After centuries the seemingly sudden rise of the Witch-king still puzzled the Scholars and leaders of the successor kingdoms of Arnor. Angmar had, officially, been part of former Arnor, though its wealth had consisted more in its many ores than in agriculture, and most of its natives had been relatively poor herders. Even after the split of Arnor the exact affiliation of Angmar had remained unclear, for both Arthedain and Rhudaur possessed only weak claims to its territory, and both sides had hoped to win Angmar as a possible ally. It was undecided who exactly ruled Angmar at that time, for a small local Dúnadan nobility had existed alongside influential indigenous chieftains. Whatever Angmar had been, it had been taken for a rather heathen country; its people had adhered to strange deities, yet at first little had pointed to actual dark cults or to the Dark Lord.
The sudden revelation of the Witch-king had seemed like an old prophecy come true, and it had doubtless been prepared over long periods. The local population had welcomed its new ruler as they welcomed freedom from the Dúnadan kingdoms, which had long been held to be oppressors and tyrants exploiting the land and its people rather than the just rulers they had claimed to be. Yet the ease with which the Angmarrim had marched and lived side by side with Orcs and Trolls had bewildered all who were not Angmarron; to outsiders it had seemed as if Angmarron thought in strange ways that could not be comprehended. Indeed the Angmarrim had appeared to inhabit a different state of mind, fuelled by a deep hatred of the Dúnadan kings and by a corresponding indifference toward the dark creatures of the Mountains. An Angmarron would rather have called an Orc his fellow and brother-in-arms than his relative eriadorian tribesman if the latter had been a "lackey or serf of the west-men".
In the earlier centuries of Angmar the Ongûlûn had been the outward face of the realm while the Witch-king remained behind the scenes; many had believed him not to exist in person but to be a symbolic figure. At first he had even concealed Angmar’s involvement with creatures of darkness, staging raids that made it appear Angmar itself suffered from Orc- or Troll-attacks. But as the centuries passed the ties of the Angmarrim with Orcs and Trolls became plain, and even his own people grew accustomed to them; only a small remnant of the "faithful" withstood the witch‑idolatry and continued the old Dúnadan rites to Illuvatar and the Valar in secret.
It appeared that the Witch-king’s agents had worked in Angmar for decades, slowly bending Angmarean culture toward acceptance of non-mannish creatures, turning superstitious tribal cults toward witch-craft and sorcery, and converting stubborn freedom into fanatic enmity against all things Dúnadan, all beneath the very eyes of the Dúnadan realms. Years before the Witch-king and his steward Morgomir had openly entered the land, the future Witches of Angmar had already subverted the tribes of Bórian, Arvandor and Hillman stock. The witch‑king’s grip over the Orcs of Gundabad and the local Trolls and their chieftains, such as Rogrog, Buhrdur and Rogash, had been strong and consolidated before he publicly revealed himself and Angmar as a newly "free Kingdom". The Witch-king’s ostensible "protection" of Angmar against Trolls and Orcs had become their submission, and at last their conquest and control, so that they served as full‑fledged allies and auxiliaries. It had seemed as if some magical veil had been torn from the Arnorian eyes by a powerful illusion—a spell that had blinded an entire population to the true ambitions and designs of their neighbours and kinsmen.
The Witch-king’s chief interest had not been the impoverished herders, Miners and Farmers of Angmar; he cared little for their lives, for they had been mere stooges and pawns in his game against the Dúnadan kingdoms and he was content to sacrifice them. Nor had he truly cared for his witches and their religion, for his sole loyalty had been to his ring of power and to the one who still controlled it, who remained well hidden beneath the mask of the Necromancer of Dol Guldur.
With the fall of the last remnants of Arthedain and Cardolan, Angmar itself had collapsed into an unruly savage land in which the few remaining tribes of men led harsh lives in daily struggle with the raw forces of nature and the Orcs and Trolls of the mountains and moors. These beings were no longer brothers-in-arms but competitors and open predators, enemies of all mannish life. Many Angmarrim had fled into the Northern Wastes to freeze or starve; others survived a while east of the mountains until driven away or subjugated by the newly arriving Éothéod. A minority, chiefly children led by women and secretly aided by Gandalf, had escaped southwards to the Mitheithel; these were believed to be the faithful, and they later became supporters and allies of the Rangers of the North. The Witch-king, their once‑promised liberator, had at last forsaken his people and returned to Mordor to prepare the coming of his true master.
Main overview: Domain of the Lidless Eye Portal
Editorial Note: This entry contains speculative or fan-based material — such as fanon, fanfiction, or theory constructs — that may not be directly supported by canonical texts. Interpretations offered here are part of the NNCA’s speculative corpus and should not be mistaken for primary Tolkien sources.