Jan Feb March April May June July August Sept Oct Nov Dec
Dec. 31, 1999
Welcome to our new member, the dragon Chrysophilax
from Farmer Giles of Ham. A pleasant 16 year old Netherlander,
he's read an impressive amount: Hobbit, Lord of the Rings,
Silmarillion
, Letters, Atlas of Middle Earth, Farmer Giles of
Ham
, and Smith of Wooten Major. He also plays a lot since he
joined a
couple of days ago, team recruited by Makar and Aule.
Dec. 29
Check the
VirusAlert page for a setting you need to fix NOW for
Windows to change from its default date setting to one that works for
the year 2000.
Dec. 27
Welcome to our new member, Glaurung! He
came
to our channel and passed the test from Aule with 5/5! Ulmo, Makar, and
Hurin
helped them find a name with the Names page down, and Glaurung showed
amazing
patience. They had a good game of SC afterwards. He is 14, plays SC, is
from
Illinois, USA, read the Hobbit, LotR, and Silmarillion. Unfortunately
the
email I have for Glaurung did not work (gaziano@cim.net.com), returned
as
undeliverable by a Mailer Daemon.
Varda's email suffered a "new mail" wipe out last night. Please re-send all letters concerning Varaya and Khan's Tolkien mod or anything else you may have sent, but this time to Varaya and/or Khan . The letter to Varaya and Khan concerning what was said at the meeting has been sent, with a note that there should be a follow-up with more specifics from your emails.
Khan has answered the letter:
Ok. First of all we have decided to base the mod on the Final II
because
it
is the one we use and it is in our opinion the best one. It is thus
not
possible to use the 9/8.
BUT:
If you tell us many people prefer to have 2-H weapons give AC we can
do
that.
Just tell us what EXACTLY it is you want to have.
We will definitely cap the mages Str to a very low value, effectively
disabling any form of "Tankmage". We also won't redo the
class-specific
requirements as restrictions are generally bad (I admit it adds
atmosphere
but since you need every bit of variety and options in this game to
keep
it
interesting we want to radically restrict the use of certain
itemcombos -
you never know how people plan to play).
I'd recommend mailing us any suggestions rather quickly as we are
nearly
finished doing pre/suffs and base items.
If anyone has suggestions to Uniques, that's fine but a good, new
idea
regarding pre/suffs or baseitems or spells would be better. Uniques,
their
names and capabilities are easy to think of but a new line of
pre/suffs is
more difficult.remember though that they are limited to existing
effects
(those of uniques too - like "life stealing 0-12,5%") and a single
effect
too. The possibilities of inherit abilities of base items is very
limited
too. The possible ones are: infravision, constricting, thieves,
knock
back,
steal life, steal mana, readyness-haste, balance-harmony, fast block,
thorns, corruption, +200% vs demons, res=0.
Again, better send us any suggestion fast. If someone has a
really great
idea, he should perhaps suggest a name also :)
Dec. 26
Sunday Meeting: (5pm EST, 6pm CST, 11 GMT)
Attending (11): Amillo, Aule/Taglos,
Balin, Gildor, Irmo, Luthien, Makar, Thingol, Tom, Ulmo, Varda. Visits
from Xiuhcoatl, Magister, and Tanja (sorry for mangling your names) who
helped us in the Tolkien
mod discussion; and Master~Moo who tried the test and may try again
later.
Membership Report:
New members: Gildor, who even made it to the
meeting. :), and Beleg (returning after an internet crash)
Currently missing but will return: Namo has
pneumonia. Smaug is vacationing in Costa Rica.
Web Report:
Virus Alert page: Pics4You
is the
latest virus to have a report.
Members Page: Non-working
emails on Members page (please correct yours!):
These are the non-working emails Varda hit during
the
recent Varaya Khan Tolkien Diablo modification request. If you know the
correct
email, please inform Amillo and/or Varda:
Arathorn
<arathorn@mindspring.com>
Balin
<lg88_weegee@hotmail.com>
Earendil
<linxu@sprint.ca>
Finarfin
<legalos@pop.prodigy.net>
Luthien
<o_galadriel@hotmail.com>
Radagast
<ToiletFish@gotnet.net>
Ulwarth
<gauthier@planet-int.net>
Gaming:
Tolkien mod:
Major discussion held with
guild
members, independents, and rep from another guild not named. Agreement
seemed
to be a preference for the 9/8 mod over the 10/28 which was considered
less
balanced. Please email Varda with specific reasons why 9/8 was better
so
that it may be included in the Tolkien mod. The mod has been nearly
completed
but is based on the 10/28 version and they need to know which specific
corrections
to program.
Letter from Varaya on the Tolkien
mod:
I just read in a mail by somebody from your guild that apparently
you
all
prefer the version of our mod which is from September, that is, not
the
current one. Since we based everything we did so far on the current
version
of our Diablo mod, we really would like to know WHAT you prefer about
the
older mod version, so we perhaps can put it back in in the "Tolkien"
mod,
if possible.
We have so far put in lots of monsters, prefixes/suffixes, base
items.
Unique and spells will be the next thing we modify. Not that much
longer
:)
Bot Demo:
Makar made a bot as a channel greeter with a handy
menu,
and demonstrated it for us. After a few tweaks, it seems ready for use.
Hopefully
we will soon be trying it out in the channel. The bot's name is
ValarBuddy.
(A tip of the hat to Manwe.)
Dec. 25, 1999
Merry Christmas!!
Dec. 24, 1999
Welcome to our new member, Gildor!
Orome scouted,
Varda tested. He's from Oklahoma, USA, 18, read the Hobbit and LotR. :)
Dec. 23, 1999
Letter from Khan to Varda:
I just wanted to "officially" inform you that we are currently
working on a
Diablo Mod with the Middle Earth theme. This will not be a total
conversion.
It will be based on our current Final Version of the Diablo1.07 mod
and
we
will keep some things that cannot be adopted to ME and is already
fine
as it
is. We will also try to create this as a whole, so no morphing or
other
serious changes should happen once it is released.
Right now we have begun building up the new monsters (including
Balrogs,
Orcs, Trolls, Nazgul, Mumakil etc).
Feel free to mail suggestions
Khan alias Fingolfin
Posting on the DSF made by Khan, copy sent to Varda
by Xi:
Subject: Any ideas for a Middle Earth Mod?
From: Khan
Host:isdn034.s.netic.de
Date: Wed Dec 22 16:09:02
Varaya and me are currently working on a mod for Diablo based on
J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle Earth (you know Aragorn, the Silmaril,
Balrogs etc).
Since it will be about 6 months until D2 we figured we could do
another mod and revive the interest in the best game ever created.
If you have any suggestions either mail me (Khan@s.netic.de) or
post them here.
Khan(VK) alias Fingolfin
Additional comment from Xi:
I suggest you get together with your clannies and brainstorm some
ideas
so
that you can give VK your best ideas for a new mod =). Cheers!
Xi
Dec. 22, 1999
Welcome to our new
(returning) member,
Beleg! He was a member of the guild a year ago by the same name.
He's
from Oregon, in the PST time zone. Tom Bombadil recruited.
Namo/Mandos is down with pneumonia, unable to stay
up
more than about 20 minutes at a time. He hopes that he will be able to
finish
buying computer parts after Christmas and rejoin us actively.
Smaug will be in Costa Rica for Christmas vacation,
but
expects to return to at least emailing us afterwards.
Thank you to the members who have already emailed
Varaya
and Khan!
Dec. 21, 1999
IMPORTANT! We need you to answer
Varaya of Varaya and Khan who made DiabloVK! Varda asked if they
would be willing to make a Diablo mod with an even stronger mod. Here
is the reply:
Sounds like a good idea :-) In fact, we have thought about it
ourselves, but then we did not create such a mod, simply because we
got
a bit bored
with Diablo. I just talked to Khan about it, and it looks as if we
might
(might !) do it next week, because then we have a bit of spare time.
But
only
if there really are some players who really, really want something
like
that mod :-)
Virus alert - do not open email attachment
on an email with no subject line that has an attachment called
Pics4You.exe
More details on our
Virus Alerts page.
Dec. 19, 1999
New Tolkien poetry for the
Poetry page: Eru wrote "The Lord of the Mark" and "Boromir".
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST,
11
GMT)
Attending (15): Amillo, Anarion,
Aragorn/Thorongil, Aule/Taglos, Balin, Eowyn, Eru, Irmo/Desirer,
Luthien, Maedhros, Melkor, Thingol,
Tom, Voronwe, Varda. Hi to Haleth at Melkor's house!
Membership:
No new members this week.
Anarion has been having comp problems (made it to
meeting!)
Thorongil will no longer have access to a comp or
bnet
until after Jan 1st.
Web:
Encyc's Poetry page: New poems by Eru: "The Lord of
the
Mark" and "Boromir".
Gaming:
DiabloVK: Ulmo, Lord of the Seas, found Nenya, the
Ring
of Water and of Adamanta
Varaya and Khan are planning on closing their site.
Varda
sent them a letter requesting a mod with more Tolkien.
Tolkien:
Tolkien Moment:
From Thorongil: Eru makes
elves
and men with a different emphasis - the elves are the most beautiful
and
make beauty, and Arda is their mansion. Mankind's heart seeks beyond
the
world, unable to rest there, and can shape its own fate rather than
having
it restricted to the fate of the Music.
Tolkien Discussion:
Do humans stop off at
Valinor? Result was yes, they stop there and recollect. Only Mandos and
Manwe under Eru know exactly where they go from there. This is found in
"Of Men" in the
Silmarillion.
Dec. 18, 1999
Letter from Anarion:
Heya Heya!
My connection and network settings are messing about + yahoo mail
etc.
has
given up on me.
Not sure wether I'll be around for a while.
Cya as soon as possible,
Anárion
Dec. 14, 1999
Ulmo found the Ring of Nenya (Ring of Water and of
Adamant)! How appropriate. :) It was in a Hell/Hell
difficulty VK
game, taken from the evil Gothmog (no not our guild guy!).
Dec. 12, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST, 11 GMT)
Attending: Amillo/Malina,
Aragorn/Thorongil, Aule/Taglos, Daeron, Elros, Eru, Irmo, Isildur,
Makar, Tulkas Astaldo, Ulmo,
Varda, Voronwe
Membership Report:
New members this week:
Isildur and Thrain, bringing
us
to 97 says Amillo (the guy who knows!).
News:
Tulkas will be at sea until
around
Jan 20. Good luck out there!
Gimli and Saruman hope to
have
a new email acct for guild mail.
Murezor's comp's power
supply went
out.
Turgon is trying to find a
way
to squeeze real life for time to join us.
Web Report:
Anarion's page: The Council
of
Istari, is now moved onto its new server and updated a great deal.
Encyclopedia: Great article
on
the Origin of Orcs by Amillo, plus nifty items on Ringwraiths from
Tolkien's Letters.
Tolkien:
Tolkien Moment:
Tulkas
Astaldo
quoted the death of Turin, a truly sad moment well told.
Tolkien Chat:
Aragorn
gave us a topic on the Discussion Board: Although Feanor died, can he
still claim the Silmarils? This gave us over an hour of good chat,
including some
great side topics. Aragorn suggests that since Feanor created the
silmarils,
he should be able to reclaim them. Eru had the show stopper when he
said
"Possession is 9/10ths of the law." Some comments were that Feanor
could
no longer touch the hallowed stones because of his evil deeds. Eonwe
told
Feanor's sons, Maedhros and Maglor, that they lost claim to the stones
as
heirs for evil deeds, especially the murder of Dior and the slaughter
of
the Teleri, and it was proven to them when the stones burned their
hands.
Feanor led the attack on the Teleri, one of those same deeds but worse,
plus
many other things such as abandoning his followers at the Helacaraxe
(Grinding
Ice), so he could not have held the silmarils. Melkor had the
silmarils,
even though he could not touch them, but they were taken from him.
Earendil
carries one as the Morning Star in the heavens, one fell into the fiery
chasm
and was taken into the heart of the earth, and the last fell into the
depths
of the oceans. Feanor will not be released from the Halls of Mandos so
he
cannot reach Arda, let alone those inaccessible places. It is also
improbable
that Earendil, Aule, or Ulmo would turn them over to him.
We also discussed what happened to spirits
after
death, as they went various places according to race, but not always.
Also, we discussed the form Sauron took during the
Lord
of the Rings. It could not have been a giant (or other sized) eyeball,
as
Gollum saw that his black hand had only four fingers!
Dec. 11, 1999
New member! Welcome to the group, Thrain!
Thrain
is from south Holland, 15, and an experienced Diablo player (now
discovering
VK). He's read the Hobbit, LotR, and Sil, making a score of 4/5.
Maedhros
scouted, Varda and Ulmo tested.
Dec. 10, 1999
New Encyc articles! Amillo wrote a paper,
The Origin of Orcs
, linked to from the Orcs page. He also wrote a note in answer to a
question
about
Ringwraiths
, source Letters of Tolkien, place on the Men page.
Turgon is still with us, sent email.
:) ISP problem, according to Aule.
Dec. 9, 1999
Murezor writes:
Heya! My power supply went poof :-\ On a bud's comp now, my own is
being
repaired now. Everything should be hunky dory by end of next week,
hopefully
I'll get start working on the that guide thing then :)
Murezor
"Guide" refers to his SC/BW strategy guide. He has the first
installment up
already.
Dec. 7, 1999
Gimli and Saruman, the brothers, are still with
us!
They have been tied up with school and sports and hope to learn to
manage
their time better. That is a lesson we all need to learn!
For those of you waiting for Diablo2 to come out,
it is always being delayed. While waiting, please join us in games of
DiabloVK, a free and quick download from our Software Files section by
Aule, 9/8 version.
Sauron's challenge of a race to find the One Ring and three Elven Rings
in
VK, evil vs good characters, still stands. If you find it, please email
the
date, difficulty level, floor, and monster(s) you took it from.
We also have members playing WarCraft2 online.
Please email Varda for game
names for these two games if you don't already have them.
Dec. 6, 1999
Welcome to our new member, Isildur! He's
46
from Chambersburg, PA, USA. He has read the Hobbit, Lord of the
Rings,
Silmarillion, and Lays of Beleriand. He plays Diablo pretty
frequently,
so look for him there.
Dec. 5, 1999
Sunday Meeting 6pm EST, 5pm CST,
11pm
GMT
Attending (19+1): Amillo/Malina, Anarion,
Aragorn/Thorongil,
Aule/Taglos, Daeron, Elrond, Elros, Eru, Irmo, Luthien, Maedhros,
Makar,
Orome, Smeagol, Thingol, Tom Bombadil, Ulmo, Varda, Voronwe; visitor
Gilraen
from a Dutch guild.
Membership Report:
Amillo reports that after drops and adds, we are
still
95 strong. :)
Drops are not completed, but we also have requests
to
join us coming in as well so we seem to be stable in number.
Web Report:
Members are still actively updating their pages,
please
bear with the reconstruction and enjoy the new goodies.
Please make a description or article on your
character for inclusion in our online Tolkien Encyclopedia, if you have
not already done so. If you wish to update your article, feel
free!
Tolkien:
Tolkien Moment:
Irmo: from Appendix, a
conversation between Aragorn and Arwen concerning death. She said
death is a bitter gift. He replied that they are not bound to the
circles of the world and beyond
is more than memory.
Tolkien Poetry:
Amillo: original poetry - a
good
night prayer
Tolkien Chat:
Orcs: Origin
of orcs,
said best by a quote from Voronwe on the original ones coming from
elves.
Later they seemed to have been mixed with possibly Southrons, as Eru
said.
Sunlight: This plus special breeding seems to have helped bring about a
strength
to walk under the sun. Discussion suggested that Melkor made the
orcs
in the time of starlight before the sun, and was not set up for that
light.
Sauron (and Saruman) had walked in the light, so they put it into their
calculations.
Compassion: one of
the
defining features in Tolkien's system of good and evil, found only in
the
good. Bilbo's compassion for Gollum saved the world, as Eru said.
Dec. 4, 1999
Turgon is still with us, but is having evil ISP
trouble.
We commiserate!
Finglas too is with us.
Thanks to Aule for finding out for us!
Saturday Chat
4pm EST chat had a good attendance, especially by
about
5pm. :) Amillo/Omar, Anarion (late but had plenty to
contribute),
Aule/Mahal, Luthien, Makar, Varda, others later.
