# Could Numenor's King's men get into civil war?



## Hisoka Morrow (Nov 21, 2020)

The civil wars between Faithful and King's Men were proved to be impossible, however, how about civil wars between the King's men? Yes, seriously. As we know Numenor begun to lost it's virtue after it's corruption since the reign of Ciryatan, patriotism, as an result, though not directly mentioned, yet obviously proved to fade, according to the domestic conflicts took places among the Black Númenóreans in ME. The Black Númenóreans would have started losing their loyalty to their King in tradition originating from the 2nd Age's corruption.
So...what do you think? If Sauron didn't convince the Numenor to rebel against the Valar yet misguiding them to search immortality from any other aspects lead to civil wars, could he do so?


----------



## Miguel (Nov 21, 2020)

Had Pharazôn not invaded Valinor, (or a major delay on it) i think there would have been civil war between the faithful and the king's men sooner or later.


----------



## Olorgando (Nov 22, 2020)

I don't recall JRRT ever mentioning Ar-Pharazôn having an heir. Maybe he figured that the rightful ruler Tar-Míriel, his first cousin from whom he usurped the throne of Númenor, and forced her to marry him (illegally by Númenórean customs), might be more accommodating after he had gained immortality (as he thought in his Sauron-induced delusion).

Anyway, what Hisoka may be speculating about is what if Ar-Pharazôn had died without heirs? (his fear came about due to his knowing of his impending death). Sauron's only motive for feigning submission to Ar-Pharazôn was to get revenge on the Númenóreans (he was the Great Deceiver). In sending Ar-Pharazôn and his fleet against Valinor he certainly only expected (and intended) their destruction. He absolutely did not remotely expect Eru's hammer blow.
So A-P is dead, no heirs ... and Sauron is still in Númenor. Even without him there, this would have led that King's Faction by nature (as "actual history" has shown endless times) to strife of variously murderous degrees. With Sauron in the equation, he would have stoked these rivalries to a murderous civil war, at the end of which he might have found some use for the remnant (these would be *very* evil "Black Númenóreans") for his (temporarily stymied) ambitions in Middle-earth.

Civil war among the King's Factions? Yes, of the worst kind imaginable (though I *seriously* doubt by JRRT; this seems to be far more G.R.R. Martin territory.)


----------



## Squint-eyed Southerner (Nov 22, 2020)

Or Shakespeare. 😁


----------



## Hisoka Morrow (Nov 22, 2020)

Olorgando said:


> ....Anyway, what Hisoka may be speculating about is what if Ar-Pharazôn had died without heirs?...


Oh yes, political power is always the most dangerous mine to cause civil wars. However, I expect Ar-Pharazôn's being childless as simply a fuse. 
In fact... my initial speculation is something like the economic shock to the Roman Republic, causing disparity of wealth among the whole nation, or to be much more widely defined, the disparity between different classes on all kinds of aspects, not only economic, but political power and so on. 
As to ME, I wonder would different classes of Numenor get into conflicts for the distribution of plundered wealth? For instance, would the local governments of ME break up with the King during their negotiation about distributing the plundered wealth or the benefits they squeezed from those enslaved ME natives? Or could the Council-Men have their own supporting-classes, composing their own armed forces?
Ehhh...anyway, seriously, I hope this not a modern point of view XD. Yeah, you know...what human always lust for are no more than wealth, sex, power, and so forth. XDD



Olorgando said:


> ...e (though I *seriously* doubt by JRRT; this seems to be far more G.R.R. Martin territory.)...


Well...the Kin-Strife...XDDD. Alright, alright, JRRT's civil wars or RUSE always seem too...civilized XDD


----------



## Miguel (Nov 22, 2020)

Did Pharazôn and his army become like the oathbreakers, an army of phantoms in the caves of the forgotten?.


