Manwë (Quenya;“Blessed One”) was the leader of the Ainur, one of the Aratar, King of the Valar, husband of Varda, brother of the Dark Lord Melkor, and King of Arda. He was also known as Súlimo, Mânawenûz or Valahiru, and lived atop Mount Taniquetil in Valinor, the highest mountain of the world. The winds and airs were his servants.
He was the greatest in authority, but not in power, of all the Valar, Melkor being more powerful. He was however the greatest of the Aratar, among whom Melkor was not. Manwë was a kind, compassionate ruler, unconcerned with his own power. He oversaw all of the Valar’s early attempts to order Arda, but was unable to stop Melkor’s rampages because Manwë was completely free of evil, he was unable to comprehend it.
The Vanyar are his favorite Elves, and they live with him and Varda on Mount Taniquetil.
I dreamt that I had to go to Hogwarts to lure Sauron, but this Hogwarts strangely looked like a hospital. On my way, there were many constellations floating around the city like fog, and there was a bull head. It knew it was Oromë’s sygil, so I screetched in an attempt to imitate Lugia’s call to summon him. Oromë appeared in the distance, he was quite the giant (and was some sort of a faun with huge antlers and a spear). He raised his hand in salute and said I was safe to go, I had his blessings.
I went. The plan was to play dumb and befriend Sauron, but he had the same idea to play dumb. Both of us agreed to go to a calm room, so we flew together in a tower and we went somewhere. Nothing really happened. Someone came in, a tall Dobby the Elf kind of person, and I pretended I was Sauron’s servant, so I kneeled and rested my head on his lap. Sauron shoo'ed Dobby away (he was in a foul mood). I had already decided his lap was comfortable, so I settled myself. Sauron didn’t mind and petted my hair.
The hospital!Hogwarts had a Manwë/Dumbledore figure that was in the facts Dupont from Tintin. And Sauron was being a spy of Morgoth.
I should have paid more attention to the poses, some work nicely and some others hardly do.
Originally I told myself I would make a complete deck, but hem… Yeah. I’d be on it next year… >_>
Also, about Melian, I know she’s not connected to Morgoth and evil but I came short on Queens, so I thought of Thuringwethil, but she has such a minor role…And it’s not even certain she’s a Maia. I thought of Melian as the Jack of Clubs but scrapped the idea, to keep a traditionnal deck.
So I will justify her presence in Spades with the fact those 3 Ainur spent a while in Middle Earth, whereas the others mostly stayed in Valinor.
I just changed Manwë’s cloak thing a bit because I found the previous one weird and unfunctionnal. I’ll keep both versions on the blog for a bit, I’m curious which version you guys like best?
Also gave him eyebrows (still wondering if that was necessary) and added a couple lighting effects.
All the Valars and the bad guys ! All standing together they fit quite well , don’t you think ? :)
I made a close up to their face for my school’s illustration, but i didn’t known wich one I prefer between the uper section and the down one. So tell me wich one you prefer in the comments :)
It looks like a Family portrait
Uper section from left to right : Ulmo . Aulë . Yavanna . Manwë . Varda . Tulkas . Nessa Down from left to right : Nienna . Irmo . Estë . Oromê . Vana . Vaïre . Namo .
In the Middle I made a little bonus with the bad guys : Melkor and Sauron :)
