2002 News Archives

Eonwë's article invited me to call into remembrance the "well-known" truth that Santa Claus is originally a folklore from Holland, the Dutch SinterKlaas was copied and introduced to the USA by the Coca Cola company at the start of last century:)).

Discussion about The Two Towers - of course - and on the old but never tiring questions - brought in by Beor - why dragons were not given wings from the start, and whether all balrogs had wings, and then discussion evolved into the question whether valar and valier really were distinguished by real gender, or just by male and female features.

It's Gwaihir, I can't get into my elrohir_16@hotmail.com account because I can only get online at school and hotmail's blocked by the proxy.
My processor fan broke on Saturday so I won't be able to get on for a while, just e-mailing to let you, and everyone, know why I'll be absent.

Namarie, 
Gwaihir

 Dec. 1, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
    Members(9): Beor, Curufin, Eonwe/Fionwe, Eru, Finwe, Gil-galad, Gwindor/Gwaindor, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
    Over the shoulder: Sauron
    Too Late: Gildor, Glorfindel, others
    Visitors: BerenCamlost (rude), Elenwe (did the membership info part of test), Musics4Me (programming for us)
Membership: 
    Beleg sent his regrets, unable to come, via Turgon.
    Glaurung was away from home and his computer at meeting time, sent regards via Turgon.
    Old Mablung dropped by about meeting time, but I missed the spelling on his new name and couldn't whisper. Something like Inkink but not.
    Turgon's primary email is now Turgon_V@swirvemail.com 
Web Report:
    Links page:
      New Links:
      Brobdingnagian Bards: Celtic Renaissance duo. Also on MP3.com page, very popular, with the CD, Memories of Middle-earth. Free samples from "Tolkien", "Mordor", and "Shadowfax".
     Fathom: Celtic rock band. They are also listed on the MP3.com page with the song, "Two Towers", inspired by the Two Towers book. Lyrics. Free download.  Link suggested by Carlos Bermudez
Gaming:
     Turgon hosted a tourney this weekend, four of the twelve who said they would come showed up. 
     Salmar is now on DaoC Europe, expects to be on DaoC USA and on EQ later.
Tolkien:
    Testing: Eru, Eonwe, and Varda went with Elenwe to do a test, but she needed to leave before completion. Turgon joined the testers who had started into a Tolkien chat waiting to see if she could return, and we did not return to the channel soon enough for any formal chat. 

Nov. 29, 2002
    Salmar is now on Dark Age of Camelot - Europe's Excalibur. He's waiting on his ordered USA DaoC with Expansion and EQ. He says not to worry, claiming we'll still see him on bnet too.

Nov. 28, 2002

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Nov. 26, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new article on the Hobbit page, "SamWise", by Mr. Nicki T. Hansen, aka GWiZ

Nov. 25, 2002
    The Two Towers movie made the cover of Times magazine. See the cover picture and articles at their online location.

Nov. 24, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST  b.net channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
    Members (17): Balin, Beleg/Cuthalion, Beor, Daeron, Dain, Elrond, Eomer, Eonwe (presiding), Finglas/Leaflock, Frodo, Glorfindel, Gwaihir, Gwindor/Flinding, Ori, Thror, Turgon, Varda
    Over the shoulder members (2): Oin, Sauron 
    Visitors (1): Elenwe (would like to join)
Membership: 130 full members  
    Beor: our new member was called on to say his few words of introduction.
    Ori is back! He came in on BroodWar, with Oin in over-the-shoulder attendance.
    Ulfang is also new, but did not make it to the meeting.
During the meeting, Diablo 2X members on East could not enter, receiving a Realms Down message.
    Letter from Eru:

I've been Blizzard product-less for a couple of weeks (gave back WCIII and took a while to get back D2), and when I tried to join the US-East realm for the Sunday meeting on 24th November, I kept getting a battle.net message which claimed that there were no realms available.

I'll keep trying a few times after I send this email.

Hope to speak with you soon!

Kind regards,
Eru Iluvatar, The One.

