When the Dark Lord of Mordor rose once more to power by reclaiming his Ring of Doom, he swiftly uncovered the treachery of Orthanc and sent the White Wizard into flight. When at last his forces captured Saruman, however, the fallen Istar had already divested himself of the prize Sauron desired most from him: Saruman’s new-made Ring of Many Colours.
Not even the torture pits of Barad-dûr could wrest aught of it from the Wizard’s lips, and, at last, his fana brutalized and broken beyond the bounds of endurance, Saruman’s spirit fled its casement of flesh, vanishing into the Realms Unseen, from which there could be no return for him, as ordained by the Lords of the West when first the Istari were dispatched from the Undying Lands on their errand of mercy. In truth, even absent the injunction of the Valar, Saruman’s spirit was too much diminished by the loss of essence forged into his Ring for him to conjure forth a new raiment of mortal seeming, and so what little remained of him was condemned to wander naked, insubstantial and all but powerless. Sauron reckoned that punishment enough for the nonce, for the many fronts of his war to dominate all life on Middle-earth were far more pressing than a trinket wrought by a traitor’s hands. In time, the Dark Lord reasoned, after all the crowns of these lands east of the sea are laid at his feet, would there be ample opportunity to pursue the lost Ring of Curunír and claim it as his own.
Sauron, in his arrogance, never imagined that any other had learned of this errant Ring of Power, for what mind across the length and breadth of Middle-earth was ever so keen and incisive as that of Tar-Mairon, heir to Melkor’s dark throne? What Man or Elf or even Ainu was ever so cunning as one who might yet prove himself greater, still, than even the mighty Morgoth Bauglir?
But the Ring of Many Colours was not a secret known to the Dark Lord, alone, and a Ring of Power—even one crafted by the hands of a lesser Maia than Sauron—is a mighty thing, indeed; a device which might aid the Free Peoples in turning the tide of Sauron’s war of conquest.
Thus, in secret, three years after the fall of King Delugûr of Angmar reborn, a handful of heroes are gathered at the behest of the reconvened Council of the Wise, for Saruman’s Ring is perhaps not so lost as the Lord of Mordor imagines it to be…
Hosted and narrated by:
Stephen Michael DiPesa (Nocturnalchemy)
Started 06/26/25.
Scenes played: 0
License: Community License
