Sheridanne Kelley on Role Play

Someday, you might wish to come to Tirion Forest where we LIVE The Silmarillion as a Tolkien-Tribute Role Play, choosing the first seven chapters of the book, or it would be impossible to “role play” it as the book covers Four Ages (we live only what is known as the Two Trees – First Age).   I never imagined anything so challenging and fun. 
 

In our Age, for instance, it details the races “awake” now.  So we have only Valar, Maiar, Dwarves (made by an impatient Valar, which is why they are so “unusual”), Ents (created in response to the Dwarves being granted life) and Elves.  From the Fallen one (see below) come the race of Balrogs, Orcs (originally Elves, but perverted), Dragons.
 

I just presented a lesson at our barding session about the difference between Ainur (the overarching term for special “holy ones”) created by Iluvatar (God in Tolkien’s writing who is also called Eru).  You may not have noticed, but as you are plowing through The Silmarillion, Tolkien went to a lot of trouble to include a thorough Index of Names, that most find quite helpful as they read the dense pages of his book.
 

Arda, is the term the races of Elves and Men gave to Ea.  Ea is “the world that is”.  Ea is the realm that Manwe (one of the Valar) rules over, also called the Undying Lands (it is not Middle Earth).
 

There were only 15 who are termed Valar or Valier (if speaking of one of the female Valar).  They were given this name by the Elves, by the way.  Sometimes this is the reason there are different names for some of the characters in The Silmarillion, in that an existing race has terms for things already named.  However, it is important to note that the Elves, in particularly, the Noldor were also responsible for cataloging knowledge and creating languages, so they LOVED words (as Tolkien actually did). 
 

Of the Ainur (all special, powerful “angels”), the Valar (were like Seraphim – powerful within the category) and Maiar (lesser in power) are sort of like volunteers who made a choice to come to earth and serve Iluvatar’s purposes on the surface of the earth and shepherd Ilvuatar’s creation.
 

Each of the Valar were given a “song” of creative responsibility.The Valar are commissioned by Iluvatar to exercise delegated authority in their spheres of rule and governance, (not creation, making or re-making of Iluvatar’s creation).  They are divine and outside creation because they existed before creation of the world.
 

Again, the Maiar are lesser in power and are “assigned” within the spheres of a Valar in their areas of specialty.  Few Maiar are named.  Some followed the Fallen one (see the next paragraph) and this is the origin of Balrogs, for instance.
 

Of the Valar, one is called the “Fallen one” and is much like Lucifer in the Bible, he was the most beautiful and the one given the most power and responsibility.  But he imagined he had better ideas of how to shape and create the world than what Iluvatar did and set himself up against Iluvatar and those who served His purposes. 
 

Seven of the remaining 14 Valar are called also Aratar (meaning they are the most powerful of the 14 (in that the Fallen one is no longer counted AS a Valar).
 

So an organisational chart might look like this:
 

  Iluvatar

       l

Aratar-Valar

      l

   Valar

     l

  Maiar
 

Hope this helps sort out these terms.