orcs after baradur

[QuickSlash]

I feel the Witch-King has returned in many forms since the Fourth Age-Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tso, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Lenin, etc.

I wouldn't say that they were the Witch King. They couldn't *all*'ve been, anyway. Some are/were living at the same time. Maybe you could theorize that they were various Nazgul, but I wouldn't.

Men are men. Not all are good. Some will do 'evil' things. That doesn't mean that they are some kind of embodiment of evil. Just because someone does (very) bad things doesn't mean that they're no longer normal human beings.

And, directly on topic, I'd say that the majority of the orcs were hunted down. I seriously doubt that *all* were killed, and I suppose there were a few individuals, a few tribes, that lived far from other civilizations. Coming out into the open for them would mean death.

Oh, and the Moria orcs. I would bet (with nothing to back me up) that they stayed in Moria for a long time, possibly for the remainer of time. The dwarves would try to kill them off, but how could they do it? The orcs could retreat back into the earth, the orcs would know the territory better than the dwarves (having lived there all their lives), and you couldn't starve them or anything. I'd say the dwarves would try a few times to exterminate them, fail, and deem Moria lost forever.

I'd also say that while other 'dark' races (trolls, goblins, etc.) were not exterminated (as they were not so much affected by the fall of Sauron), but they were much more careful. They no longer had a Dark Lord to back up their evil deeds.