Rulers of Arda

A title for the Valar, beings of immense power and majesty who had played a part in the making of the world, and descended into it to become its shapers and guardians under Eru Ilúvatar. Their purpose to create an ordered and peaceful world was challenged by Melkor, who had at first been one of their number, and in the most ancient times the Valar fought wars that lasted millennia and broke the shape of the world. There were fourteen Rulers in all, and the greatest of them was Manwë Súlimo, who was accounted the Elder King of Arda.

After the first Elves awakened in the East of the world, the Valar fought a climactic Battle of the Powers that ended with Melkor's defeat and imprisonment. In the ages of peace that followed, many of the Elves travelled to dwell in the bliss of Aman among the Rulers of the world. After thousands of years had passed, Manwë the Elder King agreed to release Melkor from his imprisonment, and a shadow descended on Valinor, the land of the Rulers. Melkor immediately began to work secret machinations that would lead to the fall of the Two Trees, the theft of the Silmarils and the Flight of the Noldor. In Middle-earth, the Wars of Beleriand were fought across centuries, until the Rulers chose to take an active part in events once more. The War of Wrath that followed saw the defeat of Melkor, but also broke the lands of Middle-earth and drowned Beleriand beneath the Sea.

After these events, and seeing the destruction that their intervention had caused, the Rulers of Arda chose to play a less direct part in the affairs of Middle-earth. They had rewarded the Men who fought against Melkor with an island home in the Great Sea, but over the following centuries these Men, the Númenóreans, turned against the Rulers of Arda, seeking power of their own and ultimately bringing about the destruction of their realm.

The Dark Lord Sauron, a former servant of Melkor, had engineered these events. He was eventually defeated for a time in the War of the Last Alliance, but when he arose again in the Third Age, the Valar did not intervene directly, but instead sent emissaries to lead Elves and Men against the re-emerging threat. These were the Wizards, and one of these, known as Gandalf or Mithrandir, succeeded in guiding the peoples of Middle-earth to a final victory over the Dark Lord.

After the end of the Third Age, the Rulers of Arda played little or no part in the history of Middle-earth. In the last days of the world, however, the Last Battle is prophesied to take place in their land, and at that time the Rulers of Arda will, it is said, remake the world to be the place of peace and prosperity that they had originally planned in the far distant past.