Of the Lady's Star-glass...

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

I feel like noting that these are only references to the place... and as the thrust of my argument is that it was Orodruin, the place, that gave Sauron the power (hence, it's importance as the place of his forging). In other words, Sauron's realm is not powerful because it is his, but rather he made it his realm because of the extra power he derived from it.

Well, why did Sauron decide upon Mordor as his 'western outpost'?

The Tale of Years says Sauron settled on Mordor in the Second Age:

c. 1000- Sauron, alarmed by the growing power of the Númenóreans, chooses Mordor as a land to make into a stronghold. He begins the building of Barad-dûr.

Two entries later in the year S.A. 1200, we have Sauron going about seducing the Eldar of Eregion.

The first entry makes no mention of Mt. Doom being one of the selling points for Sauron in picking Mordor. If I had to guess, I would think he would have chosen Mordor for its proximity to realms of his enemies, and the natural defences offered by the mountain ranges surrounding it. Perhaps it was only after he conceived of his plan to trap the peoples of Middle-earth by use of the Rings of Power that he realised what an aid Mt. Doom would have been. I don't know much about metal-working, but maybe the intense heat at the Mountain somehow made it possible to make the One as potent and durable as it was. After all, there were no other volcanoes mentioned in the books that I'm aware of, and the Nine and the Seven , made in Eregion, were subject to destruction by at least dragon-fire, whereas the One couldn't apparently be harmed even by that.

Here's a question, though. If there was something about Mt. Doom that gave it some sort of special potency against the forces of 'good', why didn't Sauron, or more likely Morgoth, have made use of it sooner? The indication from the Tale of Years is that there was nothing really notable about the land of Mordor before Sauron made it his primary realm in the Second Age, aside from the volcano.