The Men of the Mountains - the people originally ruled by the King of the Dead - were ancestrally connected with the Haladin, the branch of the Edain who settled in Brethil during the First Age. Instead of following the Haladin across the Blue Mountains into Beleriand, the ancestors of these Men settled in Minhiriath between Baranduin and Gwathló before migrating southward into the White Mountains. This indirect connection with the Edain of the First Age places the King of the Dead and his followers among the Middle Peoples rather than the Men of Darkness, with a connection to the peoples known as Northmen.