Barad-dur
Barad-dur is a building that features in Middle-earth.
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History
Barad-dur was the great tower of the Dark Lord Sauron, built deep in Mordor at the foot of the Ash Mountains, and to the north-east of Mount Doom. Barad-dur was constructed in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, and after 600 years of contruction, was finally finished when Sauron completed its foundations with the One Ring.
The immense architectural anchor of the dark lands of Mordor, known as Barad-dûr or the Dark Tower, was constructed over the course of six hundred years during the Second Age, utilizing the near-infinite power of the One Ring to bind its foundational stones into a state of absolute physical permanence. The Dark Lord Sauron established the colossal fortress upon a jagged spur of the Ered Lithui, directly leveraging its proximity to the volcanic fires of Mount Doom to fuel massive, subterranean industrial armaments and genetic breeding pens. For eons, the tower served as the absolute administrative and military hub of the dark forces, projecting an oppressive psychological shadow that paralyzed the surrounding free kingdoms of Middle-earth. Barad-dur was destroyed when Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance, but as the One Ring survived, so did the tower's foundation. The initial phase of this historic stronghold's existence concluded when the unified armies of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men launched a massive, multi-year planetary siege against the fortress, culminating in a brutal, hand-to-hand vanguard clash where Sauron was physically overthrown and stripped of his ring, forcing his spiritual essence into permanent exile.
The structural and supernatural landscape of the desolate waste experienced a terrifying paradigm shift twenty-nine hundred years later when the disembodied spiritual essence of Sauron secretly returned to Mordor, instantly initiating the rapid, automated reconstruction of the Dark Tower upon its original, unbreakable foundations. Because the victorious kings of the Second Age had failed to destroy the One Ring, the foundational masonry of Barad-dûr had remained completely impervious to traditional physical demolition, allowing thousands of enslaved Orcish laborers to rapidly rebuild the towering iron walls and jagged obsidian battlements within a few short decades. Sauron re-established his absolute surveillance network from the highest window of the crown tower, projecting a colossal, flaming manifestation known as the Eye of Sauron that systematically scanned the surrounding borders for the location of his lost artifact. This rapid military mobilization completely caught the neighboring kingdom of Gondor off guard, transforming the borders of Ithilien into a volatile buffer zone filled with continuous skirmishes against heavy Orcish armor legions.
Barad-dur was rebuilt in the Third Age and Sauron again made it his stronghold, until it was permanently destroyed with the unmaking of the One Ring. Of all the fortresses in Middle-Earth, Barad-dur was the greatest; none who entered ever returned unless Sauron willed it.
Overview
In the elvish tongue, Barad-dur means "Dark Tower."
Inhabitants
- Sauron :
Notes
- Barad-dur was created by J.R.R. Tolkien where it featured in the setting of the Middle-earth universe.
In other media
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Appearances
External Links
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