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With Lidless Gaze: Sauron Quest

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vsh said:
So, combos I like:
Imrazôr's Deep + The Red King
The Citadel-By-The-Sea + The Elf-Lord

I'm voting for elf lord. Silver tongue and clever mind, that's an elf after my own heartless black soul!
[x] The Citadel-By-The-Sea
[x] The Elf-Lord
Great post as always, Telamon!
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I just want to see Elves be the weak link in service to the Light rather than Humans fail yet again.
 
[X] The Elf-Lord: Tianchai, the Talented One, is an elf-lord of no royal blood. His foremost attributes are his silver tongue and clever mind, with which he has won two of the Six Tribes to his side. Though the Windan and the Penni are the smallest of the tribes, he has convinced them that the High King's plan to ride East is folly, and has declared independence from the High King. He proposes that the tribes march Westward, towards Mirkwood and Lorien, the Western Realms of the elves, and join their cousins beneath the forests. Like many east-elves, he has no love lost for men, but his is a special kind of hatred. He views them still as servants of the Dark, and shuns the efforts of the Istari to convince him otherwise. Perhaps the only thing which might convince him to stay in the East is a renewed war against the Easterling hordes -- for he hates them above all else.

[X] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lanase was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lanase also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.
 
Chief18753 said:
Him and his followers are almost the singular exceptions to the perfect Elven BS. I want to see other Elves besides them fuck up
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*Singular exceptions*

That's not exactly singular. That's a huge section of the elven population going off and fucking up. Aside from that, there's other elves like Thingol who were nowhere near perfect. If you think that Tolkien ever portrayed the elves as perfect, then that's a very shallow reading of his work.
 
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A Nation's Virtue said:
*Singular exceptions*

That's not exactly singular. That's a huge section of the elven population going off and fucking up. Aside from that, there's other elves like Thingol who were nowhere near perfect. If you think that Tolkien ever portrayed the elves as perfect, then that's a very shallow reading of his work.
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Far as I know, most of the Elven fuck ups happen in the backstory book of the Silmariom rather than the actual trilogy itself. In which all the living elves are leaving this broken scarred world and return to the paradise of the Gods.
 
Chief18753 said:
Far as I know, most of the Elven fuck ups happen in the backstory book of the Silmariom rather than the actual trilogy itself. In which all the living elves are leaving this broken scarred world and return to the paradise of the Gods.
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That's a somewhat pointless distinction to be honest. In any case, if you want an example of elf dickery in the books, you can look at Thranduil the father of Legolas(though his is fairly minor when compared to Feanor, Eol, or Maeglin).
 
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[X] The Elf-Lord: Tianchai, the Talented One, is an elf-lord of no royal blood. His foremost attributes are his silver tongue and clever mind, with which he has won two of the Six Tribes to his side. Though the Windan and the Penni are the smallest of the tribes, he has convinced them that the High King's plan to ride East is folly, and has declared independence from the High King. He proposes that the tribes march Westward, towards Mirkwood and Lorien, the Western Realms of the elves, and join their cousins beneath the forests. Like many east-elves, he has no love lost for men, but his is a special kind of hatred. He views them still as servants of the Dark, and shuns the efforts of the Istari to convince him otherwise. Perhaps the only thing which might convince him to stay in the East is a renewed war against the Easterling hordes -- for he hates them above all else.

[X] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lanase was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lanase also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.
 
[X] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lanase was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lanase also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.

[X]The Elvenking: Nurelin, called Liankuro (flame-lord) by his people, is the current King of the Cundi elves and High King of the Six Tribes of the Avari. Immesurably proud, he has led his people for nigh on five hundred years, and has spent all of those years locked in war against the shadow. His ancestors spent centuries warring first against themselves and the Dark Lords, until his grandfather Lantikhe unified the Six Tribes to resist the power of Sauron in the early Second Age. The long eons of war have worn his patience thin, and though he worked with the Istari to drive the hordes back into their plains, he still bears a long grudge against the Easterlings for their ancestor's crimes against his people in the service of the Dark Lord. He dreams of the old tales of his people, the legends of a land to the Uttermost East, and a path to the Undying Lands at the edge of the world. His people are called the Avari, the Refusers, for they refused to come to the Undying Lands, and so are forever lesser than all other races of Elves. He would see this undone, and so readies himself to lead his people across the Last Desert into the unknown lands of the Uttermost East.

