Sauron's loyalty after the First Age

[Mumriken]

Read the wikipedia article on Sauron and you would know his loyalty. It's quite obvious actually, obviously he is loyal to Melkor.

[Zigûr]

Wikipedia's articles on Sauron and Morgoth actually contributed to my motivation towards contemplating this topic. Once upon a time (before I edited it actually) the article on Morgoth claimed that Sauron stayed loyal to Morgoth after the First Age but gave no evidence from Professor Tolkien's own writing to support this assertion. Indeed almost all of the evidence which I mentioned from "Myths Transformed" along with the note from Letter 183, both of which were kindly provided in detail by Boromir88, would suggest to me that after the War of Wrath Sauron was pursuing his own agenda. Morgoth had become, more or less, irrelevant beyond being a phantom from Sauron's personal history he could use to corrupt the Númenoreans and other Men he duped into perceiving him as a divinity.
While I believe that Sauron was indeed loyal to Morgoth in the First Age, and was motivated to this allegiance initially due to admiration for Morgoth's ambition and wilfulness and later because being Morgoth's second-in-command was a position of enormous authority he could never have achieved on his own given the circumstances of the First Age, I don't believe that loyalty persisted after Morgoth's exile. This quote from Morgoth's Ring seems pertinent:

While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice.

I am noting here words and phrases including "while Morgoth still stood" and "whom in the beginning he had adored". The suggestion seems very much to me to be that Sauron's admiration for Morgoth had gradually eroded, probably due to Morgoth's increasing nihilism, and that after Morgoth's defeat Sauron was seeking his own supremacy.
I think by and large the confusion that his loyalty was more enduring seems to derive from a misinterpretation of the events of the Akallabêth. As for this "bringing Morgoth back" idea, I'm pretty sure that's just a silly notion I read somewhere with no basis whatsoever in the Professor's writing, and possibly derives from a desire some might have for Tolkien's world to be more like the heavily serialised Fantasy sagas of more modern times (the plot of A Darkness at Sethanon is something like that I believe).

[Mumriken]

You know what staying loyal means right? You better edit that wikipedia article again, because you are clearly wrong.

[Zigûr]

By "did Sauron stay loyal" what I am asking is this: after the First Age and Morgoth's banishment into the Void, did Sauron remain devoted to Morgoth? Did he actively, intentionally continue to pursue Morgoth's cause? Did he desire to further Morgoth's plans for Morgoth's sake rather than his own? All evidence I can find (and which has been brought up in this thread) suggests that the answer is no. With Morgoth out of the picture he was furthering his own goals, pursuing his own agenda, and the only allegiance he owed was to himself. He was now his own master, not the obedient servant he had been in the First Age, and all the times he exploited the memory of Morgoth and the products of his reign (Orcs and the like) were for the sake of his own power and dominion, not about trying to bring Morgoth's thwarted schemes to fruition.
If there is evidence to the contrary I would of course be very interested to read it!

[Mumriken]

Did he actively, intentionally continue to pursue Morgoth's cause? Did he desire to further Morgoth's plans for Morgoth's sake rather than his own?

Morgoth's beyond any help, even if there was a point in pursuing "Morgoth's cause" whatever you mean by that....actually what do you mean by saying that. I think Sauron did a pretty good job in messing with the children of illuvatar. He did it because it's in his nature to do it, did he do it for morgoth? That is like saying did Gandalf show fireworks to little hobbit children because of Manwe wanting him to do so. Sauron did what he did because that is who he is. Being loyal means that he is on Morgoth's side. If he wouldn't be loyal he would go back to valinor and be judged and maybe be turned back into a good guy again. He never did therefore he is loyal. I don't get this "morgoth's sake". A soldier in a army doesn't fight because the general tells him to do so, he fights because he wants to.

With Morgoth out of the picture he was furthering his own goals, pursuing his own agenda, and the only allegiance he owed was to himself. He was now his own master, not the obedient servant he had been in the First Age, and all the times he exploited the memory of Morgoth and the products of his reign (Orcs and the like) were for the sake of his own power and dominion, not about trying to bring Morgoth's thwarted schemes to fruition.
If there is evidence to the contrary I would of course be very interested to read it!

