If anything, the interesting thing about that is putting Galadriel and Elrond in the same tier, despite our expectation that Galadriel is the more powerful. But in this regard Tolkien viewed their mastery of the Three as the more essential fact.

Suppose Elrond or Galadriel took the Ring. What sort of armies would they raise?

Probably ones with elves in it.

It's a fair question. The letter concludes with Tolkien saying that while Sauron multiplied evil, Gandalf would have made good detestable. So perhaps it would have been similar with Galadriel or Elrond: armies of elves and men carrying out 'good' under the domination of the Ring.

Another curious question would be what would happen to the Nazgul were someone who could effectively use the ring other than Sauron to take control of it.

If they are indeed enslaved to the ring; would they not then change masters to Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel etc?

The Nazgul were not completely slave to the One Ring. They were slave because of their Nine. If they possessed them for themselves, or they were lost (but not destroyed), presumably they would gain some form of autonomy. Tolkien mentioned that in the same letter that Sauron ruled the Nine not because of the One, but because he possessed their Rings.

Now, if Gandalf, Galadriel, or Elrond gained both the One and the Nine, not to mention destroying Sauron, I think that the Nazgul would serve them.

Actually, a rare type of penguin can fly. The Chilean Emperor Penguin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5dzybHgTo

Lol check your sources wjessop
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_penguins

Lol. You think I didn't know it was an April Fool's thing?

But I like the irony of telling someone to "check their sources" and then referencing wikipedia ;)

Wikipedia usually references quite a few sources and is perfectly reliable on nearly everything.

I'll keep an eye out for flying Chilean Emperor Balrogs.

What happened to the orcs after the Ring was destroyed?

Since we are ignoring the movies, The orcs all turn on each other, since rival tribes of orcs hate each other and aren't meant to be united under one banner. The men in Sauron's command (Southrons and Easterlings) continue to fight the Men of the West because of their hard set hatred of Gondor.

" What happened to the orcs after the Ring was destroyed?"

they continued to suffer under the oppression and racial discrimination of humans.

Hey man, they stay in their part of town, we'll stay in ours.

What about Gondorian exceptional-ism? They will keep expanding into goblin territory until there is no goblins except a small 'reservation' in Moria!

I do believe that Moria got cleared out by the dwarves eventually.

Where was that ever stated? I thought they let it go.

Moria reclamation was delayed because the Balrog was there. With that gone, there was plenty of incentive to go back and finish the job.

Im pretty concerned about what Aragorns tax policies were after the ring was destroyed.

I think his policies were 'tax everything except the Shire'.

Whatever his tax policies were, they didn't seem to be bad enough to cause a revolution.

Come on guys, page 785 clearly says Aragon use a progressive tax system. All the gold progressed from the pockets of the peasants to Gondor's coffers.

So I guess he was a proponent of trickle down economics?

there is a terrible book based on this. Let me see, it is called the last ringbearer..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer

"In Eskov's version of the story, Mordor is described as a peaceful country on the verge of an industrial revolution, that is a threat to the war-mongering and imperialistic faction represented by Gandalf (whose attitude has been described by Saruman as "crafting the Final Solution to the Mordorian problem") and the elves."

Hahaha. How have I not come across that before?

It was suppressed by post-War authorities in favor of establishment propaganda, of course.

@HR The idea of 'history was written by the victors' and orc society was an ideal communist paradise, may be interesting and innovative; but having attempted to read it the writing is terrible.

That or the fact that it was never published in english...