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It is of course possible that the long periods of 'Cold War' during the First Age was a result of a policy of 'Mutually Assured Destruction', with Morgoth & the Elven Leaders holding out the threat of suicide bands of Orcs & Elves against each other. It would, in theory, be possible to measure the relative power of such bands in megatonnes. Certainly the devastation of Beleriand seems inexplicable in terms of mere hand to hand fighting & only the deployment of heavy Elven/Orcish ordinance could account for it. Its possible that the real reason an Elf like Glorfindel could take out a Balrog was that he detonated himself & the Balrog, being close by, was blown up as a result.
Its also possible that the Atani who went to Numenor were in reality seeking to escape such devastating forces, or at the very least wanted to get away from the very real problems of fallout & 'elvo-active' contamination.
Thinking about it, its probable that Peter Jackson was alluding to this aspect of Elvish nature in his depiction of Galadriel in the movie.
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