nce the leader of the Council of the Wise, and the eponymous head of the White Council, Saruman the White allowed himself to be corrupted by the persuasive powers of the Dark Lord as he gazed jealously into the Palantír of Orthanc. In so doing he embarked on a road that would see him stripped of his nobility and twisted into a treacherous parody of a true Istari. So aligned, he turned his prodigious intellect to building an army to rival the Dark Lord’s own. What Saruman hoped to ultimately gain from his betrayal is shrouded in mystery, but he nonetheless used his magical knowledge against