Makluan Rings

The Makluan Rings are rings of immeasurable power worn by the Mandarin, an ancient Chinese ruler of myth. Originally, the Chinese thought the rings were magic, but Howard Stark believed them to be an ancient technology so advanced that it would be indistinguishable from magic. Individually, the rings possess great powers, but when they are all gathered altogether, the user is granted limitless power. All ten rings combined make their user the most powerful being in the universe.

History
The Makluan Rings were made by the Makluans for their overlord forged from the heart of the first star. The overlord wore the ten rings and used them to conquer other worlds and planets. During a feast that the Makluan Overlord prepared (in celebration of the Makluans' conquest of half of the cosmos), his son, the future Makluan guardian of the 10th temple, stole the rings and escaped. After being hunted by the Overlord for ages, he arrived at a mysterious planet called Earth and found a man who was worthy to wear the rings, a man named Khan, who was a savior of his homeland. The Makluan bestowed upon him the ten rings, as well as the Dragonseed. The Dragonseed altered Khan's DNA, making him part Makluan and giving him access to the rings' true power. This Khan became the first Mandarin. He conquered all he saw with his might and grew his dynasty. However, as he saw his children would not use the rings wisely, he wanted to find someone he could pass his rings down to after his death. So, he scattered them to the corners of the globe and designed tests for a direct descendant in his family, one who would be worthy of his ten rings, to pass in order to prove their worthiness, obtain them, and activate their true powers. As a final measure to make sure only the worthiest of his descendants would find all ten rings, he only told his descendants about five of them. However, The Mandarin didn't create a temple for the purple ring. He instead left it active and told his descendants to pass it down to their children when they came of age.

Tony, Rhodes, Pepper, and Gene Khan search for the rings as the series progresses. When the first five rings are found in Tales of Suspense, the rings revealed that the first Mandarin had ten rings instead of five. Gene then began searching for the rest of the rings all over the world, with Howard Stark helping him.

With all ten rings in his possession, Gene has gained immeasurably limitless power, and has disappeared to carry out his plan to bring order to everything in existence, and to make them follow his every whim and desire, making the world in "deep, deep trouble" (stated by Tony).

In the season finale, the Mandarin tells the world of his plan but is stopped by the Makluan invasion, when he got captured, the Makluan overlord took back his rings.

After the overlord was defeated, Gene took back the rings when no one was looking and just when it looked like he was going to start fighting Iron Man and co. again, but he actually helped them by teleporting Pepper and Rhodes off of the ship before it exploded. After that he returned the helicarrier. Later, he returns to China, having decided that his destiny was not to conquer the world, but to protect it, before flying away into the distance.

Description
The Makluan Rings are yellow bands with fire-shaped "gems". Each ring has a different colored gem with Chinese trigram symbols on them. The first 8 rings each have one of the 8 symbols on them. Along with the corresponding Chinese character from each of the Eight Trigrams. The Tenth Ring shares the same Character and Trigram as the First Ring. The ninth ring most likely has the hieroglyph - 愔. All hieroglyphs on the rings look like this: 震; 坤; 坎; 離; 巽; 兌; 乾; 艮; 愔.

Powers and Abilities
The rings only work for the original Mandarin and members in his family because they have the Dragonseed inside their genetics. The Dragonseed is the genetic signature of a Makluan, which was implanted into the first Mandarin's DNA and passes on through his family line. This state allows all who possess the anomaly to wield the full power of the Makluan rings. While it is thought that only those with the Dragonseed could wield the rings, it should be noted that Doctor Doom found a way of accessing the 9th ring's powers using his own incredibly advanced technology

Abilities
The rings give the Mandarin strong and powerful abilities that appear to be magical. They respond to his mental commands and include:
 * Mandarin Armor Creation: The Mandarin's signature armor is created and powered by the rings. The user can make the armor and segments of it, disappear and reappear around him. It grants him enhanced strength, endurance, and protection from attacks. With all ten rings, the Mandarin is as strong as the Hulk and can shrug off the SHIELD Helicarrier's biggest weapons.
 * Ring Detection: The rings can form a map that shows ring locations and can even emit a light that reveals temple walls and entrances.

