Council of the Valar

Year 1000 of the Trees

Yavanna (Queen of the Earth)
Ye mighty of Arda, the Vision of Ilúvatar was brief and soon taken away, so that maybe we cannot guess within a narrow count of days the hour appointed. Yet be sure of this: the hour approaches, and within this age our hope shall be revealed, and the Children shall awake. Shall we then leave the lands of their dwelling desolate and full of evil? Shall they walk in darkness while we have light? Shall they call Melkor lord while Manwë sits upon Taniquetil?

Tulkas (Champion of Valinor)
Nay! Let us make war swiftly! Have we not rested from strife overlong, and is not our strength now renewed? Shall one alone contest with us for ever?

Manwë (The Elder King)
Mandos, you who remember most of all the Vision of Iluvatar and are blessed with foresight, what say you? When come the Children?

Mandos (Doomsman of the Valar)
In this age the Children of Ilúvatar shall come indeed, but they come not yet. Moreover it is doom that the Firstborn shall come in the darkness, and shall look first upon the stars. Great light shall be for their waning. To Varda ever shall they call at need.

Varda (Lady of the Stars)
Lord Husband, I take my leave of this council. If the Children are to look upon the stars, there shall be new and brighter stars awaiting them.

Manwë (The Elder King)
You have my leave. You know already of our new guest. Nienna, will you introduce him?

Nienna (Lady of Mourning)
Aye, Mahtar is recently arrived in Arda. Unlike us, he is not Ainu, nor is he of the Children. I do not know much of him, but I do know that he has suffered grievous loss. Mahtar has expressed that he would mourn in my halls or bask in the light of the Trees. He has no part in our troubles with Melkor. I would ask that you not drag him into them until he has had time to mourn.

Year 1050 of the Trees

Manwë (The Elder King)
What new knowledge do we have of Mahtar? Nienna is growing close to him and her follower, Olorin, is concerned for her.

Mandos (Doomsman of the Valar)
I have said so before and shall say so again. I know not what part Mahtar plays in the Plan of Iluvatar, I know only that the comfort of Nienna helps Mahtar.

Aule (The Smith)
Eru brought him to us and Mahtar has only grieved and contemplated the Light of the Trees. He causes no trouble. Mairon, one of my own students, has spoken to Mahtar on occasion. Mairon has spoken of Mahtar's wealth of knowledge. With my skill and his knowledge there is little we could not make.

Estë (Healer of Hurts)
Lord Manwe, send Mahtar to Lorien. Irmo and I will help heal his pain as Nienna mourned alongside him.

Manwë (The Elder King)
It shall be so.

Year 1075 of the Trees

Nienna (Lady of Mourning)
Mahtar has told us of his history and what he is. He is not Ainu, nor a Child of Iluvatar. Mahtar was brought through time and worlds to arrive in Arda. Before his arrival here his kind was dependant on a cycle to live. They travelled always in pairs. Each pair would arrive at a different world, seeding parts of themselves in different realities of the world.

Manwë (The Elder King)
I was only vaguely aware that Eru had plans for different realities of Arda, I knew only that he had plans for them. Yet, to my knowledge currently all other realities are unpopulated and shall remain so for many ages yet.

Irmo (Master of Visions)
Aye. Mahtar has come from an age far removed from ours. We have learned much from our guest in Lorien, though he knows not of our own history. Returning to the matter at hand: these 'seeds' contain some of Mahtar's power and will bestow themselves on the Children of Iluvatar in times of great stress.

Aulë (The Great Smith)
What of the Dwarves? Will they not have this boon to help them in their time of need?

Mandos (Doomsman of the Valar)
They shall receive this too, though it may not be a boon. All Children of Iluvatar may gain these powers, including his adopted Children, the Dwarves.

Manwë (The Elder King)
Nienna, summon Mahtar. I would speak with him. Irmo, Estë, remain also.

Year 1080 of the Trees

Irmo (Master of Visions)
The Elves have awoken.

Oromë (Huntsman of the Valar)
How know you this? In all my hunts throughout Arda I have not found them.

Irmo (Master of Visions)
Visions have reached me. Visions of what Mahtar once was. He has explained to me that they are the visions the Children will have when they gain their powers.

Nienna (Lady of Mourning)
They are suffering and we know not the cause.

Tulkas (Champion of the Valar)
Nay. We know the cause: Melkor.

Manwë (The Elder King)
There may yet be another cause. Nonetheless, Oromë?

Oromë (Huntsman of the Valar)
I shall depart at once to find them.

Year 1085 of the Trees

Oromë (Huntsman of the Valar)
The Elves have awoken in Cuiviénen, though I found naught of Elves with powers. They are more beautiful than anything else Eru has wrought. But they are troubled by the shadow of Melkor. When they laid eyes upon me, they thought me a vile servant of his. We must not tarry, we must protect them from his evil.

Vairë (Weaver of Time)
How are we to protect them from the shadow? Last we fought Melkor, Arda was marred and the Lamps destroyed, leaving us only with the Two Trees.

Tulkas (Champion of the Valar)
Aye, but I can best him.

Aulë (The Great Smith)
But what of his allies? Arda will be broken if we fight him again. The earth itself will suffer in this strife..

…

Oromë (Huntsman of the Valar)
I will depart. I will protect the Elves from the Shadow while you deliberate.

Year 1090 of the Trees

Manwë (The Elder King)
This is the counsel of Ilúvatar in my heart: that we should take up again the mastery of Arda, at whatever cost, and deliver the Quendi from the shadow of Melkor.

Nienna helped Mahtar into the armor made for him by Aulë. Her sister Estë and Estë's husband had come to bid him farewell. The warmth of family was a new feeling. He had not felt it before, not even with the counter- the Thinker.

Mairon, one of the few Mahtar could call friend, would accompany him in battle. Mairon who had helped Mahtar learn to think for himself in return for Mahtar's tutelage in creating new works.

The Archive abilities were near-nonexistent in this reality, expressing themselves instead as imbuing properties into their creations. Of all the Ainu, Mairon was most skilled in this.

It was worrisome to Mahtar that the Lord of All would trigger the Elves, enslaving those he could and killing those he couldn't.