A True Warg
Wargs were a particularly cursed breed of Wolves, spawned as pit-beast in ancient Angband by the dark arts of Sauron, and later surviving to wreak havoc upon the wilds of the Westlands. Unusually large and fierce, they were just as fierce and wicked, but far more intelligent, than ancestral cannines. They served as mounts for Orcs and as guards and scouts for Morgoth and Sauron his servant and successor.
Wargs appeared in two different breeds, common wargs and true wargs.
- Common Wargs were merely an extremely large and strong breed of war-wolves, bred by Morgoth, with the aid of Sauron, from wolves of the first age. The Mountain Wargs or Grey Wargs were of this kind. The Frost-Wargs of the Forodwaith were bred by the Ice-Orcs by interbreeding Wargs with White Wolves.The Southern Zêb or "Desert Wargs" were wild and independent as the Mountainwargs but seemingly akin to Jackals or hyaenas.
- Isenwargs were a late breed, created by Saruman of Many Colors for warfare and as mounts for his Uruk-hai. They were more agile and wild than others of their kind. This is because the Isenwargs were bred from both common Wargs and wild eastern Beasts, such as the great Cave Hyenas.
- True Wargs or Ghost-Wolves (Also variously known as Black Wargs, Shadow-Wargs, Dire-Wargs, Fell Wargs, Shadowmaws, Warg-Wights or Deg-lic) were lesser Were-Wolves, undead spirits incorporating the bodies of degenerated and magically altered great wolves. Being artificially long-lived, undead, the spirit that inhabited a true Warg's form dissipated when the body was slain. In turn, the body disappeared. These were particularly favored by Sauron the Demon, who apperently used their kind to breed lesser Wargs on behalf of Morgoth, and kept their forefather Draugluin as a pet to himself. His use of them continued into his own primacy as Dark Lord of Mordor, and he used them prominently as scouts, messengers, and representatives of his authority in far-flung regions. The great Wolf-chieftains of the Misty Mountains were of this kind, and there they worked their master's evil will amongst lesser Wargs.
Notes[]
The Wargs might correspond to the "megafaunal wolf" or "cave wolf".