Sauron's Super Army?

[Formendacil]

Sauron certainly neutralised Númenor as an enemy--but only insofar as he preyed upon their own desire for world supremacy. As long as Sauron was still their defeated captive and was pushing them towards a goal they long sought, he was able to get them to do what he wanted. Had he tried to push them back to war in Middle-earth though, it seems likely that the Númenóreans would have become suspicious he was trying to use them as a powerplay--not least because they had little interest in looking east: they'd already found and taken what they wanted there; the things they still wanted lay westward.

It's worth pointing out that we have no idea who Ar-Pharazôn's heir was. Amandil and Elendil were closer kin to him through his grandmother, Inzilbêth, than through their shared descent from Tar-Elendil. Presumably any one of the "King's Men" kings closer to Pharazôn had other descendants.

All things considered too, Sauron was much more interested in getting the Valar to act against Númenor than in destroying his enemies in Middle-earth--after all, he still had the Ring there and Númenor and Valinor were each comparatively greater than all of his Middle-earthbound enemies. I don't think he expected Valinor to ever get involved in Middle-earth again; he seems to have read their reluctance to enter the War of Wrath and their failure to pursue him after he left their custody as a sign they had given up, but I think he wasn't beyond spiting them--and maybe he wanted to use the Númenóreans as a test-case to see how far they could be pushed. No danger to him if they proved angry enough to sail east and wipe the island out.

What he didn't expect was Eru stepping in personally--and note that the consequence was that his body was destroyed and he had to rebuild it before the War of the Last Alliance. Granted, it took him far less time than it did AFTER that war, but it should be considered that the War of the Last Alliance would have gone MUCH differently if Númenor had been wiped out "conventionally" and Sauron been able to return to Middle-earth with body intact--and I think we can assume that this is what he was planning for.

[Mornorngûr]

I think we also have to remember that Sauron did not actually intend for Númenor itself to be destroyed, nor did he expect Eru's intervention. At least, my interpretation is that those elements loyal directly to the King would attack Aman and be destroyed by the Valar, leaving him in control of a remnant so that he could return to Middle-earth and resume his wars against the Elves. I think he must have known that, partially with his help, Númenor had become too powerful for him to control directly, and while there he had abandoned his kingship in Middle-earth (I assume he had left the Nazgûl in charge in his absence). Again, I think to some extent Sauron must simply have lusted for the destruction of a nation and people who had repeatedly thwarted his plans and humiliated him.

Why didn't Sauron just give Ar-Pharazôn a 'Ring of Power'? (one of 'The Nine'), or maybe he could have given out all of 'The Nine' among the 'Kings men'?. This way their lives would have been extended and he could have feigned that because of loyalty to his cause (and to Melkor), that eternal life had been granted. This of course would have been a lie. However by the time that they discovered this, they would have been to far gone and under his control (due to the One Ring) to do anything about it, and Sauron would have accomplished dominion over Númenor.

Thoughts?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Mornorngûr

Why didn't Sauron just give Ar-Pharazôn a 'Ring of Power'? (one of 'The Nine'), or maybe he could have given out all of 'The Nine' among the 'Kings men'?. This way their lives would have been extended and he could have feigned that because of loyalty to his cause (and to Melkor), that eternal life had been granted. This of course would have been a lie. However by the time that they discovered this, they would have been to far gone and under his control (due to the One Ring) to do anything about it, and Sauron would have accomplished dominion over Númenor.

Apart from the practical reason that the Nine had already been dispensed by that point in time and there were no Great Rings remaining for him to give out, I think that Sauron simply did not want most of the Númenoréans to survive. He wanted, I think, to kill Ar-Pharazôn and destroy the armies and fleets of Númenor to cripple their strength and eliminate the threat they posed to his plans of domination in Middle-earth.

The entire plot, convincing Ar-Pharazôn to attack Aman, seems to be similar to the scheme with the Rings of Power to me. Gandalf observed Sauron's philosophy thus: "he that strikes the first blow, if he strikes it had enough, may need to strike no more." ("The White Rider") Sauron was always developing master plans to eliminate his enemies in a single motion. The forging of the Rings was one such scheme, to bring the Elves under his control instantaneously. This scheme failed. Númenor succeeded, to an extent, but he lost his body and the Faithful survived; by eliminating his power-rivals he granted Gil-Galad a formidable ally. The War of the Ring was a similar scheme - to let the blow fall on all of his enemies simultaneously and destroy them all at once. This was the nature of Sauron's character: impatient and ruthless. The problem with this attitude was that his plans had no contingency, and when they failed they did so disastrously.

