Im working on a chronology of Umbar between the years T.A. 0-2000.

This involves a high use of magic and magic items between T.A. 01000 and then scaling down in T.A. 1636 and T.A. 2000 when magic
nearly disappeared. Im sending you what I already have but this is
incomplete and may take other corrections. I used the map of Sampsa
Rydman for Near Harad which I find awesome and also some other parts!
Antnio aka Dalewarrior
HISTORY OF UMBAR
THE ANCIENT REALM

After Akallabth, a civil war broke out in Umbar between the

followers of Mulkher (Melkor) and the more moderate elements among
the King's Men. But the lords of Haradwaith, Herumor and Fuinur,
quickly beat the moderates. The diumvirs continued to rule the whole
of Harad from Umbar.
When Sauron rose again he `gathered to him great strength of his
servants out of the east and the south; and among them were not a
few of the high race of Nmenor. For in the days of the sojourn of
Sauron in that land the hearts of well nigh all its people had been
turned towards darkness. Therefore many of those who sailed east in
that time and made
fortresses and dwellings upon the coasts were already bent to his
will, and they served him still gladly in Middle-earth. But because
of the power of Gil-galad these renegades, lords both mighty and
evil, for the most part took up their abodes in the southlands far
away; yet two there were, Herumor and Fuinur, who rose to power
among the Haradrim, a great and cruel people that dwelt in the wide
lands south of Mordor beyond the mouths of Anduin.'
Umbareans of this period remained under the Shadow and the reek of
human sacrifices under the priesthood of Mulkher continued to shadow
the great city. A huge statue of Mulkhor with hands oustretched to
receive victims that were then thrown into the mouth dominated the
city. Never a proclaimed "King of Umbar" arose, for Black
Nmenoreans considered themselves the representatives of the last
legal King of Westernesse, regarding the Faithful as enemies.
Consuls of Umbar, as the duumvirate was called, claimed to rule "in
the King's absence", enshrouding the dark events of the past and
even subscribed to a myth that foretold Ar-Pharazn's triumphant
return from the West and reclaim of the throne in some distant
future.
The Black Nmenreans did not exchange Classical Adnaic against an
Elvish-influenced Westron either but retained it as a language of
lore that might be called "Black Adnaic". It eventually grew into a
Southron equivalent of the Common Speech.
A notion that may come surprising to the historians of Middle-earth
is that the marriage policies of the Black Nmenreans were much
more liberal than those of Nmenr and of the two northern Realms in
Exile alike. While the Line of Elros observed with suspicion whether
the ethnic purity of the royal heirs was maintained and even Aragorn
liked to refer with pride to the purity of his Nmenrean descent,
the lords of Umbar never had such reservations. Only a handful of
families that controlled the destinies of Umbar and the other major
cities of Harad retained their lineage intact. But they managed for
a time to maintain a learning of the machines and armaments of
Nmenr. And so, as a Gondorian chronicler scornfully
remarked, "after the Fall of Sauron, their race swiftly dwindled or
became merged with the Men of Middle-earth, but they inherited

