How to Make a Ringwraith versus Extending the Elven Body--an Elven Ring

[Ivriniel]

There's something both similar and different to and Elf and a Nazgul. The latter was the mortal, perverted by an Evil Maia, but also the gifting of the Mortal with access to, at least part of, the Spirit World that the Eldar straddled.

I remember reading that "...Elves do not fear them" (ringwraiths), though I can't for the life of me cite the quotation and place it to someone, though, I recall encountering the quote when looking up Annatar, the Ost-In-Edhil and history of Elves and Sauron. The nub of it was that Elves--already in two worlds at once--are either immune, or more resistant to the fear effects of the Nazgul--(and this bit we know from many precedents, including what was said about Glorfindel, for example, and what occurred when he assisted Frodo).

I've been trying to fathom what, exactly, it is then, that defines the core difference between Nagul in the wraith/spirit world and Elves when they are in that realm. Icy touch, death stares, life draining and so on don't come with the Eldar when they go into their 'fey' form. So, I don't believe the key difference is about 'good versus evil' Spirits, per se, though this is implicated, somehow.

I'm wondering whether there is some variation on the channelling of Spiritual Energy/Fire through the Spirit Realm, in the very metaphysical 'organisation' of the flesh of the two distinct kinds of Spirit beings. Recalling, here, that Morgoth and Sauron were pervertos who got all lustful and greedy about messing with Eru's and the Valar's Music of Creation, ergo Orcs from Elves, for example. Balrogs were beings of Shadow and Fire and what Gandalf said to the Balrog, in a metaphysically significant comment: "I am a wielder of the Secret Fire". Some kind of stepping up to the plate, to match Mr Balrog's 'shadowy' version of 'metaphysical fire'. Presumably, 'Secret Fire' meant something to do with, perhaps, Eru's 'flames in the void' sort of thing. Likewise, 'Shadow' did not mean the thing cast by the sun in a 3D universe. It somehow meant beings in the Shadow of life, or that exist in the very Shadows. Things that exist in The Invisible World, also remembering Gandalf's words about Nazgul and what they can and cast see, perceive, and hear. One of the hobbits asked Gandalf if Ringwraiths could see them. Gandalf said, not exactly, but that living beings "cast a shadow in their minds". I always found that a very significant moment when reading the books and it has stayed with me, some 30 years. What did Gandalf mean by 'shadow in their mind', and ***how*** did he know that? So, Ringwraiths could not 'see' the living, directly. It seems that in the invisible world of Shadow, they experienced life as 'a shadow in their mind's eye'. By contrast, mortals felt cold around them, could not see their bodies and the black breath caused a slow death that Aragorn could reverse with Athelas by 'calling the person back'. What does that mean? Calling what back from where, exactly? Something was stolen, removed or drained from the person by proximity to them, but 'what' is unclear. What was clear was that the sickness caused by being around the Nazgul had similarities with depression (giving up, feeling helpless, hopeless, will-less--and this last one, I wonder about. Something stolen from the will, I wonder. Very Sauronic). I've always seen Ringwraiths as life drainers, energy sinks, and as stealing living energy. Walking through the world, withering life in a radius around them.

If I had to think of 'metaphysical dimensions' to collapse into a Ring to make a ringwraith, I'd be placing a conduit/door in a Ring that was perversion of the Spirit Flame thing Eru goes on about. Each use of the Ring must exchange Life for Unlife and remove one's Will, piece by piece, and have that invaded by Sauron. One dimension door that drains Life from the (mortal) body and replaces the very energetic fortifications of the flesh with the replacement Shadow Fire/Spirit, or that fortifies the lifespan by being a big 'power sink' syphoning the energy of life into the Undead being.

I see it as a variation of the Elven Spirit world, but one that is life draining, c.f. life sustaining. I've often imagined that when one of the Nine used the Ring, before transmuting into Undead, some part of their Mortal essence was drained away into Sauron, while, instead, Sauron's mental and material presence grew in the man. I recall reading that the Nine, when they were not yet fully altered, grew increasingly unable to tell the difference between a thought that was theirs, and one of Sauron's--until their Wills were one and the same, basically. This event is very 'Sauronic' and very much how the literature implied how me operated. For example, when Sauron discorporated when the Ring was Unmade, all his Orc legions were basically free of his will. The Sauronic presence was about how he could permeate through Nature and Beings.

To support the idea of 'life draining' or 'Spirit Fire that syphons life--wraith', I cite their opposite in their 'Elviish' variant: The Three Elven Rings that, inspired by Celebrimbor seeking to manifest a 'minivalinor' in Middle Earth, basically, seemed to extend what happened in the Elven body, over a dominion or place, without violating life force or will of others (Lothlorien. Galadriel's capacity to stop 'fading' and to bear a variation of what occurs in Valinor to Middle Earth). The Silmarils, the Phial of Galadriel, the Two Trees, the Elessar, and so on, were all artefacts that were not just 'bright lights' but were, somehow, living lights radiating with 'life itself'--the eternal flame.

Cheers
Irviniel (Imrahil's older sister. She's not very happy with the 'boy prince' thing and decided to stomp her foot and make a realm for herself )