Web:
    News page: Varda is better and again doing the News page, letting Eonwe concentrate on the Gaming pages.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: articles this week from Varda on Elf page and Orc page. See Nov. 18 for list.
Gaming:
    EverQuest:
        Fourth expansion now available is "Planes of Power"
    Dark Age of Camelot:
        First expansion coming up is "Shrouded Isles"
    WarCraft 3:
        Trailers showing scenes from WarCraft 3 will be showing at various fantasy and science fiction movies to target the right audience. Movies listed as carrying the trailer are James Bond, LotR Two Towers, Star Trek: Nemesis, and Solaris.
        AMC Theaters has an additional WC3 promotion: patrons buying a large coke and a Butterfinger candy bar receive a CD with a WC3 demo and maps usable on the full scale CD. 
    Diablo 2 Expansion:
        The Rings game first tried out at the 5th Anniversary of the Valar Guild has been re-worked and needs your feedback. The new guidelines are listed on the Tourney page and on the News Nov. 21.
    Turgon's 3rd Anniversary:
        Turgon is hosting a tourney for his third anniversary in the guild. Quest for Three in any Diablo series games are this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Rings game (needs beta testers for the new guidelines) is Saturday. WarCraft 3 is Saturday and already has 7 members signed up. For more details, see Turgon's page. 
    Non-PC:
        Dain told about the versions of LotR games he's tried out on non-computer playing. They sound like fun.
Tolkien:
    Toys: Elrond-(V), while surfing the internet, came across the toys for the upcoming Two Towers movies at Toybiz. They appear to be of better quality than the ones for Fellowship, notably Legolas and the Easterner. They can be found a number of places, probably including, as Daeron suggested, Electronic Boutique and, as Eonwe mentioned, are now at regular stores, others certainly by Christmas.
    Topic from Daeron-(V): Why was Saruman head of the Istari?
        Lively discussion, including that he had ring knowledge as a Maia of Aule, and liked power. Aule and Melkor had similar abilties, with the difference that Aule enjoyed the making and Melkor enjoyed the having. Saruman became prideful and fell after going to Middle-earth.
    Topic from Eonwe-(Valar): Once the Ainur came to Arda, it was evident the Valar had a purpose. This was to shape Arda and watch over it, protect it. Melor, on the other hand, deemed it his purpose to destroy all that his brethren made if he could not twist it to his own. Which do you think most completely accomplished his purpose?
    Lively discussion, Valar winning. (Talk continued but I unfortunately had to leave and the scroll crashed during supper.)

Nov. 22, 2002
    Blizzard, starting today, is putting a trailer for WarCraft III in such movies as "James Bond: Die Another Day", "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers", "Star Trek: Nemesis", and Solaris. AMC Theaters adds the incentive, that if a patron buys a large Coca Cola drink and a Butterfinger candy bar, he receives a WC3 game sampler CD with a demo of 3 single player missions and new multiplayer maps usable with the full version.

Nov. 21,  2002
    D2X: After some difficulties discovered in the beta test of our Rings game, here are the revised guidelines:
Rings Game:
    In Diablo 2 Expansion, we choose up two teams, preferably 4 versus 4, everyone starting at level one, any class. One player on one team stands in for Gandalf and, on the other, for Sauron. Each team collects rings, up to all 20 from the poem. The rings are not considered collected until they are in Gandalf or Sauron's stash. The rings can be special ones stashed around the game by a teleporter who is not a hunter, but these rings will disappear within an hour, sometimes faster, and the teleporter may put them too deep or stir up monsters excessively for lower level characters to handle. So we suggest finding rings natural to the game. The twentieth ring would be the One Ring, and an automatic win for whichever team finds it, so keep track of the number stashed, perhaps several people keeping a tally paper. Most of all, have fun! This can be a way to start new characters for normal play, or work up mules, or for characters deleted right after.

    Turgon is setting up a gaming event for his third anniversary in the guild. Hey, any excuse for playing! His page has the details.

