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tolkiens legendarium - Why didn't Sauron become invisible while wearing the One Ring?


I'm curious as to why Sauron is the only being/person shown wearing the One Ring who does not become invisible?


Isildur, Gollum, Bilbo, Frodo, and Samwise all become invisible while wearing the One Ring.



Why didn't Sauron become invisible while wearing the one ring?


I became interested after reading Pearsonartphoto's question asking what effect wearing the One Ring would have had on other beings.



Answer



The Ring made its wearer invisible by shifting them mostly into the Unseen world. Gandalf told Frodo:



You were in gravest peril while you wore the Ring, for then you were half in the wraith-world yourself.



Gandalf also stated:



if [a mortal] often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the eye of the dark power that rules the Rings.




But Sauron already lived in that world as a Maia - his body was something deliberately constructed. Sauron was naturally pure spirit, not a hybrid like mortals or Elves and Dwarves. Since his presence in the mortal world was in effect a construct of his own, not him himself, it was not shifted into the Unseen world.


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