Moria

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Moria
Location	Misty Mountains
Inhabitants	Durin's folk Dwarves of Moria Durin III Balin's colony Hordes of Moria
Culture	Dwarves of Moria Moria Orcs
Capital	Dwarrowdelf (City)
Points of Interest	Azanulbizar Dimril Gate Walls of Moria Bridge of Khazad-dûm Chamber of Mazarbul (Balin's tomb)
Governance	King of Durin's folk Lord of Moria Orc King of Moria

Moria, also known as Khazad-dûm, was the most famous of the mansions of Durin's folk. There, for many thousands of years, a Dwarvish community thrived under the rule of the line of Durin.

It lay in the central parts of the Misty Mountains, tunnelled and carved through the living rock of the mountains themselves. By the Second Age a traveller could pass through it from the west of the range to the east.

Geography

Established under the three mountains - Caradhras, Celebdil and Fanuidol - in the Misty Mountains ridge, Moria was a vast underground realm. It had gates to the East and West, both of which were fortified; in the west, the impregnable Doors of Durin out of Ithildin, while in the East, the Dimril Gate was followed by the narrow, readily defensible Bridge of Khazad Dum. Evidentally, tunnels were mined to bypass this bridge, as even following its collpase in TA 3002, Orcs were still capable to pursuing The Fellowship to Lorien, as could Gollum.

Map of Khazad Dum

The kingdom contained seven Levels and seven Deeps. The Levels stretched above the gate whilst the Deeps were set deeper within the mountain below the level of the East-gate.The First Level (on which the Great Gates were set) and the First Deep were highly intertwined. The halls that made up the various levels and deeps were numbered according to the time of their foundation. Above the seventh level, Moria extended into the Endless Stair which led to the peak of Celebdil (the tallest peak in Middle Earth) where Durin's Tower was built.

The forges and severa lodes lay to the North of those, with the Mines beneath. Moria stretched over a few deep fissures and rifts, including the one over which the Bridge of Khazad Dum was stretched. Beneath them was a subterranean lake which hosted Nameless creatures, including the Watcher in the Water. The Balrog was awoken by miners near the edge of the great hall complex, and when Orcs then settled in the vacant Moria, they dug their own tunnels to the southwest.

History

Durin's Tower ontop Celebdil

First Age

It was founded in very ancient days by Durin the Deathless, who was the first of the Dwarf Kings to walk Middle-earth. He came upon the valley Azanulbizar beneath the mountains. There, in the caves above, Durin and his people started the delving and building of the Great Gates of Khazad-dûm, and the First Hall leading to a bridge over a chasm. From there began the expansion, both to Levels above and to Deeps below, and mines expanding out from the inhabited areas of the city proper. The discovery of Mithril caught the attention of the Elves, who came from all over to trade with the Dwarves and began using Mithril to make their weapons.

Second Age

The friendship of Khazad-dûm and Eregion came to a sudden end, however, in S.A. 1697. Sauron overran the country of the Elves. Durin's warriors withdrew from the Gates, and they shut them against Sauron, also secluding the kingdom off from the outside world.

Third Age

The old Graveyard of Khazad Dum

As the centuries passed, the Dwarves mined deeper and deeper for the precious metal. At some point during the First Age, their deep digging unleashed a nameless terror, a Balrog from the Elder Days, that wreaked dreadful destruction, and in slaying the King, Durin VI, became known as Durin's Bane. The Dwarves then fled their ancient home.

After millennia as one of the richest cities in Middle-earth, Khazad-dûm stood dark and empty, but for the brooding menace the Dwarves had released. The monster - a Balrog of Morgoth, as was later known - lurked alone in Moria for nearly five hundred years. Orcs from the Misty Mountains came to inhabit the kingdom of Moria and over time became goblin-like due to a lack of sun.

