I have a lot of feelings about this from the perspective of like. The Haradrim and the other "evil" Men who were Sauron's allies, because like.
Mordor would not have been completely emptied, when Sauron's armies marched to the Black Gate. One, because Mordor is a nation, not just the Plains of Gorgoroth. And two, because medieval military encampments never contained only soldiers.
There would have been noncombatants in Mordor. Thousands of them. Blacksmiths making weapons. Armourers making armour. The sick and injured, and the healers tending to them. Wives and children of Haradrim or Easterling warlords who didn't want to be separated for a long campaign. Wives and children of local Orc soldiers who don't have to be separated at all because they live there fulltime. Imported slaves. Merchants and vendors. Sauron's actual servants who do chores in Barad-Dûr. Girlfriends and children of ordinary allied soldiers who have wives and other kids they left at home. Camp followers, the sex workers who trail around after lonely soldiers with coin and fuck all else to spend it on. Grooms to look after the horses. Mahouts to look after the Mumâkil. Logistics people making sure everyone is fed and sheltered. Entourages for warlords and commanders - their servants, squire-equivalents, retainers, bodyguards.
And this makes sense because like. Yes, Sauron is all about order, but he's also intimately familiar with human nature. He's maintained alliances with kingdoms of Men for thousands of years, going back to when he was Morgoth's diplomacy guy - aside from maybe Gandalf, Sauron would be the most familiar with human cultures of all the Ainur.
So he'd know that rising up against oppression is what humans do. That's who we are at our core - we fight, we hope, and we strive for something better than we had for our children, even if that means paying with our lives.
And the fact that his alliances have lasted so long suggests that he's taken this into account! Sauron's been abandoned by his own forces before, and he had to go be a mortal king's trophy slave for a few centuries about it, so he knows it could happen again. He's taken the time and effort this time around to build good, lasting relationships with his allies. Whatever the eastern kingdoms are getting out of their agreements with him, they're content enough that they send him reinforcements when he needs them, even though the scale of the armies they send likely leaves them vulnerable longterm (to, say, colonialism from Gondor a few decades down the line). So they're not expecting him to lose, and they're willing to stake their cultures' futures on sending enough men to make sure he doesn't.
Anyway, back on point: it's in Sauron's own best interest to keep his allies and their troops happy, because that many angry humans packed in with that many angry Orcs for years at a time could mean a bloodbath that would cost him a good chunk of his armies and maybe some of his alliances. So he would make sure there was entertainment and companionship available for his allies' soldiers. He would house the women and children who've been lugged halfway across the continent to "live on-base" with their husbands and fathers. He would probably bring in performers and musicians and tutors and whatnot from their home countries to keep the higher-ups content, so that they would keep their subordinates under control. Orcs and Trolls might be willing to live in barely-better-than-stone-age filth, but humans aren't, not for long. He probably presented himself to the allied commanders as a very generous, gracious host - because Sauron is a very clever, manipulative person capable of a great deal of charm, tact and likeability when it serves him to be that way.
And so all those noncombatants are the ones who would've still been close to Mount Doom when it erupted. They're the ones who would've been caught in the pyroclastic flow. Their own Pompeii, a cataclysm that might've rivalled Númenor for the Gondorians or the Kinslayings for the Elves.
It fascinates me how this story, beloved by the people of the West for being a great and noble victory, would've most likely been a horror story in the east. Mordor's fall cleared the way for the eastern kingdoms to be colonised "peacefully subdued" by Gondor in the fourth age. Who was their strongest ally? Sauron. Who would they have asked for reinforcements? Sauron. Who would Gondor have had to get past to even reach them in the first place? Sauron.
Just!!!!!! I'm mad the east got so little development idk akfjajfjsnfksfksj i need more of their perspective on ME's history anyway sorry op for tagging on your post
