I love thinking about the actual fortress of Angband as a horror, as a monster in itself.
Its very foundations shift and grown as the mountains struggle to accommodate it. Doors vanish, the passages are deliberately designed to be disorienting and, as I talked about on my time and space in captivity post, only a few beings have any extensive knowledge of the fortress’s plans.
Many of the denizens can traverse easily in the dark so entire sections of the fortress have no need for lighting. Prisoners sometimes wander for days or weeks in the darkness there and the isolation and despair this invokes means it is sometimes deliberately used as a punishment
The deepest caverns are as gaping maws and more than a few are swallowed by them. Rumors and horror tales of dangers beyond the denizens of the fortress travel around the prisoners but also among the soldiers and higher ups.
Angband will eat you alive, will trap you in its walls like a fly in amber…
Even Melkor does not know all its secrets, especially about the caves that predate his arrival to the Ered Engrin.