Nov. 18, 2002
    Ulfang, Welcome to the Valar Guild! He's 29, from New York state in the US, EST. He came in as GrondTheHammer after finding us on the web and emailing. He tested 5/5 with Varda, Glaurung observing. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, UT, Sauron's Defeat. Sil was his favorite. His favorite LotR character is Eowyn. He can be found on AIM as rhaated . He plays NeverWinter Nights and D2, may get D2X in the future. He has but doesn't play SC, BW, and WC3, and is online weekly. He had a laugh when I typed Aiya Glaurung, since he says Aiya in Chinese means "uh-oh". No, he doesn't know a lot of Chinese.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia - new articles by Varda:
        Elf page: "Celebrian", "Lalaith"
        Orc page: "Orc, the Word", "Orc Types and Gear", "Gorbag", "Grishnakh", "Lagduf", "Lugdush", "Mauhur", "Muzgash", "Radbug", "Shagrat", "Snaga", "Ugluk"

Nov. 17, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:
    Members: Beleg/Cuthalion, Daeron, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Legolas/Greenleaf, Rog, Salmar (presiding), Thingol, Turgon, Varda
    Visitors: *Elenwe - friend of Turgon's from England; *V-Olwe - from Clan Valar, took test after meeting and became *Beor-V
Membership: 128 with Khamul
    Khamul, new member, said his "few words". Has a LotR map for WC3 for all to play with.
    Turgon is excited about his upcoming 3rd anniversary in the guild, would like to celebrate, maybe gaming.
    Balin: says hi. Has to miss meeting
    Eol: comp problems, emailed to say still with us
Web:
    Story page: "Cirdan's Goodbye", by Daeron-V
Gaming:
    World of Warcraft rpg starting next year, not long. We will have a guild there, so please use your guild name. May need to put a v on the end to use the name, such as Orome's using Oromev. We will have Valar guild marks on such things as shields.
Tolkien:
    Discussion of how metal made by the elves in Gondolin or Eregion could glow in the presence of orcs. Possible input from Maeglin, Eol's son, on special techniques with metal infusion.
    Entry test for V-Olwe who became Beor-V, by Salmar and Varda.
   Beor, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Beor is also in Clan Valar as V-Olwe. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, Farmer Giles, and Roverandom. He tested 5/5. He plays WC3 almost exclusively although he does have D2X. He cannot give out his email or AIM address, parental requirement. He's from Illinois in the USA, CST. He gets to be online 7 hours a week.

Nov. 13, 2002
    An email from Eol to let us know he's still with us:

The lack of home internet and a crack-down on internet usage at work has left me horribly out-of-the-loop.  Plans are in the works for me to have online access once again... but it is slow going.  Until then I will peruse the Guild pages as often as possible and email when I can.

Namarie,

Eol

     We also have a new addition to the Story Page: “Cirdan’s Goodbye” by Daeron.  This is a working title at the moment, and may change.
    Khamul, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Khamul has been visiting as V-Mordor, leader of Clan Valar. He's 14, from New York state in the USA, EST. He plays WC3 mostly, and a great many other games. He's read a few chapters of the H, all of the LotR, and part of the Sil. He made a WC3 Middle-earth map which guild members have been helping beta test. His favorite LotR character is Gollum.

Nov. 11, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending: Report by Eonwë and Beleg
    Members (127 listed on the Member page)(11 present): Alatar, Beleg, Daeron, Dain, Eonwë/F.Urion (Presiding), Gwaihir, Gwindor, Mahtan, Rog, Thror, Turgon
    Came in during chat: Gil-Galad, Ecthelion
    Came in after main chat, but stayed to join in after-meeting chat: Elwing, Frodo, Fëanor, Meriadoc, Varda
Membership:  by Eonwë
    Amarie sends her regards via Turgon.  She regrets she is not able to be on bnet for a while, as she is having problems getting D2 to work with Win XP.
    Cirdan changed his name to Daeron.
Web: None
Gaming: by Eonwë
    Warcraft 3 has update 1.04, which changes many things in the game, and at least in my opinion, some of them are for the better :}
Tolkien:
    At first we talked about the upcoming Two Towers movie and how we hope things are in it.  Somehow this discussion steered itself into talking about the Noldor and Fëanor, and how they would fare against Morgoth under different conditions.  After this had died down, some had come in and those of us remaining engaged in a lively after meeting chat :}  Varda reports she received the One Ring and Sting for her birthday :}  Happy Birthday Varda! :}