without lessening their hatred of Gondor. Umbar, therefore, was only

taken at great cost." The kings' ambitions toward Umbar were
partially motivated by a certain public sentimentality with regard
to the Firth of Umbar and its historical significance, for "even the
followers of Elendil remembered with pride the coming of the great
host of Ar-Pharazn out of the deeps of the Sea." To many
conservative nobles in Gondor, this served already as a
justification to lay hands at the Haven. The survivors of the great
host and their descendants were blamed as "renegades", whether with
religious or political intention, and the fact that they had joined
the opposite side in the War of the Last Alliance was reason enough
for a lasting enmity.
After the fall of Herumor and Fuinur and of Mordor in the War of the
Last Alliance, the Umbareans continued the duumvirate. While the
other Nmenorean settlements beyond Umbar were absorbed by the
cultures of the Haradrim, the Haven of Umbar increased once again,
no longer a satellite of Mordor but a fully sovereign state and the
centre of opposition to the Faithful and Elves. Its inland
boundaries extended once again and ultimately it stretched all along
the river Harnen as far as the Ephel Duath, even to the edge of
Khand and competed with Gondor for power in that region and further
south.
Though a part of Ar-Pharazn's Great Armament remained in Umbar
during the Early Third Age, it lost Harondor to Gondor in the wars
of T.A. 53-97, regained it in the campaigns of T.A. 104-125, and
lost it again in T.A. 134-147. These were great wars that saw to the
full extent the use of the armaments of Umbar, from the zeppelins,
armored wagons made to walk by golems, to the fire ball cannons and
to a large range of magic items that withdrew any fear in battle.
But the armies of Gondor war-hardened from the victories of the War
of the Last Alliance still counted for a time with the alliance of
parts of the Elven realm of Lindon. Gondor then invested Near Harad
in the campaigns of T.A. 153-173 which it lost in T.A. 177-186 when
Umbar harnessed the whole might of the Haradwaith into the fight.
Umbar took out of the arsenals its last secret weapons, the socalled Dreadnoughts, golems the height of a six-storied house
directed from a cockpit by pilots who could count on the strength of
the stone arms of the golems or with fireballs. A couple were made
of Orthanc-stone and were indestructible except in the cockpit
window and door. With the power of Far and Greater Harad, Bellakar
and Harshandatt, under its control the Black Nmenreans seemed
poised to regain Harondor in the war of T.A. 191-197 but they were
beaten off in the last months of T.A. 197 in a desperate gambit.
Gondor then took the advantage and conquered Near Harad in T.A. 203209. Gondor then moved to attack the territory of Umbar which
however resisted in the two wars of T.A. 215-217 and 219-223 because
Umbar could attack unchallenged by sea the Gondorian overextended
lines of supply. During these two wars the priesthood of Mulkhor
increased the sacrificial offerings to include children so as to
bolster the terrorized population into more extertions. In this war
came for the last time the Elven contingents mainly from Gil-galads
lordship of Forlindon. Defeated, Gondor moved to attack Khand first
in the great wars of T.A. 230-243. Khand counted on the support of
the Haradrim so Gondor was beaten off. A second invasion was
attempted in T.A. 257-263 which was carefully planned and won the
main battles. The guerrilla forces of Khand however made the control
of the scorched land of Upper Khand impossible and a retreat to Near
Harad was called in T.A. 263. Revolts in the largely Variag- and
Easterling-settled Nrn caused again the loss of Near Harad because
Gondor preferred to keep the more fertile and strategic land of Nrn
under its control. This lasted for the years 265-266. Gondor then

