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Mordor's Military Structure

posted by LaminatorX on Monday March 10 2014, @10:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the And-on-the-org-chart-bind-them dept.

nobbis writes:

"From 'A Tolkienist's Perspective Blog' : a two part article part 1 part 2 about the military structure in Mordor. There is a hierarchy chart if you want a summary.

Was the rapid collapse of the military following the destruction of the ring indicative of the fragility of this structure , and its susceptibility to a decapitation strike ? Would a flatter hierarchy or something similar to the Imperial Military or Starfleet have been more resilient?"

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by melikamp on Monday March 10 2014, @05:12PM

    by melikamp (1886) on Monday March 10 2014, @05:12PM (#14113) Journal
    For the most part, I agree with your commentary. The only thing I'd like to add is that the Witch-king of Angmar was in command of the Minas Morgul, and all orcs and trolls attached to that tower reported directly to him. But, in accordance with what you are saying, it is incorrect to put all orcs under the Nazgul. There does not seem to be any evidence of the lesser eight commanding anything (they are more like Black Captain's personal body guard), and the vast majority of Mordor orcs never reported to the Witch-king aside from the week-long Minas Tirith campaign. This is evidenced rather directly by the fight in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, with Shagrat and Gorbag clearly answering to entirely different hierarchies: one chain of command ascending through Lugburz, with orders to deliver all spies unspoiled, and the other one through Minas Morgul, with nothing but unclear hints from the Nazgul.
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  • (Score: 1) by CoolHand on Monday March 10 2014, @05:57PM

    by CoolHand (438) on Monday March 10 2014, @05:57PM (#14141) Journal

    Right... I had meant to put an exception in regarding Minas Morgul, and any "troops" based there..

    --
    Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams

  • (Score: 1) by Rune of Doom on Monday March 10 2014, @06:30PM

    by Rune of Doom (1392) on Monday March 10 2014, @06:30PM (#14162)

    Somewhere in the mass of additional materials that have been published over the years I'm pretty confident I recall a statement that Khamul was in charge of Dol Guldur for many years, much in the same way that the Lord of the Nazgul was in charge of Minas Morgul.

    • (Score: 2) by melikamp on Tuesday March 11 2014, @08:25PM

      by melikamp (1886) on Tuesday March 11 2014, @08:25PM (#14824) Journal
      A very interesting piece of history I was not aware of, probably because I never got a chance to read The Unfinished Tales. I think we can all agree that it is hard to talk about THE military structure of Mordor, since pieces moved so many times.

      • (Score: 1) by Rune of Doom on Wednesday March 12 2014, @07:41PM

        by Rune of Doom (1392) on Wednesday March 12 2014, @07:41PM (#15468)

        Definitely. Given that Sauron founded Mordor in the Second Age and ruled it for about 2500 years before his realm was overthrown by the Last Alliance, then refounded it in the Third Age about 2000 years later and ruled for another millennia, talking about 'The' military structure of Mordor is like talking about 'the' military structure of the Roman Empire x 4 or 5. Still fun to think about though.

        For example, in the 3rd Age, would Sauron have just attempted to rebuild his now-ancient force structures and tables of organization, or would he have modified them to reflect new realities, or just started from scratch? Did he even care about such things, or would he have just delegated such matters to the Nazgul and other lieutenants, worshippers, and lackeys? (In my headcanon he would have taken a keen interest, but YMMV.)