[Kuruharan]

The question I'd ask is, whether massacring a surrendered army would inspire terror or desperation.

Ah, and a question of long standing it is too. It puts me in mind of the Mytilenian Debate in Thucydides.

I don't think Sauron would want to create a situation where his enemies felt they had nothing to lose, & would be slaughtered anyway. That would make them desperate, & they'd fight to the death.

Possibly. But it might also reduce his enemies to mindless gibbering wretches. Both have happened.

Would he become effectively God on earth, able to manipulate reality, cause his enemies to blink out of existence, etc - would it be absolute power, or would he simply become far stronger than anyone else, so that victory over him became virtually impossible.

I tend toward the latter. I think that Sauron’s reality bending days were behind him. That being said, if he regained the Ring nothing short of divine intervention was going to unseat him.

Perhaps it was a more complex matter - Sauron knew (or feared) that the Valar would intervene if he embarked on mass slaughter - would they stand back & allow the Eruhini to be obliterated?

I never meant to imply that he would massacre all the non-orcs in the world. He had obviously not done so in the lands he already ruled (although, one would likely find precious few Elves there). I did mean to imply that he would massacre every member of the Army of the West that had the impudence to knock on his door.

Hopefully, that clarifies my position on that matter a little.

Rereading the final paragraph of my last post I came to the startling realization that I had laughably failed to make my intended point but had instead said something completely inane.

What I intended to say was that tales of ofermod can be used in such a way. Ofermod itself can generally only be used to cause the loss of said relatives.

I hope that clarifies as well.