The Dead and The Undead

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

WI think that some comparative "religious studies" to what we know of the Melkor-worship he introduced in Númenor would, in fact, suggest that Sauron-worship in Middle-earth was heavily tied to Death and the fear of death, which, ironically, seems to have involved deaths and accelerated dying.

I agree. The Black Númenóreans also worshipped Sauron "being enamoured of evil knowledge", suggesting that he promised them insight into things Men were not meant to wot of. It wouldn't surprise me if Sauron-worship, at least in some quarters, focused on the fruitless pursuit of long life and power over the wills of others.

Incidentally, I believe the door that Baldor was found trying to open was the entrance to a temple to Sauron, or the Shadow more generally, beneath the Haunted Mountain.

Whether that was the same as the Sauron-religion propagated among the Easterlings and Haradrim may also be worth a separate discussion: "To them Sauron was both king and god; and they feared him exceedingly".