2005 News Archives

Home
Current News
Archives:
    2017 News Archive
    2016 News Archive
    2015 News Archive  
    2014 News Archive 
    2013 News Archive  
    2012 News Archive 
    2011 News Archive
    2010 News Archive
    2009 News Archive
    2008 News Archive
    2007 News Archive
    2006 News Archive
    2005 News Archive
    2004 News Archive
    2003 News Archive
    2002 News Archive
    2001 News Archive
 
    2000 News Archive
    1999 News Archive
    1998 News Archive
    1997 and previous years have no archive.

News added by month, more or less.

Jan  Feb  March  April  May  June  July  Aug  Sept  Oct  Nov  Dec  

Dec. 30, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:

        Memory of Darkness by Jay of Lasgalen. Complete. 16 chapters. Lasting friendships can be forged when disaster strikes. Set in the Greenwood, Third Age 179. Arwen, Celebrian, Elladan, Elrohir, Elrond, Legolas, Thranduil. Pre-LotR, T.A. 179. Aragorn not yet born.

Dec. 29, 2005
    Congratulatons to Dwalin-(TV) and his wife! They are going to be parents! Now that's another reason to celebrate!

    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:
            by Jay of Lasgalen:
         
"With Friends Like These" complete! 32 chapters. It holds the meeting of Legolas with Elladan and Elrohir, and their adventures in each other's lands.
          "Long Live the King" Drabble. Elros and Elrond
          "Mid-Winter's Eve". Elrond and his three children visit the Greenwood, for the snow and Mid-Winter's Day festivities. The twins and Legolas are in the equivalent of their late teens. 1 chapter
          "Confusion". There are times when it is not good news to be an identical twin. Elrohir is having a very bad day - and it's about to get worse."
Arwen, Elladan, Elrohir, Glorfindel. 3 chapters, complete.
         
"Mid-Winter Gifts" by Jay of Lasgalen "How a disastrous sailing trip eventually led to the myth among men of the elves leaving gifts for deserving children."
Pre-LotR. Aragorn is not yet born. Legolas, Elladan, and Elrohir are the equivalent of being in their late teens. 6 chapters.
          "Homecoming" Drabble, a perfect 100 words. Legolas and Thranduil after the War of the Ring.

Dec. 28, 2005
   
"With Friends Like These" by Jay of Lasgalen chapters 16 through 29 are up.

Dec. 26, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       Article: "Aragorn's Weapons" by Varda, in response to a question from a reader named Chris.


Dec. 25, 2005
Merry Christmas!
J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien and friend
Picture from Rolozo Tolkien
Go to a Party! Art by John Howe. Rolozo Tolkien site.

Letter from Thorondor-(Valar):
Heyas, and merry Christmas :)
    I think my necromancer was 74 when the ladder 3 ended. I'm letting my accounts in b.net expire and trying some other things now.
Thorondor

Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5
All of the below programs speak to each other during the meeting, via the Bridge by Farmer Maggot-(V).
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause) (most used)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing the Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript saved and sent in by Ar-Pharazon, webwork by Varda
Attending: (11)
    ArathornValar,
ArPharazonV (presided over Tolkien), Arwen V1, Eonwe Valar (presided over business), FladrifV, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3 , Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Thorondor-(Valar)/ThorondorV
Membership:
    New member: Fundin-(V), a Member of Honor sponsored by Orome-(Valar)
Web:
    News: Christmas look
    Stories: by Barahir-(V) and Jay of Lasgalen
    Links: Under Nifty: name generator

Gaming:
    WoW Lothar: 32 primary members with multiple accounts. Scholo and Dire Maul
    WoW Europe: Molten Core but too many people disappeared after the server went down, but did it the next day.
    Bnet: Orodreth's bot report and warning

Tolkien:
    Ar-Pharazon's topics:
        How were the first Orcs created?
        What was the exact nature of Tom Bombadil?

    Arwen's topic:
       What are Maiar?

Dec. 24, 2005
   
Morgoth in Exile: Timeless Thoughts by Barahir-(V). Drabble challenge

Dec. 23, 2005
    Links page under Nifty:
      
Unitarian Jihad Name Generator - link sent from Elwing-(V), who picked it up from the Society for Creative Anachonisms emails.
        The First Reformed Jihad Name Generator - oh come on, you were going to click this link from the above page!

    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:
              "With Friends Like These" by Jay of Lasgalen chapters 8 through 15 are up.

Dec. 22, 2005
    WoW Lothar currently has 32 primary name people signed up, most with multiple characters. This is the official World of WarCraft branch of the Valar Guild, on Lothar server. Besides the primary names, we have an expanding number of guild-friends, some of whom intend to become full members or Tolkien members.

    Tolkien Encyclopedia;
       Stories:
        First 7 chapters up of a 32 chapter (completed) story "With Friends Like These" by Jay of Lasgalen. Young Elladan and Elrohir visit Mirkwood and meet up with twelve-year old Legolas for the first time. Arwen has been born but is still in Rivendell.

Dec. 21, 2005
    Fundin-(V), Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Fundin is a Member of Honor with Orome-(Valar) as his sponsor. He plays WoW Lothar

Dec. 19, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Articles:
        Non-Humanoid Intelligences: split into individual articles. Werewolves are now cross-indexed with the Animals page.


Dec. 18, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5
All of the below programs speak to each other during the meeting, via the Bridge by Farmer Maggot-(V).
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause) (most used)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing the Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

    Varda will be late or missing, but Eonwe will be there for you, gavel in hand!
Meeting Transcript saved and sent in by Ar-Pharazon, webwork by Varda
Attending: (9)
   
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Scatha/STEvilaim, Ugluk of Old
Membership
    Elwing, Eowyn, and Varda are at the movies
    Eonwe is done with Finals (college testing)
    Scatha is back

Web
    Encyc:
       Stories by Jay of Lasgalen

Gaming
    WoW Christmas Questing
       WoW Lothar
       WoW Europe
    Battlenet
    Crashday
    Flatout
    LotRO
    Gateway FPD2185w LCD   For users of this, Scatha tells a fix.

Tolkien
    Eonwe's topic: What holidays did the Free Peoples celebrate, and how did they celebrate these?
       Eruhantale (UT), Hobbit birthdays, Yule, Lithe, Overlithe, Ring Day, Frodo's Birthday, Cormare (Frodo's Birthday + Leap Year).


Dec. 17, 2005
    New stories up from Jay of Lasgalen:
       Of Balrogs and Battles: 2 chapters. Elladan, Elrohir. "A two-part story. The twins, aged nine, discover a fascinating book about Gondolin in Elrond's library."
       A King's Promise: 1 chapter. Young Legolas, Thranduil. "Thranduil receives an unexpected letter of great importance."
       Telparian: 8 chapters. Young Legolas, Thranduil. "A grieving father and son."
       A Journey of Discovery: 7 chapters. Elladan, Elrohir, Celebrian, Elrond. "Elladan and Elrohir take their first long journey outside the borders of Imladris, and Elrohir makes a startling discovery about himself."

Dec. 16, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:
          By Jay of Lasgalen:
               Alas for the Wailing of the Gulls: 1 chapter. The journey from Erech to Pelargir, when Legolas hears the gulls for the first time.
             Two by Two: 8 chapters. Twin sons are born to Elrond, and they must one day learn of and cope with the circumstances of their birth.

Dec. 15, 2005
    WoW: Christmas questing! Collect the quests in Ironforge near the bank.

Dec. 13, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:
       
Jay of Lasgalen graciously consented to allow us to reprint her work here. The 13th of the month must be very good luck for us! "Old Man Willow" is up.

    Battle.net: Ladder Season 3 ended Dec. 9. The Blizzard winners were announced on Dec. 13. The Valar Guild winners seem to be between Thorondor, Finarfin, and Arathorn. Results will be announced when known. Please email your Ladder 3 results for all classes to Varda.

Dec. 11, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5
All of the below programs speak to each other during the meeting, via the Bridge by Farmer Maggot-(V).
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause) (most used)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing the Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript: Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (11) 
    Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Finarfin-(V)/FINARFIN010, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Glorfindel VG, Lungorthin-(Valar)/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot-(V)/The Sir G3, Orodreth V/Oessala, VardaValar1
    (This list is probably incomplete, as we don't have a transcript showing the original joining. Say something to make sure you are visible on the transcript.)
Membership
    Good luck on Finals, to the many taking them this coming week!
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Poetry:
  
          The Musings of the Weaver by Haleth-(V): Vairë, weaver of fate, considers her tapestry's darkness and light.
       Articles
             Hobbits page now all in separate articles.
       Request for feedback and illustrations for Stories and Poetry, as well as Articles.
       Discussion concerning inviting another group of Mellon Chronicles LotR authors onto our Story page. Agreed.
       Art:
            New cave made for Aerandir-(V) during After-meeting
    Gaming Pages:
       Bot Commands by Orodreth-(V), for Battlenet East
       WoW Lothar Charter update planned, making plain our willingness to have Battlegrounds and PvP. Discussion during Gaming.
Gaming
    WoW:
        Discussion of Battlegrounds and dueling. Courtesy.
        Discussion of chat programs during WoW: whether to use and which program, especially during instances, raids, casual chat.
          Teamspeak : Teamspeak download here free. Lungorthin has a Teamspeak server.
          Ventrilo: costs
          Skype
        Yahoo Chat for non-gaming chat, on the Discussion Board. Found under Tolkien on the guild's Index.
        WoW: Lothar - Valar Guild: Silithus; Western Plaguelands
        WoW: Europe Argent Dawn - High Guard: Zul'Gurub
        Upcoming Paladin patch
        Thottbot has profiles of some of us as individuals and under the guild name. Very updated. Discussion, found out how it got there and how to update.
        Forum: We have a section under WoW where we can post our high crafters, other crafters, and requests. WoWmail your order in the subject line, and please give help with materials when possible.
    LotRO:
        Varda as current guild branch leader will pick a Normal server, US East or the equivalent for the guild as soon as she gets the game. The server name will be posted to the Forum and on the News, on Elatan's LotRO page for our guild, and on the official LotRO Turbine forum thread we already have. Discussion hurt us on WoW, causing early scattering.
Tolkien
    Glorfindel's topic: When Eowyn (and Merry) destroyed the Witch-king, what then happened to his ring?
    Forum: Tolkien Trivia for LotR: new question now up.
After-meeting
    Music
    Caves (Art)
    Thottbot
    Crafting in WoW on Forum

Dec. 6, 2005
    Your eyes do not deceive you. I've found a link color combination I like better, so far, and am trying it out. I"ve tried quite a few, but this has been my favorite.
   
Tolkien Encyc: Separated Hobbit articles, with appropriate Author links and some new Author pages.

Dec. 5, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Poetry page:
         
The Musings of the Weaver  by Haleth-(V): Vairë, weaver of fate, considers her tapestry's darkness and light.

Dec. 4, 2005
    New Battlenet page:
       Bot Commands - by Orodreth-(V). This tells commands that we may use on the guild bot, ValarBuddy, in Battlenet East Valar. Orodreth set up the bot for us, including Botmail.
Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5
All of the below programs speak to each other during the meeting, via the Bridge by Farmer Maggot-(V).
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause) (most used)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing the Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript: Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (15)
    Members: ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Elros-(V) (came by after the meeting), Eonwe Valar, FladrifV, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3/LSPrefersCarbon, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth-(V)/Oessala, Ugluk of Old, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    Guests: the loser emu, Srekal86, StlFan2k4 (guild-friend)
Membership
    Turgon-(TV) is now Turgon-(V)! Menelvagor-(Valar) did the test.
    Ugluk-(V)'s birthday is tomorrow
Web:
    2006 Member List: be sure your name does not have a question mark. If it does, contact Varda to say if you wish to be on it.
    RP: new posts made, now in Dale where players can come in from almost any race. Your chance to join in is here.
    Encyc:
        Art:
            Turgon-(V), was Turgon-(TV): "Ungoliant vs Morgoth"
            Thorondor-(Valar):
transparent background, golden Tengwar text of the One Ring.
        Stories:
           Barahir-(V):  "The Battle of the Crossing of Poros" is completed and online.
           Fingon-(V): Play: 'The Tale of Beren and Luthien"
    Chat Support program offered by Farmer Maggot to the guild members
Gaming:

    WoW: Europe
    WoW: Lothar
Tolkien:
    Ar-Pharazon: The Valar of Time, from BoLT 1
    Ar-Pharazon: Tower of Pearl
    Srekal/Hyarion: What if Isildur and Elrond had fought at the Cracks of Doom and if Isildur might have tried to become more powerful and if Sauron would have just killed him and took the ring or not?
After-meeting
    Joke: Magni Bronzebeard and the Trolls
    How to reach Srekal/Hyarion's IRC Tolkien group:
       If they had an irc client they could connect to irc.tolkiengateway.net and if they didnt they could use a java client like http://irc.tolkiengateway.net/java/

Dec. 3, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:
         
The Battle of the Crossing of Poros is completed and online.

Dec. 2, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Art Section:
          Two new caves with new art:
             Turgon-(TV): "Ungoliant vs Morgoth"
             Thorondor-(Valar): transparent background, golden Tengwar text of the One Ring.
       Story Section:
          Play by Fingon-(V): "The Tale of Beren and Luthien". It includes a Quenya translation of the first verse of "May it Be".
    Two other people sent in Tengwar: Ulmo and another. Please re-send as the entire emails seem to have disappeared.

Nov. 29, 2005
    Welcome to the Tolkien-onlies of the Valar Guild, Turgon-(TV)! Turgon is from Hungary, GMT+1, and has been emailing off and on this year. He joined as a Tolkien-only today with his artwork: "Ungoliant vs Morgoth", and hopes to become a Full Member when he can reach us on AIM. He plays
Diablo II LOD, Elder Scrolls III, Icewind Dale, Thief I-III, SW:KOTOR . He's 16 and has read the H, LotR, S, UT, and BoLT 1&2. His email is avenge4inarius(AT)vipmail.hu and his AIM is Morgray the Dark.
    Full Member guild roster for 2006 starting. Are you listed without a question mark? Email Varda if you have a question mark, saying if you wish to be llisted for next year. This will be used to help fill in the members for the 2006 Members page.

Nov. 27, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending ()

Membership
    Boromir's email, still with us.
    Merry visited the other guild members of his family for Thanksgiving
    Ulmo named his boat using Elvish and runes, needs help verifying
    Menelvagor's 6th Guild Anniversary Party and Speech
Web
    Stories: Battle of Poros
    Membership roster 2006 started
    Hyarion's Tolkien Encyc
    PHP vs ASP
    IRC vs AIM
Gaming
    Battlenet
    WoW:
        WoW Europe: Argent Dawn
        WoW Americas: Lothar
        WoW Patch 1.9
    LotRO rp on our Forum
Tolkien
    Varda's topic: The economic system in Middle-earth is not something Tolkien dwelt on, but it was there. Let's see if we can find some of the hints.
    Eonwe's topic: The defenses of Dale.
    Gandalf picture, found by Ugluk-(V) while surfing, conjecture
    Role-playing Lord of the Rings Online in our Forum. Discussion on writing our next parts, during which is mention of info on LotRO's official page.
    Suggested future Tolkien topic by Ar-Pharazon: The Valar of Time, apparently not made the same as the others.
After-meeting: consumed in Tolkien talk above :)


Nov. 24, 2005
    Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!
    Merry flew down to visit with Varda, Fangorn, Sauron, Eowyn, and Bilbo.  Much Lothar WoW (he brought his laptop) and major eating, including mushrooms, talking and laughing, and much fun was had by all. Gorthaur hit level 60! We expect Merry to also hit level 60 before Thanksgiving midnight!
    Ulmo named his new sailboat, Hirilonde, "Haven Finder".  Londe is "haven". Vinyalonde is "Safe Harbor", as a harbor is the haven for ships.

Nov. 22, 2005
    Hi from Boromir-(V)! He's making straight A's, wrestling, and reading a lot. Since he reads this News page frequently, hi back to him!

Nov. 20, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Haldir-(V)! Haldir joined in AIM as a Full Member at the Sunday Meeting. His email is
aneeshl(AT)hotmail.com and his AIM names are elvenX11 and Haldir V . He's 16, from Ontario, Canada; EST. Sometimes he plays WC3/TFT. He's read the H and LotR. His favorite character in LotR is Haldir, because he wishes he could be like that, guarding an elven city, a worthy place.

Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending  (18)
    Members: ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Eonwe Valar, Finarfin-(V)/ FINARFIN010, Gil-galad-(V)/ Xseanzee disco, GwaihirValar, Idril-(V)/ Narthais, FarmerMaggot-(V)/ TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Thror-(V)/ Chugin Chub, Ugluk of Old, Ulmo-(Valar)/ HeruRasa, VardaValar1
    Guests: elvenX11 (joined today as Full Member Haldir V), IzoSprog (previously guest of Menelvagor's, read LotR, needs Elvish inscription for ring), Herumor-(V)-ex/Nemoeverlonely, Srekal86
Membership
    Guests
Web
    Orodreth created a new ValarBuddy bot for our Valar channel on East Battlenet
    Farmer Maggot has been working on new Bridge programming
    Elatan has been adding info to our guild's LotRO page, developer diaries
Gaming
    Battlenet
    Counter-Strike: Source
    Battle for Middle-earth
    Dungeon Siege 2
    WoW:
       Europe
       Lothar
    LotRO RP post
Tolkien
    Mirkwood spiders are intelligent. Where did they come from?

Nov. 13, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), Menelvagor-(Valar), Orodreth-(V), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending:  (14)
    Members: ArPharazonV, Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi (after-meeting), Eonwe Valar (Presiding), FladrifV, Gil-galad-(V)/XSeanzee disco, GilraenV, GlorfindelVG, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, OrodrethV, VardaValar1
    Visitors: Srekal86, Ugluk of Old (passed rejoin test, sweating over keeping old name or picking a new one after all these years.)
Membership:
    Alasse-(TV), new Tolkien-only member
    Arathorn-(Valar)
    Laytonrim (Varda's family and rl friends in Valar) (also, Laytonrim member Arwen's Undomiel is leveling well on Lothar, and she is doing well at Lubbock University)
    New membership list being made for 2006. Be sure to be noticed in Nov or Dec by meetings, email, Forum, or in gaming that is recorded. Just to be sure, send an email to Varda saying you wish to be included as a member for 2006.
Web:
    Encyc:
        Languages: new section on Orcish
        Stories: 2 new ones by Alasse-(TV)
Gaming:
    Bnet Bot by Orodreth! Go to Valar channel in Battlenet East and be noticed! This can also help with showing activity.
    World of WarCraft:
        US: Lothar
        Europe
Tolkien:
    Topic from Eonwe-(Valar):
        At the end of the Return of the King, what are the names of the three eagles? Why send three Eagles?

Nov. 6, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild Tolkien-onlies, Alasse Merenrel-(TV)! She found us by reading in our Story section, and sent in two of her own stories.

    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Languages: new section by Varda to aid and abet Ugluk:
            Orcish

Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending  (7)
    ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, GilraenV, Farmer Maggot-(V)/ bnetValar/ TheSirG3, Olwe-(V)/ FallenGlory, VardaValar1
    Srekal/[Hyarion] (IRC)
Membership
    Eonwe's 6th Valar Anniversary
    New members:
       Elendil-(V)
       Ugluk-(V) (rejoined at the end of last meeting)
       Alasse Merenrel-(TV)
Web
    Link to a member's page
    Stories
Gaming
    "State of Valar Gaming" Report
    WoW
Tolkien:
    Middle-earth - what does it take in?
    Orcs
    Earendil
    Beren and Luthien Tinuviel
    Suggested for future meetings:
        How do you folks feel about trying to hit the LotR starting from Ch. 1 Fellowship, one chapter each time? (not keen on it)
        Fladrif's suggested topic: How do you think Tolkien had in mind the music of all song?

Nov. 5, 2005
    Stories:
        Two new short stories by new author, Alasse Merenrel, previously published on Fanfiction.net:
          
The Choice of Luthien  Luthien has a vision of Aragorn and Arwen  
             Namarie, Arwen  Arwen departs the circles of this world.
        The Battle of the Crossing of Poros, Chapter Six by Barahir-(V) is  now online.

Nov. 4, 2005
    WoW Lothar Friday:
        Gelmir and Varda went all the way through Gnomeregan with friends, joined towards the end by the handy Haran.
        Merryv and Fainan went to the Burning Steppes and finished off the quest for the dragontypes.


Nov. 2, 2005
    Aragorn-(V) emailed to let us know he's still with us and has the same email. He now plays WoW Europe.

     Lord of the Rings Online - developer Chris "Hakai" Clay's diary tells how Morale/Hope acts in place of hit points in LotRO. (Link sent by Eonwe-Valar the Nifty.)

    State of Valar Gaming report by Eonwe-(Valar), made Oct 14. Please be sure you have updated your gaming info with him, as all old info was erased.

    New Member's Page link:
        Winged Eye Aerial Photography - Meriadoc-(V). You can find a picture of him with his airplane.

Nov. 1, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Elendil-(V)! He emailed, then came for a test with Varda on AIM as AragornLan. He hopes to make another AIM name with Elendil in it. He's read the LotR, Sil, Journeys of Frodo, and the Complete Tolkien Companion. He's 27 from Canada (CST), and plays WoW America. He has a level 60 shaman on Thunderhorn and other characters, but honored us by coming to Lothar and starting a warrior, Elendilv, invited into the branch by Fangorn-(Valar). He hopes to be able to come to AIM meetings. Two of his favorite LotR characters are Aragorn for leadership and nobility, and Gandalf for knowledge and power.

Oct. 30, 2005
    Time change! The meeting is one hour later. It's at 5pm EST, not ESDT.
    VST (Valar Standard Time) is EST or ESDT so that we can all have a common time. No, I don't live in the Eastern Time Zone either!
    Today, Daylight Savings time (ESDT) ended, so Valar is now on EST. The meeting is one hour later than previously.
    Looking at the clocks on the Member Page by Elatan may help the most. It should show 17:00 EST at meeting time.
    For time conversions, you can use your computer's clock to help.
    Stories:
        The Battle of the Crossing of Poros Chapter 5 by Barahir-(V) is online!
Sunday Meeting  5pm EST, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V), Menelvagor-(Valar),  and Varda-(Valar)
Attending (17)
    Members: ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Barahir-(V)/sauron432000, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, Farmer Maggot-(V)/bnetValar/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V/Alasseo (IRC), Ugluk of Old, VardaValar1
    Guests: Herumor-(V)-ex/Nemoeverlonely, Srekal86
Membership
    Caranthir and Elladan: after Hurricane Rita
    Barahir-(V)'s "few words" of introduction
    Ugluk-(V) rejoining
Web
    Links
    Stories
Gaming
    WoW
    Age of Wonders II
    Stronghold
    StarCraft
    Diablos
Tolkien
    Bravery against hopeless odds in Tolkien's works
    Who offered choice and who offered only submission?
After-meeting:
    More Tolkien topics:
       How change came and how it affected people in M-e.
       What fortificatons were in the Bree/Dale area?
       Ugluk took and passed his rejoining test.


Oct. 28, 2005
    The Fellowship of the Ring if it had used World of WarCraft terms. The link to this .gif is originally from expectnothing.com, found by Meriadoc-(V) on the WoW forum and sent to us Oct 23. Some language warnings.

Oct. 26, 2005
    Netscape's new version no longer has Composer, which I've always used, and will not support it. So I'm making the attempt to switch to Nvu. Bear with me. I still use the Cute.html editor, but it takes too much time to do every bit of coding by hand. If you see this, I'm getting it figured out. :)
    Stories:
        The Battle of the Crossing of Poros: Chapters Three and Four are now online. Thank you Barahir-(V)!

Oct. 23, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending:  (16)
    Members: Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Barahir-(V)/VegetableMannn, Caranthir-(V)/El Capitan Chobo, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV,  Farmer Maggot-(V)/thesirg3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Valandil Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Members
    Ugluk the return
    Farmer Maggot's birthday
    Fladrif
Web
    Links
    News
    Story
    Encyclopedia menu
    Articles
    Membership page
    WoW page
Gaming
    WoW
Tolkien:
    Tom Bombadil, where do we place him? Gil-galad-(V)'s topic
    Tolkien movies
    Tolkien music

Oct. 21, 2005
   
    Story Page:
      
    The Battle of the Crossing of Poros by Barahir-(V) . Work in progress. Chapter Two added.

Oct. 20, 2005
    Encyclopedia:
        Added new links and frame menus improving the Encyclopedia's menu: Poetry, Stories, Art, Papers, Humor.

Oct. 19, 2005
    Links:
      
Tolkien.co.uk - Tolkien site by Harper Collins Publishers, editors for Tolkien

Oct. 17, 2005
    Member Page: Re-done! Elatan gave the page a new look and new navigation in August. If you haven't already, check it out! Also take a look at your own information to make sure it's how you want it.
    News Page: moved August and September News to the 2005 News Archives to speed up current News loading.
    WoW Realm to Realm character transfers to relieve overpopulation are coming up. Nothing mentioned for Lothar yet, but it might be something to watch for if you want to move one of your characters to our Guild server, Lothar. The first three coming up are:
Warsong to Gurubashi
Skullcrusher to Smolderthorn
Blackrock to Frostwolf

    The transfers will go live on Thursday, October 20th at 3:00AM PDT. They will be open daily from 3:00AM to 3:00PM PDT up to October 27th, when they will close. Be advised that transfers may end early if a large number of people transfer, so make sure to transfer as soon as possible. Caution: These particular transfers are across realm timezones. Caydiem suggests making an experimental character on the target realm to test it for lag before transferring. Caydiem's post.

Oct. 16, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Glorfindel-(V)!
Glorfindel is from California, USA, PST. He originally located us looking up Tolkien info on Istari, finding it on our Tolkien Encyclopedia. Glorfindel visited last meeting and today's meeting in AIM as VegetableMannn. He tested after today's meeting with Eonwe and Varda. He is often on AIM. He's played
Final Fantasy I-VI, Team Fortress Classic, and CounterStrike Half-Life, but he no longer plays much. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, and UT. His favorite LotR character is Gandalf.

Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending:  (21)
    Members: Aerandir-(V)/ mordacil, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Barahir-(V)/ VegetableMannn, Bombur-(V)/ MrMonkey2002Blah, Dior-(V)/ MyCantalopeH8tsU, Ecthelion-(V)/ suilenroc01, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/ aranfinwe, Gelmir-(V)/ Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/ Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Huan-(Valar)/ LiberalHound, Farmer Maggot-(V)/ bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Valandil Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    New Member: Glorfindel-(V)
    Guest: Hyarion/ Srekal86
Membership
    How to scout for new members: See if they are polite and read LotR. Give them the website http://valarguild.org and let them know how to come to a meeting.
Web
    Games Page
    RCtW
    Forum
    Members
    Encyc
    Tolkien Gateway

Gaming
    Diablo 2: LoD
    WoW Europe
    WoW US
    Roller Coaster Tycoon
Tolkien
    Tolkien chats elsewhere, some listed
    Orodreth's topic: Artaher (Quenya) / Arothir (Sindarin) - what do they mean? They /should/ be the same name.
        Also: meanings of Pharazon and Arod.
    Eonwe's topic: The Noldor smiths were supposed to be the finest crafters, but in some things were surpassed by Dwarves and Sindarin Elves. Why?
    Orodreth's topic: elven economy. Requested we pick it up again next meeting.

After-meeting
    WoW talk
    Glorfindel-(V) passes his test and joins the Valar Guild!
    Paladin jokes
    Discussion of new techniques in webwork. Considering trying some out.


Oct. 14, 2005
   
State of Valar Gaming report by Eonwe-(Valar)
    Links page:
      
Tolkien Gateway - Tolkien Encyclopedia set up in a format like Wikipedia. Articles are sent in by readers and edited by by both readers and the site's creater: by Hyarion Underhill.  Link suggested by Hyarion.
     Orc Page:
           The Orc page has been separated out, Author's pages linked, and Orc articles added to the A-Z menu.

Oct. 11, 2005
    Story Page:
      
    The Battle of the Crossing of Poros by Barahir-(V) . Work in progress. Prologue, Chapter One.

Oct. 10, 2005
    New page for the Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        "What's New in the Articles Section?"

Oct. 9, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending list (18):
    Members: ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Dior-(V)/MyCantalopeH8tsU, Eonwe Valar, Finarfin-(V)/FINARFIN010, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Idril-(V)/Narthais, Lungorthin-(Valar)/sauronjag, Farmer Maggot-(V)/TheSirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Turin-(V)/CreDesInc101, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    Guests: VeGeTaBLeMaN N N, xxchi1dxx
Members  Varda moderating
    8th year anniversary of the Valar Guild was Oct 4
Web Orodreth moderating
    New web-hosting service by Farmer Maggot-(V), allowing space for the Valar Guild.
Gaming  Eonwe moderating
Tolkien: Ar-Pharazon moderating
    Varda's topic: Gandalf's mission on Middle-earth.

Oct. 7, 2005
    Links page:
      
Lord of the Rings Fantasy World -  Devoted to Tolkien books and the movies, allows the building of a personal fan page. Chat rooms and forum for The Lord of the Rings fans available. Mentions the Valar Guild under Community/LotR Fans.
    Plants, Trolls pages broken into separate articles. Added to the A-Z menus.

Oct. 4, 2005
    Happy 8th Anniversary, Valar Guild!!
    AIM chat room up for informal chat! Orodreth kept it going since the last Sunday meeting, but sadly crashed. The rest of us can help him! Come to Valar Guild Meetingplace!
    WoW folk, about what would be meeting time on Sundays (5pm EST), the plan is to type /yell Happy 8th Anniversary, Valar Guild! then shoot off fireworks! Spell effects can add to this if you like, or any other fun visuals.
    Tips on finding fireworks:
        Booty Bay goblin vendor
        IronForge in Tinker Town (Sauron's tip),
        Dun Modr: a vendor. It's in the Wetlands near the Thandol Span to the Arathi Highlands  (Arwen's tip).
        Engineers can make them also.
    In other games, you might want to do the equivalent for kicks!
    Happy Rosh Hashanah to and from AuSteinM-(TV)!

Oct. 2, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Barahir-(V)! He was Mandos-(TV), but tested with Eonwe for Full Membership at today's meeting, for a 5/5. His current AIM name is
sauron432000. You can email him a hello at sauron432000(AT)yahoo.com. His Author's Page and poetry have been adjusted for the new name.
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM) Sept. 18, 2005
    AIM: Valar Guild (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Eonwe-(Valar) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending list (12):
   
ArathornValar, Barahir-(V)/sauron432000, Eonwe Valar (presiding), FladrifV, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, Farmer Maggot-(V)/TheSirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Turin-(V)/CreDesInc101, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa
Membership
    The Valar Guild's 8th Anniversary is coming this week on Oct 4. Discussion of ways to celebrate.
    Gelmir is playing D2 again.
    Varda is missing the meeting: out of town for the Texas Renaissance Festival with Elwing, Fangorn, and Sauron.
    Arathorn got a new job! It's night-shift Tech Support. He will not be on WoW or able to do other guild activities nearly as much.
    Gil-galad's birthday was Oct 1.
    New Tolkien-only member, Mandos-(TV).
    New Full Member: During the Tolkien section, Mandos-(TV) came to the meeting and tested for Full Membership, passing Eonwe's test with a 5/5! He is now Barahir-(V)!
Web
    Poetry:
        2 new poems by the now Barahir-(V)
    Valar Guild Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Just had it's 7th Anniversary
    Games Page.
        All old info has been deleted. Last minute updates being taken.
Gaming
    WoW Lothar: daily grouping going on.
    WoW Europe. The non-Valar group our guys are in is having guild trouble.
    D2X Middle-earth Mod: V&K don't intend to update for the latest patch anytime soon.
    Half-Life 2/Day of Defeat: Source
Tolkien
    Eonwe's topic: The Noldor smiths were supposed to be the finest crafters, but in some things were surpassed by Dwarves and Sindarin Elves. Why?
(Everyone was afk, so the discussion was dropped.)
    Mandos-(TV) came in for the Full Membership test, becoming Barahir-(V)

Oct. 1, 2005
    The Valar Guild's 8th Anniversary is coming up on Oct. 4th. Suggestions for how you would like to celebrate this event are welcome. These may be emailed to Varda or posted to the Forum. Activities may be scheduled all week, finishing off with the meeting on Sunday 9th.