Nov. 10, 2002
    Cirdan has changed his name to Daeron.
    Thorondor emailed. He's still serving his year in the Norwegian army and says hi. He can be emailed at eagle@welho.com
    Warcraft 3 has a new patch out.
    October’s news has moved to the  2002 News Archives, a clean-up I try to do every month to improve loading speed for current news. 

Anyone who'd like one of the LotR posters(there're Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and an Orc) in two sizes: large and small, e-mail me(elrohir_16@hotmail.com)... for US residents, it'll be $25 for two posters... with $2 extra per small poster or $4 for each large(on top of the initial two, which can be of either size). This price is for anyone who wants AT LEAST one large poster... if you want all smalls the pricing will be different. I haven't figured out the exact yet, but it'll probably be a fair bit cheaper. I'll give my address for sending the money to when you e-mail me... and when I get the money, I'll send the posters to you. For any Canadian residents... it'll be a great deal cheaper... around 10 I believe... not 100% sure though...
Thanks!

    A person named Elwing (not our Guild’s Elwing) has informed us of a musical project she has been working on.  This is the e-mail she sent:  

"Anyone who'd like one of the LotR posters(there're Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and an Orc) in two sizes: large and small, e-mail me(elrohir_16@hotmail.com)... for US residents, it'll be $25 for two posters... with $2 extra per small poster or $4 for each large(on top of the initial two, which can be of either size). This price is for anyone who wants AT LEAST one large poster... if you want all smalls the pricing will be different. I haven't figured out the exact yet, but it'll probably be a fair bit cheaper. I'll give my address for sending the money to when you e-mail me... and when I get the money, I'll send the posters to you. For any Canadian residents... it'll be a great deal cheaper... around 10 I believe... not 100% sure though..."

Dear  Lady Varda,
thank you for  your appreciation, and for  putting my review on you site and the banner as well.
Do not be impressed for my English : I wrote the review in Italian , and then I paid a mother language person to translate it into English !
If you have a tolkienian friend of yours capable to understand Italian, I shall send you a copy of the book Introduzione a Tolkien for having published an English review of it on your web site. In this case you should write me the postal address of that person.
I am not able to get the money to pay a person for translating the issues of Endore magazines into English, but if you find out somebody in your country, I shall send you freely all the word files and give you the permission to publish all the issues either on the web or on paper.
Thank you again
Ciao !

Franco

A couple of days ago Blizzard brought out the 1.03 patch for Warcraft 3.  It made some unit changes, as well as fixed some bugs, and also gave us the ability to assign different unit sounds to units in the World Editor.  The changes are a bit long to include in an e-mail.

Also, just a few hours ago, V&K released version 1.8 of the Middle-Earth mod.  They were hoping to hold back until 1.10 for LoD came out, but decided to go ahead and release it now.  It contains some changes, some fixes, and some additions.  Of course, since ME 1.8 is out, Blizzard will release patch 1.10 any day now and make V&K have to go back and create v1.9   I'd almost say it was safe to hold your breath,... but I won't :}

Elatan will be my choice of name. The choice of a character, forefather to a line of royal blood who never abandoned the true wisdom and remained faithful to the old Gods.

 As you may have discovered by now I have chosen to step down from the Council due to my lack of appearence on B.net and what follows of that. I have no intensions of leaving the Valar guild and I will keep the Memberpage for as long as it is needed unless you deem it should be done by another.

 I am sorry if it comes at a bad time and I admit I should have done it 6 month ago when I tried to set up a letter but I guess I hoped for some kind of change in my mind.

It has been 3½ year wonderful years in the Council and I will miss the laughs and the at times annoying mailbox-stuffings but the time has come to step down and let another eager soul try his strength.

 

Amillo

I can't attend the meeting today because of a family get together. I wish to convey that I am happy to be in the guild and I will try to get more active in it. 

