Middle-Earth, or Arda as some call it, is a fractious place. Many kingdoms and powers fight for dominance and their own spheres of influence in the vastness of the world, and among them walk many generals and heros, both good and evil. But good and evil is not as much of a semantic difference as it used to be; true evil wakes in the East, a dark shadow from elder days when Valar walked the marches of Arda. Sauron, the Great Enemy, is returned in strength, and puts forth his power as he did in the War of the Last Alliance to cover the land in Darkness. He had recovered that which he lost, the One Ring, and his power is waxing, though his long separation from it has weakened his ability to take a physical form and dominate the battlefield as he once did. Still, his plans are many, and his reach long indeed. Dark men and Orcs in their thousands march beneath his banner. From the teeming halls of Moria, to the mountain vales of Gondor, to the golden grasslands of Rhun, his soldiers execute long though out plans to bring the Dark Lord his dominion. From the deep smithies of Isengard, and the fells of the Ettenmoors, and the hot wastes of Khand and Harads legions march under his banner, in alliance with the Lord of the Earth to stamp out all the forces of the Free Peoples that would resist the triumph of the Great Eye.
Against him stands the waning might of the elves and those men who once called themselves Edain, and their allies. Rohan, Gondor, the Woodland Realm, Lothlorien, Rivendel, and the Grey Havens stand against the shadow, but their numbers are few, and their foes many. The dwarves sit in their halls of stone, their numbers declining, and the men are divided between those who crave the power of Sauron and those who wish for their own freedom.
The War of the Ring is begun.
