Sometime during the Second Age (after year 1600) Sauron gave nine Rings of Power to powerful mortal
Sometime during the Second Age (after year 1600) Sauron gave nine Rings of Power to powerful mortal Men. It is said that three of the Nine were lords of Númenor corrupted by Sauron, and one was a king among the Easterlings.For many years the bearers used the rings to gain great wealth, prestige and power, becoming “mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old”. The effect of the rings caused their lives to be prolonged, and to see things of the Unseen. But over time their bodily forms faded until they became wraiths entirely, slaves under the domination of Sauron’s One Ring.Known as the Nazgûl, they first appeared around S.A. 2251 and were soon established as Sauron’s principal servants.They were dispersed after the first overthrow of Sauron in 3441 at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but re-emerged around 1300 of the Third Age. The Lord of the Nazgûl, the Witch-king of Angmar, led Sauron’s forces against the mannish kingdom of Arnor in T.A. 1409. He was eventually defeated in battle in 1975 and returned to Mordor, gathering the other Nazgûl in preparation for the return of Sauron to that realm. In 2000, they besieged Minas Ithil and captured it after a two-year siege. The city thereafter became the stronghold of the Nazgûl, from where they directed the rebuilding of Sauron’s armies, also acquiring a palantír for the Dark Lord. -- source link