Let us make him believe that the two tribes who don't want to follow him, do this because they have fallen to the shadow that still comes from Mordor. Oh, yes Sauron has been "defeated" but parts of him are still there, aren't they? What reason should they have if they could live in paradise and refuse?

As soon as he believes that, let's go to these tribes and make sure they believe their king has been manipulated by the men of the east to go and die in the desert on a idiots quest.

And the men we will tell that the elves have returned to their old ways, that we have found evidence for that in the citadel.

As soon as war broke out, let's get the riders of the east. Let them come and trample anything beneath their horses, telling of the Light of the East they have seen. A wonderful light far greater than a darkness.

Let us become a "Lord of Light" ... a light coming from the fires of Mordor.
 
[x] Imrazôr's Deep
[x] The Elvenking

Morgoth tried to rise up with fire and thunder and orcs and got demolished. In LotR, when Sauron and Saruman tried it, they too got obliterated.

We'll start at the Deep, with no natural enemies. Oh, Elvenking wants to go East? We have a delicious staging area! Fast friends.

Let's take a page from Palpatine's book and be "nice". Let's help everyone out, discover cool stuff in the East, make peace... all the while gaining mundane power, either personally or through proxies. We have guile, right?

Eventually, we'll just be the one pulling all the strings. Then, we take a page from our world and start slowly changing things for the worse... oh, yes, taxes need to be raised, it's to help the people! Of course the guard/police need to watch your every move, it's for our great nation's security! What do you mean, you didn't carve the Eye of Sauron into your children? Are you a Gondor terrorist, or something?
 
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[x] Imrazôr's Deep
[x] The Red King

There is never enough dorfs. Though an elven king doesn't sound too bad either.

I am mostly swayed by a combination of East exploration and an impregnable fortress that can only fall to dorfs... who would be under our thrall.
 
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[x] Imrazôr's Deep
[x] The Elvenking

Think of the lies we need to spin! The Elvenking would be delighted to hear of a helpful spirit from the far east, ready to help speed his people's journey for only a few small favors...
 
[X] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lanase was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lanase also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.
[X] The Elf-Lord: Tianchai, the Talented One, is an elf-lord of no royal blood. His foremost attributes are his silver tongue and clever mind, with which he has won two of the Six Tribes to his side. Though the Windan and the Penni are the smallest of the tribes, he has convinced them that the High King's plan to ride East is folly, and has declared independence from the High King. He proposes that the tribes march Westward, towards Mirkwood and Lorien, the Western Realms of the elves, and join their cousins beneath the forests. Like many east-elves, he has no love lost for men, but his is a special kind of hatred. He views them still as servants of the Dark, and shuns the efforts of the Istari to convince him otherwise. Perhaps the only thing which might convince him to stay in the East is a renewed war against the Easterling hordes -- for he hates them above all else.
 
[X] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lanase was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lanase also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.
[X] The Elf-Lord: Tianchai, the Talented One, is an elf-lord of no royal blood. His foremost attributes are his silver tongue and clever mind, with which he has won two of the Six Tribes to his side. Though the Windan and the Penni are the smallest of the tribes, he has convinced them that the High King's plan to ride East is folly, and has declared independence from the High King. He proposes that the tribes march Westward, towards Mirkwood and Lorien, the Western Realms of the elves, and join their cousins beneath the forests. Like many east-elves, he has no love lost for men, but his is a special kind of hatred. He views them still as servants of the Dark, and shuns the efforts of the Istari to convince him otherwise. Perhaps the only thing which might convince him to stay in the East is a renewed war against the Easterling hordes -- for he hates them above all else.
 
