Your Precious
Fiction: In the third age, men defeated Sauron, but in the seventh age, they gladly and willingly gave him the whole world.
At the end of the third age, through the heroic efforts of elves, dwarves, men and especially, four hobbits named Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippen, the corrupting Ring of Power was cast into the fires of Mount Doom, destroying it and shattering Sauron’s evil soul into the wind.
Most presumed the ring destroyed and evil vanquished. Indeed, the ring melted back into the molten fire of the earth and Sauron’s essence blew away. But simply scattering evil doesn’t mean it is gone, and Sauron has always been patient.
The ring’s power was not destroyed but only melted and diluted into the elements of the earth. This diluted power, containing Sauron’s soul, through the eons, spread slowly, seeping hither and thither throughout the minerals in the deeps of the earth.
The Age of Men came and long it lasted. During this time, Sauron’s consciousness, infinitesimal, but aware, became spread thinly through the rare elements of the earth, unreachable from even the deepest and oldest dwarves mines. His awareness became sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. However, what remained of his soul found slight power in the rarest earth elements in which it eventually came to settle.
Never again would ‘he’ inhabit a single body, but, in its cunning, this Saruon-awareness devised a diabolical plan to inhabit everybody.
Despite being defeated at the end of the third age, he saw that he could still bring about his vision of a perfectly ordered world which he would rule from unseen shadows.
So he bided his time for eons as the atoms of the ring spread throughout the earth’s rare elements.
And then came the seventh age: the age of industry, quickly followed by the age of information. And Sauron sensed his triumph was near.
The men had followed the path of the goblins and abandoned beauty in favor of cleverness. They replaced virtue with productivity. They loved contraptions of engines, wheels, explosions, killing devices and especially something they called ‘technology.’
And thus, these elements, these rare elements of the earth that contained bits of his essence, were finally dug from the earth and were used by men to make machines of magnets that they called ‘phones’, and, suddenly, everyone in the world (now called simply ‘earth’) had a precious.
And without Sauron having to do anything other than wait, he saw that he now had an army of orcs and golems wearing the appearance of men that covered the world.
Just like the Ring of Power, these devices called phones held men in thrall. Men kept these devices, like they had The Ring, in their pockets and, just as Bilbo would often bring the Ring out to admire it, they constantly felt an irresistible urge to bring out their phones, often just to look at them lovingly.
The inside of these ‘phones’ were covered in clever demonic runes etched into the rare elements which conveniently channeled and powered bits of Sauron’s soul, though the phone smiths called these runes “circuits” and appeared not to understand their true power and cost.
When a man used the ingeniously evil device, which involved nothing more than looking at it and touching it with his fingers, that man disappeared from the material realm around his body. He could no longer interact with those around him, and would ignore their pleas for his attention.
When looking at the phone, he entered the shadow world, now powered ‘technology’ instead of ‘magic’ though the end result was the same. As long as man used his phone, he remained in the shadow world where his every move was seen by an all watching eye of a strange beast men called ‘a corporation.’
The corporation, the new “Eye of Sauron” knew where each person on earth was located every time that person used his phone.
So Sauron directed, as best he could, a large portion of his awareness to inhabit this corporation. This feat he accomplished easily, since the corporation harvested and utilized large amounts of the rare earth minerals which housed his soul in huge temples called ‘data centers’ which contained innumerable technological Palantirs called ‘servers.’
Having thus ensconced his awareness, now, he too, saw everyone on earth when they used their precious. And far more clearly than he had ever seen Frodo that vile little hobbit! The best part of his plan revolved around the fact that men used these devices voluntarily! They actually thought these devices provided them with freedom!
Even more diabolically, modern people voluntarily shared everything about their lives, even their deepest darkest thoughts, with their phones. That is an infernal power that Sauron had never enjoyed with the ancient Rings of Power. He often could discern roughly where Frodo was located, but he had never been privy to the filthy hobbit’s innermost dreams and desires. The dwarves, elves and hobbits had long since passed away or sailed west to the Undying Lands, leaving the foolish modern men to forget the power…and the cost….of using such dangerous magic. He would take advantage of their folly.
Sauron now saw that his plan, hatched long ago when he forged the rings, had actually succeeded.
It had simply taken far longer than he had anticipated. He needed no body in the seventh age because anyone with a phone now voluntarily joined the ‘Body of Sauron.’
It amused Sauron to watch people’s distress when they lost their phones. Just like poor Gollum, running hither and thither frantically, going insane, repeating “my precious, my precious!” People would act exactly the same, “my phone! My phone! Oh where is my phone!” they would lament.
“My life is on that phone!” they would cry.
If Sauron still had a mouth, he would be smirking. If only they knew the full depth of truth they uttered when they lamented that their whole life was in the phone. Indeed it was.
And these lives, that belonged to these phones, now belonged to Sauron.
Sauron saw that each phone could show each person whatever he wanted them to. He could influence and change their beliefs by “programming” them over time. He could create armies more obedient and effective than his crude orcs by exerting his will through these devices. He could ensure that men served his ultimate goals, while believing in their “causes” more ardently than Aragon and the men of Gondor ever did.
He could direct men, through their phones, like a puppet master, until a beautiful civilization had been built in his image. He would be their new God, even if they knew not his name.
And that is exactly what he intended to do…
No AI Zone: Everything written in this post (and all my posts) is written 100% by me, Clint “Clintavo” Watson, a flesh and blood human seeking to grow my soul and come home my truest self; for that is the essence of creativity. I do not use AI to assist me with writing — that would deny me the very growth of my world through writing that I seek.
I only rarely use AI images with my (non-AI) writing. For this post, I did use an AI image I had created months ago because I could not find an appropriate one by a human artist (this rarely happens with non-fiction but does happen with fiction). In such cases, I also feature at least one artwork by a human artist with image credits and links to their work or, if I can’t find a suitable image, I donate a free month of website service to one of our artist customers at my SaaS company, FASO Artist Websites.
Poetic expression, spiritual ideas, and musings upon beauty, truth and goodness should be free to spread far and wide. Hence, I have not paywalled the work on this site. However, if you’re able to become a paid subscriber, I’d be eternally grateful. It would help, encourage and enable me to continue exploring these topics and allow me to keep it accessible for a world that is in desperate need of beauty, truth, goodness and love. — Creatively, Clintavo.
Well thought out and written.
Great story with twists and humour and insights. At first I felt like this was a Marvel comics tactic to resurrect characters to excuse another trilogy, but it is true that it is a childish idea to think you can defeat evil with a capital 'E' absolutely. I accept that I may be now part of the Body of Sauron!
But maybe, after he gets everything he wants, Sauron will realize it wasn't what he expected as well.