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Instead of the Black Hand answering the "message", the Hammer of Sauron is sent, punishing Ratbag for not answering his duties to kill the ranger. Using acquired grog and blasting powder, Talion helps the Outcasts destroy a statue dedicated to Sauron. Soon enough, Hirgon has a plan to draw out the Black Captains.
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Talion then goes after the other Warchiefs in Gorgoroth, weakening Sauron's forces in that area. Talion helps Ratbag ascend the ranks to the level of warchief by killing each of his immediate superiors, allowing Ratbag to become a Warchief himself. In his search for the Black Hand, Talion allies himself with Hirgon, a ranger deserter who leads a community of Gondorian outcasts choosing to settle in Mordor, and Ratbag the Coward, an Orc who offers to bring Talion closer to the Black Hand in exchange for his assistance in climbing Mordor's military hierarchy. Celebrimbor proclaimed himself the Bright Lord of Mordor and raised an army of Orcs against Sauron with the intention of both rescuing his family (Sauron having taken his wife and daughter hostage to force Celebrimbor to aid him) and deposing Sauron. Celebrimbor ultimately assisted Sauron in forging the One Ring, but was able to steal it from him. Celebrimbor gradually recalls how Sauron, disguised as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, deceived him into forging the Rings of Power. Able to see and speak with the wraith due to his prior contact with the One Ring, whom he refers to as the "Bright Master", and hoping they might lead him to the One Ring, Gollum leads the elf and Talion to relics of his past, each of which restore parts of his lost memories, eventually allowing the elf to remember his true identity: Celebrimbor, the greatest jewelsmith of the Second Age. Over the course of their travels, the pair encounter Gollum multiple times, who is wandering Mordor in search of his "Precious" (The One Ring). The pair agree to work together to find answers regarding the elf lord's past, avenge the murders of Talion's family and kill the Black Hand, whose death will break the spell binding them together, allowing them both to die. Instead however, the elven wraith bonds with Talion, preventing him from dying with his family. Talion, Ioreth and Dirhael are the only survivors of the attack they are taken prisoner and ritually sacrificed by the Black Hand in an attempt to summon into himself the wraith of an unknown Elf lord. On the night Sauron returns to Mordor, having been driven out of Dol Guldur, the garrison is attacked by Orcs under the command of three Black Númenórean captains: the Hammer of Sauron, the Tower of Sauron, and their leader, the Black Hand of Sauron.
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As well as the men under his command, Talion's wife Ioreth and their teenage son Dirhael, who seeks to follow in his father's footsteps, reside there.
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Set in the 60 year interim between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the story follows Talion, the captain in command of the garrison of Gondorian Rangers charged with watching over the Black Gate of Mordor.