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Sauron's World (Lord of the Rings fanfiction)

Chapter 1
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Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Nov 23, 2017

#1

An idea that I had kicking about.

Lord of the Rings and the Middle Earth mythos belongs to the Tolkien Family, certain aspects of this were
made by Warner Bros and New Line Cinema
The Last Question was written by Issac Asimov

Prologue

In the airless void between planets it existed, but not much else could be said about it. A small wisp of some
etheric stuff that was not quite matter and not quite energy that occupied a small area of space in a long,

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eccentric orbit around the star. It would pass through hydrogen atoms as it went, adjusting their velocity and
vector by a meter per hour and a fraction of a degree or so but it would pass through solid matter with no
noticeable effect. Even so, for all it's unsubstantiality it could perceive the world around it, it could think
extremely complex thoughts and it could remember and recall a vast stretch of time with boundless clarity.

But mostly it seethed.

It was not always like this. Long ago it was something much, much greater. A being of immense power, one
of those who had helped shape the world (or at least part of one that floated before him) and one that he had
sought to bring Order to the chaos that most of his fellows not only allowed, but encouraged. He'd fought and
struggled for millenia against the folly of his fellows in which which his adopted master was cast down. But
by cunning, invention, subtle manipulations and careful manuvering he was nearly in a position to remake
the world in his own image until, by sheer stupid luck he was undone by a single fatal blow by the most
ridiculous of plays actually working and reduced to this. Milena had past, in which it's thoughts had mostly
reduced to a steady cycle of smoldering rage and bitterness over the hand that fate dealt him.

To anything else that lived in this universe, the legacy of this former great being was all but forgotten. But
never the less it was observed by two entities that existed beyond it, both vast beyond measure. One of said
Great Being was aware of it as part of it's minor awareness of everything in what was it's domain which gave
it no real consideration. It's part in the tapestry of fate had been plaid out. The adrift consciousness knew this
being well and had directly interacted with it at times and knew that it was aware and unconcerned with it's
plight.

The second being was another matter entirely, which observed the shade with a strange interest. It was an
entity on par with the previously mentioned Great Entity, though it's powers in this universe were strictly
limited to perception. There were many such Great Beings in truth, shaping universes as prime movers. The
first Great Entity (the Elder of the two) took a more hands on approach, the second (the Younger of the Two,
having arisen from a universe which gradually succumbed to entropy in some long distant past) simply set
things in motion and watched them unfold and something stirred in its unfathomably vast mind. Part of it was
pity, part of it was curiosity, part of it was it's sense of humor and there was much, much more to it. But
sufficed to say it had an interest in this being.

And so a dialogue between Great Ones was made. It was a calm exchange between two masters of their
respective crafts who while not above joshing those that they respected over their differences of opinion, but
well beyond the capacity of any mortal method of communication to adequately transcribe in all it's vast
details. However, in the end an agreement was struck. For the briefest intervals Eru Iluvatar opened the
gates of the world so that AC could reach in. And so where once there was something now there was just
empty void.

Chapter One (Day Zero)​

It was a warm night, even as the coming dawn slowly began to illuminate the Western Sky. It was somewhat
muggy from a thunderstorm that had passed through during sunset, though now only a few clouds gently

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rolled across a mostly clear sky still speckled with stars, four planets and dominated by three moons. These
lights were suddenly supplemented by another, a burning streak moving through the sky at immense speed
and to any observer on the ground, steadily growing and most intense at it's head. As it neared the ground a
small chunk of it broke off before it's main mass slammed into the ground like an artillery shell.

Though nothing with a mind sophisticated enough to appreciate it watched this was a most peculiar
occurrence. Meteors fell from the sky every once and a while, but this one was different. First of all after
impact it burned despite crashing into bare stone. For about half an hour it blazed, illuminating the small
gully with flickering crimson shadows. Stranger still as time went by shapes appeared in the blaze, moving
and shifting and the sounds which echoed from the blaze, groaning and hissing and reverberating. Then
suddenly the blaze rose into the sky in a blazing pillar from which arcs erupted. Ten meters above the
ground it distorted and flared out into a flat disc. At it's rim the swirling flames sturred like the crest of a wave
while in it's center a swirl of black vapor blossomed up and solidified into a thin black almond shape. For a
few seconds it turned about erratically, casting a harsh beam across the surface. It lingered on one
smoldering patch for about a second before continuing on in it's search. Then abruptly the fires snuffed
themselves out, leaving the black ovoid figure at the center in the air to fall to the ground with an resounding
thud.

After touching down, the black form slowly resolved itself. It bent in places, split in others, narrowed,
widened, twisted and took on color and texture. After a few seconds a male humanoid figure lay on the
ground. It was taller than most men at two meters, had pail skin, reddish blonde hair, pointed ears and a thin
athletic figure. After stirring for another minute he opened its eyes. For a split second they glowed like
windows into a forge before they calmed down. The first thing that he saw as his arm feeling up against the
rough sandstone taking in it's texture. Both being able to touch and feel solid things and having arms and
legs after millennia adrift in the endless void was incredible. Things that he had previously known that he
would never have again. He soon scrambled to his feet (spending a few seconds to marvel that he had feet
and legs again) and felt up the rest of his body. He inspected the rest of this new body that he had and found
it in better condition than it had been for more than three millennia before his ultimate downfall.

For the first time in eons, he felt something other than boiling rage and hatred: first confusion, then
fascination, then wonder, then joy. For the first time in an even longer span, he wept. Sobbing tears rolled
down his cheeks as laughed. "Is this? Can it Be? I...I can't believe this! I don't believe this!". He wondered
what else he could do. He turned to a random hunk of sandstone and punched it, shattering it into a rapidly
expanding cloud of gravel while he remained unscathed. He concentrated and felt a silken robe appeared.
Then a suit of monstrous spiked armor. Then he took on some other forms. A human soldier clad in fine
armor, an empty armor suit with hooded robe, a woman in a silk dress, a pirate captain, a peasant, an orc
warlord and more. All the while he laughed at the simple joy of it all. Then he turned into a wolf and ran along
the stoney terrain, then he turned into an giant bat and took to the air on long leathery wings as the sun crept
over the horizon.

