🧙Maiar - after the ⚔️War

[Mick]

If I'm not mistaken, even long after the War of the Ring, there are still three Istari (Maiar) left... Did Tolkien have any plans - they are very powerful, and I suppose the most powerful beings who remain in Middle-Earth, aren't they? Did he give any clues in his letters?
If Sauron was a Maiar and went astray, one of these Istari could create similar terror like him?

 

[Ent]

Hello Mick.
By Ent's reckoning, there are 4 who remain. Radagast, Gandalf, and the two "blue wizards." whoever they are, or possibly were.
Gandalf is said by most to be the only one who actually fulfilled the mission he was given.
Radagast's end is not known.
Nothing is said about the blue wizards whatsoever in the strict cannon. There may be brief remakrs about them in the 'extra-cannon writings.' Much is speculated about them, and they figure in some fanfic stuff from time to time.

That said, there are many maiar remaining, and no doubt come could be classified as 'wizards' should they need to be interacting as so with the "children of Eru."

The balrogs are, for example, maiar. They are called 'balrogs' because they interact with Humans. But all maiar have powers of a kind. And if one takes a form and retains it for too long, (if Ent understands rightly), then they remain in that form.

The balrogs took and kept the forms of balrogs, so balrogs they became.
The wizards took the form of wizards, and needed to retain it for ages, so wizards they became.

The Ents were 'spirits from afar' who "inhabited" trees, so Ents they became.

Here is another thought along those lines. Arguably, The Mouth of Sauron is a somewhat powerful entity. And whether human or maia, Ent believes we know nothing about him and what happens to him during or after the final confrontation at Mordor's gates. What happens to him? How does he figure into people's thinking about the future of Middle-earth? We know evil remains, and in many forms and guises. what role do these things play?

 

[wondering]

Radagast and the Blue Wizards are likely* still around, yes.

Though possibly not forever ... Wizard bodies seem to age, though very slowly (Saruman started with black hair), so I personally tend to think that any Wizards who didn't die violently would ultimately "fade" in a way somewhat similar to the Elves who chose to remain, once their bodies aged to the point they could no longer properly house the Maia spirit. Once disembodied (either by violent death or some sort of time-induced "fading") they would probably either be rejected by the West as Saruman was, or be accepted back and leave Middle-earth. The later version of the Blue Wizards would presumably be accepted back, while the "founders of cults" version would likely be rejected.

Though Radagast might well choose to stay ... He may ultimately have become something like a "genius loci" of some wood somewhere.

Tom Bombadil and Goldberry also don't sail, and they probably were never in the West with no reason to go there. They might have eventually "faded" or merged with the landscape they embody (?).

I think in the long run due to the Dominion of Men all such primarily-spirit beings would either "fade" into an "Unseen World" existence, as the Lingering Elves ultimately do, dwindle from the world in some other way (like Ents becoming tree-ish ... Perhaps the Great Eagles eventually dwindle into more or less normal eagles?). They might remain present in the world, but as spiritual influences rather than physical participants.

*Though it's also IMO possible that one or more of them got killed... Radagast seems to disappear after Gandalf escapes from Orthanc; Elrond's messengers fail to find him. I've seen speculation that Saruman might have killed him (though I think it's likelier that he fled to some wild place distant from the War). The Blue Wizards were working on Sauron's ground, one or both could have been killed after Sauron started really organizing things again.