Nine Lords

A rare term used by Faramir when he described the Nazgûl and their occupation of Minas Morgul. Originally Isildur's tower of Minas Ithil, the fortress of Ithilien was captured by the Nazgûl in III 2002, and held by them for the next millennium. During that time, decay and horror spread from the city, and the Nine Lords within plotted the return of their Master Sauron. This they eventually accomplished, bringing about the War of the Ring. The Nine Lords were all destroyed in that War, and the city they had occupied was eventually destroyed in turn.

The reason behind Faramir's choice of the word 'lords' is perhaps slightly ambiguous, especially given that there was a single Lord of the Nazgûl who commanded the other eight. Faramir seems to have been referring back into history to the time before the Nazgûl were enslaved by the Nine Rings (we do know that it least some of them had originally been lords at that time). Alternatively, Faramir perhaps meant no more than that the Nazgûl were the lords of Minas Morgul during this period.