, the Free Peoples, the mortal races who would inherit the rule of Middle-earth from the
Arizul. The Veafana held the greatest powers of all the forms life took in Middle-earth and allowed for the crafting
of new elements to add to the Creation.
The Age of Twilight in which Creation was ruled by the spirit-folk was long but eventually came to an end.
The first of the Free Peoples to come to the Harfareth, the southern grass-lands, were the Hawnin, Elves of the
brethren called Nandor. By the standards of later ages Middle-earth was still a mystical, peaceful place, and the
Elves its most benign citizens. However, the Azhan who witnessed the coming of the Free Peoples saw their world
taking on a harder, harsher form. Nature kept its beauty in the world of the Elves, but it was a beauty always tainted
with the awareness of pain and time. While the Azhan occasionally gave birth or made seed, after the fashion of the
animals and plants over which they had dominion, the Elves led lives with a beginning, middle, and occasionally an
end. They could pass long hours or days in the realm of dreams and thought -- they called it "sleep" -- but spent most
of their existence dealing with the fixed world of nature.
The Dwarves, who entered the Harfareth soon after the Hawnin, did the same, and also possessed a drive
for changing the world around them. The Harfareth proved a good field for the sowing of Dwarven wonders. A few
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Azhan, even before the coming of the Free Peoples, learned to speak and write and build dwellings and artifacts,
much as their Arizul brethren were doing in the Undying Lands. The barrenness of the Harfareth, relative to lands
north and south of it, inspired them to create dwellings and protected gardens to make their living easier and allow
more time for the contemplation of their thoughts and pleasures. In the Harfareth, the most important of these Azhan
were the Colruh (Ha. for S. "Gwaeridir," W. "Wind-pilgrims,") spirits of air. The Colruh sought first to create open
________ on wind-swept hills, like those of Aman, then learned to gather waters in cisterns, pools and fountains,
and to plant their gardens where these waters could be used to create abundance amidst the scarcity of bursk and
barren. They took Dwarves and Elves and other Azhan into their service; they grew fond of being served and grew
enamored of the objects that could be crafted and possessed. Eventually they built villages and palaces. A few of the
structures built by the Azhan survived their wars and waning at the end of the Elder Days. In the Second and Third
Ages of Middle-earth these places were valued for the knowledge and treasure that some contained, and also for the
remnants of _______, of magical power and feeling, that might be drawn from their substance. Many of the holy
sites of Men were built around fragments of Azhan ruins, often with little knowledge about their original use or
owner.
The Fireshadow Massif, on the northern bounds of the Harfareth, had been pushed up in the First War of
Powers, serving as a refuge and fortress for rebellious Azhan. The greatest of these spirits were known as the Devam
(S. "Narlthryg"), lovers of fire who made their homes in the many volcanoes of the massif. Melkor, the rebellious
Vala, had been their champion. Soon after the awakening of the Elves, the Valar brought on the Second War of
Powers to protect the World's new children. Melkor the Arizul was taken and chained in a fortress in the farthest
corner of Aman. His servants repented of their rebellion or hid themselves in shadows. While the Devam dared not
threaten the rule of the Arizul while Melkor was imprisoned, they could exert their power in lands adjoining their
haven. Arom, the huntsman of the Arizul, punished the Devam when he caught them troubling the outside world, but
he traveled to Middle-earth less often with the passage of time and his hunts grew fewer and fewer. The chief rivals
of the Devam, therefore, were inevitably other Azhan. The Devam and Colruh became jealous of each other; they
made no open war, but occasionally fought arcane duels over favored lands and precious herbs, metals, and stones.
They protected their havens with powerful enchantments and sought to seduce each other's servants and allies.
In the ___ War of Powers, known as the War of Wrath among the Elves, the Colruh and Devam fought and
killed each other, and slaughtered each other's followers and servants. They summoned great magiks and devastated
each other's realms and dwellings. The survivors of the war, stricken by the loss of their peaceful, dreaming
existence, and ashamed of the folly that led them to destroy their world, became reclusive. They masked their
mystical palaces with spells and created secret havens on the bounds between reality and dream, near Middle-earth
but also on the "Realms Beyond," where spirits and shadows still wandered and ruled.
The Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth saw the Harfareth become Harad, a domain of Men. The
Colruh still roam the world in the Third Age, as do many Peri and more elemental spirits, but they are seldom seen
by men. The Haruze know them mainly through legend and superstition.
For the most part, the Azhan have lost interest in the great affairs of the world. Most retain some fascination
with the themes of Creation they were originally bound to. The wind spirits of the high desert, for instance, still ride
the airs daily, as the sun draws them forth from the Realms Beyond. They seldom coalesce into solid and conscious
form unless summoned by some witch or sorcerer. The River-nells of the Harnen, spirits of fish, newt, and frog, are
usually found in small, scaled mannish forms, but spend their time swimming near the river bottoms where fishers'
nets cannot reach them. Other Azhan have attached themselves to the fringes of human society. House spirits, Peri of
hearth and bed, once tended the lairs and birthings of wild animals. Now they linger in the nooks and shadows of
human villages, where they accept gifts of coffee and cheese and keep snakes out of the bedding. The Gul, the
Eaters of Death, once tended to the cycles of mortality in nature. Haruze peasants and townsmen are now the most
common living things in Near Harad, so most of the Gul cling to sites of Mannish death. They ofttimes can be found
hiding in crypts under rural graveyards and the catacombs under Haruze cities.
The Colruh and Devam are believed to still exist and still figure in Haruze folklore. Other powerful Azhan,
such as Demons and Devils, are less spoken of but are still known from legend and history. Undead creatures like
ghosts and ghouls are as much a part of Haruze mystical belief as the gods they worship. To an outsider from the
West, Haruze culture seems to wallow in fear and superstition. To the Haruze, however, their concern with the
supernatural is no less sensible and no more disturbing than their fears about the leopard, the rat, and the viper. The
Azhan share Middle-earth with men. Mostly, and especially if placated with offerings and enchantments, they keep
their distance. Sometimes the worlds of mortal men and immortal spirits touch, and when they do the humans
involved are often in terrible danger.
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NAMING THE IMMORTALS

Many races claim knowledge of the immortal powers that created and ruled Middle-earth. While most of the
mannish nations favor their own myths and legends, many give some primacy to the testimony of the High Elves,
usually as filtered through their cultural wards, the Dunedain. There is strong argument for this, as the Noldor and
Sindar, being immortal, claim to have witnessed many of the events of the Elder Days. Various Mannish traditions
incorporate the High-Elvish lore in their mythos, few more so than the Haruze.
Near Harad possesses an independent scholarly tradition dating back to the age of Kibic rule, but long
influenced by Dunadan colonial domination. Most Haruze leaders and mystics are schooled in the Kibic tradition. It
incorporates most of the High Elven myths as revealed in the greatest book of Elvish lore, the Silmarillion, but
defines them from a Haruze viewpoint. In general, the Haruze are less apt to assign values of "good" and "evil" to
various beings and ideas in the mythos, while their interpretation of Mankind's place in Creation denies the "lesser"
status ascribed to them by the Dunedain.
Haruze mystics speak often of the Creator of the World, the being known to the West as Eru, the One. The
Creator is distant and his motivations are mysterious; the Haruze do not have as much faith in his essential goodness
as do the Dunedain. They argue, further, that Creation (Ea, to the Dunedain) is most directly ruled by the Arizul,
those beings known in the west as the Valar and the Maiar. Like the Creator, most Arizul are seen by the Haruze as
vaguely benevolent. However, most of them can, at times, be arbitrary, cold, and even cruel; some are overtly evil
and destructive. As the true rulers of Creation, the Valar are venerated and propitiated as "Gods" in Haruze theology.
The Dunedain find this worship repugnant, as it equates the Valar with the One. In discussions concerning the Valar,
the terms "Masters of the World" or "Masters of the Spirits" might be used by Haruze and Dunadan scholars to avoid
controversy.
