All magic in Middle-earth is Ainur technology.

If this idea has been proposed before, I am sorry for bringing up a tired topic. It is not my intention to do such a thing.

I feel that the speculation as presented here is probably very long-winded, and it could definitely use some critical help to cut out extraneous details. I dunno what amount of information should and shouldn't be presented in WMG sections, because I felt like I had a lot to say. Bad habit of mine, loquaciousness. If anyone out there is willing to read through this avalanche of blather, I would be deeply appreciative. I guess it sort of interprets the Ainur as being Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that gave the Elves and Dwarves Magitek. There's also a conundrum that I'm trying to figure out below. Help would be appreciated.

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After reading about "Middle-earth is modern” in the WMG section of The Lord of the Rings, it felt necessary to create a coherent articulation of how to explain the advancement of the Eldar, the Dwarves, and the Dúnedain as compared to humans such as the Rohirrim.

Now, this one is a bit uncertain because Tolkien had distaste for industrialisation, but the thought is that possibly the Elves and Númenóreans dwelt in a sort of Crystal Spires and Togas civilisation that was not precisely based on mass industrial production, but rather on technology taught directly to the Calaquendi by the Valar. The Valar, being angelic entities that had witnessed and participated in the creation of physical reality, could very likely have easily understood how to bypass merely industrialised technology. Ultra-advanced optical technology (hence the Noldor creating crystals filled with light that need no electricity), spaceships (hence Vingilot), devastatingly powerful weaponry (and hence why Beleriand is sunk into the oceans), etc. The very first three Calaquendi, Ingwë, Finwë, and Elwë (later Elu Thingol) could have been given some of this super-tech during their ambassadorial visit to Aman, and brought it back to show their people how awesome life was across the sea. As a result, those very first Elves who made the journey westward were elevated above the rest of their race because of both the moral/spiritual goodness of Aman and also some Valinorian technology. Thus all Eldar, elves who went on the journey, were superior to the Avari, who just fled into the wilds. The Calaquendi, when they sailed to Valinor, were made far, far greater still, and became so advanced that the only way they were not equals to the Ainur who taught is that, y'know, they weren't incarnate angels. When the Noldor traveled back to Middle-earth, they brought knowledge of their technology with them, and so therefore turned Beleriand into an echo of the incredible civilisation that they had abandoned. Thus they were, for instance, able to build and support Gondolin, a city hidden away in the mountains: they could have had climate control technology to produce food and prevent winter freezes in their valley.

The Dwarves also got a slice of this incredible technology of the Ainur, but their education was narrower. Whereas the Calaquendi could have spoken to ALL of the Ainur and learned from all of them in turn, the Dwarves only had Aulë, the master of craftsmanship, the Earth, and smithing. Because this was their only education (and because of their basic temperament), their portion of the Ainur-Tech was all about digging underground, chemistry, and such: the production of mithril is a good example of this, as only the Noldor and the dwarves, students of Aulë, knew how to work it. However, it is also reasonable to assume that because Aulë loved the dwarves so much, he taught them even more deeply than he taught the Calaquendi. Hence the Elves never quite reached the supernal level of architecture as demonstrated in the Halls of Khazad-dûm: only the dwarves were so well-taught. However, the dwarves were also jealous of their technology, and were by no means willing to teach it to anybody else. The Children of Durin were the nicest and most sociable of the dwarves, and in fact the only ones who were probably truly willing to teach anything of their art to non-dwarves.

A problem with this model is Doriath, which was inhabited by Sindar who had never had contact with Valinor and therefore should have not been able to repulse the obnoxious Noldor so effectively. When Elu and Melian married and founded Doriath, however, it's possible that Melian taught her own particular variety of Ainur-Tech to the Sindar of the land. It's mentioned that Melian was a Maia akin to Yavanna, the mistress of all beasts and plants (those untainted by Morgoth, anyway). Perhaps the Girdle of Melian, which protected Doriath so effectively, was a sort of bio-engineering done by Melian to create various ultra-defences against the Jerkass Noldor. Imagine fungi that exude hallucinogenic gases, trees and shrubs that, like the Huorns, shuffle and move around so that one loses one's bearings, a canopy that, like that of Mirkwood, is so dense with vegetation that the sky cannot be seen, and perhaps even weird manipulations of magnetic fields so that elves with compasses would have been confounded. Furthermore, the Sindar are described as having received weapons and armour from the Durin-dwarves who, as mentioned above, had super-smithing thanks to their maker, Aulë. Thus, even though the Sindar were not by any stretch -equals- to the Noldor, they had plenty of help from both Yavannic and Aulëan Ainur-Tech to make sure that they could hold their own against the fanatical interlopers.