had to conclude a truce, its resources exhausted. In these years

Gondor trained more light troops such as Rangers to deal with the
largely irregular troop composition of Khand and Nrn. These were of
great service in the offensives of T.A. 313-316 when it retook Near
Harad with a two pincer attack from Harondor and Nrn coming over
from Upper Khand that enabled the taking of the highlands of
Chelkar. The realm of Gondor then tried to stamp the worship of
Sauron and the influence of the Black Nmenreans with the
enfranchisement of the cruel and tall Haradrim of Near Harad. Great
public works and irrigation works are undertaken in Ramlond, Gobel
Ancalimon, Amrn, and Korondaj. But Khand was largely abandoned to
the counter-attacks of Far Harad and the Variags. Great forts were
built in Bogath, Kruk Mabur and Kruk Boyadla to stem the Variags and
in Dbis and Bur Baklin to stem the Haradrim under the Black
Nmenreans. In this time too Gondor started to expand eastwards
into southern Rhovanion. In T.A. 319 the secret service of Umbar
gained information as to the time of the departure of the
quintennial fleet from Lindon that carried the imports of magic
items for the army of Gondor and the Swan Ships were vanquished off
the Cape of Andrast. With the wands of shock and fire bolts
captured, the so-called `blasters', the Black Nmenreans were
enabled to equip the Haradrim not only with Black Nmenrean
armament but also with Elven +1 to +3 Daily Items. Dbis and Bur
Baklin were stormed and taken in T.A. 320 and Near Harad fell to the
Black Nmenreans again in T.A. 322. After this period the Dnedain
of Gondor started for a time to recruit Northman cavalry from
Rhovanion for their largely infantry predominant forces to
counterbalance the Haradrim light cavalry and to fill in their
losses in the past war. This policy however lasted only as long as
the Haradrim were not stopped at the Harnen River. Contrary to Arnor
which had suffered great losses in the War of the Last Alliance and
specially in the Disaster of the Gladden Fields and so started to
hire Northmen mercenaries firstly, Gondors population continued to
expand and the policy of subcontracting mercenaries was for a time
stopped which made the Civil Wars come much later in Gondor than in
Arnor. Nevertheless the Black Nmenreans had now taken the
initiative and in the war of T.A. 323 they took Tharven and Has Yayb
in Harondor. Has Adri, An Sakal and Aus Harmaka followed and
Harondor seemed poised to follow when a stalemate occurred, both
forces exhausted.
Gondor then expanded into the land of Rhn a land which had been won
in the War of the Last Alliance from the Easterlings but which for
scant of settlers remained uninhabited. The fertility of the land
and the peaceful conditions occurring there facilitated a population
increase from the years of T.A. 324-378. The Black Nmenreans not
experiencing an increase in their people as Gondor did and still
exhausted were content to maintain the line of southern Harondor
with the taking of Has Annn in a combined naval and land operation
in T.A. 342. The Black Nmenreans however never gave up fomenting
insurrections in Nrn which saw two large revolts in T.A. 335-337
and T.A. 342-343 the later also witnessing to a rare descent from
the Mountains of Nrn of the Orcs of Mordor in alliance with the
Easterlings and Variags. But Umbar could not retain for long this
alliance so the revolt withered away. Gondor retained control of the
larger fortresses there but it couldnt even lay hold on the
tightest tribute from the Easterling and Variag settlers, which were
raised from a largely slave-driven production to a pattern of freeholding in return for their promises of peace and abjuration from
the Shadow.
In this period of T.A. 324-378 three new facts occurred. First,
Umbar started to sell arms to the Easterlings of Eastern Rhn at a

price cheaper than the arms dealers of Gondor and so opened

negotiations with the Easterlings. Second, the Umbarean secret
service got the plans from Gondor to repair and construct
Dreadnoughts. Third, most of the other Nmenrean colonies seeing
the resistance of Umbar to Gondor continue, approached the mother
colony for the re-establishment of its political hegemony. In T.A.
333 An-Balkmagn, Tulwang, and Anbalukkhr coming from a period of
suppressing rebellions against the Shadow entered in diplomatic
negotiations with Umbar to the renewal of a military and economic
alliance. Then followed Zimrathani, Kharadne, Tantrak and Anarik
in T.A. 348 these also successful in putting down long-held
rebellions of the native folks against the rule of the Black
Nmenreans and their enforcement of the Shadown upon these peoples.
It was so that the Black Nmenreans entered into a naval alliance
with Umbar to harass and pillage the coasts of Gondor. The sails of
the Black Nmenreans again clouded the seas of the Bay of Belfalas
and beyond. As the raids spilled into the Enedwaith and even
Southern Arnor, the two Dnedain realms and the Elven lordships of
Forlindon and the Grey Havens entered also into an alliance to
counter the Black Nmenrean supremacy. Nevertheless, Lond Daer was
sacked in T.A. 356 and Linhir in T.A. 373 and 381. The outskirts of
Pelargir were sacked and burnt in T.A. 375, 396 and 401. In T.A. 403
Osgiliath was attacked but it was defended successfully. But it
would take many years before Gondor concentrated its resources into
the navy. For now it focused on Rhn the eastern part of which was
invaded in T.A. 381-384 and kept though many of the Easterlings were
allowed to remain as a subject population. There was an influx of
Dnedain into this province in the years T.A. 385-410 with the
consequent expulsion of the Easterlings who did not adopt the ways
of the invaders. The Dnedain then entered into conflict with the
Khaganate of the Balchoth.