Sept. 29, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild Tolkien-onlies, Mandos-(TV)! He's from India, 14 years old, and read the H, LotR, and Sil. He found us while looking up information on the Fall of Gondolin. He joined September 28 as Mandos-(TV) with his poem, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields", sending in another poem, "The Fall of Fingolfin", along with his emailed name choice. On top of that, he has a story he's planning to send next! He is also trying to find a way to meet up and test to become a Full Member, schedules permitting, probably with Varda. He can't come to our Sunday meetings. Any European testers able to help with this time dilemma, please contact Varda.
    Poetry Page (framed version) of the Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       The Battle of the Pelennor Fields by Mandos-(TV)  (unframed direct versions)
       The Fall of Fingolfin by Mandos-(TV)

    Happy Seventh Anniversary to the Valar Guild Tolkien Encyclopedia! It started sometime in September 1998, and has grown ever since.
    Congratulations to the many many folk who contributed over all those years (and are still contributing) with their articles, stories, poetry, art, humor, languages, and book reviews. Their author pages are still being updated, with their amazingly lengthy lists. Updates are being while changing the format so that each article is separate for added navigational aids.
    Current webwork for the Encyclopedia is being handled by Menelvagor-(Valar) (Humor), Lungorthin-(Valar) (Book List and Reviews), Beren-(Valar) (Lore Book), and Varda-(Valar) (the rest of it).
    Thank you to Elatan-(Valar) whose enormous Annals of Arda encylopedia project links back and forth with the main guild Encyc.
    Thank you to Ryan Lovett, for blessing us with direct links from the Encyc to his massive artwork collection in his Rolozo Tolkien site.
    Thank you to Menelvagor-(Valar) and Eonwe-(Valar) for taking care of the Valar Guild's Forum, letting us discuss Tolkien among other things.

Sept. 27, 2005
    We're back. There's a food and gas shortage with occasional power hiccups, but otherwise the situation is good. Being travelers, we know the nearest towns that have some gasoline, and Bilbo is hunting that at this very moment, nothing local. Fangorn is back to work drilling for oil, right next to the Gulf of Mexico. Bilbo and Sauron's workplace is tentatively scheduled to be running again Wednesday.
     Merry, thank you for putting us up as our half-way stop!
    Elwing, who stayed, is also home and doing fine.
     Happy Birthday, Sauron! He's 25 today and got his wish that Hurricane Rita would miss our house.  :)
     Happy Birthday, Bilbo!  He's 23 as of Sept. 24, and had his cake at his grandparent's house with family under sunny skies, safe from storms.
    News will be added in its proper date spot.

Sept. 25, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM) Sept. 18, 2005
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending list (10):
    ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Farmer Maggot-(V)/TheSirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa
Membership
    Hurricane Rita:
        Varda's family evacuated safely: Varda, Fangorn, Eowyn, Sauron, and Bilbo.
        Eonwe's house was missed by Rita.
    Ar-Pharazon is going to France for a week, starting Sunday; his Archaeology class is visiting caves.
    Farmer Maggot will be camping Columbus Day, Sunday Oct 12.
Web
    Varda's pages may not be updated for a week.
    Games page handled by Eonwe, unaffected by the hurricane.
       Updates emailed by members needed. This also helps tell us that you are still active in the guild and updates emails.
    AIM upgrade, without using message: Arwen said to go to the Buddy List menu/ My AIM/ Upgrade AIM.
Gaming
    Jailbreak: played by Ar-Pharazon this week
    WarCraft 3:
        New patch including work on the World Editor and many other goodies.
        Orodreth is starting on making a new LotR WC3 map.
     WoW:
          USA Lothar: Friday gaming
          Europe
    WarCraft 2 soundtracks are available
Tolkien
    Eonwe's topic: What would it take for Elves to descend to such a level that they would be seen upon the other side as a personage of shadow rather than light?

Sept. 23, 2005
    WoW Lothar Friday Quest report by Eonwe
Guild questing for this week.
Questers:Eonwë, Oromë, Elatan, Alatar
Location: Blackfathom Deeps.
    We got together in Auberdine to get the brain stem quest and to run to Auberdine for the Argent Dawn quests in Blackfathom Deeps. Once we got those, we walked down through Darkshore to the Deeps. Due to time constraints, we only got as far as getting most of the brain stems and finding Thaeldrid.


Sept. 21, 2005
    My family and I currently intend to evacuate Houston ahead of Hurricane Rita tomorrow. We may not have internet for, at a guess, a week, as we are headed into the country and the folks there don't like computers. We might be able to pop on for a few minutes for email or ftp, if very fortunate. Please forgive the delay this will cause in page updates. The Forum and those pages not handled by Varda should be unaffected. Eonwe, handling the Games page, might have a few difficulties with the storm, as he is in a city north of ours. Certain other members have access to my pages should the delay be too long, and we have several people who can chair meetings.
    Elwing is staying in Houston, at her workplace. Good luck!

Sept. 19, 2005
    My AIM program warned me that if I did not upgrade soon, I would be blocked. If you have trouble later with entering a meeting, that might be the problem.

Sept. 18, 2005
    WoW:
       New seasonal quest: "Honoring a Hero". The quest-giver, Wagner Hammerstrike, stands just outside the entrance to IronForge, near a feast table from which the player may take refreshment. Ghosts of honored heroes walk or stand near the table. A short distance away, one may find the graveyard emptied save for a wheelbarrow and an empty coffin, its lid used as a ramp. The view down from there is beautiful, of snow on mountains and pines.
       The quest takes the player to the Western Plaguelands, then back to IronForge for a large amount of experience.

Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM) Sept. 18, 2005
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending list     (16):
    Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(TV)/AuSteinM, Eomer-(V), Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Pengolodh-(V)/Pengolodh, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Members:
    Discussion of what the members want from the meetings, re-start the Tolkien trivia on Forum since it bogged down.
    Idril-(V) rejoined last meeting.
Gaming:
    WoW: Fee-based character transfers may be upcoming, according to Blizzard
Web:
    Games Page Update emails have been sent to those whose emails are known. Old records have been erased.
    Names page has been removed from the Guild's Index
    QuickAIM page updated by Arathorn during the meeting.
Tolkien:
    The Lost Valar, what is meant by this term?

Sept. 16, 2005 (Friday)
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Ents articles are all separated.

    WoW: Weekly Lothar guild grouping.
        Report by Varda:

Wetlands:
Quest completed: Dark Iron Wars
Group: Andunie (34 gnome mage), Undomiel (31 human warrior), Varda (29 elf priest), Orognome (29 gnome rogue, the one with the black mustache!). By the time we reached the boss, we were joined by Arathornia (47 elf hunter). After Undomiel had to leave, she was replaced by an outsider paladin called Superkiller.

StormWind Stockades:
Quests completed: heads taken of Kam Deepfury for "The Fury Runs Deep", and of Basil.
Group: Andunie, Arathornia, Orognome, Varda.

Orognome and Varda gained a level during todays's questing, so they are both 30!
EldestEnt leveled to 54.

Turambar quested in RedRidge and other places with outsiders.
Gulma (Ulmo's 31 hunter) and Auros (Eonwe's 60 paladin) came in about the time Varda, your recorder left (after playing 7 hours and 30 minutes). We started early. They came in about 7pm EST, the more usual time.
EldestEnt replaced Varda on their mutual home computer.
Niequi (one of Ulmo's 60's) played.
Undomiel returned for more grouping with Arathornia.

Sept. 13, 2005
    WoW:
        Hunter patch is up. *Dance of joy!*
        Blizzard.com has mirror sites good for doing a faster WoW patch. (Tip from Bilbo)

Sept. 12, 2005
    Names page being dropped, as it seems better handled by a combination of the Members page, which tells names used, and the Tolkien Encyclopedia, which is more complete in its listing of Tolkien names. The page is not deleted from my hard drive, so if the guild wishes it back, it can be done. I suspect no outcry will be made.

Sept. 11, 2005
    Welcome back to the Valar Guild, Idril-V! Idril has recently been coming to meetings in AIM as Narthais, and decided to rejoin after an inactivity drop. She's 16, from Pennsylvania, USA. She plays DAoC only. She's read part of the Hobbit, but found herself dropping it and gravitating to the LotR and Sil instead. She's read the LotR, Sil, UT, and part or all of the Histories of Middle-earth. Her favorite LotR character is Aragorn, for his leadership abilities and friendliness with non-humans such as elves. Welcome her at:
<narthais(AT)hotmail.com> or AIM: Narthais
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending list aka who belongs to that odd AIM name?  :)  (14):
    Aerandir-V/mordacil, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-TV/AuSteinM, Caranthir-V/MoriFinwe, Dior-V/MyCantalopeH8tsU, Finwe-V/aranfinwe, Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, Idril-V/Narthais, Lungorthin-Valar/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot-V/TheSirG3, Fladrif-V (in a side window), Olwe-V/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, VardaValar1 (presiding)

Membership:
    Idril-V rejoined as a full member during the Tolkien section, with question suggestions by all attending!
    AuSteinM-TV just unpacked at MIT and dropped in from there.
    Elladan and Caranthir's homes were caught in Hurricane Katrinka. Caranthir/MoriFinwe dropped by to tell us his news and say hi before moving again, this time to stay with family in Arkansas. Elladan has moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to stay with an uncle.
    Merry-V is helping with search and rescue, heading teams and using his light plane.
    Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, Fladrif, Valandil and other Europeans who are now back in school will have more difficulty coming to meetings as it is very late for them.
    Arathorn, Arwen, Eowyn, and Turin say hi from their WoW Lothar group through Eowyn, who is sitting at the transcriber's right on another comp.

Web:
    Links page:
       Wraiths on Wings
    Humor Page:
        Middle-earth Vacation Spots
    WoW page:
        Lothar players updates every few days
    Rules page:
        Being updated

Gaming:
    D2X
        Ladder 3 for the guild is going. Email Varda your account name and level (update once a week at least please)
    WoW
        WoW Lothar: growing
        WoW Europe: Menelvagor's Gondoline is back in the Argent Dawn group
        WoW: how to powerlevel
    Halo:
        Finwe plays
    Age of Empires 3 demo:
        ArPharazon's review is good, but has trouble with slow download.
    Dark Age of Camelot
       Discussion by Lungorthin and Idril, including what classic servers are and why they are
       DAoC Expansion coming out in all areas of DAoC
    BroodWar:
        Dior-V requests buddies to play with in BW. He's using the account name Dior-V. He hopes to be in WoW Lothar in the future.

Tolkien:
    The group suggested questions for Idril's re-test in side windows, spawning a lot of discussion questions in chat:
    Was the One Ring a weapon? Was it a named weapon?
    What happened to the two main villains found in the Shire after the One Ring was destroyed?
       Why did Grima attack Saruman?
       In the movie, they killed Saruman three times.
    Did Lobelia redeem herself?
    The re-making of Arda
    The Last Battle


Sept. 7, 2005
    Humor: main page by Menelvagor
       New section started.
Middle-earth Vacation Spots
        If you want to make a page to add to the vacation spots, please send your URL to Varda. Or send the text or other that you would like to have put on a new vacation spot.

Sept. 5, 2005
    Links page:
      
Wraiths on Wings - Tolkien movie and book site with info on both. Forum. Requested link. Site by Haunted_Bre or just Bre

Sept. 4, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 (AIM)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (12):
    ArPharazonV, Caranthir-(V)/MoriFinwe, Elladan-(V)/Bior the Ythling, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, GilraenV, Grimbold-(V)/HearNoEvil80, GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar, Pengolodh, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Members
    Rejoining Full Member: Turin-(V)
    Elladan  and Caranthir came to the meeting, told a little about their adventures with evacuating from New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina. Elladan is going to Baton Rouge tomorrow. Caranthir is staying with 15 other people.
    Merry and his Search and Rescue crews tried to go into New Orleans, but had to pull back after being shot at. He is also working on coordinating efforts to find shelters for evacuees.
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Tolkien Book List and Reviews needs member contributions
        A-Z system demo up for letter A
    Games Page
       Emails requesting updates about to be mass-mailed by Eonwe. This will also be a check to see if members are still active and if we have the correct emails.
    Member Page
       Elatan is almost done making a new Member page and updating it.
Gaming
    D2X:
        Ladder 3 for th guild is going. Please email Varda your account name for aid in friend lists and participation credit.
    WoW
        Inactive characters will not be deleted anytime soon from the Blizzard database
        WoW Europe (mostly in the Before-meeting), new site
        WoW USA
Tolkien
    Varda's topic: What were the Aratar?
    Ar-Pharazon's topic: Where did Nienna live?  Text appears contradictory.

Sept. 2, 2005
    WoW Lothar Friday guild get-together 5pm EST. Earlier is also good for some who work or are in other time zones. If 5 is too early for you, know that we tend to run so late that it be morrow. We grouped according to our levels and times able to play. The following report is a combination from Eonwe and Varda.
    Niequi joined outsiders for a Dire Maul run.
    Andunie (Elatan-V) and Varda grouped in Redridge finishing quests for "Underbelly Whelp Scale", "Murloc Poachers", "A Baying of Gnolls", and "Blackrock Menace".
    Turambar (Turin-V) and Undomiel (Arwen-V) grouped in Elwynn Forest, doing the "Pumpkin Patch".
    Later, Auros (Eonwe-Valar), Fainan (Varda-Valar), and guild-friend Beline grouped to finish Auros' Uldaman quests and free him for other instances, doing:
"Solution to Doom" and "Restoring the Necklace". In the process, we cleared most of the dungeon for fun and profit, picking up a few nice items and even upgrades. We slew Ironya and Revelosh. We also found a couple of locked mithril chests, but not having keys or Rogues with us, we had to leave them. After fighting through the shaking golems, we plowed through the enemies that stood between us and the master of Uldaman. Beline dealt with the boss while Eonwe kept the summoned earthen and golems off him. Varda shot at the boss over their heads. Unfortunately, Beline disconnected. After his return, we went back and handily won Round 2 agaist the biggest construct in Uldaman, Archaedes or Archimonde or whatever his name was. We divided the treasure found in the next room, then cleared a lot more of Uldaman. On our way out and outside the instance, we stopped off for the Tablet of Ryun'eh, finishing the very last quest for Auros.
top

Aug. 31, 2005
    Turin-(V) rejoined the guild today as Turin-(V), testing with Varda as
CreDesInc101 in AIM. He then joined the Valar Guild branch in WoW Lothar as Turambar. He is 16, from Florida, USA, which is EST. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, and BoLT. He also likes Frank Herbert as an author. A favorite LotR character is Beregond, for his loyalty.

August 30, 2005
    Letter from Elladan, who lived in New Orleans:
Aiya Varda. Thank you for your concern. I am sad to say that Caranthir and I both probably lost our homes in the hurricane. The levee system broke and water flooded the new orleans streets. Some areas reported up to 25 feet of water. It is said that it could take up to 6 months to drain this water. Fortunately, Caranthir and I both evacuated before the storm hit. He is presently in Arkansas and I am in Texas. We hope to rebuild but will most likely be living in a new city. I appreciate your concern and pray that we will all get through this.

Aug. 29, 2005
    At the meeting, a request was made for a Sindarin language site. Our Links page has numerous language sites, including:
Hisweloke's Sindarin Dictionary - Sindarin dictionary project in English and French. Includes a word search, which has a daily limit due to heavy use of only 800 searches, but they also have downloads to handle that problem. Unfortunately they don't have the word lists up on a web site.
    A link from the meeting now added to our Links page for Quenya names:
Quenya Lapseparma -  name book. Take English names and translates them to Quenya Elvish. Link found by Orodreth-(V). Site by Ales Bican.

Aug. 28, 2005
    Tolkien Encyc:
       Maiar section: completed moving everything into their own sections. Need help checking links, but they seem ok.
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 Aug. 28, 2005
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
         Bridge was up, with a few downs due to changes in SigmaChat's programming. Our hero, Farmer Maggot-(V), did some fast programming and got it working!
Meeting Transcript  by Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda. Or see Tolkien Discussion Only Transcript
Attending: (12):
    Members: ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/ aranfinwe, GwaihirValar, Lungorthin-(Valar)/ sauronjag, Farmer Maggot-(V)/ bnetValar, thesirg3, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, thror_V (in SigmaChat), VardaValar1
    Guests: Tinuvial/Anuvial (full of flu medicine), Mithikal/IzoSprog (Menelvagor's guests from WoW Europe)
Membership
    Olwe-V emailed a hello.
    Members we know of who are back in school/university (as of last Monday): Arwen, Eowyn, Lungorthin
    Members we know of who are about to return to school/university: Ar-Pharazon starts college in a week, Eonwe-Valar (begins tomorrow), Farmer Maggot, Menelvagor (Tuesday), Orodreth
    Thror-V, plays D2
    Guild-friends on WoW Lothar
Web
    Encyc:
       Art: New drawing from Elwing: "Elf Twins"
       Article: New article from Varda: "Elatan"
       Maiar Page: all subjects now have separate pages
       Alphabetical Frames: discussion. The subject frames will continue to be present as always, with the additional ability of alphabetical frames. Members who responded seem to want to have the alphabetical up before it is completed or don't care, as long as the subject frames continue.
       Book List and Reviews: needs your input to Lungorthin
    Games Page - the mass update mail is coming soon from Eonwe
    Members Page - currently being revamped and updated by Elatan
Gaming
    WC3/TFT:
        Our Clan Vala name may be free again. Need interested members to contact Eonwe. Need total of 10
          Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Gwaihir?, Orodreth. Anuvial might be interested if she joins.
    D2X
       Ladder 3, M-e mod, regular
       Arathorn, Finarfin, Isildur?, Thorondor, Thror, Varda
    De-patch
    Brood War
    WarCraft 2 Varda's family, Eonwe
     Freelancer
    WoW:
       Europe
       USA: Lothar
    Myst5 demo
Tolkien
Transcript of Tolkien discussions only
    IzoSprog: "its my 18th this October, and I'm gettings a ring - What I'd like to do is have my name in Elvish, with its meaning, engraved on it"
       A long discussion followed.
After-meeting
    WoW music, LotR music
    LotR movies

Aug. 26, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Articles/Men:
          Elatan  by Varda-(Valar)
WoW Lothar Friday report from Eonwe-(Valar): Wetlands run:
Guild questing for the last Friday of August.