----------



## Olorgando (Nov 22, 2020)

Hisoka Morrow said:


> Well...the Kin-Strife...XDDD. Alright, alright, JRRT's civil wars or RUSE always seem too...civilized XDD


Kin-strife, yes; over 1,500 years after the downfall of Númenor, in Gondor. Which by this time must have degenerated even more compared to the degeneration in Númenor itself. Led by those who may have harbored some sympathies towards the King's Faction of old. When the rebels were finally defeated in 1447 Third Age, they ultimately departed to Umbar, already long a haven of the King's Faction in the Second Age. Assuming the King's Faction to have already been the more degenerate even in Númenor, not implausible that thing were much worse 1,500 years later.


----------



## Hisoka Morrow (Nov 22, 2020)

Olorgando said:


> they ultimately departed to Umbar, already long a haven of the King's Faction in the Second Age. Assuming the King's Faction to have already been the more degenerate even in Númenor, not implausible that thing were much worse 1,500 years later.


That's it. I wonder if some of the Numenor governors in ME had already preparing for their independence, refusing or not transferred to join TP's expedition against Valinor, just as TP's expedition departed from Numenor, the eyes kept on them were gone and their time to claim independent had come. Alcuin once mentioned many of the Numenor non-regular military armed forces deployed at ME didn't join TP's expedition against Valinor, I wonder if they're like the warlords of the Tang Dynasty's latter period, or like some of the UK's colonies more independent like South-Africa. 
They even might be opposite factions against Sauron far before TP's reign due to reasons like the distribution for benefits deprived from the ME colonies and so forth, and then claimed neutral, or even joined the Last Alliance under the condition that the Free People wouldn't sanction their commercial activities temporality. Further, during the foundation of Gondor and Arnor, they even might infiltrate these Faithful's cores of political power by contributing all kinds of support such as budget for military expansion, trade roads military protection, commercial cooperation, and so forth. And even political contribution for Gondor and Arnor's Council-Men were provided by these KIng's men
However, once a racist, always a racist. These Dark Numenorains finally showed their true color, one by one, such as Queen Berúthiel, Admiral Castamir, and so forth.


----------



## Alcuin (Nov 23, 2020)

The Faithful Númenóreans were persecuted increasingly harshly, beginning with Ar-Adûnakhôr, the first to take the crown in an Adûnaic name only, who forbade the public use of Elvish (Sindarin). Beginning about this time, some of the Faithful began to immigrate to Middle-earth, to the regions that became Gondor and Arnor. Under Ar-Gimilzôr, the twenty-third king, the Faithful, who lived mostly in western Númenor, were forced to move to the region around Armenelos, the capital. Yet more of the Faithful immigrated. I think we may safely presume that Tar-Palantír, Ar-Gimilzôr’s elder son who repented of the rebellion of the Kings’ Men, permitted the Faithful to return to their homes in western Númenor. It was about this time, during the reigns of Ar-Gimilzôr or Tar-Palantír that the Eldar of Tol Eressëa brought Amandil, Elendil’s father and the last Lord of Andúnië, the seven _palantíri_ so that they could maintain contact with their friends, and so that the Faithful Númenóreans might maintain contact with one another without interference from the Kings and the Kings’ Men. 



Miguel said:


> Did Pharazôn and his army become like the oathbreakers, an army of phantoms in the caves of the forgotten?.


I think so: I remember reading somewhere that they were trapped in the Caves of the Forgotten until the Dagor Dagorath at the end of Arda. 

I don’t believe any of the Númenórean governors of Middle-earth failed to support Ar-Pharazôn except the Faithful of those territories that became Gondor and Arnor. I doubt the governor of what became Gondor refused Ar-Pharazôn’s demands outright, and since he was likely subject to the King’s appointment, might even have been an open supporter. (That issue could be argued either way, and as far as I know, there is no written evidence to support either position.) As for the other Númenórean colonies in Middle-earth, I expect they contributed ships, sailors, foodstuffs, military material, and warriors as they were expected to do.


