Power of the Black Land

One of the many epithets and titles used of the Dark Lord Sauron during his time in Mordor. The title of 'Power' was usually reserved for the greatest of beings in Arda: for the Valar and for Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Sauron was originally Morgoth's lieutenant, but with the defeat of his master he took on the mantle of the Dark Lord himself, and became known as a Dark Power in his own right. It was during the Second Age that Sauron, having escaped from the War of Wrath, sought out a new land for himself. In about the year II 1000, he chose the mountain-walled land that became known as Mordor, the Black Land, fortifying it and eventually building his Dark Tower of Barad-dûr there.

With his defeat in the War of the Last Alliance, Sauron was forced to abandon his Black Land, and indeed his physical form altogether, but over the centuries that followed he rebuilt his strength. For much of the Third Age he dwelt in secret at Dol Guldur, known to outsiders only as the mysterious Necromancer. In the year III 2941 the White Council, having discovered his identity, drove him from that fortress, but he had already made ready his escape. He returned to Mordor, establishing himself once again as the Power of the Black Land, and making ready for the war that would erupt nearly eighty years later.