So imagine now a bunch of Paleolithic humans stumbling from their homeland. They first meet the dwarves of the far eastern and southern lands, but are rebuffed, as most of the dwarves are unsociable miners and would prefer not to bother with the tall sunburnt people. Astonished at the traces of technology they see, the humans travel farther and farther, hoping to learn at the feet of some such 'gods' that would be willing to accept them. Eventually, the Edain (our heroes among mankind) are lucky enough to arrive at Khazad-dûm. The Durin-dwarves teach the humans some Ainur-Tech (not anywhere near all of it, but enough to help the poor folk who die so young against the forces of Morgoth) and then mention that to the west, there lies a civilisation that is possibly amazing enough to rival that of the Dwarves! The Edain are understandably intrigued and come to Beleriand, and there they get embroiled in the whole struggle. The Edain, being so transient and sickly, are never seen by either Noldor or Sindar as equals, but they are taught some of the Ainur-Tech.

However, by the end of it, and the end of the War of Wrath, Beleriand is blown to smithereens, Doriath is lost, Melian goes away, and the Noldorin and Sindarin civilisations are kicked in the head by Morgoth's armies. Quite a few of the Noldor elect to go back to Valinor, seeing their war against Morgoth complete. However, some love Middle-earth too much to go, and stay behind in Lindon or go to Eregion and Lothlorien. Due to the catastrophic damage dealt during the War of Wrath, and the tremendous loss of life, many Noldorin and Sindarin works of technology are lost forever, as both their creations and many creators are gone. The Sindarin in particular slip badly without Melian and Elu, who were their only direct connections to the Ainur-Tech. However, there is enough Ainur-Tech left that the Elves can effectively re-establish their civilisation in Middle-earth and protect themselves against Sauron as the latter's power waxes.

The Edain, meanwhile, are praised to high heaven for their loyalty and integrity, and so the Valar use their control over natural forces to create Númenor. The Númenóreans are given the direct benefits of genetic engineering that makes them live far longer than their ancestors, and remain youthful and vigorous until their deaths. Furthermore, they are described as having become skilled in many crafts and arts, which in this interpretation means that they received a greater portion of the Ainur-Tech than any other humans. Hence they can sail across the world (except to Aman), shoot 'arrows' to the other side of the world, build outposts in Middle-earth that are bustling metropoli in the eyes of the natives, but are mere villages compared to back home, and so on. The author envisions the cities of Númenor being densely-populated arcologies surrounded by hyper-productive farms that need only take up a little space, leaving the rest of the island a green, clean, and magnificent wilderness which the Númenóreans turned into something like a giant national park. They are described as being fond of horses: possibly they were so advanced that they had high-speed rail systems (magnetic levitation?) connecting the various cities, but lacked cars: transportation over short distances being done with horses more for the romanticism and pleasure of equestrianism than for practicality. With their command of genetic engineering imparted by Yavannic technology, they could have created breeds of horses that would have been fantastically intelligent, strong, and gentle with their riders.

Then Sauron creates seventeen Rings of Power. Sauron was the greatest disciple of Aulë before his Face–Heel Turn towards Morgoth, so his knowledge of crafting was greater than that of anybody else outside of Aman. The result: a masterpiece of biotech, cognitive interface, and applied physics that granted functional immortality, telepathy, and diverted light-waves to render the wearer invisible! Since dwarves had far stronger willpower than humans, Sauron could not use direct telepathy to enslave them, and didn't bother with invisibility or immortality, but he could excite their darkest tendencies and sow chaos among them with perhaps a subtler form of telepathic communication. It's mentioned that the seven Dwarf-rings were used to "increase their wealth". Perhaps for them it granted them insight into Sauron's knowledge of crafting, allowing them to go even farther beyond their original tutelage?

Sauron also went up to the elves in dissembling guise and said, "Here, I'm so sorry about that whole trying to commit genocide against you guys. Here, take some Ainur-Tech!" He retaught the Noldor of Eregion some of their lost technology (not enough to make them a challenge to him, though), and thus helped them re-establish themselves somewhat. Too bad he was just doing it so they'd be trusting and he could kill them later, but at the time, Eregion probably flowered into a civilisation equal to those of Beleriand once more.

The three elven Rings of Power were designed by Celebrimbor without Sauron's knowledge, but are based on his design. As such, they had to rely on Sauron's telepathic network, and were reliant on the One Ring. At the same time, the elves were cunning enough to make sure that their section of the network was closed off to Sauron's influence. They cheated his system, so to speak. They also used traces of their Yavanna-tech to give the telepathy of the Thee Rings extended powers: whoever wore them could actually have mental influence over a physical region of space. Hence Galadriel used Nenya to protect and guard Lorien against the predation of orcs, and Elrond used Vilya to create a flood and wash away the Ringwraiths. The telepathic powers of the Rings is also manifest in Gandalf's use of Narya to kindle hope and resistance in the hearts of the downtrodden. As Cirdan said to Gandalf: "Take now this Ring," he said; "for thy labours and thy cares will be heavy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old in a world that grows chill"

