these books are all about this ring. how it'sfound and [spoiler alert] how it's destroyed. while tolkien built the largest and most consistentfictional universe he sure didn't mind being vague at times -- so if you finished the storyand then thought: wait, what can this ring do and where did it come from? this is yourvideo. first thing first: the one ring is not theonly ring -- it's lord of the ring*s*, after all -- and that lord is sauron. long before this story starts, sauron disguisedhimself and came to the elves to work with their master craftsman celebrimbor to forgethe rings of power. together they made 16 -- called the lesser rings, then celebrimbortook sauron's formula and made three on his
own that turned out more powerful than theoriginal 16. why make rings based on the suggestion ofa stranger whose resume has a millennia-long gap? because he promised the rings would fixthe elves biggest problem: this world is winding down. the amount of big and awesome and magicdecreases as a function of time here. for elves, magic *immortal* creatures, thisis bad news. sauron said the rings would preserve what their wearers cared about most. that'swhy the elven kingdoms are so fantastical compared to the rest of the world -- theirrings have preserved them unlike the famous poem implies, the elvesmade all the rings for themselves intending exactly 0 to get into the hands of men ordwarves, whom the elves think are stinky -- so
obviously something went wrong. which bringsus back to the one ring to rule them all. sauron's chief ability's is to dominate theminds of others -- that's partly why he's able to control such large armies -- and hesecretly made the the one ring as a kind of lens to focus this power -- his formula forring construction, unknown to celebrimbor, also made the wearers of the nineteen ringsmore vulnerable. basically: the one ring buffs his psy attackand the other rings debuf psy defense. plan a was to control a bunch of high-levelelves. but when he put the one ring on, the elves' base-level stats allowed them to resistand take off their rings just in time. sauron captured celebrimbor and tortured himuntil he gave up the 16 lesser rings -- but
he died before revealing who was protectingthe three most powerful ones. so sauron now had 16 mind-controlling ringsand had to turn to plan b: dwarves. sauron manipulated sevens rings into the handsof the dwarven kings but that didn't work well either -- dwarves are a kind of clockworkcreature sauron found impossible to control. but the rings weren't super helpful for dwarveseither who loved treasure above all else so the rings grew their hordes large enough toattract dragons who ate the dwarves and their precious rings. finally, in the hands of men, ever the corruptiblespecies, the rings worked as expected: sauron controlled their minds. and, as mortals, theyvalued their lives the most, which the rings
stretched for 1,000s of years. stretched sothin the men turn into invisible wraiths. anyway, these domination plans don't go unnoticed,there�s a big war -- sauron is defeated and fades and the one ring is lost. but the one ring is tricksy. it has a mindof its own and wants to get back to sauron, which brings us back to its powers: first: the ring tempts everyone (well, almosteveryone) with promises that, yes this little ring can be a mighty weapon or a tool to reshapethe world, and gosh, don't you just look like the best guy to use it? let's go vanquishthe powerful-demigod who lives over there to get started, shall we. hmmm?
this is why the hobbits made great ring bearers:because they're pretty happy with the way things are and don't aspire to greatness.of course, there's gollum who started out as a hobbit, but all things considered heheld out pretty well for a couple hundred years. set the ring on the desk of most menand they wouldn't be able to finish their coffee before heading to mordor to rule theworld and do it right this time. it's worth considering that the one ring'spromises are just lies -- that no one could *really* overthrow sauron with it -- the ringonly wants to trick its wearer to get found which brings us to... invisibility.
which outside the minds of characters, isthe only, tangible power the ring displays for everyone else -- invisibility seems great-- but while you're hiding from that troll you shine like a beacon in the unseen world.where the, also invisible ring wraiths, can easily spot you. in summary: the one ringa) turns you invisible in the most unhelpful mannerb) is probably filled with lies, because c) it's part of sauron and works for him. he's so connected to it, that its destructionends him for good. but the formula also intertwines
the one ring with all the rest. and so whenit fails, so do they. this is why the elves are *so somber*. victoryover sauron also means that the rings won't preserve their kingdoms anymore -- and allwill diminish. these books are the end of the age of magic and the beginning of theage of men. (link to lotr wallpapers at the end)hello internet, if you like lotr and this artwork, i�ve made a wallpaper pack of everypiece of art available over at patreon. they�re all available in 4k so you can use them onanything from a huge screen all the way down to your iphone. click here to go check themout.
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