It was into this febrile situation that the Lord of the Nazgûl reappeared in TA 1300 and began to fulfil Sauron's plan to bring down the North-kingdom altogether. Their chief, re-empowered, would set about enacting his master's long vengeance upon the Realms in Exile of the Dúnedain, the descendants of the Faithful of Númenor who had escaped its destruction and who subsequently brought him low with the Last Alliance.īy now the northern Dúnedain realm of Arnor, sister-kingdom to the southerly Gondor, had already become split into three warring successor states – Rhudaur, Cardolan and Arthedain. This signalled the return of the Nine to Middle-earth. One thousand years into the Third Age, Sauron took form in the world again and, incognito, founded the fortress of Dol Guldur in southern Mirkwood in TA 1050. The Witch-king's true undead appearance in the first Lord of the Rings film With Sauron's spirit and power dissipated, the nine Nazgûl were no longer able to maintain their physical presence and they too disappeared – at least temporarily – from Middle-earth. He fought in the Age's climactic war against the Last Alliance of Elves and Men between SA 3434 and SA 3441, when the Dark Lord was eventually defeated and the One Ring taken from him. For the next 1200 years the greatest among them, known simply as the Lord of the Nazgûl, would serve Sauron as the commander of his army. The first sighting of the Nazgûl in Middle-earth was reported in SA 2251. The only certainty is that eventually he and all the others slipped into the Shadow-world and became one of the Nazgûl, or Ringwraiths, who were enslaved wholly to Sauron's will. The mightiest of all of them was likely a king and a powerful sorcerer, possibly of Númenórean heritage, but little is known of his (or the others') earthly life except that over the coming centuries they prospered as their power, wealth and mortal lifespans extended under the corrupting influence of their rings. In SA 1600 Sauron created and first donned the One Ring, and in SA 1693 began the War of the Elves and Sauron during which the Dark Lord recovered the Nine Rings and gave them to mighty lords and rulers of Men. The forging of the Rings of Power began some 1500 years into the Second Age. The Witch-king is gifted his Ring of Power as a human
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