Ring-Specific Capabilities

 * Purple Ring: Allows Mandarin to teleport anywhere, and manipulate various forms of electromagnetic energies for many effects. This ring is the most favored of all.
 * Teleportation: The Mandarin can teleport himself and others anywhere he wants. His range of teleportation increases with the more rings he holds, even across dimensions.
 * Energy Manipulation: By itself, this ring can be used to unleash energy force waves. When enhanced by more rings, he can levitate, direct its energy to project lightning, stronger blasts, and other electromagnetic energies at his opponents. He can even shape the energy into force fields to protect himself and project a crushing field of gravity around a person.
 * Green Ring: It allows him to emit impact beams. This is his second most used ring.
 * Enhanced Energy Projection: This lets Mandarin project green energy beams and fiery orange blasts that are mostly seen when enhanced by one or more rings.
 * Blue Ring: Has the power to generate and manipulate water.
 * Water Manipulation: This ring allows the Mandarin to manipulate water in several ways, such as creating a barrier-field of water around a target to restrain it. The Mandarin can control this field; to whatever extent he wants either to crush the target or peel off any covering it has.
 * Sonic Blasts: The Mandarin has used this ring to produce wave-like blasts of noise that can knock out opponents or send them flying.
 * Red Ring: This ring gives the Mandarin the ability to control fire in any way he wishes.
 * Fire Manipulation: The ring allows the Mandarin to manipulate fire.
 * Yellow Ring: This ring can control manipulate ice.
 * Ice Projection: This ring can generate blasts of ice to freeze his enemies.
 * Orange Ring: Has the ability to alter matter.
 * Acid Cloud: It can produce an acid cloud that is capable of eating through any material. This includes the Iron Man Armor.
 * Crimson Ring: This grants the Mandarin enhanced mental power.
 * Mind Control: It can control the minds of others and cloud their memories.
 * Clairvoyance: This ring can access any hidden knowledge of this reality through its use. It allows him to find any hidden locations like the Armory and grant advanced awareness of his surroundings.
 * Mental Projection: It can replay memories in another person's mind.
 * White Ring: Grants the power of the vortex to the Mandarin.
 * Wind Manipulation: Can start and stop strong winds and vortexes at any time.
 * Super Speed: Allows the Mandarin to move as fast as the wind.
 * Black Ring: Can control darkforce power. This ring is the strongest of all the ten rings.
 * Darkforce Manipulation: It can unleash devastating energy waves and erect barriers of darkforce. It also has the power to open portals to other worlds and dimensions. Its latent power is great enough to open wormholes and unleash chaos throughout the entire world.
 * Pink Ring: This is the final ring, when put together with the nine rings, it gives the Mandarin the ultimate power (see Full Powers).
 * Life Manipulation: Grants the power of creation of life to an unknown extent. It was most likely used to create the various Makluan Guardians.

Full Powers
Each Makluan ring enhances the power of the other rings. The more rings the Mandarin has, the greater his power. At their full potential, the Mandarin's rings are capable of the following:
 * Godhood: When the rings are all gathered together, it gives the Mandarin the power of a god, able to see everything, every molecule and electron in the universe, and capable of commanding reality itself. He is surrounded by a green aura, and becomes a being that surpasses mortality as long as he holds the rings.

List of Rings

 * 1) Purple Ring
 * 2) Green Ring
 * 3) Blue Ring
 * 4) Red Ring
 * 5) Yellow Ring
 * 6) Orange Ring
 * 7) Crimson Ring
 * 8) White Ring
 * 9) Black Ring
 * 10) Pink Ring

Trivia

 * On the Nicktoon webpage made for the show, the colors and powers of the original five rings seem to have either been mixed up or following earlier plans for the series. The descriptions of the ring went as:
 * Green – Ring of Emergence: The first ring of the Mandarin was described in such a way that can only be what we call in this modern age TELEPORTATION. With this ring, the Mandarin could appear and disappear at will, moving any distance - from across the room to across the WORLD. The Mandarin could also cause massive explosions as he disappeared... possibly a side effect of the vacuum created as he disappeared.
 * Red – Ring of Power: Where the first ring was a tool... the second was a WEAPON.  Texts describe the ring as emitting a beam of power, a FORCE BEAM.  It could shatter armor, level armies, and even carve through mountains. This is the ring that ensured the Mandarin's rule over China.  Nothing could stand against its power, legend says.
 * Orange – Ring of Ascension: The Ring of Ascension could raise the Mandarin into the sky... at first I thought perhaps this was some kind of anti-gravity device, but later texts describe the Mandarin using it to lift entire TEMPLES, using it to cast aside enemies, hurling them away. He could lift anything with a thought, moving it as he wished... more like TELEKINESIS than anti-gravity.
 * Purple – Ring of Lightning: The fourth ring is pretty straight forward... the 'Ring of Lightning' didn't call down bolts of lightning from the skies, but instead generated ELECTRICITY, using it to strike out at foes.  Perhaps this ring powered the others?  Where did the power come from?  But to be able to generated electricity from a device the size of a ring... no wonder people assumed they were magic.
 * Blue – Ring of Armament: “With the fifth ring, the Mandarin feared no enemy.  No sword could touch him, and no arrow could strike near him.”  I believe that this ring could generate a personal FORCE FIELD, like an energy shield. That would be consistent with the Ring of Power's ability, but spread out like a dome around him. Individually, the Rings of the Mandarin are artifacts of incredible power.  But together... they would make a man unstoppable.