The evidence to the contrary is that Sauron and Morgoth were very much alike in thought. Morgoth was thrown out of Arda chained unable to do anything. Sauron could do nothing but to keep doing what he did before, what HE IS. He could do nothing but do it for his own sake. Morgoth was out of the picture, if Morgoth would be in the world Sauron would join him again as a servant WHO LOVES TO SERVE because his master's goals are his own.

EDIT:So change the wikipedia article

[Zigûr]

Being loyal means that he is on Morgoth's side. If he wouldn't be loyal he would go back to valinor and be judged and maybe be turned back into a good guy again. He never did therefore he is loyal.

I don't think the only options for Sauron were either loyalty to Morgoth or loyalty to the Valar/Eru - it may have been that way in the First Age, but afterwards Sauron took a third option: loyalty to himself.

if Morgoth would be in the world Sauron would join him again as a servant WHO LOVES TO SERVE because his master's goals are his own.

I don't think this is supported by Professor Tolkien's own writing on the subject. As has been quoted earlier in the thread, Sauron's goals and Morgoth's goals differed. Morgoth was (certainly by the end of the First Age) a nihilist whose ultimate goal was to destroy the world. Sauron didn't want to destroy it, he wanted to rule it and order it for his own satisfaction. Morgoth's defeat actually made Sauron's desire for rule and order (which he'd had from the start, but which Morgoth only shared until his descent into nihilism) more achievable than it was when Morgoth was around.
While I agree that because Morgoth was the origin of evil in the world, by being evil Sauron was continuing what Morgoth started, it seems to me that the only way that constitutes loyalty is in an unintentional and metaphysical way. The idea I'm arguing against is that he was actively still devoted to Morgoth, which is to say that he was doing what he did to Morgoth's glory or because he believed Morgoth's cause was right. As we've seen, Morgoth's cause and Sauron's greatly differed in the end, so surely as far as Sauron was concerned his activities in the Second and Third Ages were meant to fulfil his own ambitions.

Sauron could do nothing but to keep doing what he did before, what HE IS

What he was doing before, which is to say in the First Age, was assisting in Morgoth's plans of destruction. In the Second and Third Ages he was pursuing his own goal of domination. Surely these are two different things.

A soldier in a army doesn't fight because the general tells him to do so, he fights because he wants to.

I think that's far from true in many circumstances.

[Mumriken]

Sauron took a third option: loyalty to himself.

Of course he is loyal to himself, as I said it seems you don't understand what loyalty means.

Sauron's goals and Morgoth's goals differed. Morgoth was (certainly by the end of the First Age) a nihilist whose ultimate goal was to destroy the world.

Oh really, yet he put the silmarils in a iron crown and declared himself ruler of Arda. He didn't want to destroy the world, he wanted to be recognized as the king of Arda and bend all the children of illuvatar to his will. Did he not corrupt elves into orcs and many maias including Mairon to serve him? Sauron or Mairon is Morgoth's shadow...

Morgoth's defeat actually made Sauron's desire for rule and order (which he'd had from the start, but which Morgoth only shared until his descent into nihilism) more achievable than it was when Morgoth was around.

When did Morgoth decend into nihilism?

The idea I'm arguing against is that he was actively still devoted to Morgoth, which is to say that he was doing what he did to Morgoth's glory or because he believed Morgoth's cause was right. As we've seen, Morgoth's cause and Sauron's greatly differed in the end, so surely as far as Sauron was concerned his activities in the Second and Third Ages were meant to fulfil his own ambitions.

His own ambitions...because Morgoth was not in the freckin world...! What it all boils down to is that you don't understand what being loyal means. One can still be loyal by being your own master. When Morgoth was thrown out into the world Sauron had two options:

1. Go back to valinor and ask for pardon or judgement.
2. Stay in middle earth and keep bothering people.

Remember even when Morgoth was loose in middle earth and tormented the children the valas did nothing. They do not directly intervene, therefore by staying in middle earth Sauron stayed loyal to Morgoth. Sure one could say he became his own master, but that is ONLY because Morgoth was not in the freckin world. That is like saying if a general is killed in battle the soldier all of a sudden isn't loyal to the dead general because he now has to order himself around and keep fighting the enemy.

So Sauron was loyal to Morgoth til the very end.