kingcomrade said:
What I'd like someone to explain is how The Bad Guy in LotR got his massive armies. Was he just a really persuasive recruiter? "Hey, I'm the ultimate evil and we've got the greatest dental care plan this side of the Middle Earth."
Yeah, persuasion was pretty much what he was all about. He was the brains and handsome face behind Melkor/Morgoth's hammer and will. When Morgoth was taken out of the picture, subterfuge and manipulation were still his chief tactics. He was very charismatic, and knew how best to get what he wanted out of a variety of targets.
I think the human contingent of his armies in LotR has a lot to do with religious manipulation, like was suggested earlier. Going back further, that's how Sauron engineered the destruction of the Numenorians, the human elite. As a prisoner of war, his good behavior brought him closer to the ear of the king, whose pride made it easy for Sauron to cultivate within him and his court a new religion, playing on their growing terror of death and focused on escape from it through the worship of Melkor/Morgoth, rather than the austere and increasingly incomprehensible (as the Numenorians became more materialistic and arrogant) 'lived mysticism' of the elves in Valinor.
Eventually Numenor was destroyed. It's doubtless that some of Sauron's loyal cultists survived, and made their way back to the mainland. Sauron himself was caught in Numenor's destruction, so much of his previous ability was lost. This wasn't too much of a problem, because the 'black numenorians', like 'The Mouth of Sauron', that Tolkien mentioned would be ideal marshals and high priests with which he could rally the eastern nations around his banners. We don't know much about it, but a sort of 'warrior-religion' makes sense, promising immortality through victory in a holy war against the western elves and the Numenorian remnant. I don't know if Sauron himself would style himself as a god, he seems more likely to play the part of messenger and guide, a dread prophet of Melkor the Invisible (he genuinely admired and served his former master. Tolkien figured that's how he kept his head so long, and didn't lose it in delusion and pride till the very end). He wouldn't need to be as subtle as he had to be with the Numenorians--just playing on their natural superstitions and stirring up a hunger for conquest within them would probably be enough.
The orcish contingent is a little different. It depends on what the nature of orcs really is, which as was talked about in an earlier thread, wasn't actually set in stone. If orcs are just psychic puppets, then it's just a matter of broadcasting the right signal for them to come running. If not, there are still the ingrained memories and bonds that ages of servitude and subjugation would have imprinted on them. Also, from what Sam overheard between two of them below the tower at Cirith Ungol, it's clear that the orcs believed the elves and their allies would never permit their continued existence under any circumstance. The fear of the western powers was stronger than the hate for their master and his servants.
Once humans drew blood in the cause of Sauron's wars, the same fears could be used against them as well. Some of their ancestors likely fought against the elves in the events of the Silmarillion, and any preserved legends would likely contain depictions of the elves as terrifying, perhaps otherworldly, beings who gave no quarter. There were plenty of seeds for Sauron to water and grow to his own ends.
Although the book had been knocking around in various semi-completed manuscript forms for quite some time and Tolkien was constantly fiddling with it. CT just made an absolute mess of it as he's confessed himself. It's quite hard to argue for a 'canon' of Tolkien's works outside of The Lord of the Rings itself (revised version) and maybe the revised version of the Hobbit. The Silmarillion could do with a substantial revision to take into account what is now known of Tolkien's intentions. Unlikely to happen though.
