Khand
From the One Wiki to Rule Them All, the Lord of the Rings Encyclopedia.
Khand was the name of a land which lay to the south-east of Mordor and to the east of Near Harad. The Men of Khand were called Variags.
Little is known about Khand or its people, but it appears to have been much like Rohan: the Variags were a people of riders. They also appear to be a fusion of their larger allies to the east and south, being like the Rhunic civilization and the Haradrim. They were excellent cavalry, much like the riders of Rohan, but their contribution to the War of the Ring was comparatively miniscule.
Its geographic proximity to Rhun and Harad have made it somewhat of a melting pot of the two.
Khand was under the influence of Mordor and supplied it with horses, and twice came into the history of Gondor: first in the year TA 1944 when the Variags together with the Wainriders attacked Gondor, and later during the War of the Ring when they fought and died on the Pelennor Fields. While this is not directly said in the literature, it is probable that Khand gradually fell under the control of Gondor during the Fourth Age and was hostile to it no longer.
Based on the map of the region, and its proximity to Harad, Khand was most likely a dry and barren land covered in desert. Its geography is little-known, although it could either constitute dry grassland or sandy desert.
[edit] Etymology
The name is possibly something in the language of the indigenous population.
