Channelling the raw energy of his soldiers, Saruman appointed officers from their ranks to direct their savagery to greatest effect, and these he crowned with skull-faced wide-crested battle helms so they might be seen and obeyed by their men amid the surging throng.

According to rank and function, each commander's crest was wrought in a distinctive shape and emblazoned in crude white and crimson heraldry of Uruk design, a fearsome visage heralding near certain doom for the keep's beleaguered defenders.