Ok! To sum up - are the orcs:That's still dodging the issue that the orcs are neither Maiar nor beasts, and that you're still in essence building something new, which, as you've pointed out, is something that Morgoth is incapable of. My understanding of "fell spirits" has always been that they were Maiar, not that dragons were of the same kind as Eagles. Certainly they are never said to breed, and appear to be of a very finite number. Trolls in the Lord of the Rings quite specifically ARE beasts in exactly the way that orcs are not, Tom, Bert, and William of the Hobbit notwithstanding. I am deeply uncomfortable with the notion that the orcs are somehow lesser Maiar who have inherited their "souls" from their divine parents and have been made lesser by their bestial ones. While it certainly nails the "abomination" ick-factor pretty squarely on the head, it feels an awful lot like wanting to have ones cake and eat it too. As I pointed out, the nature of the Half-breeds that exist in Tolkien is pretty explicit: nobody gets to trade "up". If these bestial orcs would somehow be given the choice between parents like the Halfelven do, and we already know they don't get to be Maiar, then all we're left with is simple beasts, who as you pointed out, already have no souls. And that's equally a tremendous reductive and ultimately quite boring thing to do with the orcs, in the same way making them simple automatons is boring.
Edit: I absolutely have to go to bed, but I wanted to shake my fist at the Hosts before I do so, and spread my arms wide. BEHOLD, THE WORK OF THY HANDS! SEE WHAT RUIN YOUR PROCRASTINATION HAS WROUGHT!
I kid, of course, and we still have a week to hammer all this out and put it in front of the Big Three (whereupon it will all be dashed to its component molecules and the obvious answer none of us has thought of will be presented inside the first five minutes, I've no doubt). I very much hope to return to a lot more discussion and headway on the other questions. Now might be a good time to go back to the Original Post and remind ourselves of what else we need to be thinking about.
Possessing free will? - No, they are not given the Flame Imperishable.
Automatons? - No, looking at how they behave in LoTR, it doesn't seem that way. Also, it would be boring.
Maiar? - Oh heavens! No!
Beasts? - Boring!
What are they then? - Orcs!
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