As a bat, while still exultant, he took in his surroundings in finer detail. He noticed the moons, the sun rising
in the west with an orange color and the landscape beneath him. As far as The Eye could see there was a
barren field of sandstone, sand and gravel. It looked a lot like a desert, save for the muggy humidity and the

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various and streams that were surrounded by greenish blue mats. A few of which sprung up away from the
water. He recalled some glimpses he'd taken of the Moon, Carnil, Alcarinquë and Lumbar after the Downfall
and how things had changed up in the heavens (as well as some more up close and personal views of
things after his fall) and some musings he had of other stars. Even so he'd never had expected something
like this.

Regardless eventually he focused his attention to a small blackened spot not too far from his landing site.
The giant bat flew in and then resumed the original elvish form in traveler's clothes and walked over to the
impact sight near one of the pools. It was easy to find find as it had burned away the surrounding plants,
whatever sort of plant they were. They were short stubby greenish blue stalks about as the size of a man's
toe topped with a bulging sphere. Occasionally one of said spheres would pop in a brief haze of greenish
blue dust. Even stranger were the small "insects" that floated around. These were bug sized, but were built
like wagon wheels, had four wings and spun through the air like tops. 'What was Yavanna thinking when she
made these?' He thought as he paused for a second to take a look after touching down before continuing on.
What was more surprising was a stone near the crash sight. It was a lump that was close to flat across one
side which faced the small crater, but into it's surface were etched a simple message in neat tengwar script...

Mairon of Aule
I have released you into one of my worlds in restored condition. The world of your origin is beyond you
forever. I shall not give you further aide, nor shall I interfere in your affairs. Consider this a Fresh Start.
-AC

Sauron stepped back in fear. Whoever or whatever this AC was it had a power well beyond him, the Valar or
even Melkor. Did Iluvatar make greater beings than the Ainur that he concealed? Were there more beings
like "The One"? The ramifications of this were incredible and his mind raced with implications of this. He had
only this being's word to work on, but what if this world held perils that a thousand Melkors could not
overcome?

Even so his graze drifted over to the crater and it's center. Inside sat an mass of newly made igneous rock
the size of a loaf of bread, but he also caught a glint of sunlight off of it. He picked it up and then crushed it in
it's hands. Among the crumbling fragments fell twenty lustrous objects. He knelt down, picked one up and
held it in his hand.

He smirked as he slipped on The One Ring.

Last edited: Jun 11, 2020

SCO

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sliced bread is not that great

Chapter 3
Threadmarks

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Nov 26, 2017

#3

Chapter Two (Day 10 to Day 12)​

While Sauron had acquired a respect for the powers of AC, that did not apply to whomever made it's plants
and creatures. After raising a monolith at his landing site he took to the air as a bat (with a small belt and
pouch for the rings) flown out from his original landing sight on in an expanding spiral and had seen more
and more of the landscape beneath him and develop a map of his surrounding, touching down to examine
things. All he found was more fields of stone, sand and patches of greenish blue plants popball plants and by
some of the larger pools there were segmented plant with tufts growing out from between the segments.
Most of them were clustered around mud puddles, though a few were on valley slopes or other odd places.
A few patches were growing up and other patches were withering. There were also some brown patches that
had failed entirely. From what he could work out, these the things needed a fair bit of water survive and dried
out fairly quickly. The animals were evens stranger. There was a wide variety of the pinwheel bugs (some of
which simply crawled along) as well as strange two shelled clamlike things with crawled about on tentacles
among the rim and hinged themselves closed around prey. All of which could fit in the palm of his hand. So
far the only use he'd found for them was as a rather substandard snack.

On the easternmost part of his eight circuit he noticed that the vegetation was getting thicker on the ground.
Less bare stone and sand and more plants. When he went back south on his ninth circuit he noticed that this
trend continued further east. He saw more pools of water, as well as streams. He also heard something
which filled the evening air, loud belching sounds. That was enough to get his interest so he landed to
investigate. He flew in eastward for a short distance before he found something moving and so landed, went
back to human form. What he found was this...

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It was about half a meter long, had soft wet Greenish Blue to Blue skin and crawled about over the wet
ground with six legs eating popballs and tuft-tube chutes between belches. He noticed another pair of them
on the far side of a stream, burping as they wandered towards each other and then began to tackle each
other. Then he realized that it was not a tackle. There were more of these creatures either sluggishly
crawling about eating, belching or swimming about in the mud. Smaller versions about half to a quarter the
size of what were presumably their parents crawled about around the adults. The swamp was positively thick
with the beasts, including a few rotting corpses host to swarms of pinwheel bugs and creeper-shells but
ignored by their living kin.

The creature he'd come to investigate regarded sauron for a few moments, bringing it's forward eye to bear
on him. It had never seen anything like the form he'd taken and it was outside it's limited frame of reference.
It's mind eventually regarded the elvish figure as being a cluster of Tuft Tubes and it went back to eating and
belching. As it did so, gobbets of half masticated plant were spewed out of his mouth onto sauron's shoes.
That was more enough to raise Sauron's ire and so he kicked it. It flew up into the air for a few hundred
meters, spinning about until it crashed down into the water.

