Introduction (MUD Theme Help)

Long ago, in the early years of the Second Age, the great Elven smiths forged Rings of Power. Nine for mortal Man, seven for the Dwarf lords, three for the tall Elf kings. But then the Dark Lord learned the craft of ring-making and made the master ring, the One Ring, to rule them all. With the One Ring, Middle-Earth was his, and he could not be overcome.

As the Last Alliance of Men and Elves struggled against his power, he was overcome in battle by the kings Elendil and Gil-galad when Elendil's son, Isildur, used his father's sword to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, defeating the Dark Lord.

Isildur took the ring for his own and, because he did not destroy it, the spirit of the Dark Lord lived on. In time, it began to take shape again in the shadows of Middle-Earth.

The Ring had a will of its own, and a way of slipping from one hand to be found by another, so that it might at last get back to its master. It betrayed Isildur in this fashion, costing him his life, and lay lost at the bottom of the River Anduin for thousands of years.

During those years, the Dark Lord regained some of his old influence and power, capturing the nine rings that were made for Men, and turning their owners into Ringwraiths: terrible shadows under his control, who roamed the world searching for the One Ring. In time, it was found. Two friends were fishing in the great river one day....

One of them was named Smeagol, and he envied his friend who found the Ring. It was that very envy that drove him to attack his friend, and murder him in cold blood. Smeagol was already falling under the control of the One Ring.

Smeagol used the Ring for thieving, and to find out secrets. His own people began to despise the wretched creature, and to call him Gollum. Tortured and driven by the Ring, he hid in dark caves deep in the mountains.

But the Ring did not linger long. It soon slipped off Gollum's finger too, only to be found by a simple hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who had been traveling with Dwarves. Bilbo took the Ring back to the Shire, his home, and for decades it remained there, far from Sauron's gaze.

Eventually, the Ring was given to Bilbo's nephew, young Frodo Baggins, who went on a great quest to destroy the Ring and finally rid Arda of the Enemy... but no one has heard from Frodo or Sam, his loyal companion, and there are rumors of a great army of evil marching west into Gondor....

As you glance to the southeast you glimpse, for a brief second, what almost like a blood red eye turning its gaze toward... you?

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