Mordor

Mauhoshat was hammered into a captain in the marshalling camps of Udun, where the legions of the Morannon are sorted and counted before the long march out. He took the Arki standard by goading three rivals into a knife-quarrel and walking out of the pit alone, a tale the muster-clerks of Lugburz are said to have written down. He covets the favour of the Great Eye above all, and trains his uruks to be noticed by the wraiths who ride down from the iron gate. The Ikhon under Maugrukh he names a company of pit-rats, for they reported his muster-count light at the last great gathering.

Gûlnak stands at Mauhoshat's right hand in the Udun camps, and the clerks of Lugburz mark him as the sharper blade of the two. He has been passed over twice for a banner of his own, and the resentment of it sits behind his teeth like a second tongue. He waits for Mauhoshat to be summoned to the Black Gate or thinned in the Pelennor, and reckons the Arki muster will fall to him before the next great war-march. Until that day he flatters his captain and counts his rivals.

Dûrzan commands a Tower-guard company in the shadow of Barad-dur itself, chosen for cunning over bulk by an officer of the Mouth's household. Payback is the engine of him, for a Morgul-captain reported his company light at a muster three years past and his banner was nearly broken for it. That captain is dead now in a stair-quarrel none can quite explain, and Dûrzan has been seen at the Mouth's gate more than once since. He keeps a particular eye on the Cirith Ungol garrison, and on Maugrukh's accounting of the dead.

Bolgrat holds a watchpost on the road to Cirith Ungol, and feuds quietly with the tower garrison over the counting of the dead.

Lozka watches the Cirith Ungol garrison on Dûrzan's behalf, and counts their failings against the day she takes their pass.

Murgha leads a night-pack along the Mordor road, and it is said the Eye itself favours her cruelty.

Mûzgash patrols the stairs below the Dark Tower, a silent killer who reports straight to the Mouth's household.

Razhûk stands a Tower-guard company beneath Barad-dur, chosen for cunning, and trusts none of his own captains.

Skraa keeps the under-cells of the Tower-guard, where the questioning is done and seldom finished quickly.

Throkka is a brute of the Tower-guard, kept for the work that wants no cunning, only weight and a heavy blade.

Yagûl carries word between Barad-dur and the Morgul Vale, and has seen the inside of the Tower more than once.

Maugrukh commands the watcher-tower of Cirith Ungol, that high paranoid roost above the Morgul Vale where Shelob lairs in the under-passes. He took the tower by cutting down the previous captain on the stair, an old quarrel about a shipment of mail looted from the tarks at Osgiliath. The Eye sees little of him there, and he likes it so, for a captain far from Lugburz may eat his own ghash and answer to none. He hates Mauhoshat of Udun, who once named his garrison a kennel of snaga.

Thûlnar serves as Maugrukh's lieutenant on the Cirith Ungol stair, and he has counted every coin in the captain's strongbox twice. Loot is his drive and the tower his hunting-ground, for caravans bound from Minas Morgul up to the pass are easily skimmed by the orcs who watch the road. He pays his uruks in trinkets stolen from the men of Gondor, and keeps the heavier plunder for a day when Maugrukh slips on the stair. He nurses an old grudge against Kûragh of the Akheth, who once stole his share of a Morgul-train.

Uznash is an overseer-captain of the Nurn slave-pens, where the thralls of Harad and the East break their backs to feed the legions. He came up through the whip-gangs, and his hatred of Men is a cold practiced thing, learned on the fields and not in any battle. The horse-boys of the Mark have never heard of him, and that is a wound he means to repair when the great muster comes. He has an old quarrel with Gûlnak of the Arki, who named his uruks farm-snaga at a Udun counting.

Durbgûl is a whip-captain of the Nurn pens, who measures a thrall's worth by how long it lasts under the lash.

Gorbûz came up through the whip-gangs beside Uznash, and resents that the pens answer to his old comrade and not to him.

Grisha oversees the poison-fields of southern Nurn, where the air itself does most of the killing.

Hrakmaw guards the granaries that feed the legions, a brutal quartermaster who hangs hoarders from the storehouse beams.

Krimpa breaks the new-taken slaves of Harad and the East, and is proud that few of them survive her breaking.

Lhakra rides the pen-borders hunting runaways, and brings them back in pieces as a lesson to the rest.

Snagrat drives the field-gangs of Nurn from horseback, and has never once walked among the slaves he herds.

Vûshka keeps the tally of the Nurn thralls, and culls the count herself when the books run long.

Thûrak stands sentinel at the Morannon, the iron Black Gate where the legions of Lugburz pour out into the northern wastes. Fear of the Great Eye is the marrow of him, for he was once flogged on the gate-stones for letting a tark scout slip past in the dusk. Since that day he has not slept the whole night through, and his uruks know better than to be found drowsing on the wall. The Brughash of Dûrzan he watches with a particular dread, for they keep their own counsel in the south and do not answer the muster as swiftly as the Gate would like.

Brûga oversees the weapon-pits behind the Black Gate, and flogs any smith-snaga who lets a blade go dull.

Grublat is a gate-captain of the Morannon, a heavy-handed uruk who counts the muster with his fists. He has broken more of his own snaga than any tark ever has.

Lugrod is an old killer of the Morannon garrison, slow to anger and slower to forgive, who has outlived three captains by being the last orc standing on the wall.

Mazgûr keeps the watch-fires on the northern wall of the Black Gate, a sharp-eyed archer who trusts no shadow that moves out on the Dagorlad.

Nazgra is a venom-tongued archer of the wall, feared in the barracks more than on the field.

Shelgra rides the Dagorlad as a scout-captain for the Gate, and brings back more heads than reports.

Ufthak clawed his way up from the slave-gangs of Udun to a banner of his own, and means to drown the memory of the lash in the blood of Men.

Ushka leads a raiding-pack that strikes north from the Gate, and answers the muster only when it suits her.

Bûrznak commands a regiment of Mordor orcs, a mounted captain who rides down stragglers and deserters alike.

Comatasa is an Orc bred for war.

Elidilea serves in the dark hierarchy.

Gorbag, Captain of Minas Morgul, leads the garrison of the dead city. He is cunning even by Orc standards.

Valaria serves in the citadel of the dead.