Morgomir

Morgomir is a fictional name for one of the Nazgûl in the game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-king. In the game-universe, he's one of The Nine and the Lieutenant of Carn Dûm. This one-time Captain of the Black Númenóreans is the Witch-king’s right hand man and rules over the corrupted and evil Men of Angmar with an iron fist.

The Dark Ages of Evil
In the time of the first defeat of Sauron, his minions were scattered, demoralised and leaderless. A minority of orcs were recruited by the Nazgûl. It was in this dark time for the forces of evil, that the leader of the Nazgul the Witch-king of Angmar, named his first in command in the Nazgûl as Morogmir and moved his forces on Arnor in the North.

It was Morgomir who acted as the Dread Lord's chief Military strategist, he pointed out Arnor as being weaker than the men of Gondor. He also commanded many of the deciding battles of the war, not to mention being the first Nazgûl to draw blood at the siege of Minas Tirith. Morgomir's fighting technique is derived from the ancient Kings of Númenór, in battle he would usually deliver his strikes in a downward swing, or several twirling upward ones. He was more common to finish of leaders with a straight lunge into the chest. This battle technique was only used by Morogmir in the Arnor-Angmar war, when the power of the Witch-king allowed him to permenantly take his twighlight form.

The Rise of Angmar
When the Witch-king's forces began their assault on Arnor, there were only two of them, Morgomir and the Dread Lord himself. They arrived in the frozen mountain range just north of Arnor in the winter of that year. It was here that Morgomir pointed out a valuable unit, the Troll of the North Rogash, a viciously intelligent troll with the skill to wield a giant blade. Morgomir advised the Witch-king to coerce with the troll, and just as he had predicted, the troll and his legions of snow and hill trolls bowed to what was soon named The Iron Crown.

When the Witch-king's stronghold in Angmar fell under attack by the natives of the area, the Black Númenóreans, the new troll army crushed them and the Witch-king gave them a choice, either their wills or their lives would be forfeit. When they agreed to serve, the Witch-king rewarded Morgomir by naming him Commander of the Black Númenóreans.

The Fall of Rhudaur
When Morgomir made links inside the hillmen of Rhudaur, his chief conspiritor, Hwaldar the Hill Chief, was arrested by the forces of Arnor. Morgomir convinced the Dread Lord that he was valuable, so the Witch-king launched a deadly assault on Rhudaur to free the hill chief. It was Morgomir who cut down the royal guards and freed Hwaldar with a single stroke, again proving his worth as the Witch-king's Right-Hand-Man. This act earned the hill chief's respect and alliegence, but landed Angmar in a very bad situation, their attack force was dwindling, and Arnor's fortresses to the east of the area had deployed the full army and was marching in their direction. Stumped, the Witch-king once again turned to Morgomir.

Morgomir trained a select group of Black Númenóreans to develop their dark art skills. These warriors developed the ability to summon armies from the dust and before too long, the Witch-king's army was replenished and a bloody battle ensued. With the fall of the two fortresses and the death of king Argeleb, the first in command of Arnor's royal house, Arnor abandoned the first kingdom and prepared for the Witch-king's assault on the second, Cardolan and the ancient burial grounds of Arnor

Curse of the Barrow Downs
During the battle, the Witch-king became weakened in his powers, so he commanded Morgomir to take his army of newly trained sorcerers to lead an attack on the burial grounds of Arnor, soon to be named the Barrow-downs. Morogmir knew that the desecration of these ancient soils would demoralize and anger the men of Arnor, pushing them into a hasty attack that would destroy them. But the Witch-king had a better idea, using the new sorcerers, he commanded Morgomir to have the barrow tombs corrupted with a dark plague, that would kindle the spirits of the fallen Kings of Arnor in an ancient Necromancy Ritual, thus creating the Barrow-wights.

Morgomir's forces arrived at the barrow downs later that evening, and with darkness growing in the East as Sauron regained his strength, Morgomir decided that all the Barrows had to be corrupted by sunrise, to give their master enough energy to prepare for his return. When the armies and Captain of Cardolan discovered the activity in their burial grounds, they launched a massive counter attack wave, an attack that Morgomir had planned for. In a Black Ritual he performed himself, sacrificing five Avatars, he called upon a monstrous spiritual wolf, that arose from the depths of the earth and wrecked the army just as the rituals were completed. Out of every Barrow, arose twisted spirits that resembled Shades but had more of a form to them. The ghostly Barrow Wights.

It was in this moment, with the Dread Lord's victory over Cardolan, Captain Carthaen of Cardolan was cornered by Barrow Wights and forced against the doors of a corrupted barrow. Out of the shadows, Morgomir strode towards him. The conversation between the two, occured like this; MORGOMIR: You have proven a worthy opponent, Captain of Cardolan. CARTHAEN: I do not fear you fiend! You can only kill me! Morgomir let out a shrill laugh and drew the Morgul blade, as he stabbed the captain, the valiant warrior began to twitch. His spirit waned and his strength failed him as he assumed the form of one of the Witch-king's deadliest servants, the Whispering Wight Karsh.

The Fall of Morgomir
After the destruction of Fornost and the final eradication of Arnor, the Witch-king sat on the throne of Angmar, Morgomir at his side. And with Sauron's strength almost fully restored, the Dread Lord could see everything and hear everything. And what he heard amused him, the last leader of Arnor had fled to Rivendell, to the Council of Elrond. Men called for their last known leader to join the elves in a final struggle against the Witch-king. The elves called for Glorfindel and Elrond to lead the army in the final battle, so the army moved on the Witch-king and forced him out of Fornost. Before the Dread Lord knew it, he was retreating into Angmar's frozen hills to his last stronghold, with the final battle now before him.

Morgomir lead a strike force of Black Númenóreans to meet Elrond, Glorfindel and the prince Eärnur of Gondor. Karsh followed behind with barrow wights and sorcerers, whilst Rogash waited in ambush with his army of trolls. When Morgomir's troops met the alliance's, there was a vicious confrontation. The second in command of Angmar and the Nazgûl, dueled all three leaders at the same time, his skills pushed the prince to the ground and he drew a morgul blade. Glorfindel crippled Morgomir by slashing his middle three fingers off and sent the blade to the ground. Morgomir kept fighting, but the overwhelming might of Elrond and Glorfindel pushed him to his limits. Elrond struck the blade from his hand and Glorfindel drove him through. That was the end of Morgomir.

The Witch-king lost at the battle of the frozen plains and he retreated back to Mordor, where he was reunited with Morgomir's damaged spirit; he had returned to wraith form and had lost most of his acquired powers. He was just like the rest of the nine.

Morgomir or Khamûl?
The post of Second in command of the Nazgûl is bestowed upon two of them. In the eyes of the Witch-king, Morgomir is superior to most other Nazgûl with skills to rival his own. However, Sauron thinks differently. After the war of Arnor, Sauron was furious, he stripped Morgomir of his authority and named another Nazgûl, Khamûl to take his place. But Sauron had always favoured Khamûl, so the question is, who really does command the Nazgûl under the Witch-king? Khamûl or Morgomir?

In the true The Lord of the Rings canon; that is the canon that follows the novels, Khamûl is the rightful second in command to the Witch-king, taking his place as leader of the Nazgûl after his death. Morgomir is not a name given to any Nazgûl outside of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-earth II, and is generally considered to be a non-canon character to the novels made solely for the game. Why the designers did not simply use Khamûl as a character in the game to act as the Witch-king's second in command is because Khamûl is known to be the emperor of Rhun and Harad- Khamûl the Easterling he is called or the necromancer as the Lord of Dol Guldur.