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Sauron's spirit returned to Mordor in S.A. 3320,[where he slowly rebuilt his strength, although he was unable to assume a fair shape. From this point on he started to rule through terror and force, largely filling the fearsome role left vacant by his former master.Meanwhile, a few faithful Númenóreans, led by Elendil, were saved from the flood, and they founded Gondor and Arnor in Middle-earth. Sauron still considered them his hated enemies and he launched a pre-emptive attack on Gondor in S.A. 3429.In response, the Númenóreans formed the Last Alliance with the Elven-king Gil-galad. Learning of them, Sauron dispatched some Orcs of Mordor to the Misty Mountains to ambush them.He also burned the gardens of the Entwives against the advance of the Allies down the Anduin.Nonetheless the Allies reached Mordor and defeated Sauron's forces in the Battle of Dagorlad in S.A. 3434 and finally laid siege before Barad-dûr.The siege lasted for seven years until S.A. 3441, when Sauron left his fortress, engaging in direct combat. Elendil and Gil-galad fought Sauron and vanquished him, but both were killed.Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger and claimed it. Later, the Ring betrayed him and was lost for more than two thousand years. After his defeat in the War of the Last Alliance, Sauron lost his ability to form a physical body for a great while.Third Age🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥Sauron's defeat released his subjects, like the Easterlings, from his tyranny, but they fell into chaos. Their tribes and kingdoms battled against each other and some withdrew to the hated west.Weakened by his defeat and the loss of the One Ring, it is thought that he fled to the far east to regain his power and strength before returning.It was not until c. T.A. 1000 that Sauron could again begin to take shape in a physical living body. Worried by this prospect, the Valar sent five Maiar from the West to assist the peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron.His power was enough that he began again to throw a shadow across portions of Middle-earth. Apparently, Sauron's spirit managed to move some Easterlings, who invaded Rhovanion and came to the Vales of Anduin.The Necromancer🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥These moves coincided with the coming of the Shadow to Greenwood the Great.Around 1050 he chose a hill in southern Greenwood as a place to build the fortress of Dol Guldur. At first, the Wise thought that this "Necromancer" was one of the Nazgûl who had returned and taken up residence in southern Greenwood.The year T.A. 1300 marked Sauron's increased power, evidenced by "evil things" who multiplied and grew bold again, like the Orcs of the Misty Mountains and some of the Dragons, who attacked the Dwarves; and the return of the Nazgûl, with the founding of the evil realm of Angmar.In the following centuries, Sauron's subjects in Angmar, the East and the South concentrated against his ancient enemies. Kings Araphant of Arnor and Ondoher of Gondor realised that a single force was coordinating the attacks on both of their kingdoms and that they needed to work together to combat this evil. However, Angmar was successful in destroying Arnor, and soon after the Nazgûl gathered in Mordor and conquered Minas Ithil to prepare for Sauron's return; their final success was ending the royal line of Gondor.As his shadow deepened, a balrog awoke, causing the desertion of Moria.By T.A. 2060 the power of Dol Guldur grew so much that the Wise were alerted that Sauron was returning. Gandalf entered the fortress in 2063 but the shadow fled before him. Returning to the East,Sauron started corrupting the Easterlings and forging a strong alliance between their tribes.The period of his absence was known as the Watchful Peace, because the Shadow on Mirkwood had lessened and the Nazgûl stayed quiet in Minas Morgul,using this period to prepare for Sauron's return.Return to Dol Guldur🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥The Necromancer returned in 2460 more powerful, with many Men in his service, and again took up residence in Dol Guldur.His return coincided with the One Ring revealing itself three years later, falling in the hands of a Stoor. Sensing the danger, the Wise formed the White Council.The Necromancer's aims remained to gather the Rings of Power, find news about the One Ring, and eliminate the Heir of Isildur, if one remained in Middle-earth.In T.A. 2475 the Uruk-hai exited Mordor and briefly conquered Ithilien. Some years later the Orcs of the Mountains organized