He spent the next day investigating the surrounding area, a large swampy area hope to vast fields of
popballs, clusters of tuft-tubes, several other varieties of plants and millions of these Hexacrawlers crawling
about grazing. Around mid day they went into pools, ponds and streams if they could and into shade if they
could not. They were somewhat more agile in the water than they were on land. But while as far as Sauron
could tell these creatures were the only living things that dwelt on land, the waters were another storey. He
often saws saw thrashing out of the larger bodies of water as an hexacrawler was bitten and taken under by
some larger creature, which would send the rest of them scurrying to the shoreline, only to return a few
minutes latter. Once he saw one of these predators follow the hexecrawlers out of the river. It was at least

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three meters long, had a flat triangular head with a slight bulge in the center for the topmost of it's three
eyes, a long that tapered from the horizontal in the front o the vertical in the back tail with a leaflike fluke and
three sets of fins on fleshy growths that allowed it to crawl a short distance onto land, grasp a hexacrawler in
it's jaws and then slowly make its way back to the water, meal in mouth in lurching motions that made it's
prey look graceful.

This was a step up from spinning bugs and free range clams, but Sauron was still not impressed. Three
eyed Killer Fish and Catfish Salamanders with too many legs, was this the best they could come up with?
The damn things could barely spend a few hours away from water by the look of it. There had to be
something better than this somewhere on this blasted rock.

Last edited: Jun 11, 2020

Chapter 2
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Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Nov 28, 2017

#4

Chapter Three (Day 1,737)​

It turned out that the Hexacrawler was the apex of life on this world. At least on land.

Six years (which were a bit shorter here than they were on Arda) worth of searching, going around the five
continents and all he found was more of the same. There were deserts, mountains, plains, rivers, lakes and
swamps. Vegetation was sparse and spotty at best away from bodies of water and thick near them. There
was some variation among the plant life which included fuzz cones, tendril clusters and on a smaller
continent a type of tuft tube that could grow up to eight meters tall and who's topmost tufts got thicker grew
fronds of their own. There were Hexacrawlers living in the lakes, swamps and rivers of the biggest continent
and a few islands off it's northern coast. Some of which were a bit bigger or smaller or had longer barbels or
had some different color but these were all still unmistakably variations of the same creature. On the

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Northwestern Continent there was a species of small armored fish which spent most of it's time on coastal
mud. But that was all for higher life-forms on land. There were some interesting sea beasts underwater some
of which could get up to 12 meters, some predators which he could respect on some level and other sea
creatures that had some novelty if nothing else. For all that even with the form of a shark with the ability to
carve through even the largest wedge headed monster fish of this Ulmo free world he was never truly
comfortable underwater and did not linger long beneath the waves. Nowhere did he find any road or building
or tool intact or in ruins. There were still areas he missed, but he doubted that they'd reveal anything beyond
a few as-to-yet overlooked species of plants.

Sauron sat on a bolder overlooking a swampy valley and thought about his situation as he considered what
to do next. He was alone. Even more than he was when he hid during the Second Age when he knew there
were others comparatively nearby. AC by all appearances was even less involved with the managing of
worlds the Iluvatar and any Valar of this world was just as disinterested in it's management. There was no
one to threaten him but no one to rule. Just him and some half baked cow newts that did nothing but eat,
belch and bred until they ate their swamps bare of plantlife and starved in mass so a few survivors could
breed up the population again.

But in the end that's what he had to work with. Might as well get started. He got to his feet, took to the sky
and came down near the edge of the swamplands and nearby one of the creatures. He reached down and
grabbed it's head. With that he had a glimpse into it's mind. It was a simple thing of basic appetites and fears
which concerned itself mostly with eating, keeping itself moist, finding mates and avoiding predators with
enough memory to map a rough map of it's immediate surroundings. Still it was enough, the creature turned
it's head up so that it's topmost eye could look upon Sauron's face. He pointed to a rock and calmly said
"Go". Unheard but along with that command was the appropriate thoughts that the simple beast
comprehended enough. The Hexacrawler turned to face it and began to crawl over to the stone.

Sauron spent the rest of the day trying to see what else he could order the thing to do. But while it did not
show any resistance it could not do much with it. It could understand simple instructions relating to
movement, eating and basic movements of it's body like wiggling it's tail or lifting it's right central leg or
curing the toes on it's left rear foot but ideas such as picking up an object in it's mouth and not eating it were
well beyond it's feeble mind. He'd have to work on that. Then again he ad all the time in the world.

Last edited: Jan 3, 2018

Zor
Nov 28, 2017
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Horton

Not a Saber clone

Banned

Nov 28, 2017

#5

Well this should be interesting. Are there humans in this world out there somewhere? Does Earth exist?

Durabys

Miaow! Break the Chains!

Nov 28, 2017

#6

Horton said:

Well this should be interesting. Are there humans in this world out there somewhere? Does
Earth exist?

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Hint: The Humans are currently watching and teaching Mairon. Well..sort of..well, no..not exactly..their
ancestors were Human..several googolplex years ago. Though Mairon, Melkor and Eru don't know that.
Chapter 4
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Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Nov 30, 2017

#7

Chapter Four (Day 1,954)​

It had taken him a surprising amount of time to complete, even with his old power where he could lay down
his hands on the ground and make stone rise and shape it as he willed. Never the less The Complex was
completed. It was not a mighty fortress like Barad Dur was, but it would serve Sauron's purposes.

It was situated on an expanse of mostly barren plains in the foothills of mountains and was the size of a
small town, though most of it's structures lacked roofs. It began a fair distance away up in the mountains
where water fed into an aqueduct, which carried it into a large stone cistern. From there it flowed through
clay pipes into a set of pens enclosed by four meter high stone walls. A variety of sluices were installed to
regulate this flow as needed. There were 125 pens in total arranged in a roughly bow like shape. Most of
them were square, twenty meters across and formed two rough triangles with five tiers. The first tier of each
had 32 pens, the second 16, the third eight, the forth had four and the fifth had two. The second was circular
and more than fourty meters in radius with a smaller pool with a gate on it's. Each pen had a small pond and
soil where popballs and other such plants had taken root. A set of drains were in place to prevent overflow
which emptied into culverts which sent waste water to a nearby valley. In addition there were a few
unpenned garden plots with irrigation systems set up and twelve pens set aside.

