The Zorian Wastes, (later called the "Zûre"), lay in the eastern borderlands of Endon, east of Palisor and on the verge of the Last Desert. The region consisted of salt pans, broken basalt plates and scattered monoliths. Ruins and temporary camps stood among these features, and certain sites were marked by thresholds named "Dreamportals".
Description[]
The Wastes lay between settled lands to the west and older uplands to the east. The ground passed from hard salt crust to weathered basalt and encrusted clay. Stone rings, seal‑stones and isolated monoliths commonly marked the places where Dreamportals were found. Fissures opened into the Underdeeps.
The Portals were thresholds said to have been set at specific nodal places under the instruction of beings called the Lords of Essence. These were ancient powers similar and maybe akin to the Maiar of Irmo ’s circle. Sûrt - a made thing or construct medium — originally intended as means of communication between the Lords and the Zori, became an object of worship or deity among a group called the Cult of Ezran. Under its leadership the ancestors of the Zori formed a powerful empire. At an unknown point of time an Elf named Teleusuk appeared, fallen into madness through the influence of the presence later called Unlife, he was sometimes believed to have been a predecessor or even one of the original six Priest Arnak. Parts of the Ezran community were led by him into exile or division and fell to corruption under his influence. A second fallen elf, Den‑sârt and the corruption following him were the causes that brought the Long Lost Empire of the Zori to ruin. The realm’s settlements were abandoned over time and the land fell into the state now called the Wastes. The descendants or younger Zori (later "Zûre") survived as semi‑nomadic kindreds. They preserved place‑names, routes and taboos concerning thresholds and retained fragments of the old practices of seeing. The fortress of Den-sârt prevailed, from where he created warped creatures and gathered servants and raiders about him, attacking caravans and anybody disturbing his self-inflicted isolationist home.
See:
Main overview: Domain of the Lidless Eye Portal
Notes[]
The concepts and motifs assembled here drew upon material and mechanics known from Rolemaster and Shadow World, and have been transferred and adapted to the legendarium of Arda for the purposes of in‑world history. Terms such as "Osaran", "Dreamportals" and "Unlife" were retained or redefined to preserve their narrative functions. The identification of Unlife with Melkor’s essence, and the attribution of threshold‑works to Maia prior to the fall of the Two Lamps, are editorial inferences and not statements of canonical matter in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Sources of inspiration included Shadow World modules (notably those treating Zorian locales) and general Rolemaster cosmology.
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.