There is also Glorfindel. In the First Age , he was able to fight off a balrog and hold off Morgoth's armies long enough for Gondolin's survivors to escape. In the Third age, he frightened the Witch King just by being there and then sent the Nazgul fleeing into Elrond's flood. How much damage do you think he could've done to Sauron's forces? Would he have sacrificed himself to let the others escape Middle Earth?
Well, that is taken a lot out of context: First of all, eventhough it isn't impossible, be don't know for certain if Glorfindel = Glorfindel. That obviously only affects him dealing with a balrog, but still -that effects him dealing with a balrog.
And in my version of the story (The Book of Lost Tales), he did only fight the balrog not him and Angband's forces. That's a difference.
Him dealing with the Nazgûl is another topic. Not to take anything away from Glorfindel, but the Witchking had already lost the battle, the war and his realm. He did eventually ran off, but you can hardly ignore the surroundings. It wasn't him running away too frightened to fight, but him choosing to leave (after his work was done aka Arnor destroyed). Also, didn't he vanish laughing? I'm almost certain, he did.
Next, at the fords of Bruinen, the Witchking was in the middle of the fords when the flood came, so he basically frightened the horses. BTW, supported by Aragorn & the hobbits using torches! Thus, he is clearly a damn-powerfull elven lord (who did chase some Nazgûl away by himself earlier at the bridge (offscreen)), but I think you make him stronger than he is.
Also, when talking about the Nine, it's important to grasp the concept of how much of their strength is revealed. That's especially important for their leader; he wasn't yet allowed to show his true power to the West. (No idea, why, btw. I mean, he was chasing the One Ring!
)
Concerning the dragons: Yes, Sauron would eventually try to bind them to his will, as Morgoth did or at least control them using their greed. I guess, that would take a while since they live very far away. Gondor, Rohan and the Erebor would have fallen by then, I'd guess, so essentially they'd end up as overkill.
How do you think he would've treated the Evil Men that fought for him? In the First Age, Morgoth just mistreated any Easterlings who followed him. Do you think Sauron would've done the same?
I think, Sauron's relation to the easterlings is quite different from Morgoth's. The latter used them exclusively as a tool to win the Nirnaeth Arnoediad and then had no use for them anymore. Giving them nothing for it was just him being the devil of Arda.
Meanwhile, Sauron seems to enjoy, being their leader and thus has a much deeper relation to them and men in general. Remember, they glorified him as a god. Thus, I expect Sauron to further use them as his battle thralls, ultimately being not particularly evil towards them. (Apart from the general mess his unbroken rule would have caused in Middle Earth over time.) But he was certainly not at all that focussed on his own creations as Morgoth, namely because Sauron did nearly exclusively refine them and not create them from scratch (or at least from... volunteers
).
I'd be interesting to know whether or not once the war is over whether or not Sauron would have followed a path similar to this world's technological advancements. Eventually discovering things like electricity, nuclear power, ...
I think, I just realized something... Something very grave... Considering Tolkien plans his world to eventually become ours... Since we have all of this, I'm afraid but Sauron won as you can clearly deduce from our surroundings. Well... I guess, you're our true leader now, Necro.
Greetings
Melkor Bauglir
PS: "Ettenmoors". How could I forget that?!