In many ways this affair was crude, he had done much better on Arda. Even so there was an elegance to it
and it could be operated by a single Maia of Aule. A more sophisticated version of it would have needed a
workforce which would have largely rendered the setup redundant. Everything had been tested and it all
worked as desired. Now it just needed to be put into working order. As such Sauron put on an odd harness
and changed form, this time into a wolf. He'd considered doing this as a bat but that was just too awkward. In
any case the lupine form did have a good clip. Soon enough he was at the swamp, he shifted back to his
more comfortable elven form and set the harness down. It was mostly made from woven tuft tube shavings,
but had a pair of ceramic jars. He filled them with water and in a few seconds found what he was looking for,
a juvenile Hexacrawler. Hexacrawlers could be either mother or father and did not lay eggs, but like
salamanders and frogs they gave birth to large numbers of aquatic larvae that that they abandoned to swim
about for a few months before growing legs and walking out onto dry land. He picked up the squirming thing
and put it into one of the pots, then he caught another, and another and another. Their was no shortage of
them and as they had no predators on land (excluding the occasional oblivious elder) they offered no
resistance.

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Soon there was a dozen of them squirming in each jar and so he capped them off with a woven lid and ran
back, arriving at one of the triangular banks of pens. Once he was back, he opened the jars and inspected
their contents So far, so good. All of them were alive and so tossed each of them into a first tier pen. Three
more trips saw all the base tier pens filled with a live hexacrawler, which took to their new home quite well.

The first stage of Sauron's Plan was done. Now the real work began.

Last edited: Mar 2, 2018

Zor
Nov 30, 2017
Reader mode

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Chapter 5
Threadmarks

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 2, 2017

#8

Chapter Five (Day 2,066 to 2,068)

The Hexacrawler laid still on a bolder, feeling miserable. Up until recently it's life was mostly as good as it
could get, not that it was much for reminiscing. It had dim memories of life in the swamp eating algae and
decaying plant matter while avoiding the many larger things which it shared it's home with, growing it's six
legs, crawling out onto land eating popballs before it came across a Red Grove, was bitten by a fish that
carried it up into a dark fish with other hexacrawlers, then shaken about and released into the swamp which
now had rocks around and was empty, not that it minded. It continued to eat, swim and grew. It saw no
predators in the swamp and as it grew it began to belch and occasionally it saw that Red Grove up on the
surrounding rocks. None of which overrode the instincts which had seen it through life, but two days ago the
Red Grove appear, touched it on the head and a new thought came to it: go onto the rock in the middle of

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the pool and sit there. It did so and laid there not doing anything. At first it sat their content, then it got
uncomfortable as the sun beat down on it's skin dried out, then discomfort gave way to pain and hunger. It
saw cool shimmering water a few centimeters and wanted nothing more than to slip down and cool off. But it
just could not seem to do it. There was always something in it's mind which always quashed any action of
going down off the rock.

Then it heard a faint splash and saw some rippling in the pool's surface. Pain and hunger soon were mixed
with Terror. It knew instinctively that Predators lived in underwater and occasionally came out onto land for a
short distances and that it should dash for cover. Yet still it could not move from the rock. It heard a few
strange murmerings and felt a few proddings. Then to it's surprise a mass of popballs was put in front of it's
mouth, which it greedily ate. Then there were some strange sounds and with them an overwhelming
compulsion to get off the rock and into the water for a good long soak. Over the next day it's skin softened an
healed nicely as it returned to it's normal routine, which it continued the day after that with. As evening fell, it
began to belch. It had heard other Hexacrawlers belching, but they had yet to come it's way. To a more
sophisticated being it would have wondered as to why they had yet to show up, but Hexacrawler brains were
nowhere near that complex. Especially since after a splash he saw another adult hexacrawler crawl up out of
the water belching in reply. That put it's mind on other things.

All of this was observed by a lone humanoid figure which etched some notes on a clay tablet. Sauron was
pleased with how Hexacrawlers Batch 1 Generation 1 Number 13 and 1/1/21 had done, even if he did not
like manhandling the Amphiboids. They held up the best to prolonged sunlight exposure in his reckoning,
though a few others had done alright as well. So far twelve hexacrawlers had died from drying out and eight
more were on death's doorstep even after being let back into the water. Two more had kicked it before this
experiment happened, but then again one of the control group did so as well. The corpses, the sickly and a
few more that were not doing that well were simply removed from the complex. If the rejects lived or died he
cared not, what mattered were the 32 success cases even if a few of them were damn close to the best of
the rejects.

In any case in a few months time he'd have plenty of juveniles, from which he'd select 64 from which Batch 1
Generation 2 as well as half of Batch 2 Generation 1. They too would be subjected to the same dry spell and
hopefully would perform better than their parents, though he did not get his hopes up on that just yet. The
stupid things had no shortage of deficiencies, but their vulnerability to drying out was one which needed to
be sorted out as soon as possible if something better was to come of them. But that was still a long way off.
Sauron had always lacked the power over life that the Valar and Melkor had, he could not change it at will as
he could dead materials. If he wanted to make something out of the Hexecrawlers, he'd have to do it The
Hard Way.

Last edited: Dec 2, 2017

Zor
Dec 2, 2017
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 Threadmarks
Chapter 6
Threadmarks

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 7, 2017

#9

Chapter Six (Day 17,204)

Every generation of each batch of Hexacrawlers that went through Sauron's complex was cut in half. 64
became 32, 32 became 16, 16 became 8, 8 became 4 and 4 became 2. Each time those with the desired
traits were bred with each other. The last pair standing in this process were put in a spawning pool to
produce their broods to be ultimately be released into the Breeding Pen. The artificial swamp inside could
and did support several dozen adult hexacrawlers and it's ponds and pools always had batches of fresh
spawn wriggling about. They provided a steady supply of refined juveniles that made up the bulk of the fresh
batches for the breeding program. Others became part of the control groups or were subjected to other tests.
Others were dissected or harvested for fats. Once every week or so one of them ended up the subject of one
of Sauron's lesser known skills on a hot iron skillet with some salt. For all of that there was never a shortage
of them. Indeed the reverse was normally the case. The average Hexacrawler gave birth to about 300 young
at a time, mated up to four times in the 302 day long years of this world and each of the young would reach
sexual maturity once they reached a year old. Even with a few fish in the Breeding Pen's pools that ate
Hexacrawler fry and the fact that said fry were hardly the most robust of creatures in the first place there
were always more juveniles than he had use for. There were advantages to this, most notably that the
program never lacked for spares.