Amillo told us about Hobbit birthday (Ribadyan)
customs
from information found in Tolkien's Letters, on who gives gifts
to
whom, Byrdings (baby hobbits), and Faunts (age they first walk and
talk).
Hopefully we can look forward to an article.
Anarion started a spirited discussion of Feanor,
which
went into Feanor's great abilities and failings. This too should
bring
about an interesting article from Anarion in time, as he already has
another
article in the works.
Dec. 1, 1999
Welcome back to Eru! Congratulations on your new
PC!
:)
top
Nov. 28, 1999
New member! Maedhros found us through
the web
pages, tested by Elros at the meeting.
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST, 11pm GMT)
Attending (14): Aule/Taglos, Boromir, Daeron,
Elros,
Irmo, Luthien, Maedhros, Melkor, Murezor, Tom, Turin, Ulmo, Voronwe,
Varda.
Membership Report:
New members this week are
Maedhros, Theoden, Arathorn, and Voronwe.
Welcome back to Manwe Sulimo
who
came by after the meeting, his phone line working this week at long
last.
:)
Azog had to leave the guild due to real life
problems.
Elensari of the Discussion Board had to move back up
north
and will be out of touch a while.
Some Members are in danger of losing a name during
the
sweep. Please email Varda if anyone has been in touch recently in guild
activity
with: Alatar, Amras, Bregalad, Durin, Earendil, Elladan, Faramir,
Feanor,
Feathalion, Finglas, Gimli or his brother Saruman, Gloin, Grima,
Imrahil,
Pippin, Saruman or his brother Gimli, Turgon
Web Report:
Amillo alphabetized the Members page table and has
the
thanks of all for that effort!
Tom Bombadil is redoing his pages into Tom's Ring.
New Encyclopedia description on Melian.
New link to the Grey Company.
New FAQ channel command: /dnd <name> for
"do
not disturb" preventing all messages
Discussion Board has been very busy. Check it out
and
see which threads you wish to jump into. If you need an invitation to
the
Discussion Board, please email Varda
.
Irmo at the meeting gave us new links to audio clips
from
the old LotR movie (I must've copied wrong, please email it) and a clip
of
the Prof's own voice reading about
Gollum
. Added the reading to the Encyc's Hobbit page and the Links page.
Tolkien:
Tested member.
No real chat due to business discussion of who had
been
seen lately on the list of possible drops, some of whose names were
saved
by this talk.
Nov. 27, 1999
New Member! Theoden
joins
us from Ohio, USA. He's 19, passed his test from Ulmo with a flying
5/5,
and read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion.
Good
start!
New Member! Arathorn
from
New Hampshire, USA, 13, read the Hobbit and LotR, and plays both Diablo
and
StarCraft. Thanks to Elros for scouting and testing. This
Arathorn
is replacing the old one whom no one has ever seen in the channel and
whose
Members page email apparently doesn't work and is the only address we
have.
The old Arathorn is welcome to return as we hear that he has
communicated with Aule by ICQ, but will need to pick a new name.
Everyone be sure your own email is updated!
Tom Bombadil is reorganizing his web pages
drastically, so they may be down when you check them off and on for
about 1-2 weeks. Trouble
is not in your set. :)
New link to the Grey Company sent in by Eomer, tells
about
a growing role-playing language based on Tolkien's.
Nov. 25, 1999
Happy Thanksgiving!
Varda and the rest of the host will be back Sunday, hopefully in time
for
the meeting. Have a great time, all!
Nov. 23, 1999
New Member! Voronwe has joined our
ranks, 33
years old from Statesville, NC, USA. Scouted and recruited by Varda, he
plays
Diablo and has read the Hobbit, LotR, Sil, and Lost Tales, has been
into
M.E.R.P.s modules especially Moria for the layout, and uses a Tolkien
Dictionary
as one of his aids in studying elven languages including Sindarin.
Nov. 22, 1999
Encyc Article:
Melian
, short description on the Maiar page
Nov. 21, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST/VST, 5pm CST,
11pm GMT)
(Check out the petition!)
Attending (15): Amillo/Malina, Anarion,
Aragorn/Thorongil,
Balin, Celebrimbor, Elros, Elu Thingol, Eomer, Luthien Tinuviel, Makar,
Melkor,
Menelvagor, Tom, Ulmo, Varda
Membership Report: In the Membership name
check,
so far we have lost Beleg, Elrohir, and Gil-galad.
Web Report:
Encyclopedia: Ulmo's new article on one possible
origin
of Bilbo's name.
Page navigation scheme being revamped, suggestions
being
taken.
FAQ: new item on Valar honor concerning what it is
and
how it is given.
Death Restore discussion led by Ulmo:
Upshot: Please read the FAQ page, Melkor's article on the Valar Guild
system of fair
play in Diablo. Restoring a character who has died and cannot retrieve
his
items is not considered honorable. It is okay to yell for help! If the
character
could have retrieved them but had an isp or bnet crash in the process,
he
may restore.
Unreal Engine: Menelvagor suggested that
if
any of the Valar knows how to do a mod on the spectacular Unreal
engine, he
suggests trying a Moria battle.
Toys: Menelvagor reports that
Middle-earth action
toys are out. Seems several members have some.
Tolkien Chat:
Amillo gave us the poem of
the
prophecy by Malbeth the Seer to the Oathbreakers, of the coming of the
one
who could free them from their ghostly condition and what they would
have
to do for their atonement.
Thorongil/Aragorn spoke of
how
Aragorn could claim the rulership of more than Arnor and Gondor. This
sparked
a discussion of his ancestry.
Thorongil told us of a
petition the whole Guild would probably like to sign. The makers of the
movie The Lord
of the Rings apparently want to Arwen a warrior princess. We
discussed
some of the far-reaching changes that would have to be made for such a
revision.
The petition is located on the
LotR Movie Accuracy Page.
Nov. 18, 1999
New Encyclopedia article! "
Bilbo, Speculation on the Origin of the Name
", by Ulmo-(Valar).
Nov. 16, 1999
The pages are undergoing
reconstruction, but should not be down. The home page should help
navigation now, with other
pages going directly back to it. Numerous articles and pages are
undergoing
updates.
A new FAQ article has been added in answer to what
is
a Valar honor member and what does he do and how does he get to be one?
Nov. 14, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST/VST, 5pm CST,
11pm GMT)
Netsplit hit us badly, so we went to ICQ for only the second time this
year.
Download the small file free from Aule's Software files or
www.mirabilis.com
The meeting was unusually disorganized as it was being held for partial
groups
in ICQ and Bnet at the same time. Apologies all around.
Attending (13) (May have been others,
but these
are the ones scribbled down on my side of the netsplit): Amillo/Malina,
Ancalagon,
Aule/Taglos, Balin, Beleg, Boromir, Elros, Eomer popped through, Irmo,
Kili,
Luthien, Makar, Varda
Membership Report:
Membership sweep of names is ongoing, with several
heard
from for the first time in a long time. Seems many keep expecting
DiabloII
to come out any minute and are waiting for it. That's not happening
until
well into 2000, so sharpen your swords in Diablo VK with us, or
BroodWar, or other games while waiting. Please remember to at least
email Varda or Amillo
once a month to keep your name intact.
Beleg/Celeuial and Elrohir are no longer guild
members.
Web Report:
Encyclopedia: Anarion has added 5 new articles to
the
Objects page, bringing the Individual Articles in One Week record up to
21
and the record for a whole week up to 23!
Pages being revamped with a different setup for
navigation,
ongoing work will not prevent pages from being viewed, but you might
want
to reload now and then.
Gaming:
DiabloII: Blizzard plans to start beta testing
DiabloII
early in the year 2000.
DiabloVK: Sauron challenges the "good" guy
guild
members to beat him and the other "evil" characters to the One Ring and
the
three elven rings. Smeagol says that he will be out for the One Ring
himself,
as Tolkien set up. Please email Varda if you find one of the four
rings
in a Guild game to have the win posted for the News page! Later
findings
are also of interest, although not wins, so feel free to email those
too.
Fellowship Quest: new Tourney game! It is Quest for
Three
using all three character classes played until the Fellowship can go no
farther
or Diablo is beaten. Diablo and DiabloVK are scored separately
due
to the difficulty difference, and scoring is done by IronMan rules.
Tolkien:
Discussion not held due to netsplit difficulties and
Council
discussion
Nov. 11, 1999
The email addresses on the Members page which
don't
seem to be working are for Arathorn, Radagast, Smaug, and Ulwarth. No
emails
at all for Amras, Gimli, or Saruman. If you have a possible address,
please
send it to Varda who is running the member check and will forward
working
emails to Amillo. Protect your Guild name by emailing Varda once a
month
if you cannot be otherwise active, to let us know you are still with
us!
Challenge! Sauron of our guild and his evil friends are searching our Diablo-VK games for the One Ring and the three elven rings before the good guys can locate them. They are as tough to find as a 6-15 King's Sword of Haste! Whoever locates one of these four rings in a Guild game, please email Varda (Sauron currently has the same email) to have it posted on the News page! The race is on!
Diablo II possible release date from Blizzard.
Nov. 10, 1999
Letter from Murezor:
Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. My exams are
coming up,
so
I'm reading all day now, 7 days a week... (Been doing that for some
time
now... sigh) Exams are done by end of this month, hopefully I'll
have
time
for some serious playing then :) Say hello to all my buds (and
budettes
(hmmm strange word eheh)) out there. Looking forward to see you all
soon.
Murezor
Nov. 9, 1999
New Tolkien articles! The Kings of the Mark all
have
entries under Men, primarily due to the amazing efforts of Anarion. We
have
a new record for number of new Encyclopedia entries in a week by one
person
(16) and by more than one (18).
Nov. 8, 1999
New Tourney Game! Fellowship Quest! Our
Tourney
Master, Ulmo, has made the new version of Ironman official, using the
name
given to it by Mandos. How to play will be posted to the Tourney page
for
ease of location, and is posted here for now.
Letter from Ulmo:
1. 3 level 1 characters enter a game (one each char type) (many
have
found 3 rogues to be the best for "Quest for 3" but one each type is
part of the challenge here)
2. No items shall be imported but finds and purchases as the
game provides are all allowed for use.
3. The team may either go as far as they can in one game or
complete sections (dungeons, catacombs, caves and hell) and return
at another time to the next section only and continue in another
game at another time.
4. Any resources found (items, gold potions, etc.) may be used
or disposed of in any method decided by the fellowship.
5. Scoring will be the same as in Ironman: 1 point for each
level
of each character plus 2 points for every level of the game(s)
totally cleared (this includes Butcher, Leoric or any other Boss).
You may however hold off killing bosses until after journeying
deeper to gain more experience. Killing Diablo after clearing
every level (yeah right :-)) will be considered a complete
victory regardless of the levels of the characters.
Ulmo
Nov. 7, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST/VST):
Attending (16):
Amillo, Anarion, Aule, Bilbo, Elrond, Elros, Irmo,
Kili,
(Manwe came in time for the Tolkien discussion), Melkor, Thingol, Tom,
Tulkas,
Tuvo, Ulmo, Varda
Membership Report: by Amillo: 96 members,
2
new ones are Aragorn and Daeron.
Tulkas will be going back to sea Nov 10 for about 2
weeks
Ugluk and Smeagol have been seen in games, so don't
count
them out :)
CAUTION: update your email on the Members
page.
Varda will be doing a check to see who is still in the Guild. Members
known
to be active for certain will not be emailed, but others should be
receiving
email soon. To be really sure to protect your name, email Varda.
Web Report:
Bilbo will be putting up a school project on his web
page
of a comic strip on the Darkening of Valinor from the Silmarillion.
Gaming:
Aule: Doom-Gaze trainer seems to be the best for
saving
Diablo characters, and does not require a Dhack.
Varda: Whatever save program you use, please
remember to
save your characters to floppy at least once a month to avoid disaster!
Hard
drives can die horrible deaths, as happened to Tulkas recently and to
many
of us at one time or another.
WarCraft2 now has a standardized game name in the
Guild;
email or ask Ulmo or Varda.
DiabloVK now has a standardized numbering, added at
the
very end of the VK on the game name.
Tolkien:
Amillo: naming conventions among elves
Irmo: quote from appendix on Arwen making her choice
for
Aragorn. Discussion by group about how Galadriel seemed to be setting
them
up, possibly at the indirect direction of the Valar through the gift
from
Valinor of the elessar stone from Gandalf to Galadriel, for Aragorn.
Tulkas: continuation, telling of Elrond's sorrow but
belief
in the correctness of Arwen's decision, if Aragorn could fulfill his
destiny.
Manwe: Are there other orders besides the usual
ones?
He quoted that the Valar are above the Maiar or any other orders
on
Arda. May be a reference to the elves and men. Discussion of the evil
spirits
that were not originally evil but perverted by Melkor.
Nov. 6, 1999
Two new members! Linguist day
for
the Guild?
Welcome to Daeron, Tolkien linguist, scouted
and
recruited by Tom Bombadil.
Welcome to Aragorn, 17 years old, brought in
last
night by the august group of Ulmo, Irmo, and Aule, impressively passing
what
amounted to a Maiar honor test 5/5! He was previously Calenmir "green
stone"
in Quenya. He is also a linguist. :) He is interested in SC/BW
mapping.
top
Varda, your reporter, had to leave the meeting before the Tolkien session started, unfortunately. Hoping to hear what was said during the week! Amillo had planned to tell about naming conventions elves used.
Oct. 25, 1999
New article in the Tolkien Encyclopedia: Amillo
wrote
"Marriage
among Elves"
. It has a lot of hard-to-find info, very interesting.
Oct. 24, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT/VST)
Attending (14): Amillo/Malina,
Aule/Taglos, Beren, Boromir, Elros, Irmo, Makar/Ramandor, Melkor, Nori
(briefly), Osse/Gaerys, Thingol, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda
Web Report: no new articles, but Amillo
will
be putting up his Marriage among Elves, info which he has been telling
about
at meetings.
Membership Report: no new members, quite
a
few members surmounted problems to return. Anarion will be in Italy for
a week, and will be unable to return steadily for a
little while after
that, but hopes to be back to normal.
Recruiting discussion: Ulmo brought up
the
need for the scout/tester team to remember to emphasize that our guild
atmosphere
is considerate, courteous, Tolkien literate, gaming, web maintaining,
family
oriented, chatting (Tolkien and other). That is why we have lasted so
long.
Two years is exceptional for a Diablo guild, even a Tolkien Diablo
guild.
It could also help keep the new member from embarrassment if a few
items
of meeting etiquette are mentioned, such as when, where, whisper hi and
bye
during meetings to keep from covering up the screen (but be sure to say
hi
and bye!), whisper the chair to have your turn added to the meeting
with
a reminder if it appears to have been lost in the shuffle. If the chair
does
not reply to the request in a timely fashion, suspect netsplit and
whisper
someone to whisper to the chair. All members should have their say!
Game naming: nominations taken for
WarCraft II Bnet edition which is already being played by members, and
for the (hopefully) upcoming Diablo II. No decision made yet,
nominations still open, please email
Varda before the next meeting. Those playing WC2, please email Makar
and
check his Games page to see who else is playing. Please continue to use
your
usual name for recognition and for Guild games.
Tolkien:
Irmo told about JRRT's decision not to write a story
he
was considering, set 100 years after the fall of Mordor. He was
concerned that with the nature of man to become satiated with good,
several problems would occur such as the kings becoming as Denethor
was, youth gangs patterned after orcs, and pagan cults. JRRT felt that
such a book would be a mere thriller,
not worth his time.
Amillo concluded his tale of the customs of elven
marriage,
telling about the Law of Iluvatar given to the Councillors of the Eldar
directly
by Manwe. (See his article for details, to be uploaded Monday).
Oct. 23, 1999
Ulmo and Gothmog are back, with their new modem.
Anarion
and Tuvo were also back playing. Just proves you can't keep the Valar
folk
away from their games no matter what happens. :)
Oct. 21, 1999
Letter from Tuvo:
"Fellow Valar,
Due to a severe case of the 'roids' I can't sit
down
and therefor
can't very well use the computer. See you in a week or so.
-Tuvo"
Oct. 20, 1999
Letter from Anarion: (translate by adding the missing
"m".
CAN'T WRITE UCH BECAUSE Y CO P IS TRANSLATING Y TYPE AS SHORTCUTS.