----------



## Akhôrahil (Nov 23, 2020)

Hisoka Morrow said:


> That's it. I wonder if some of the Numenor governors in ME had already preparing for their independence, refusing or not transferred to join TP's expedition against Valinor, just as TP's expedition departed from Numenor, the eyes kept on them were gone and their time to claim independent had come.


Have you ever read the stories about the backgrounds of the three Numenorean ringwraiths Er-Murazor (the Witch King), Adunaphel and Akhorahil in Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP) Lords of Middle-earth The Mannish Races? I think they are also included in MERP Lords of Middle-earth The immortal races. I think you will find them interesting. MERP Southern Gondor: The People, Southern Gondor: The Land and Shadow in the South also contain interesting information about Numenorean colonies in the South of Middle-earth (e.g. Harnendor, Umbar, Ciryatandor and the Sehen Lands). The MERP products were written by people who had academic degrees in relevant fields (e.g. Look at the CV of Professor Chris Seeman). The detailed area maps of Peter (Pete Fenlon) are legendary. There is a MERP Canon city called notionclubarchives, but the references from which modules the information is coming from is very poor. Anyhow you can find scanned MERP modules in the Internet.


----------



## Hisoka Morrow (Nov 24, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> and so that the Faithful Númenóreans might maintain contact with one another without interference from the Kings and the Kings’ Men.


Hmmm...=''=...then could this mean roles like Queen Berúthiel, or Admiral Castamir were once the Faithful yet got fallen later? Or the Faithful Exile states contain these Dark Numenoreans far after their foundation due to other reasons?



Alcuin said:


> I doubt the governor of what became Gondor refused Ar-Pharazôn’s demands outright, and since he was likely subject to the King’s appointment, might even have been an open supporter. (That issue could be argued either way, and as far as I know, there is no written evidence to support either position.)


Hmmm...=''=...I beg your pardon, but I got some problem to list
1. About virtue, as patriotism seem to decline already during that period, as an result, what the central government to keep those local power's support would be only negotiation of benefits or factual threat, then it comes to point 2.
2. As for factual aspects, the central government's factual threat over those ME disobedient factions might be limited, for the heavy logistic burden caused by too long transport lines might limit the central subjugation over those disobedient, as we have discussed the possibilities to cause conflicts between Noldor states and the Numenor Empire before. Moreover, the Faithfuls might got the support from ME natives since they kept their kind and just racial policies, and even from Noldor states if there're any conflicts break out.
3. Even if all governors were appointed by the King, yet this didn't mean they would keep loyal. Further, there might be statesmen pretend to be loyal in the first places, while revealing their true color after they took their offices in persons. Moreover, we have known that the Numenor mainland's political situation had been horribly getting worse already since Sauron became prime minister, unless for special case like expedition against Valinor would make Numenor under 1 banner, I doubt that there could be any policy work via the whole nation. Yeah, you know, Sauron had made a dime of public security problems over the whole Numenor, a typical omen for all kinds of civil wars.


----------



## Alcuin (Nov 24, 2020)

Hisoka Morrow said:


> then could this mean roles like Queen Berúthiel, or Admiral Castamir were once the Faithful yet got fallen later? Or the Faithful Exile states contain these Dark Numenoreans far after their foundation due to other reasons?


Berúthiel was a princess from an inland Black Númenórean (i.e., formerly King’s Men) city somewhere south of Umbar. It appears Tarannon Falastur’s marriage to her was an attempt to make a dynastic claim over the still partially Númenórean lands beyond Umbar, which at that time recognized the rule of the Kings of Gondor. (That is, Umbar was at that time _part_ of Gondor, not a subject kingdom.) Castamir the Usurper reigned for several years as King of Gondor. During his rebellion against Vinthanarya Eldacar, he burned Osgiliath, the capital and principal city of Gondor, destroyed its Dome of Stars and lost the primary palantír of Gondor in Anduin. 