Questers: Eonwë, Varda, Ulmo, Oromë, Elatan, Arathorn
Also joined by Aslynn, Guild friend

Quests: Claws from the Deep, Young Crocolisk Skins, Digging through the Ooze, Reclaiming Goods, Greenwarden quests, Daily Delivery

Getting together in Menethil, Eonwë, Varda, Ulmo, Elatan, and Arathorn began to work on Claws from the Deep and Reclaiming Goods. Killing Gobbler and the necessary murlocs, and recovering the statue, we moved on to Digging through the Ooze. Now having a new 10-slot bag, we completed Young Crocolisk skins, during which we were joined by Oromë. With 6 guild guys in one area, we split into two teams and went after what we needed. Arathorn and Elatan left, and Oromë joined Ulmo, Varda, and Eonwë for what time he had left. After he left, we were joined by Aslynn for the Greenwarden quests. Soon Ulmo had to go, and then there were three. We finished all the Greenwarden quests, upon which Aslynn had to depart. Varda and I made a queick run to Westfall to help Midrog, another Guild friend, but he disappeared (comp crashed and could't return) as we were on our way there. After grabbing the flight path there, we tidied up our affairs for the night and logged out.
         
Aug. 25, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Art: Glittering Caves of Aglarond:
          Elwing-(V)'s Cave: New drawing: "Elf Twins".


Aug. 22, 2005
    Olwe-(V) says hi! He's been away on vacation and doing summer things including a bit of Guild Wars. He's headed into his senior year of high school with AP classes, planning on going into a University afterwards.

Aug. 21, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 Aug. 14, 2005
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
    Bridge operational.

Meeting Transcript: by Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (12):
    AuSteinM-(TV), Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Huan-(Valar)/LiberalHound, FarmerMaggot-(V)/thesirg3/LSPrefersCarbon, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
    Ar-Pharazon: unable to make it tonight
    Pengolodh: new Full Member
    Arwen: started this weekend gaming in Lothar WoW
    Menelvagor: will be unable to stay as late for meetings now that school is starting
    Gwaihir: his usual sleep time is during meetings, came anyway
Web
    Links: new funny
    Funny link to WoW boards
    Tolkien Encyc: progress on the Maiar page
    Games Page updates going on behind the scenes. Be sure to email Eonwe which games you play
Gaming
    Dawn of War:
        Elros-(V)'s review:
the coolest game of all time
    WoW:
       Europe
          Working on a web page. Valar gamers are Menelvagor, Ar-Pharazon, Fladrif, and Valandil
          The 1 Ring has been found  :)
       USA
          Friday gaming report

          Arwen-(V) joined us in Lothar today as Undomiel! Gorthaur (Sauron-(Valar)) had the honor of inviting her new warrior.  :)

    WotR
    Civ3
    Halo
    LotRO
Tolkien
    Humor:
       What jobs would the baddies have after the War of the Ring?
       What signs should be put around Middle-earth?

Aug. 17, 2005
    Funny thread: Galdor-(V) found a funny and now famous thread. Galdor: "Son posts in Official WoW forums at 3:30 a.m. and then gets busted by his mother...on the same board a few hours later."
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-realm-cenarioncircle&T=145812&P=1

Aug. 16, 2005
    D2X: Middle-earth mod. Boromir downloaded the mod today and is seeking fellow Valar gamers! 

    Links page:
      
Amanye Tencili - the Tengwar of Feanor and of Rumil. Link suggested by Pengolodh-(V).Created by Måns Björkman © 2005

Aug. 15, 2005
    Pengolodh  by Pengolodh-(V). Notes for a later article.

Aug. 14, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Pengolodh-(V)! Pengolodh, who found us from the website, is 34 years old, from the USA. He uses the name Pengolodh for AIM. He found us through the website, emailed Varda several times, and came to today's AIM meeting, where he tested with Varda and passed. He has played Ultima Online, and burned out on WoW because of being on a PvP server. He has been in several clans/guilds, but no others currently. He is considering joining our more laid-back branch on Lothar. For now he is content with the Encyc, meetings, and the Forum. His favorite character is Elrond, because he "
is at the center stage for the decision-making that sets the stage for everything that happens thenceforth." Pengolodh is more comfortable with the Silmarillion than LotR. He's read Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Silmarillion,Unfinished Tales, Book of Lost Tales I, Lays of Beleriand, Shaping of Middle Earth, Return of the Shadow, Treason of Isengard, War of the Ring, Sauron Defeated, and Farmer Giles of Ham.

Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5 Aug. 14, 2005
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
    Bridge operational.
Meeting Transcript: by the fellowship of Ar-Pharazon, Farmer Maggot, and Varda
Attending: (11)

    Members: ArathornValar, ArPharazonV (presiding: Tolkien chat), Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/ aranfinwe, Gil-galad-(V)/ Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Grimbold V, Farmer Maggot-(V)/thesirg3, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding: business)
    Guest: Pengolodh (became a Full Member during the Tolkien Chat, now Pengolodh-(V))
    Isildur-(V) spotted gaming in Bnet
    Fangorn-(Valar) passed info to the AIM meeting while in WoW. Ulmo afk in WoW
    Eowyn and Sauron said hello's over-the-shoulder
Membership
    Fili is back! He hopes. His computer has been down with multiple viruses.
    Gaffer's birthday was Friday. He's now 11 years old.
    Thorondor is working on Diablo 2: LoD Ladder 3
    Pengolodh, who has been emailing, visited the meeting as Pengolodh, was not dismayed, and passed his entry test during Tolkien Chat with Varda to be a Full Member!
Web
    Games page being updated, added to
    D2X: Runewords for Ladder 3
    WoW Screenshots, many new ones added
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: ever-continuing work
Gaming
    rp: text role-play in the Valar Guild forum
    WoW
       WoW Europe
       WoW USA: Lothar
    Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction: Ladder 3
Tolkien
    Varda's topic: Why Manwe did not simply blow Ar-Pharazon out of the water when his fleet attacked.
    ArathornValar: Regarding elves and why Tolkien saw then as tall and noble.. while most mythology I've read sees them as tiny mischievous sprites.
    Pharazon's topic tangent: The fading or shrinking of Elves and Hobbits in the Fourth Age.
After-meeting
    New Full Member, Pengolodh-(V), announced.
    WoW talk

Aug. 13, 2005
Updates on the News:
    Aug. 5:
        WoW Lothar Friday Gaming report.

Aug. 11, 2005
    Diablo 2: LoD
       New Runewords located by Thorondor-(Valar). Listed here, may move to Eonwe's Games page later.

Aug. 10, 2005
Updates on News:
    Aug 3:
        D2X
patch uber-boss report from Thorondor-(Valar)! Also sent to the Games page.

    Aug 5:
        D2X
new ladder begins! Report from Thorondor-(Valar)
        WoW Screenshot update report from Arathorn-(Valar)
        Membership: Gaffer, Member of Honor, son of Alatar, turned 11 years old today! Happy birthday!
    Aug 9:
       WoW Screenshot update report from Arathorn-(Valar)
       Membership: Fili-(V) says hello and that he's back. His computer has been down for months with viruses, but is feeling much better.

Aug. 9, 2005

    WoW Screenshot page  report from Arathorn-(Valar):
  WOOF! Took a while but got all my pics up.
  The section "Instances, Quests and Specific Location pics " has new subsections with lots more pics, and I added a bunch under titles that were there or also added under the other main sections.
   I imagine more will pop up now and then :)

 Namárië,
    ~Arathorn~


Aug. 8, 2005
    New D2X Ladder begins!
       For your ladder character friend list, it is just the account name, not the ladder character, so your list may still be partly right.
          Include Thorondor-Valar and Sorontar-Valar

Aug. 7, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Glittering Caves of Aglarond:
          New Cave with art by Elwing-(V)  (put up after the meeting)

Sunday Meeting 
   Aug. 7, 2005
   5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
Meeting Transcript: by the fabulous team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Menelvagor was given a surprise: he was asked to chair! He did a fine job.
Attending: (10)
    ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(TV)/AuSteinM, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, FarmerMaggot-(V)/thesirg3, Menelvagor Valar (presiding), VardaValar1
Membership:
    Two potential members are coming in from WoW Europe
Web:
    Arathorn's Screenshot page is growing amazingly
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Glittering Caves of Aglarond:
          New Cave with art by Elwing-(V)  (put up after the meeting)

Gaming:
    WoW:
       USA WoW Friday gaming report will be on the Forum. Members leveling well.
       Europe doing well.
    D2X:
        Patch is a fast download. We have two member reviews of the new content.
Tolkien:
    RP: Lord of the Rings Online role-play text game on the Valar Guild Forum. Slowed while real life discussion is taking place on where to go with the new story arc. Two new character reactions need to be put up to the new development and have been promised for this week.
    Varda's topic: What does Tolkien himself seem to think are the qualities that makes a villain a bad person?
    Tangent: Frodo was not gullible, and is the ultimate reason the Ring was destroyed.

Aug. 5, 2005
    Diablo 2: LoD Ladder:  Report by Thorondor-(Valar)
Heya heya,

Gotta check my /f list and the DII-player list again.. my main accounts
are still Thorondor-Valar and Sorontar-Valar. Looks like I'm going to
delete some of my pre-ladder and ladder1-characters, since the new
ladder will be coming out on Monday!

Thorondor

    WoW
       WoW Screenshot page report from Arathorn-(Valar):
            Ok, added a new link for the "When Smokey Sings, I Get Violent" quest we did in EP yesterday. 20 snapshots of our adventure :-)

       WoW Friday Lothar gaming: report from Eonwe-(Valar):
Weekly Questing for the first week in August.

This week's questing took us into Maraudon, where legends say the remains of the father of the Centaur lay guarded by his mate.
    Quests: Vyletongue Corruption, Legends of Maraudon, Corruption of Earth and Seed.
    Questers: Eonwë, Varda, Ulmo, Beline (Dracxil)

Our first destination was a passage beyond the orange crystals to purify the corruption caused by the Satyr Vyletongue. We sought out currupted plants to purify, fighting our way through Dryads and treants who were unfortunately too corrupted to be called back. Deep inside these caverns we came across Noxion, a vile creature created by Vyletongue to guard part of the scepter of Celebras. Defeating him was no simple feat, but the foul creature fell and relinquished his part of the scepter.

We fought further on, searching for plants to cure, fighting the corrupted beings that came to prevent the healing, until we saw ruins in the distance. We then decided to backtrack and go after Princess Theradras, the mother of the Centaur. Taking a portal into the depths of Maraudon, we fought through Hydras, elementals, and other corrupted creatures to come to the princess, where she guarded the remains of her beloved, the eldest son of Cenarius. The fight was long and hard, but in the end she fell before our might. It was then that we found the elder son of Cenarius, slain by his own offspring, still wished them no ill, and sent us to seek his brother Remulos in Moonglade with a seed. Our task was not complete in Maraudon, however, for we still had to deal with Vyletongue and gain his piece of the Scepter of Celebras.
Going beyond the purple crystals, we fought through imps and Satyrs until we came to Vyletongue himself. After our earlier battles, the Satyr leader was dispatched quickly, and his piece of the Scepter of Celebras regained.

Only one more task awaits us in Maraudon: to find Celebras and speak with him..


Aug. 4, 2005
    July 31 meeting transcript: Additions from Eonwe have been made to the end of the transcript for the After-meeting. This includes the realization that Orodreth-(V) has now been with the Valar Guild for over two years. A wish for Elf Paladins. Comments on WoW's strange "religion" allowing Undeads to be Priests. And yes, Varda heard you fire the fruit cannon!  ;)

Aug. 3, 2005
    Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction patch report by Thorondor-(Valar):
I noticed the new version of DII. I can explain how the new Über Boss-features work:

First, you must collect certain keys dropped by specific monsters.

- Key of Hate, which is dropped by Summoner
- Key of Terror, which is dropped by Countess
- Key of Destruction, which is dropped by Nihlathak

When you have all the three keys, you can use them in the Horadric Cube to open a red portal. This must be done in act 5.

The portal will open randomly to one of these places:

- Furnace of Pain
- Forgotten Sands
- Matron's Den

Furnace of Pain is a bit act4 - look-alike place, full of extremely tough monsters, including Demons, which are immune to ALL types of damage, except physical. In that area, you'll find a tougher version of Izual. He will drop an item called "Mephisto's Brain".

Forgotten Sands is act2 desert area. The monsters there are notably tougher than normally in act2. You'll eventually meet a tougher version of Duriel there. When killed, he drops an item called "Baal's Eye".

Matron's Den looks like the Forgotten Tower level. There are tough Demon Archers, Succubi and other nasties. Eventually you'll stumble across Lilith. She looks like Andariel, but is ten times tougher. She'll drop "Diablo's Horn".

When you have all the three different body parts, Brain, Eye and Horn, transmute them in the cube, in act5. Again, a red portal will open. It reads "Tristram".

Behind that portal, there is a massive amount of different, really tough monsters, including the Demons, which were immune to all non-physical attacks. Somewhere in town, you'll find Diablo, Baal and Mephisto Clones. Killing them is really really hard, especially Mephisto Clone; he is using Conviction aura which lowers your resistances easily below zero. Also, you cannot cast Town Portal at all in there.

If you're lucky, skillful, and well-equipped enough to beat all the bosses, the last Clone you kill, drops an unique Large Charm, and as many unique small charms as there are players.

Unique Large Charm
"Hellfire Torch"
Level required: 75
+3 skills for random class (like +3 to assasin skills)
+10-20 to all attributes
+10-20 to all resistances
+8 to light radius
lvl 30 hydra, 10 charges

The small charm will be revealed as "Standard of Heroes". So far, it does nothing. Maybe it is just a trophy. It has level requirement of 90, however.

Summa summarum, it is pretty fast to obtain the keys from Summoner, Countess and Nihlathak. Each kill has 1/34 chances of dropping the key. Good thing, too, is that you can carry as many keys and body parts as you like, if you feel too vulnerable to venture in the special areas alone.

Too bad I didn't remember to take any screenshots. :-/

Cheers,
-Thorondor-Valar

Aug. 2, 2005
    WoW Screenshots: report from Arathorn-(Valar):
On the WoW snapshot page, added more pics and rearranged the 'Instances, Quests and Specific Locations' section to break it down more. Worked on instances this week and will add 'Quests and Specific Locations' pics next week. Off to splash icy water on my face =)
 Namárië,
    ~Arathorn~
    Electronic Arts gains rights to make LotR games based on the books as well as on the movies. EA Games article. Information from Eonwe-(Valar).

Aug. 1, 2005
    Diablo Patch: report from Galdor-(V):

Blizzard had released patch 1.11 for DiabloII

New bosses, quests and one hell of a tough fight in
Tristram between the forces of good and Diablo, Baal,
Meph, Andariel, and the rest....including the D Clone
and Lilith ( an uber version of Andariel.

News here for you : http://www.diabloii.net/

Yeah I have been busy in real life, and withdrawn from
WoW on Lother server because my comp could not handle
it.

I did upgrade, but now that I know more about WoW and
the complexity of playing I have decided to stay on
Llane server only because I have linmited playing
time.

Hope all are well and Namarie

Galdor

top

July 31, 2005
    Tolkien Encyc/ Glittering Caves:
        Arathorn's Cave in the art gallery is now up.

Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  

Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (11)
    Members: ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(TV)/AuSteinM, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Finarfin-(V)/FINARFIN010, GilraenV, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1
    Visitor from WoW Europe: Lalaith/hithershore (interested in joining)
Membership
    Rog-(V)-ex: emailed, asking if anyone plays Guild Wars
    Fladrif-(V) going on vacation
Web
    Index: re-arranged somewhat
    News: revolving quotes now work, using a new program
    Tolkien Encyc: new items are now in:
       Stories:  
       Poetry
       Art: New art gallery now in operation with illustrations, original work only
       Request to anyone reading these or looking at the art, please email the writer or artist and let the person know if you liked it, and what in particular so we can keep improving.
    WoW page:
       Screenshots re-organized by Arathorn, new shots
Gaming
    WoW:
       USA Valar Guild branch on Lothar: 
            Five level 60's, three more between 57 and 59.
            Ulmo says we need to be aiming for doing Raid instances for the high levels.
            We need more of our US people to come in on Friday guild nights to improve our team skills.
       Europe: Four or five Valar members operating together in Menelvagor's guild. Lalaith is interested in joining the overall guild.
    EQ:
        Example of a game that had a lot of content, took four years to complete gaming.
    WC3/TFT
       New map
       Another group took over our dropped Clan Vala name
       We have members playing but not using their guild names or Valar channel, so we miss seeing each other.
    Guild Wars
        Members need to let Eonwe know they are playing.
        Use guild name for recognizing each other.
        Come into the Forum and say when you can play and what name.
        AIM can be used to coordinate, like a channel.
        Use Email to help get together.
         Some known players: Rog-(V)-ex, Finarfin-(V). Fladrif-(V) (wants or now has?). Orodreth plans to get it.
    Diablo 2:LoD:
       New patch 1.11
    Lord of the Rings Online fka MeO
       New music download
Tolkien
    Eonwe's topic: What elf blood if any was in the Numenoreans?
    Finarfin's topic: What is the difference between the heroism between Aragorn, Frodo, and Samwise and which was harder?

July 26, 2005
    Gaming pages:
            WoW Screenshots page: arranged by subject, updated! Fixed Pets section and added the "Hidden" Airstrip section. Go Arathorn!

    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
            Glittering Caves of Aglarond: added Elatan-(Valar)'s Cave,
Eowyn-(V)'s Cave, and Hansen's Cave. Updated Dwalin-(TV)'s Cave.
            Poetry:
                  Night Prayer for Elves, or Lullaby
by Elatan-(Valar)
                  The Time of Legolas
by Varda-(Valar)
           Stories:
                  A Friend in Need by Elwing-(V)


July 25, 2005
    News page: The Rotating Quotes on the News page are repaired, thanks to information found on CMG Webmasters. Also tried to make reaching the actual news quicker by cutting some of the top links that are still available from the Index.
     Index page: style change, but all the info is still there.


July 24, 2005
Sunday Meeting  5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
Meeting Transcript: by the illustrious team of
Ar-Pharazon-(V), Menelvagor-(Valar), Varda-(Valar). (Eonwe tried to save a transcript, but crashed.)
Attending: (13)
    ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi (crashed promptly, ouch!), Eonwe Valar, Finarfin-(V)/FINARFIN010, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3,  Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, VardaValar1/bNetValar(presiding)
Membership News:
    Elwing-(V): LotR concert
    AuSteinM: New Tolkien-only
    Dwalin-(TV): New Tolkien-only
    Ar-Pharazon-(V): back from vacation
    Ulmo-(Valar) and Gothmog-(Valar): Ulmo took Gothmog to college this weekend
    Finarfin-(V): the difference between live meeting and reading the web page notes
    Gelmir-(V): moving into apartment, working on celphone microwave towers, about to buy WoW and probably join our guild branch on Lothar. Still plays DAoC, will probably drop it for money to go to WoW.
Web:
    Server: AuSteinM's new server space for images mainly
    Gaming:
        WoW:
            Screenshots: new server, more space for shots
            Trainers: added Mounts
    Tolkien Encyc: Glittering Caves art gallery: new webmaster, new server, new programming, old and new images, now taking more original images, still adding caves with backlog from earlier.
Gaming:
    WoW:
        WoW Europe: 75 members. Considering alliances for raiding
        WoW Americas: Friday report. Grouping for questing occuring almost daily. More hit 300's in abilities. 50 characters currently listed, without mergers or alliances.
        Guild banks: Diablo series, WoW Europe has one, WoW USA's is Kalasul run by Eonwe-(Valar)
        Cross-continental rumors
Tolkien:
    Varda's topic: Valar fellowship
    Ar-Pharazon's topic: The three themes of music, how they translate into story events. Topic may re-start next meeting, after some re-reading.

July 23, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Glittering Caves of Aglarond, the art gallery of the Encyclopedia, is now up. These works are used to help illustrate the Encyclopedia in the appropriate places.The first version of this site was created by Elatan-(Valar) fka Amillo-(Valar). It has been rebuilt from scratch by Varda-(Valar) using a very similar style and his pictures, by permission, but with different programming. The Caves site now accepts only original work. The work must be Tolkien-inspired, any book, and may be any medium. We currently include paintings and photos of sculpture. The site is far from complete, but has enough up now to start enjoying. Email Varda to send in your work for your personal cave. Check out Dwalin's picture at the bottom of his Cave. "Reload" or "Refresh" may straighten out problems you have with the site, as I leave it up while working on it.
       The Rolozo Tolkien site that has been supplying our pictures stopped being active November 2004, although we hope it will remain up and that Ryan is well.

July 20, 2005
    James "Jimmy" Doohan, who played the original Star Trek's Scotty, died this morning at 5:30 EST am.
       Netscape article

July 19, 2005
    LotR Concert in Houston, July 10. Here's Elwing-(V)'s report:
    My brother and I got to the LotR concert last night - pretty perfect timing for travel, parking, and getting seated. We had great seats and it looked to be sold out. The music was wonderful (goes without saying but I will), and I could hear the singing better at this than on CDs (altho still mostly in Elvish, so I still didn't know what they were saying...hee, see ps).
    The artwork showing throughout was mostly charcoal/pencil drawings with some watercolor types of stroryboards for the movies; some were a bit different than what actually ended up used but were still recognizable while others were almost exactly movie-same. Mostly it was scenery, with a few of generic persons - Rohan riders, for example; there were some detail ones of Gollum, Gandalf and Arwen. Also during some of the "evil" moments (Balrog, Isengard) red lights were used around the stage; for the Fangorn forest part, there was a really neat "leafy" effect shone on all the walls.
    It lasted about 2 hours with a 15 min intermission. People were mostly on the "dressed up" side, with some in true evening wear, but also some casual (only a few kids we saw had anything like "costumes" on).

Bye for now (*waves to everybody there*)
Elwing
p.s. Forgotten my "native" language - I should be ashamed!  :)

    WoW Screenshot Page: Arathorn-(Valar) has busily put AuSteinM's new server space to use, still in progress. Here's his July 19 report:
 I've redone the WoW pic page and have moved the pics to the new server that AuSteinM generously provided (freed up over 5MB of space on Alatar's). I am in the works of splitting up the page into separate sections and left the main page on our server with a list pointing to the new ones I will be creating. This way you don't have to change any links on our main page or on the WoW page that Menelvagor made and they'll be spilt into topics and load faster (hopefully) :-P
 
I'll let you know when I'm done changing and adding pages and pages and pages and (well you get the picture...) of the images I have =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Namárië,
    ~Arathorn~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July 18, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Dwalin-(TV)! Carlos Vinicius joined as a Tolkien-only member with his contribution of a painting of Fingolfin vs Morgoth, now in the Encyclopedia under Fingolfin and under Morgoth. He lives in Brasil, South America and found us by our web site. His day job has 12-14 hour days, with art done professionally afterwards. Tough guy! His artwork is usually for money, and he has very little time off, so this could be the only piece we will see, although he hopes to find time to make some more for us, as he already has sketches started. We hope he will also post to the Forum. He was Colorist for
"The Shield", a 5-issue work from AXN Channel, about a bald police detective named Vic Mackey and his companions.

July 17, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, AuSteinM! He's been visiting meetings on AIM and, even though he knows us, joined today as a Tolkien-only member. He is still considering his guild name. He programmed DoorMan Bot to help AIM users have an "answering machine", and offers it freely. (Donations will not be turned down!) He heard about our problem with space for images and freely offered server space. This should help take some of the load off of Alatar's server. AuSteinM kindly set up both Arathorn and Varda with space during the meeting. For this contribution, he became eligible as a Tolkien-only member, as he is not currently into gaming due to time problems.

Sunday Meeting July 17, 2005: 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild . http://freenode.net/
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
   The Bridge was available in all areas! Loaded by Varda.
Meeting Transcript by Varda

Attending: (10)
    Members: ArathornValar, Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1/bnetValar/Bridge (presiding)
    Guest: AuSteinM (joined today as Tolkien-only)
Membership
    AuSteinM joined as a Tolkien-only member during the web news
    Elros-(V) now has internet again after moving to his new home. He dropped in during the after-meeting when most were gone or afk so we were not able to cheer for him. Elros, we're glad to have you in your new home and back in your internet home with us!
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       Art: The art gallery of the Tolkien Encyc, "The Glittering Caves of Aglarond", is being rebuilt to handle only original items that have been accumulating but not all put in the same place. It lacked server space for creation.
    Games Page: updated. Be sure your info is current. Eonwe says we have around 30 people in WoW. If we all got on Lothar together, we could field "raids" on instances, and have much more grouping. Come on folks! You can run at least one of your characters there one day a week, especially Friday. The regulars will be glad to help out.
    New server space to handle images, from AuSteinM.
       Thanks to the new space, Arathorn hopes to move his WoW screenshot section there, and expand it. He has already begun work.
       Thanks to the new space, Varda has begun work on the new Art Gallery for the Encyc, with original subjects only.
Gaming
    WoW
        USA: The planned ahead guild grouping started Thursday, collecting the Hammer of Zul Farrak, then went into Friday usi;ng the Hammer to summon the three-headed dragon, Ghahz'rilla, and pick up the Carrot on a Stick for several of us, which increases mount speed.
        Europe: Another merger added to the group on Argent Dawn
        Master First Aid Quest in after-meeting, discussion of a few ways to accomplish it.
    D2X: We still have folk playing. Don't forget to run your characters through now and then to keep them from going down.
    Guild Wars review from Olwe-(V)
Tolkien
    Varda-(Valar)'s topic: The waters of Ulmo

July 15, 2005
    WoW USA Friday Run. Report by the Amazing Eonwe!
Guild Questing Destination: Zul'Farrak

Questers:Eonwë (as Auros, Human Paladin), Varda (as Fainan, NE Hunter), Ulmo (as Neiqui, NE Druid), Arathorn (up to scarab room) (as Arathornv, NE Druid), Dracxil (came in shortly before Gahz'rilla) (as Beline, Human Paladin, Guild-friend)

Quests: Scarab Shells, Troll Tempers, Tiara of the Deep, Gahz'rilla

As stated above, this week took the Guild's adventurers into the ruins of Zul'Farrak, once a city of the ancient Troll empire, and still a city crawling with Trolls.

Marching into the entrance of the ruins, we slew the Troll guards as they attacked. Each fight would have to be taken carefully, as the Trolls were no stranger to battle. These Trolls provided us with Troll Tempers, needed by Tanaris' blacksmith. We stayed to theright wall as best we could, careful not to disturb the ritual the Trolls carried out in the first room we came to, before we were ready to spring our attack, that is. They too fell, and we continued our fight, choosing carefully our targets, until we found ourselves in the Scarab room. A Troll leader was there, doing what, we can only guess. The Scarabs did not attack at first, so we focused our efforts on the boss. It only took the slightest provocation to anger the Scarabs, however, and we were pushed back. This proved only a respite for the Troll leader, as we soon made our way back into the Scarab room, this time slaying its keeper and gaining another step towards our goal. We did not leave yet, however, for a goblin had requested scarab shells, and we had promised to deliver them should a chance arise.
Dispatching of the scarabs who had aided the Troll, we moved onward, finding ourselves in what seemed to be a burial chamber. A Troll stood atop a stone platform. An eerie feeling emanated from the graves, as if the inhabitants did not now rest. It would not have been safe to deal with this Witch Doctor just yet, so carefully we moved on, leaving the dead in their graves, where hopefully they would remain.

Soon we came to a long corridor, and fighting our way through came to our final destination, the pool from which the Trolls summon Gahz'rilla. However, something different would happen than they had planned.
Carefully we drew the patrols into the corridor, dealing with them as quickly as possible. It was a tough battle, but in the end we cleared the pool of its guardians, finding the Tiara of the Deep and thus helping the old woman Tabetha, who makes her home in the marshes of Dustwallow. Using the Hammer of Zul'Farrak, attained in a venture into the Troll ruins in the Hinterlands, we summoned forth the hydra Gahz'rilla, who came at us with all the fury of his kind. That was not enough to defeat us, however, and the creature fell at our feet. Taking from him a scale promised to an engineer in the Shimmering Flats, we began to head out the way we came, but we had one task left: dealing with the Troll Witch Doctor in the burial chamber.

It was as we had thought: the strange feeling I got from the graves was that of the restless undead. We fought to send these creatures to their eternal slumber, and were successful at first. Then, the Troll spotted us, and began to summon more undead minions to prevent our victory. We were in the end driven back and forced to regroup, but the Witch Doctor had bought the time he needed. Reinfocements had come to Zul'Farrak, and we would have to treat our wounds and tend to our equipment before we return, and return we will. We cannot leave the taint of undeath to fester in those ancient ruins, but we have other tasks there to complete as well, and rumors abound in Tanaris that Gahz'rilla lives on....


July 14, 2005
    WoW USA: Ulmo's Niequi, Arathorn, Eonwe's Auros, and Varda's Fainan joined together to successfully find and make the Hammer of Zul Farrak for the Friday guild run. Go us!

July 10, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
    The Bridge was available, thanks to Farmer Maggot-(V)!
Meeting Transcript from Varda
Attending: (7)
    Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/BnetValar/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Menelvagor kept crashing during the meeting.
    Farmer Maggot dropped by and set up the Bridges. He still has weeks to go on his vacation.
Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia continues to be re-worked for separate articles, adding to the Author's pages. The largest pages are done.
Gaming:
    WoW Friday is beginning to show up on numerous other days, with more grouping. :)
    Hellgate: London. This is a new game coming out, by the team that split from Blizzard.  Seems to be for obsessive Diablo players, according to Gamespot.
    WC3/TFT:
        Another guild in WC3/TFT took our Vala name.
        Orodreth as Alasseo, Paladin Took, and Ar-Pharazon still play WC3.
    Forum RP: Arathorn is back as Haran. :)
Computers:
    Play all DivX Video using this software.
    Haiku OS is a project trying to replace Windows.
Tolkien:
    We gave various lines that we enjoyed from the books and movies.

July 3, 2005
Sunday Meeting
5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
    The Bridge was available from Battle.net to AIM.
Meeting Transcript: by the fabulous team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending: (8)
    ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Huan-(Valar)/LiberalHound, Menelvagor Valar, Valandil Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
    Ar-Pharazon-(V) Will be gone for two weeks, then classes in Physical Anthropology will take most of the day (8-5 his time)
    Menelvagor-(Valar) The reason he was gone earlier this weekend: Uncle's 50th birthday!
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new article on Gimli
    Farmer Maggot's blog pictures of his trip, includes picture of him
    WoW Valar: Lothar players updated today by Varda. Menelvagor is now handling the Trainers page.
    Forum: Valandil-(V) came onto our Forum
Gaming
  WoW
       USA Friday
       Europe: how they collected members (non-Valar). They have another merger coming up.
Tolkien
    Tolkien adds atmosphere to the guild
    Poetry: how to start writing a poem
    Sindarin: Valandil's work on Sindarin is in progress
    Forum:
        Middle-earth rp on our Forum "Scouting Ahead"
    The road goes ever on...

July 2, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       New article under Dwarves/Gimli: "Gimli, after the War of the Ring" by Varda-(Valar)

July 1, 2005
    WoW USA Lothar Friday Guild night:
       (Lost my notes, but here's what I've got:)
        Ulmo/Niequi, and Varda/Fainan were present, with Eonwe/Auros able to come in for a little while. 
        In Tanaris, Niequi and Fainan tried to escort the robot chicken to Steamwheedle, but the quest seems to have become bugged after the last patch. Niequi turned in a bug report. All was not bad, as in the process of reaching the chicken, Niequi leveled.  :)
       Then Niequi and Fainan went to take a photograph of the turtle, Gammerita, who was not the least pleased with our presence, and we had to kill him.
       Auros joined Niequi and Fainan in Feralas. We killed yetis underground to finish one quest for at least two of us, and the skinner collected a pristine yeti hide needed in Feathermoon for a leatherworker's quest with Pratt.
        The three remained in Feralas in the area of the Twin Colossals to successfully collect the stave, find the four flames, and activate the tower. Auros then had to leave.
        Continuing in Feralas, Niequi and Fainan helped the goblin trying to set up shop by the pier that leads to Feathermoon. For him we did what turned out to be the quests: Zapping Giants, and Fuel for the Zapping. We used his raygun (which had a time limit) to shrink Feralas giants to manageable size and collect miniaturization residue. As we went, we also killed water elementals for Fuel for the Zapping. Niequi had to leave. Fainan remained and finished the quest solo (carefully) and discovered that the goblin then became a vendor, that the two quests were repeatable, and that they give a lot of good reputation (faction) with the goblins.

top

June 27, 2005

    Farmer Maggot-(V) is traveling, but is still with us. Pictures of his trip are up on his homesite to share with us (he is the one asleep in the boat). He also sent more directions on handling the Bridge, so we spoiled folk won't have to do without it. Thanks, Farmer!