IF ANY
LETTERS ARE ISSING THEY ARE OST LIKELY THE LETTER BEFORE N IN THE
ALPHABET. (I CANT TYPE IT YOU SEE). I' ALSO WRITING IN CAPITALS TO TRY
AND AVOIDE IT
LOADING EXPLORER WHEN I PRESS E, ETCETERA. THIS ISNT Y ONLY PROBLE AT
THE
O ENT, Y ONITER IS ALSO NOT WORKING PROPERLY. GRRR!
DIABLO ALSO TI ES OUT AS SOON AS I ENTER A ULTIPLAYER GA E. HAVE FUN
TRYING
TO TRANSLATE THIS WITHOUT ALL THE LETTERS :)
HOPE TO GET IT FIXED SOON
ANARION
Oct. 18, 1999
Letter from Glorfindel:
yes I'm still here, sorry
if
I've been inactive as late but I've
had to knuckle down to some hard work, so I don't get much
chance to use the internet these days.... hence the tardiness
of
my reply.
Glorfindel
Oct. 17, 1999
Letter from Ulmo:
It has taken me till now to prove my problem is
my
modem. Thanx to my ISP
for spending 1 1/2 hours playing with my comp to prove it. I
hope
to have a
new one by late next week, but who knows...
Hope to see all soon,
Ulmo
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT/VST)
Attending ( 15): Aerin, Anarion, Aule,
Balin,
Bilbo, Boromir, Eomer, Gloin, Irmo, Luthien, Makar/Ramandor,
Omar/Melina, Osse/Gaerys, Tulkas, Varda
Membership Report:
Amillo reported that the member count is now 94.
Good
thing the meeting isn't mandatory or the count would be 15. :)
Boromir fractured his left hand playing football,
but
is playing Diablo anyway.
Celeuial is now Beleg.
Eonwe has a defective Diablo CD, trying to get
another.
Turgon joined us, a returning member who used to be
Pallando.
Web Report:
Bilbo has a Diablo page up and linked to the Valar
Guild
called Ademias' Earth.
Tolkien:
Amillo told the group about the marriage customs of
elves,
and plans to make an article of it.
Tolkien Moments:
Varda told about Lobelia's coming out from the
Lockholes.
Eomer told Eomer's reaction to the news from Aragorn
concerning
Boromir's death, and his giving Aragorn the nickname "Wingfoot" for his
speed
in pursuit of the orcs who took the hobbits.
Tulkas told Tom Bombadil's song vs the Barrow Wight
and
the song of Tom Bombadil.
Gloin told about Aule's making of the dwarves.
Oct. 16, 1999
Letter from Boromir:
hi, I may have some bad news. I fractured my hand playing football
in
PE
yesterday, and I lost use in the left hand. thank god I'm a righty!
So, it's awfully hard to do anything on the computer, so I'll be
gone
for
two weeks.
Until then,
Boromir
New member page link:
Ademias'
Earth
- Diablo tips, downloads. Plays music: by Bilbo
New name: Celeuial now has a permanent name:
Beleg Cuthalion the Strongbow.
Oct. 12, 1999
Eonwe is having difficulties with his Diablo CD
and
may have to get a new one, but he's still with us.
Oct. 10, 1999
Welcome to our new member, Turgon! He's
15,
from Raymond Alberta Canada, and read the LotR and Sil. Makar did us
the
honor of handling testing. Turgon a while back was the Maiar Pallando
but,
after leaving a while, has rejoined us as a regular member.
Meeting report :
Members at the meeting perfomed by Irmo (God bless him
:)
: Irmo, Omar, Anarion, Elendil, Aule ( Afk while eating ), Salmar,
Balin, Boromir, Glorfindel (Celeuial ), Luthien. Popping in during
meeting : Tulkas, Eomer.
New members report : Luthien + Glorfindel.
Page report : Lenwë by Anarion, several links by
Anarion,
Manwë´s memories.
Playing 20 Q. after meeting. Death-dawg visiting trying
to
join us but had a quite bad attitude and was at last banned.
Amillo
(Varda was away at the Texas Renaissance Festival, but
expects
to return for the next meeting. Also at the Festival were Elros,
Elwing,
Meriadoc, Fangorn, Eowyn, Sauron, and Fingon)
Oct. 9, 1999
Tolkien Encyclopedia: Anarion aka James has a
new
description on the Elves page about
Lenwe
. Also from Anarion, a new link on the Contents page
Writing Systems of Aman with Tengwar and Sarati.
Oct. 8, 1999
Welcome to Celeuial, our new member.
Osse scouted,
Aule tested with an assist from Luthien. This name may be temporary,
Sindarin
for Silver Twilight. He just married, plus he just got his his computer
a
few weeks ago, so we're cutting him some slack. :) A
well-spoken
gentleman, he's 26 from Iowa, made a 4.5 out of 5, and read the Hobbit,
LotR
trilogy, Silmarillion, and the HoME series.
New links - Anarion sent in new links for
dictionaries in numerous languages, medieval info, and images of
palaces, viewable on the
Contents page.
Oct. 7, 1999
Welcome to Luthien, our new member!
She's from
Canada, recruited by Tom Bombadil.
Oct. 6, 1999
Manwe sent his memories of the early days of
the Guild
as an Anniversary present to the Guild, now viewable from the
Histories page.
Oct 3, 1999
Anniversary Tourney continues until regular
Meeting time.
Anniversary Meeting (5pm
CDT, 6pm EDT)
Happy 2nd Anniversary everybody!!
Attending (18): Aule, Balin, Bilbo, Dior, Elros,
Eru,
Irmo, Makar/Ramandor, Melkor, Omar/Amillo, Osse, Sauron, Thrain/Hurin,
Tom
Bombadil, Tulkas, Turin, Tuvo, Varda, (uncounted over-the-shoulder
attendance
also, such as the Layton host) (If you were accidentally left out of
this
list, please email Varda to be put in. Thanks.)
Recruiting and Membership News:
Beorn joined our ranks, Elros scouted and tested.
JamesThomas, excellent Discussion Board member, has
joined
us as a full member now named Anarion. Thanks Amillo for
testing.
Thrain changed his name during this meeting to Hurin
.
Melkor will be gone Oct 4 but should be back around
the
12th.
Dior dropped in to say Happy Anniversary and
goodbye. His
other guild will not allow him to be with us officially any longer. He
is,
of course, always welcome by us to come back for visits!
Tulkas still has the flu with fever but, being the
great
warrior he is, came anyway.
Web News:
Elros's Quiz on Tolkien Races is still going. See
the
latest entry on Men.
Tourney News:
Ulmo gave his report which should soon be up on the
Tourney
page. Please be sure you email him your game results to be shown on the
Tourney
page as a participant! We had a surprising number of souls brave the VK
version
of Diablo Quest for Three. Also we had quite a few tries and a couple
of
victories at Beren's fiercely wonderful map in BroodWars, "The Bridges
of
Osgiliath".
Tolkien Moment:
Irmo put in a lot of great atmosphere and told us of
Gandalf's
fireworks. Thanks!
Tolkien Comments:
Eru and numerous others told the history of Thrain
and
Balin, two of the great dwarves.
Reminesce:
Eru told of his original vision of the Guild, of how
he
wanted a legit co-op guild with real Tolkien fans. We are still here,
after
two years, fulfilling that original dream.
After the Meeting:
Chat; Twenty Questions game over Tolkien; bnet
games. There
is a rumor that some people went to sleep that night, but this is
questionable
and unconfirmed.
Oct. 2, 1999
Come to the channel at 9am CDT/10am EDT for the
main
Tourney startup!
Welcome to our new member, Beorn! Good
timing!
Elros did both scouting and recruiting. Beorn is 16 from San Diego,
California.
He has read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. We do have a problem in
that
the old Beorn is still showing up, so our new Beorn may be coming up
with
a new name. Sorry about the confusion.
top
Sept. 26, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending(16): Ancalagon, Aule, Balin,
Bullroarer,
Celebrimbor, Elrond, Elros, Finrod, Irmo, Makar/Ramandor, Melkor,
Omar/Amillo,
Tom, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda
Web Report:
Lothlorien midi by Enya from
Eowyn
is now on the Links page.
Encyc: The Fate of Finwe, by Tilion
Quiz: Dwarf quiz is up, Men about to go up on the
page.
By Elros.
Recruiting Report:
Gloin joined us this week. :)
Tolkien Moment:
The Field of Pelennor: Eowyn and the Witch-King. by
Irmo
Beleriand MUSH: Several of our members
discover
they know each other from the Beleriand MUSH as well: Irmo
(Araglour, Faroth O Doriath), Beren (Elorean,
handling Gondolin webwork), and Tom Bombadil (Telpeorn, Olivistyar O
Nosse Nande, TP Coordinator for Gondolin).
Tolkien Music CD's: A trilogy of An
Evening, A Night, and Dawn in Rivendell
Anniversary:
The Anniversary Tourney kicks off tomorrow,
with
early play all this coming week. Main play will be this weekend,
starting at 10 am EDT in the channel to find team mates, continuing
until the Anniversary Meeting. Iron Man has been added to the Tourney
games, a version of how to
play regular Diablo. VK may be played using the regular Diablo tourney
games,
but it may be too hard to expect to go any distance, so expect low
scores.
The Anniversary Meeting is next Sunday at the
regular time,
6pm EDT, with Tourney results, Tolkien, and reminescing.
Sept. 24, 1999
New Member! Welcome to Gloin, a friend
of Bilbo's
living in the USA! Bilbo scouted, Tom Bombadil tested.
Sept. 21, 1999
New Encyclopedia article:
The Fate of the House of Finwe by Tilion. He means fate as in after
death. Interesting read.
Sept. 20, 1999
Dwarf Quiz
, the second week of the Tolkien Races quiz by Elros, is now up.
Sept. 19, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending(12): Aule, Balin, Boromir, Elros, Finrod, Irmo, Makar,
Omar/Amillo, Osse/Gaerys, Thingol, Thrain (short visit), Varda.
(Several people showed up after the meeting, including visitors
Xiuhcoatl and Superhick. See
Surprise Visit at end of minutes.)
Membership Report:
Mandos is still waiting for insurance to repair his
fried
computer equipment.
Frodo is still with us, has just been very busy with
Real
Life, and gave us a nifty for-fun quiz.
Web Report:
We have a central Quiz page.
Frodo's self-scoring Tolkien Quiz is now up.
Elros's second week quiz on Dwarves is about to
start.
Prize will probably be VK items.
Gaming:
Caution: VK page now has a different version
up. Please download the 8/22 version on Aule's Software page so
that the guild can stay in synch.
Maiar Test:
Instead of doing Tolkien moments, we had a Maiar
test
for Elros who passed brilliantly with a perfect 5/5 plus a 1/2 on a
tough
Silmarillion bonus question. He elected to keep the Elros name,
adding
the Valar after it instead of a V.
Surprise Visit:
After the meeting, Eru came into the channel.
He
is borrowing a friend's computer to visit with us and plans to be
present for the Anniversary meeting. Welcome back!
Sept. 15, 1999
Tolkien Quiz by Frodo which scores itself and is a challenge. Frodo
says he hasn't vanished
either, but has been verrry busy and will try to pop in to see us now
and
again.
Sept. 13, 1999
Letter from Mandos/Namo:
Fiirst thing.......I didn't vanish off the face
of the
earth....... :)
I had a bit of an electrical problem 4 (or 5) weeks
back,
that fried most of my computer equipment.(not to mention my
refrigerator and
2 window A/C's)
Luckily Insurance will replace everything but they seem to want to take
forever
to do so. Ah
well.....that's typical of them. I assumed they would be taking care of
it
a lot sooner that
this.....(still waiting!)...but I shouldn't have been surprised!
Keeping this short....on a friends comp right now...and I
have
to read about 100 e-mails
that backed up over the last week or so.
Farewell for now
Mandos
Sept. 12, 1999
Letter from Manwe:
Heya guys,
Just wanted to let ya know that I wont be back on for a while.
Complications due to my roomates phone bill are preventing me from
getting
my own line. I will not be able to attend the anniversarry meeting or
be
of
much help. I am sorry, I really wanted to be a part of it. I hope you
all
have fun with it.
Sorry Valar buddies take care
Manwe Sulimo
The Anniversary meeting will continue as scheduled. Ulmo is still Tourney Master and can take Tourney suggestions. Other suggestions please send to Varda. Hopefully, Manwe can find a friend's computer or library comp and drop in for a while if we are very fortunate.
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending: Bullroarer, Elendil, Eomer, Finrod,
Gothmog/Cosomot
(reporting for Ulmo), Irmo, Omar/Amillo, Tuvo, Varda
Membership Report:
Bullroarer joined the Guild at the meeting,
with
a rousing 4 1/2 out of 5 in a test by Irmo, Omar, and Varda. Glad to
have
you with us!
Eol, if you are still with us, please contact Varda
or
Omar/Amillo and let us know.
A reminder: any member may scout. Please be sure the
person
wants to play legit co-op and has read the LotR.
Web Report:
New page by James O' Connell, Discussion Board
Member: Council of Istari
New Encyclopedia description under Orcs about Bolg,
by
James O' Connell
Gaming News and Congrats!:
Aule was first to take a dot in VK.
Ulmo was first to take the third dot in VK.
Anniversary News:
Varda has been asked to email a general invitation
to
the whole membership to the Second Anniversary of the Valar Guild.
Varda is
writing and Aule sending. If you are accidentally left out of the email
by
whatever mistake, please know that you as a member are very much wanted
and
to please come! It is a combination 2-day Tourney, Tolkien talk with
possible
quiz challenges on the side during the Tourney waits. Chat is highly
welcome!
At the Meeting, we will have Tourney results, reminiscing, and Tolkien
talk.
The Anniversary is actually Oct 4, a Monday. The Tourney is Oct 2-3 up
to
Meeting time. The Meeting is at the regular time on Oct 3.
Tolkien Moments:
Tuvo: Gandalf warned Frodo and all of us not to be
too
quick to judge who merits death, as that person too may have a
necessary part
to play. Many who die deserve life, but can we give it to them?
Irmo: Luthien Tinuviel. (Need we say more?)
Sept. 8, 1999
Trouble may not be in your set. If you have
problems accessing these pages, it may be because one of the internet
service provider's local telecommunications providers suffered a major
fiber cut, now under repair.
(Lots of construction going on around here, and I suspect someone's
backhoe
zigged when it should have zagged.) They hope to have partial
restoration late today.
New Encyclopedia description of Bolg the Orc on
the
fledgling Orc
page, by James O' Connell.
Sept. 6, 1999
Quiz on
The Races of Tolkien
: Link should be working now, try reloading if it doesn't. If
you
have further problems, email Varda. She can receive even if she can't
answer
by email.
Web Team page: If you want to list a place with
free
web space, please email Varda the URL for the Web Team page. If you
wish
to add comments about the space, such as Crosswinds' unlimited space
often
being too busy to reach, feel free. We might also add links to your
favorite
free web sites for teaching how to use web pages. The web team and its
pages
are here to help.
Recruiting: In answer to a question by one
member, but which others may be wondering: all members may scout. If
you see someone you think belongs in our Guild, send him/her to our
webpage, or if a really good prospect (read all LotR, legit co-op gamer
you would really like to meet
again), then send the person to our channel for a tester, especially at
meeting
times when several of them are always present.
New Page:
The Council of the Istari with a Tolkien quiz, Tolkien and other
cool links, by James O' Connell,
a non-gaming member and frequent Encyclopedia contributor. Still under
construction
(aren't they all if active! :)
Eonwe should be back Tuesday.
Sept. 5, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending (11): Aule, Ancalagon, Felagund, Irmo,
Melkor,
Menelvagor, Omar, Thingol, Tuvo, Ulmo, Varda
Web Report:
Members Page working again.
Encyclopedia article: The
Seven Gates of Gondolin.
Tolkien Quiz over Races by
Elros.
Link not currently working.
Spawn: People who don't have
Diablo
and just want it for coming to meetings or the channel can pick up a
Diablo
spawn. Happy Puppy was suggested as a source, although Varda did not
see
a spawn there, just the single-player demo. Happy Puppy's
Home page and single-player Diablo
demo
.
VK Diablo: links up
Membership Report:
No new members, although we had 2 email requests for
membership.
Email problem: Varda can receive but not send email.
Melkor will be gone for a while traveling: 9/7 -
9/18/99
Council Meeting: ironed out a VK game wrinkle.
Next
wrinkle we need to iron is naming games consistently. Just where do we
put
the 2? After the game name or the VK? Both are currently being used, so
for
now when game-hunting, be sure to try both!