No, this does not mean Berúthiel or Castamir were “once Faithful yet fallen later.” The Númenórean designations _King’s Men_ and _Faithful_ are only applicable during the Second Age. Berúthiel’s forebears were never among the Faithful. Castamir’s undoubtedly were, but he himself was a rebel, leader of the only great rebellion in the history of Gondor, and the forefather of the leaders of the Corsairs. The Corsairs of Umbar arose from those of his followers who sailed to Umbar with the fleet of Gondor. 



Hisoka Morrow said:


> I beg your pardon, but I got some problem to list
> 1. About virtue, as patriotism seem to decline already during that period, as an result, what the central government to keep those local power's support would be only negotiation of benefits or factual threat, then it comes to point 2.
> 2. As for factual aspects, the central government's factual threat over those ME disobedient factions might be limited, for the heavy logistic burden caused by too long transport lines might limit the central subjugation over those disobedient, as we have discussed the possibilities to cause conflicts between Noldor states and the Numenor Empire before. Moreover, the Faithfuls might got the support from ME natives since they kept their kind and just racial policies, and even from Noldor states if there're any conflicts break out.
> 3. Even if all governors were appointed by the King, yet this didn't mean they would keep loyal. Further, there might be statesmen pretend to be loyal in the first places, while revealing their true color after they took their offices in persons. Moreover, we have known that the Numenor mainland's political situation had been horribly getting worse already since Sauron became prime minister, unless for special case like expedition against Valinor would make Numenor under 1 banner, I doubt that there could be any policy work via the whole nation. Yeah, you know, Sauron had made a dime of public security problems over the whole Numenor, a typical omen for all kinds of civil wars.


Pardon granted. 
There was no decline in “patriotism” among the Númenóreans, not among the King’s Men, not among the Faithful. When Amandil, the last Lord of Andúnië, revealed to his son Elendil the Tall (the Elendil of the Last Alliance) his plan to sail to Tol Eressëa to warn the Valar of Ar-Pharazôn’s plan to invade Valinor, Elendil’s response was, “Would you then bewray the King?” indicating his allegiance to the sovereign, _even though Ar-Pharazôn had usurped the throne from his first cousin Tar-Míriel, *whom he then took to wife.*_ Pharazôn broke Númenórean law three ways:
by usurping the throne (not unprecedented in Númenor: Anducal spouse of Tar-Vanimeldë, third Ruling Queen, was also of royal lineage. He usurped the throne from their son Tar-Alcarin, ruling in his own name for twenty years after she died instead of allowing Alcarin to succeed his mother as should have been),
by marrying so close a kinswoman, and
worse still by forcing her into the marriage.
 Yet even so, Elendil did not rebel. 
Now there was discontent and unrest during the reign of Tar-Palantír, when Pharazôn’s father Gimilkhâd, Palantír’s younger brother, led the Kings’ Men: but there was no rebellion, no civil war, no fighting. 
Even in the Third Age, Appendix A of _Return of the King_ says, “even the followers of Elendil remembered with pride the coming of the great host of Ar-Pharazôn” to Middle-earth, when Sauron surrendered to Ar-Pharazôn. There was no lack of “patriotism” among the Númenóreans of the Second Age.
The government in Armenelos was not concerned with the Faithful except for their maintaining the old ways and beliefs of the Dúnedain, and particularly for their friendship and interaction with the Eldar of Eressëa. In the last centuries of the Second Age, more and more of the Faithful immigrated to Middle-earth to escape persecution at home, and this is said to have been to the liking of the Kings. 
It is true that governors do not always maintain their loyalty to their sovereigns, but there is no evidence that any rebelled. (I assume some did, particularly late in the Second Age, but not likely in the northwest of Middle-earth where the Faithful lived. My assumption is that for this part of the Númenórean Empire, if I may call it that, there were very few Númenóreans willing to join or assist Ar-Pharazôn’s Great Armada to invade Valinor, while in the rest of the Númenórean colonies of Middle-earth support and assistance would be as great as they could muster, which was considerable.) It took Sauron seven years to corrupt the Númenóreans, including the King, and another ten years for them to build their Great Armada. It is probably during this time that most of the Faithful fled Númenor for Middle-earth: I don’t think the rest of the Númenóreans hindered them, except by harassing them until they were safely away.


