[cherokeesam]

Rings with Arabic writing on them definitely rules out the Makluan/alien angle, if anyone still harbored doubts about that. My question now is who *did* make the rings? Did Mandarin himself just have them designed as an affectation in recent years (pre-IM, anyway), and is each symbol then just meant to represent a code word for each member of his Ten Rings organization? Or are the rings going to turn out to be mystical and ancient after all?