Durelan, thanks for the clarification. My answer was unresponsive to your question, sorry about that. I was just obsessing. I wasn't really intending my post to be an answer to yours, as I don't know the origins of the Nazgul except for the Witch-King of Angmar. I've been looking for a quote on the subject for you by way of apology, but I haven't found it yet.
Birdland-- thanks for explaining the black Numenoreans better than I did. Maybe sect would be the best term, including their practices of black magic and their political ideas about allying with Sauron.
That was a great explanation about the Mouth of Sauron-- I've always thought the same, that forgetting his name was an indication of how completely he'd drowned himself in Sauron's will. The idea of Sauron speaking his own name through the 'Mouth' is very clever. Believing that he was just an extension of Sauron's will could be why the Mouth of Sauron dared to use the name.
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