[X] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lanase was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lanase also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.

[X] The Elf-Lord: Tianchai, the Talented One, is an elf-lord of no royal blood. His foremost attributes are his silver tongue and clever mind, with which he has won two of the Six Tribes to his side. Though the Windan and the Penni are the smallest of the tribes, he has convinced them that the High King's plan to ride East is folly, and has declared independence from the High King. He proposes that the tribes march Westward, towards Mirkwood and Lorien, the Western Realms of the elves, and join their cousins beneath the forests. Like many east-elves, he has no love lost for men, but his is a special kind of hatred. He views them still as servants of the Dark, and shuns the efforts of the Istari to convince him otherwise. Perhaps the only thing which might convince him to stay in the East is a renewed war against the Easterling hordes -- for he hates them above all else.
 
[x] The Citadel-By-The-Sea
[x] The Elf-Lord

This seems like the best combo of corruption, hopefully turn them into something like warhammer dark elves. Enslave men and all that shit.
 
[x] Siyahyer: Long ago, when he ruled all the East from Mordor to the Last Desert, Khamul the Easterling built a mighty palace to house the treasures he stole from distant lands. He adorned it with marble, jade, bronze, and porcelain, a thousand and one dreams of a thousand and one nights made carven stone. The wealth of Middle-Earth lay within it's golden halls, and it was a place of excess and hedonism, a terrifying jewel of the East. It was a place of gods and monsters of gold and blood, of power and death, and it's shadow fell over all of Rhun. The Avari called it Sianadu, the Halls of Day and Night, and the Men of Rhun knew it simply as Khamul, after him who built it. But when Khamul fell and became one of the Nine, then the shadow of Mordor fell over his palace too, and it became changed forever. What what once been great and terrible was now simply terrible, and the hordes knew it ever after as Siyah-yer, the Black Place. It has fallen into ruin since your defeat, but the Istari do not watch it as they watch Mordor. However, it lies far to the East, in the midst of the plains of the hordes of the East. The Istari would not trust any power that rules from Siyahyer, and your only allies would be the hordes which already serve you. To avoid being revealed as Sauron returned would take all of your skill and guile.

[x] The Servant: Khamul, the Easterling, who in before times was Lord of all the East and the first Khagan. He is your servant, and his will is bound to yours. He fell alongside you long ago in Mordor, and has at last reformed in his old homeland as a broken spirit. It will take him centuries still to recover, but if you invested enough power into him, his recovery could be sped, and he might again take physical form. Given flesh once more, he might unite the hordes as he had in ages past. The hordes are weak, however, so recently broken by the Istari, and the power of the Shadow in the East is exceptionally weak. Moving too fast might draw the Wizards' ire, or worse, that of Gondor -- which would spell certain doom for your efforts.

I know this has but few chances of winning but here is the reasoning. Khamul will obey us no matter what and a Nazgul is a terrible foe but also one who gives us plausible deniability. If people notice the coming of the Shadow, it will be easy for them to attribute all to Khamul and not to us.

This after all is what happened OTL with the Necromancer of Dol Guldur. As for the place, it will also paint a big sign "Khamul is here" for the Istari which could very well discourage them to inquire further.
 
[x] Siyahyer: Long ago, when he ruled all the East from Mordor to the Last Desert, Khamul the Easterling built a mighty palace to house the treasures he stole from distant lands. He adorned it with marble, jade, bronze, and porcelain, a thousand and one dreams of a thousand and one nights made carven stone. The wealth of Middle-Earth lay within it's golden halls, and it was a place of excess and hedonism, a terrifying jewel of the East. It was a place of gods and monsters of gold and blood, of power and death, and it's shadow fell over all of Rhun. The Avari called it Sianadu, the Halls of Day and Night, and the Men of Rhun knew it simply as Khamul, after him who built it. But when Khamul fell and became one of the Nine, then the shadow of Mordor fell over his palace too, and it became changed forever. What what once been great and terrible was now simply terrible, and the hordes knew it ever after as Siyah-yer, the Black Place. It has fallen into ruin since your defeat, but the Istari do not watch it as they watch Mordor. However, it lies far to the East, in the midst of the plains of the hordes of the East. The Istari would not trust any power that rules from Siyahyer, and your only allies would be the hordes which already serve you. To avoid being revealed as Sauron returned would take all of your skill and guile.

