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.

Istari

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 Morgoth'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 than killed when he sided with Sauron. Radagasht made friends with the Giant Eagles. Gandalf the Grey initially led the Fellowship until he was pulled down to the bottom of 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.

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