Azog's realm

These orcs came under the leader of Azog from Gundabad. In TA 2799, refugees from the Sack of Erebor, led by Thrór, King of Durin's Folk, encountered the Orcs and the Battle of Azanulbizar ensued in the Dimril Dale. In that battle, Azog slew Thrór, captured his son Thráin , and almost defeated Thror's grandson, Thorin before the latter maimed him. Thorin led the Dwarves to victory, but their diminished numbers made it impossible to charge the Dimril Gate, and they dared not face the Balrog. The Dwarves left for Dunland and Khazad-dûm remained a place of darkness, with the Orcs diminished but not defeated. Azog still lived but was unable to track down Thorin who had since then led his people to the safety of the Blue Mountains.

Azog kills Thror on the battlefield at Azanulbizar, before the Dimrill Gate

In TA 2940, Sauron re-emerged under the pseudonym of the Necromancer, haunting the nearby ruined fortress of Dol Guldur. Azog became aware of his presence and paid homage to him, albeit with the ulterior motive of taking vengeance upon Thorin. The Dwarf exilarch had at the time explored Dunland for rumors of his father's reappearance, when Gandalf passing by learned of a warrant for the Dwarf's head. This led to the Quest of Erebor to reclaim the Dwarves homeland. At Wilderland, Azog was relegated to marshalling Sauron's Army which compromised mostly of Guldur Orcs, which were Moria Orcs bred for war. This army was decimated in the Battle of Five Armies.

Balin's Colony

Taking it that Moria was depopulated in the wake of the Battle, Balin eventually set-out with Ori, Óin and other Dwarves to reclaim Moria. Indeed, initially the remaining Orcs were few enough to oppose the Dwarves, in which Balin was styled Lord of Moria, sitting in the Mazabul Chamber besides the twenty-first hall. Eventually, however, the Orcs regrouped and overran the colony, resulting in the deaths of all its inhabitants (unknown to the outside world), including Balin who was entombed in the Mazarbul Chamber, and Ori who left behind a book recounting the events.

The Fellowship's travels

The Fellowship of the Ring inside the Chamber of Mazarbul.

When Frodo Baggins set out from Rivendell with the Fellowship, they at first planned to travel over the Misty Mountains. When they were stopped by heavy snow on Mount Caradhras, they fled into Moria, so as to go under the mountains. They found the Sirannon blocked near the Walls of Moria, leading it to overflow into a lake that spilled off of the broken remains of the high-road to Eregion. In this lake lived the Watcher in the Water which pursued them into the mines, which they found to be the site of a battle against the Orcs. Nevertheless, they managed to traverse the western part of the mines, including a Mithril shaft and the Graveyard of the city unnoticed, aside from Gollum, who became stuck within the mines (unable to open the Doors of Durin from the inside) when the Fellowship arrived. It was only after the arrived at the Mazarbul chamber and learned of Balin's fate that they were discovered by Goblins and a Cave Troll, and eventually awoke the Balrog.

The mines in the Western part of Moria

Gandalf fought the Balrog on a narrow bridge and succeeded in destroying a section of bridge to make the Balrog fall. As it fell, the Balrog snagged Gandalf's leg with its whip of thongs and pulled him after it, sending them both plunging into the abyss spanned by the bridge. The rest of the Fellowship managed to escape Moria and reach Lórien mostly unharmed, albeit followed by Moria Orcs who were intercepted by the Lorien Elves. Moria Orcs continued to harass Lorien's borders at Sauron's command at the height of the War of the Ring soon thereafter.

Unknown to the Fellowship, both Gandalf and the Balrog survived the fall and fought a ferocious battle from the depths of Moria to the mountains above, demolishing the top of the legendary Endless Stair and a part of the surrounding mountain peak in the process. Gandalf cast down the Balrog upon the mountainside.

Appearances

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Appears in flashbacks)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Extended edition only) (Appears in flashbacks)
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Indirect mention only)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Appears in flashbacks)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Appears on map)