Ainur

One thing that some people end up asking themselves when the read or watch The Lord of The Rings for the first time is "what makes this Sauron guy such a big deal?" or "so what exactly is this Gandalf character?" The answer to that is that they are Ainur, which could basically be considered Angels created by Eru Iluvatar. They sung the world into existence and shaped it afterwards, for good or bad. Some of them went into the world and were bound to it, these are the Maiar.

Valar

The strongest and most powerful Ainur to come to Arda and depending on how you look at them are either archangels or gods with a lower case g. There are thirteen in total, each one roughly corresponding to a particular "domain" analogous to Greek gods, though the Valar themselves do not claim to be deities of any sort (except for Melkor; more on him later). All the same, they're still highly respected by the Elves and Men of Dunedain descent, and will oftentimes invoke their names in times of need.

The Valar ruled Arda from Valinor, aka the Undying Lands, from the beginning of time until the Second Age, when they relinquished control of Middle Earth to their creator Eru Iluvatar, and Valinor became permanently separated from the rest of Arda.

Lesser Maiar

The lesser Maiar take many different forms throughout the series, though many served under each of the Valar at some point.

• Gandalf, Sauron, & Radaghast: See Below.
• Melian: Noteworthy for being the progenitor of both the Half-Elves and the Kings of Gondor, she married the Elven king of Doriath and bore Luthien, who would herself marry a human named Beren. As this shows, it was possible for Maiar in their physical forms to procreate with the Children of Illuvatar, which has some interesting implications. She protected Dorioth with her magic until her husband was killed by a bunch of angry dwarves, and eventually returned to Valinor heartbroken.
• Sauron: Formerly a student of Aule but later was swayed to Melkor's side. Whereas Melkor used brute strength to impose his will, Sauron favored guile and manipulation, especially when he successfully corrupted the kingdom of Numenor and brought about its ruin, or when he uses his Ring to dominate the wills of others.
• Balrogs: All balrogs are maiar who sided with Melkor and took the form of fiery demons. The one in the Fellowship of the Ring is one of the last remaining ones; Melkor used to field **armies** of these guys.
• Ungoliant: The mother of Shelob the giant spider, Ungoliant herself was an even more massive spider monster who birthed all other giant spiders in the world. Ungoliant hated the light but also gained power from consuming it, so she temporarily allied with Morgoth to destroy the Two Trees of Light. When their alliance was dissolved, she nearly killed Melkor for trying to hide the Silmarils from her, but his Balrogs had to come in and save him.

Istari

The Istari is the formal name of the Wizards, all of whom were Maiar who were sent to Middle Earth to aid the free peoples and provide them with wise counsel, during the Third Age between Sauron's initial defeat and his final one. Though they appear to take the form of elderly men, they're still quite powerful in their own right, both physically and in magic.

The order that Curumo (Saruman) and Olórin (Gandalf) belong too. There are five of them in all. They were sent by Manwë to inform mortals about Melkor's lieutenant Sauron and raise forces to oppose him. Readers only learn to what happened to three of them. Saruman got corrupted by Sauron after learning about the nature of his rings, but was eventually killed after he sided with Sauron and lost all of his power and authority in the War of the Ring. Radagast made friends with the Giant Eagles and preferred to tend to nature than help the free peoples directly. Gandalf the Grey initially led the Fellowship until he was pulled down to the bottom of a dwarf mine by the Balrog, Duran's Bane. Fought and chased the bastard for days, died after killing it and was upgraded to Gandalf the White by Ilúvatar and fucked off to the Undying Lands after the War of the Ring. As for the twi "Blue Wizards," we're only given scraps of speculative information, that they headed East into the lands where Sauron held sway and were revered as minor deities, but ultimately failed in their mission.

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