Episode 4: The Covenant of the White Ships and the Shadow of Sauron
Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) arrive at the port of Númenor aboard a dilapidated ship. No sooner had they stepped onto the island, paved with white marble, than they were escorted by the royal guard to the council chamber of Queen-Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). The atmosphere in the chamber was fraught with tension: Miriel sat upon the throne, with the silver eagle banner—symbolizing the "Covenant of the West"—hanging behind her. To her left stood her brother, Kíli-Galad (Benjamin Walker), surrounded by nobles holding "Anti-Elf slogans." At the sight of Galadriel’s elven silver hair, they immediately hissed in disdain.
During the council meeting, Galadriel slammed a piece of Orcish metal shard, streaked with black veins, onto the stone table. The metal emitted a shrill screech upon contact with air: "This is Sauron’s dark forging. His army has burned thirty human villages in the South, and Númenor’s overseas territories will be his next target." Kíli-Galad immediately stepped forward, kicked the shard aside, and shouted loudly to the nobles in the chamber: "Elves have lived for a thousand years, yet they let humans bleed for their wars! They promised to protect us once, but now they bring darkness to Middle-earth!" The nobles chimed in one after another. Though Miriel looked grave, she only ordered, "House the Elves in the Stranger’s Camp for now" and gave no clear response.
That night, Halbrand evaded the camp guards and made his way to the Ancestral Tomb on the northern shore of Númenor. The tomb walls were covered with nautical maps of the House of Elendil. He knelt before a stone stele carved with the "Flame and Anchor" crest. As he ran his right hand over the crest, his sleeve slipped down, revealing a flame totem identical to Sauron’s battle standard. This scene was witnessed by Eärien (Miriel’s guard), who had followed him secretly. Holding his breath, Eärien watched Halbrand take a sealed letter from behind the stele and hand it over to a hooded figure at the tomb’s back gate. After the hooded figure left, Eärien used a piece of parchment dipped in elven ink to make a rubbing of the words on the letter’s tattered edge: "Mordor’s volcano is about to erupt. If mithril falls into the Elves’ hands, our plan will fail."
Meanwhile, Elrond (Robert Aramayo) arrived at the gates of Khazad-dûm, the Dwarven kingdom, only to be stopped by the guards: "By Prince Durin’s order, no Elves shall enter." He waited outside the gates for three days before finally meeting Durin (Owain Arthur)—his old drinking friend, now clad in heavy armor and speaking in a cold tone: "Last time you came, you brought Gil-galad’s order to make us stop mining mithril; what order have you come to deliver this time?" Elrond had no choice but to tell the truth: "Elven magic is fading. The White Tree of Lindon is dying. Only mithril can resist the corruption of darkness." Durin sneered and turned away, leaving only a remark: "The fate of the Dwarves is not determined by the Elves’ needs."
At the end of the episode, Miriel secretly led Galadriel into the palace’s hidden chamber. Embedded in the chamber’s stone wall was a massive prophetic mural: it depicted Númenor’s white ship fleet sailing south, the silver eagles on their sails devoured by black flames. Beneath the fleet, countless human arms struggled in the waves. A line of small characters was carved in the mural’s corner: "The only hope lies in the forgotten bloodline." As Galadriel stared at the words "bloodline," she suddenly recalled the flame totem on Halbrand’s sleeve, and her heart sank.
Episode 5: Ashes of the South and Arondir’s Choice
The Southlands had been reduced to a living hell: Adar (Joseph Mawle), the Orc chieftain, stood at the center of a burning village, commanding his subordinates to drag captives toward a giant forge. The forge’s base was paved with human bones, and its flames burned with an eerie green hue. Molten metal dripped onto the stone ground, instantly solidifying into spiked weapons. Adar picked up a newly forged warhammer and swung it at a nearby elven sword— the sword snapped like rotting wood. He laughed maniacally and shouted to the Orcs: "Forge our blades with Elven blood! Pave our path with human bones!"
Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) led over fifty survivors to take refuge in the Fortress of the Faithful—a stone citadel built by the Elves that had repelled an Orc attack a century earlier. However, the starlight runes on the walls had faded. Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), Bronwyn’s son, found a rusted sword hilt in the fortress’s corner. Twisted symbols were carved into the hilt; the moment he grasped it, a burning sensation shot through his fingertips. Bronwyn’s face paled when she saw the symbols. She pulled Theo into the fortress’s storage room, pried up the floorboards, and retrieved a yellowed scroll— the patterns on the scroll were identical to the symbols on the hilt. "This is Sauron’s mark," Bronwyn’s voice trembled. "My mother said whoever bears this symbol will be possessed by darkness."
The Orcs’ attack began at dawn the next day: dozens of Orcs pushed a giant battering ram toward the fortress’s oak gate, which creaked under the strain. Legolas (a younger member of the same Elven lineage, not the Legolas from the War of the Ring) shouted to Arondir: "Abandon this place! The Elves’ mission is not to protect humans, but to return to Valinor!" Arondir looked at the trembling human children in the fortress, then suddenly drew a dagger from his waist, slit his palm, and pressed his blood against the runes on the wall. The moment the blood seeped into the stone crevices, the runes lit up with a pale blue glow. A shield of light erupted from the wall’s surface; the battering ram turned to ash the instant it touched the shield, and the Orcs in the front row were thrown back by the shockwave.
Yet this act also exposed Arondir’s Elven identity. Legolas grabbed him by the collar in anger: "You use Elven blood to protect humans, and they’ll only see you as a monster!" Arondir was about to retort when the sound of hooves suddenly echoed outside the fortress— Halbrand rode a black horse, holding Miriel’s token, and shouted loudly: "Reinforcements from Númenor have arrived!" The survivors cheered and flocked to the gate, but Arondir noticed that as Halbrand spoke to Bronwyn, his eyes kept glancing at the drainage tunnel on the fortress’s western side— the weak point where the runes’ coverage was incomplete.
That night, Theo sneaked out of the fortress, determined to destroy the hilt. But he encountered Halbrand by the tunnel— Halbrand was whispering to Adar’s lieutenant, holding a map of the fortress’s defenses: "The runes on the western tunnel are only half a foot thick. You can pierce them with the iron spikes from the flame forge." Terrified, Theo turned and fled, dropping the hilt in his panic. Halbrand picked up the hilt; when his fingertips brushed the symbols, the hilt grew slightly warm. A complex look flashed in his eyes, and he quickly hid the hilt in his bosom.
The episode’s climax came when Adar forged a sword in the flame forge: its blade was crimson, its hilt wrapped in black vines, and the pommel bore Sauron’s Eye symbol. He held the sword up to the moonlight; the red glow reflected by the blade dyed the entire battlefield. "This ‘Soul-Stealing Sword’ will drain the Elves’ magic and pierce humans’ hearts!" he declared. "At sunrise tomorrow, we will raze this fortress to the ground!"
Episode 6: Mithril of Moria and the Sailing of the White Ships
After waiting outside Khazad-dûm’s gates for seven days, Elrond was finally granted an audience with Durin III (Peter Mullan), King of the Dwarves and Durin’s father. He followed Durin through winding underground passages to the depths of the Moria mines. The sight before him was breathtaking: massive crystal pillars stretched from the ground to the mine’s ceiling, emitting a faint blue glow. Hundreds of Dwarven miners worked around a mithril ore as tall as a man. The ore’s surface shimmered with a silvery-white luster, and every time a pickaxe struck it, flowing light patterns inside the ore became visible. "This is mithril," Durin III’s voice echoed through the mines. "It can absorb dark energy and enhance Elven magic, yet the Elves forbade us from mining it, claiming there is ‘something that should not be awakened’ down here."
