Following the end of hostilities the final decline of the Elves' power in Middle-earth began, paralleled by the rise of Men in the West, the restoration of the King of Gondor and Arnor, and the start of the Fourth Age.īattles were fought across Middle-earth in Gondor, Rohan, Lórien, Mirkwood, at the Lonely Mountain and at Dale. In the war that ensued, countless thousands of Men, Elves, and Dwarves lost their lives, while the geographical wreckage from the conflict at its conclusion reached a scale not seen since the War of Wrath millennia before. The war was instigated by Sauron, who had gained back much of his strength since his defeat at the end of the Second Age and who sought the One Ring, the key to regaining his physical form and thus his full power.
The war pitted Orcs, trolls, evil mercenaries and creatures, and others against allied forces of Men, Elves, and Dwarves aided by the Istari, Fangorn Forest, and Great Eagles of the Misty Mountains. Together with the Quest of the Ring, it comprised one of the main overarching plot-lines of The Lord of the Rings saga. The War of the Ring was a massive conflict brought by the Dark Lord Sauron upon the Free Peoples of Middle-earth for control of the One Ring and dominion over the entire continent.
