The Powerful Eastern Orcs of Middle-earth

In this video, we look at a note from the Nature of Middle-earth, where Tolkien introduced us to the new concept of powerful, independent Orcs who dwelt in the east of Middle-earth in the Second Age.

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[Rauruatreides]

One of the few Tolkien channels i still watch, with the fact it goes in depth onto various topics which arent just found in the regular books.

[edwardokaa]

My mind immediately jumps to the conversation between Shagrat and Gorbag about the good old times with no bosses. Good to get some extra backstory!

[InfiniteDroidArmies]

Dude no other Tolkien channel touches your quality. Every new video makes my day.

[untitled]

Im amazed that you always find out a way to release a video about something I never heard before..

[frggdeckkkydexhhgg]

Gundabad is the other example of independent orc society. They had capable leaders and were naturally stronger then southern orcs. Makes you wonder, maybe orcs could even develop a primitive and violent culture of their own, if given enough time.

[ansfelt]

It's such a great channel. You always learn somethign new

[klappspatenkamikaze]

It's rare to hear an orc-fact i didn't know before. This is awesome!

[tiltskillet]

Cool stuff. I have The Nature of Middle-earth, but either missed this part or had completely forgotten it. Thanks for bringing it up.

[PtolemyJones]

Wonder why Sauron doesn't make any rings for the Orcish warlords, seems like they would have been worth having.

[jeanbherer-simard]

That's a great tidbit to share, excellent video!

[alanpennie]

Looks like Sauron had lost most of his shape shifting powers in The Second Age.
He was stuck with his Annatar presentation until he permanently swapped it for a Dark - lord one.

[Generalth]

Hi Darth!

I wish there was more orc lore, especially for what happened to them during the Fourth Age. I like to imagine they did fairly well for themselves once they were no longer ruled by uncaring dark lords.

[thomassaxon]

I didn't know about these orcs. Must get through the extra books eventually.

[SvengelskaBlondie]

Make me think of the space orks in 40k, how those that do much more "stompin" get allot more swole than those that seldom if ever engage in kerfuffle's.

[Limubi]

A very well informed deep dive, thank you for your analysis

[EricGasz]

Great video! Never thought about eastern orcs

[thomasalvarez]

They must have been powerful to resist Sauron for a time. I wonder if Shadow of war was influenced by them.

[antarfodoh]

I've been researching in depth for a story that I've been writing about the very topic of "good Orcs of the east" who rebelled after Sauron's first defeat... How have I never heard of this?!

[terrystewart]

Interesting to speculate on the surviving orcs of the 4th Age, post Sauron. People have often just assumed the orcs would have become extinct, but this little back story Tolkien provided late in life would say otherwise.

[TurinTuram]

It's a really interesting concept, thanks for sharing. They got stronger by self-destructing each-others (at some extend) but that prevent them to spread and be a global threat. Until Sauron instrumentalized them. Maybe they wasn't as worthy in the first age but they kept evolving fast until Sauron grab them.