"Lord... of the Dead?" Wes's mind could not quite process it, and Villy's memories offered him no information on the matter either. For a moment, Wes had no idea what to think.
"I came from the White Mountains. I was once the King of the Mountain there... Later... sigh!" The Undead hero looked at Wes, sighed, and did not continue.
In the year 3320 of the Second Age, the Kingdom of Gondor was founded. A black stone still stood at Erech, said to have been brought from Númenor by Isildur. It was placed upon a hill, and when Gondor was first founded, the King of the Mountain had sworn allegiance to Isildur before that black stone.
Yet in the year 3429 of the Second Age, when Sauron attacked Gondor, Isildur summoned the Mountain-dwellers to fulfill their oath. They refused, for they had once worshipped Sauron during the Dark Years. Thus, Isildur cursed them:
"You shall know no rest until the day you fulfill your oath."
The Mountain-dwellers fled from the enraged Isildur, yet they also dared not send troops to fight for Sauron. They hid away in secret places among the mountains, never dealing with outsiders again, gradually declining amid barren peaks and wilderness. Thus, the terror brought by the sleepless Undead shrouded Mount Erech and every place where that people had once wandered.
After these Mountain-dwellers died, they could not rest because of the curse of Isildur, king of Gondor. They gathered in the mountains and formed the Paths of the Dead, wandering there to bar the living from entering.
Prophet Malbeth had once said during the reign of Arvedui, the last king of Arnor:
"A shadow weighs upon the land, and wings of darkness spread westward. The Tower of Guard trembles; doom draws near the tombs of kings.