June 26, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download  
    The Bridge was not available on any section. The meeting went on in AIM as usual. Varda was present to help on Bnet and Sigma Chat, as well as chairing on AIM, although no one showed up using only those alternate meeting areas. Ar-Pharazon also came to help on Sigma Chat.

Meeting Transcript: by the glorious team of Ar-Pharazon and Varda 
Attending: (18)
    ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Caranthir-(V)/MoriFinwe, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gil-Galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Grimbold-(V)/HearNoEvil80, Haleth V, Lungorthin-(Valar)/sauronjag, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, Valandil Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Haleth-(V): summer vacaton coming up, will probably miss the next few meetings
    Farmer Maggot-(V): seven weeks of camping in the SouthWest starting today. That means the Bridge is no longer live, but he will try to check in about every four days.
    Visit in real life between Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Caranthir-(V)
    Menelvagor-(Valar) changed internet connection and therefore email
    Grimbold-(V) started back up on WoW USA Lothar Valar Guild branch after the meeting ended, as Eldagrim (Elf Grimbold), a night elf druid. He will be missing after he heads back to school as he will be living off-campus, probably have some connection in August.

Andre Norton
Webwork:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       New articles:
Elrond by Haleth-(V); Importance of Thorin in Middle-earth and Dwarf-women by Varda-(Valar)
       Updated article: Types of Elves by Varda-(Valar)
Gaming:
    D2X: Gilraen is again able to play D2X and is back!
    BroodWar
    WC3/TFT
    BfMe: Ar-Pharazon is back on it.
    DAoC: Gelmir says it continues as it has been
    WoW:
       USA: Friday gaming report
       Europe: leveling: Ar-Pharazon, Caranthir, Fladrif, Menelvagor, Valandil
       USA/Europe connecting server news. Blizzard said in an interview that it is considering a special set of intercontinental servers for Europe and US to play together. This means once it comes up, ideally we should all try to come in the same day as level ones and play together, and should easily make a guild. We should know what we are doing by then. :)

Tolkien:
    Varda's topic: Can you think of any places in LotR, the Hobbit, or anywhere else that showed the idea of Fellowship? Lively discussion ensued.

June 25, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       Articles/ Elves
           Elrond by Haleth-(V)

June 23, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       Articles/ Dwarves/ Thorin
          new: Importance of Thorin in Middle-earth by Varda-(Valar)
       Articles/ Dwarves/ Dwarf-women
          new: Dwarf-women by Varda-(Valar)
       Articles/ Elves
          updated: Types of Elves by Varda-(Valar)

June 20, 2005
    Andre Norton, science-fiction and fantasy writer, passed away at the age of 93, on March 17, 2005. This is her website.

June 19, 2005
Happy Father's Day!!
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download
Transcript by the great Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (14)
    Members: ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Caranthir-(V)/MoriFinwe, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, GilraenV, Mablung-(V)/DemonicHorde69, FarmerMaggot-(V)/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Valandil Valar, VardaValar1
    Guest: AuSteinM
Membership: 
    AuSteinM came to let us know that DoormanBot2 is no longer shown on AIM as it is over-used. It is no longer good for leaving AIM messages offline.
    Caranthir and Ar-Pharazon are setting up to meet each other in real life for about half an hour Wednesday, during a train stop while Caranthir is in the Netherlands!
    Farmer Maggot set up the Bridge from his uncle's computer while at their family reunion! 
    Orodreth may be out of town the next two or three weeks. Caution, he is also getting his driver's learner permit!
    Varda and Fangorn went for the weekend to see Fangorn's parents, as Fangorn's mother had had a bad fall. They returned after an eleven hour drive, late for the meeting.
Web: 
    Links page: 2 new ones: 
      
Dragons in Art and on the Web
       Illustrated Tolkien Book Bibliography  
    WoW: our Trainers page by professions updated. Menelvagor rigged the links so a mouseover shows the links even if the page is misbehaving.
    Blizzard: WoW Desktop theme, Media player skin, 2005 E3 trailer for WoW is out    
    LotRO fka MeO:  new screenshots
Gaming: 
    WoW:  
        Battlegrounds is out
        New patch for memory problem
        Bliz Insider is out
Tolkien:
    Eonwe-(Valar)'s topics:    
        Women in LotR are important to the story. There are enough of them, having varied types with reason for each.
        Problems in dwarves and ents' male/female relationships and how they may have come by infusion from their creators' relationships. Eagles did not have this problem and were created by a Vala in an excellent relationship with his Valie.

June 16, 2005
    Valandil-(V) joined the Valar Guild June 13. Please see that day's entry.
    Varda-(Valar) will be gone tonight and return very late Sunday. Fangorn-(Valar)'s mother fell and we need to go visit her on the other side of Texas.

June 15, 2005
    Links page/ Tolkien Images:
      
Dragons in Art and on the Web - includes Tolkien's dragons. A section from the huge IOS - Ancient History, Angels, Dragons, Mermaids and more . by Timothy Spalding (link sent in by Timothy Spalding)

June 13, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Valandil-(V)! Valandil is from Belgium, which is in the time zone GMT +1, so he will have trouble coming to meetings. He's 42. He found us through the website, emailed Varda-(Valar), and tested in AIM with Menelvagor-(Valar). He's read
Hobbit, LotR, Sil, UT, BoLT (in Dutch) 1 + 2. He joined the WoW Europe group on the Argent Dawn server.
    Links page:
      
Illustrated Tolkien Book Bibliography, An - . project to list all the British editions of the published writings of JRRT, with their illustrations and how they changed. Eyeing a project to do the American editions also. Of especial interest to collectors.  by Neil.  (Link sent in by that site's webmaster)

June 12, 2005  
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download 

Transcript: by the magnificent team of Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), Farmer Maggot-(V), and Menelvagor-(Valar)
Attending (8):
    ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), FladrifV, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/bnetValar/Bridge, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V
Membership
    Varda, Eowyn, Sauron, Meriadoc, Elwing, and Arwen went to the LotR Exhibit in Houston. (No we are not all family!)
Web  
    Article on the LotR Exhibit
    Games Page
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Humor Page
Gaming
    LotRO: New concept art: Crebain
    Forum RP: new post
    WoW: Battlegrounds is now out. Info on the two areas.
Tolkien:
    Eonwe-(Valar)'s topic: Women in LotR: too many, not enough, just right? important, unimportant? why? 

June 10, 2005
    World of WarCraft USA
       Friday night get-together. Hello's from Alatar's Ithrynluin (11), Ulmo's Niequi (39), Eonwe's Auros (47?), Elatan's Dusksinger (49), ArathornV (52), Varda's Fainan (50), and
Eonwe's guild-friend brother (Beline, Fellene).
       We found three of us in Tanaris and thought we'd try Zul Farrak for the Carrot on a Stick reward. Auros came to Gadgetzan and gave us the quest, but was called away by real life just as he started heading towards us. That not being enough people for Zul Farrak, ArathornV, Dusksinger, and Fainan went to nearby UnGoro Crater as a mounted party. The three of us picked up the flight path at Silithus for Dusksinger, then proceeded to slaughter low 50 elites with some fine teamwork, while doing quests. Both ArathornV and Fainan leveled thanks to this. The threesome killed apes in the cave despite fast re-pops, to complete red-lettered "Apes of Ungoro". We also did "Roll the Bones" and "A-Me 01". It being the wee hours of the morning for Dusksinger, he had to go. He was sorely missed, but ArathornV and Fainan continued on and finished "Beware of Pterrordaxx" before stopping. When they say a place is called "Terror Run", they mean it!

      

June 8, 2005
    LotR Exhibit: Elwing-(V) sent this link to an article from the Galveston Daily News, a newspaper in Texas. It's from the viewpoint of a member of the Society for Creative Anachonisms, which is doing live demonstrations of medieval activities for the exhibit. This is much larger and better organized than the small demos done outside some movies, such as a Knight's Tale and Kingdom of Heaven. The article includes a list of some of the displayed items from the movies, and some of the enormous efforts the movie went to for detail.

    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Humor page:
        The image holder servers that the humor page (and some other Encyc areas) has been using were turned over to other companies. Menelvagor has moved the humor pics to GeoCities so all is now well there. You may need to reload/refresh to see correct pictures.Thanks, Menel! He has also fixed the links for the Catapult jokes, as they moved. He had some of them on his hard drive, and Haleth found some in other places on the internet.

June 4, 2005
    Welcome to the new Tolkien-only member of the Valar Guild, Tristin-(TV). He is from Ohio in the USA. No AIM. He has read H, LotR, and the Sil. His article is now up for the Tolkien Encyclopedia: Radagast, the Brown Wizard.

Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download 
Transcript:
by the fabulous team of Ar-Pharazon-(V), Farmer Maggot-(V), Menelvagor-(Valar), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (15)
    ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-(V)/Bridge/bnetValar/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Tristin-(TV) (new)
    Grimbold-(V) (moving)
Web:
    Tolkien Encyc: new articles
       Radagast, the Brown Wizard by Tristin-(TV)
       Lobelia Sackville-Baggins by Haleth-(V)
    MeO/LotRO Forum Role-play started again
    PHP
    WoW page: new Trainers secton under Extras
    Free software list for Windows compiled by Farmer Maggot-(V) finished during the After-meeting
Gaming:
    Runescape
    World of WarCraft:
       US  Friday gaming report
       Europe Another guild merged with Menelvagor-(Valar)'s
       Fladrif figured out the number of faces available on WoW
Tolkien:
    Those with power, bad or good.

June 3, 2005 (Friday!)
    WoW Shrine event in US Lothar, with the Uldaman instance afterwards. We went to Astranaar in the Elf-lands, reachable from Auberdine. From there we went through the broken fence into the Barrens. The Shrine was on a mountain, just south-east of the crossroads, north of the Wailing Caverns. We had spare flowers, in case anyone needed them. Ulmo was unwell, unfortunately, and could not attend although we appreciated and used his suggestion of questing in the Uldaman instance and picked up quite a few. He did come in and say hi!  :)
top

May 31, 2005
    The Forum role-play for Lord of the Rings Online, fka Middle-earth Online has started up again with new posts.  We are now in "Scouting Ahead Part 4: Erebor".

May 30, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: under Hobbits  (frames)
       "Lobelia Sackville-Baggins" by Haleth-(V) (no frames)

May 29, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download.
Transcript by the magnificent team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending (11):
    ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, FladrifV, Finarfin-V/
FINARFIN010, Finwe-V/aranfinwe, GilraenV, Haleth-V/Druidfalconwolf, Menelvagor, Olwe/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
    Celebrian-(TV): new Tolkieen member
    Fangorn's Birthday 52nd
    Haleth's Birthday 15th
    Menelvagor - asleep but collecting the transcript
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Poetry -
In the Land of Lorien by He that Walks Unseen-(TV) (no frames)
       Article - The Palantir of Amon Sul by Celebrian-(TV) (no frames)
    Forum - updated
    Games page - updated
Gaming
    WoW USA
        Friday: Stranglethorn group
       Shrine Event planning. Date set for next Friday get-together. We can bring courteous friends, everyone needs to bring flowers, maybe spare for last minute arrivals. The Shrine is in the Barrens, on a mountain near the cross-roads and south-east of it, a little north of the Wailing Caverns. We intend to honor the WoW designer who died making the game, no pvp action. Carry flower in the off-hand; it will show if no weapon is in the main hand. We can easily punch out the small animal monsters in the area of teens to twenty, and higher level characters can protect lower levels. Europe can do it at the same time, coordinating on AIM, or at a time of their own choosing.
    Monkey Island - humorous Caribbean pirate game by Lucas Arts
Tolkien
    Would JRRT have approved of books written after his death in his universe for money?
    Discussion of the current free fan fiction
    We outline our own fan fiction:
          Example of how not to write one. Do not try this at home! Please!
          Actual outline made up on the spot: "What-if" Boromir had not gone as far in his temptation by the Ring? 

May 28, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild's Tolkien Members, Celebrian-(TV)! Celebrian is a Tolkien-only member from the USA who joined with her article listed below.
        Tolkien Encyclopedia: (frames)
           Objects:
              The Palantir of Amon Sul by Celebrian-(TV) (no frames)

May 27, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Poetry (frames)
         
In the Land of Lorien by He that Walks Unseen-(TV) (no frames)

    World of WarCraft:
       Friday get-together: In Stranglethorn Vale, we killed trolls to handle several quests on our way to the main event. We went to Stranglethorn's Ogre Mound and after much excitement managed to kill the boss. The quest comes from the Rebel Camp, after killing Col. Kurzen.
            Linqil, Fangorn, and Orome said hi! Guild members participating in the Stranglethorn group were Auros (Eonwe), Fainan (Varda), Harana/Haranwen (Haran Arathorn), Merryv (Meriadoc). Guild-friend Fellene, (Eonwe's brother) joined us. Guild-friend Larolan (Night Elf Hunter) joined in. She has not only read LotR, but taught the Hobbit! When she had to leave, her husband Keikeil helped us, and could become a guild-friend. He is a Human Warlock who has also read the LotR. This was the first run for Fainan's mount, a striped nightsaber.
            Fun was had just before we finished for the night, trying to put player heads in the yawning nightsaber's mouth like a lion-tamer. Merry's gnome did the best! Merry ported us to Darnassus where everyone cleaned up in the fountain before going into the main town. This prevented any potential insults such as "filthy human".
          We hope to collect at least five or more people for a future pilgrimage to the memorial shrine of the WoW designer in the Barrens. The creatures in the area are in the teens to low twenties. Bring flowers. They can be bought in Stormwind, and can be made visible by equipping them in the off-hand with the main-hand empty. We have high level characters to aid as escorts. Once enough people sign up for the trip, we will do it. We will probably go through the broken fence and then on to the mountain with the shrine.

    Forum:
       The Forum "upgrade" is finished and we are back online. Yay!
            The bad news is that any word with an attached link now shows the whole link address. It's also asking us to re-activate our accounts, sending a note to the email we last gave. Copy/paste works for the monster-long activation code.

May 26, 2005
    Lord of the Rings Exhibit in Houston, Texas, more news.  Info from Elwing-(V).
       The Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) is doing demos of all aspects of medieval life at the request of the Natural Sciences museum in Houston for the June-August showing. In emails sent around the local groups, the positions for horseriders have been filled with horses referred to as "bombproof", able to handle crowds and the whole situation, including wearing the full set of gear ("fully barded"). They will have to stand on hay over tarp over cobblestones for two hours. They come in pairs, one with a knight or other fighter, and one with a Lady. Heavy fighters and fencers, medieval dancers, and possibly bards for singing and tales will be working, probably along with tables showing a sampling of the medieval clothing and gear they make. We'll see if room allows for what is almost a full Event, although no mention has been made of holding Court, which might be too much.

    Forum still in "upgrading" status.

May 25, 2005
    The Forum is now upgrading to the next version and may be down 12-18 hours.

    Happy 52nd Birthday, Fangorn-(Valar)!

May 22, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download.

Transcript: team Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending (13):
    ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Finwe-(V)/aranfinwe, FladrifV (in WoW), Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, GilraenV, GwaihirValar (afk went to see Star Wars movie), Haleth-(V)/druidfalconwolf,  FarmerMaggot-(V)/TheSirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar (afk asleep), Orodreth V, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1
Before-meeting
    Star Wars chat
Membership
    Orome-(Valar) has gone to Russia
    Dreamlord-(TV) telephoned a group of 8 Valar Guild members at Varda's house in Texas. He's returning to Denmark after finishing up at the University of Wisconsin in the US.
    Orodreth-(V) now has WoW
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       New articles by Haleth: "Haleth", "Bullroarer"
    Games pages: Eonwe is beginning to free up from classes and will be working on gaming pages again.
    Forum: the new version has not yet come out, despite messages daily for a week saying it will be in the next 24 hours.
Gaming
    MeO/LotRO: name and site place changed after Turbine took over MeO
    WoW: Planning a Flower Run to the Shrine in the Barrens that honors a WoW designer who died during the making of the game. Intended for both US and WoW on the same day.
Tolkien
    Chat about article writing, reading books, rp

May 20, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       New article: under "Hobbits":
          "Bullroarer" by Haleth-(V)

May 18, 2005
    MeO news, Forum posts by Eonwe:

Hail!