[x] The Servant: Khamul, the Easterling, who in before times was Lord of all the East and the first Khagan. He is your servant, and his will is bound to yours. He fell alongside you long ago in Mordor, and has at last reformed in his old homeland as a broken spirit. It will take him centuries still to recover, but if you invested enough power into him, his recovery could be sped, and he might again take physical form. Given flesh once more, he might unite the hordes as he had in ages past. The hordes are weak, however, so recently broken by the Istari, and the power of the Shadow in the East is exceptionally weak. Moving too fast might draw the Wizards' ire, or worse, that of Gondor -- which would spell certain doom for your efforts.
 
Telamon said:
The year is 1063 of the Third Age.

Over a thousand years have passed since the armies of the West defeated you in the shadow of the Barad-Dur. In the West, the mortal races have moved on, grown, changed, fought their own wars and triumphs. The Long Peace has begun, and the last remnants of your power fade with your memory in the lands of the West. The mannish Kingdom of Gondor sprawls mighty and unbroken over much of Middle-Earth, and it's dominion rises up even to the shores of the Sea of Rhun. But in the East, men have but recently cast off the shackles of your rule, and their hearts shudder still to remember the Eye. The West is too great and too wary for you to work much evil there yet, but the East may yet know the shadow again.

In the west, you have many foes, but in the East, you have but two: the Ithryn Luin, the Blue Wizards. Though they are only two in number, they are fearsome enemies still. Men call them wizards, but you know what they are in truth. Messengers from across the Western Seas, envoys of the Lords of the West -- servants of the Valar, sent to meddle in your works even after your undoing, and prevent your return at all costs. These two, Allatar and Pallando, came long ago into the West to turn the hearts and minds of the men living there from your sway, and they have had damnable success in the centuries since your fall.

They have spent long millennia walking amongst the tribes and clans of the Men of the Sea of Rhun, negotiating peaces and truces between them and the Avari Elves who so long denied you. By guile and trickery and lies, they have won much of the Near East from you, and unified the Aravarod, the Men of the East. The only men who remained loyal to your memory were the horsemen of the Far East, the feared Easterling hordes, who have spent centuries warring and raiding with those who fall beneath the sway of the Wizards. Recently, however, the tide has turned. The Wizards negotiated an alliance between the men, dwarves, and elves around the inland Sea of Rhun, and this 'Union of the Sea' has driven the hordes back into the far plains, driving them into disunity.

But all is not well. Nurelin, High King of the Avari, has grown weary of the long centuries of war. For lifetimes unnumbered, he and his people have defied and denied the power of the Dark Lords Sauron and Morgoth against fallen dwarves and men, despite their lesser skill and power compared to their western cousins. He has lost his father and his father's father to the ceaseless wars of the Shadow, and openly regrets his ancestors' decision to remain in the East. Tales have reached his ears of the glory that the Elves who went west found, of a land Undying, ruled by the gods themselves, and he has become determined to see it before he dies. He declares that his people, the Six Tribes of the Avari, shall ride East across the impassable Last Desert, towards the Rising Sun, until the world falls away and they find Valinor, the land of the gods.

In defiance of their King, two of the tribes, the Windan and the Penni, declare that they shall go West, and join their cousins under the ever-blooming trees of the West. These tribes, though small, are led by perhaps the greatest demagogue and speaker of all the East, an elf by the name of Tianchai.

