[Zigûr]

Ooh interesting topic.

Nothing in Arda is "inherently" evil, is it? Even the Dragons must have been bred from serpents and lizards which were (sub-)created by Yavanna et al, one assumes... although I suppose that is an assumption.

Yet they were bred as living weapons, to lead the assaults of Morgoth's armies, and were deeply imbued with his power. I wonder if their love of precious things derived from Morgoth's own weakness for lustrous artefacts.

To me it seems that Dragons were perhaps not "inherently" evil insofar as anything in Arda is, but that they were deeply evil, perhaps in a way beyond Orcs and the like. I think this may be observed in their cruelty and remorselessness.

There's evidently a kind of magnificence or grandiosity about Dragons in Middle-earth, however, which might evoke the "relics" of goodness that could be found in even the most evil things.