Chapter Text
Eru Iluvatar thought, and so were the Ainur (Valar and Maiar.) He gave them some musical themes, and they sang by themselves for a while, but the longer they sang the more they understood each other and sang together. Then he called them all together and gave them a huge amazing theme, and gave it to them all to sing and play variations on.
Melkor was a dick from the start, and he wanted to play his own music. This threw everybody off and made the music sound nasty, so Iluvatar threw in a new theme. Melkor rose to meet it and tried to be louder, so Iluvatar added yet a third theme, even better and shinier than all the others, played all by himself. This theme and Melkor’s music battled it out until Iluvatar made all the music stop.
He told them all that everything they’d done was his idea, even Melkor’s nonsense, and then showed the Ainur that what they’d been singing was blueprints for the world as he designed it. The first two themes were the form of the world, and the third theme was the people that would live on it (the Children of Iluvatar, elves and men.) The Ainur thought that this was awesome, though Melkor was still a dick. (They say the music all still plays underwater in the sea, if you listen hard enough.) While the Ainur were admiring how awesome the plans for the world were, though, Iluvatar took it away before they could see the whole thing. Iluvatar does not believe in spoilers.
And Iluvatar made it so that the world existed, and everyone could go play in it, but it wasn’t finished yet. The Ainur who went to the world were called Valar. The Valar put the world together and shaped it like they thought it should be shaped, but Melkor kept coming around and effing everything up, so nothing ever ended up the way anyone expected or wanted it to. When they got it about done, the Valar took visible shape (based on what they’d seen of the Children of Iluvatar) and set up house. Melkor was pissed off and took physical shape himself, and then they all went to war.