Once these matters of courtesy are worked out, the scholars of west and south have much to share and
debate. The overt Ways of the World, law and justice, custom and value, virtue and guilt, are all debated among the
Wise in better times. Lore of herb and stone, of language and song, is traded along with cloth, craft works, and
pottery. However, West and South are often in conflict. The Dunedain feel themselves superior to other men, and
speak as though they were also masters of the spirit world. Haradon scholars have more humility in general, but are
no less proud of their traditions and world view. Despite their respect for the ancient power of Numenor, they argue
for and sometimes fight for the right to leave their own lives, make their own laws, and deal with spirits and spiritual
matters in their own way.

THE COLRUH
"Long the Arizul [the Valar] labored in the realms of Creation, which are vast beyond the thought of Men, until in
the time appointed was created the World, the Middle Kingdom of Earth. Then they put on the raiment of Earth and
descended into it, and dwelt therein . . . With the Arizul came other spirits whose being also began before the World,
of the same order but of less degree. These are the Azhan [the Maiar], the people of the Arizul."
Alepp Nechak's Haruze translation of the Elvish Valaquenta, the tale of Creation

Every Haruze child knows tales of the Colruh, the greatest of the immortal races of Middle-earth. They
serve as figures of awe, powerful creatures beyond human ken, but also as figures of fun. They are said to be wise
and cruel beings who can be slain only by mighty heroes but also tricked by clever street urchins and peasants. The
Colruh are potent sorcerers and deadly warriors, but wary of mortal men and afraid of holy places and mystics. They
may live like great lords, making their homes in hidden oases surrounded by their servants and slaves. If they are
stricken with a curiosity or whim to walk among men, they usually do so in disguise. In Haruze fables the Colruh are
said to wander as beggars along the streets of Haradon cities, testing the charitable instincts of mortals and inflicting
curses on the haughty and selfish. An ill fate may befall those who violate the rules of hospitality or decorum, for
they could face the harsh ill humor of a powerful spirit. On the other hand, folk who are kind to the traveler and give
good service to the customer in the bazaar may find themselves blessed in their romances or their business affairs.
Several hundred Colruh make their homes in Near Harad or visit it from places on the mystical Other Side,
the spirit-domain marking the bounds between Middle-earth and the Undying realms of the Arizul. Adventurers and
treasure seekers meet them on occasion while roaming remote or magical places. Scholars and magicians sometimes
seek out the Colruh for the ageless knowledge they hold, for no one has ever met a young Colruh, and many are as
old as Creation. However, like the other Azhan, the Colruh long ago accepted their destiny and gave up the rule of
Middle-earth to the Free Peoples. Only the cleverest of mortals gain anything from these encounters. If some
powerful devil or demon or other monster threatened humankind, the Colruh could be persuaded to take an interest
in some limited fashion. The Colruh have even been known to seek out mortal heroes to test them, for, having
conceded Middle-earth to the Free Peoples, they are occasionally curious about the most famous of their heirs.
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THE DEVAM
" . . .[G]reat was the power of [Melkor's] uprising . . . But he was not alone. For of the [Azhan] many were drawn to
his splendor in the days of his greatness, and remained in that allegiance down into his darkness."
The Valaquenta

Creation, say the loremasters of the West, began with thought and song. The Devam, spirits whose
memories go back to that time, say it began with fire, the burning light of the Sun and the flowing light of lava and
molten ash. The Devam are the spirits of volcanoes and the flames hidden in the earth. Long ago, so the legend goes,
they forged the stony heart of Middle-earth with their fire. When the Gods claimed Middle-earth as their own, the
Devam defied the Gods and raised a mountainous fortress, the Fireshadow Massif, at the center of Creation. From
the this realm, what men now call Mordor and Khand, the Devam have long tried to seize again what they made;
some day they may succeed or destroy the world in the attempt.