I do not believe that ruling Númenor was ever of interest to Sauron. He just wanted to get rid of them, because he hated and feared them. Without them he only had to deal with the Noldor. Temporarily being the power behind the throne was simply the most efficient means of doing this because they could not be defeated by force of arms.

[Mornorngûr]

Apart from the practical reason that the Nine had already been dispensed by that point in time and there were no Great Rings remaining for him to give out, I think that Sauron simply did not want most of the Númenoréans to survive.

I thought that Sauron actually held 'The Nine'? After the Men he gave them to were corrupted, did he not take them back? or did the Nazgul still have them?.

Actually I have just been doing some research and it is clear to me that Sauron actually held them and therefore could re-distribute them if he wished.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Mornorngûr

I thought that Sauron actually held 'The Nine'? After the Men he gave them to were corrupted, did he not take them back? or did the Nazgul still have them?.

Actually I have just been doing some research and it is clear to me that Sauron actually held them and therefore could re-distribute them if he wished.

Yes and no. Sauron did hold them physically, but each ring was still tied to a Nazgul. It's sort of the flipside of their being bonded to their rings, the rings are bonded to them. I tend to think that, as long as a ring was "occupied" it couldn't be given to another person; one ring, one slave. Otherwise, Sauron could have simply kept distributing the rings freely until he had THOUSANDS of ringwrathis If a Nazgul was somehow destroyed, I imagine it just might be possible for that ring to be reassigned (some people thing this may have happened, that, when the Witch King was slain, his ring was then either given to or slated to be given to the Mouth so as to grant that loyal servant immortality and further power to serve his master.)
That being said there is the fact that Sauron did have the ability to grant powers to Men WITHOUT making them ringwraths. The Mouth presumably had some powers granted to him (he's already supposed to be far older than a mortal man is supposed to live naturally) And there were at least two Chief's of the Easterlings that Sauron was supposed to have granted powers of some sort to. He also presumably had a few "special servants" among the Near and Far Haradrians (given how big a part of his armed forces they were, he'd want their leaders to be EXTRA loyal to him). Why he chose not to take this route in Numenor is unknown. Maybe he wanted to simply winnow out the indifferent of Numenor (who might serve him as long as those in power did, but who would rapidly change sides back should things go badly for then under Sauron's rule and leave only those who were TRULY devoted to him as a god (the Black Numenorians and therefore presumably, their decendants, the Corsairs of Umbar)

[Belegorn]

Originally Posted by Mornorngûr

Actually I have just been doing some research and it is clear to me that Sauron actually held them and therefore could re-distribute them if he wished.

I agree with Alfirin, yes he held them, but the Rings worked in a certain way. If Sauron could freely distribute them and create an unlimited number of Wraiths why had he limited himself to only 9 in thousands of years? We know that the Wraiths would not disobey their Lord so he need not fear any rebellion from them.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Belegorn

I agree with Alfirin, yes he held them, but the Rings worked in a certain way. If Sauron could freely distribute them and create an unlimited number of Wraiths why had he limited himself to only 9 in thousands of years? We know that the Wraiths would not disobey their Lord so he need not fear any rebellion from them.

I wonder if the maximum number of ring-slaves was not connected to the fact that even Sauron must have a limit to his power.

The Silmarillion makes note of the way in which Morgoth's own power was diluted by his expending it in the domination of his servants. Sauron, one could think, could have been 'watered down' similarly, since domination was the ultimate purpose of the rings he made. Maybe the more wraiths there were to share his power (which fundamentally they did), the weaker he would become, and as the Ring-lord, he should have been aware of that.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I wonder if the maximum number of ring-slaves was not connected to the fact that even Sauron must have a limit to his power.

I think this seems likely. When we hear about, for instance, the Lord of the Nazgûl being stronger during the War of the Ring due to being invested with "added demonic force" (Letter 210) it would seem likely to me that Sauron could only perform feats like this within a limited pool of power. Like Morgoth that power could not simply arise ex nihilo. Morgoth spent his strength on invigorating his servants repeatedly, with dragons, balrogs and so on. Beyond controlling his armies, Sauron's much lesser strength seems to have been confined to things like invigorating his most powerful servant. Presumably there would be, in the same way, a limit on the number of wraiths he could control, with or without the One.