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The unrest that created the Kin-strife began when Valacar, the son of the Gondorian king Rómendacil II, married a woman of the Northmen of Rhovanion, Vidumavi. She bore him a son Eldacar, but many Gondorians of Númenórean blood were angered by this mixing of blood of Middle Men and Númenóreans, and the coastal provinces rebelled when Valacar grew old.

When in 1432 of the Third Age Eldacar succeeded his father the unrest grew into open rebellion, as many Gondorians saw Eldacar as a halfbreed who had no right to rule. The chief of them was his distant relative Castamir the Usurper, Lord of Ships, who in 1437 usurped the throne, forcing Eldacar into exile. During the rebellion Osgiliath was burned, and the great Dome of Stars was lost, together with its Palantír. Castamir also murdered Eldacar's son and heir OmendilTolkien's Middle-Earth legendarium Omendil was the elder son of King Eldacar of Gondor. In the seige of Osgilliath during the Gondorian civil war, Omendil's father was driven out by Castamir the Usurper. However, Omendil did not escape with his father and. Eldacar fled to Rhovanion, and Castamir ruled in his stead.

A full decade later, in 1447, Eldacar returned with Rhovanion troops, at the same time a rebellion against Castamir's cruel rule took place. Eldacar managed to kill Castamir at the Battle of EruiIn the fiction of J. Tolkien, the Battle of Erui was the last battle of the Kin-strife of Gondor. After a decade of cruel rule by Castamir the Usurper, the people of Gondor rebelled, and the rightful king Eldacar of Gondor returned to his Kingdom. Castami, but Castamir's sons and many of their supporters fled south to UmbarTolkien's universe of Middle-earth, Umbar was a great haven to the far south of Gondor. Umbar had been built by the Numenoreans in the year 3220 of the Second Age, and like the havens of Pelargir and Lond Daer later grew into a fortress from which Numenor. Eldacar could not follow them, as the fleet was under Castamir's control.

Not only did Gondor lose the city of Umbar for four centuries and gained a new enemy in the Corsairs of UmbarThe Corsairs of Umbar are a fictional nation of Men in the fantasy universe of J. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Umbar was an old Numenorean haven settled by the King's Men — a proud faction loyal to the King and opposed to the divine authority of the Valar., descendants of Castamir's sons, but also many of the Númenóreans of purest blood were killed during the civil war, leaving Gondor weakened.

The Kin-strife was, along with the Great PlagueTolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Great Plague was a disastrous pestilence. The Great Plague began in the east beyond Mordor, reaching Osgiliath in 1636 of the Third Age, just a year after King Minardil of Gondor had been killed at Pelargi, one of the chief reasons for the abandonment of the fortresses in and surrounding MordorTolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mordor is the dwelling place of Sauron, in the southeast of Middle-earth. Frodo and Sam went there to destroy the One Ring. Mordor was unique because of the three enormous mountain ridges surrounding it, from.