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Or a more sinister reason: canonically, magic is powered by sacrifice - and most powerfully, human sacrifice. Sure, Tolkien skips over the child-snatchers, the sacrificial altars, the charnel-pits behind the Valar-temples, but we well know the true cost of the Numenorean theocracy.

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This wouldn't explain the low population of the shire. (Unless there is a "The Time Machine" type scenario. :( )

Well maybe after the more fanatical followers couldn't follow through on the demanded blood/power/life offerings the powers that be continued to levy their sacrifices in an indirect way, that manifests itself as low birth rates or particularily high infant mortality?

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