Goblins of the Grey Mts./Northern Misty Mts. during WotR?

[Not Yet Dead]

First of all: First time poster, longish-time reader. 'Sup Downers.
Now, Onwards!

Tolkien's descriptions of the Battle Under the Trees and the assault on Erebor and Dale during the War of the Ring are not exactly detailed, but they are clear about the participants: Dol Guldur marched a great deal of its people against Thranduil's kingdom (and apparently the Woodsmen/Beornings), while leaving Erebor and Dale to the Easterlings. Orcs from Moria were (I believe) assisting the assault on Lorien.

Where were the orcs from the Grey Mountains, and from the Mountains north of Moria?

Before you say: 'They all got genocided by the Forces of Goodness and Happy Things after the Battle of the Five Armies'...Unlikely.
It is said that 3/4's of the goblin warriors of the north were killed that day, implying that A): 1/4 survived the battle (or didn't attend at all), and B): they left their families/non-warrior orcs behind, leaving both social infrastructure and the security of their mountain/tunnel bases intact for their return.
-Given that the "Great Host" assembled at the Lonely Mountain must have been led by the orcs from Moria (Bolg's orcs), and there were still a bunch of that tribe living in those pits afterwards (reinforcements from Dol Guldur aside; see Balin's re-colonization effort which happened some 40ish years after BoFA, and how many orcs he found in there), there must have been a substantial amount of goblins living in the Grey Mountains and the Hithaeglir.
-Given that orcs have a habit of reproducing like rabbits (though this may be more common when a powerful magic-using creature is encouraging it), 70+ years is enough to cause a population of 1000 (I'm guessing 1000 give or take a few hundred as the 1/4 surviving population) soldier-orcs to grow exponentially. And even if that number stayed relatively the same, battles in ME are often between no more than a few thousand soldiers on each side, meaning that 1000 orcs would still be a welcome addition to any army fielded by Sauron.
This is further supported by the High Pass (where Goblintown is) being described as "watched by the Enemy" during the WotR.

So, what were they doing when Dol Guldur was busy splitting its forces between the two Elvish realms, and the Easterlings were knocking on Erebor's door?

Did Sauron just decide that a few thousand mountain orcs, located very near Thranduil's realm, the Iron Hills, Rivendell, the Beornings, Erebor and Dale were not worth summoning?
Did the orcs genocide themselves in the 70 years between the Battle of Five Armies, and the beginning of the ring war?
Did Sauron forget about them?
Did their Third-Age tradition of doing things on their own and having powerful leaders of their own (Golfimbul, Azog, Bolg, the Great Goblin) lead them to reject Sauron in some sort of orcish political coup?
Did they lose a war/bet/dinner with the Wargs/Cold Drakes/Trolls?
Did Tolkien just...lump them in with orcs from Moria?

[Rumil]

Welcome to the Barrow, Not Yet Dead!

thorny question indeed, unfortunately I don't think Tolkien mentions the Misty/Grey Mountains orcs much during LoTR, so its up to us to discuss possibilities.

I'd agree that, although they had lost heavily during the Battle of the Five Armies, their numbers could have recovered somewhat (but still be significantly fewer than if the battle had not occurred, and their expansion continued).

The only times we get to see Misty Mountains orcs in LoTR are in Moria and the combined Sauron/Saruman company that kill Boromir and kidnap Merry and Pippin. These included a group from the Misty Mountains that disliked the sun. So maybe Misty Mts goblins were sent to reinforce other armies, including Dol Guldur and Moria (that was seriously depleted in orcs according to JRRT), and maybe even Mordor? Perhaps joining up with Saruman might have seemed an attractive alternative for the goblins?

On the other hand, very little was writen on the Battle under the Trees or the Siege of Erebor, so we don't know if Misty Mts types joined with Dol Guldur troops in their attack on Thranduil, or even if some joined the Easterlings at Dale and Erebor. I'd guess that they did, but that's just a hunch.

The Beornings and Woodmen must come into this as well, prior to LoTR they kept the High Pass open and clear of goblin interference (perhaps slowing the re-population of the goblins). They are mentioned as fighting in Mirkwood iirc. Were they pushed back from the mountains by a goblin assault perhaps?

A very speculative proposal is that they raided West of the mountains. Only 30 Rangers could be summoned to help Aragorn, and the Shire was left unguarded. Many assume that there were many more Rangers - perhaps they (with Elrond's help?) were busy dealing with goblin and wolf incursions??

I do rather like your idea of orcish civil war and in-fighting reducing their numbers further after the Battle of the Five Armies. Since there were leadership vacancies I doubt that the succession process would be a bloodless one!

[Selmo]

There was still a significant population of elves at Rivendell. Not enough to send an army to Gondor's aid but pehaps enough to give some assistance to Dale and the Mirkwood elves.

If the Misty Mountain orcs were under Sauron's control, he could have used them to prevent Elrond from crossing the mountains.

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[Rhod the Red]

Well we know Lothlorien was under siege, and so was the Lonely Mountain