For those who don't know already, Turbine now holds the exclusive license to create MMORPGs based on LotR and the Hobbit. This was once held in conjunction with the license Vivendi holds to make games based on these two works, but obviously it was negortiated to become a separate license.

With this change also comes a change in the name. Middle Earth Online is now known as Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (or simply LotRO).

I personally prefer MEO, but hey, they didn't ask me :}

Check out some of the new stuff on the page, and start getting used to the name now, because it'll be too late when the game comes out and you try to find MEO in stores :}

Take care.
Eonwë

Hail!

So you know why it's been a month since the last piece in the RP:
I've been holding off on my next piece until the new version kicks in, but I may not hold off much longer. My next piece comes soon, so be ready! :}

Eonwë

May 17, 2005
    Orome went to St. Petersburg, Russia.

May 16, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:  (frames)
       Mankind:
        "Haleth" article by Haleth-(V) (no frames)

May 15, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
         Sigma Chat special program by Farmer Maggot-(V) bypassing Java slowdown some of us were having. Small download.

Transcript: team Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending (11):
    ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, [Fangorn-Valar contributed to the Tolkien chat by phone], Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Irime, FarmerMaggot-V/bnetValar/TheSirG3/Bridge/SigmaChatApp, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, VardaValar1
Membership: nothing new
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       New contributions by Haleth-(V): Article "Nienna". Poem: "Nienna". Novel: "Haleth's Song".
    Guild Index updated
    Bridge improvement by Farmer Maggot-(V) for !list
    Program for users to connect directly to our Sigma Chat without going through the Java slowdown. By Farmer Maggot-(V). Small Download.
       Valar Chat ID: 90005. This program was created during the meeting by Farmer to handle a problem some had with the usual connection.
Gaming:
    WoW: USA Friday gaming report: Uldaman guild group: Auros, Fainan, Linqil
Tolkien:
    Eonwe-(Valar)'s topic: Sentience in animals and plants in Tolkien.
       The discussion focused mainly on Ent sentience. Ent relatonship with animals.
       Tangent on Saruman and his relationship with the forest.
       Tangent on other Maiar in Middle-earth.
       Discussion of Elves teaching Ents to talk.
           Tangent on the English word "dumb" for both mute and stupid, and the similar Dutch word "stom".
           Tangents on other words and ancient history and mythology, oh my.
               Weirdly, the discussion of ancients wanting to claim descent from the gods tangented into Tolkien:
                  Were the Stewards descended from Elros and therefore from a Maia? No, Mardil seems to be from a different line.
                      Sleepy confusion over more than one Hurin, as Mardil comes from the line of Hurin of Emyn Arnen.
                      Elvish blood in the Stewards and others.

May 13, 2005
    Friday: World of WarCraft guild grouping on Lothar, 4pm ESDT to sometime tomorrow.
       Uldaman group with Auros, Fainan, and Linqil. We had bigger groups together during the week. C'mon guys!

    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:

      By Haleth-(V):
       Haleth's Song
       © May 9, 2005
       The story of the warrior woman who became leader of the Haladin.
       Complete. 19 chapters. Contents page, Author's Notes.
       Feedback appreciated. Let us know if we have permission to post your story comments.
          Caution: Character deaths, some violence.

May 10, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Articles/Powers:
          Nienna by Haleth-(V)
       Poetry:
          Nienna by Haleth-(V)

May 9, 2005
    Guild index updated:
       WoW branch page has a different site, under new management by Menelvagor, as Maglor ceased communicating.
       DAoC info changed to reflect current state.
       Azaghal's Tolkien page dropped, as the address we have no longer goes anywhere.

May 8, 2005
Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript: team Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending
(13):
         Aerandir V, ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, FladrifV, Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Haleth-(V)/Druidfalconwolf, Huan-Valar/LiberalHound, Irime-(V)/Irime, FarmerMaggot-V/TheSirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Thorondor-(Valar)/ThorondorV, VardaValar1
Membership:
    Irime-(V), our newest member, said her "few words".  :)
    Eonwe was absent to take his mother out for Mother's Day, but sent an email shared with the group. 
    Gwaihir-(Valar)'s hello via Gilraen
    Ar-Pharazon-(V) turned 20 years old last Friday
Web:
    Tolkien Encyc: New article by Elatan-(Valar) "Irime".
    LotR Exhibit now touring countries.
    Suggested repairs to main web site
Gaming:
    WoW:
       USA Lothar Uldaman quest report. More complete one on the News May 6.
       Europe: 3 grouping almost daily
    D2
    D2X Ladder
    StarCraft
    Battle for Middle-earth
    Guild Wars
    Forum role-playing game "Scouting Ahead"
Tolkien:
    Irime-(V)'s topic: What do you imagine elven fealty to have been like? Or if you are aware that Tolkien talks about it somewhere, what did he say about it?

May 7, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Articles/Elves/Lalwende:
         Írimë by Elatan-(Valar)

May 6, 2005
    WoW USA Lothar branch Friday Questing:
       Uldaman questing: We had a group of five guild-folk and did a batch of quests shared between us. We started early, at about 4pm ESDT, and added members (and quests) as they came online. Auros (41 human paladin male), Dusksinger (45 night elf hunter female), Ereinion (44 night elf warrior male), Linqil (60 gnome mage male), and Fainan (45 night elf hunter female) participated. Dusksinger and Fainan were the first there and had never been inside Uldaman to any distance before. Curious, we went in and explored. It was quite dangerous, so we were cautious and stayed alive. A little way in, our two night elves met two orcs. Although we could not speak or group, the four of us found ways to communicate and operated as a party. We took turns tagging the monsters and took care of each other as best we could. It was challenging and great fun! Then Linqil, 60 gnome mage, joined in with us. The orcs waved and were willing to have him along too, but by then we were collecting more Valar for a full group of questers. I waved goodbye to the orcs, who continued on cautiously, while we went deep. As our finale, the five of us took out the top boss of Uldaman and then found the intriguing room she guarded and met.... I won't spoil it for you if you haven't been there. But he's big.  ;)

May 5, 2005
    Lord of the Rings Movie Exhibition
      Info from Elwing and Meriadoc: Official website
       The exhibit is made possible by the New Zealand government, licensed by New Line Cinema and is currently on tour. Check to see if you can go to one of the showings.
       Some of us are hoping to see the exhibit in Houston together this summer, where costumes are encouraged: Bilbo, Elwing, Eowyn, Fangorn, Meriadoc, Sauron, and Varda.
       If anyone else is planning on seeing one, let me know by email for the News and maybe you can meet up with fellow Valar!

May 4, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Irimë
-(V)! Irime came to us from AIM with the name "Irime", scouted and tested by Thorondor-(Valar) with a brag-worthy 5/5! She is 21, from Michigan, US (EST). She is studying anthropology and linguistics. She is online about twice a week, and may start playing some game - she has
played D2 offline. She has read LOTR, Silmarillion, Tree and Leaf, and parts of Unfinished Tales. Her favorite LotR character is Gandalf because he is wise but has quirks such as anger, fireworks, and pipeweed. He is a leader without requiring those he leads to follow him and he cares deeply about those he loves.

May 1, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript: team Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending
(10):
    ArPharazonV, Finwe-V/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Lungorthin-Valar/sauronjag, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot-V/TheSirG3/Bridge/bnetValar, Olwe-V/FallenGlory, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
    Eonwe - dinner with family, missing meeting
    Gwaihir - had vacation and made it to the meeting!
    Menelvagor - missing meeting, but sent WoW page report via Gilraen
    Anardil, who just joined recently in WoW, quit almost immediately when he found out how small the branch was.
Web
    Forum upgrade
    Bridge - down due to OS upgrade, during meeting team got it working again
       Link used in some of the technical work: http://twistedmatrix.com/downloads/Twisted/2.0/
    Tolkien Encyc - Powers page done, needs link checkers
    WoW page - Menelvagor installed Gilraen's buttons
Gaming
    WoW: Friday Guild Quest Groups
    WarCraft3/TheFrozenThrone - new maps Link to maps
    Dark Age of Camelot - report by Lungorthin who was also in DAoC during the meeting.
        Irmo-(Valar) as Yrma is the most powerful player on the server, leading the strongest guild in the strongest alliance, doing realm vs realm (PvP) raids.
        Guild members playing DAoC: Alatar (also plays WoW), Gelmir, Irmo, Lungorthin, Melkor, (Orome/Aldaron has gone to WoW)
Tolkien
    Sam and Elves. Topic continues re-surfacing during other parts.
    Interactions between the Fellowship members.
    Mortality.
    Possible Tolkien-based comics we could do.
After-meeting
  Webcomics, including lots of links.
    Bob and George. Includes many sub-comics.
    Dilbert
    Errant Story - needs at least a Teen rating. Its Links to other web-comics.
    Joy of Tech
    Nuklear Power 8-bit Theater
       A bridge joke
       Links to other web-comics , gaming, and a WoW FAQ on GameFAQ's.
    Order of the Stick
    Schlock Mercenary - space
    WTF Comics or home link. EverQuest based, now slowly moving away from that to all MMORPG's . Links to other web-comics left menu.
top

April 30, 2005
    Forum news - letter from Eonwe-(Valar):

Attention everyone. According to the Proboards Message Board, version 4 will
be implemented starting April 30th, 2005. It may take a day or two to get
all the servers back up with it, so don't panic if you can't log in.

See you on the other side and can't wait to test the new abilities :}

Your sword-swinging Vala Admin :}
Eonwë

April 29, 2005
    World of WarCraft: Lothar guild grouping for quest helping for anyone.
        Starting officially at 5pm ESDT, we have members showing up an hour earlier due to time probems. This has been working well.
        We tend to continue having people come in and play until the sun comes up the next day, so don't feel you can't join in if you have to come late! We have mains and alternates of many sizes.

April 24, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name  Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT
Transcript: team of Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending (13):
    Aerandir V, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Caranthir/MoriFinwe, Eonwe Valar, FladrifV, Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Lungorthin/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot-V/bnetValar/TheSirG3/Bridge, Orodreth V, Ulmo-Valar/HeruRasa, VardaValar1
Member News
    Anardil-(V) joined as a full member from World of WarCraft, USA, Lothar. Scouted and recruited by Ulmo-(Valar)
Web
    Tolkien Encyclopedia - navigation work on Powers page, updates and new articles
Gaming
    WoW: Europe using server Argent Dawn.
    D2X: remember to run your characters through!
Tolkien
    Ar-Pharazon: Which Nazgul names circulating on the net and in games are actually from Tolkien?
    Conclusion: Only Khamul.
After-meeting
    Chatted about several different games. 


    Tolkien Encyclopedia: (numerous updates on the Powers page, putting article and authors on their own pages)
       Articles:
          The Aratar
          The Valar

April 23, 2005
  Tolkien Encyclopedia:
    Poetry
        Ideas by Irmo-(Valar). We haven't seen the light as intended yet.
            This poem was lost during the transition between the old and new pages. We are glad to have it included once more!

April 20, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Anardil-(V)! Anardil came to us from World of WarCraft, the first to have that distinction. Ulmo, as Linqil, scouted and tested. Anardil brought in his "Earendil" level 44 character under the new rule for one outsider character for those who join on a MMORPG, not to be confused with Earendil-(V). Any other guild character names he brings in should have to do with the Anardil name to cause less confusion. Anardil is 20, a physics major from Boston College, New York state, EST. AIM is probably jsnuff1. He's read the LotR, Sil, and some HoMe. His favorite LotR character is Gandalf, for his wisdom and love of the people of Middle-earth.

April 18, 2005
    Report from Elwing-(V):

Woohoo!
In Chronicles Summer Fun Guide:
Houston Museum of Natural Science welcomes Lord of the Rings exhibit
from June 5 thru Aug 28. We are one of only 3 US cities that gets to have this (courtesy of New Zealand)!
Website says NO cameras or videocams will be allowed (darn...oh, well!)  I'll be going at least once while it's here!
Elwing
ps SCA people may be "demo"ing outside for part of the time too.

April 17, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name 
Transcript: team Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, Varda
Attending (17):
    Members: Arwen V1, Ecthelion/suilenroc01, Eonwe Valar, Fili/patente666gosse, Finwe/aranfinwe, GaldorV, Gelmir/Shaggyjoe, GilraenV, Haleth/Druidfalconwolf, Lungorthin/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Thror/Chugin Chub, VardaValar1
    Visitor: Nemoeverlonely/ex-Herumor-V
Members
    Galdor - had to leave early and came back late. Came into our WoW Alliance guild branch on Lothar.
    Several members were having computer problems, including Farmer Maggot's Bridge, unfortunately.
Web
    Forum:
        Tolkien threads may be added to at any time, even if the first post was a long time ago. That is a major reason we left the Yahoo Discussion Board, besided the advertisements. This board allows us to see and comment on previously brought up topics.
        The Tolkien Trivia thread needs Gwaihir's answer and a new question. The group seems stumped without a book.
    Games Page - more webwork will be done after Eonwe's Finals are over in about three weeks
    World of WarCraft : team Menelvagor, Gilraen, Varda
        Menelvagor is rebuilding a usable page since Maglor became difficult to reach.
            We can't update Maglor's old page as none of the current team knows Flash.
        Gilraen volunteered to help make the buttons.
        Members link now goes to a page made by Varda since she's on Lothar
Gaming
    MeO rp in the Valar Guild's Forum. 
       Chapter 4 is now rolling.
        Fili plans to come in as a dwarf.
        Most of the discussion came during the After-meeting
    WoW:
       WoW USA:
             Ulmo hit the top level of 60 first. Others are coming up behind him.
             Eonwe hit 40 and got his paladin horse. Story on the News and Forum.
             Galdor came into the branch, also plays Llane server.
       WoW Europe:
            Menelvagor's playing and about to, Pharazon is waiting for the arrival of his CD.
            How to enter US servers from Europe: use an international credit card and order a US CD.

    Dark Age of Camelot:
             Gelmir - plays Hibernia/Percival with Irmo
             Lungorthin - Plays with two other guilds on
Lancelot Midgard and Merlin Albion
    Guild Wars - several have shown interest
    Battle for Middle-earth - Pharazon wants to finish it before WoW Europe
Tolkien
    Haleth-V's questions, to help with her story:
        I was wondering if the Haladin had a specific standard/banner they used.
                Much searchiing, but no one found a banner mentioned even in the Histories.
        The Haladin were almost extinct around the time of Hurin... was this true in the Silmarillion as well?
    Side-track discussion on heights: Noldor and Numenoreans were 7'. Hobbit males 3'6", females 3'.
    Pharazon's question:
       Seven stars: What were the seven stars brought over from Numenor in the poem with "seven stars, seven stones, and one white tree"?
           Eonwe found it in "The Steward and the King" RotK: The crown of the High King of the Realms in Exile has seven gems set in it
After-meeting:
    MeO rp plotting discussion continued

April 15, 2005
    WoW: Friday guild run. A goodly number showed up, but most just spoke in guild chat rather than questing together. However, some did group with Eonwe.
      Eonwe's paladin, Auros, earns his warhorse! In his own words:

This week's questing:
Questers: Varda, Eonwë, Ereinion
Location: Hillsbrad Foothills, Altarac
Quests: Costly Menace, Preserving the Knowledge, Crushridge Bounty, Syndicate Assassins, Crushridge Bounty (Pt 2)

Upon meeting up, Varda's Fainan and Eonwë's Auros first went after the Mountain Lions and Hulking Mountain Lions. Thanks to Fainan's ability to track animals, we found what we needed quickly.

We then went straight to Alterac to get Knucklebones and the books from elite Ogres lvls 38-40. We did well, only dying a couple of times due to the aggro of an extra Ogre via the first one using flee on me. Once that problem was overcome, we fought our way across the ruins (carefully) and retrieved the worn leather book from the shelf of a boss Ogre. Fortunately, though there are several of these ogres in the area, they all spawn alone in their houses (except for the one in the keep). After procurring the book, we fought our way back towards where we came in, collecting the remaining knucklebones and books.

Once done, we left to go after the Syndicate. Coming a camp I knew of, we slew them there. Then we went East to come above Tarren Mill, finding another camp there. After slaying all of the Syndicate there, our task was done. However, catching a glimpse of Henchman Valik, we decided to get a close look. We killed him, and then returned to town, as it was already getting late and Varda had to go.

After Varda's departure, Eonwë went to complete more quests as he was growing close to 40. I decided to complete a quest from a guy in Southshore that sent me that way. Finding the two scouts near the Go-Shek Farm, I spoke with them, and the spoke to me of an Undead Courrier. I decided to seek this Courrier out and make it my primary target. After a bit of running up and down the road, I finally came upon the Courrier and her escort. The Courrier attacked me directly with no provocation, so I let loose with every Holy Ability I had in my arsenal, slaying the Courrier and claiming the letter she carried. Afterwards I turned my attention to the group, who I figured I would have little chance against. Killing one, the rest of the escort then got me, but my mission was already complete. I reclaimed by body and went back to the scouts. Now I had to escort one down into the farm guarded by orcs. The fight wasn't too bad and so after a while we made it down to the house in question, got what we needed, and ran out. I returned to Southshore victorious, but I wasn't 40 yet.

