Smithing

[Falenthal]

Good point. Noldor might not want to risk becoming Driven.

Interesting view, yes!

Maybe driven is not a condition to smithing dwarves, but to every smith that wants to imbue an Enchanted Quality in an item. That makes it a dangerous matter to High Elves.

[Scrollreader]

But it worked out so well for Feanor, Eol, Celibrimbor and the rest of the Driven Noldor ...

[Glorelendil]

But it worked out so well for Feanor, Eol, Celibrimbor and the rest of the Driven Noldor ...

Just think how boring the history of Middle-earth would have been without them.

[atgxtg]

I've been toying with Rich H's idea of "taking the RAW and drawing out a base mechanic/process and then hanging cultural ways of smithing and artificing off of it".

Now one snag I've run into is rings of power. According to the RAW, just about any blessing that a ring of power can bestow, some other item can bestow as well. The sole blessing exclusive to rings in the RAW is Riddle. Now I doubt the Elves learned the skill of ring-crafting, or that Sauron taught it simply for riddling.

Based on the canon, it seems obvious that ring should either be able to bestow blessings that other wondrous items cannot, bestow more blessings than other wondrous artefacts, bestow more powerful blessings than other wondrous artefacts, or some combination of the three.

Otherwise there is no reason why it couldn't have been “Three Cloaks for the Elven-kings under the sky," or what not. Or that they couldn't replace the (tainted) rings of power with some other wondrous artefacts.

Does that line of reasoning make sense?