Sleepless Dead

During the Second Age, before the founding of Gondor, the people of the White Mountains had worshipped the Dark Lord Sauron. In the closing years of that Age, Isildur and Anárion came out of the west and established the South-kingdom of the Dúnedain in the lands surrounding the mountains. Isildur called on the Men of the Mountains to turn away from Sauron and to ally themselves with his new kingdom, and their King agreed, swearing an oath on the Stone of Erech.

In the years that followed, Sauron returned to his Dark Land of Mordor and began to make war on Gondor. Isildur called on the Men of the Mountains to fulfil their oath and aid Gondor against their old master, but instead they hid themselves in their deep glens. Nonetheless, allied with the Elves, the Dúnedain succeeded in defeating the Dark Lord, and Isildur issued a fateful curse against the faithless Men who had broken their vow of fealty. From that time on, they were to know no rest until they had fulfilled their oath.

Thus the long years of the Third Age drew on, and the restless shades of the Oathbreakers still haunted the White Mountains. These Sleepless Dead dwelt beneath the mountains, within an underground way known as the Paths of the Dead that ran from the Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain. On the southern side of the mountains, the Paths of the Dead emerged at the head of the Morthond Vale near Erech, where the Dead Men had sworn their oath long ago. Here they would at times wander the upper valley, and fear of them caused living Men to shun that shadowed place.

More than three thousand years passed, but at last the chance came for the Dead to atone for their betrayal of Isildur. Isildur's direct descendant through many generations, Aragorn, entered their dark Paths and called on the King of the Dead to join him in war against the returned Dark Lord. The Dead renewed their vow and followed Aragorn through the southern Outlands of Gondor, coming at last to Pelargir on the coasts. There, they found Corsairs allied with Sauron, who were gathering to sail against Minas Tirith. The Dead helped to defeat this threat, both with arms and through the force of fear that ran before them. Then Aragorn held their ancient oath fulfilled at last, and the Sleepless Dead faded away, finally to find rest after three millennia of waiting.