Sept. 2, 1999
The Members page is working again, after the
long efforts
of Amillo! Thanks!
New Encyclopedia article:
The Seven Gates of Gondolin by James O' Connell
Sept. 1, 1999
New Tolkien Quiz! Elros has made a quiz over the
races
of Tolkien, this week over hobbits. It can be reached from the
Contents page or from right
here
.
top
August 29, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending (15): Aerin, Ancalagon, Aule,
Boromir,
Celebrimbor, Elros, Elwing, Eowyn, Felagund, Irmo, Makar/Ramandor,
Omar/Amillo,
Tom, Ulmo, Varda
Web Report: New encyclopedia articles:
New
Encyclopedia articles by James O' Connell. He sent an
impressive 5 entries at once!
For the Valar section: a new name for Ulmo. For the Hobbits
section:
articles on Faramir and Isumbras. For the Men section: articles on
Faramir
and Goldwine. Thanks!
New Encyclopedia pages: Hobbits, Trolls
New images added to the Encyclopedia, including one
done
by Amillo of Hurin, swiped from his Annals of Arda.
New links for the Contents page: Jarulf's Guide to
Diablo
and Hellfire v1.40, including a link to the VK mod page. Also a link on
how
to play IronMan, similar to Quest for Three in our regular Diablo
tourney
game, but even meaner. Also to bnet's Diablo Strategy Forum since the
newer
bnet Diablo page no longer includes it.
Beren is updating his Tolkien
Language page, check for new happenings there!
Amillo has been working on the Members
Page, trying to repair the problems people are having with
seeing it.
For instance, I saw it fine before, but now see only a white screen. If
anyone
can shed any light on what might be causing the troubles, please email
him.
Meanwhile, some of the emails, such as Council, are posted on the Names
page
including his, nothing as brilliantly complete as his set-up, sorry.
Recruiters Report: Amillo reported that
we
have no new members this week, but we now number 91.
Games Report: The Council has approved,
after testing, and announced that we are now officially using the
Diablo VK 8/22, 8/23 mod. This is a modification of Diablo, for
multi-player only, which does
not run in synch with Diablo or other versions, even of itself.
Therefore, please tack -VK onto the game name to warn other players. It
has the elven rings and the One Ring. Sauron requests that if anyone
locates the One Ring,
the least of rings, to please pass it on to him. Information on
DiabloVK should
soon be accessible through the Tourney page, and the link will be on
the
Contents page as well, which you can access right now through
Contents/Diablo/Jarulf's page. Aule will be putting the VK mod download
on his Software page.Gothmog is collecting names of people who play VK,
so please let him know; that will
be in conjunction with Makar's Games page.
Anniversary Report: Oct 4 is the Guild's
second
year anniversary:
The Anniversary Tourney,
including Diablo, DiabloVK, StarCraft, and BroodWar, will use regular
Tourney rules. See the Tourney page. DiabloVK will be played the same
way as Diablo, except that it will be scored separately as it is more
difficult. One change: this time the Tourney while starting as usual on
Saturday, Oct 2, at 10am EDT for team choosing, but will continue
playing through Sunday until
Meeting time. Please email results to Ulmo as usual. Those who wish to
help
Ulmo, as by sitting in the channel to steer people together and explain
rules
and reports, please email Ulmo.
The Anniversary Meeting
will
be at the usual meeting time on Sunday Oct 3, where we will no doubt
comment
on the Tourney, but the main focus will be on Tolkien. If you can get
in
a description or article for the Encyclopedia this week, we are trying
to
beat the record of 5 in one week. If you've been meaning to write a
little
something or a big something on your character or a favorite character,
object,
place, or event, now is the time!
Tolkien Moments:
From Elros: The Siege of Gondor, when it seemed
Rohan
would not be able to come to their aid.
From Irmo: The singing of Luthien
Maiar Nomination: Elros has been
nominated for
Maiar, and when he passes his test watch for his new name.
August 26, 1999
New Tolkien image of
Hurin Thalion
! Amillo does his own artwork and is using it in his
amazing
Annals
of Arda
. The Encyclopedia will be swiping it too, most likely. :)
New Encyclopedia page:
Hobbits
. Please feel free to contribute descriptions and articles, all
members.
Another new Encyc page:
Trolls
. Same comments.
August 25, 1999
New Links on Contents page under Diablo. One is
a
very complete guide for Diablo and Hellfire,
Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire v1.40. The other is how to
play
Ironman Diablo
, a beefed up version of the popular Quest for Three.
August 23, 1999
New Link on Contents page to b.net's
Diablo Strategy Forum
, since their "new" Diablo page doesn't have it anymore.
August 22, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending: Aule, Balin, Elros, Felagund, Makar,
Manwe/Sulimo,
Omar/Amillo, Tuvo, Ulmo, Varda
Membership Report: New members: Aerin, Boromir,
Felagund
Web Report:
Virus Page: new article on Wobbler virus in the
email
attachment "California"
Contents Page: Roger Wilco free software for using a
microphone
to talk while playing games
Alexandrian Company does research on Medieval times and holds live
meetings, affiliated with
the SCA.
Members Page: Some people
are
having difficulty viewing the page and others have no problem. Amillo
will
be
changing
the graphic on it soon, and that may help.
Games: Smeagol has been
beta testing Asheron's Call if anyone wants to ask him about it.
Elros's Suggestion: In the character description
for
your non-primary characters, put the primary name to help avoid
confusion.
Anniversary of the Valar Guild's Second Year
(Oct 4)
: Currently the plan stands to have a Tourney starting at 10am
Sat
Oct 2, when we should show up in the channel and pick teams, running
through
Sunday Oct 3, results emailed to Ulmo. Late teams are ok if you can
find
anyone. Then at the regular meeting on Oct 4, we may have lots of
Tolkien
as in Tolkien Moments and Twenty Questions, maybe a Two Team game. This
plan
is still tentative and open to suggestions sent to
Manwe
. A general guild emailing will be sent on the subject, so please make
sure your email on the Members Page is up to date!
Tolkien Moment: by Amillo. Hurin finds Morwen at
last,
after losing his son and daughter, and she dies in his arms.
Words of Wisdom: Manwe's closing
statement :) "You can't go swimming in a baseball
pool."
August 18, 1999
Welcome to Felagund, our new member!
He's from
the Netherlands, 42, read the Hobbit, LotR, Silmarillion, and much of
HME.
His time zone is GMT+1, also called MET for Middle European Time. Bilbo
scouted
and Ulmo tested. Thank you Bilbo for making the report for Ulmo.
Virus Report: "California" file contains a virus
called
the Wobbler. See our page for
info sent from Ulmo. Also, the Virus page link from Contents has
been repaired.
Part of Ulmo's letter:
"Yes I am already back on bnet. :) My
stays
are often short though as
comp desk is not a good posture place for my hand. I need to lie
down
with hand elevated most of the time. It will be quite a while
before
longer stays and even the use of my left thumb will become a reality.
Thanks to all for the "best wishes" comments, mails and page
notations."
August 17, 1999
Welcome to Boromir, our new member from Minnesota. He's 11 and
has
shown patience much older members such as myself would be proud to
have.
He's read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Osse recruited and Aule
tested.
August 16, 1999
New link: Roger
Wilco free software for using a microphone while playing online. Makar
kindly
let us know about it. It is possible to make a special guild frequency,
but
it would be known and accessible to anyone. We might discuss this
Sunday, especially if anyone has already tried it and has a comment on
the quality. Otherwise, those who wish can use it individually. If
there is a lot of enthusiasm,
we may try it later as a guild.
August 15, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending (8): Aule, Balin, Elrond, Elros, Irmo,
Melkor,
Omar/Amillo, Varda. Late-comers as meeting ended: Turin and Tuvo.
Membership Report: Ulmo will be coming on bnet
even
though he cut three fingers on his left hand with a power saw and is
left-handed.
Now that is a true Valar!
We have a new member, not yet named but a very
welcome lady indeed who scored an impressive 5/5.
Irmo will be gone this coming Saturday to Tuesday,
but
will be returning thereafter.
Web Report: New Encyclopedia articles:
Coincidences or Clues?; Faramir
New links: Scrolls of Orthanc, ITBS (Internet
Tolkien Book
Society)
League Report: Aule states that nothing is
happening, and no one is answering emails. Varda suggests that Leaguers
show up at the
Meeting to get together for Ladder games. Amillo and Thingol are
currently the top-ranking players, running even.
Quiz: Elros is working on a new Tolkien quiz for
the
Guild. Good luck!
Anniversary: Our Guild's 2nd year anniversary is
Oct
4. Festivities are being arranged by Manwe for the October 3 Sunday
meeting.
Please email suggestions to Manwe
.
Tolkien Moment: Elros gave the Moment - the
burial procession for the still living Faramir, with its imagery of red
fire from the war on the clouds and water dripping from the dead White
Tree into the
pool.
August 14, 1999
This is Gothmog with some ludicrously bad news.
Ulmo cut his bottom 3 fingers on his left hand on a table saw on
Friday,
he was taken to a hospital for surgery, and still has all 10 fingers,
but he won't be on for probably a few months.
New Tolkien Encyclopedia article: "
Faramir
", under "Men".
New Links:
Internet Tolkien Book Society
; The
Scrolls
of Orthanc
August 9, 1999
New Tolkien Encyclopedia article! Irmo
wrote
"
Coincidences or Clues?
" as a special paper.
August 8, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Ulmo chaired since Varda was out of town. Aule reports that Manwe
volunteered to handle the Guild Second Year Anniversary festivities,
being celebrated at the Oct 3 Sunday meeting. Brave king, that Manwe!
Also appropriate, as
Manwe is the oldest member now active, having started the recruiting
for
we of the current guild. Eru is still having problems with his
motherboard and does not know when he will be able to return.
August 3, 1999
Tilion is back from Scotland!
A new link for the Contents page, sent by the
illustrious
Tuvo, is the Lord of
the
Rings official movie site.
top
July 25, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Thanks Aule for the report information,
since
Varda was out of town.
Attending, partial list:Aule, Amillo,
Irmo, Murezor, Osse
Membership Report: Beorn and OldGaffer
are
our two new members this week!
Web Report:
1. Page Moving News: The majority of our
GeoCities pages have all moved, with transition pages to the new pages.
http://www.flex.net/~layton2/guild/guild.html is the new home of the
page for those that didn't know.
2. New Encyclopedia article, under Objects
concerning the Elessar stone which Aragorn wore.
3. New link on the Contents page to Elvish
Linguistics, a Discussion Board belonging to the Elflings.
http://www.egroups.com/group/elfling/ I (Aule) don't
really know who the Elflings are but Irmo is a member. So if
you have any questions, bombard him with them :)
Games:
1. Diablo2 News: D2 News: Blizzard still has no
firm
release date for D2 but Heat.net has added D2 to their list of games
you
can pre-order and they are charging $48.99 for it.
2. WarCraft2 News: For those of you interested
in
WC2 b.net edition. There is a new FAQ on the Blizzard website which
contains
some valuable info on the improvements and game requirements for the
new
release.
Movie News: There is a report on the net
that
Tom Bombadil will be dropped from the Movies. If you don't want to see
old
Tom get the axe, go to http://www.ringbearer.org/wewanttom.html and
sign
the petition to save Tom.
SC League: Not much to say here, people continue
to
try and schedule games and people continue to not reply to the mails.
July 23, 1999
New Encyclopedia article, under Objects
concerning the Elessar
stone which Aragorn wore.
New link on the Contents page to
Elvish Linguistics
, a Discussion Board belonging to the Elflings. Link supplied by
Laicolas,
of the Elflings, who may be joining us as well.
July 18, 1999
Welcome to the OldGaffer! He's from
Arizona, 14 years old, and read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the
Silmarillion. Elros scouted, Ulmo tested. Thanks!
Welcome to Beorn! He's from Arkansas,
19, and
read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and part of the Silmarillion. He
found
our channel on his own, tested with Varda, and played well with several
of
us in Diablo. He also plays SC/BW.
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT/VST):
Attending (includes some late-comers): Aule,
Balin, Dior, Elrond, Elros, Irmo, Manwe Sulimo, Murezor, Omar/Amillo,
Osse, Thingil, Thrain, Varda
Membership Report:
OldGaffer joined the Guild.
Bilbo will be in England a few weeks.
Salmar will be gone for the summer.
Tilion will be in Scotland until August.
Tulkas will be in Alaska for about a month.
Ulmo and Gothmog will be gone this week for a scout
trip
in DC for Gettysburg.
Web Report:
The majority of our GeoCities pages have all moved,
with
transition pages to the new pages.
Ladder News:
During the week, the groups could not get together,
but
one group got together at this meeting and completed a game!
Tolkien Moments quoted:
Murezor: Sauron telling Ar-Pharazon that Eru is a
phantom
deception, while Melkor is the true lord.
Irmo: Gandalf as the White breaks the power of the
traitor
Saruman
Elros: Meriadoc sees the apparently dead King
Theoden, who awakes and tells him he is pleased with the manner of his
death.
Manwë's Words of Wisdom:
Song quote: "Fight the good fight every moment,
every
moment of every day."
Neat trivia:
Press alt + 137 on the number pad to make an ë.
ValarStarfall popped into our channel accidentally
as
the meeting broke up and became our new member, Beorn. Talk
about good
timing!
July 11, 1999
Sunday Meeting
Thanks for this Report from Aule, as Varda was
out
of town:
We had 16 people there including Namo :)
Talked about the Geocities/Yahoo and the move of the
pages.
Gave a league update and recapped the games that had
been
played.
Irmo gave a Tolkien moment about Aragorn and the
Paths
of the Dead,
around the part about the Stone of Erech.
Played some 20 questions then 2 League games that
were
unscheduled
were played.
July 10, 1999
Updated Yahoo Terms of Service: (These may be
acceptable
to the Guild, certainly much better than before.)
7. CONTENT SUBMITTED TO YAHOO GEOCITIES
Yahoo does not claim ownership of the Content you place on your Yahoo
GeoCities
Site. By submitting Content to Yahoo for inclusion on your Yahoo
GeoCities Site,
you grant Yahoo the world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license
to
reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose
of
displaying, distributing and promoting your Yahoo GeoCities Site on
Yahoo's
Internet properties. This license exists only for as long as you
continue to be a
Yahoo GeoCities homesteader and shall be terminated at the time your
Yahoo
GeoCities Site is terminated.
You acknowledge that Yahoo does not pre-screen Content, but that Yahoo
and
its
designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole
discretion to
refuse or remove any Content that is available via the Service. Without
limiting
the
foregoing, Yahoo and its designees shall have the right to remove any
Content that
violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must
evaluate,
and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including
any reliance on
the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content.
11. MODIFICATIONS TO SERVICE
Yahoo reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or
discontinue,
temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or
without notice.
You agree that Yahoo shall not be liable to you or to any third party
for any
modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.
12. TERMINATION
You agree that Yahoo, in its sole discretion, may terminate your
password, Yahoo
GeoCities Site, use of the Service or use of any other Yahoo service,
and remove
and discard any Content within the Service, for any reason, including,
without
limitation, for lack of use or if Yahoo believes that you have violated
or
acted
inconsistently with the letter or spirit of the TOS. Yahoo may also in
its
sole
discretion and at any time discontinue providing the Service, or any
part thereof,
with or without notice. You agree that any termination of your access
to the
Service
under any provision of this TOS may be effected without prior notice,
and
acknowledge and agree that Yahoo may immediately deactivate or delete
your
Yahoo GeoCities Site and all related information and files in your
Yahoo GeoCities
Site and/or bar any further access to such files or the Service.
Further, you agree
that Yahoo shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any
termination of your
access to the Service.
July 6, 1999
Please pardon the incompleteness of the beginning of the web shift.
These
letters needed to go out to you all, complete or not!
Letter from Gandalf (who is now Tulkas), 6 July 1999:
Well it is true. I just received confirmation this
morning. I leave for
Cambridge Bay on July 12, eventually ending up in Umingmuktok,
Northwest
Territories 3 days later. Airliner to Yellowknife, Cargo plane to
Cambridge
Bay, And then a couple of float plane trips out to where the ship
will
be.
We will be doing more hydrographic work. Making charts of
unmapped
waters
that is to say. I am scheduled to return home on Sept
10. So
that pretty
much kills this summer for me. I will have a brief window
between
July 7
and the 12th for a few games of Diablo however and any recruiting I
can
get
done in that period.
