The One Ring

Basically, mind control is the most obvious power of the One Ring. The whole point was to take over the people wearing the lesser rings. But apparently the One Ring amplifies its wearer's ability to dominate the minds and control the thoughts of others who do not possess another ring. While Sauron's gains were the greatest from it, it affected other people as well. These effects should be noted as they effect the story and how decision makers would react to it. The Ring increases the power of the wielder proportional to what they naturally had – Smeagal became Gollum while Gandalf would have become more akin to a Balrog.   Now, its relationship to visibility is somewhat complicated. For all practical purposes the wearer was invisible. But in strong sunlight the person would still appear as a faint shadow. When worn, none but Tom Bombadil, Sauron and the Ring Wraiths could see the wearer. Sight was dimmed, but the other senses were strengthened.   It was the most corrupting of all the Rings of Power. It had its own will pushing it to be reunited with Sauron and it became more and more powerful the closer it got to Mount Doom. In the hands of a strong mind that could control it, the One Ring could grant major benefits. Yet those same traits made them more likely to be corrupted quicker, with greater harm when that happened. Even the strongest minds would take time to control it, adding even more risk to the plan due to the extra exposure to the ring’s malevolent corruption. The push towards evil would become even more likely due to the fact the bearer becomes overly attached to the One Ring. They become unwilling to give it up and thus become even more exposed to its evil. Therefore, using the One Ring against Sauron would be highly tempting to those best placed to do so. But would result in either short term gains before the Ring betrays them or the user would become the new dark lord.   Yes, the corruption is inevitable. We see this in the physical toll it takes on the wearer. The invisibility comes from the fact the person is actually shifted over to the unseen spirit world. Which grants the immortality too. This makes life unbearable for the person, slowly turning the person into a wraith. So as the bearer's life is extended, naturally so too is exposure to the corrupting effects. Mere possession is enough to do this. Bilbo and Gollum both possess the One Ring far from Mordor where its power is strongest and rarely wore it. Yet we see the corruption take hold.   But it is important to note that there are factors that change the rate of the corruption. The most notable appears to be the circumstances under which a person gains control. Gollum murders his friend to gain control. Meanwhile, Bilbo spares Gollum even while wearing it. Bilbo is able to give the One Ring up decades later, if reluctantly. Gollum never is able to do this. The innate goodness of a species, their power and the intentions of the bearer all appear to be important too. Humans fall quite quickly. Hobbits, which inherently are much less powerful than elves and less power hungry than humans are seen as the ideal bearers for this reason.   Ring bearers had their life spans increased to dramatic lengths. Meanwhile, bearers could still be killed – Sauron himself suffers military defeats and great physical harm when wearing it. Add in the fact that the will of the One Ring allows it to slip off a wearer’s finger or manipulate the bearer into doing what aids Sauron. Gollum is killed while in possession of the One Ring. Frodo is wearing it when he is severely wounded by the Mogul Blade and again later when his figure is bitten off.   Lastly, the One Ring appears to create an aura of power in the wielder. When he was rescuing Frodo, Sam had but was not wearing the One Ring. Yet he appeared to an orc as if he was a mighty elf warrior. The dread the One provoked in the orc caused it to flee.   The One Ring did contain a large mount of Sauron's soul and power. Which gave it limited sentience. It could call out to other people, sometimes tempting them to kill the current rein bearer. It also could recognize opportune moments, slipping off the finger of its current owner in order to further its ambitions. Then, it could pressure the bearer into submitting to Sauron's will. These powers were exploited by it to attempt to get reunited with Sauron.   Now, we do know that when united with the One Ring, Sauron becomes much more powerful. His power is split between the One Ring and his spirit, so when he is separated from it there is a large amount of his power he is not able to exploit. Now, the passive nature of the One Ring does not seem to be affected by the separation. Barad-dur for example does not appear to have its foundations weakened when the One Ring is outside Mordor. But there does appear to be some active powers that require at least proximity. For example, the closer the One Ring gets to Mordor the more powerful the Ring Wraiths get. Which means it is likely that the Wraiths are not just kept alive by their rings but directly get their power from it too. So when there is lower reserves of mystical power to call on for their supernatural abilities, these are less effective.   This suggests too that the increase in power is not based on the One Ring getting closer to Mordor. It is far more likely that the increase in strength is based on proximity to Sauron. Which, to be fair, he is practically imprisoned in Barad-dur for the duration of the story. So getting closer to one is getting closer to the other. But I suspect that the changes are due to Sauron - not some impact due to the inherent evil of Mordor.   The other thing that seems weird is the One Ring's impact on everything connected to Mordor. It makes sense that Barad-dur was destroyed with the One Ring, as it was built in part with the Ring's magic. The same goes for the Black Gate. But the Towers of the Teeth were built by Gondor without Sauron's magic. The ground under the gate opens into a giant chasm swallowing a huge part of Mordor's army. Mordor in no way can be seen as a creation of Sauron. Yet Minas Morgul and the Tower of Cirith Ungol appears to have remained intact. So I am a little confused as to the extent of the One Ring's influence over the physical environment. But there appears to be some.

