The return of Sauron

[Gurthang]

I've always thought that an interesting sequel would be the Blue Wizards coming back from the East, leading the Easterlings and Southrons to wage war on Gondor again. I've always been fascinated by the Blue Wizards, and the lack of information about them. Bringing them in as main characters/evil lords would be pretty cool.

If my memory serves me well, Melkor was able to either evade capture by the other Valar, or manage to worm out of it in the end. He was the most powerful among the Valar in the beginning, who is to say that in his thousands of years confinement he was not able to find a way out of his prison, or if he was imprisoned in a void as for some reason my memory is telling me, who is to say he is not or was not able to utilize the energy of his prison to make himself stronger and break free?

[Gurthang]

He was not really placed into a void, but into The Void. Meaning he was banned from Arda and could no longer enter the circle of the world. He was out beyond the sky, the sun, the stars, even outside time. As far as what kept him out there... it was probably the will of Iluvatar.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Here's a thought. I believe it's said that some of the houses of the dwarves were
at least partially "evil", or had trends so, and that some fought for Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance. What if those houses, abetted by their fear of
long-term diminishment and extinction in Middle-earth, sought to take over Kazad-dum and then, perhaps allied with ents gone bad and/or Easterlings, to
"revenge" "harms" done to dwarves by elves by taking the Grey Havens and Rivendell to prevent elves leaving safely Middle-earth. With a possible dwarf
civil war ensuing by the dwarves with good relations with hobbits and elves opposing them?

I think most of the elves would have long departed from ME for there to be a civil war. As for eveil Dwarves, they were probably be in the minority.

[mormegil]

The problem with the majority of these theories is the lack of a central evil figure. Melkor: obviously very powerful and evil as is Sauron. To make anything interesting we would need some very powerful being as the arch-enemy to good. A dwarven rebellion would be an interesting chapter but that's all I can see of it. A Balrog simply isn't a sufficient leader to have minions follow him. Their power isn't nearly equal to Sauron even.

[Gurthang]

Which is why I thought the Blue Wizards would work. There you would have two leaders, presumably near to equal in power to Gandalf, who would lead the Easterlings and Southrons to attack Gondor. They would be the central evil figure(s) to fight. And since there is very little information about them, a sequel is very open with them in it.

[mormegil]

Originally Posted by Gurthang

Which is why I thought the Blue Wizards would work. There you would have two leaders, presumably near to equal in power to Gandalf, who would lead the Easterlings and Southrons to attack Gondor. They would be the central evil figure(s) to fight. And since there is very little information about them, a sequel is very open with them in it.

I could see that as being possible. However I think they would need to gain power and one would overthrow the other in the struggle for power.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by mormegil

The problem with the majority of these theories is the lack of a central evil figure.

One thing that I've noticed/inferred from reading Tolkien is that the age's highest level baddy has leave the stage for the next act to occur. Melkor, then Sauron, then...who knows, but whomever or whatever it would be would presumably have to be less in power than Sauron.

So one would ask, who is left in the Fourth Age that is less in power than Sauron yet in command of enough power to create up some big time problems? The Blue wizards fit the bill, as one would assume that they were less than Sauron. And if we can have a Witch-King that is equal to Gandalf , then we could have some person of Black Numenorian blood that, in possession of some evil artifact, could seek to conquer ME.

And in regards to civil wars etc, haven't those taken place even with the threat of Morgoth and Sauron present? It is assumed that the Enemy (whichever) is ultimately behind the troubles, it being part of the strategy to weaken the forces of good from within. Yet sometimes it's just those simply yielding to the former contents of Pandora's box.

What about the lost secrets of the Rings of Power? Are their records still known in ME? I would have thought somebody would have been tempted to research into ring lore again, and redevelop the lost secrets behind the makings of the great rings of old. Men corrupt easily for desire of power, as was the case with the nine who became ringwraiths.

Also, is it possible for the WK to return? He was destroyed before the fall of Sauron, leading to the idea that he had a power in him that was also seperate from Sauron. Maybe this power could be resurrected to take physical form again?