----------



## Akhôrahil (Nov 24, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> Berúthiel was a princess from an inland Black Númenórean (i.e., formerly King’s Men) city somewhere south of Umbar. It appears Tarannon Falastur’s marriage to her was an attempt to make a dynastic claim over the still partially Númenórean lands beyond Umbar, which at that time recognized the rule of the Kings of Gondor. (That is, Umbar was at that time _part_ of Gondor, not a subject kingdom.)


I recommend Alcuin to read appendix A and appendix B again starting with king Tarannon Falastur and then reading on until King Eärnil I. Umbar was not a part of Gondor during the reign of King Tarannon Falastur. Umbar was conquered by a later King of Gondor. Taronnen only extended the realm in both sides of the mouth of the Anduin, probably Harondor (The Peoples of Middle-earth entry for vom is also interesting). Based on what Tolkien said in an Interview about Beruthiel, I agree with Alcuin's theory that Beruthiel was from an Inland city to the south of Umbar and that the reason for the marriage was to form an alliance with her realm of origin, but those are only theories.


----------



## Alcuin (Nov 25, 2020)

My post was clearly unclear. When Castamir fell at the Battle of the Crossings of Erui, Umbar was part of the Kingdom of Gondor. His descendants and followers took refuge for a while in Pelargir, then sailed with the bulk of the fleet of Gondor to Umbar, where they seceded and established a rival kingdom to Gondor.

Berúthiel’s origins are no theories of mine. Tolkien gave an interview to Daphne Castell, one of his former students, that appeared in the magazine _New Worlds_, Volume 50, Number 168, November, 1966. In it she quoted him saying,
​I really don’t know anything of [Berúthiel] — you remember Aragorn’s allusion in _[Fellowship of the Ring]_ to the cats of Queen Berúthiel, that could find their way home on a blind night? She just popped up, and obviously called for attention, but I don’t really know anything certain about her; though, oddly enough, I have a notion that she was the wife of one of the ship-kings of Pelargir. She loathed the smell of the sea, and fish, and the gulls. Rather like Skadi, the giantess, who came to the gods in Valhalla, demanding a recompense for the accidental death of her father. She wanted a husband. The gods all lined up behind a curtain, and she selected the pair of feet that appealed to her most. She thought she’d got Baldur, the beautiful god, but it turned out to be Njord, the sea-god, and after she’d married him, she got absolutely fed up with the seaside life, and the gulls kept her awake, and finally she went back to live in Jotunheim.​​Well, Berúthiel went back to live in the inland city, and went to the bad (or returned to it — she was a black Númenorean in origin, I guess). She was one of these people who loathe cats, but cats will jump on them and follow them about — you know how sometimes they pursue people who hate them? I have a friend like that. I’m afraid she took to torturing them for amusement, but she kept some and used them — trained them to go on evil errands by night, to spy on her enemies or terrify them.​​You can still find the interview online; at least I did several years ago.

There is more on Berúthiel, however, in footnote 7 to the essay “The Istari” edited by Christopher Tolkien in _Unfinished Tales_.
​Even the story of Queen Berúthiel does exist … if only in a very “primitive” outline… She was the nefarious, solitary, and loveless wife of Tarannon, twelfth King of Gondor … and first of the “Ship-kings”, who took the crown in the name of Falastur “Lord of the Coasts,” and was the first childless king… Berúthiel lived in the King's House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir “upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin;” she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews. She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things “that men wish most to keep hidden,” setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass. What follows is almost wholly illegible in the unique manuscript, except to the ending, which states that her name was erased from the Book of the Kings (“but the memory of men is not wholly shut in books, and the cats of Queen Berúthiel never passed wholly out of men's speech”), and that King Tarannon had her set on a ship alone with her cats and set adrift on the sea before a north wind. The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.​​I presume Tarannon and Berúthiel were childless because either their union was never consummated, Berúthiel “did away” with any production of a union, or Tarannon found himself so appalled by Berúthiel’s practices and behavior that he avoided her.

