It’s all well and good celebrating the death of Sauron at the end of the war, but what happened to all the Orcs that were under his control?

We revel in the victory of Frodo, Aragorn, and the world of good, but an entire race of peoples – albeit nasty little creatures – is left with no leader and now fans of The Lord of the Rings are finding out what happened next.

The question was asked on Reddit of what happened to the Orcs after Sauron’s defeat and, true to form, many of the fans came to answer the question.

“In ROTK, it says many went mad and slew themselves, or threw themselves into pits, it seemed that as the power Sauron used to bind the orcs to his will died, many seemed to lose their minds,” notes the top reply.

It’s a pretty sad ending for a race who were essentially bent to the will of the Dark Lord.

There are a few others examples of what happened after Sauron died.

Another fan notes, “Pretty sure old Strider leads some missions to slay them,” meaning Aragorn orders the culling of the Orcs after he comes to power.

You would imagine that many would scatter before the culling began, perhaps trying to make way to parts of Middle-Earth where they could live some kind of existence.

However, as one fan points out, “The survivors fled east (to be picked apart by resentful Easterlings, presumably).”

Of course, Tolkien notably didn’t explore the Orcs much beyond this, as they were a sticking point in his trilogy.

The author struggled with the idea that the Orcs weren’t redeemable.

Many in the thread believe that some Orcs did get away, like this suggestion, “I always assumed that a few remained here and there, greatly diminished, hiding in dark places, to become the goblins and bugbears and faeries of folklore.”