But the most confusing issue of how to interpret Middle-earth's magic as being Ainur technology is the Fall of Númenor, the transformation of the planet from a flat plane to a sphere, and the removal of Aman from Arda. A possible interpretation is that the planet was always spherical, but when Númenor was sunk, it was sunk far more rapidly than it was raised up by the Valar. The result was a tectonic nightmare of earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis that wrought such havoc across Arda that descendants of its survivors interpreted it as the fundamental shape of the world being altered. But what about Aman? That part is really hard to explain. If the Elven ships that sail to Valinor in the Third Age are seen as leaving the curvature of the earth behind and following a Straight Road to Aman, that is evocative of spacecraft, but how on Earth did Aman move from Arda to another planet?

Unless... Aman was in fact the home-world of the alien Ainur all along, and had never been on Arda in the first place. That opens a whole can of worms. The author had originally planned to keep the Ainur at least angelic in line with the original vision of Tolkien, but perhaps that could be altered. Advice would be appreciated.

Anyway. After the Fall of Númenor, human civilisation took a tremendous step backwards, naturally, but it was the war against Sauron that truly sealed the deal. Eregion had fallen, with only Imladris/Rivendell being a surviving remnant; Lindon lost tremendous numbers of its own people; Gondor and Arnor were nearly destroyed before they had even been created. But the Last Alliance won, at terrible cost. The Ainur-Tech had been almost entirely lost. Thousands more of those Elves that had known how to craft it died, or left for Valinor. The author proposes that by the contemporary era of The Lord of the Rings, the technological level is as depicted in the films and books, with swords, spears, and metal armour. The old elven-cities of Lindon are hidden from human eyes, and are mostly abandoned; Rivendell and Lothlorien are subject to telepathic influence by Elrond and Galadriel, but the Elves have otherwise forgotten their old technology and live in houses that, although stunningly magnificent to human eyes, are mere villages compared to the cities of old. Gondor and Arnor deliberately avoid resurrecting the old Númenórean ways that led to their corruption, but that means that a great deal of the old knowledge is lost. Minas Tirith, the Argonath, and the palantíri are the last works of Númenórean technology: the weapons were deliberately destroyed by Elendil and the Faithful to articulate their rejection of the values that had led to the Downfall.

Perhaps the rejection of technology was even deliberate as a sort of Luddite method to protect the remnants of the world from the influence of Sauron, who became seen as a technological-tempter figure. The survivors of the War of the Last Alliance deliberately simplified their lives in horror at what Sauron had done through his Rings and his deceit in the shape of Annatar. Since contact with the Valar had become only one-way even for the Elves, no Ainur-Tech could be brought back from Aman. Hence the "Fading of the Elves," whose functional immortality was deeply flawed in that their bodies gradually wasted away in Middle-earth, leaving their spirits as lonely ghosts. The only places where Ainur-Tech still protected them against the Fading would have been Lindon, Imladris, and Lorien, and the tragic flaw of this place was of course that they were bound to the One Ring. If it was destroyed, the telepathic network of Sauron would cease, and the Elder Days, as well.

When the One Ring was destroyed, the reason it destroyed Sauron was because he had made his mind so connected with the telepathic network. When it was destroyed, so were all of his higher functions. He did not even become insane, but simply mindless, like a person in a persistent vegetative state. The immortality of the Ringwraiths abruptly ended, and they died at last. In the salvation of Middle-earth lay also the last destruction of the miraculous works of the Ainur, not to be rediscovered until long after all memory of the Eldar and the Ainur had passed from mankind in our present era.

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Thank you if you read through this. :B

edited 23rd Jul '11 8:57:33 AM by ThDaSu

Nice WMG. However, it will not be improbable for the technology of Morgoth, Sauron, Saruman and the like to be the more traditional industrial technology as we know it.

P.S. I always imagined Morgoth's mooks in the War of Wrath to be armed with vaguely World Wars era technology. And Ancalagon was not a dragon but an airship fully loaded with nukes; hence when all of them went off, this was enough to vaporize the biggest mountain in the world.

edited 20th Oct '13 8:34:30 AM by aurora369

Tolkien was anti-Industry. Saruman used Industry to make stuff. Light side use Elf Magic to make stuff.

Tolkien needed the Dark Side to use Industry to be mighty. Elf Magic must be weak enough compared to Industry for Light to be weaker than Dark, but Elf Magic must be mighty enough to win at the end.

Tropes Are Not Bad: JRRT needed to pull Elf Magic rules out of his ass to achieve his story.

I really think Tolkien's reluctance to use magic as...magic kinda hurt his story.

Pretty impressive wmg, there. And what's worse is that it makes sense.

Though, I would've said that Aman was a massive starship in an of itself.