Namarie,
Feanor

       Well, as many of you who I have talked to have heard me complain about many many times, I am a complete web master failure.  Apparently I messed up on the design of my Map collection, and due to lack of time I am not going to fix it.  Instead that will act as a list, any who wants a map or maps email me the name of maps that you want, and I will reply with an attachment of the items you requested.  Now be sure that the maps are spelled perfectly.  As you can tell there are many similarly spelled maps, so to avoid confusion please be sure the spelling is correct.  Sorry for taking so long to those who have emailed me, but sending an 8 mg file with dial up connection (AOL) takes forever, and I need to have a good hour and half of nothing in order to send.  So it may take me awhile to reply.  My email is AJMfalcon@aol.com 

Greetings all and happy anniversary

It has been a long time since I was by B.net. Several reasons for it but none mentioned here   The Moment has to me always been a great pleasure and something I look forward to hear. Though, when I had to do it, it more and more often ended up in what to me was interesting information from other sources than LotR presented as short, sometimes rather long stories. At least for B.net 
 I intend to get to the meeting this Sunday ( sorry I can`t today ) with a little piece of original poetry I have never seen before : Celebrian`s Farewell to Elrond. 
In its true origin it was written in Quenya but Forodrim, a Swedish Tolkien oriented group made a translation into English in 1973 and published it in their journal Palantiren.
 This piece is not meant as an topic to discuss, at least not for me. It can stand alone   Still, it may lead into a chat of what has and always will touch me, the great lovestories and their often bitter ends.

Hope to see you all Sunday.
Amillo

THe Updated Games Page is now on the web :}  Most notable changes/additions are the addition of two new player listings, NeverWinter Nights and Half-life/Half-life mods, and a new links page, Azeroth and Surrounding Realms.  The latter is for links involing any of the Warcraft series games, and has at this moment links to Blizzards pages on WC3 and WoW, as well as a link to Marn Thunderhorn's WC3 Guide, the WC3 equivalent of the Arreat Summit.

I removed the section D2 mods and the link to the 1.08 Patch on the D and kin page.  Instead, I put a section called D2 Patches and linked it to blizzard's patches page, which has the current patches on the page, plus links to the older D2 and LoD patches(just remember LoD is 1.07 or you'll wonder where all the LoD patches are :})  Since the ME mod (and probably most other mods)  have gone over to LoD, I thought we didn't need to have the 1.08 patch up anymore.

Also, about discussion groups.  I realize this comes a bit late (darn real life :}).  If anyone would like to get together Friday and discuss the Sil or the Histories, I will be glad to host a discussion.  I will try to be on bnet/DB Chat room around 1pm Eastern time.  If anyone would like to attend who does not normally get on bnet I would be most happy to move the discussion into the DB chat room, or even just hold it there.  I will try to bring a few good topics (and have one or two formulating as we speak :}), but if anyone would like to suggest some for consideration that'd be great :}

Take care :}
Eonwe

As everyone (hopefully :}) knows, the deadline to send in gaming info for the Mass-Update was yesterday (Sept 30th).  The complete updating should be done and up either tonight or tomorrow.  I'd like to say thanks to all who sent in their info for making my updatng easier, and to those who haven't yet that I'd still like them to send it in, preferably sooner than later.

Take care :}
Eonwe

If you want to enter the lands of Arda (Middle earth) at this moment, you will need to download the 66,9MB hakpak.
You can find it here:

http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/hakpacks/data/1032629952958.shtml

Just unzip the file into your neverwinter nights/NWN directory and then connect to the server 24.68.237.6

I haven't tried the hakpak yet (D/l'd it though), but will do so as soon as possible. Although, at this moment the servers seems to be down. Sindi is probably updating the server with the hakpak, so please be patient for a while.

With regards,

A'dicne neverwinter
Member of Caledonn
The NwN part of Moralltach
With great power comes great responsibility

This is a message regarding the NWN server.
Note that this server has its chars stored on the server, so there is little chance of cheaters :}

Elen sila lumen omentielmo
Turgon