Elrond stepped closer to the ore and reached out to touch it; a warm sensation spread across his fingertips: "The White Tree of Lindon is dying. Without mithril, the Elves cannot resist Sauron’s darkness." Durin suddenly stepped forward and thrust a pickaxe into Elrond’s hands: "You want us to trust you? Mine with us— Dwarven trust is earned with sweat, not words." Elrond took the pickaxe and joined the Dwarves in mining. Sweat soaked his clothes, and blisters formed on his hands. As Durin watched him, the coldness in his eyes gradually softened. Three days later, when Elrond struck off a piece of mithril with the pickaxe, a feather suddenly emerged from inside the ore— it was silvery-white with golden streaks at the tips. Durin III’s face paled when he saw the feather; he immediately ordered the mining to stop: "This is a feather of Elendil! Legend says when he sailed westward, this feather fell in Moria, with a prophecy: ‘When mithril sees the light, light and darkness shall clash in a final battle.’" He fell silent for a moment, then said to Elrond: "I will give you the mithril, but you must promise that the Elves will never forget the Dwarves’ kindness."
Meanwhile, the political deadlock in Númenor was broken: Eärien handed the rubbing of the letter’s tattered edge to Miriel. She immediately summoned the nobles to the palace square and unfurled the rubbing publicly: "Kíli-Galad has colluded with the Orcs, seeking to use Sauron’s power to overthrow me and plunge Númenor into war!" Kíli-Galad turned pale. He was about to order the royal guard to act when the guardsmen laid down their weapons one after another— most of them were immigrants from overseas territories, whose families were threatened by the Orcs and refused to follow a traitor any longer. Kíli-Galad was arrested on the spot. Miriel climbed onto the square’s high platform, raised Elendil’s sailing horn, and declared: "People of Númenor, we once promised to protect Middle-earth. Now is the time to keep that promise! The white ship fleet sets sail immediately to aid the humans in the South!"
Upon hearing the news, Galadriel rushed to the port, only to find that Halbrand was not in the Stranger’s Camp. She burst into Halbrand’s room and saw a map spread out on the table— it marked the location of the Moria mines, with a line of small writing beside it: "Mithril is Sauron’s only weakness, and also the only key to awakening him." Galadriel’s heart tightened. She was about to fold up the map when the sound of a horn echoed from the port— the white ship fleet was ready to depart. She hurried to the port and, stepping onto the flagship’s deck, saw Halbrand standing by the rail, holding the hilt Theo had lost: "Were you looking for this?" As Galadriel stepped forward, Halbrand held the hilt to his chest: "Sauron’s plan is not just to conquer the South. He intends to let Moria’s mithril come into contact with volcanic lava to forge a ring that can control all living beings. I know how to stop him, for I was once his follower— and also a descendant of Elendil, from the bloodline he destroyed."
The episode ends with pivotal twists in all three storylines:
The Southern Battlefield: Following the tunnel Halbrand revealed, the Orcs pierced the fortress’s rune-covered walls. Arondir and Bronwyn led the survivors to retreat to the fortress’s tower. As Adar charged toward the tower with the Soul-Stealing Sword, Bronwyn suddenly picked up the hilt Theo had lost (which she had found by the tunnel). The moment the hilt touched the Soul-Stealing Sword, golden flames erupted, spreading along the blade. Adar’s arm was burned by the flames; he screamed and stepped back. But in the chaos, Orc soldiers abducted Theo, who was hiding in the tower’s corner. Bronwyn watched in despair as her son was dragged toward the Orc camp, letting out a desperate cry.
The Moria Mines: Elrond and Durin prepared to transport the mithril ore to Lindon when low-frequency vibrations suddenly emanated from the depths of the mines. The ground split open with tiny cracks, and a scorching breath seeped out from within. An elderly miner knelt on the ground, pressing his ear to the earth, and trembled: "Something is moving down there… it’s breathing…" Durin III immediately ordered the mine entrance to be sealed, but it was too late— a massive boulder fell from the mine’s ceiling, revealing an endless darkness below. From that darkness, a pair of glowing red eyes slowly opened.
The Port of Númenor: The white ship fleet unfurled its sails. Galadriel stood at the bow, and Halbrand handed her the hilt: "Sauron’s weakness lies within this hilt. It is the first piece of dark metal he forged, and the only weapon that can destroy him." Galadriel gripped the hilt tightly; a familiar warmth spread through her— just like the feel of her brother Gil-galad’s sword from years ago. As the fleet sailed away from the port, she looked back at Númenor’s white walls, a premonition welling up in her heart: this war had only just begun.