Sauron realized that it was again time as he made a regular inspection. The numbers of juveniles were
getting too thick and the plants were beginning to get too thin. Once again it was time to thin his herd. That
evening a gateway opposite to the spawning pool opened, revealing a four wheeled wagon and Sauron. He
put down a long ramp into the pen and walked in to stand by the end touching the ground. The he raised his
right hand and the ring glowed. With that the Hexacrawlers all turned to face him and then moved to the

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ramp, crawling up the incline at a slow but steady pace.. Minds like theirs were trivially easy to control, even
if their ability to understand commands was marginal at best. When an adult wandered by, Sauron touched it
and told it to go back about it's usual business. Soon the wagon was full with more than two hundred
squirming juveniles. Sauron then poured the remainder of the juveniles on the ramp into the wagon, put the
ramp aside and closed the door. He then got into the harness, turned into a wolf again and towed the mostly
iron artifact along at a modest speed. Making anything out of metal on this world was hard even leaving
aside the fact that he had to do everything. Ore was common enough, but the means to melt it was another
one entirely. There was no coal on this world as far as he could tell and even tall tuft-tubes were a poor
substitute for firewood. Currently the best fuel he had for forges hexacrawler dung charcoal and it took a long
time to get enough of that for cart-making purposes.

The cart went across a mostly bare road that Sauron had cleared and leveled for this purpose for a few
hours until it reached the outskirts of the swamp. There he turned back into his preferred form and opened
up the back making a basic ramp to the ground. Some of the newtlike creatures tumbled out as it fell down.
He ordered the rest of them to follow and within twenty seconds the wagon was hexacrawler free. To his
relief none of the dumb things had died or done more than defecate in the wagon's tile lined bed, which
required a quick wash out. The rest of the small Newtlike creatures made their way into the swamp, gorging
themselves on popballs and going about their lives.

Sauron took the wagon a short distance further along the swamp's edge and began collecting a new fresh
batch of juveniles. As far as Sauron was concerned collecting fresh Hexacrawlers was a nessiary evil. The
basic idea of what he was doing was taking Hexacrawlers, finding out which ones exhibited qualities that he
wanted, breeding them and then repeating the process, compiling better qualities as time went on. There
was a temptation to simply breed constantly in a reductive manner from a pool of individuals so that
compiling qualities built up as quickly as possible. The problem with that (as several attempts at making
better pigs and orcs had shown him) simply breeding one family in on itself over and over and over again
was a good way to get something that was unfit for life. And so every fifth batch for the breeding program
had fresh blood.

Despite this Sauron had found a way to prevent things from going all the way back to square one with the
fresh specimens, which was evident in some of the new specimins he plucked from the beds of popballs.
The products of his breeding programs had begun to make some real progress towards his first landmark
goal. Breeding Pen born hexacrawlers were now thicker skinned and took longer to dry out. What had been
exceptional thirty years ago was now the norm. New batches had long been going back to square one, but
even the wild hexacrawlers had begun to benefit from his project. Every couple of years he'd dumped a load
of juveniles into the swamp. Even factoring predation from the various fish enough of them survived to
produce new broods, spreading their genes through the populace. There was still a lot of other mates out
there for them to spread among. Even so as he picked through the salamander-like creatures he noticed that
it's skin had some of the more pronounced lumpiness that was part of what he was breeding for, which
confirmed some figures he had with the last two wild batches he'd caught. Progress was being made.

After his return and filling the outermost pens with the new Wild Batch, sauron ordered two thousand more
juveniles and a dozen older adults bearing a bran to walk out of the pen and head onward to the swamp.

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They wandered past and over heaps of skeletons and corpses being picked clean by pinwheel bugs and
their larvae, the dross of Sauron's refinement processes. Some of them wandered by pathes of plantlife and
got a bite to eat as they went, but mostly they crawled over 29 kilometers of uneven bare earth and rocks.
Many of them died en route from exhaustion or desiccation over the next ten days. A few dozen ended up in
small ponds along the way which their brains interpreted as the swamp, though most of these were seasonal
and many of those that were not were already occupied. In the end only 7 of them ultimately made it to the
swamplands. Sauron assumed as much and gave it little thought. As he saw it dumping one load directly into
the swamp with a high survival rate while letting a horde of the things wander back to their natural habitat
was the best policy. It ensured some impact into the wild population while minimizing the amount of shuttling
he had to do and making the expanse of land between the swamp and the complex into yet another crucible
for his purposes.

Last edited: Dec 21, 2021

Zor
Dec 7, 2017
Reader mode

Threadmarks

auraofcalm

Dec 7, 2017

#10

La la la la~
La la la la~
Sauron's World!

He loves his fair form~

His One Ring too~
That's Sauron's World!

...I'm very sorry. I'll show myself out now.

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Doggi

Dec 7, 2017

#11

batman bin supaman said:

but mostly they crawled over 39 kilometers of uneven bare earth and rocks​

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Holy bananae,them crawlers are beefing up. Sauron making dem do squats? These things are tougher than
i am right now.
chapter 7
Threadmarks

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 10, 2017

#12

Doggi said:

Holy bananae,them crawlers are beefing up. Sauron making dem do squats? These things are
tougher than i am right now.

