And now, for something completely different
How the One Ring humbles the powerful and the true power lies in the humbles
Our next free game was supposed to be released this week, but the past ten days have been incredibly complex, as anyone who’s opened a newspaper or listened to a geopolitics podcast will know.
It’s not our intention to speak about these events directly, but, as is our custom, we’ve chosen to explore part of the issue from a sideways angle, cowardly hiding behind the words of writers far better than us, like good old Tolkien, to offer a different perspective on those who, often clumsily, pull the strings of this sick, sad world.
The Humbling One Ring
Today, let’s discuss one of the great classics of literature, The Lord of the Rings. It became hugely successful, especially after the boom from the film saga, but its interesting themes are often not explored in depth.
It’s a story that is impossible not to know, yet we’re interested in delving into a very specific theme that has been little discussed: the theme of arrogance and its link to the curse of the One Ring.
Now, the curse of the Ring has been analyzed at length and can be summarized very simply: as a protective mechanism, Sauron ensured that anyone who came into contact with the One Ring would not feel a desire to possess it but instead would consider themselves, without a shadow of a doubt, its rightful owner.
The Ring does not fuel greed, as is often thought; it fuels the pride of those who gravitate around it. Doing so obviously fuels the desire not for possession but to take back what is in wrong and undeserving hands. In itself, Sauron’s plan doesn’t sound so flawed because in Middle-earth, he is the greatest threat, and consequently, whoever the Ring-bearer might be would be eliminated sooner or later by him or his servants.
One of the themes of this saga that is little talked about is arrogance. All of Middle-earth is a constant victim of arrogance and the inability to admit one’s own responsibilities. Ironically, many problems arise and are resolved precisely because of the constant smugness and haughtiness that permeates the wicked.
Sauron always and only targets the powerful, the rulers, and the prominent figures, so the rings he gives to corrupt them inevitably become useless in their own way. The Seven Rings of the Dwarves are lost forever along with their fallen kingdoms; the Elven rings are kept hidden and, in any case, used for good because Sauron had underestimated those people; and the Nine Nazgûl, the Nine Ringwraiths, are literally the shadows of the mighty kings of men they once were. The Witch-king himself, the most powerful among them, convinced he was unbeatable because a prophecy had guaranteed he would never fall by the hand of a man, ends up being killed by Éowyn, the daughter of Théoden, King of Rohan, because he had not considered that a woman could also be a warrior. A single blow is enough to destroy a threat that has loomed for millennia, collapsing under its own hubris.
Sauron seizes the opportunity to corrupt Saruman, who will then attempt to turn against him. Saruman traps Gandalf at the top of the Tower of Orthanc, from which no one can escape or communicate, forgetting that animals can fly and that one of the Wizards, Radagast the Brown, can communicate with them. Isengard falls to the blows of the Ents, a people the forces of darkness did not consider because they were slow to act and close to extinction, never mind that a single Ent has the strength to shatter rock.
Unfortunately, Sauron’s plan fails to account for several factors, such as the nobility of humble people like Frodo and Sam or the determination of an Aragorn who spends his life far from his destiny as king. The creature that gives Sauron the most trouble from the first book is the same one that will close the circle, destroying the One Ring and its master forever: Gollum.
This is because Sauron, unfortunately for him, makes a huge mistake stemming from his own history as a demigod who betrayed his creator to devote himself to the forces of evil. Sauron thinks the world is guided by the powerful, the strong, the valiant, so the curse of the One Ring is built for people of this caliber. It is no coincidence, in fact, that the noble Boromir succumbs to it, just as it is no coincidence that Lady Galadriel and Gandalf keep their distance from it. The curse, therefore, causes the powerful with noble hearts to stay away for fear of yielding, while others, even with the best possible intentions, give in to it, only to be devoured.
But Sauron had never considered it possible that such a powerful object could fall into the hands of a small, delicate being, a creature aware of its limits and terrified by them: a small, fragile hobbit. And here, Sauron’s fall begins, precisely when the One Ring falls into the hands of the one who would become Gollum. Slowly, he is consumed by the terror that it might fall into anyone else’s hands and become the property of someone stronger and more powerful than him. And so, the most important instrument in all of Middle-earth remains trapped for decades in a cave, far from the eyes of its true owner.
In every chapter of The Lord of the Rings, we see that the greatest enemy of the Dark Lord, and all villains in general, is always and only the conviction that the world is governed and managed by the powerful and that the weak are just shadows in their background.
Yet, a small moth is enough to help Gandalf escape; a simple king who refuses to place himself above others and who spends his life under another name is enough to lead the armies in the final battle; two small Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, are enough to set the gears in motion that will lead the Ents to destroy Isengard and Éowyn to be present at the battle.
Everything moves in the background, the same background where the eye of the Dark Lord has no interest in casting its gaze. He is so confident that two small hobbits could never overcome his defenses, so much so that he cannot even imagine that Shelob, the demon spider progeny of a mythological being, could be troubled by Sam, a humble gardener. And he could not imagine that the One Ring would be destroyed by its curse after having demolished the fragile mind of a small hobbit.
All the protagonists of The Lord of the Rings, all those we now call heroes, are just those lives we never consider, those we leave in the background, those we define as insignificant and do not deign to notice.
The final irony in all of this lies in one thing: of all the Rings created by Sauron, the One is a simple golden band devoid of gems and precious things, as if the Dark Lord knew that, deep down, the things that go unnoticed are the most precious and, at times, the most dangerous.
Toybox: Escape from El Dorado
Fresh from the author of Aztlan, Roberto Luna, we are giving away a gripping new adventure for Epigoni in the gilded streets of El Dorado.
Not all that glitters is gold, but also not all gold is good for you. You can take a look at this new adventure, ready to be played, at the link below.
It’s the last week to snatch a copy of Aztlan for free by subscribing to our newsletter, but you can also download it from itch.io and DriveThruRPG.
Things we loved this month
A splendid note by
about the “Internet is dead” theory. Maybe it’s worse than dead; it’s haunted.- has no business being so insightful yet so belly-aching funny. In this piece, he discusses Deadpool & Wolverine and how it serves as a terrifying example of the decline of our culture and way of life, as "all stories are propaganda, even (and especially) the ones that aren't intended to be."
The world is bleak and unforgiving. Sometimes, you need something as cozy and comforting as a bowl of delicious soup in front of a fireplace. Stewpot is a fantastic product, with thousands of community copies if you can't buy it.
We’ll catch up in a week with this month’s free release, which is our most in-your-face political game. Like, well, it can be more political than this. You should subscribe to our Substack to receive it for free and have a reason to hate our old-school left-wing asses.
That’s all. Have fun!