[Iarhen]

Precisely thats one of the ideas I have brought up in recent discussion...

Sauron might have ended Arda as we know it, with all of the remaining Children of Illuvatar kept captive in M.E. and the Valar having to summon up another army to defeat him... But with a greater cost, since all M.E. would have been dominated and the free peoples would have been perverted...

And maybe it is not Sauron's conscious goal. But Morgoth has much power still on this Earth, and maybe it was a back up plan, to induce Sauron to become a Dark Lord, in order for him to come back, for example, since a big part of the maiar and the remaining elves in Valinor would depart to make war on Sauron, the guard on the Void's door would probably diminish, and voilá! A way back for Morgoth Bauglir to reenter M.E.!