themselves, blocking the passes to the West; Moria had been depopulated centuries earlier by the Balrog, and Sauron sent Orcs and Trolls there.Also under his shadow were the Balchoth, who invaded Mirkwood and cooperated with Orcs to attack Gondor.Sauron's servants captured the Dwarf King Thráin II and took one of the Seven Dwarf rings from him.Still investigating the Necromancer, Gandalf snuck into Dol Guldur in 2850 and met the dying Dwarf King, learning that the Necromancer was none other than Sauron. The next year, Gandalf informed the White Council and urged an immediate attack upon the fortress, but Saruman the White had learned of the presence of the Ruling Ring near the Gladden Fields, and he thought it best to allow Sauron to build up his strength in order to reveal its location so that Saruman could seize it himself. Following this strategy, Saruman opposed Gandalf.As his power was growing and his arising came closer, his minions moved again against Gondor; his agents stirred the Haradrim to resume attacking Gondor, while Uruk-hai and Orcs of Mordor infested Ithilien but never managed to pass beyond Anduin, further into Gondor.All this time Sauron apparently had learned about the Disaster of the Gladden Fields where his old enemy Isildur was killed, shortly after his own demise, almost three millennia ago. He sent his minions to look for the One Ring around Anduin near the Gladden Fields, not knowing that it had been already in the possession of a Stoor.Attack of the White Council🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥Considering the situations, and the occupation of the dragon Smaug of Erebor, Gandalf was worried that Sauron's military assault against the West was a matter of time, and that he would use Smaug in his force; Gandalf started considering a simultaneous attack both against Dol Guldur and against Smaug, to weaken Sauron.In T.A. 2939, Saruman learned that Sauron was searching for the Ring, and worried that he would find it sooner than he. In 2941, he conceded with Gandalf to attack Dol Guldur.Indeed, in the meantime Gandalf managed to eliminate Smaug, and the Orcs of the Mountains were decimated in the ensuing battle, allowing the Kingdom Under the Mountain and Dale to flourish again.Although Gandalf was weakening Sauron's potential grasp in the North,Sauron had been expecting the White Council's attack against Dol Guldur and fled from there.Return to Mordor🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥The Nazgûl had been preparing Barad-dûr for Sauron's return, so it was easy for Sauron to return secretly to his old stronghold a year later. Sauron declared himself openly in T.A. 2951, sent three Nazgûl back to Dol Guldur and started rebuilding the Dark Tower, and once it was completed, the Mount Doom erupted.From then on Sauron stayed in Barad-dûr to conduct his war on the Free peoples. The shadow of Mordor caused despair and sickness to the Gondorians, like Finduilas, and in his desperation, the Steward Denethor, Sauron's most immediate enemy, used the Anor-stone to gain knowledge. That palantír was directly linked to the Ithil-stone that the Nazgûl had taken from Minas Morgul, and when Sauron used it, he discovered Denethor was using his. Sauron attempted to wrench the Anor-stone to his will, but failed due to Denethor's strength of will and birth-right to the stone. But this stressed and wore out the steward, who lost his hopeBy T.A. 3000, the shadow lengthened, and Saruman, who was residing in Orthanc, had secretly found and decided to use the Orthanc-stone. As happened with Denethor, Sauron linked with his mind, managing to corrupt him;from one of his wisest enemies, Saruman became one of his greatest allies.Around T.A. 3009, Gollum, who formerly bore the One Ring and now pursued its thief, ventured into Mordor and was captured by Sauron's minions. Gollum was tortured and interrogated for the following years,and before releasing him, Sauron learned that the One Ring had been found by Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.Sauron bred immense armies of Orcs and allied with or enslaved Men from the east and south. He adopted the symbol of a lidless eye, and he was able at that time to send out his will over Middle-earth, so that the Eye of Sauron became a symbol of power and fear.The War of the Ring🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥Sauron was alarmed when the Elves of Mirkwood captured Gollum,so in June of T.A. 3018 he dispatched the Nazgûl to hunt for the One Ring in secrecy. To disguise the crossing of the Nine over the Great River, Sauron staged an attack on Osgiliath. This feint served two