You will note that after the expulsion of Berúthiel, a series of wars erupted between Gondor and Umbar and Far Harad. Although it is not specifically stated, I suspect that these were a direct result of the failure of the union of Tarannon Falastur and Berúthiel: she might even have been a scion of the then-ruling house of Umbar, which would of necessity have been a descendent house of the King’s Men of the Second Age (i.e., Black Númenórean, as Tolkien himself mentioned in his interview) and quite possibly a cadet branch of the House of Eärendil, the Kings of Númenor (as was the House of Elendil and thus the House of Anárion, to which Tarannon Falastur belonged). In any case, Falastur’s heir and nephew Eärnil I besieged and conquered Umbar and its surrounding territory, whereupon it became part of Gondor until Castamir’s defeat.


----------



## Akhôrahil (Nov 26, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> My post was clearly unclear. When Castamir fell at the Battle of the Crossings of Erui, Umbar was part of the Kingdom of Gondor. His descendants and followers took refuge for a while in Pelargir, then sailed with the bulk of the fleet of Gondor to Umbar, where they seceded and established a rival kingdom to Gondor.
> 
> Berúthiel’s origins are no theories of mine.


I meant that the statement that Beruthiel was a princess from an inland Black Númenórean city somewhere south of Umbar was a theory (which I agree with). I knew the footnote from UT about her and the interview about her, which led me to the development of a similar theory. I will explain, why it is just a theory. Tolkien never mentioned that she was a princess before her marriage with Tarannon only that she was the wife of Tarannon and that she was a Black Númenórean. Tolkien also never mentioned that she originally was from an inland city. He also never mentioned that this city was somewhere south of Umbar. It is an assumption that the previous paragraph in the Interview about Skadi who hated the sea returning to her home after the breakup of an unhappy marriage means that the statement that she went back to the inland city referred to her moving back to her home after the breakup of her unhappy marriage. Some people think that the second paragraph could refer to her moving back from the house close to the sea south of Pelargir to Osgiliath or some other inland city in Gondor before the breakup of her marriage. It is an assumption that the ship that she was on was last seen flying past Umbar means that the ship was still on a planned course in the further direction of her original home. It is not clear that she was put on a ship "alone with her cats" and that the ship was "set adrift on the sea before a north wind" means that there was no crew to steer the ship or that she was not able to steer the ship alone. By the way, I liked the theory that an Alcuin posted in the Entmoot forum.


----------



## Alcuin (Nov 26, 2020)

Akhôrahil said:


> I liked the theory that an Alcuin posted in the Entmoot forum.


C’est moi. Merci.


----------



## Akhôrahil (Nov 27, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> C’est moi. Merci.


Is your native language french?


----------



## Olorgando (Nov 27, 2020)

Akhôrahil said:


> Is your native language french?


For some reason I suspect Alcuin's answer to this question could be amusing ... 😜


----------



## Alcuin (Nov 27, 2020)

Nein. Englisch. Aber ich enttäusche Olorgando. (Entschuldigung, Olorgando.)


----------



## Olorgando (Nov 27, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> Nein. Englisch. Aber ich enttäusche Olorgando. (Entschuldigung, Olorgando.)


Well, that might depend. On the outside chance that your use of German was an attempt to confound others, it could be mildly amusing to Akhôrahil, as a Swiss ... 😜


----------



## Alcuin (Nov 27, 2020)

After three years of German in college my professor, a native of München, said I spoke like a precocious five-year-old and sounded like a Swiss. But I did dream in German for a while.


