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Fire impenetrable
I've been away from this forum for a while so I don't know what else has been said about this, but as I'm sure others must have mentioned, Tolkien wrote that "it is said" that orcs were, in origin, corrupted Elves captured by Melkor/Morgoth before the beginning of the First Age and bred (according to the laws of genetics, presumably) according to the attributes he preferred, in which case their "Flame Imperishable," i.e., life essence, consciousness, etc., came from Eru.
I don't have access to my copy of the Silmarillion and other texts so I can't provide the quotations you're looking for, but as I recall Morgoth was diminished because he put his life essence not only into the Ring, but also into creating his physical body.
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