The range I arrive at for Mt. Doom's Magma (1832-2282 F) range has important implications as well. For example, we can assume that it is actually magic that is holding the One Ring together, rather than actual heat. Steel is mentioned in many of my sources as the metal used for Gondorian weaponry. It has a melting point roughly 200 to 400 degrees higher than the temperature of basalt magma. Therefore, either Gondor sucks at making steel, isn’t actually using steel, or magic is protecting the One Ring. Otherwise, throwing the Ring into a random forge in Minas Tirith or the Lonely Mountain would have ended the story.   Now, lets get into the possible uses of magic to get a sense of how the One Ring was made. Beyond the magic that clearly had to be used to pour his very essence into the Ring, as noted above, something else was involved. The simplest answer is that he used magic to increase the temperature of Mt. Doom so that the magma burned hotter. But that is unlikely for several reasons. First off, in the movies his armor is made of steel, yet he wears it for the duration of the time he makes the One Ring. Seems like that would not work if the forge was heated beyond the melting point of steel. Secondly, when the Ring is thrown in, it instantly starts to melt. That means that if magic was used to heat the magma up, it would mean that it was essentially left on all the time. That seems like a pointless use of energy for someone who is so weakened after the loss of the One Ring. It would have also meant that the air temperature would probably been near fatal for the hobbits after simply walking in.   What would make sense is that Mt. Doom was used mainly because the making of such a ring would be extremely time consuming. So time consuming that the amount of coal or wood needed to keep the forge going would have been prohibitively expensive and hard to get. Meanwhile, the heat of magma is going to be constant and continue as long as needed, at no cost and whether you use it or not. The magic comes in would probably then be used as a protective spell to prevent harm coming to the Ring after it leaves the Cracks of Doom. The Cracks of Doom would probably have a counter spell that negates it. This would allow Sauron to work on it in Mt. Doom but leave it safe everywhere else. Sauron cannot be faulted for assuming that a sneak attack to exploit this spell being up would be tried. After all, who would be brave enough to try, able to get there at all and not fall to the temptation of the One Ring? In real life, perfect levels of safety are sacrificed in the name of practicality when the danger is seen as remote enough.   One interesting note is the Ring's ability to change its size. It is big enough to fit on Sauron's figure outside his armor. It then seemed to fit fine on Frodo's. This was also a contributing factor in why it fell of Isildur's finger.

The One Ring itself was his greatest success and failure all at the same time. The Ring Wraiths and Saruman all were controlled due to the power of the Ring. The Black Gate and Barad-Dur were impossible to fully destroy due to the Ring. Orcs and trolls obeyed because of the strength of Sauron’s will – magnified by the ring. Sauron himself also survived what should have killed him because of it. Due to the fact it was unable to be damaged or destroyed outside the fires of Mount Doom, this provided a degree of protection impossible to gain through normal armor. Yet he was finally totally defeated and killed because of the destruction of the Ring. When it was destroyed, his power was gone and his spirit evaporated, his forts collapsed and his armies routed. The remaining Ring Wraiths disappeared in a similar manner.   The One Ring I thus a bit of a mixed bag. Essentially it makes Sauron's defenses extremely brittle. It appears almost impossible to destroy. And no one can totally defeat Sauron Without doing so. But its destruction leaves the forces of evil completely devastated. The nature of regimes like in Mordor's is that there is no continuity of government plans in place. Sauron dies and his entire institutional framework is gone. The only leader in a position to unite the coalition killed. The most powerful battlefield commanders in the ringwraiths are killed. The trolls – the strongest infantry available to the forces of evil – are gone. This is likely to have highly demoralized the remaining Southrons and Easterlings.