The Devam lurk in the background of Haruze mythology and story, the most malign and dangerous of
supernatural beings. Allies of Melkor in the first three Wars of Powers, they bear a bitter grudge against the Arizul
for their defeat. Most regard the Free Peoples as usurpers, weak creatures barely fit to serve the Azhan as slaves and
cattle. Fortunately for humankind, the Devam, in spite of their hatred of the Arizul, cannot escape the banes put in
place to protect the Children of Eru. Charms and spells ward the Devam; holy artifacts and shrines frighten them. A
Devam might occasionally stalk a Haruze city in search of mans-flesh, but it does so only at the expense of great
effort of will. The enchantments woven into the walls and buildings of the town, coupled with the prayers and
courage of the Godly Folk within, are a burden and drain on a Devam. Further, while they would admit it no more
readily than the great dragons of the north, the Devam fear mortal warriors. Melkor himself was wounded by an Elf
and maimed by a warrior of the ancient Edain. The Talmorng, a Devam who once ruled Near Harad, was slain by a
Hawnin chieftain, while Meklak, his son, was struck down by a Numenorean ship captain. The Devam were told
long ago that the Free Peoples would one day inherit all of Creation from them. As powerful as they are, the fate of
their more aggressive kin supports this prophesy, and none of them are unaware of it.
No more than a few hundred Devam dwell in Middle-earth in the mid-Third Age, and most of these hide
themselves in the volcanoes, lava pits, and mud-springs of Mordor. Tomes have been written in the Haradon tongues
listing thousands of names of "Devils and Demons," but most of these, if they exist, long ago passed into the Void.
The Devam who remain, like the Colruh, live in twilight and shadows, in hidden corners of the Haruze
lands. Most make their dwellings or decorate their caves after the fashion of local Mannish cultures, although
retaining customs and artifacts of ages long past. Some are honorable, after a fashion, and almost trustworthy. Some
are little more than savage beasts in fancy dress, who would offer a lost traveler good wine and an evenings play at
chess, with the intention of devouring their guests before the rising of the sun.
Many tales of the Devam exist. The Tale of Voutas Cosrah, Aubeg of Deshgar, is well known because of the
later fame of his family:

Word came to Deshgar of the Many Springs that merchants and drovers had been taken by brigands along
the Ras Lugal. Soldiers sent along the road found nothing save cabalistic signs scratched in the road by a iron tool.
They feared that not bandits, but some devil or gul was responsible for the disappearances. Voutas Cosrah, then
young and brave and new to his posting as governor of Deshgar, could not abide that such evil could stalk his people
unchallenged, so he resolved to avenge the murders himself.
On a moon-dark night, Voutas, disguised as a tinker, camped with an open fire along the tainted road. Sure
enough, ten bandits fell upon him out of the dark. Wielding his great silver-edged scimitar, he slew five of them,
then called upon the others to let him yield. Puzzled, they did so, crying out "Surely you are no tinker, but a great
warrior!"
He answered "I am but a tinker of Deshgar. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the worth of tinkers in that
town?"
The bandits allowed that they knew little of Deshgar, and were persuaded to accept Voutas' offer to come to
their lair and repair their pots and kettles. As they walked into the hills, Voutas saw a wisp of wind scratch a sigil on
the road-stones, and then blow dust over the bandit's tracks, and knew he was in the presence of powerful spirits.
When they came to the bandits' cave, their captain saw that Voutas was armed and not bound and he said.
"It is death for these men to allow any to learn where are cave is! If you have persuaded them to do so, then surely
you are no tinker, but an lawyer or orator!
Voutas answered: "I am but a tradesman of Deshgar, and we are all well spoken. Perhaps you are
unfamiliar with the quality of speech in that town?"
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The captain allowed that this was so, and put Voutas to work at repairing the cooking pots in the cave. This
Voutas, a man of many talents, did so well that the captain brought forth gold plates and silver pitchers for him to
inspect. And Voutas said to him: "These are items of great worth and lineage, inlaid with the script of the Kibic
lords! If these furnishings were owned by you, you would be too wealthy to be a bandit!"
"Alas," The captain cried out, "you see the truth of it. I am no longer my own master, who once ruled this
company of men, and this wealth is not mine. But how could you know the lineage of these goods? Surely you are
not a tinker, but a scholar or teacher of the fezir!"
Voutas answered: "I am but a thinking man of Deshgar, and we are all learned in the lore of our people.
Perhaps you have never seen the great schools of that town?"
The captain, weeping, allowed that this was so, and told Voutas of his trials. "A holy man had been
traveling with merchants we ambushed. One of my men struck him down, but in dying he laid a curse on us, that we
should gain only evil from our evil deeds. The curse drew a Devam to this country, from some tainted realm beyond.
