Aldarion was a king of a Numenorian colony in Middle Earth in the Second Age. He was given a ring of power by Annatar, Lord of the Gifts, which brought him great power and fortune. However, he became obsessed with his ring, calling it "ziran" (beloved), and convinced everyone was in some plot against him for they thought he was mad. He had unnatural long life, and two of his wives had died of old age while he still lived. His obsession with his ring irritated his wife Zimra. She was an elf-friend who knew elves formerly from Eregion, elves whose kin had been killed when Sauron waged war against them and took the Nine Rings from them. She threatened to tell the elves about the ring and Aldarion's obsession. Aldarion said that the elves had poisoned her mind against him.

For years, Zaminbalak, a lady of the court, watched Aladarion from afar. Every time he spoke, she would be there to listen to him, admiring and loving him. He asked her to dance with him during a court ball. They fell in love, and Aladrion made her a handmaiden to his wife. He then began to poison his wife slowly with a potion that he had made himself. The poison would make it appear she was slowly dying of an illness. Zaminbalak gave Zimra the potion every night before she went to bed, and Zimra would constantly complain of her husband's madness and ring obsession. Zimra's criticism of Aldarion became too much for Zaminbalak to bear, and she strangled his wife one night in a fit of rage.

After the year of mourning had passed, Aldarion married Zaminbalak and made her his queen. Aldarion was rapidly fading and began to wear his ring on a chain about his neck to slow the process. Eventually, he totally faded, passing into the wraith world of shadows, and later became known as the Witch-King of Angmar, the Lord of the Nazgul.

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