Namarie for now, Gand...er I mean Tulkas-(Valar)
Letter from Eru (slightly abbreviated) , 6 July 1999
Unfortunately I think this may be the end for the online presence
of
Eru. Real life, and the
utter dismay of further, compounded PC troubles has finally forced
me
to call it a day. This has
come as a grievous loss to me, as I simply cannot maintain my
contact with
everyone, but I know
that you will all keep the spirit of the Vision I founded running
successfully.
I would not totally rule out my being able to return in the
future, but for now I think I owe it
to everyone to say that I can't be around. If I do manage to
come
back, I'll appear as Eru again
and guess I can safely reserve the name for myself.
I would like to remain friends with everyone, and I hope that the
guild
continues to flourish.
Providence permitting, I can infrequently check the guild page for
news
so I
won't be completely unaware of what is happening.
Long live the Vision,
Eru, The One.
July 4, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6pm EDT)
Attending (15): Amillo, Aule, Balin, Dior,
Elwing, Gandalf, Gorthaur (Sauron), Irmo, Manwe, Melkor, Meriadoc,
Salmar, Ulmo, Thingol,
Varda
Recruiting/Membership Report: New member,
Meriadoc! Ugluk, after numerous difficulties and now with an email
account, is back with us! Departing member, Valacirca, who no longer
can find time for guild activities.
Web Report: 15 for the move off of
Yahoo/GeoCities, another needing a new free spot to move his only
GeoCities page (suggestions welcome) and one (kindly non web weaver)
who said it is just too much trouble for the others who had to do the
moving. The web team says it is not too much
trouble, so we have something very nearly like unanimity. Discussion
was
held. (Also, the new set-up for uploading pages is full of bugs on
Yahoo,
complicating the move as well as simple maintenance.) We are officially
moving,
and the new URL's will be posted to the old pages. I suggest a new
bookmark
folder for the moved pages. (It helps me!) The move is already
beginning,
with some web team members already set up elsewhere. Interesting
sidelight,
we have definite reports of numerous Star Trek pages moving
out, and
another major group which writes original non-fiction.
Ladder Report: A game has actually been played,
despite
all odds! Congratulations to all 4 for managing this feat! Result: Ulmo
and
Manwe won over Orome and Elros.
New Council Member! Gandalf passed what may have
been
the hardest Valar test yet! He is now Tulkas. Nice send-off for
a
gentleman headed to the arctic for the next two months. He'll contact
us
if the internet connection allows at odd moments.
July 3, 1999
Welcome to our new member, Meriadoc!
Thanks to Gandalf for handling the testing over some terrible netsplit
and time lag.
Meriadoc is 43, from San Marcos, Texas, USA, and answered with a
perfect 5/5.
The Layton host is especially happy to welcome Varda's brother to its
number.
Move vote: 8 for moving guild pages off Yahoo/GeoCities, 2 for staying
so
far. Amillo says he does not plan to move the Glittering Caves of
Aglarond, the art gallery, although he does have at least one original
work of his
own in it.
July 1, 1999
Cirdan and Turin will be out of town a few days
to
visit relatives. Leaguers, especially, take note.
Murezor dropped in on us for the day he was in
town,
and should be back in about 2 weeks.
Move vote: 1 for staying with Yahoo/GeoCities
because
of the effort involved for others, 4 for moving, 2 say use best
judgement.
Beren's Lore pages will be moving off of GeoCities when he is set up.
The
Ladder is already rebuilt on Aule's pages, off of Yahoo. It is amazing
how
many people are involved in the Guild pages, and are working hard for
everyone's
best interests. To all of you, thank you!
top
June 29, 1999
Concerning the possible move from GeoCities/Yahoo:
Here is the Term of Service Part 8 that caused concern, then the letter
of
reply from Yahoo. All Guild members, please email Varda with your vote
on
whether or not to move our pages:
8. CONTENT SUBMITTED TO YAHOO
By submitting Content to any Yahoo property, you
automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such
Content has expressly granted, Yahoo the royalty-free,
perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully
sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify,
adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from,
distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or
part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in
any form, media, or technology now known or later
developed. You acknowledge that Yahoo does not
pre-screen Content, but that Yahoo and its designees shall
have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion
to refuse, edit, move or remove any Content that is publicly
available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing,
Yahoo and its designees shall have the right to remove any
Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable.
You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks
associated with, the use of any Content, including any
reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of
such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may
not rely on any Content created by Yahoo or submitted to
Yahoo, including without limitation information in Yahoo!
Message Boards, Yahoo! Clubs, and in all other parts of the
Service.
Thank you for contacting us re: Yahoo! GeoCities.
We'd like to be really clear - Yahoo! does not claim to own
content
submitted to it by its users.
Our terms of service require homesteaders to grant us the right to
reproduce and otherwise use their content when we post and maintain
it
on the Yahoo! Network. There are simple and important reasons
we
have
this policy and they are designed to benefit you. Listed below are
two
of the biggest reasons:
1. When you upload a Web page or image to us, we often need to
copy it
to put it on the many computers that we use to serve home pages to
people that want to look at your page. We need you to give us the
right
to copy and reproduce that content.
2. We also might want to feature your home page on the front page
of
Yahoo! GeoCities or elsewhere on the Yahoo! Network, so you can get
more
people to see your page. We need to have that right; otherwise we
couldn't reproduce this content.
Yahoo! has always been focused on providing users with a
compelling
experience on the Web, and the Terms of Service are standard
throughout
the Yahoo! Network. We hope you understand that all of our
actions
are
taken with you, the user, in our mind.
Thank you again for taking the time to write to us.
Yahoo! GeoCities
www.geocities.com
June 28, 1999
Ladder: Aule is now handling the
Ladder and doing the page for it. Good luck, Master Smith!
June 27, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6pm EDT)
Attending (12): Aule, Bilbo, Celebrimbor, Dior,
Elendil,
Elros, Makar, Manwe, Melkor, Osse, Thingol, Varda
Recruiting Report: No new recruits this week
Web Report: Aule will begin a page for the
Ladder. The main pages may be moving to another server later on, still
being investigated, but links to them will be available from the old
spots.
Tolkien Highlight: by Manwe. He quoted from the
Silmarillion,
about the elf Feanor's seeing through Melkor's lies, calling him the
jail
crow of Mandos, and slamming the door in the face of the mightiest of
the
Valar! Manwe-(Valar) also commented on the most powerful of the Valar
and
of the elves both straying from good due to selfishness.
June 25, 1999
Thank you Aule, for the Sunday meeting report.
It
is being back-posted to the correct date for the News. Also thanks for
working
on the Ladder schedule, Aule.
Yahoo! and GeoCities are now combining
databases. Page
access may be intermittent this weekend.
June 23, 1999
Hail! The Layton host has returned from
vacation.
If you have any News such as what happened at the Saturday or Sunday
meetings,
new pages, new recruits, or other, please email
Varda
.
Cirdan and Turin have also returned, now that their
modem is
replaced.
The
Tolkien-Inspired
Poetry page has new entries by Elwing.
June 20, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6:00pm EST) Report provided by
Aule
Attending: Ulmo, Osse, Irmo, Azog, Dior,
Elendil, Tom,
Elros, Amillo, Aule, Bilbo, Makar, Thingol, Eomer, Melkor, Elrond
Member Report: Dior is our new member this week.
Glad
you could make it to the meeting, Dior!
League: Ulmo and Cirdan are now back from
computer problems. The schedule will be posted by Varda once Aule
finishes it and Aule
will mail everyone a copy. Some rule changes are in order and
will
be announced once they are ironed out.
Tolkien moment given by Irmo - Ending of the
Scouring of the Shire and Saruman's demise. Struck up into a chat
about the mist
that Saruman became and
what the significance was.
June 16, 1999
Skipping town: Varda and the rest of the Layton
host:
Fangorn, Eowyn, Sauron, and Fingon, will be on vacation starting
tomorrow
morning out of town and be back in about a week. Please continue to
send
News items and other web items for later posting. People needing new
invitations
for the Discussion Board can get them from anyone who is already in the
member
group.
June 15, 1999
New Member! Welcome to Dior! He's 16/M
from
Finland, who's read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and Silmarillion
. Elendil scouted and Aule tested, thanks guys!
June 13, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6:00pm EDT)
Attending (10): Azog, Amillo, Aule, Elendil,
Makar, Mandos, Menelvagor, Nori, Thingol, and Varda. A number of others
showed up late, such as Eomer, Irmo, and a lot of
others
whose names unfortunately I did not write down. Sorry guys.
Recruiting Report: Azog returned, formerly
Gandalf.
Earendil returned, formerly Fingolfin and
Mithrandir.
Web Report: New Page: Guild Histories and
Memoirs
, for all members. Members can tell their experience being recruited
and their first impressions of the guild, as well as
what
they saw of guild history/organization at that time.
Tolkien-Inspired Poetry, restarted with
poems graciously
furnished by ex-Yavanna from her previous (and prettier)
poetry page.
Discussion Board: We now have a
Discussion Board
on Yahoo, for all members. It is by invitation only and the
invitation
sent out by Yahoo does expire. Just ask a fellow
member,
such as Varda, to re-invite you if you did not make it in time.
League: Murezor dropped out due to work
commitments, so we have another re-scheduling coming up. A sympathy
card for
Ulmo may be in order.
Guild member comp probs (some of them anyway):
Eru
is still fighting the motherboard. Gandalf's ship will be out of range
of the Internet until Friday evening. Ulmo had some
problems
with his keyboard, apparently, although sightings of both
Gothmog and him have been reported.
Tolkien Highlights were given by both Amillo
(the time
the Balrog went over the brink, taking Gandalf with him) and Irmo (the
wedding
of Aragorn and Arwen).
Tolkien discovery from Amillo: The number of
elves at the Awakening was 144. Is it coincidence that Bilbo, an
elf-friend,
invited 144 hobbits to his Farewell Party?
June 12, 1999
Saturday chats may have occurred, as I saw some
people
with whom I could not speak. *sigh* Good ol' bnet. Bnet has been
running
on too few servers lately, and may be bad Sunday.
Virus alert: our
Virus Alert page now has the prevention and cure for the
zipped_files.exe email attachment,
a very ugly worm virus.
Discussion
Board
: Tom Bombadil gave us the URL to do this, so thank you Tom!
Varda
is making an attempt setting up a Yahoo discussion board for the guild.
It
has a chat room too. To use the service, we each have to have a Yahoo
identity.
For that, please use your character name and a _Valar or _V
If
your name changes, it can be edited later. You have to be invited
to
post, so please be sure your email is correct on the Members page. I
have
just attempted to invite everyone in the Guild. If you did not receive
such
an email, send an email to Varda
and we will take care of it together. Let me know if you have any
problems, as I am still trying to set it up and barely know what I am
doing. :)
June 10, 1999
New page:
Tolkien-Inspired Poetry
. Any member or Tolkien fan may email Varda to
have
his or her original Tolkien-inspired poetry put on the page. Please
also
send the copyright year.
June 9, 1999
Returning member! Now named Earendil,
the previous
Fingolfin-(V) and Mithrandir-(Valar) has discovered we still exist and
thrive,
so welcome back! He is coming back as a regular member instead of a
Maiar
in order to become familiar with the Guild again.
Returning member! With his new name of Azog
, the previous Gandalf-(V) has rejoined us. He discussed returning in a
chat with Aule and real life friend Ulwarth-(V), and the guild lucked
out. Welcome back to both ex-Gandalf's! :)
June 7, 1999
New page:
Valar Guild Histories and Memoirs by Members
.
June 6, 1999
Fingolfin, regular member, has quit the Guild.
League: Letter from Ulmo (shortened for the
News, complete
on the Ladder page), Tourney and Ladder Master, to all interested in
the
Valar Guild's League Ladder:
Heya all League members,
As you know we have had a lot of trouble scheduling
matches.
Bnet
hasn't helped but neither has Fingolfin quitting the guild or Eonwe
giving his SC cd away. I have posted a new schedule which no
longer
includes them. If any of you feel you cannot participate please
contact
me immediately so I can substitute someone with a bye for you in the
schedule. It can be difficult to schedule matches but if we all
try
and
make a point to honor the arrangements we make it can be done.
See
below my suggestions for how to do it.
1. send a mail to all in your match with when you can play and a
suggested time/date
2. respond to all when you get such a mail with the same info
3. respond to all when you can agree to a suggested time/date or
suggest
a new one
Please spread the word on bnet to all as you see them about this
posting
as well. Anyone who can not make a real effort to schedule and
play
matches should drop themselves from the league. Anyone finding
that
a
fellow match participant is not returning mails should inform me of
such. This league can not work unless all make it work.
Let's
give it
one more good try.
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST)
Attending (14): Amillo, Balin, Elendil, Elrond,
Elwe
(Thingol), Eomer, Fangorn, Irmo, Makar, Mandos (Namo), Melkor, Murezor,
Tom,
Varda
Melkor will miss the next meeting but be back on the 20th.
Recruiting Report for this week: Balin is our
new
member from Canada. Valacirca has returned. Fingolfin has quit
Web Report: Valar Guild Map page by Tom Bombadil
is
now up.
League Schedule: The schedule has been changed
to
handle the loss of Fingolfin and the loss of Eonwe's SC CD
Discussion Board: Amillo, Elwe, Mandos, Melkor,
Murezor,
and Tom voted yes to start a Discussion Board for the Guild.
Suggestions for
its use were Tolkien discussions and coordinating Ladder games. Now we
need
a volunteer to set up and handle the board. Varda will set up the link
as
soon as our currently unknown volunteer makes the page.
Highlights from Tolkien: Irmo quoted the time
that
Gondor was in great danger, then heard the horns of Rohan coming to
their
aid.
Before and after the meeting, games were held in both Diablo and
StarCraft. Manwe and Eonwe were among those who showed up after the
meeting, which started
a chat in the channel as well.
June 5, 1999
Saturday Chats:
1pm EST Chat: Aule, Elendil, and Varda
attending. To
escape netsplit and since we were a small group, we held the meeting in
Arda.
We played 20 Questions and had to break off after two hours.
4pm EST Chat: Tilion looked for the chat but
did not
locate anyone, but may have been present at the wrong time. Varda was
at
a watermelon party. If anyone has information, please contact Varda to
update
the News page. Thanks.
June 4, 1999
New pages!: StarCraft and BroodWar Maps for
downloading, page maintained by Tom Bombadil. It is titled
The Valar Guild Map Page
Also check out his
Remembering Tolkien
Page!
League: All people in the League games, please
remember
to email Varda with the times you can play so that it may be put on the
League
Ladder Page. Be sure to mention that the information is for the page,
rather
than for one of your three fellow League players at the same address.
Thanks!
June 3, 1999
Welcome back to Valacirca, who is returning to
the
guild. He's from the USA in EST.
June 1, 1999
Contents page updated and new links added.
top
May 30, 1999
Balin, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Balin,
from
Ontario, Canada, has SC/BW but does not yet have Diablo. He's read the
Hobbit
and LotR. Frodo and Fingon met him in a BW game. He passed 4/5 in a
group
test by Amillo, Irmo, and Varda, with Beren and Elendil observing. It
was
great fun!
Sunday Meeting: 6pm EDT (VST)
Attending: (15) Amillo, Ancalagon, Aule, Beren,
Celebrimbor,
Elendil, Eomer, Fingolfin, Irmo, Murezor, Thingol, Tilion, Tom
Bombadil,
Sauron, Varda. ShadowMandolar visited, then joined. Others came in
later:
Ulmo, Melkor, and more.
Recruiting Report: Nori and Celebrimbor are new
this
week. Balin tested and joined at the end of the meeting.
Web Report: New page: Murezor's SC/BW Strategy
Guide.
Updated pages: Recruiters' page, Tourney page. Elvish phrases listed on
News
page.
Time Zone: VST is the time zone adopted for the
Valar
to make it easier to refer to a time. VST is the same as Eastern
Daylight
Savings Time.
Fund: Ancalagon suggested we start the Aule
Computer Fund, seconded by everyone who has played with his P75.
:)
Highlights from Tolkien: Irmo started the
Highlights from Tolkien: a quoted passage from Tolkien which is
especially excellent. For this time, Irmo quoted from the wedding of
Aragorn and Arwen. Thanks Irmo!
I see no reason to limit it to Sunday meetings, however. Do you have a
favorite
passage(s) to quote to the group?