He has the mastery of us, protecting us from the Governor's soldiers but devouring one of us every third night if we
do not bring him other men's flesh to feed on."
Voutas offered pity to the bandit captain, and offered to rid him of the Devam. The captain exclaimed: "Can
you do such things? Surely you are more than a tinker; you must be a great sorcerer or wizard!"
But Voutas answered: "I am but a free man of Deshgar, and know such useful things about the spirits as my
wise mother taught me. Perhaps you are unacquainted with the Goodwives of that town?" Voutas slung his scimitar
behind his back, and arranged his clothing to be presentable to a fezir of worth.
The Captain made no reply to Voutas, but instead led him to the back of the cave. Here a ebony urn stood
by itself; the captain drew off its lid, and smoke poured forth. In a moment the smoke blinded the two men, but in
another moment the blindness passed, and the cave had been transformed into a room of marble walls and silk
hangings, with silver tables set with golden dishes, with furs and down pillows to rest on. The table groaned with the
weight of fine meats, dates and olives, fruits and breads, and bottles of the finest wines.
Then a voice spoke, saying: "Who comes to sup with me?" in booming, hollow tones. The swirl of air that
had covered the bandits trail appeared from behind a curtain, taking on a man's shape at the table. But this was no
man, but a Devam, broad as a bullock, black as ebony, with flames for eyes and iron claws on his fingers. "Name
yourself, offering!" rumbled the Devam, fire spilling from his nostrils.
"I am no offering," said Voutas, "but a tinker and free man of Deshgar, here to bargain for the lives of my
kin." And he kept his weapon hidden, for he wished to lull the Devam into a feeling of safety. More so, he was in
the devil's house, and would not strike a blow as a guest.
The Devam seemed surprised at Voutas's courage, for the bandits had always groveled before him. He
asked him what bargain he had, and Voutas began to expound on the laws of Deshgar, and how they should apply to
the strange case of a hungry Azhan. The Devam answered Voutas, summoning old legal arguments from the days of
the Kibic, speaking in five different tongues, even reminding Voutas of the duties of cities to feed all within their
walls, whether man or beast, mortal or immortal. But Voutas answered him on every point, for he knew the law as
well as any man living. He knew all five languages, and summoned lore on every point, and argued with the Devam
from midnight to sunrise. The bandit captain, overcome by the force of their rhetoric, slumped as one drugged,
slack-jawed, and fell over on a pillow. Still they argued, until the Devam seemed to cower at the force of Voutas's
words.
"No common freeman are you," hissed the Devam. "Surely you are no tinker, but a mighty lord and
chieftain!"
But Voutas said, "I am many things, o devil and monster, but first I am a free man of Deshgar. Surely you
have heard of the worth of that people?"
"Only as meat." snarled the Devam. Then flames and smoke belched forth from his eyes, and thinking
Voutas blinded by them, he reach out a claw to tear at his throat. But Voutas, even as he argued with the Devam, had
made a dozen plans for the moment his foe would break hospitality and try to slay his guest. The Devam could not,
for the instant of his attack, see past the flames shot forth from his eyes. In that instant Voutas, swift as thought, drew
forth his scimitar and slashed at the Devam's iron claws. He split the monster's hand between the second and third
knuckle, and then, as it howled with pain, slashed his silver-edged blade across its throat.
Flames spewed forth from the Devam's wounds, slaying the sleeping bandit captain and filling the room
with smoke. Voutas stepped back, sensing the death of his foe. The wondrous room dissolved back into the smoke,
and the bandits fled the cave.
Voutas was left alone with the ebony urn, and returned with it to Deshgar. There he opened it in a holy
place, and found gold and jewels in plenty, more than dozen un-enchanted urns could hold, the wealth of the slain
Devam. He used it to provide for the families of those killed by the bandits, and kept the rest for his children. His
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son, Temer Cosrah, fought a long struggle to be Autarb of all Near Harad. He occasionally turned to the wealth of
the urn when his luck failed him, and found in it both the treasure he needed and a goodly reminder of his father's
wisdom and strength.