----------



## Akhôrahil (Nov 28, 2020)

Olorgando said:


> Well, that might depend. On the outside chance that your use of German was an attempt to confound others, it could be mildly amusing to Akhôrahil, as a Swiss ... 😜


Actually I am not swiss, I only live in the "german" speaking part of Switzerland. The local dialect of german is part of a different dialect group (the allemanic dialect group) and is so different from the german dialect that I grew up with (which is part of the bavarian dialect group) or the ones that I am familiär with from TV that I hardly understood anything at the beginning. There are even some cantons in the western part of the german speaking part of Switzerland that use a different grammatical form when addressing somebody in a polite and formal way. In high german and in most swiss-german dialects you use the third person plural for that (Sie, Ihr, Ihnen, etc.), but in those cantons they use the second person plural that we only used to address royal or noble persons (Ihr, Euer, Euch, etc.). I always feel like a Monarch when they address me politely in those parts of Switzerland.



Alcuin said:


> After three years of German in college my professor, a native of München, said I spoke like a precocious five-year-old and sounded like a Swiss. But I did dream in German for a while.


Just in case that you dreamt of Senta Berger, she lives in Germany, but she is originally not from Germany, but her native dialect is similar to the dialect that is spoken in Munich, just in case that some of your professor's dialect rubbed off and was used in your conversations in your dreams.


----------



## Hisoka Morrow (Nov 28, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> There was no decline in “patriotism” among the Númenóreans, not among the King’s Men, not among the


Ehh...I beg your pardon...seriously, are these the obvious omen as decline in “patriotism”. The Faithful keep their virtue. However, how about the King's men?
The sources below is from the English version of the Silmarillion I swear.



Alcuin said:


> The government in Armenelos was not concerned with the Faithful except for their maintaining the old ways and beliefs of the Dúnedain, and particularly for their friendship and interaction with the Eldar of Eressëa. In the last centuries of the Second Age, more and more of the Faithful immigrated to Middle-earth to escape persecution at home, and this is said to have been to the liking of the Kings.
> It is true that governors do not always maintain their loyalty to their sovereigns, but there is no evidence that any rebelled. (I assume some did, particularly late in the Second Age, but not likely in the northwest of Middle-earth where the Faithful lived. My assumption is that for this part of the Númenórean Empire, if I may call it that, there were very few Númenóreans willing to join or assist Ar-Pharazôn’s Great Armada to invade Valinor, while in the rest of the Númenórean colonies of Middle-earth support and assistance would be as great as they could muster, which was considerable.) It took Sauron seven years to corrupt the Númenóreans, including the King, and another ten years for them to build their Great Armada. It is probably during this time that most of the Faithful fled Númenor for Middle-earth: I don’t think the rest of the Númenóreans hindered them, except by harassing them until they were safely away.


OK, me bad about maybe not clear command for English. My total main meaning is that those Numenor local ME governors were powerful enough to claim independent and even by wars. However, to sum up, is this what you mean that how independent wars were prevented? Motivation, that is.
1. About the Faithful factions in ME, the King's men had already enough resources, thus the Imperial central didn't need to control it drastically.
2. About those local governors in ME belong to the King's men, they got the same goal-immortality, so they didn't need to break up due to distributing the economic benefit they squeezed from ME.
Am I correct?

In general, during Ar-Pharazôn's reign and Sauron's terms of offices, the whole Numenor had no reasons for civil wars between each factions, all due to the lust for immortality or not. But how about before the whole Empire made their strategic goal against Valinor? I'm pretty sure in some of the periods, the Numenor maintain their people's satisfaction by all kinds of other policies such as strengthening their economic exploit and so on, yet not all the bad kings of Numenor dare fight against Valinor, I wonder how the Numenor prevent domestic conflicts severe to cause civil wars if they got no such seducing exhortation like immortality.


----------

