Status Updates From The Silmarillion

“…the sky reeled, and the hills slid, and Númenor went down into the sea, with all its children and its wives and its maidens and its ladies proud; and all its gardens and its halls and its towers, its tombs and its riches, and its jewels and its webs and its things painted and carven, and its laughter and its mirth and its music, its wisdom and its lore: they vanished for ever.“

“Nonetheless for long it seemed to the Númenóreans that they prospered, and if
they were not increased in happiness, yet they grew more strong, and their rich men ever richer.… they multiplied their possessions, and they devised engines, and they built ever greater ships.… and the memory of the kindly kings of the ancient days faded from the world and was darkened by many a tale of dread.”

“But for all this Death did not depart from the land, rather it came sooner and more often, and in many dreadful guises…. And men took weapons in those days and slew one another for little cause; for they were become quick to anger, and Sauron, or those whom he had bound to himself, went about the land setting man against man…”

“And most often from among the Faithful they chose their victims; yet never openly on the charge that they would not worship Melkor, the Giver of
Freedom, rather was cause sought against them that they hated the King and were his rebels, or that they plotted against their kin, devising lies and poisons. These charges were for the most part false; yet those were bitter days, and hate
brings forth hate.”