Is that what they say?
It is true that powerful men frequently have the urge to cede the semblance of dominance; “lead me on a chain, make me your servant, do what you will with me, tell me I am lowly”, they’ll beg, but will take up the reigns and whip again should your “dominance” not align with their desires. They do not know what it is to serve, or truly submit one’s self; they recognize no master but their own ego.
This is what makes them easy to manipulate; you have only to convince them that an idea is theirs, and they will follow it without question. Powerful men are ever ready to believe they are the origin of all their designs and fortunes.
I can say for certain that for a time it was entertaining to keep him as a servant, though he did not recognize himself as such. Our farce continued for nearly a century before his demise, and by then it had long since ceased to amuse me. At the end he was old, frightened and quivering in the face of his own mortality. He obeyed my every word without question, reliant on my decisions out of habit. I needed no ring to keep him a slave to my will, no more than a nursemaid would to keep an invalid dependent on her care.
I hardly need such a servant for all eternity… Though if our fates had been reversed all those years ago, it might have been a different story. A brazen young conqueror at my disposal, at the height of his powers, in control of that glittering sea of an army… such a hand would indeed have made a proud seat for one of the nine.
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 