He was likely rebuilding and between Sauraman and his apparent crushing at Dol Guldur everyone thought everything was hunky-dory. I mean, it wasn’t like the Ring was wandering around loose just a hundred miles from his location or anything, right? And as long as the Ring was long gone then they could knock Sauron down any time he popped up again, right? It’s not like he’d gathered the nine, started rebuilding his tower, and amassing an army in Mordor. And even if he had it’s not like he could build up enough to be any serious threat.
It was kind of a double bluff. Sauron wasn’t as badly hurt by the attack on Dol Guldur as he lead everyone to believe, and Sauraman got everyone to think that there was no way that Sauron could be a real problem anymore. At the point where the White Council attacked he was apparently just wrapping up everything he needed to do there since he went straight to Mordor after that and set up shop.
There were two blue wizards, but they were never so much as named saved for Ithryn Luin which means - you guessed it - Blue Wizards. It is specifically stated that they do not come into this story. Huh. I thought that Sauron was still too weak at the time to do much. Or had he regained a bit of power, and then lost it after his defeat?
Sauron on his worst day was likely more powerful than just about any other inhabitant of Middle Earth. And don’t forget, you can get more evil done when you’re…evil about it :).
Sauron was still a bodiless entity at that time, and had yet to actually manifest as anything, from what I understand… but his influence was still pervasive. Remember that the Men of the East practically worshipped him!
