The Siege of Moria

Balin, Lord of Moria, had fallen at the shores of Mirrormere. Having only barely time to recover his body dwarves retreated and barred the Gate, for they saw that the enemy came in great numbers. The main army of Orcs arrived soon after scouts; they regrouped to the Dimrill Dale and started the siege.

The Great Gate was the only entrance to Kingdom of Khazad-dúm from the east, and of old it had been a part of the defence mechanism; it was strong and had remained undamaged since Khazad-dúm was abandoned. Defender's only hope was to hold the Gate and keep the enemy at bay, but Balin's colony was too few in numbers to battle against an entire army, and dwarves knew that end would come soon. Orc captains sent in the battering ram, not caring about weak volleys of arrows that dwarves shot towards the attacker.

Few days after the siege started the Great gate was breached and damaged beyond repair, and Orcs poured in. Dwarves lost their greatest defence as the gate was broken, but many passages were fortified during the history; the Eastern Gate had always been under threat of an attack. Fierce skirmishes followed later as defenders retreated towards the Bridge of Khazad-dúm.
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Drawing ink + graphite pencil work. The trickiest part to draw was, without a doubt, the gate. Perspective and shading, sigh.

But on the other hand, I got inspiration to draw few illustrations concerning the battle of Hornburg!

Eighth illustration to my "Balin, Lord of Moria" -serie. The battle at the Bridge of Khazad-dúm will come in near future.