Em uma carta escrita durante a escrita de Os Contos Inacabados , na qual Tolkien primeiro nomeou Alatar e Pallando, também chamado Morinehtar e Rómestámo, ele escreveu sobre eles:
I think they went as emissaries to distant regions, East and South, far out of Numenorean range: missionaries to enemy-occupied lands, as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.
No entanto, em Os Povos da Terra Média , escrito por Tolkien nos últimos anos de sua vida, ele disse que os Magos Azuis conseguiram transformar as ondas de conflito no Oriente durante o Segundo e terceira idade. Se isto é uma revisão do que ele escreveu anteriormente, ou se eles foram inicialmente bem sucedidos e depois caíram, não é conhecido.
A citação de Os Povos da Terra Média é a seguinte:
The other two are only known to (have) exist(ed) [sic] by Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast, and Saruman in his wrath mentioning five was letting out a piece of private information.
The 'other two' came much earlier, at the same time probably as Glorfindel, when matters became very dangerous in the Second Age. Glorfindel was sent to aid Elrond and was (though not yet said) pre-eminent in the war in Eriador. But the other two Istari were sent for a different purpose. Morinehtar and Rómestámo. Darkness-slayer and East-helper. Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion ... and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they failed) and to cause [? dissension and disarray] among the dark East ... They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.