May 29, 1999
League Ladder updated. Please re-check players
and
schedule. We have one completed game so far, two others that were too
netsplit
and are still trying to get together, and one with a change in players
today.
The schedule is now in a smaller font, hopefully aiding print-outs.
Sat Chat: 1pm EDT (VST) Aule was the only one
who
made it through the bnet mess. Varda and others could not even get on
bnet.
Sat Chat: 4pm EDT (VST) To pass the bnet mess,
we
held the chat on icq: Aule, Makar, and Varda attending. We discussed
the
origin of hobbits and a possible relationship they have to Mandos.
May 28, 1999
Recruiters' Page: We now have a list of who
joined since Jan 17, and who helped scout and test.
May 27, 1999
Welcome to the guild, Nori! Nori is a
real life
friend of Eomer's, 15 from Ontario, Canada. He's read the Hobbit, Lord
of
the Rings, and Lost Tales. Thank you Aule, for handling the testing.
Celebrimbor, welcome to the Valar Guild!
Celebrimbor
is 19 from Australia. He's read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the
Silmarillion.
Thank you, Tom Bombadil, for doing the testing, and to Cirdan and
Elendil
for scouting him.
Elvish phrases good for use in chat! These come
from
Beren, our linguistics expert. Hopefully the complete collection will
be
up on a convenient page soon. His letter follows:
I collected this and thought it would be nice to
hear
more elvish in the
channel :) Whenever there is a double vowel it is
the
equal of an accent,
Hello: AIYA (also "Hail", or something like "Hey!")
Good day: ALASSEA REE ("happy day", better)
Good morning: ALASSE'AURE
Good evening: ALASSE'ANDUUNE
Good night: ALASSEA LOOME
Good health (Spanish "salud!"): ALMARE
Welcome, friend! : MARA TULDA, MELDO! / MARE TULDE, MELDOR
Welcome to my house: MARA TULDA COANYANNA
Welcome to my country: MARA TULDA MARINYANNA
How many time! (I don't see you): ANDA LUUME(LLO)! ((from) a long time,
literally)
Come and sit with us: TULA AR HARA O ELME
--Lord of Lag
PS: Farewell phrases to come! All is Quenya
May 26, 1999
Welcome back, Manwe! You are the one who
recruited the core of the Guild
and set up the atmosphere of friendliness.
Here is the story, unprecedented in Guild history:
Letter from Ulmo:
Yes, Manwe :) Not Butterball as Aule
would
say, not Manwe, errrr Barliman,
as I would say, or any other version like Barlimanwe, just Manwe!
While
sitting in a pregame, (trying to avoid netsplit) Aule challenged Barli
to a game of Aule and Ulmo playing our worst races against Barli
playing
his choice. If Barli won we would allow him to remain as Barli,
but
if
we won he had to change back to Manwe. Barli succeeded in holding
me
to
one expansion and rendered my offenses useless. Only my tanks and
missile turrets saved me from oblivion. The one thing my defense
did
accomplish was to help distract Barli's forces enough for Aule to go up
the tech tree and create an ingenious combined force of ground, air and
magic troops (as Zerg), that was able to break through Barli's main
base
defenses and lead to our victory! Never before, and never again
prolly,
will Aule and I be so motivated to win a game :)
Manwe's best times to play are:
mon-thur.- 10pm or later, fri.- afternoon/evenings, sat.- eves, sun.-
anytime
On a serious note: Manwe does not feel he has
the
time to become
chairman again. He would really rather leave that as it is.
He
will
consider what he can offer as a member of the Council. He is
particularly interested in recruiting. With Varda's
organizational
skills, the self assigned roles that many have already taken, the rich
background of our world wide membership, our shared love of the world's
greatest fantasy and a great concept devised by Eru: having Manwe back
as what ever he wants to do will only make things better.
May the winds of Manwe refresh our guild again,
Ulmo
May 24, 1999
New guild page!
Murezor's StarCraft/BroodWar Strategy Guide!
Take heed! He is a guild BroodWar trainer and a dangerous
contestant
in the League Ladder.
Tourney page: Record holder tables are updated.
Can
your team beat these scores and times next Tourney?
May 23, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT/6pm EDT)
Attending (17 ): Ancalagon, Barliman, Beren,
Eru, Fingolfin,
Frodo, Gandalf, Irmo, Makar, Mandos, Orome, Ulmo, Varda. Trapped in a
BW
game and joining late: Amillo, Aule, Murezor, Thingol. Conversation was
disrupted
by netsplit, but hopefully all was relayed around. If not, hey, that's
what
this page is for!
Recruiting Report: Eomer has joined our number,
scouted
and recruited by Gandalf.
Web Report: The League Ladder page is updated
with
the correct schedule.
Games Report: The StarCraft/BroodWar League
Ladder competition begins now! Welcome to Week One, and good luck! The
first attempt was wiped out by netsplit tonight, but they will try
again!
Tolkien Chat: Another plane of existence on
which elves
such as Glorfindel and the ringwraiths could be seen.
May 22, 1999
Welcome to new member, Eomer! He is from
Ontario, Canada,
15 years old, read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion,
scoring
a perfect 5/5 on Gandalf's test!
SC/BW
Ladder Page
now has the Final Schedule and Players!
May 20, 1999
The tentative League Ladder Schedule is up on
the
League
Ladder page, using the contestants who have signed up so far.
May 18, 1999
Mandos is back! His comp has a new motherboard,
so
he can rejoin us possibly for the coming Sunday meeting.
May 16, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CSDT/6pm ESDT)
Attending: (15) Aule, Barliman, Beren, Elendil,
Elrond,
Elros, Eru, Fingolfin, Gandalf, Gwaihir, Iarwain, Irmo, Makar, Thingol,
Varda
Recruiting Report: Membership now stands at 77,
report
by Gwaihir
Web Report: New pages this week: In the
Encyclopedia, an article by Irmo: "The Attraction of Language". The
League Ladder page is
up. Makar has added an EverQuest review page to his Games page.
League Ladder: People are signing up, 7 in just
one
day after the email. Please email Ulmo so that he can put you into the
schedule
which will be posted on the SC/BW League Ladder page.
Silmarillion Quiz: Underway! How are you doing
on
it?
Valar Council Additions: 1. Irmo has returned to
the
Council, since he never actually quit the work he had been doing.
2. Gwaihir, our stalwart
handler of the Members page and the Guild's Tolkien-inspired art
gallery called the
Glittering Caves of Aglarond, and all-around excellent member, passed
the
Valar Quiz with a perfect 5/5. His new name is Amillo, also known as
Omar.
This is a Valar name from The Book of Lost Tales #1.
Gandalf would have been
tested, had he not been netsplit, as he is certainly worthy. We will
try again.
Twenty Questions Game: After bringing in the new Council members, Irmo
started
a Twenty Questions game on Tolkien's Silmarillion, finally answered
with
Nimphelos the Pearl by Aule.
Beren told us of the names he had invented for
roleplay of the Ringwraiths, along with a mythos invented for them. The
research involved
was quite impressive!
May 15, 1999
Saturday Tolkien Chats:
Noon CSDT/1pm ESDT: Aule and Varda had fun
chatting.
3pm CSDT/4pm ESDT: attending - Aule, Fingolfin,
Gwaihir,
Lord Lorien/Irmo, Tu, Varda
Topics: Galadriel's rulership; How the crown of
the
Noldor descended; The Halls of Waiting of Mandos
May 14, 1999
League Letter from Ulmo:
Aiya ilye Valar,
Those few of you who read our web page news section on a regular
basis
already know of this, but this seems to be a limited few :)
I am in the process of setting up a league of SC/BW games of people
vs.
people. If you go to the news section of our pages, or to the
tourney
section you will find the details. If this is of interest to you
please
e-mail me saying so. You can tell me in person on bnet but mail
me
also
as I will be using these mails to make the schedule as I have a
terrible
memory. Also feel free to comment on the structure and possible
rules
for doing this. Barliman has already made a few
comments/suggestions
that I had not considered. The first time for anything can have
rough
spots, but suggestions can help minimize them. I would like to
make
the
schedule up next week, so please reply promptly.
Ulmo, Heru Rasa
(The notice referred to above is on the
League Ladder page and on the News for May 10
and on the
Tourney page.
It tells how to join and how the games are played. --Varda)
May 11, 1999
Silmarillion Quiz:
Hello to all the Valar! Tilion here announcing
a
new Quiz
. This
time around the Quiz will be on The Silmarillion (along with some
Valaquenta and Ainulindale questions thrown in) I encourage all of you
to try the quiz if you've read the Silmarillion! Normal quiz rules
apply
but please send your answers to Tilion at....
Soma2@iname.com
You can find the quiz page at
http://members.tripod.com/~Tilion/silmquiz.html
again, I encourage you to try.
Thanks a lot
Tilion
New Encyclopedia article! Irmo wrote
"The Attraction of Language"
, describing Tolkien's use of language to characterize the races of
Middle-earth.
May
10, 1999
SC / BW League:
As was discussed in a meeting, Valar will be conducting a League for
all
Starpeople. Before it can begin I need all interested members to
e-mail
me saying so. From this response I will make the schedule.
It will work like this:
1. games will be conducted weekly (those not able to play on any
given week may preplay the match or make it up later)
2. the schedule will show the teams to play for each match
3. teams of 2, different each game, will compete with both of the
members of the winning team getting one point, games are team play,
but scoring for the overall standings will be individual
4. the 4 players in each game will decide whether to play SC or
BW, should one player not have BW then SC will be the default
game
5. any melee game map may be used as agreed upon by the contestants
When you sign up, if you have any comments or suggestions, please
include them and I will update the rules if necessary when I post the
schedule. Hope to see a lot of you there. Oh yeah, as in
all
competitions I hope all will conduct themselves in the sportsmanlike
manner we are accustomed to.
May 9, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pmCSDT/6pmESDT)
Attending (5): Aule, Gwaihir, Makar, Tilion,
Varda
Happy Mother's Day to all :)
Recruiting Report: Fingolfin is our new member
this
week!
Web Report: Some updates to the Tourney and News
page.
Silmarillion Quiz: Just posting to the web is
not
enough, only one person sent in answers. A suggestion was made that it
be
emailed as the LotR quiz was.
The meeting lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, to
allow
those attending to return to Mother's Day activities.
May 8, 1999
Saturday Chat: noonCSDT/1pmEDST Aule made it
anyway. :)
Saturday Chat: 3pmCSDT/4pmEDST
Attending: Aule, Gwaihir, Elendil, Varda.
Elendil showed
up just as the over 2 hours of Chat was winding down, but stayed with
the
group for that.
Topics: widely ranging - High Kings of the
elves, Favorite
bits from the Silmarillion, Candyfluss and other influences between
countries,
and then actually back to the Sil again!
May 7, 1999
New Member! Welcome to Fingolfin! He's
37 from
New Hampshire in the USA, time zone ESDT. He's read the Hobbit, LotR,
Sil,
and part of HoME! He plays SC/BW where he met Ulmo, and worked a Diablo
character
all the way up to 48. His score was an impressive 4.5 out of 5.
May 6, 1999
Elros will be back in a few weeks hopefully, and with SC. His
characters were
unfortunately deleted, and he is waiting on his new "imac".
May 2, 1999
Sunday Meeting: (5pm CDST/6pm EDST)
Attending: (14) Aule, Ancalagon, Barliman,
Beren,
Cirdan, Durin, Elendil, Gollum, Grishnakh, Gwaihir, Makar, Tilion,
Ulmo,
Varda
Recruiters' Report: No new members this week.
Web Report: Encyclopedia: New page on
Objects with a paper on "Rings of Power".
Annals of Arda is the new name of Gwaihir's
Encyclopedia/Family Tree, now restructured so your links may need
updates. It and the Guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia are being re-linked
along with additions.
Wedding: Postponed a month or two. Lalaith
no
longer has the Internet.
Valar Honor: Two people were recommended for
Valar Honor and therefore Council seats, so we suggest they go over
their Silmarillions verrrry carefully. The two are Gwaihir
and Gandalf!
Silmarillion Quiz
: This may help our two Valar candidates as well as being fun
for
all! Tilion has set up the Silmarillion Quiz. Instead of it being
emailed,
it isposted on his Web Page only.
Lord
of the Rings Quiz
: The quiz results will remain up a short time longer as
requested,
this time with the answers posted! I hear printers revving up even now.
Saturday Chat: This informal Tolkien chat now
has
two times to accomodate working people in different countries as per
requests.
The times are 1pm ESDT and 4pm ESDT.
Tourney: A question to the whole Guild
membership:
Do you want to continue with only a notice the meeting before, or have
2
or 3 or 4 weeks warning? Please email your answer to
Ulmo or Varda
.
StarCraft/BroodWar now has a League
Ladder. Games will be in teams of players vs players to keep
from padding
the scores as we could with players vs comps. Although games will be in
teams,
the scores will be kept for individuals. The plan is to keep a weekly
ladder
score, with make-ups - especially for people who are unable to reach
the
computer at that time (such as Gandalf and Fangorn and finals takers).
Begin...now!
May 1, 1999
Saturday Chats
We now have 2 Saturday Tolkien chat times - Early Sat
Chat:
noon CST/1pm EDT/19:00 in Norway GMT+1 and Later Sat Chat: 3pm CST/4pm
EDT/22:00
GMT+1. These are small, informal meetings mainly to talk about
Tolkien,
although also used for other things such as getting together for games,
business,
and just talk.
Early Sat Chat (noon CST, 1 pm EDT): attending -
Murezor,
Orome, Ulmo, Varda. Topics suggested by Murezor.
We talked about Gollum beginning to follow the
Fellowship in Moria. The Fellowship seemed to be funneled there, away
from the other route over Mt. Caradhras, and Gollum was waiting in his
adopted environment of cave tunnels. He made it past all the orcs,
balrogs, and fighting to continue
following, possibly aware of alternate routes.
We also mentioned Tolkien's reverse evolution, as
the
dominant race in Arda keeps going to a "lesser" and lesser group: Valar
to
Elves to Men.
Orome can't come to the later chat, as he has to
work
then.
Later Sat Chat (3pm CST/4pm EDT) - I missed this
one
while buying parts for the car's transmission. If anyone would email a
report
for the News, it would be appreciated.
Annals of Arda - Gwaihir's renamed page has been
restructured
so please recheck your links! It is a fine, private companion work
interwoven
with the Guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia. He is very brave to put up an
English
version of his work since he is from Denmark, and it gives an exotic
flavor
to his writing.
Yavanna requests that any further Guild email
please
be sent to ezellohar@hotmail.com since the other email is for business
only.
She is no longer in the Guild and will be taking her page down soon
after
Eru returns from vacation, and suggests that if anyone wants anything
from
it to grab it now. Thanks Yav, for all your hard work and good luck in
your
new endeavors!
Wedding News: Salmar and Lalaith are running
into outside
world difficulties, so the wedding is postponed, hopefully not off.
They
have no quarrel with each other, so breathe easy.
top
Eru's web page is active again with a complete new look, still under major construction, but up!
April 29, 1999
New Encyclopedia Page:
Objects
. New article on "Rings of Power", by Varda. If you wish to contribute
an article to the Objects page, it could include weapons, armor,
jewelry, or
any other inanimate object in Tolkien.
Congratulations to Gwaihir on his nifty
new
upgraded computer! Also, he has renamed his Notes as
Annals of Arda and made additions. Busy eagle!
April 27, 1999
Gwaihir will be out for a couple of days or maybe up to a week
while
he's upgrading his comp. Good luck, Windlord!
April 25, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CDT, 6pm EDT)
Attending: (12) Aule, Ancalagon, Cirdan, Eru, Gwaihir, Iarwain,
Ilmare,
Makar, Namo/Mandos, Thingol, Ulmo, Varda
Member Report: Thror is our newest member!
Eru will be on vacation for 2 weeks starting
May
1, returning to England in time for the meeting on May 16. Have a good
time!
Osse's comp is not reading his A: or C:
drive, so
he is currently unable to be with us for a while. Thank you Aule for
telling
us what happened.
Web Report: The News page is now shortened to one month at a
time,
with other news under All News.
Eru is revamping his page and should have it
changed
soon.
Iarwain is starting a Tolkien page with the "Question
of the Week", intending it to be a real Tolkien challenge. Send
your best
shot to Iarwain
!
Quiz on Lord of the Rings: The 5 week Quiz is now over with a
tie!
