To win the elves over, Sauron goes to Eregion disguised as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. He helps Celebrimbor and the other smiths gain an even higher mastery of their crafts, but he leaves once they begin crafting
Next, Sauron sought to bring the Elves into his service, so he disguised himself as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, to seduce them. The Elves helped Sauron forge the Rings of Power. In secret, Sauron also forged the One Ring, to rule all other rings, in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor.
The mystery actually adhered fairly closely to The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien's writings: In the mythology of Middle-earth, Sauron comes to the elves disguised as a “fair” man in order to trick them into forging the first three rings of power and learn their secrets in the process.
In Tolkien's stories, Celebrimbor was an elven-smith who was manipulated into forging the Rings of Power by the Dark Lord Sauron, in fair disguise and named Annatar ("Lord of Gifts").
Prior to his defeated form in The Lord of the Rings, Sauron was a master at entering the ranks of Elves and Men and pretending to be an elegant figure who simply wished to help. However, he was perhaps too good with his disguises, as they accidentally fooled his own allies -- the Orcs.
Sauron began his days as Mairon (“the admirable”), a powerful Maia—spirits who came to Arda to help the Valar shape the world. (Other Maia include Gandalf and Saruman.) He was a pure and orderly being in the beginning, who studied the craft of forging. But he grew selfish, and eventually aligned himself with Morgoth.
As soon as the Mystics realize the Stranger isn't Sauron, they label him an "Istar." With this label, and several other hints throughout the episode and the season, The Rings of Power has all but confirmed that the Stranger is everyone's favorite wizard: Gandalf the Grey.
She already feels an outcast after Gil-galad tried to send her back to the Undying Lands, and she fears that if she reveals what she has done, it will be the final nail in the coffin. Instead, when Elrond pulls her from the river Glanduin, and she races back inside to Celebrimbor's forge, she chooses to stay silent.
Elrond discovered the scroll that revealed that Halbrand couldn't be King of the Southlanders, so it's likely that he realized that Halbrand was Sauron and that he escaped. Knowing that Sauron is on the loose, he could warn the dwarves of the growing evil and encourage them to forge their own rings.
In the final minutes, Sauron confesses that he's been manipulating Galadriel since they first met — using her as a way to get back to Middle-earth to fight back against his enemies in the Southlands and indirectly form the land of Mordor but also to get closer to Celebrimbor and the Elven smiths.
Galadriel is one of the wisest and perceptive of all the Elves. In the Second Age, she is one of the only people who is not fooled by Sauron, and it is her idea to hide the Rings of Power from Sauron.
Sauron is immortal and elusive, and even without the Ring he can breed armies of orcs and fortify places like Mordor and Dol Guldur. Galadriel most likely couldn't fight her way to Barad-Dur, and even if she did and destroyed Sauron in his physical form he would eventually create a new one.
It begins after Sauron's master, the evil lord Morgoth, is defeated. Sauron may have gone into hiding, but he's still alive: the series will eventually show Sauron's creation of the titular rings of power—including the one ring to rule them all.
As one of the nine Nazgûl, Isildur was forced to serve the Dark Lord for all time until he was defeated and freed by Talion. The ranger later claimed his ring to survive after Celebrimbor abandoned him and eventually took Isildur's place among the Nazgûl after holding back Sauron's forces for decades.
She's dedicated her life to killing Sauron, but in her dogged quest to rid Middle-earth of darkness, she did what she feared most: She brought Sauron back.
Smaug is portrayed as being arrogant, greedy and a loyal servant of Sauron, having an unquenchable desire for gold, and not caring who gets in his or the Dark Lord's way for more.
Sauron fled from Dol Guldur when Gandalf went to investigate the place in 2063 of the Third Age. Sauron knew that Gandalf was immortal, and Sauron would not have fled from a mere Elf.
Another aspect that the series explores is the decision to forge three rings. As Galadriel, Celebrimbor, and Elrond (Robert Aramayo) discuss after the process has already started, it is a way of preventing the concentration of power in a single being's hands.
Even if Galadriel had the One Ring, Sauron would destroy her instantly. Her plan, in desiring the Ring; was to use the One Ring in order to become the beloved queen over all men and Elves, and have them destroy Sauron.
In The Rings of Power Episode 8, Galadriel attempts to fight Halbrand after discovering that he is Sauron. The Dark Lord easily overpowers her, and after Galadriel rejects his proposal to join him, he traps her in illusions and leaves her to drown in the water.
Under the guise of Annatar (the bearer of gifts), Sauron worked with Celebrimbor to forge the rings. However, Sauron left before the Elven rings were forged and Celebrimbor realized Sauron's deception and 'changed the recipe' of the Elven Rings to prevent Sauron from controlling them.
Though neither is someone you'd wish to annoy, Galadriel is generally considered more powerful than Elrond in Lord of the Rings. Not only is she older than her Rivendell counterpart, but Galadriel witnessed the light from Valinor's Two Trees, giving her a mystic quality.
While the upcoming TV series does have the chance to bring several beloved Tolkien stories to life on-screen, none of them include Gandalf. That's because The Rings of Power will be set primarily in the Second Age of Middle-earth, and Gandalf doesn't come to the land until its Third Age.
The episode starts, however, with a fake-out from the three mysterious, white-cloaked witches claiming that the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is actually Sauron. Later in the episode, it's revealed that he's not Sauron, but actually a powerful wizard known as an Istari, like Gandalf and Saruman from “The Lord of the Rings.”
The White-Cloaked Mystics Were Priestesses of Melkor
However, Amazon quickly clarified their identities: the three witches became known as Mystics. Their names were The Ascetic, The Nomad and The Dweller.