There are plenty of brilliant examples of evil and corrupted characters in Lord of the Rings, from the cunning and conniving Gollum to the treacherous white wizard Saruman, who even tricked the ring-wraiths with his scheming. But there is only one dark lord during the Third Age of Middle Earth, and that’s Sauron.

So what is it that makes him such a supreme villain, when there are plenty of other characters whose intentions and actions are equally as nefarious as his? And once Frodo and Sam have made the journey to Mount Doom, to destroy the ring of power in the fires of the volcano where it was forged, thus defeating Sauron forever, would it be possible for a new dark lord to rise and take his place?

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The key thing to bear in mind about Sauron is that he has been awake since the breaking of the first silence. He is an ancient and immortal being of the maiar, who was created long before the elves and men ever roamed the earth, so he has unchartered powers, only less than the Valar themselves.

Sauron evil

The wizards who came to Middle Earth in the Third Age are also maiar, which suggests that one of them could equally have become a terrible dark lord like Sauron did, but the biggest major difference is that Sauron was mentored by Morgoth, the Valar who went against the creator illuvatar and destroyed the secret trees of Valinor. Much of the suffering of the First and Second Age was caused by this monstrous foe, and before he tried to usurp Eru, the world had been peaceful, and its creations had not known war or death, so Sauron is really only as powerful as he is because he was bolstered by Morgoth before him.

Morgoth himself was not impervious to injury and defeat though. That is why he was afraid of the elvens craftsmith Feanor, who, along with his brother, was the first to do serious damage to the Valar, and who ultimately ensured that h would be recaptured by Eru and cast out into the void. But Sauron had one strength that Morgoth didn’t, his power of deception. Sauron managed to rise to power incredibly quickly and effectively because he was able to fool everyone around him into believing his intentions were good.

He tricked Phar Azon into waging war against the Valar, which is likely to be explored in Rings of Power series 2 as the recent death of the king will bring Numenor’s downfall and pave the way for Sauron to influence and corrupt those who are left. He was also able to trick Celebrimbor into forging the rings, which gave him command of the 9 wraiths, and destroyed several of the most powerful dwarven kingdoms, as well as led to him forging the one ring which kept his essence alive for several thousand years.

Although it could be argued that eventually, Sauron did regret forging the one ring, when it was destroyed by Gollum and Frodo and removed any hope of him ever achieving total dominion, the ring itself isn’t necessarily what made Sauron such a powerful dark lord. So the very fact that the ring was destroyed doesn’t necessarily mean that a new lord couldn’t have risen to seize power afterwards. Morgoth never had a ring of power after all, and he was able to cause unparalleled damage and disaster.

The biggest thing that would have stopped a new dark lord in their tracks is the fact that most of the evil contenders were defeated during the war of the ring. Gollum didn’t become the new dark lord in the 500 years that he had the ring, which means that he was never really a contender, and even if he was, he fell into the flames along with the ring itself. The Witch-king of Angmar was destroyed by Eowyn and Merry during the battle of Pelenor fields, and Saruman was killed by Wormtongue during the Scouring of The Shire.

Gondor and Rohan

Plus, anyone who did decide to try to claim power during the commotion would have the full forces of the Reunited Kingdoms against them. With Aragorn finally on the Throne, and the centuries-strong alliance between Gondor and Rohan fully renewed, the era of men is stronger than ever before. Although the elves leave at the end of the Third Age, along with some of the maiar and the ring-bearers, the world of men has proved that it will no longer crumble in the face of adversity as it would have done in the days of Theoden and Denethor, so it is extremely unlikely that a new dark lord would have chanced it against the might of the Fourth Age kingdoms, and after the two most powerful beings in Tolkiens lore (Melkor and Sauron) both failed.

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