Click to expand...

16/28
 Click to shrink...

A human could walk that distance in a day with a canteen and some sandwiches.

Chapter Seven (Day 1,543,925)​

Sauron walked over the irrigation ditches as he inspected the fields. In the long rows grew mostly fuzz cones
and tendril clusters with a few popballs around them. So far things had shaped up quite well. One of the
problems of this world was that there was not much in the line of soil. There was sand, dirt and clay in
abundance but outside of the swamps there was very little in the line of nutrient rich earth. The larger plants
could not survive without it. Popballs could grow in wet sand, but most plants could not. In wet conditions
they'd break down into soil eventually but, popballs that grew around puddles that dried out usually
witherered and dried up, leaving the surrounding dirt little better off for it. He'd found that the best form of
fertilizer that he could make was a combination of plant matter, ground bones and hexacrawler dung left to
molder in water. A fair amount of that stuff had been applied to this plot of land. While it was not one of his
natural aptitudes, Sauron did have a decent understanding of botany and it's practical application. Orcs
needed to eat and Mordor only had so much arable land. A fair deal of it he'd gotten out of a few Entwives
that his forces had captured, but much of it had come about through experimentation and trial and error. The
plants of Arda were different from the bluish flora of this world in many ways (most of which were
deficiencies in Sauron's eyes) but broad principles were the same and he had all the time in the world.

Five local millennia had past since Sauron's arrival, five thouand years of seeing the plans. There had been
setbacks, from rainstorms which threw off his dryness tests to dust-storms to outbreaks of diseases that cost
him time and whole batches of hexacrawlers and several earthquakes that damaged the complex. Never the
less after more than 5,000 generations he'd achieved his first goal. This was why he had laid out this new
field. Even so it was time to check up on them. He turned into a bat and flew back to the complex. He took a
good look at the square of green and the aqueduct and reservoir that fed it in the mostly barren plains.

In the breeding pen were twenty eight adult Hexacrawlers and a modest number of juveniles crawled about
grazing. Their behavior was basically identical to that of their ancestors in that regard, but they were
distinguishable in others. The main difference was that their skin was a dull green, thicker, lumpier and waxy
to the touch. Their legs were also longer and their nostrils wider. While they were still strong swimmers once
they had completed their metamorphosis from fry to juvenile besides drinking and giving birth they never
needed to return to the water. They were a bit faster on land than their counterparts as well, thought that was
hardly saying much. Sauron used The Ring to get four of them in the cart and carried them to the fields. He
unloaded them into their new home. He then returned and made six more trips with the rest.

As he unloaded the last batch, he saw the others gorging themselves and belching. There was no shortage
of good food for them here nor water for them to spawn in. This field would be their kind's Cuiviénen. He had
succeeded at making a better Hexacrawler. Now it was time for more ambitious projects.

Last edited: Jan 22, 2019

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 Zor
Dec 10, 2017
Reader mode

Threadmarks
Chapter 8
Threadmarks

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 19, 2017

#13

Chapter Eight (Day 1,580,005 to 1,580,010)​

As Sauron finished up regular clearout of the aqueduct's channel one morning he noticed a pair of Dryland
Hexacrawlers wandering about near ground level, grazing around on plants that grew. So far they'd been
doing quite well and had become a fairly common sight as they moved across the plains from pool to pool in
search of small clumps of vegetation, leaving manure in their wake and in a roundabout way helping the
local flora. He had fears of dilution, that over that they would breed back into the rest of the population and
the qualities he'd spent so long breeding for would revert back to the default. So far this had not happened,
at least on a grand scale. There was some of this along the fringes of swamps which yielded hybrids, but
said hybrids did not do as well as either their parents on the whole. They were more resistant to drying out
than the wetlanders, needing to wet themselves once every few weeks and drink more. Out of the large
swamps the crossbreeds did not do so well. Some qualities that he'd been breeding for had begun to
manifest in the mostly basal swamp going populations (most notably in his harvest swamp), though the
impact was not total. The Drylanders needed more food, their ability walk further was not really much of an
advantage in swamps where swimming was an option and in the water they were less agile than a healthy
adult wild Hexacrawler, which left it vulnerable to predators. So far the two populations remained mostly
distinct from each other and by all appearances were only getting more removed as time went on.

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Even so, he needed some fresh stock for the next batch. He dropped down and picked up the big dumb
newt thing, checked to see if it was in good health (and it apparently was) or pregnant (which it was
thankfully not) and carried the beast with on arm. He did the same to the other one after finding it
satisfactory, dropped them off in pens and so they became Dryland Hexacrawlers Batch 120, Generation 1
Number 1 and 2. Scrounging up an other sixty two more was no big deal as there were plenty in the general
vicinity and by the end of the day he'd wrangled up more of them. The next day he checked on how this lot
was doing by the looks of it they were doing just fine and since they were all fully grown and checked out.
Now it was time to run his test.

Dryland Hexacrawler 120/1/1, as usual had adapted well to his new home, mostly oblivious to the change
beyond the fact that this place had plenty of food and water. Then after some motion he saw something
come in and dump a bunch of reddish brown things in front of it and then a bizarre compulsion to eat them.
They tasted wrong, they had the wrong texture but it scarfed them down anyway. Then it went back to its
general routine. The next day it felt a little uneasy, but continued about as normal. Then it got a few more of
those things the next day, which it ate again. As it did for the next day. As it did so it's digestion got
progressively worse. It became sluggish and it's excrement came out wrong.

Sauron noticed this with disappointment on his inspection. This injection of fresh blood was only marginally
worse than those that he'd been breeding for over a century. Hexacrawlers were frankly too dumb to be
picky, they constantly sucked up large amounts of vegetation as well as a fair bit of dirt and pebbles. They'd
also occasionally eat some pinwheel bugs as they went or the occasional dead juvenile that happened to be
in their path by accident. Even so the were plant eaters through and through. Stuff them full of of meat soon
resulted in sickly stunted things. Making a Hexacrawler that was thicker skinned and did not try to wait out
dry spells by burrowing into the mud making a cocoon was simple compared to turning one of these things
into a predator. For not the first time he wondered if it would have been easier to breed some of the great
river fish to have actual legs.

