Sauron’s machinations continue to plunge Middle-Earth into darkness as his mission to forge rings of power for all the races nears completion. The Dwarven rings have already started spreading his malicious influence, as King Durin has been corrupted by greed. However, Sauron’s plan of creating Rings of Men faced an initial hurdle from Elven master smith Celebrimbor himself, who was unwilling to let the frail-minded humans wield such a power in fear of corruption. By playing mind games with Celebrimbor and using the pride of the artist as a weapon against him, Sauron had managed to convince him to create the Rings of Men. With a few more impediments along his way, the creation of the last set of the Rings of Power is proving to be quite a challenge for the Dark Lord—but the way he overcomes those highlights exactly why Elrond, Galadriel, and those familiar with the power that Sauron wields are so wary of his influence. Sauron’s actions behind the creation of Rings of Men make these the most dreadful ones among three different sets of Rings of Power, retroactively setting the creation of Nazgûl in the process.

The Impediments: Shortage of Mithril and Celebrimbor’s Troubled Psyche

The beginning of the sixth episode sees Celebrimbor engaged in a manic pursuit to forge the Rings of Men, but a shortage of Mithril results in constant failure, which frustrates him enough for him to drive off his apprentices. Sauron’s handiwork might also be responsible for his distressed state of mind, as not allowing him the chance to think clearly gives the Dark Lord that much of a chance to manipulate him. Anyway, Celebrimbor sends Sauron to Khazad-dûm to ascertain the reason as to why the Dwarves have started ignoring their previous arrangement and stopped sending Mithril supply to Eregion. Sauron is delighted to oblige and finds out that his creation—the Dwarven Rings—are working a little too well, which is why the Mithril supply has stopped. King Durin refuses to send Mithril to Eregion and later confides with his son, Prince Durin, that he seeks to preserve enough Mithril to monopolize on it when the war for Middle-Earth begins. The corruption of the ring has taken over King Durin’s moral consciousness, and there doesn’t seem to be any chance of turning him to his former self.

Dealing with the lack of mineral issue already, the next hindrance that rears its troublesome head turns out to be the upcoming Orc invasion of Eregion. Although it was most probably according to Sauron’s plan to draw out Adar from Mordor and, by luring him to attack Eregion, diminish his Orc legions in a war, and take control over his forces in secret. But the time is of the essence, and being so close to success, Sauron cannot afford Celebrimbor getting distracted into administrative issues and diverting his attention to fend off the upcoming assault. Sauron ensures that the news of the possible invasion doesn’t reach Celebrimbor; however, as Celebrimbor grows sceptical and decides to abandon his effort of forging the Rings of Men, Sauron decides to take matters into his own hands to ensure his success.

How Did Sauron Create The Rings of Men?

Sauron uses his blood to create Mithril ore and presents it to Celebrimbor while lying about it belonging to Dwarves of Khazad-dûm. Additionally, keeping him in a sense of false assurance, Sauron shows him a vision of Eregion in peace, which eases the master smith’s mind as he returns to his workbench, being oblivious to the war that is raging outside his chambers. The Rings of Men are about to be forged just in time for Sauron to regain his prime position, and his pawns have taken their place across the proverbial board of chess according to his schemes.

The Rings of Power of Elves, Dwarves, and Men have varying degrees of corruption, in accordance with Sauron’s influence over them. The Dark Lord had the least impact in the creation of three Elven rings, which is why they show limited signs of his corruption. The Dwarven Rings are co-created by Sauron, which is why their evil grasp on their wearers is stronger by comparison. And the Rings of Men are shown to have Sauron’s blood; the purest form of evil is imbued within them already. Adding to that the fact that humans are shown to have weaker mental fortitude compared to Elves and Dwarves, it takes little imagination to speculate what horrors Sauron’s last batch of Rings of Power can wreak on them.

As viewers acquainted with Tolkien’s Middle-Earth legendarium already know, Sauron gives away the Rings of Men to the human kings, who amass great wealth and power by using them. Until Sauron creates the one ring for himself, which allows him to control and corrupt the Rings of Men and turn the wearers into the insidious monstrosities known as Nazgûl, aka Ring Wraiths, and become the Dark Lord’s supreme enforcers. Three of the Nazgûls belong from Númenor, and given how the episode has already shown Pharazôn, the present ruler of Númenor, seeing a vision of a dreadful future in Palantir, which hints about Sauron’s influence in his future, the vile conspiracy of the Dark Lord has started taking shape already. With the creation of Rings of Men, Sauron will focus on creating the one ring—which will rule them all—although it seems that will be an issue to address in the third season.