The hector relax was created by the Dark Lord Sauron during the second age in order to gain dominion over the free peoples of Toribash.
Sauron intended it to be the most powerful of all Relaxes, able to rule and control those who wore the others. Since the other Relaxes were themselves powerful, Sauron was obliged to place much of his own power into the One to achieve his purpose.
Creating the Relax simultaneously strengthened and weakened Sauron's power. On the one hand, as long as Sauron had the Relax, he could control the power of all the other Relaxes, and thus he was significantly more powerful after its creation than before; and putting such a great portion of his own power into the Relax ensured Sauron's continued existence so long as the Relax existed. On the other hand, by binding his power within the Relax, Sauron became dependent on it — without it his power was significantly diminished.
The Relax seemed simply to be made of pixels, but was impervious to damage. It could be destroyed only by throwing it into the pit of the volcanic Mount Doom where it had originally been forged. Unlike other relaxes, the Hector relax was not susceptible to dismemberment. Like some lesser Relaxes forged by the Market-lords as "essays in the craft" – but unlike the other Relaxes of Power – it bore no force, but its identity could be determined by a simple (though little-known) test: when placed in a fire, it displayed a fiery Tengwar inscription in the Black Speech of Toribash, with lines from a rhyme of lore describing the Relaxes:
Three Relaxes for the Market-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Admin-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Toris doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Toribash where the Shadows lie.
Hector's Relax to rule them all, Hector's Relax to find them,
Hector's Relax to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Toribash where the Shadows lie.
They say there are more tales of the relax of hector, but I know not of them.