Last edited: Oct 27, 2018

Zor
Dec 19, 2017
Reader mode

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Horton

Not a Saber clone

19/28
Banned

Dec 19, 2017

#14

I'm curious, are the hexcrawlers based on a IRL extinct animal or original?

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 19, 2017

#15

Horton said:

I'm curious, are the hexcrawlers based on a IRL extinct animal or original?

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's mostly inspired on Devonian fishapods like Hynerpeton or Ichthyostega. There are several differences of
course, being herbivorous rather than carnivorous, three eyes, six legs, hermaphrodism and similar.

Zor

Last edited: Dec 19, 2017

Yinko

20/28
 Dec 19, 2017

#16

Looks cool. Seems a bit slow though. I mean, mankind turned wolves into chihuahuas in less than half the
time it's taken Sauron to make these critters get out of the swamp.

Chapter 9
Threadmarks

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 21, 2017

#17

Chapter 9 (Day 32,041,498)​

Near the fringes of a swamp a Hexacrawler that was broadly similar from those that stomped around the
swamp a hundred thousand years ago wandered about eating plant matter one evening as usual. The sound
of belches fill the air, which it ignored. About a week ago it had given birth to a brood of fry and now it was
simply interesting in gorging itself. Some of them were a bit off in tone, being louder, more abupt and deeper
pitched. Those it always ignored as they were from Drylanders. They lived out away from the swamps and
were different from the swamp dwellers. Sometimes they came in in search of food or to release broods, but
they rarely lingered about. Occasionally a Drylander and a Swamp Hexacrawler would mate, but the results
of said parings at best produced a few not so healthy fry that would at best grow up into sterile hybrids if they
survived. Not that it knew this or had the faculties to contemplate said information if it did know it. Drylanders
belched differently, it not attracted to Drylanders and that was the end of that. Every generation had pushed
the two groups further apart and even hypothetical reversal was unlikely now.

It's top eye gazed over the fields lazily in the encroaching twilight. There was more vegetation than there had
been a hundred thousand years ago and more clusters of tuft tubes (again not that it had any idea of this
change or could have cared). One thing that it noticed was a figure coming up to a small hill that stopped,

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turned it's head to look at it and then began to wander towards it. It was somewhat similar to a dryland
hexacrawler, but never the less different. It was leaner and it's head was a bit different. Every other second
this newcomer moved it's body length forward, about the same speed that a Drylander could do. It paid it
little attention as it continued to eat. Nor did it give it much consideration when it opened it's mouth when it
was two meters away.

Then to its surprise and shock there was a sudden intense pain burst of pain on it's right side between its
front and center legs as the new creature bit down hard. It also felt other cuts made into its flesh, like those
caused by sharp stones again and again. It squirmed frantically, all six legs furiously flailing about and head
and trail thrashing about. To it's confusion it looked about for ponds or rivers to run away from, finding none
nearby. For the last six million years the Hexacrawlers had developed a very successful survival strategy
about predators locked into their minds by instincts: go out onto land where they can't get you. Some of them
might follow you onto land for a bit, but never far. On land you were safe. But for all that it still knew what to
do when predators got hold. It's attacker also thrashed about while it scratched at it with it's two forelimbs.
Eventually the mouth closed, taking a large chunk of flesh with it. The hexacrawler tried scurried away as the
thing scarfed down a chunk of meat, though it's limbs remained hooked int it's side and soon it took another
bite. The hexacrawler lost a lot of blood and it's organs were crushed after a few seconds it got weaker and
eventually passed out.

Overhead Sauron circled in his bat form and watched as his handiwork had done, giddy with success.
Making a viable carnivore from Hexacrawler Stock had been a real pain in his side. It took several tries to get
it right and there had been a few major setbacks, including two die offs which set him to square one 77,000
years ago and one that nearly did the same 38,000 years ago and rebuilding the complex ten times. Getting
them able to eat meat was just the beginning, he also had to reshape their bodies in a variety of ways
(including adding in a few additional refinements for good measure when they came up and dealing with a

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few defects which cropped up), from making a flesh ripping jaw with predatory teeth to claws and
strengthening their arms and legs to better deal with thrashing and breeding in killer instincts. Not just
standing commands given to them by the One Ring, but the ability to independantly go out, hunt prey down
and kill them. That took a lot of highly contrived courses and tests, as well as a few thousand generations
spent breeding for bigger (if still quite stupid) brains to get that. This was the seventh batch that he'd
released into the wild as a completed product, the other six having petered out when not supervised by a
vigilant maiar.

The important thing about this particular Hexastalker was that it was of the third wild generation. So far it
showed no defects. It did not bother with eating plant life after becoming a juvenile, it did not attempt to eat
it's siblings when there were plenty of pinwheel bugs and other such creepy crawlies feed or never leave
their birth pools even when all the game had been eaten or get sick or any of the other things that they did.
As did it's siblings. By the look of things soon it would find a mate and spawn a new brood. This swamp
contained thousand upon thousands of Hexacrawlers. Plenty of sustenance for his latest creations. They
were still a stepping stone on the path to Sauron's desired goal, but they would also help accelerate his
aims. The Hexastalkers would be his threshers, separating the wheat from the chaff.

Last edited: Jun 22, 2018

Deatstroke

Deus est machina

Moderator

Dec 21, 2017

#18

Ok. I have to admit this is certainly interesting. So watched.

Also, if this ends up in a hundred million years or so with some kind of sapient species that sees Sauron as
God I'm going to laugh really hard.

Last edited: Dec 21, 2017

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Night_stalker

Slava Ukraini!

