What is a Variag

[Mattius]

In the land of Khand, south of Mordor, there lived a fierce folk called the Variags during the Third Age of the Sun. They were allied to the evil Easterlings and Haradrim and were servants to the Dark Lord Sauron. The histories of the West tell how twice the Variags came forth at the bidding of Sauron against Gondor. In the year 1944, with the Men of Near Harad, the Variags fought the army of Earnil of Gondor and were deafeated at Poros Crossing. More than a thousand years later the Variags, with the Haradrim and Easterlings, came to the aid of Sauron's armies from Morgul and Mordor in the War of the Ring. But this was the last time they fought Gondor, for an end came to Sauron's power and so to the alliance between Sauron and Variags, who remained within their own lands for many years of the Forth Age.