What do we know about the Ainur who stayed in the Timeless Halls?
This is my understanding:
* Before <PERSON> created Eä, he created the Ainur, who were with him in his Timeless Halls.
* At <PERSON>’s creation, some of the Ainur chose to enter the world and be bound to it.
* Of the Ainur who entered Eä, the fifteen most powerful were called the Valar (or fourteen plus Melkor). The others were called Maiar.
* The <PERSON> and <PERSON> cannot leave Eä until the end of the world. 88
I don’t know whether they gave up any other powers.
From the Ainulindalë, about the Valar being more powerful than the Maiar:
And the Valar drew unto them many companions, some less, some well nigh as great as themselves.
Later in the Ainulindalë, emphasis mine:
Thus it came to pass that of the Ainur some abode still with Ilúvatar beyond the confines of the World; but others, and among them many of the greatest and most fair, took the leave of <PERSON> and descended into it. But this condition <PERSON> made, or it is the necessity of their love, that their power should thenceforward be contained and bounded in the World, to be within it for ever, until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs. And therefore they are named the <PERSON>, the Powers of the World.
The passage above only mentions the Valar, but I am under the impression that it applies to the Maiar too.
Do we know anything about the Ainur who chose not to enter Eä at its creation?
* Do they have a name, other than “the Ainur who remained in the Timeless Halls”?
* Are they able to enter and leave Eä now that it’s created?
* Could any of these Ainur be more powerful than the Valar? Were the Valar the most powerful of all Ainur, or only of those who chose to be bound to Eä? The passage about says that many of the greatest Ainur entered Eä, but it seems like a few of the absolute greatest could have stayed behind. 88