Super Awesome Happy Funtime

He/Him

Dec 24, 2017

#19

Deatstroke said:

Ok. I have to admit this is certainly interesting. So watched.

Also, if this ends up in a hundred million years or so with some kind of sapient species that sees
Sauron as God I'm going to laugh really hard.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If it takes that long, Sauron would be undeserving of His title, I suspect.

20 million years seems a bit more reasonable.

EVA-Saiyajin

Seeker of Enlightenment and Endless Entertainment

Dec 24, 2017

#20

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Interesting. I'll keep an eye on this. I don't see anything wrong that stands out so far, and it's certainly
entertaining.

Deatstroke

Deus est machina

Moderator

Dec 24, 2017

#21

Night_stalker said:

If it takes that long, Sauron would be undeserving of His title, I suspect.

20 million years seems a bit more reasonable.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

He is working with early amphibians and primitive plant life. 100 million years is a pretty reasonable
timeframe unless he wants to have only a few species alongside his sapient one.

Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Chapter 10
Threadmarks

25/28
Zor

More of a Zor than You

He/Him

Dec 29, 2017

#23

Chapter 10 (Day 32,043,408)​

A Hexastalker wandered through the swamp in search of prey on a quiet evening. It heard one set of
belches in the distance, which was suddenly cut off. It was hungry and in it's dim way recalled with longing
the days of it's youth. Six Years ago it crawled out of the water as a juvenile, a product of the first brood of
the first pair of Hexastalkers to wander into the swamp. It fed on bugs, slugs, creeper shells and carrion at
first, then going after Juvenile Hexacrawlers as it got bigger and gradually working it's way up to adults. Back
then there was no shortage of them, crawling about and growing fat just lying there until you sunk your teeth
into them and ripped off their delicious meat. It never got more than slightly hungry back then and fat and
happy it found other fat, happy Hexastalers to lock claspers with and subsequently unloaded broods of fry
into the swamp. As time went on more Hexastalkers came out onto land, grew up and began to get fat and
happy themselves. But as time went on the amount of prey steadily got thinner. It took some time for it to
notice this fact, but it steadily became more and more noticable. It did not link the increased number of
Hexastalkers with the Decline of Hexacrawlers. It new there was food before you ate and when you were
done that praticular bit of food was gone. Linking a decline of prey with the increase in number of it's felows
which might steal a bite from your kills and vice versa was beyond it's capacity. It had been forty eight days
since it had gotten it's jaws around a live adult Hexacrawler and it had been another thirty six days since the
one before that. For the last year it had picked over half finished kills (it's kind were hardly the most efficient
of eaters), ate the odd fishoid that washed up, a few small things to snap up here and there and meat from
an increasingly common source. It was enough to keep it going (for now at least), but not enough to satisfy
it. To find those, it needed to wander far and wide around the swamp and cross a fair number of ponds
haunted by Talon Cones, Fang Eels and Mire Lurks, the last of which could and increasingly would chase a
Hexastalker onto land. All and all things had been going rather badly.

It noticed something stirring in a thick patch of popballs. A Juvenile Hexacrawler sat about eating the lumpy
plants. Hardly a feast, but it was something. It wandered over to snap it up. But to it's suprise when it brought
its jaws down it found it's mouth depressingly empty. It then noticed the little thing wandering away as fast as

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it's flabby little legs could carry it. It took up persuit as it did so and wandered into a cluster of Tuft Tubes.
Undaunted the Hexastalker went into the collection of plants as fast as it could searching for movement.
Even so, it soon found itself stuck. It thrashed about trying to free itself and get out to the other side where
it's prey surely was. After a few minutes it did just that, and fell a meter onto hard rocks. A dim spark of anger
filled it's mind as it righted itself as it looked for the Juvenile 'crawler.

As it did so it caught the eyes of several other Hexastalkers. Some of them of which wandered in to
investigate. As the nearest did so it soon caught the investigator's nose as well. The fallen Hexastalker was
wounded. It had a variety of cuts on it's hide and it's right central leg foot was mangled and limping. It might
have ignored this qualities if it had not been as hungry as it was. Instead it approached it's wounded fellow
with an open mouth hoping to gorge itself. But for all that the fallen Hexacrawlers noticed this and reacted.
As the attacker bit into it's front left leg it bit down on the attacker's neck. Both twisted and clawed at each
other, opening their mouth to try to bite again. The others made their move then, desperate for the flesh of
the wounded. As they did so they were clawed at and bitten by their would be prey which were not yet down
for the count and by each other, which wanted to drive off the competition. Two writhing bloody figures
became three, then five, then seven, then nine, then thirteen, then eleven, then twelve, then ten, then
eleven, then seven, then eleven, then six, then four, then seven, then four, then three and then finally settling
on four with a banquet of shredded bodies. A few more Hexastalkers would come in through the next couple
of days, eating their fill of the rapidly spoiling pile of meat, along with some of their juveniles (which the
adults treated as appetizers) and swamps of pinwheel bugs and crawler shells. Over the next few days a
couple more adults ultimately joined the heap of death in the shadow of the rock in fights over the last scraps
of meat remaining.

None of them noticed the small Hexacralwer juvenile which had since wandered away from the heap of
death and had grown in size. One of it's parents had a mutation which meant that some of the predator
evasion instincts that it had as a fry were retained into adulthood and even on land. Ten years ago such a
mutation would have been at best an irrelevance and more likely a source of unease that would have cost it
some calories. In a world in which Hexastalkers exited it meant that it could mean the difference of life and
death. Several other swamps had been eaten clean of Hexacrawlers. But in this case a few of them
managed to survive to the point that the Hexastalker population collapsed. For several million years,
Hexacrawlers had been safe from predators on land and had gotten fat and complacent, now it was Survival
of the Skittish.

Last edited: May 4, 2018

Deatstroke

Deus est machina

27/28
Moderator

RedTape

Banned

28/28