Sauron is approaching the point where he must forge the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3, and two Lord of the Rings characters will help him do it. Sauron finished The Rings of Power season 2 with most of the Rings of Power completed. The three Elven-rings were finished but out of his grasp, the seven Dwarf-rings were made and distributed, and the nine Rings of Men were made and ready to be given out. After giving them out, Sauron has just one Ring of Power left to forge – the One Ring.

The Rings of Power season 3 must open with Sauron giving out the Rings of Men and must cover Sauron forging the One Ring. Only after that can the show’s story evolve into the tales from “Akallabêth” and “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” that it is destined to cover. These Silmarillion chapters dive into Sauron’s misadventures with the One Ring in tow. Before that, Sauron will be looking to two of Lord of the Rings’ most powerful characters for guidance in forging the One Ring.

Sauron Will Be Using Techniques From Celebrimbor And Morgoth To Forge The One Ring

Sauron Will Look To Morgoth And Celebrimbor For The One Ring’s Design

Sauron will be looking to Celebrimbor and Morgoth for inspiration and guidance in forging the One Ring in The Rings of Power season 3. This will be based on The Silmarillion and Morgoth’s Ring, two compilations of Tolkien stories published posthumously. Sauron learned a lot from Celebrimbor in The Rings of Power season 2, especially the importance of sacrifice, as he stated. Sauron poured his literal blood, sweat, and tears into the Nine. Although the many tears Sauron cried in season 2 may not have fallen into the rings, the Nine were imbued with Sauron’s blood and physical touch.

Dark Lord Sauron proved to Celebrimbor that he was prepared to make his own blood sacrifice to empower the rings. Sauron had also liaised with Celebrimbor at a top level at the start of the Rings of Power’s ideation, giving Celebrimbor the necessary lore. Celebrimbor and Sauron swapped techniques while making the Three and Seven, while Celebrimbor did most of the manual labor on the Nine. Either way, Sauron will be taking a lot of Celebrimbor’s technical know-how to Mount Doom when he forges the One. However, it is Morgoth’s blueprint that Sauron will use to start the One Ring.

The Dark Magic Sauron Needs For The One Ring Was Used Once Before

Arda Was Morgoth’s Ring In The Lord Of The Rings

In forging the One Ring, Sauron will be copying a ritual attempted by only one other being in the history of Middle-earth. Only the Vala Morgoth was deranged enough to attempt a full merge of his own being with another physical substance. Despite Sauron coming away from Eregion with Celebrimbor’s technological advancements and idea of sacrifice, it is Morgoth’s evil genius that he will be attempting to replicate with the One Ring. If Celebrimbor really did teach Sauron sacrifice, it seems that good and evil in the show may use the same fundamental principles to craft objects of immense power.

…Morgoth poured his being into the fabric of Arda, ensuring his lasting influence, even after his defeat. The result was Arda Marred…

Long before the events of The Rings of Power, Morgoth warred with the Valar in the Battle of the Powers. This cosmic fight entailed the Valar building Middle-earth and its wider world from the ground up, while Morgoth corrupted, distorted, and destroyed what they built. At this time, Morgoth poured his being into the fabric of Arda, ensuring his lasting influence, even after his defeat. The result was Arda Marred – the world forever marred until its breaking and remaking in the final battle, the Dagor Dagorath. While Sauron would attempt this process with metal, Arda was Morgoth’s Ring.

Without Celebrimbor, Morgoth’s Incarnation Blueprint Will Be Sauron’s Downfall

Celebrimbor Could Have Helped Sauron Forge A Better Ring

Celebrimbor and Morgoth were both trying to teach Sauron a lesson about sacrifice in creation, but it didn’t pay off. Perhaps an inspiration for Voldemort’s Horcruxes in Harry Potter, Morgoth and Sauron’s soul-splitting bound them to their physical forms. “Ósanwe-kenta” in Morgoth’s Ring explains how evil deeds were binding when it came to Ainur shapeshifting and regeneration. The furthering of personal purpose gradually eroded this ability. However, as per Morgoth’s Ring, even Morgoth’s defeat couldn’t remove his soul from Arda, leaving much of it with a “Melkor-ingredient” with an innate corruptibility:

Morgoth’s power was disseminated throughout Gold… It was this Morgoth-element in matter, indeed, which was a prerequisite for such magic and other evils as Sauron practised with it and upon it.

The One Ring’s gold contained the Melkor-ingredient. In a way, it contained Melkor himself. Sauron followed Morgoth’s incarnation blueprint and poured so much of his being into the One that he was hugely empowered with it, but so bound by the draining process that he could never again take a physical form after its destruction. Through his dark magic, Sauron became bound to his physical form, just like Morgoth. But Sauron’s plan had a fatal vulnerability that Morgoth’s didn’t. Morgoth was bound into the whole world and no one would destroy that; at least, until its prophesied end.

In The Rings of Power season 2 finale, Celebrimbor told Sauron that the rings were his master, triggering Sauron’s rage and getting him killed. Ironically, keeping Celebrimbor alive may have helped Sauron avoid this.

The One Ring could and would be destroyed, leaving Sauron’s final body destroyed along with it and his soul with no means of returning to the Seen world. Celebrimbor did most of the Nine’s forging and could have helped Sauron craft a better One Ring. But Sauron killed him in a rage and went back to Morgoth on an atomic level, joining him within the ring. Whatever relationship the two had in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, perhaps it was justice that they ended up together in Sauron’s final speaking moments on Middle-earth.