Rings Of Power Has Just Introduced A Major Lord Of The Rings Landmark

gamespot.com:

Rings of Power has just completely overhauled the geography of Middle-earth with its sixth episode, Udûn, and answered some critical questions about the orcs and their plans--here's what happened and what it might mean for the future of the show.

Naturally, major spoilers to follow so if you're not caught up on Prime Video's Lord of the Rings TV show, best click away now.

We've known from early on that something terrible was going to happen to the Southlands--it doesn't take a cartographer or Tolkien lore expert to put together that that particular region seemed to be conspicuously missing from the stories of the Third Age. And, similarly, it was never hard to spot the absence of one major part of Middle-earth geography: The fiery wasteland of Mordor. Connecting those dots wasn't that big of a challenge. What was a challenge, however, was figuring out how we could possibly get from point A to point B in this particular adventure.

Well, we have our answer now. The very explosive creation of Mordor happened right before our (and about 50% of the ensemble casts') eyes. It turns out that those tunnels the orcs were digging weren't just a means of moving during the daytime--they were strategically placed underground rivers, meant to facilitate the flooding of a volcano you, and I will immediately know as Mt. Doom. The flood itself came from the cracking of a dam, which was actually triggered by the use of that strange cursed sword Theo found. It was a sword, sure, but it was also a key to a very Indiana Jones-flavored device that allowed the water to spill out of the dam and rush through the caves and tunnels, wreaking untold havoc across the Southlands. But flooding wasn't the ultimate goal--they needed the water to rush