It started with Saruman, fallen into folly. He took the great orcs of the mountains and bred them to corrupted Men of Gondor, creating the Uruks. They knew no pain, no fatigue, had no compassion...an army of psychopaths.
That was at the ending of the Third Age. Here now, ages later, they have come to look like other Men...indistinguishable to the eye for the most part. Ah! But their behavior always shows them for what they are...Uruk Orcs (I shall not give them the name of my own race for any reason). Now they rarely wield weapons of war, more commonly wielding weapons of finance and technology. They have found their way into all of our counsels, even the highest.
Aye, the Shadow has returned, but not, this time, as a single entity. Rather it has come to us as a dispersed and disguised host of beings seen as people....people lauded for wealth, power, and barely hidden corruptions of the vilest sort.
As has always been the case, peace left us to become complacent. The Watch was allowed to lapse, folk said there was naught to worry over any longer. The Shadow, they said, was gone save for small, insignificant remnants. And so it was...for a while. But it always grows back, does the Shadow. After a defeat it always returns....each time more difficult to see coming...but at least then it manifested itself in the will of a single spirit....now it is dispersed...a kind of social hive mind.
And we sleep even now, most of us. A few of us, as always, see and know it for what it is....
Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.
Eledhwen
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