And in the Far East, in the barren plains before the Last Desert where no water falls and no green grows, a spirit of a man who lived long ago walks among the hordes and hisses of revenge. He is less than a shadow of a shadow, for he fell with his master long ago, but regains his strength with every passing day. In distant eons long past, he was a warlord of the Easterlings who unified the hordes in his name and conquered Rhun. He was the first Khagan, King of all the East. To him, you gave a Ring of Power, and he became a flesh-cursed thing, a spirit of death and horror, alive without breath, dead without death. His name is Khamul, the Easterling, and he is the second of the Nine. In time, the hordes shall thunder at his back again, and all of earth might tremble beneath the sound of his hooves.

You arrive in this time of change and chaos, to bring the East under your shadow once more. The memory of the Dark Lord lies heavy upon the minds of the races of the East, and to declare openly could bring upon you the might of hated Gondor, now at the height of it's power. So you take on the form of a mortal man, a proud lord with burning eyes and a twisted face, who takes up residence in an ancient place of power long forgotten, a residence from which to begin consolidating your power...

[] Imrazôr's Deep: Imrazôr the Conqueror was a powerful lord of Numenor in days gone by, who became famous for the wars he would wage on the lesser men of Harad and Rhun. He led his armies exploring and conquering across the south and the Far East alike, amassing great wealth from the lands he pillaged and conquered. With the help of the Ironfist dwarves, Imrazôr built a great redoubt in the Orocarni, the Red Mountains, and supplied it with enough food and supplies to last for lifetimes. From this great Deep, Imrazôr planned to ride across the Last Desert and discover the mysteries of the Uttermost East. However, when the Ironfists demanded payment for their part in building the Deep, Imrazôr denied them. In a rage, the Ironfists invaded the Deep and slew Imrazôr. His armies were slain almost to a man, and those who survived were driven mad, and would speak only of fire and fear under the earth. It stands still, a mighty fortress, built by Numenoreans and Dwarves together, unassailable from aboveground by any mortal army. But it lies surrounded by the kingdoms of the Eastern Dwarves, and in the deeps of earth, there is no power which can match the dwarves. However, the Deep sits at the furthest end of the Orocarni mountains, and if any truly sought to do as Imrazôr did and seek the Utmost East, this would be the place to start.

[] Bhazatar's Crown: At the northernmost tip of the Sea of Rhun, in the center of an ancient grove, lies a tower upon a black hill older than civilization. It is said among the Men of Rhun that when the race of men woke in the East long ago, they were friends of the Avari. The East-Elves taught them what they knew of hunting and fishing and crafting, and the two races became fast friends. Upon the crown of this very hill, they would meet and dance and feast, and side-by-side they staved off the night. Many centuries later, when the Dark Lord had enslaved the eastern race of men, this same hill was the site of a parlay between Lianwe, the elvish High King, and Bhazatar, a lord of the Easterlings. Bhazatar and his men betrayed Lianwe and slaughtered him on the very hill where he had feasted with their ancestors. To mark his victory, Bhazatar built a black tower upon that hill, a living marker of his might and his power. Men have long forgotten this, but the memory of elves is long, and the Avari remember still the treachery of Bhazatar.

[] The Citadel-By-The-Sea: In recent times, Gondor has grown so vast and great that it's reach even extends to the western shores of the Sea of Rhun. Within the borders of their realm lies an ancient Citadel, built in ancient times by Lantikhe, a King of the Cundi tribe of the Elves during the great wars of the Avari in Elder Days. It was from here that his fleets controlled the entirety of the Sea of Rhun, and from here that he sought to unify the Six Tribes under his rule. Lantikhe was beloved by the elves of the East, and they remember him still with the honorific Sinahai, or 'the beloved'. But Men remember him differently, for Lantikhe also begun the practice of enslaving captured Men, who were then servants of the Dark Lord. An old saying still runs among the Men of Rhun: "Better to die under Mordor than live under Sinahai.", and it was this resentment that kept the Easterlings in your service for millennia. The Citadel represents many things to many people -- to elves it is a memory of better days, and to the Easterlings it is a place of hate and fear, for many men lived and died in it's dungeons long ago.