Ilmare and Ancalagon took the first place honor together
with
97. The prize is the Diablo suit of your choice, from the very top
items
collected by the Guild for this contest. Ancalagon chose the rogue
suit.
A huge congratulations to the both of you!
Quiz LotR Results: With 20 questions per week for 5 weeks at a
total
of 100 possible: 16 participated, 7 completed the whole quiz. Ilmare
and Ancalagon tied for first with 97. Gwaihir came in
second only one point less with 96, Feathalion and Varda
tied for third
with 95, Elwing took fourth with 87. Murezor's 85
deserves special
praise, because he did not take advantage of being allowed to use the
books.
Other people with the courage to at least try: Frodo
also made the attempt to do the quiz without books, almost finishing as
he
made it through week 4 with a 58. Tuvo survived through week 3
with
a 57. Thingol made it through week 2 with a 17. Elros and
Makar had perfect 20's for their week 1. Gil-galad missed
only
one with a 19 for week 1. Lalaith hit 16 on week 1. Glorfindel
also completed week 1, but I don't have his score.
To all who participated, congratulations!
Quiz on the Silmarillion: This new quiz will be conducted by Tilion
, the beginning time to be announced.
Saturday Tolkien Chat: The time is being changed to 3 hours
later
than previously, to allow our European members a better chance to join
in
the fun. The new time is Saturday at 3pm CDT, 4pm EDT.
Wedding: Salmar (the groom) will be working at the time
tentatively
planned for the wedding, so the time is still not set. Rumor has it
that
Frodo will be the ringbearer and Elanor the flower girl.
April 20, 1999
More Wedding News! The wedding plans as they
stand now: it will be on a Saturday 6 or 7pmEST, in our channel. The
reception is
at the Party Tree. Ulmo will be presiding. A friend of Lalaith's will
be
maid of honor, named ~Belle~. Aule is best man.
New Member! Welcome to Thror! He's 19,
from
Fulton, Missouri, USA, and has read the Hobbit and Lord of
the
Rings.
April 18, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
Attending: (12) Alatar, Aule, Barliman/Manwe, Bilbo, Cirdan,
Gwaihir,
Lalaith, Makar, Ulmo, Salmar, Tuvo, Varda
Web Report: The Movies page is up, maintained by Aule.
The
Games and Reviews pages are now combined into the Games page
and needs
your updated info sent to Makar. The Member Bios page
is again
active, for your real life bio using an online handle, maintained by
Aule.
Character bios are sent to the Encyclopedia, in care of Varda.
Se
the Quick Reference above for links.
Membership News: Barliman is definitely back with his
own computer,
active again..
The wedding will be presided over by Ulmo. The best man
is
Aule. The date will be announced.
April 16, 1999
ANNOUNCING
the wedding of Salmar and Lalaith, to be held in our channel on a
Saturday about 6pm EST. Details still being worked out. Congratulations
to the happy couple!
Manwe
is
back ("disguised" as Barliman)! His new computer is up and running, and
he
was sighted tonight! Third night running! Way to go :)
April 15, 1999
Movies Page! The illustrious Aule has set up
the
Movies page once again for all to view and contribute to. It
concerns anything we
find about the new live movie, Lord of the Rings.
April 13, 1999
The Games and Reviews are now combined in one
Games page at a new address, still maintained by Makar. Please
remember to update him on which online games you currently play:
Diablo, StarCraft, BroodWar, Baldur's Gate, EverQuest, WarCraft or
whatever so that other members may join
you.
Teachers: Anyone who wishes to be a trainer of
other
members in a particular game, please let Varda know for the Names page
where
jobs are being listed. This could also be an addition to the Games page
for
convenience. Murezor is currently training others in StarCraft and
BroodWar
(Hey, Mur, thanks for your help! My score improved dramatically the
very
next game and we now have a new frequently used map. --V)
April 12, 1999
Member Bios page: now linked to the main page
and
active.
April 11, 1999
Sunday Meeting: (5pm CST, 6pm EDT)
Attending: (Due to netsplit, list may be incomplete. Please
email
Varda if you should be added to the list.) (13) Ancalagon,
Aule/Martamo, Beren/Tulkas,
Cirdan, Elendil, Gwaihir, Makar, Melkor, Namo/Mandos, Osse, Salmar,
Ulmo/Linqil
(time-lagged), and Varda
Membership report: Tulkas has changed his name to Beren
and
left the Council officially, because he felt he was not doing much
administratively.
Actually when the Guild is running smoothly, most of us do very little
administratively!
We respect his wishes and stilll hold him in highest honor. He also
continues
to be our Linguist and is still keeping up his language page and Quenya
dictionary.
Alatar has changed his name back to Maeglin,
and
will be absent for about 3 months before his next return.
This left the Alatar Maiar name free. So Alatar
is now taken by a returning member who also held the name and honor of
Alatar
many months ago, and who before that was Murezor as a member, (not to
be
confused with our present Murezor of Maiar honor).
Web Report: Encyclopedia: New pages: Stars by Varda,
Non-Humanoid Intelligences
(with an original poem by Gwaihir!), Gandalf as the archetype of the
wise
old man.
Movies page still under repair.
Discussion of the Saturday Tolkien chat: We may have to move it
to
another time than noon CST, 1pm EDT, due to bnet problems at that time
of
day and membership having scheduling difficulties. The general
discussion
by the small group at the business meeting suggested retaining the same
day
of Saturday, but at a later time, possibly 4pm CST, 5pm EDT. Please
email
Varda with your input to help us all in the discussion. If you like the
current
time, please tell us!
April 10, 1999
Tourney. No one showed up at the 10am EDT
scheduled time to choose teams. I wasn't in town and had played earlier
in the week. What was your excuse? :) So only one Quest for
3 game shows any
results and wins by default. If you played and have not emailed the
results
to Ulmo, please do so as soon as possible.
Sat Chat: (noon CST, 1pm EDT) usually not held
on
Tourney days, but since it is informal it can be held anyway by
whomever shows
up for it. I heard some people say they popped in at various times
during
Saturday, but did not come together at any of the regular meeting
times.
Saturday chats are usually plagued with bnet connection troubles and
people
doing things at that time.
April 9, 1999
New Encyclopedia page! Jason Clarke, a fellow Tolkien fan not in
the
Guild sent us a paper on Gandalf as the archetype of the wise old man,
and
it is now posted. Click
here to go straight to it.
April 8, 1999
Alatar who used to be Maeglin says that
he
is just worn out, not to change anything about the Guild, and that
he'll probably
be back as Maeglin in a few months.
Alatar who used to be Murezor (when it
was
not a Maiar name) has returned to be Alatar again, since the name is
now
free. His computer has been out since before the change in password,
quite
a long time ago in Internet terms. Welcome back, Alatar! :)
April 5, 1999
The Movie page is currently being passed on to a
new
maintainer. Please bear with us while we make the changes. Trouble is
not
in your comp. :)
New Encyclopedia page! Varda created the "Stars" page, including
an
article on the prophecy by Mandos and their making.
April 4, 1999
Time change! The USA and neighbors have finally
hit
Daylight Savings Time. Please note the time change for this evening's
meeting.
What was 6pm is now 7pm.
Alatar (who used to be Maeglin) is planning on leaving the
Guild. He
says he misses the late night Tolkien chats and pop quizes, that we do
not
have enough focus on Tolkien now. Does anyone else feel that way and,
if
so, how would you like to see the problem repaired? Sorry to see you
go,
Blue Wizard.
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EDT)
We were terribly netsplit for much of the meeting. The Tolkien chat had
to
be cancelled.
Attending (16 that I could see! Please let Varda know if your
name
was left off): Ancalagon, Aule, Bilbo, Cirdan, Elwing, Frodo, Gandalf,
Iarwain,
Makar, Melkor, Osse, Tilion, Tulkas, Tuvo, Ulmo, Varda
Membership report: Gwaihir emailed a report that we now have 74,
the
highest number ever. Our new member for this week is Turin
Web page report: New Encyclopedia page on how the
philosophical elements are used in Tolkien of earth, air, fire, and
water. This page can
be treated as a discussion board or simply add new articles here.
The new page called The
Tolkien Biography
page is up, a professional looking job by Iarwain.
New page by Gothmog is up: Brood War Strategy. Lots of good
tips.
The Games page maintained by Makar needs reviews written by
Guild
members. We had several volunteers, thanks! More are always welcome.
Tourney! The main Tourney is set
for
next Saturday. Those who cannot make that time have already started
playing
and play will go on the whole week before. The main Tourney is 10am EDT
on
Saturday, so please read the how-to's on the Tourney page and try to
pick
a team. If you don't have a team and can't find anyone when you arrive,
we'll
try to match you up. This time we have teams made of any people who
have
not had a team together in a Tourney before. Check out the Tourney page
for
more details.
Quiz: The 5 week Lord of the Rings quiz is in full
swing. You
can still join, as all answers are taken even the week after the last
quiz.
A Silmarillion quiz will follow after a short break.
April 3, 1999
New member! Turin, real life father of
Cirdan,
has joined our group from Maryland, USA (EST)! He's read the Hobbit,
Lord
of the Rings, and the Silmarillion. He's the first one to pass Salmar's
test!
:) Already, he is popular as a conversationalist. He joins our
growing
over 40 group just barely at 42. After graduation time, he should be
able
to join us more often on bnet. Looking forward to it!
Saturday Tolkien chat (noon CST, 1pm EST): I finally made it
into
bnet at this time, but saw no one in the channel or game, so I went to
public
channels and chatted with people with Tolkien names, some potential
future
recruits there. I kept checking the channel, but saw no one. If we are
all
checking without going in, we are missing each other.
April 2, 1999
Arwen-(V) who joined April 1998 is now a
soldier,
I think in training, without access to bnet, but can use your email
letters.
The address is on Gwaihir's Members page and is also here:
Arwen
Brood War Strategy
by Gothmog is the newest page found on our Contents/Links. Way to go,
balrog buddy!
March 30, 1999
Game reviews needed! For EverQuest and Baldur's
Gate. Anyone who has played either one, especially multi-player,
please email your impressions to either Varda or Makar
. (Varda will forward them to Makar for his Game Review page.)
New page: "Virus Alerts". Contains info on preventing and even
curing
viruses. The info is sent by Guild members as a service to the Guild.
It
is your choice to use it and no one is to be held liable for use of any
of
this info. Found on the
Contents page.
top
March 28, 1999
New member! Lalaith has joined us from
Pennsylvania
in the USA. A lot of us knew her as our visitor, SunGoddess, and it is
delightful
to have her as a full member now! She's 12 and has been on bnet about 3
or
4 times a week. Salmar scouted, Varda and Gandalf tested.
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
In attendance (thank you Ulmo for the list!) making the channel
scroll
with 18 people: Alatar, Ancalagon, Aule, Beleg Cuthalion, Cirdan,
Elwing,
Gandalf, Gwaihir, Lalaith, Mandos/Namo, Melkor, Murezor, Osse, Salmar,
Tilion,
Tuvo, Ulmo/Linqil, and Varda (chairing).
Membership Report: New members this week are Cirdan and Lalaith.
Carcharoth
is our returning member.
Web Team: Makar will be updating the Games/Reviews pages, so
please
send him updated info on what online games you like to play so that
other
Valar members can join you.
Encyclopedia Project: New entries by Tilion are under the Elves
Section
on "Feanor" and the "Ruin of Doriath". Elwing has submitted one, to be
added
this coming week, on the Elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water in
Tolkien
which could develop into a discussion page, so feel free to send your
additions
to Varda, page maintainer.
Tolkien Quizes: Aule has the Lord of the Rings Quiz
questions up on his page. Tilion has offered to host a Silmarillion
quiz later, after we have caught our breath from this one.
Online Games: We had a discussion over registering our guild
with
EverQuest and some discussion on Baldur's Gate. The
games are
so new that they are not even on the shelves in all of our areas, and
we
do not have the required 10 people yet for an official EverQuest guild.
As
you become able to play these, please go to our Games page and let
Makar
put up your name so that other Valar can play with you. This does not
change
where and when we hold meetings, as we have always had numerous games
operating.
Right now, we have a few individuals learning the games who can help
others
just starting. Diablo and SC/BW are still our main
games.
Passwords: After the meeting, Melkor and I found that we have a
bnet
glitch. Even with the correct pass up, bnet was showing "incorrect
password".
We had one person inside and one in the channel trying to enter.
Games:
Maiar Honor: After the main meeting, Cuthalion passed his Maiar
test
and is now Tom Bombadil aka Iarwain! He passed the requirements
and
correctly answered the required questions from a panel of Mandos,
Melkor, Ulmo, Varda, and Gandalf.
March 27, 1999
Saturday Tolkien Chat: bnet would not let me on at that time. If
someone
has news of it, please email. Other people have also said they had
difficulties
reaching bnet at that time of day.
March 26, 1999
New Articles in our Tolkien Encyclopedia! Tilion
wrote
an article on "Feanor" and another on the "Ruin of Doriath", for the
Elves Section. Thanks, Tilion!
March 24, 1999
Returning member! Makar's brother, Carcharoth
, is returning to the Guild after a six month absence. Welcome back!
New member! Cirdan, from Maryland, USA,
joined
tonight! Varda and Gandalf handled recruiting.
March 22, 1999
The Quiz! The Five Week Tolkien Quiz is now
underway! Find the questions on Aule's
Quiz page!
In other news, Varda (that's me) is back after 2 weeks without an ISP
(shudder!).
The connection is better than ever. If you have any news to post for
the
time I was out, please email me as used to be usual. :) New
news
is also welcome, natch.
March 9, 1999
Manwe has officially chosen to step down to
being a
regular member, now known as Barliman Butterbur. Many,
including myself, have asked him to remain as Manwe, but in deepest
respect of his wishes, we recognize his desire. Thank you once again
for building this Guild up and giving it such a friendly atmosphere.
Sam has also changed his name to his original preference of Bilbo
, since the previous Bilbo was promoted to the Maiar Gandalf.
March 7, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
Thank you Aule and Ulmo for the report!
Attending: Ulmo presiding over the business meeting, Alatar,
Ancalagon,
Aule, Beleg (as Cuthalion), Elanor (over the shoulder), Elendil, Elros,
Eru,
Gwaihir (as Windlord), Ilmare, Makar, Melkor, Menelvagor, Radagast, and
Salmar.
We also were fortunate to have guests: Yavanna Kementari (aka Pio
Varu),
Sun-Goddess, and rand(WOT).
Membership Report: Elendil is our new member, recruited by Aule,
already
actively attending his first meeting :)
StarCraft: We have a new name for SC games still using the same
password.
This change is made to let each other know which game a friend is in
for
a /whois.
Tolkien Chat: Eru presiding.
1. The actual numbers in the armies involved in Tolkien's battles, and
population
numbers of races using known ratios and the few known facts.
2. Sauron's armies required a dominating presence or they fell apart.
3. The Ring was like an extension of Sauron. The Ring's existence had
influence
over the orcs, since they wavered at the Battle of Morannon. 4. Other
possibilities
of what could have been done with the Ring such as taking it to Valinor
or
dumping it in the sea. Possibly the only other way to win was to
capture
Sauron or physically kill him. Unmaking the Ring was the "easiest"
route.
Varda wishes she could have been there to argue on that one.
:)
Lucky for you guys that I was 2 and a half hours late due to church and
missed
the whole thing.
March 6, 1999
Saturday Tolkien Chat (noon CST, 1pm EST)
Attending: (Includes if just passing by or
talked Tolkien.
Bnet was very uncooperative with the chat.) Ancalagon (had to go), Eru,
Gollum
(too much lag to chat), Gwaihir (as Windlord), Varda.
1. Eru quizzed on the geneology of Elwing. Her parents were Dior and
Nimloth,
Dior's parents were Beren and Luthien. Nimloth's father was Galathil
son
of Galadhoh (cousin of Luthien's), son of Elmo from the time of the
Awakening.
Celeborn was Nimloth's uncle.
2. The next was a short discussion of eagles and how Manwe communicated
with
them, mostly speculation.
March 5, 1999
Welcome to Elendil, our new member from
Finland!
He is 16, read, the Hobbit, LotR, Silmarillion, and some of the HoME.
He
answered 4 1/2 out of 5 very well. Thanks to Osse and Aule for bringing
him
into our group.
Virus warning: Do not run the Happy99.exe which
is
attaching itself to emails, including mine. It acts as an attachment to
your
email giving a fireworks display if run, harmful only as an email box
overload
problem. It doesn't get into your system if you don't run the .exe
file.
