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A quick explanation of Ainur:
Ainur are beings from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Middle Earth books of a higher rank than elves, dwarves, and humans. There are two classes of Ainur: Valar and Maiar. The two classes have some similarities and some differences. All Ainur are immortal, Very powerful, and likely need no sleep to survive. The Maiar are weaker than the Valar, who are essentially gods, in that they must take a powerful but limited physical form to live on the earth. They are also much more numerous than the Valar. In their physical forms, Maiar Usually need to eat (though there are ways around this) can die (but could potentially return) and typically conserve their power more than the Valar do.
The Connections:
Something I realized is that Minecraft players in creative mode resemble Valar, and players in Survival mode resemble incarnated Maiar, Though Minecraft’s bosses also resemble dark Maiar. Withers are similar to balrogs. Neither needs to eat, but both can and probably do, and neither return after death. The Ender Dragon resembles a more powerful dark Maia, like Sauron. Neither ever eat, and both can and have returned upon death. Most importantly, only one of each exists at a time, so it makes sense that they would be reincarnations of the same entity in a new life.
Extra Nonsense:
The types of powers players can possess are Ainur-reminiscent as well. Commands and permissions are like the powers of light held and sometimes granted by the Valar, whereas hacked clients are like the powers of darkness Saruman used to make his forces stronger. I suppose the “sentient” mobs of Minecraft are slightly Tolkien-esque too. Villagers are humans, Endermen could be dark elves (which Tolkein did write about) and the upcoming 1.16 piglins could be orcs or dwarves I guess. I know all of this is kind of silly and pointless, but I had fun realizing these connections, and you were probably somewhat interested if you read this far anyway. For now, that’s all folks!
Source of painting and Ainur info: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Ainur
Ainur are beings from J.R.R. Tolkein’s Middle Earth books of a higher rank than elves, dwarves, and humans. There are two classes of Ainur: Valar and Maiar. The two classes have some similarities and some differences. All Ainur are immortal, Very powerful, and likely need no sleep to survive. The Maiar are weaker than the Valar, who are essentially gods, in that they must take a powerful but limited physical form to live on the earth. They are also much more numerous than the Valar. In their physical forms, Maiar Usually need to eat (though there are ways around this) can die (but could potentially return) and typically conserve their power more than the Valar do.
The Connections:
Something I realized is that Minecraft players in creative mode resemble Valar, and players in Survival mode resemble incarnated Maiar, Though Minecraft’s bosses also resemble dark Maiar. Withers are similar to balrogs. Neither needs to eat, but both can and probably do, and neither return after death. The Ender Dragon resembles a more powerful dark Maia, like Sauron. Neither ever eat, and both can and have returned upon death. Most importantly, only one of each exists at a time, so it makes sense that they would be reincarnations of the same entity in a new life.
Extra Nonsense:
The types of powers players can possess are Ainur-reminiscent as well. Commands and permissions are like the powers of light held and sometimes granted by the Valar, whereas hacked clients are like the powers of darkness Saruman used to make his forces stronger. I suppose the “sentient” mobs of Minecraft are slightly Tolkien-esque too. Villagers are humans, Endermen could be dark elves (which Tolkein did write about) and the upcoming 1.16 piglins could be orcs or dwarves I guess. I know all of this is kind of silly and pointless, but I had fun realizing these connections, and you were probably somewhat interested if you read this far anyway. For now, that’s all folks!
Source of painting and Ainur info: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Ainur
| Credit | Alassea Earello made the cool painting. I hope i'm allowed to use it. |
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[Minor nitpick: the LotR wiki isn't widely regarded as a reliable source. Tolkien Gateway is more recommended. It still has its issues, but less so than LotR wiki.]
We could also go with the player being a Man. It doesn't explain why they can come back after death, or what creative mode is, but Men awoke fairly late in the world when compared to the Elves and the Dwarves. So, the player awakes, starts learning to survive in Arda, and... shoot. If the player is a Man, then the villagers... are... the Elves...
...
I'm not willing to accept that, so let's go a different route.
Alright, so the player is Tom Bombadil. Hey dol, merry dol, derry dol, my darling. They're the first in the world, because none of it spawns in until the player decides to press 'Create New World', and so they also remember the first time it rains, or the first time they meet the Villagers, and all that. I don't know, this is hard.
Alright, now that that's settled, let's look at the other mobs.
The Villagers are Men. Fairly obvious.
I'd say that the Illagers are Orcs. Malevolent corruptions of the Children of Ilúvatar, ugly, like to raid towns, etc.
Don't ask me about Evokers. I have no idea.
Zombies and Skeletons are Zombies and Skeletons. I don't know. I don't think anything fits them in Tolkien's writings.
Spiders are descended from Ungoliant. Finally, something easy.
Endermen don't really work as Dark Elves. The Avari were just Elves who never saw the light of the Two Trees. They weren't really evil Elves, and the 'dark' title has nothing to do with their appearance. I'm going with Evil Maiar for them.
The Piglins are... also Orcs, I guess.
I can't really see the Wither as a Balrog. It has the darkening effect that Balrogs are supposed to have, but that's about it. Plus it flies, which Balrogs don't do because Balrogs don't have wings. I'm going with Evil Maia. Again.
Finally, I'd say that the Ender Dragon is another Evil Maia, one in Dragon form. I say it's an Ainu specifically and not a regular dragon just because it has a weird death animation, while when Smaug died he just flopped over and left a corpse. That's my only reason.
Oh yeah, and Dwarves just don't exist.
Alright, those are my thoughts on the matter. Have a good day.
Still not sold on the Wither. Honestly, Wither Skeletons are closer to how the Balrog looks in my mind, but they're much weaker than Maiar of such infamy should be.
Tom Bombadil's totally not a Maia but I will meet you on that battlefield another time.