men of middle-earth ∿ misc. númenóreans ∿ headcanon disclaimer
Fuinur and Herumor were descendants of the King’s Men of Númenor who had come to conquer Middle-earth in the name of the King. They rose to power in the late Second Age, becoming mighty lords among the Haradrim, and served Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance. Fuinur was slain in the Siege of Barad-dûr, but his brother Herumor fled back to Harad and continued to rule. One of Herumor’s descendants was King Karasalêth, ruler of a city-state in northern Harad that was conquered by Gondor in the early Third Age. His people, conquered first by the Black Númenóreans and then by the Dúnedain, began to rebel against them both, and to appease them Karasalêth arranged to give his half-Haradrim daughter’s hand in marriage to King Tarannon Falastur of Gondor. This daughter, Zâinazimril, was betrothed against her will but powerless to stop her marriage to Falastur and his subsequent removal of her to his house by the mouths of the Anduin. But Zâinazimril hated the sea, especially the smells of salt and fish and gulls, and insisted on dwelling in the King’s House in Osgiliath instead. The people of Gondor feared and hated their new queen, naming her Berúthiel for her bitter temper. As Falastur was often away at sea, she had the King’s House to herself, decorating the courtyard with sculptures from her homeland that disturbed her Gondorian servants. Though she loathed cats, as Karasalêth’s house had been full of them, many cats of Osgiliath became fixated upon her and followed her around. Eventually, Berúthiel accepted her entourage, setting them as spies upon the suspicious Gondorians who stalked her every path. In this way she discovered many dark secrets of the realm, for she followed the tradition of sorcery taught to her ancestors by the Lord Zigûr and could speak with animals and read their memories. The people of Gondor feared and hated Berúthiel and her cats, nine black and one white, cursing whenever they walked by. Eventually, Falastur heard of his wife’s intimidation of his counselors and returned to Osgiliath to see the truth for himself. He declared the union unsuccessful, as no children had been born between them and Harad continued to simmer with resentment against Gondor, and exiled Berúthiel from Gondor, erasing her name from the Book of the Kings. Zâinazimril was set on a ship with only her cats for company and cast out into the sea she despised. She attempted to sail to Umbar, a haven of her people, and travel home from there, but she was no mariner and was last seen flying past the city with a cat at the masthead and another as a figurehead on the prow. Thus she passed into legend as the Stolen Princess of Harad and the Black Queen of Gondor, her final fate unknown. Near the end of the Third Age, another Black Númenórean lord would sell his child for the favor of a King, though this time to Sauron himself. This boy was stripped of his name and status and made to serve the Dark Tower, eventually being granted the name Mordu as he grew in his master’s favor. Mordu was cunning and cruel, manipulative of his fellow servants and clever in the fashioning of words, and as he came of age, Sauron gave him the title Dulgabêth, “the Black Word,” and sent him out as the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr, an ambassador to the lands conquered by Mordor. He became known to the Dúnedain as the Mouth of Sauron, and came before Aragorn before the Battle of the Morannon in an attempt to goad him into surrender, but the Men of the West stood firm, and he was slain in the ensuing conflict.