The one ring was created by Sauron to enhance his powers. Sauron above all else had the power to dominate the wills everyone in middle earth.
The lesser rings were created to help bend people to his will even more. Look at the one ring as a buff to Sauron psychic stat and the lesser rings are psychic debuff.
The elves found out about this and took the rings off. The dwarves didnt care about anything but gold and jewels so they couldnt be controlled. We know what happened to the men who were given rings.
Even Sauron didnt know that he was the only one that could wield it. Which is why Ford/Sam were able to succeed. Sauron was sure that everyone would use the ring not destroy it.
Is it ever mentioned what happened to the Elves' rings? Were they destroyed or are they still out there?
The Elves' rings were never influenced by Sauron. Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf were in possession of them throughout LOTR.
Half right. The rings worn by them werent created by Sauron. They were created by a elf named Celebrimbor in secret.
Basically magic, in the Tolkien universe, is a function of time. As time passes, the power of the elves diminishes. Celebrimbor created rings of power to slow this process. Which is why Elrond and Galadriel each had one. Gandalfs I THINK belonged to Gil Galad. The elven king from then last alliance of elves and men.
The 16-17 lesser rings created by Sauron were either destroyed or they were reclaimed by Sauron. Forget which. They were useless without the one though.
Sauron never created those rings, just the One Ring to control the rest. Celebrimbor made all the rest, Sauron just got his hands on the rings of men which is why he could directly control them. He never touched the Elven rings, but their owners still didn't use them much just in case.
Most people couldn't use the One Ring to it's full potential, it would just dominate the average person over time (like what happened to Gollum.) It would supposedly take a strong person with a strong will to power to make good use of it, although why it didn't work like that for Isildur, I don't know.
Sauron showed Celebrimbor ring making techniques, and he worked on them alongside Celebrimbor.
With the exception of the Elven rings which Celebrimbor made on his own and the One Ring which Sauron did alone.
scar the 1
Magic in LotR isn't often about cool spells, like fireballs etc.
Minor nitpicking here but they do some bigger magical attacks.
Elrond had his water trap, Gandalf does some magic stuff at the Black Gate, the Witch King does project flames and lights his sword on fire.
Then we have all the small mentions that they never go too much into. The Dwarves control smoke in the Hobbit as well, racing each other around Bilbo's house with smoke rings, Aragorn has some healing thing with Tolkien mentioning King's healing, and Boromir has prophetic dreams.
It's just that they barely talk about it at all, given how Tolkien cared more about songs and wordplay than battle, although they definitely do seem less magical than other series. ---
"Just because someone is killed doesn't mean they died" - Shojikan