so i was very pleased when this post didnt turn out like that

fantasychica37:

fackfackfackfack:

radioactive-earthshine:

fackfackfackfack:

radioactive-earthshine:

hasty-riser:

I literally couldn’t fall asleep last night because I had the shocking realization that at one point both Mairon and Saruman were Maiar of Aule and both became corrupt

#what is
he doing to them #to
cause this

Sorry to intrude on your late-night thoughts, but I actually
have some opinions/soft-meta on this. I personally think that it is less of an
issue of Aule doing something to them
to turn them away from him (maligning them, being a bad mentor, being cruel,
etc.) but more on his approach to teaching his maiar.

Aule was similar in thought (and skill) to Melkor though of
course he chose to remain on the path that Eru designed for him coinciding with
the music. He held great knowledge of the natural world and all of its
substances with a distinct love of craft from said substances. It is fair to
interpret Aule as more than just ‘the inventor’ but also as a scientist. You
need to follow the scientific method in order to figure out how to utilize
natural substances.

Where this all fits into his students going ‘astray’ is that
it is very likely as a teacher of the scientific method Aule was very clear to
inform them of the scientific method and to never take anyone’s word on the way
things are. Just because a person of higher status says one thing does not make
it true, look at the evidence, if there is evidence confirming said belief then
it is valid. If new evidence and facts later disprove said belief, then it is
no longer valid. This is not failure, this is unbiased fair truth.

So with this process of thought at the forefront of Aule’s student’s minds, it
not only makes them highly efficient with their duties and advancement of
craft, but it also makes them highly likely to question authority and the dogma
of the music and Eru himself; thus easier for Melkor to needle in, playing on
the very same principles.

Aule’s students ‘fell’ because I believe this particular ‘upbringing’
facilitated Melkor’s abilities (and then Sauron’s) to gain their loyalty,
coupled with individual personalities and motivations.

This is a lot to how I see Aulë as well: not TERRIBLE, but slightly Melkorish (re: his whole “whoops I created an unapproved species” even if he eventually repented), and very free in allowing his Maiar to be creative. It means they also sometimes make Bad Decisions…

But Ulmo is similar with his Maiar: Ossë nearly abandons him for Melkor. If the Blue Wizards are his, they too abandoned their quest…

Which actually goes to say: Maiar did abandon their post to align with Melkor (hence the whole “are Balrogs and werewolves and vampires and whatnot all Maiar?” thing), which was the whole point. A lot of Ainur sang, but many eventually swayed to Melkor’s song, abandoning Eru’s… Except Nienna, who is mentioned to have barely sing and instead LISTENED. Which is why she is full of grief: she saw what the song would bring, what the strife between Melkor and Eru was and would do. (Annals of Aman, Morgoth’s Ring.)

There also had to be some discontent which played into maiar deciding to leave (or to be tempted as in the case of Osse). So I highly doubt it was just one thing that drove maiar universally to join Melkor, or leave their posts. Individuality played the biggest factor of course but in the case of Aule’s maiar I think his possible teaching methods ‘helped’ Melkor quite a bit.

Oh I definitely agree with Aulë’s style having the most likelihood, with possibly Ulmo’s being second, especially in Annal of Aman, we are shown how Uinen and Ossë were originally thought to be on the council, which I think shows a little as to why they seem to be so important, as a whole, in Silm lore. Ulmo seems to treat his serving Ainur fairly equally. (In that context, Valar means “those who serve on the council” versus the Maiar, who do not, which I think has interesting implications: that the Valar are not naturally extremely different from the Maiar, but more so that one is like a Senate and the other are the People – that is, “Are you serving in leadership or not?” – but that is a disgression…)

Aulë’s forge has a sign that says “It Has Proudly Been _ Yéni Since the Last Defection Incident.” The number is usually 0, and one Maia on his way out added the letter “a” between the C and the T.