Sauron Shows Saruman Visions That Break His Faith

An AI-generated fan film exploring a moment Tolkien never wrote in full but one that changed everything. In the year 3000 of the Third Age, Saruman the White dared to look into the palantír of Orthanc. Something looked back. The Tale of Years gives this a single line: "Saruman dares to use the palantír of Orthanc, but becomes ensnared by Sauron, who has the Ithil-stone". It does not appear in Jackson's films at all. Everything between those two facts is left to the imagination. This is not the beginning of Saruman's fall, and it is not the completion of his treachery. By this point he has already held Isengard as his own for forty-seven years, already lied to the White Council about the fate of the One Ring, already sent spies into the Shire. What happens here is something else. Sauron reaches through the Stone into his mind and recognises Curumo - a Maia who once served Aulë, as he did himself at the dawn of time. What follows is not a threat. It is a series of visions. The rebuilt Barad-dûr and the armies of Mordor. The Elves leaving and diminished Gondor. The drowning of Númenor, which the Powers of the West could not undo him with. And Gandalf, at ease among the Eldar, loved by everyone who was meant to follow Saruman instead. Sauron barely speaks. He does not need to. He shows Saruman a world in which the errand was never going to work and takes from him the one thing that had kept him on the right side of it. And Saruman, for all that the Stone lays him open, does not give everything away. He lies about the One Ring, the same lie he told the White Council, to a mind that can see straight through it. And he says nothing at all about the Three. He has known for two thousand years that Círdan gave the Ring of Fire to Gandalf, it is the source of his jealousy, and he suspects where the other two are. Disclaimer: This content is not associated with, affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Tolkien Estate, HarperCollins, Amazon, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, or any rights holder connected to J.R.R. Tolkien's works. It is created under fair use for creative expression and fan storytelling.