Also known as: Eru, Iluvatar, The One, The Allfather
Eru Ilúvatar is the supreme being of Eä, the creator of all that is. Before the world existed, he made the Ainur from his thought and led them in the Great Music, the Ainulindalë, from which the world's history was woven. When Melkor introduced discord, Ilúvatar wove even that rebellion into a greater theme, declaring that no theme can be played that does not have its uttermost source in him.
Within him alone dwells the Flame Imperishable, the Secret Fire that gives true life — which Melkor sought in the Void and never found. Ilúvatar gave the Elves immortality bound to the world, and to Men the Gift of mortality, by which they pass beyond the circles of the world to a fate unknown even to the Valar. He rarely intervenes directly in the world's affairs, but when Ar-Pharazôn's armada assailed Valinor, Ilúvatar himself broke the world, drowning Númenor and removing the Undying Lands from the circles of the earth. It was Ilúvatar who sent Gandalf back after his death on Zirakzigil, and his quiet providence runs beneath the entire story of the Ring — as Gandalf says, Frodo was meant to find it.