Within the Court of the Fountain of Minas Tirith there stands a great white tree, the
fourth of its kind to have ever been planted in Middle Earth.
Its predecessors were brought from foreign shores, burned by vengeful armies, and struck
by plague only for its saplings to bloom anew.
Through it all, these trees have remained a powerful symbol of the greatest nation of
man and the best hope against the forces of the shadow: The Kingdom of Gondor.
The land that would one day become known as Gondor was first settled by Númenórean colonists.
A lush and fertile country, it attracted those who had come to reject the increasingly arrogant
authority of the Kingdom of Númenor in favor of preserving peace and friendship with the elves.
When a great cataclysm sank Númenor beneath the waves of the Sundering Seas, Elendil and
his sons, Isildur and Anarion, who had foreseen this great disaster, fled to Middle Earth.
These nobles were welcomed by the colonists who supported their claims to lordship.
Elendil founded the great Northern Kingdom of Arnor, while to the south, Isildur and
Anarion established the Kingdom of Gondor.
The brothers founded the cities of Minas Ithil and Minas Anor and between the two, raised
the capital of Osgiliath from which they jointly ruled.
Conflicts with the cruel and oppressive exiled Black Númenórean and the savage Wild Men
of the Woods marked Gondor’s earliest history, but it was the growing shadow in the East
that would prove to be its greatest threat.
Sauron, the malevolent entity who had corrupted and destroyed the Kingdom of Númenor had
also survived its destruction.
Within the Realm of Mordor, Sauron had been building his might and preparing for a war
of conquest against the free peoples of Middle Earth.
At the end of the Second Age, Sauron launched his attack upon Minas Ithil and forced Isildur
to retreat.
Anarion managed to hold Osgiliath but with reinforcements streaming out of Mordor, it
was only a matter of time before that city too would fall.
In a Last Alliance of Men and Elves, Elendil marshalled the forces of Arnor and together
with the Elf king Gil-galad smashed Sauron’s armies and laid siege to the Dark Lord’s
stronghold of Barad-dur.
Anarion was killed during the fighting, while Sauron himself slaughtered Gil-galad and Elendil,
before being cut down in turn by Isildur.
At the dawn of the Third Age, Isildur aided Anarion’s son and newly crowned King of
Gondor Meneldil, in rebuilding the realm before making the journey back to Arnor.
Before he could take his father’s place as High King of Arnor and Gondor, Isildur
was ambushed by the remnants of Sauron’s armies and killed.
With the death of Isildur, the Kingdom of Arnor fell into stagnation and Gondor slowly
inherited much of its power and responsibilities.
King Tarannon Falastur and his three successors, later named the “Ship Kings” expanded
Gondor’s naval and military might, incorporating new lands and bringing to the Kingdom a peak
of strength and power that it would never again surpass.
Centuries of peace led to unfettered decadence and the Golden Age of Gondor soon came to an end.
A civil war, great plague, and an invasion by an Easterling tribe known as the Wainriders
sapped Gondor’s remaining strength and left it a shadow of its former glory.
The line of Anarion finally ended with the death of Earnil the Second at the hands of
the Witch King of Angmar and rule of Gondor was passed to the Stewards.
Each successive Steward swore an oath to yield power to the heir of Isildur, should he ever
return, but with the Kingdom of Arnor effectively gone and no one left to claim descent, the
oath was not considered seriously.
While they lacked the royal title, the line of Stewards ruled as Kings.
Minas Anor, now capital and renamed Minas Tirith, presided over a withered Kingdom without
a King.
After a great victory against the Easterlings and Orcs, its northern territories were given
in gratitude to the Rohirrim in exchange for a permanent alliance.
Relations between the two Kingdoms remained peaceful, but the decline of Gondor was impossible
to ignore.
And yet, when the shadow of Sauron returned to the east and the fires of Mordor blazed
once more, it was Gondor that was the strongest of the free nations that might oppose the
Dark Lord.
Gondor’s armies, while understrength, were composed of some of the best equipped infantry
and cavalry in Middle Earth.
They were trained and drilled to fight in close, well coordinated formations, making
use of long spears, longswords, and bows complimented by walls of tower shields.
Every soldier was also outfitted in plate armor or chainmail, making them more than
a match for individual orcs or Easterlings.
An elite formation known as the Ithilien Rangers roamed Gondor’s borders, specializing in
ambushes and hit and run attacks.
Men of Gondor also manned a series of beacons situated across the White Mountains, which
could call to war the whole of Gondor and Rohan when necessary.
Weak, but not entirely helpless, the defeat of Gondor was the primary goal of Sauron.
When the War of the Ring erupted across Middle Earth, a great host of Orcs marched on Minas
Tirith.
The armies of Mordor swept across Osgiliath and soon broke down the wall of the Capital itself.
Terrible fighting swept through every quarter of the city with terrible losses on both sides.
Just as Gondor seemed poised to fall, the Rohirrim and other reinforcements arrived
and turned the tide of battle.
Across the Pelennor Fields that surrounded the capital, Sauron’s largest host was destroyed utterly.
The combined armies of the Men of the West then marched on Mordor, distracting Sauron
long enough for a simple Hobbit to destroy his Ring of Power and forever remove Sauron
from the world.
Aragorn the Second, the last descendant of Isildur who had re-emerged during the fighting,
was named King of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor.
As the White Tree of Gondor flourishes once more, it stands as a reminder that the Time
of Man has not yet passed, so long as the Men of the West remain to defend it.
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