Nine years before the War of the Ring and the Fall of Sauron.

There is a dark power rising in the East, and the rulers of the kingdoms of men are corrupted. Theoden, King of Rohan, has recently come under the spell of the White Wizard Saruman. In the great Kingdom of Gondor, the city of Minas Tirith is falling apart from the inside out as the Steward, Denethor, turns his gaze more often upon the Palantir which is under the watchful eye of Sauron.