[Mithadan]

Mae govannen H-I! Long time since I've seen you posting in this part of the boards.

Your post dovetails nicely with a theory I raised in the "Inherent Evil" thread. However, I'm not sure I necessarily agree that the amount of personal power lost to the Valar depends on the nature of the use of the power. I'm thinking of JRRT's Second Prophecy of Mandos dealing with the Final Battle with Morgoth. Now I'm open to opinions that Tolkien rejected this conception in favor of Morgoth being executed after the fall of Angband (Saulotus would love to hear me say that, however I don't necessarily agree JRRT adopted this idea of Morgoth being slain). However the Second Prophecy suggests that the Valar will become weary and Morgoth will take that opportunity to re-enter Arda. I take this to mean that after long labor, the strength of the Valar will at last be expended, notwithstanding that their powers were used for good acts.