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The Great Labours, also called the Long Struggle or the Days of Chaos, were the vast and unmeasured ages that followed the descent of the Ainur into Eä. This was the time before the shaping of Arda, when the cosmos was formless, the Void unbroken, and the Music of the Ainur had yet to take root in the realm of Time. It was an age of fire and darkness, where the Valar and their followers strove against the vast emptiness, shaping the heavens, kindling the first lights, and preparing the world for the habitation of the Children of Ilúvatar.
At the dawn of Time, when the Ainur passed through the Door of Arrival and beheld Eä as it was in its beginning, they were struck with wonder and dismay. For the Great Music had been but a flowering of thought in the Timeless Halls, and the Vision a foreshadowing only. But now they stood in the vast halls of the unmade cosmos, where the works of their voices had yet to be shaped.
It those times Eä was without shape, without light, and without rest, an endless void, veiled in fire and shadow, its expanse stretching beyond the grasp of thought. Time had begun, yet there was no land, no sky, no firmament upon which to stand. Thus, the Great Labours began, a struggle unmeasured and uncounted, in which the Ainur strove to bring forth the form and order of the world.
Yet vast was the work before them, for Eä was without order, and what was shaped often unraveled, its substance weak, its form unsteady. And of those who labored, none worked with more fervor than Melkor, who had been greatest in the Music and who now strode across the unformed expanse, setting hand to all things. Wherever Aulë forged, there Melkor would shape anew; where Manwë set the airs, Melkor would stir them into motion. He was restless, seeking mastery over the shaping of things, but he did not yet move against his kin.
Thus the Valar labored together, but not in harmony. For Melkor desired dominion over all, and his workings were not as the others’. His fire burned too fiercely, his shaping bore too much will of his own. And yet, in those days, no war was waged, for the struggle was against the Void itself, and all who had descended into Eä sought to bring forth the world.
Then the labors quickened, and at last, in the deeps of time, there came the hour and the place where the world was made firm: Arda, the destined realm of the Children of Ilúvatar. And so ended the Years of Chaos, and the Days of Gloaming began, as the shaping of the world at last took form.
Amartari[]
But as the ages wore on, not all of the Ainur could endure. The vastness of the void pressed upon them, the labors stretched into eternity, and the darkness whispered to those who tarried. Among them, some faltered, their spirits growing weary of making, their will fading into the dark. These became the Amartari, the Undestinied, who ceased their striving and drifted into the empty spaces, finding in the Void not an absence, but a home.
For they had stepped into Eä, yet they saw no end to the labor, no shape to the world. To them, the Void was not a thing to be filled, but the natural state of all things, and they would not strive against it. Some wandered, lost in the deeps of the cosmos, neither creating nor destroying. Others, hearing only the silent harmony of the dark, turned against their brethren, resisting all shaping, all change.
And so from the midst of the Ainur who had entered into Eä, there arose the Spirits of the Void, who sought not to build, but to preserve the darkness, to still the fires, to quell the waters, to quiet the winds. Against them strove Tulkas, mightiest in strength, who came to the labor late but with great joy. Where the Amartari turned to the dark, he drove them back with laughter; where they sought to still the shaping of the world, he contended against them with might. Many he cast into the outer dark, yet some remained, whispering their creed of emptiness in the hidden corners of Eä.
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Yet in those first days, not all Ainur found their purpose. Some, gazing upon the immeasurable vastness of the cosmos, were stricken with doubt. The void was endless, and their task unceasing; for every light kindled, darkness still stretched beyond, greater than before. The work of shaping was slow, and it was a burden. These Ainur, weary and uncertain, withdrew.
Thus came to be the Amartari, the Undestinied, those Ainur who faltered in their purpose. Some lingered in silence, wandering the unlit spaces between the stars, never taking up the task of creation. Others came to see the Void not as an absence, but as the true and natural state of Eä. They forsook the labor of shaping and sought instead to preserve the darkness, resisting the will of the Valar.
It is said that the first struggles of Tulkas were not against Melkor, but against these spirits of hesitation and doubt.