To remove it, see this URL which Aule kindly provided:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/3652/SKA.HTM, or just
hit this link to the
Ska Virus page.
March 3, 1999
New
Encyclopedia article on Maeglin by Alatar (used to be
Maeglin), under Elves.
March 1, 1999
Tuvo will be moving, keeping him off the
computer for
about a month. Don't worry about his absence, he's not resigning! Good
luck,
Tuvo!
Elros has a new email address:
akiwombat@hotmail.com
top
February 26, 1999
Returning member! Welcome back to Eru! He will
be
a regular member, rather than on the Council, but is keeping his name
in
recognition of being our Founder. He had the original concept of the
Guild
as a legit co-op Diablo group of Tolkien fans. Thank you! He is also
very
knowledgeable in Tolkien, so have a great time chatting with him!
February23, 1999
The second installment of the Fall of Gondolin is in!
February 22, 1999
New Encyclopedia page:
"The Fall of Gondolin"
. The first installment is in, written by Eonwe (was Hurin Thalion).
February 21, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
Attending (scrolled): Alatar, Ancalagon, Aule,
Elros,
Finwe, Fladrif, Gwaihir (as Windlord), Ilmare, Makar, Menelvagor, Namo
(as
Mandos), Osse, Pippin, Salmar, Saruman, Smeagol, Tulkas, Ulmo (as
Linqil),
Varda.
Recruiting Report: Fladrif is our new member
this week.
Web Report: Check out the Tower of Emyn Berain
on
Gwaihir's Member page.
Tourney: The results on the page seem to be
complete.
StarCraft: A suggestion was made to change the
name
of all SC games to make it easier to tell whether a member was in
Diablo
or SC. Agreement seemed to be reached on a name, but then the
discussion suddenly
disintegrated. Rather than a new name, we may just use games above the
10th
of the present game name. No final decision was reached, so the present
system
still stands at least until next meeting.
Quiz: Aule and Eonwe are now creating a 5 week
Tolkien
quiz over the LotR and possible the Hobbit, leaving out the
Silmarillion this
time. Watch for further news on this! They've volunteered for a very
tough
job, and are much appreciated! :)
February 19, 1999
Tourney Results are now posted to the Tourney
page.
Welcome to Fladrif, our new member! This gives us another cool
father/son team as he is Smeagol's father, 42. Thanks Ulmo, for
recruiting a new ent! He passed the test with a blazing 5/5, congrats!
He's read the Hobbit
, Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion.
February 14, 1999
Happy Valentine's Day!
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
I forgot to write down the list of attendees, but thanks for coming
anyway!
We had reports and a little Tolkien chat: What would the One Ring try
to
tempt your Tolkien character with? It can really make you think about
who
you are playing. Ulmo told us the Tourney results, but I was netsplit
and
could not hear them; once I get the email report, it will be posted on
the
Tourney page for all to see.
Right after the meeting, Manwe came into the channel! He is still on a
borrowed
comp at the moment. We all had a good chat, once the evil netsplit
mended
itself. Channel hopping and rebooting did not seem to help much.
February 13, 1999
The Tourney is being plagued this morning with
"Battlenet
not responding" and 6 red latency (lag). The trouble is not on your
side,
but on b.net. Perhaps later in the day it will clear up. I saw 10K
people
on bnet; after reconnecting to try to repair my lag (didn't work), only
9K
people were there. Durin and I were the only ones to make it into the
channel
for the first half hour of the Tourney, but when we went into a game,
we
were promptly disconnected from bnet and I only got the "not
responding"
message after that. Sorry Durin. I'll try again from time to time
during
the day.
Bnet cleared up finally and the Tourney is going
now!
February 12, 1999
Congrats to Hurin Thalion for making Maiar
rank! His
new Maiar name is Eonwe. Yes, this means that all those bylines
in
the Encyclopedia by Hurin will be having additions of the Eonwe name.
Yavanna dropped by the web page and emailed.
Her Morgothian
keyboard is repaired at last! She also had sad news about Eru's Valar
Chat
group having pretty well folded due to real life interference.
Finglas says Hi! Comp problems are keeping him off bnet, but he still
is
keeping contact by email. May his roots dig deep and his branches reach
the
light!
Feathalion is on the midnight shift, throwing his hours into the weird,
but
he is still with us. Neither Helacaraxe nor hours stop this brave elf!
February 11, 1999
New
Diablo tips for Warriors from Gandalf: How to Survive
Hell/Hell, and How to get
your Stuff Back if you didn't survive! See the Diablo tips from
the
Contents page, Diablo section.
Then use the Tips for our upcoming "Grab a Valar"
Tourney this coming Saturday!
See the additions to Aule's
Files Page: a Lord of the Rings Map found by Makar, and The Line of
Kings made by Eru, original founder of the Valar Guild. The Files can
also be reached through Contents/Software/Guild Members
February 10, 1999
New Encyclopedia articles! Tulkas wrote two new
articles
for the Maiar
section
, one on Radagast and one on Alatar. Both were added to the
Encyclopedia
today. Check them out!
February 8, 1999
New Member: Finwe! Thanks to Gandalf and
Ulmo
for doing the recruiting.
February 7, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
17 guild members were present, and voted to have a
Tourney this coming Saturday. See you there!
Varda had to be out of town,
so
Ulmo had the joy of chairmanship. :)
Member check:
Possibly missing members who emailed to let us know
they
are still with us: Thingol (work), Glorfindel (exams), Grishnakh
(rebuilding comp)
Smeagol and Grima have spoken with us in the
channel, so
they are still here.
Beregond, who joined February 3, has emailed to say
he
will not be with us any more since he could not find anyone.
Has anyone seen Arathorn, Feanor, Feathalion, Gloin,
Ingwe,
Nimrodel, or Smaug?
February 6, 1999
Manwe sighting by Aule and Ulmo. He's still
having to borrow a friend's comp, but his own computer is now built and
should be
coming home soon. He stayed to chat into the wee hours.
Smeagol is still with us, as is Grima in a StarCraft suit! Both were in
the
Channel today.
Saturday Chat (noon CST, 1pm EST):
Those present: Aule, Grima, Gwaihir, Tulkas, Varda.
Subjects from Gwaihir: Why didn't Sauron take the
Palantir
from Minas Anor/Minas Ithil? What part and how many of same of Nimloth
did
Elendil carry with him in the escape from Numenor? After discussion, we
speculated
that Sauron intended to use the Palantir later. Also, that Elendil
carried
only one part of Nimloth, either a fruit as it says in the Silmarillion
"Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" or a cutting as Gwaihir found
in the Appendix of the Lord of the Rings.
February 5, 1999
Varda is back, glad to say the mother of Fangorn is
recovering
well.
Murezor is still with us, borrowing a friend's
computer a la Manwe. :)
Speaking of Manwe, he has been cracking jokes again,
er,
I mean giving out words of wisdom again. Beware! But he has also
contributed the first installment of his Sauron article
for the Valar Guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia! Check it out in the
Maiar section!
February 3, 1999
Welcome to our new member, Beregond! He is
15 from
Quebec in Canada, having read the Hobbit, LotR, and even part of the
Silmarillion.
Thanks Ilmare for recruiting him!
February 1, 1999
Varda has to leave to stay with Fangorn and his
mother
who is having her knee replaced. I hope to return by the Sunday meeting
but,
if not, I am grateful that Ulmo is a fine Co-Chairman! Throw a hit for
me,
folks! Go ahead and send email and I'll get caught up next week,
hopefully.
Thalion also wishes to be in the Quiz.
top
January 30, 1999
New Page:
Diablo Tips from guild members, reachable from the Contents Page
under Diablo. It already
has a new article on the technique of luring Diablo, by Gandalf.
Welcome to our new member Bregalad
! He is 16 from Ontario, Canada. Thanks to Gandalf for bringing him on
board.
Saturday Tolkien Chat (noon CST, 1pm EST)
Chatters present: Aule, Ancalagon, Bregalad, Elwing,
Galadriel,
Gandalf, Menelvagor, Nen_Hina (Osse), Thorin
Discussions: 1. Who was the worse of the two
villains: Melkor or Sauron? Melkor won that dishonor without a dissent,
as he started
his evil far sooner, stole the Silmarils thus causing most of the later
disasters, he had others do his bidding so he rarely had to exhibit
physical courage by "answering the door", and Sauron was Melkor's
lackey seduced away from Aule (another evil doing of Melkor).
2. Where did the entwives go? The books never
actually say, leaving many odd clues here and there so this answer was
not so clear cut. According to Hurin Thalion's article in the
Encyclopedia, the entwives were considering going to Valinor where the
trees were better than even those
the ents cultured. However, as Aule-(Valar) pointed out, they must not
have
made it there or Gandalf would have seen them, even as late as after
his
battle with the Balrog, and told Fangorn at least obliquely.
So what actually happened to them? Aule also
suggested that they could have become tired of looking for the ents (or
Valinor--ed.) and become treeish, or perhaps searched in dangerous
territory and been destroyed
by Melkor or Sauron. This is especially possible with Tolkien's
penchant
for tragic endings.
They could have been caught in Ithilien during
Sauron's push across it, perhaps while visiting with the Green Elves.
They could have
been destroyed or are in hiding with some of those missing wizards such
as
Alatar and Pallando.
Menelvagor-(Valar) spoke of Sam's conversation in
the
pub about the sighting of trees moving in the Old Forest.
Also Menelvagor-(V) suggested that a forest shown on
the
map near the Rhun Sea looked like a possibility.
Thorin-(V) suggested a long game of hide and seek.
(Hey,
who says the entwives wanted to be "quickly" found?)
Elwing-(V) suggested the entwives are not now seen
since
they are too busy caring for entings.
January 28, 1999
Yahoo has acquired GeoCities. This may or may not
affect
our pages, many of which are on GeoCities's servers.
January 24, 1999
Welcome to our new member Faramir! He
is an
18 year old from Istanbul, Turkey who read the Hobbit and Lord
of
the Rings. Thanks to Makar for recruiting.
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST)
In attendance (smaller than usual, can actually list!): Varda, Ulmo,
Makar,
Tulkas, Aule, Menelvagor, Gandalf, Elros,
Elrond, Tuvo, and Durin.
Recruiting Team's Report: New members: Imrahil, Gil-galad, and Faramir.
Web Team's Report:
Gaming by Menelvagor: Some guild members are now
playing
together online in Descent Freespace as Valar. Feel free
to join them there, but please remember that
meetings and
chats are still on bnet. Some using it are Menelvagor, Durin,
Gwaihir, and Elros. If you would like to play,
please also
send your name to the
Games page. Thanks.
Encyclopedia Project Report:
New page on Ents with new article on Entwives'
location by Hurin Thalion
New article on Ilmare by Ilmare
Software:
Bnet Optimizer: Makar said it improved his
lag.
Tulkas said it did not improve his, but he is Lord of Lag. Makar is
trying
to locate the address to make it available to the
Guild.
If any of you know the address (URL), please email
Makar
.
Bnet Buddy: You don't have to be on bnet to
make
it work, just online. Caution, people's bnet acct #'s are sometimes
changed for different reasons, sometimes by bnet in
a
database workover. It's a good idea to make meetings and update the
acct numbers with a /whois alt+N on the selected
member.
Several of us did that at the meeting today, causing people to
wonder if we were netsplitting when it went
quiet. :) Bnet Buddy is on the Software page by Aule.
January 23, 1999
Welcome to new member Gil-Galad
! He found us through our web page, and has read There and
Back
Again (The Hobbit) and The Lord of the Rings. Thanks
to
Gandalf for doing the test.
January 22, 1999
Encyclopedia news: New page on Ents with a new article on the
whereabouts of the Entwives by Hurin.
January 20, 1999
Encyclopedia news: New article under the Maiar by and about Ilmare!
January 18, 1999
Welcome to our new member, the Prince Imrahil
! He is 22, from Minnesota in the USA, and read the Hobbit, LotR
, Silmarillion, and Lost Tales 1. I congratulate him on
a perfect
score! Menelvagor scouted and recruited, thanks!
January 17, 1999
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST)
Recruiting report: no new people. Galadriel returned.
Web report: New Movie page by Alatar. New Shrines page by
Melkor, help
from Ulmo, Fangorn, Varda.
Encyclopedia Project report: Ulmo has begun installments of the
Ulmo
article.
Members Page request: Windlord needs the email address for
Amras. (If
anyone knows it, please email Gwaihir.)
Letter from Manwe: caused rejoicing.
Chair comment on members' conduct at this meeting: "You folks learn
fast!
The meeting went much more smoothly and with more accomplished.
Thanks!"
Welcome to our new member, Tuvo, an elf sorceror from Lost Tales. He is 17, from San Diego, California, USA, and read the Hobbit, LotR, 1st half of Silmarillion, and Adventures of Tom Bombadil. Congratulations on a perfect test score! Thanks to the Valar Makar for recruiting.
January 16, 1999
Saturday Chat (noon CST, 1pm EST): Discussion
of Melkor
and Sauron, of Makar and Measse who sang of discord with Melkor.
Imagine
if three renegade Valar had hit Arda together!
A letter from Manwe!:
Heya Heya Heya,
Good news Valar buddies, I have just recently built a computer. With
contributions of parts from friends here in Cali I have finnally peiced
it together. I have not brought it home yet since I have not payed for
it completely, but I am making payments on it. I am shooting to have it
payed off by next month. So look out cause here comes trouble =).
Anyways I dont want to make a big deal about it I just wanted my Valar
buddies to know. Take care of yourselves out there see ya all soon.
Manwe Sulimo
January 12, 1999
Returning member! Galadriel is back!
Two new pages!
Alatar's Lord
of the Rings Movie News
Gwaihir's nifty new
Gwaihir's Family Tree and Notes
.
January 11, 1999
New Page! Diablo
Shrine list for printing out from web page now available on the
Links page under Diablo by Guild members. Work done mostly by Melkor
with contributions from
Fangorn and Varda. Corrections and additions from the Guild are
requested, please send to Varda.
January 10, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST)
Recruiting report: No new members this week
Promotions: Beorn, Members and Gallery page webmaster is now the
Maiar
Gwaihir!
Web Report: New Diablo Shrines page in progress for Links page
under
Diablo by Guild members
Encyclopedia Report (not given in channel): Ulmo has a new entry
on
the Powers page, written by Ulmo, being done in installments.
January 3, 1999
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST)
Recruiting Report:
The Valar Tulkas has returned to the Council!
Beleg Cuthalion, Elros, and the Maiar Radagast have returned.
Promotions:
Turin Agarwaen is now the Maiar Murezor.
Web Report:
The Links page now has a direct link to the creator of Diablo
Backup
for a uncorrupted program file to back up
your characters in Diablo.
Encyclopedia Report:
Dreamlord has added more to his article on Irmo.
Hurin has a new article concerning the possibility of Tolkien's
Valar
creating new Valar.
Tourney Results:
See the
Tourney page for details!
Since Valar are not eligible for prizes, under
"Quest for
Three" the prizes go to the team of Beleg Cuthalion, Murezor, and
Sauron. New record set by the team
of
Namo, Ulmo, and Varda.
The winning team for "Norm Race to Diablo" is the
group
of Beleg, Murezor, and Elros. (It pays to enter a race no
other team is in.)
A new record was set for "Hell Race to Diablo" by
the
team of Namo, Ulmo, and Varda.
The winning team for StarCraft in the "Battle of
Morannon"
is that of Beorn, Murezor, and Sauron.
Quenya Report:
Useful words for role-playing as researched and put
together
by Tulkas and Ulmo:
Atamaratul is the nearest Quenya to "Welcome
back"
Mara meste is Quenya for
"Farewell"
Questions List:
The Maiar Gandalf
is making progress. If anyone has written down questions they've used
for tests for entry or Maiar honor, please send them to him. Also, if
you can, please jot them down during the next test you give.
January 2, 1999
Tourney Day! Good
luck
to all! Meet in the channel to choose teams, have your copy of how to
play
your game handy, and let Ulmo know the results. The results will be
announced
at the Sunday meeting and will be posted to the Tourney page Sunday.
(Valar
honor characters are not eligible for prizes which automatically go to
the
next person down, if a Valar wins.)
January 1, 1999
Happy New Year to All!
Returning member! Tulkas
the Linguist is back! The Council is delighted to have this talented
Valar returned to their number!
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