There was Eru. The One. Ilúvatar.
Ainulindalë (Quenya for "Song of Ainur") is a retelling of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion's first story, illustrated by Evan Palmer.
In the beginning there only was Eru Iluvatar. Then he created the Ainur, spirits made of his thought and imbued with the Imperishable Flame. Eru taught them many matters, including music, and they learnt to compose themes and sing. And the Ainur found out that their music improved when they sang together, since they came to understand their partners better by listening to their songs.
However, Melkor, the mightiest and vainest Ainu, was not interested in understanding his kin. Extremely prideful and petty, he wished to create new things to be praised, and he got mad when someone else conceived something he had not thought of. Eventually he became unable to create anything, so he resorted to steal or try to destroy everybody else's creations.
Melkor often wandered alone into the Void, which he considered Eru was leaving unattended, in search of the Imperishable Flame. Melkor never realized that Eru was the source of the Flame, and it never occurred to him that Eru had plans for the Void.
Then it came to pass that Eru gathered the Ainur and he propounded a new theme…
The webcomic can be found here
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This Webcomic has examples of the next tropes:
- Big Bad: Melkor starts a world-scale god war because he wants to claim Earth for himself and force everyone to do his bidding.
- Big Good: Manwë Súlimo is the rightful viceregent of Arda and will not permit Melkor to conquer or destroy the world out of hubris and pettiness.
- Cain and Abel: Melkor hates his brother Manwë in the same way that he hates literally everything in existence. Manwë does not hate Melkor back, but he opposes his brother all the same.
- Dark Is Evil: Subverted. When Melkor returns to Arda for the second time, he takes the shape of a humanoid mass of darkness. However, it is made clear that neither darkness nor light are evil, and Melkor in fact uses light and fire to cause havoc for the first time.
- Divine Delegation: Eru creates the Ainur so they can take part in the creation of the universe, as well as instruct and guide his Children until they become autonomous.
- Divine Intervention: Eru usually prefers to manipulate events subtly. However, when Melkor goes on ruining the Song, Eru stops the music abruptly.
- The End of the World as We Know It: The Ainur catch a glimpse of the end of the world right before the visions of the history of Arda fade away.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: Melkor's physical form is often wreathed in flames, even when he is not setting whole continents on fire.
- Evil Is Petty: Melkor's first destructive act is to burn a forest for absolutely no reason. Later he engaged in petty destructive acts on a global scale only to be an ass.Yet it is told among them that the Valar endeavored ever in despite of Melkor. They built lands and Melkor destroyed them. Valleys they delved and Melkor raised them up. Mountains they carved and Melkor threw them down. Seas they hollowed and Melkor spilled them.
- Flat World: Earth is a flat disc of land surrounded by several spheres of water and air.
- God: Eru is the Middle-Earth equivalent to the Christian God.
- God Is Good:
- Eru created the universe out of love for his Children (both Ainur and Eruhini), and he cares for all of them. He allows the existence of Melkor because he gave his creations free will so they can shape their own lives, and he will ensure that Melkor's evil deeds also bring about good things.
- The Valar are flawed and may make mistakes, but they are good and well-meaning. They descended upon Earth because they yearned for making a beautiful world where the Children of Eru could lead happy lives.
- The Good King: Manwe is the Eru-appointed King of Arda, but he is not interested in power or glory. He only wants to be a good ruler and make the right thing for everyone.
- Happily Married: Most of the Valar are and have been married since before the beginning of Time.
- The High Queen: Varda is Manwe's wife and Eru-appointed co-ruler of Arda. She is not interested in personal glory but in ruling fairly and making a better world for the Children.
- In Mysterious Ways:
- After chiding Melkor for disrupting the Music instead of adding to it, Eru reveals he tolerates Melkor's bad actions because they always cause a good that Eru was aware of, but Melkor could not have foreseen.
- Eru discusses it somewhat with Ulmo: Melkor will attempt to mar/destroy his province (water) with heat and cold. Not only is it impossible to do so, from cold will come the unimagined beauty of snow and frost; and water heated results in "the height and glory of the clouds", whereby the realms of Ulmo and ManwË are mingled. In summary: Evil will, despite itself, ultimately result in unexpected beauty that may make it worthwhile, not the least of which is the friendship and love sprung between those who oppose and fight against it.
- Another future vision shows the Valar building gigantic Lamps to bring light to the world, Melkor smashing them down, and the Valar replacing them with more beautiful and useful creations.
- It's All About Me: Melkor screwed up with the Music of the Creation because he wanted his part to be greater, came to Earth because he planned to fool the Children of Eru into worship him and serve him, started a god war because Manwe wouldn't allow him to claim the world for himself, and then he started another war because the Valar were getting by fine without him.
- Jerkass: If the Valar raised a mountain, Melkor brought it down. If the Valar delved a valley, Melkor raised a mountain onto it. If the Valar filled a sea, Melkor spilled it… Melkor has dedicated his life to ruin everything out of spite.
- Kick the Dog: First thing that Melkor does when he rebels is burning some woodlands because it amuses him.
- Loners Are Freaks:
- Played straight with Melkor. He never wanted to hang out with his fellow Ainur, let alone get along well with them. As a result of his self-imposed isolation, he became gradually massively self-centered and twisted.
- Averted with Ulmo, who always lives alone and far away, but whose kindness, compassion and wisdom are respected by everyone (but Melkor).
- Not Good with Rejection: Melkor does not take being said "No, you can't have it" well. He has hated and wanted to destroy the world since the Valar stopped him from taking over.
- The Paragon Always Rebels: Melkor is the greatest and mightiest Ainu, as well as the most prideful and most self-centered. At the end, his hubris and egotism lead to him rebelling and trying to take over the world.
- Physical God: Before the Creation, the Ainur are depicted as spheres of differently-colored light. When they enter the physical world, they don human-like bodies.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Eru grows tired of Melkor disrupting the Song, he makes the Music cease and reprimands Melkor for attempting to ruin it out of self-centeredness. Then Eru assures Melkor he will never be able to bend the Music to his own ends, no matter how powerful he is, because the Music comes from Eru himself, and he will turn Melkor's bad into good.
- Sizeshifter: The Ainur can change sizes, too. Aule becomes truly gigantic to mold one mountain with his bare hands.
- This Means War!: Manwë put up with Melkor's abuse until his brother declared the Kingdom of Arda was his to do as he pleased. Manwë gathers the loyal Ainur at once and declares that he will never allow his brother to take over the world.
- Time Abyss: Eru is older than everything. The Ainur are older than anything else created, including the universe itself.
- Voluntary Shape Shifting: The Ainur were conceived without physical bodies. They can change shapes like Elves and Men change clothes. Even so they prefer to take humanoid shapes.
And yet their labour was not all in vain. And though nowhere and in no work was their will and purpose wholly fulfilled, slowly nonetheless the Earth was fashioned and made firm. And thus was the habitation of the Children of Ilúvatar established at the last in the deps of time and amidst the innumerable stars.
