Despite his physical form being destroyed, Sauron was far from dead. The One Ring stayed with Sauron until his “defeat” in the War of the Last Alliance by the Alliance of Elves and Men when The One Ring was cut from his finger by Isildur, who ruled Gondor until The One Ring ultimately caused his demise after he refused to destroy it. The One Ring is assuming at first glance but bears an inscription when heated in a fire that says, “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” By tying a piece of himself to The One Ring, Sauron also tied his destiny to it.

To top it all off, Sauron added a piece of his fëa (or soul) into The Ring, knowing that it would need all the power he could supply it.

The villainous force put all of the hatred in his heart into The Ring, as well as all of his cruelty and desire to rule over every being on Earth. To make The One Ring as powerful as he could, Sauron added himself into the process, both metaphorically and literally. Sauron created The One Ring in the fires of Orodruin (also known as Mount Doom.) Due to the way in which The Ring was created, the only way it can be truly destroyed is if it is thrown back into the fires of Mount Doom. Without telling anyone, Sauron returned to Mordor and forged what would become the most powerful ring in all of Middle-Earth - The One Ring. Three rings were given to the Elves, seven to the Dwarves, and nine to the race of Men, whom Galadriel warns in The Fellowship of the Ring that “above all else desire power.” Instead of letting The Rings of Power lead the Elves, Dwarves, and Men to their doom, Sauron decided it would be a better idea if he was able to control The Rings of Power themselves, using the wearers like puppets. The nineteen rings were an attempt by Sauron at bringing the races of Middle Earth to evil and were distributed among them. What Fellowship leaves out is the fact that the rings were crafted by Elven-smiths after they were taught by a being called Annatar - who was really Sauron, the Dark Lord and ruler of Mordor, in disguise. As mentioned at the beginning of The Fellowship of The Ring (the first film in the trilogy) by Galadriel, nineteen rings were originally made, known as The Rings of Power.

The Lord of The Rings, hinted by its namesake, involves a lot of rings, but The One Ring is the last in a long line of others.

Skyrim rings of power