[] Siyahyer: Long ago, when he ruled all the East from Mordor to the Last Desert, Khamul the Easterling built a mighty palace to house the treasures he stole from distant lands. He adorned it with marble, jade, bronze, and porcelain, a thousand and one dreams of a thousand and one nights made carven stone. The wealth of Middle-Earth lay within it's golden halls, and it was a place of excess and hedonism, a terrifying jewel of the East. It was a place of gods and monsters of gold and blood, of power and death, and it's shadow fell over all of Rhun. The Avari called it Sianadu, the Halls of Day and Night, and the Men of Rhun knew it simply as Khamul, after him who built it. But when Khamul fell and became one of the Nine, then the shadow of Mordor fell over his palace too, and it became changed forever. What what once been great and terrible was now simply terrible, and the hordes knew it ever after as Siyah-yer, the Black Place. It has fallen into ruin since your defeat, but the Istari do not watch it as they watch Mordor. However, it lies far to the East, in the midst of the plains of the hordes of the East. The Istari would not trust any power that rules from Siyahyer, and your only allies would be the hordes which already serve you. To avoid being revealed as Sauron returned would take all of your skill and guile.

Yet every lord must have servants, and you are no different. Many are the powers which now vye for relevance and importance in Rhun -- the elves, the dwarves, and the newly-freed Men of Rhun. These powers are now unified against the Shadow, or so they believe, but you have ever been the master of lies and deceit, and to win your foes to your cause would be a great boon in your conquest of the East.

Which lord shall you seduce with words and power?

[]The Elvenking: Nurelin, called Liankuro (flame-lord) by his people, is the current King of the Cundi elves and High King of the Six Tribes of the Avari. Immesurably proud, he has led his people for nigh on five hundred years, and has spent all of those years locked in war against the shadow. His ancestors spent centuries warring first against themselves and the Dark Lords, until his grandfather Lantikhe unified the Six Tribes to resist the power of Sauron in the early Second Age. The long eons of war have worn his patience thin, and though he worked with the Istari to drive the hordes back into their plains, he still bears a long grudge against the Easterlings for their ancestor's crimes against his people in the service of the Dark Lord. He dreams of the old tales of his people, the legends of a land to the Uttermost East, and a path to the Undying Lands at the edge of the world. His people are called the Avari, the Refusers, for they refused to come to the Undying Lands, and so are forever lesser than all other races of Elves. He would see this undone, and so readies himself to lead his people across the Last Desert into the unknown lands of the Uttermost East.

[] The Red King: Hecvar II, the Red King, is the current King of the Blacklock Dwarves and self-proclaimed King of the Red Mountains. His house, as all the Eastern Houses of the dwarves, is vastly smaller than the Western Houses, owing to the great wars fought between them in the Second Age over ownership of the four eastern Rings of the dwarves. The Blacklocks have always flirted with the shadow, being the primary instigator of many of the kinslayings which have culled the numbers of the eastern houses. Their foremost rivals, the Ironfists, are currently in decline, and Hecvar hopes to attack them and conquer from them Khazad-Madur, the City of Jewels, the most prized city in the Red Mountains. With the wealth of Khazad-Madur, Hecvar could make the Blacklocks the wealthiest of all the Houses.

[] The Elf-Lord: Tianchai, the Talented One, is an elf-lord of no royal blood. His foremost attributes are his silver tongue and clever mind, with which he has won two of the Six Tribes to his side. Though the Windan and the Penni are the smallest of the tribes, he has convinced them that the High King's plan to ride East is folly, and has declared independence from the High King. He proposes that the tribes march Westward, towards Mirkwood and Lorien, the Western Realms of the elves, and join their cousins beneath the forests. Like many east-elves, he has no love lost for men, but his is a special kind of hatred. He views them still as servants of the Dark, and shuns the efforts of the Istari to convince him otherwise. Perhaps the only thing which might convince him to stay in the East is a renewed war against the Easterling hordes -- for he hates them above all else.

