There were 5 wizards that showed up to contest with Sauron. Gandalf, Radagast hung around the western portion of Middle Earth while Sauruman and two others (the blue wizards) went into the East. Sauruman returned and took up house at Isengard and began learning about the rings of power. We never really hear about the other two and it’s assumed they failed in their task to oppose Sauron.
It’s never really said what happened to Radagast, but Tolkien generally describes him as a good guy in spite of his capture and manipulation by Saruman, so he might have been allowed back into the Undying Lands (Valinor) at some point.
The Blue Wizards (Ithyrin Luin) either disappeared into the East and likely failed in their mission to oppose Sauron (Tolkien’s letters and Unfinished Tales) or were actually crucial in winning the War of the Ring (Peoples of Middle-Earth). Depends on who you ask.
As **Kythereia ** said, he failed but did not turn to evil. I used him in my campaigns. I had him instruct the first of the Druids to care for nature. He had to wait to depart until there was a Great Druid. You could think of this as both a form of penance for Radagast and a handy fudge for you the ref.
Jim
I love these LOTR threads. Don’t have anything to add, but I do have a question: Any source of fanfic on any of the topics discussed above? Seems I looked through some fanfic sites a while back looking for good “What if” and “What happened after” Middle Earth stories. But all I found was slash stuff or cutsey-wootsey how Sam met Rosie stuff.
I’m surprised that this statement didn’t launch a 300-page flamewar. I believe that this (did the Nazgul wear their rings?) is second only to “balrog wings” as the most controversial subject in Tolkien geekdom.
Announcer: Witch-King of Angmar! You’ve been stabbed by Hobbit and Maid, and the One Ring is Unmade. What are you doing now?
WKoA: I’m going to RingWorld!!
Nope. It’s did Sauron leave the ring behind when he went to Numenor and if he didn’t how did he carry it back? 
The Ringwraiths should have been dead centuries before- only the power of the rings through Sauron was keeping them with a semblence of life. No more Sauron, no more nine rings, no more Ringwraiths. Assuming that if one had still been a living man, then he’d likely just be insane.
In one scene, Sméagol/Gollum told of Sauron wearing the Nine (and the three dwarven rings?) on his nine remaining fingers. There’s no Ring at the Pelenor Feilds.
That doesn’t mean that there weren’t some nasties still around; Barrow-wights are undead and not connected to the rings.
There’s only one scene I can think of where Gollum mentions Sauron’s fingers…from TT, “The Black Gate is Closed”.
Well nothing quite equals the Balrog wings. I think way back in 1996, I helped overload the local servers with the flame-wars on the IRC #middle-earth board. Our rapid fire 14.4K postings were flaming with the heat of, well I guess the heat of a Balrog. I do not believe any issue comes close.
The one **Grey ** mentioned is much hotter than the 9 rings for mortal men.
The Origin of Glorifindel can get very testy.
Are Orcs really just a sub-race of corrupted Elves?
Jim 
The power of the One Ring, the last and greatest of the rings to be created, was such that it “ruled” the rest. The Elven rings were of a lessor power, the Dwarven rings, lesser still, and the rings given to Men the least. When the One Rings was created to totally corrupted the Nine, making them thralls to the One Ring. The Seven could not to controlled but it could corrupt, making the Dwarven crave gold and milthril. The Three Rings, created by the Elven alone, were thus uncorrupted and even protected against the One.
I need you to cite the fact that the the Nine were any less strong than the Seven. I do not recall that being stated anywhere.
In what ways were the Three protected. I believe it was written that the Elves detected Sauron’s deception as soon as he put on the One Ring and set theirs aside until he fell to the Numenoreans. I will check this when I get home. They may have put them aside until Sauron fell to Last Alliance and he lost the ring.
I am unsure what you mean by protected in this case.
Jim
And there we have Official Doper Moment #7564, in which you wonder where else you could have gotten that response so quickly, sincerely, and geekily.
As the other party to that conversation, I confess that I take some small pride in my role in Official Doper Moment #7564.
I once convinced my sister that Peter Jackson was working on a sequel, “Lord of the Rings 4: Gollum’s Revenge.”
Not owning or having read Peoples of Middle Earth and with very little likelihood of being able to buy or borrow it, may I ask someone to take pity on me and explain how the Ithryin Luin played a crucial role in the winning of the War of the Ring?
And will Qadgop ever find the time to share his insights into Tom Bombadillo?
The relevant passage is:
So their mission was to decrease Sauron’s influence on the Easterlings, and lessen the possible numbers of his armies.
So much cloth to work with regarding those two blues. Could be they stirred up things like a couple green berets or as has been mentioned earlier, started their own cult–either way undermining direct support of Mordor. Anyone think wizards are so given to corruption that 60% of them would turn to evil? 20% to apathy and 20% would stay more or less on task? I’m trying to decide if Tolkein would espouse the larger good coming out of lesser evils (like the blues abandoning their mission for their own gains). That seems to be the case when he describes the making of the world–Melkor is always trying to corupt, but instead his chaotic actions onle enhance the richness of the world. I think I’m leaning toward “inevitable salvation despite and because of corruption.”
I’m wondering how much access to magic the players should have. Seems to me that magic items in Middle-earth are pretty uncommon, and spellcasters are exceedingly rare. The D&D ruleset as used in NWN is geared to a much higher level of magic. If a few high-level D&D sorcerers were hanging out on the battlements at Minas Tirith, the battle would have been won a good deal faster. I think it is possible to modify the classes in NWN with some fancy scripting, but that’s something to consider.
Nah, #2 (or perhaps even #1, passing the wings) has to be Bombadil.
And just to reiterate what others have said, the Three were untouched by Sauron, and indeed he didn’t know of their existance until he made the One, but they were made using knowledge taught by Sauron. He just neglected to mention to the Elves the minor detail of Ring-lore which allowed for the creation of a Ruling Ring.
The location of one of them is even known, or at least, readily-guessable. Saruman had a ring he’d made for himself, which was presumably either locked up somewhere in Orthanc, or on his person when he was killed.