Reply To: The Taproom

well you must not forget that Balrogs are Valaraukar corrupted and they can’t change their fana anymore after their “banishment” from the Maiar order. They were like Arien in the beginning, maiar of Fire, followers of Varda “Elbereth”if I remember well, and could assume any “fana” they wanted. we don’t know their numbers for sure, but they are undoubtedly many. Since we don’t know the number of maiar… we can’t guess the number of balrogs… but Melkor did not create them nor modified them at all… They simply decided to follow him, the same way Sauron left Aulë for Melkor too.