Filli, You inspired me to go digging on the web and find several citations about Aulė. Your question; "What is it about Aule that inspires/evokes, trains, devolpes etc......bad nast scary Maiar?" I don't think it has much to do with Aule at all. But it does have to do with is the evil in Melkor/Morgoth. Even his best works and disciples are corrupted by Melkor. Indeed Tolkien makes a point at how closely they match, and therefore the rivalry and animosity between them. Melkor corrupts or destroys or attempts to corrupt and destroy most of Aulė's work. Several Maiar were associated with Aulė: Sauron, before being corrupted by Melkor; and Curumo (Saruman), who later went to Middle-earth as an Istar to combat Sauron. Sauron was among the mightiest, if not the mightiest of the Maiar who served Aulė and used his knowledge of the metaphysical structure of Arda to great effect as a servant of Morgoth in the First Age of Middle-earth and then was his own master in the Second and Third Ages. When Sauron sought to corrupt the Elves in the Second Age one of the names he assumed was Aulendil, meaning devotee of Aulė. It is interesting to note that two of the greatest Maiar sent to Middle-earth, that fell, were in the beginning both aligned with Aulė. The reason for this is probably that this is the order most associated with craft, skill, and by these means, power. Weaker-willed spirits often fall prey to craving for power in Tolkien's works, and these prove no exception. Aulė is a Vala and one of the Ainur. Aulė is given lordship over the matter that composes Arda and is a master of all the crafts that shape it. During the Music of the Ainur, Aulė's themes concerned the physical things of which Arda is made; when Ilśvatar gave being to the themes of the Ainur, his music became the lands of Middle-earth. Other of his works include Angainor (the chain of Melkor), the Two Lamps and the vessels of the Sun and Moon. He is husband to Yavanna. His name translates from Quenya as invention. As Aulė is a smith, he is the Vala most similar in thought and powers to Melkor, in that they each gloried in the fashioning of artful and original things. Both also came to create beings of their own. But while Aulė strove to be true to the original intent of the Music of the Ainur, and submitted all that he did to the will of Ilśvatar, Melkor wished to control and subvert all things, and was jealous of the creations of others so that he would try to twist or destroy all that they made. There was long strife between Aulė and Melkor both before and after the creation of Arda. Aulė, however, traditionally opposed attempts to fight Melkor, for fear of the damage that would be wrought to Arda. When the Elves came to Valinor, the Noldor became the students of Aulė. Fėanor was his greatest pupil, and from him learned to make gems through craftsmanship that is now forgotten. This would eventually lead to the Silmarils, the greatest creation of handiwork within Arda. On the Flight of the Noldor, the Noldor who returned to Valinor under Finarfin named themselves the Aulendur, Followers of Aulė.
Aulė created the Dwarves, who call him Mahal, the Maker. Desperate for pupils onto whom he could pass his knowledge, and unwilling to wait for the emergence of the Children of Ilśvatar, Aulė created his own race of beings, the Dwarves. However, he did not have a clear idea of what the Children of Ilśvatar would be like, and because of the presence of the chaos caused by Melkor, Aulė made the Dwarves strong and unyielding, and not willing to endure the domination of others, as well as embodying some of his values and desires for Middle-earth. "Since they were to come in the days of the power of Melkor, Aulė made the dwarves strong to endure. Therefore they are stone-hard, stubborn, fast in friendship and in enmity, and they suffer toil and hunger and hurt of body more hardily than all other speaking peoples; and they live long, far beyond the span of Men, yet not forever" (The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter II - "Of Aulė and Yavanna", pgs 43-44) . However Aulė did not have the power to give independent life to his creations, they could act only when his thought was on them. When Aulė had completed his work he began to instruct the Dwarves in the language he had made for them, Khuzdul. Then Ilśvatar spoke to him, asking why he would seek to exceed his power and authority by attempting to make new life. Aulė repented, answering that the drive to create was kindled in him by Ilśvatar, and that he only wished for other beings to love and teach, with whom to share in the beauty of the world. He admitted that his impatience had driven him to folly and submitted his creations to Ilśvatar. Assuming that they should be destroyed, he made to smite the seven Fathers of the Dwarves with a great hammer, weeping as he did so. But as the Dwarves shrank from the blow, Ilśvatar stayed Aulė's hand and showed that he had already accepted his offer by gifting the Dwarves with spirits of their own, else they could not have been afraid. Ilśvatar accepted them as his adopted children, however as it was ordained that the Elves were to be the first-born race, he set the Dwarves to sleep until after the Awakening of the Elves. He told Aulė that while both were his children, their creation was outside the scope of the Music of the Ainur, and often strife would arise between the Dwarven race and the Elven race as the events of the world unfolded. The Dwarves believe that after they die their spirits remove to halls Aulė has set aside for them, and their role will be to rebuild Arda after the Final Battle that is yet to come. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit Called or uncalled, God is present
