Ciryatan was the son of Tar-Minastir. When the sceptre was passed to him he became the twelfth of the Kings of Númenor.

Ciryatan was a mighty king but he was very greedy of wealth. He had built a great fleet of royal ships and those who sailed under his name brought to the king a great store of metals and jewels. His servants oppressed the men who remained in Middle-earth who had at one time held the Númenóreans as gods.

Tar-Ciryatan scorned his father's yearnings for the west and eased his own restlessness by sailing far into the north, south and east of the world in the years before he took the sceptre. It is said that he coerced his father into giving him the sceptre before his time. This act was held as a first sign of the coming of the Shadow upon the bliss of Númenor.

Tar-Ciryatan ruled for 160 years and was succeeded by his son Tar-Atanamir in SA 2029.
Encyclopedia entry originally written by Nienna-of-the-Valar