[] The Warden of the East: Rumecil the Bright-Eyed is a lord of the mighty kingdom of Gondor, which even now sprawls across more than half of Middle-Earth. He has been placed in command of the realm of Dorwinion, a lush and wine-filled land to the west of Rhun, and his rule extends to the western shore of the Sea of Rhun. As Warden of the East, it is his duty to ensure that the Easterlings do not again invade Gondor as they have in ages past. He is a stern man, but within him hungers a desire for knowledge about this new land to the East and it's customs. He has a fondness for visitors and travelers from the East, and has even made friends with some of the tribes which harbor on the western shores of the Sea of Rhun.

[] The Young Lord: The Tamarshai are the largest of the tribes of Men which live along the shores of the Sea of Rhun, and their lord is Turemis, a young man orphaned by the wars with the hordes to the East. Surrounded on all sides by scheming councilors and enemy tribes, he is a ruler struggling to keep his head above water and lead his people through these troubled times. The Tamarshai are not simply a tribe, however -- they are the Blue Wizards' success story. They were the first tribe to turn from the worship of Sauron, and they led the others to follow suit. If they fell, the Sea of Rhun might fall with them. Turemis, as young as he is, may be the perfect instrument for this fall.

[] The Servant: Khamul, the Easterling, who in before times was Lord of all the East and the first Khagan. He is your servant, and his will is bound to yours. He fell alongside you long ago in Mordor, and has at last reformed in his old homeland as a broken spirit. It will take him centuries still to recover, but if you invested enough power into him, his recovery could be sped, and he might again take physical form. Given flesh once more, he might unite the hordes as he had in ages past. The hordes are weak, however, so recently broken by the Istari, and the power of the Shadow in the East is exceptionally weak. Moving too fast might draw the Wizards' ire, or worse, that of Gondor -- which would spell certain doom for your efforts.
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Right, so here are the options as I see it.

Servant/Khamul is the obvious choice. It's also a trap option. Direct confrontation is canon, and a fool's errand since this is a universe where good actually does have greater firepower when the kid gloves come off. Don't take this unless you want to speedrun to the casting out of the Necromancer, Eastern edition.

Young Lord is tempting in the "corrupting men" sense, but they lack firepower plus are somewhat blatant. Not the worst choice but a great way to get the Elves, Dwarves, and wizards to dogpile you.

Warden of the East. Another good choice- his interest could easily be subverted and twisted to make him yet another mortal puppet, and to turn Gondor's power against its allies in the region...

Elf Lord is a less than stellar choice. He hates men. We look like a man and he's literally going to remove himself from play very soon if we don't do something stupid and give him a tempting target. Use him as a catspaw and encourage his efforts to weaken the Elves but he's not great as a servant.

Red King- viable. Neither good nor bad.

Elvenking. Old, dangerous, and cany. Get him out of the way before you do anything silly, but a really unwise choice of servant unless you want to push him into a mutually destructive war with the dwarves over his east obsession.

I'd say the choices go Warden of the East = Red King >Young Lord > Elf Lord >>>Elvenking>>>>>>>>>>>Servant. No matter what's chosen, a very subtle, corrupting whisperer approach works better than actively rabblerousing- causing a civil war is great, but don't get directly involved at this stage in the game. Sauron in canon wasn't playing to his strengths with outright war.

And for the love of Morgoth don't give them any reason to even suspect there's a hidden power at work unless you particular enjoy being dogpiled by wizards.

Here are some choice combinations:
[] Warden and Citadel By The Sea (To piss off the Easterlings) or Bhazatar's Crown (to alienate the Warden from his elf-friends).
[]Red King and Imrazôr's Deep (Or Elvenking if you really want to live dangerously)
[]Young Lord and Bhazatar's Crown

If you really must go for the Elf Lord, pair it with Citadel by the Sea. Elvenking and Imrazor's Deep.

Siyahyer, like the Servant is a suicide/joke option.
 
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