The Rings of Power are some of the darkest and most mystical objects in Middle Earth. They were devised by Sauron as a part of his scheme to conquer the world and have dominion over all who dwell there. There are 20 rings in total, 9 for the lords of men, 7 for the dwarven kings, 3 for the elves, and of course, the one ring itself, the master weapon to corrupt all of the others, and bring them into the service of Sauron.
The rings have a dark history however, and they were originally all intended for the elves, rather than men or dwarves. Sauron taught Celebrimbor to make the original 16 rings, known as the lesser rings, and into them he poured his will and his malice, ensuring that those who accepted them would eventually fall to his power. But Celebrimbor created the 3 elven rings away from Sauron’s watchful gaze, giving the elves time to flee and hide them somewhere safe, out of the reach of Sauron’s corruption.
The elves only became aware of Sauron's evil scheme when he put his own ring, the one ring, on for the first time. Through the link and connection existing between the rings, the elves were able to feel the imminent threat that Sauron and his master ring posed, and escape in time to avoid his corruption. The same cannot be said for the men and the dwarves who had the other rings.
For Men, whose will is weakest, their greed and desire for power rendered them the most susceptible to the ring's effects, turning them into Ring-wraiths who are completely under Sauron’s control. For the dwarves, they were surprisingly resilient to Sauron’s will through their rings, but the rings did heighten their gold lust and their dragon sickness, meaning that they soon brought about their own downfall by delving too deep into dangerous places, and awaking creatures like dragons and Balrogs. One question that has confused fans though, is why the kingdoms and races accepted the rings from Sauron in the first place?
Sauron had long been a servant of Melkor, the first evil lord of Middle Earth, and this fact was no secret. He was Melkor’s right-hand man, helping his master to try to overtake the world until Melkor’s defeat at the hands of the valar. So if the other races knew how evil and dangerous Sauron was, why did they not suspect a trick or a malicious plot when Sauron offered the rings to them?
The answer is quite simple - Sauron presented the rings in disguise. He has earned himself the nickname ‘Sauron the deceiver’ because he concealed himself under the guise of an elf named ‘Anatar’. In doing so, he was able to worm his way over time into the trust of the other realms, and into the friendship and loyalty of Celebrimbor, who believed Anatar to be a true and noble friend. Anatar thus approached the kingdoms as a ‘lord of gifts’, and seemed to the others like a benevolent benefactor, sharing his wealth and power with them.
However, because of the very nature of the rings, the people who received them were instantly hooked. Everything about the rings drew them in, made them lustful and power-hungry, in exactly the same way as it did with Smeagol, when he first found the one ring and strangled his cousin to gain possession of it. Even if the races of men and dwarves had been suspicious of Anatar and his generous objects, they would have struggled to resist them, once they had seen them and worn them for the first time.
It was only thanks to Celebrimbor’s own secret rings that the elves manage to avoid the same calamitous fate, because although the rings are still linked to Sauron, they were not filled with his malice and hate, but they did still present a channel through which the elves could hear Sauron whispering (similar to how Pippin hears Sauron speak through the Palantir in the Lord of the Rings films) and instantly knew of the danger and took the rings off.
When he realized that he had been caught out, Anatar revealed himself as Sauron the deceiver and laid waste to Celebrimbor and a host of his people for thwarting his evil plan. In essence, Celebrimbor quite possibly saved the whole of Middle Earth, and paid dearly for it, but he also set the precedent for the elves to be able to team up, create the fellowship, and destroy the ring of power many years later, thus removing the threat of Sauron the trickster once and for all.