purposes: first, to test the strength and preparedness of Denethor, and second and more importantly, to present the Nazgûl as merely a military asset, concealing from the Wise their true mission.Denethor's forces were stronger than Sauron hoped, but Sauron took the eastern half of the city nonetheless. This allowed the Nazgûl to cross the Great River and begin their hunt.Now knowing the measure of his enemy, Sauron continued to amass his forces in Minas Morgul and Mordor in preparation for the siege of Gondor.By September, the Nazgûl had failed to discover the Shire, and Sauron's wrath and fear were mounting. Via messenger, Sauron ordered the Nine to discard secrecy in favour of speed and go to Isengard to confront Saruman about his knowledge of the whereabouts of the Ring. At this time, Sauron also conveyed to the Nine such dire threats as to dismay even the Lord of Morgul.The Nine ultimately failed in their mission, being defeated and unhorsed by the flood of the Bruinen. The Witch-king returned alone to Mordor in December of 3018 to Sauron's great fear, for Sauron perceived that his foes still had strength left in them, and luck seemed to be on their side.Sauron's next glimpse of the Ring (or so he believed) would come in the late hours of 5 March T.A. 3019, when Pippin looked into the palantir of Orthanc that he had recovered from the flood of Isengard. Sauron, unaware of Saruman's defeat at hands of the Ents, assumed Pippin was the Wizard's prisoner, and was being forced to look into the Palantir as a form of cruel sport. Rather than interrogate Pippin immediately, Sauron chose to torment him, and bid him tell Saruman that he would send for the prisoner immediately.He was therefore deceived into thinking the Ring was finally within his grasp.A few hours later, on the morning of 6 March, Sauron encountered one of his foes in the palantír of Orthanc: Aragorn looked into the Stone, revealing himself to Sauron as the Heir of Isildur and wielder of Andúril, the Blade Reforged. Aragorn spoke no word to Sauron and with a great effort of will wrested control of the Stone from him. As Aragorn intended, this played on Sauron's gnawing doubts and filled him with fear, believing that Aragorn might have overthrown Saruman, seizing Pippin and therefore the Ring. Thus, he ordered the Witch-king to launch his long-planned assault on Gondor immediately, rather than wait for all preparations to be made, hoping to destroy his enemies before they had a chance to make full use of the Ring's power.The death of the Witch-king and the defeat of his army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields were a setback to Sauron, but he still had a great force of arms held in reserve in Mordor, more than enough to eventually secure military victory against all of his enemies combined. After his encounter with Aragorn in the palantír, Sauron believed that one of his foes in Minas Tirith held the One Ring and would soon attempt to use it. As such, Gandalf was able to exploit Sauron's false beliefs with an audacious plan: the army of the Free Peoples would march on the Black Gate as a feint, keeping Sauron's Eye fixed upon them and blind to all else that moved, as the true Ringbearer made his way to Mount Doom.For the next nine days, Gandalf's plan worked - as the Host of the West made its way east and north, Sauron kept his entire focus upon it and diverted the whole strength of Mordor to the Black Gate to meet them. Even when Shagrat brought news of an "Elvish" intruder in Cirith Ungol, Sauron's belief that the Ring was with the Host of the West remained unshaken and he made no attempt to investigate further; he could certainly not imagine that his enemies were trying to sneak the Ring into Mordor. Frodo and Sam thus made it to the Sammath Naur undetected, and Sauron did not become aware of them until the very moment that Frodo claimed the Ring for himself.Only then did Sauron finally perceive Frodo and, realising he had been tricked, was overwhelmed with wrath and fear. He instantly lost all interest in the ongoing Battle of the Morannon and dispatched the Nazgûl from the skies above the battle to Mount Doom with all haste. It was too late; Gollum fell into the Crack of Doom with the Ring, destroying it and himself. In the moment of the Ring's destruction, Barad-dûr and many other of Sauron's fortresses crumbled to ruin. Sauron's spirit emerged and rose above Mordor like a black cloud - he stretched out his hand towards the army of the West, but even as he did so, he was blown away by a great wind and vanished.All information comes from the Tolkien books!Art by hyb1rd-1982 deviant art