Aule

Aulë (quenya "Invention")

Was an Ainu, one of the Aratar and a Vala, who was responsible for fashioning and crafting the substances of which Arda, the world, was composed.

Besides the shaping of Arda, Aulë's greatest works were the Two Lamps of the Valar, the vessels of the Sun and Moon, and the Dwarves, whom he created out of impatience for the Children of Ilúvatar. He also created Angainor (the chain of Melkor).

Desperate for pupils onto whom he could pass his knowledge, and unwilling to wait for the emergence of the Children of Ilúvatar, Aulë created his own race of beings, the dwarves.

Aulë seems to have a power most akin to Ilúvatar's - he can create an innumerable amount of things. He made the Two Lamps, and made Angainor, Morgoth's chain. Although he does not have access to the Flame Imperishable, he was able to create life (although it does not have free will). As a Valar, he possesses incredible strength, and has been noted to have rebuilt Arda during and after Morgoth's period of destruction before the coming of the Elves. He likely forged the Valar's weaponry and armor for the War of Wrath. His strength is in the construction of new things, and he is as near to the antithesis of the destructive Morgoth as one can be.

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...Aulë has might little less than Ulmo. His lordship is over all the substances of which Arda is made. In the beginning he wrought much in fellowship with Manwë and Ulmo; and the fashioning of all lands was his labour. He is a smith and a master of all crafts, and he delights in works of skill, however small, as much as in the mighty building of old. Melkor was jealous of him, for Aulë was most like himself in thought and in powers; and there was long strife between them, in which Melkor ever marred or undid the works of Aulë, and Aulë grew weary in repairing the tumults and disorders of Melkor. Both, also, desired to make things of their own that should be new and unthought of by others, and delighted in the praise of their skill. But Aulë remained faithful to Eru and submitted all that he did to his will; and he did not envy the works of others, but sought and gave counsel. Whereas Melkor spent his spirit in envy and hate, until at last he could make nothing save in mockery of the thought of others, and all their works he destroyed if he could.