I decided to go back into Arathi to fight Warmongers for the secodn part of the Crushridge Bounty quest. After some time, Gil-Galad came into the area and joined me. We completed Preserving the Knowledge for him, recoving the worn leather book, and then we stuck around to kill off the last few Ogre Warmongers I had to kill. Once done, we made a run for town, turned in our quests, and Ereinion called it a night.

Really close to 40 now, I couldn't just log out, so I decided to give Stromgarde a try. Going in, I found the left side already wiped empty at the beginning, so I decided to investigate. Coming to the end, I was attacked by Marez Cowl, whom incidentally I needed to kill for a quest anyway. A druid in the area kindly healed and buffed me, and Marez went down for the count. I took her head as proof she was dealt with. I killed a bit more in the area, then went to turn in the quest. Now I was really close, so I went to get some Solid Stones from the Circle of Inner Binding. All it took was one Rumbling Exile, and I achieved my goal (and got a solid stone). Off I went to Stormwind, and spoke with the Dathorian Rall in the Cathedral of the Light. He granted me my faithful Warhorse, and that was it for me for the night.

April 10, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name 
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda 
Attending (14):
    ArPharazonV, ElatanValar, Eonwe Valar, Finwe/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggot/bnetValar/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Ulmo/HeruRasa, VardaValar1
Membership
    Orodreth: now using his new computer. Details in the transcript
    Gwaihir: working evenings during meetings and WoW get-togethers, but still with us.
    Gil-galad: Does anyone know if my reformatting my computer will delete the characters on WoW? No. They are stored on Blizzard's servers.
    New recruiting policy for MMORPG's: a new recruit can bring one outsider-named character into the guild, if he can't bear to start over with his personal guild name. Any others must be his name or a variant of it. The new recruit does not have to bring in his outside character.
    Game programming major offered at RPI next year. Details in the transcript.
Web:

    Encyc: navigation work continues. We can always use more contributions.
Gaming:
    Battle for Middle-earth: in the Before-meeting
    WoW: Europeans can play on our guild's Lothar server by using an International creditcard and a US WOW. rest is easy. This worked for Elatan.
    MeO: New Developer's Diary up
    MeO rp: we've started Section 4
    LARP convention

Tolkien:
    Pharazon: The size of the Palantiri. UT
    Pharazon: Legolas contributed the least to the Fellowship according to the UT chapter about the Istari
    Pharazon: Ford of Isen LotR
    Eonwe: JRRT sold the movie license and spent the money

April 8, 2005
    WoW:
       Friday guild gaming on Lothar: 5pm EST officially. We need some people to come in earlier to join in with Elatan and Orome who have a time problem. Some of us tend to stay on for many hours once we start, so don't feel you can't join in just because you're late. Even if you can't play or stay long, at least try to toss in a hello and good luck.
       From my memory like a steel sieve, here is the Friday report:

Present for at least part of the time were:
    Arathorn/Harania/Arathornia, Elatan/Dusksinger, Eonwe/Auros, Fangorn/EldestEnt, Gil-galad/Ereinion, Meriadoc/Merryv, Ulmo/Linqil, Varda/Fainan
A group formed (including two pairs of siblings) and did several quests in Gnomeregan, sharing where possible:
    Arathornia hunter 31, Auros paladin 37, Bellene/Auros' brother, Merryv 45 mage, Fainan/Merry's sister 39 hunter

April 4, 2005
    News page: all meeting transcript links for March 2005 should now be working.

April 3, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT, GMT-5 TIME CHANGE!!
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name 
Transcript: by the team of Ar-Pharazon and Varda

Attending (14):
    Members: ArPharazonV, Elwing V, Eonwe Valar (presided over Tolkien chat), Finwe-V/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, Haleth/Druidfalconwolf, FarmerMaggot-V/bnetValar/TheSirG3, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-V/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Ulmo-Valar/HeruRasa, VardaValar1 (presided over business)
    Visitor: Bloody Requim
Membership
    Orome - in WoW only, dropped DAoC. Plays Lothar server with our guild branch
    Melkor - back where he can reach a comp
    Orodreth - new comp
Web
    News Page
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       Navigation continues in progress, slow. Subject nav is fine, but now on alphabetical, dividing all entries into separate pages. Author pages still in progress.
       Humor: new joke section for tombstones
Gaming
    World of WarCraft (WoW): Frida gaming - report shown on Friday
    Morrowind
    Battle for Middle-earth
Tolkien
    Menelvagor's topic: Dagor Dagorlad: what happens to Turin there?
    Ar-Pharazon's topic: Whatever happened to the spirits of Sauron and Saruman?
    Elwing's topic: I'd like opinions of how the Rangers were viewed by general populace.
After-meeting - kept up Tolkien chat to the very last gasp  :) so we had no "After"

April 1, 2005
    Happy April Fools' Day!
World of WarCraft:
    Friday guild playing.  If we can't group, we can still chat!

      Orome's Report:

Hail Valar!

It was my pleasure on 4/1/05 to venture into the Stockades beneath Stormwind with Eonwe, Gil-Galad, and Varda. Quests were completed, and items of power were taken from the fallen foes. I had a good time and look forward to joining in future hunts! Orome

PS I KNOW it is brief, but what did you expect from me ;)
    Additional information from Varda, who stayed a bit later:
       Participants by primary and WoW name:
        Full members: Eonwe/Auros (36), Gil-galad/Ereinion (34), Meriadoc/Merryv (41?), Orome/Aldaronvala (20-something), Ulmo/Gulma (9), Varda/Fainan (36)
        Guild-friends: Fosco - greeted. Eonwe's brother/Beline - joined into a group. Manieline (spelling?) joined into a group.

       Party: Eastern Kingdom/Stockades:
          Aldaronvala, Auros, Ereinion, and briefly Manieline (Varda still traveling to reach them) visited the Stockade instance and did "Hand of Dextran", and "Targorr".
          Aldaronvala had to go to work. Varda arrived by gryphon and joined the Stockade party, and they collected the traitorous Deepfury's head for "The Fury Runs Deep". The previous two quests did not show up again, as it was an instanced dungeon. Ereinion had to leave after Deepfury, and Beline joined the party briefly until forced off by real life.
       While turning in the quests, the servers went down for maintenance.
       Fainan returned and found Ereinion, Linqil, and Merryv. We had a fun chat while turning in quests and doing quests. Merry was a great help to Fainan in locating the journal for "Velinde's Effects" in the Tradesman's Center of Darnassus, even without being partied. It being past 2am CST/3am EST, Fainan the Sleepy left Merry and Ereinion to hold down the fort.
top

March 27, 2005
    Happy Easter!!

Sunday Meeting 5pm EST Eastern Standard Time (Check your computer clock for your equivalent time, and no I'm not on EST either.)
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript: team of  Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending: (10):
    ArPharazonV, Elros-V/LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe Valar, Fili-V/patente666gosse, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Haleth-V/Druidfalconwolf, FarmerMaggot-V/TheSirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
Membership:
    Time changed in Europe and it is Easter Sunday for the Western hemisphere. Surprisingly, we still had enough people for a good meeting.
    Fili joined last meeting
    Gwaihir is having his birthday celebration today.
    Orome's two children now play WoW, albeit casually right now.
Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
       Progress on the Powers page, Article Authors pages
Gaming:
    MeO:
       Taken over by Turbine, date moved back to 2006.
    WoW
       Friday guild gaming in WoW, at the same time as meetings, on Lothar, Alliance. Report of last Friday's.
    MeO rp  new players seem to be coming onboard . About to start new chapter going to Erebor from Mirkwood.
Tolkien Chat:
    4 topics suggested. Since Menelvagor was the only topic-giver left by chat time, we went with his:
    Menelvagor-(Valar)'s topic: Maeglin's treachery. Discussion included BoLTs, UT, Sil
    The other three for other meetings were:
        Fili-(V)'s topic: Where did Beorn get his ability?
        Haleth-(V)'s two topics:
           Are the Eldar reborn?
           In the Silmarillion, were there children of the Valar?
After-meeting:
    Eonwe improvises a dungeon-crawler game on the spot: "The Lord of Ferrets".

March 25, 2005
    World of WarCraft:
       Friday guild get-together on Lothar. Report by Varda
          People who came:
            Arathorn/Haran (23) and other characters, Eonwe/Auros (35), Gwaihir/Vaiwalcin, Meriadoc/Merryv (39), Orome/Aldaronvala, Ulmo/Linqil (53), Varda/Fainan (35). Fangornv was present earlier, but let Fainan use the computer.
            Guild friends Fellene/Beline/brother of Auros and Fosco said hi.
         Stranglethorn quests from the Nesingwary Expedition camp: "Pages", "Raptor Mastery":
            Linqil, Auros, and Fainan grouped. For the pages we headed north to the goblins and then into the cave of the Kurzen humans. The cave was the best place for pages.
            Linqil, Auros, and Fainan went to StormWind (thanks to Linqil's port) and then to Booty Bay for the flight path for Auros.
            Auros and Fainan then did the Raptor Mastery quest until finishing the Lashtail Raptors.
            Linqil went to Un'goro for experience.
            Auros and Fainan both leveled up to 36.

March 22, 2005
    Middle-earth Online MMORPG news:
    (Sent in by Eonwe-Valar March 23)

Turbine Takes Over MMP License For Games Based On J.R.R. Tolkien Works

WESTWOOD, Mass. – March 22, 2005 – Turbine, Inc., a leading publisher of
online subscription entertainment, announced today that it has finalized a
deal with Tolkien Enterprises and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) that
grants Turbine the exclusive right to develop and publish massively
multiplayer online worlds based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
literary works. As part of the agreement, Turbine will own all of the game
assets to the upcoming, highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role
playing game (MMORPG) The Lord of the Rings™: Middle-Earth™ Online. All
publishing responsibilities previously assumed by VU Games for the online
license have been transitioned to Turbine effective immediately.
(more)

          Game no longer scheduled to come out this summer, but in 2006. Longer version.

March 20, 2005
     Fili-(V), Welcome to the Valar Guild! After finding us on the website, Fili emailed, then came to AIM (while playing D2) before today's meeting and passed his test with Varda. His AIM name is patente666gosse. He is 13, from Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is in the time zone of EST. He speaks French, English being a second language. On weekends, he plays D1, D2 (not D2X), some WC3, and EQ when it works. He has read the H, LotR, Sil, BoLT 1, and is currently reading BoLT 2. His favorite LotR character is Sam, as the most important character in LotR.

Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript: by the team of Ar-Pharazon, Varda 

Attending: (16):
    Members: ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, Fili-V/patente666gosse, Finwe-V/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-Galad-V/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, FarmerMaggotV/Musics4Me2/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, ThorondorV, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    Visitor: Bloody Requim
Membership News:
    Fili-(V) joined the guild and said his few words!
    Arathorn-(Valar) explained his absence problem.
    Ar-Pharazon-(V)'s computer upgraded with help from Fladrif-(V)
Web News:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Story Page:
          "Ondollo - After the Watchful Peace" by Orodreth-(V)
       Powers Page: began navigation work of separating articles into pages
       World of WarCraft page - screenshots
Gaming News:
    World of WarCraft:
       Friday Gaming
       WoW Europe
    Diablo 1: guild group last Sunday after meeting
    Morrowind - single-player but can exchange tips
    WarCraft 2
    Tribunal
Tolkien Chat:
    Topic started by Bloody Requim: Where did Gandalf Stormcrow come from, and why is he with the Hobbits? Tangents and jokes.

March 18, 2005
    World of WarCraft:
       Friday guild gaming:
          Alatar, Arathorn, Elatan, Gil-galad, Orome, Ulmo, and Varda came. Arathorn and Varda quested in RedRidge.

March 17, 2005
    New Story!:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Stories:
          "Ondollo - After the Watchful Peace" by Orodreth-(V). Complete.

March 13, 2004
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript: by the team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, Varda 
Attending: (14)
    aranfinwe, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Eonwe Valar, FINARFIN010, Gelmir-V/Shaggyjoe (after-meeting), GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Huan-Valar/LiberalHound, FarmerMaggot-V/The SirG3/Musics4Me2, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Ulmo-Valar/HeruRasa, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
    Ar-Pharazon's progress on his re-read of all his Tolkien books.
    Gwaihir: "I have a new job... next few weeks I'm gone from 2PM to 12-1AM from Monday to Friday.... after that, I dunno what my schedule'll be like "
    Menelvagor's birthday is next week, March 22, will be 24.
    How long will the Valar Guild last? Question was put outside by outsider, group commented, might last past our lifetimes.
Web:
    Sigma Chat: more discussion on possibly moving the chat there. Fewer viruses, ban available, easier for the admin. Discussion ran across the Before meeitng into the beginning of the meeting.
    Forum:
       Ulmo located a Horde group called Lords of Akallabeth and is trying to make contact with his Atalante character. Wondering if more than the leader know any Tolkien.
Gaming:

    WoW:
       Gwaihir's tip/reminder how to find all members of any guild online while you are.
        Last Friday's guild group gaming
    Diablo 1:
       Ironman - how to play, earlier gaming
       Quest
       V&K Middle-earth mods
    Hellfire (D1 expansion)
    WarCraft 2
    Middle-earth Online
    Forum role-play
    Gaming get-togethers. After Tolkien, we broke into Diablo 1 and WoW. List of things that happened, as we had different experiences.
Tolkien:
   Eonwe Valar: Did Morgoth have ulterior motives for his targetting of Fëanor and his family?
   Tangents:  Why Eru made the Ainur. Nature of time.

March 11, 2005
    Congratulations to Grimbold! He has completed his training and is now a certified Veterinarian Technician!
    World of Warcraft: Friday Guild Questing (5pm EST)
        The Friday guild questing completed numerous quests, starting with our lowbie characters, moving to mid-level characters, then broke into mid and low level groups. The report is on the Forum.
        Participants were Arathorn, Eonwe, Grimbold, Merry, Ulmo, and Varda.
        Some of the completed quests were "Killing Fields", "Yowling in the Hills", "Blackrock Bounty", "What Comes Around", "Missing in Action", "Tharil'zun", "Wanted Lt. Fangore", and "Solomon's Law". Some quests had to be done more than once to get quest participants through them, but we did it!

March 6, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, GMT-5
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript: by the team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, Varda
Attending: (17)
    ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Caranthir-V/MoriFinwe, ElladanV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), FINARFIN010, Finwe-V/aranfinwe, FladrifV, Gil-galad-V/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Huan-Valar/LiberalHound, FarmerMaggot/Musics4Me2/The SirG3/Bridge, Menelvagor Valar, Orodreth V, Ulmo-Valar/HeruRasa, VardaValar1
Membership
    Arathorn - comp problems. Connection issues, lag.
    Gwaihir - his dad's birthday is today :). Gwaihir will be gone
weekdays from about 2PM 'til 1 AM CST due to work and travel times, 3pm - 2am EST.
Web
    Links Page
       Italian fan site
    Forum
       WoW section: new board for Questing.
       Discussion topic: should we have passwords anywhere on the Forum?
    WoW Page
       Under new management by Menelvagor-(Valar)
    Farmer Maggot's Page
        New personal page
Gaming
      WoW
        
WoW Weekly Questing took us to the Deadmines on Friday. Check out the Report now up in the Hunts Section on the Forum
            If you don't remember the password, e-mail Varda.
            The Weekly Guild Questing reports will be posted in the Hunts Board, and Eonwe will try to have a thread to which all can be posted set up before the Questing time every Friday. Just put your report in a reply to the thread. If you have comments or such, use another thread or PM the reporter.
Tolkien:
    Eonwe-(Valar)'s topic:
Do the descendants of the Caliquendi Noldor, for example Elrond, count as Calaquendi, or are they by default Dark Elves?

top

Feb. 28, 2005
    Links:
       Fan Sites:
         
Il Signore degli aneli Edoras - Italian fan site. Images, articles on the Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion, chat. by Thengel

Feb. 27, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST(VST) GMT-5.
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name
Transcript : team Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, Varda 
Attending: (20 full members, 0 Tolkien-onlies, 0 guests)
    Aerandir/mordacil, Alatar (Sigma), Ar-Pharazon (AIM and Sigma), Arwen, Ecthelion/suilenroc01, Elros/Louiskiskowski, Eonwe, Finarfin, Finwe/aranfinweFladrif, Gelmir/shaggyjoe (AIM and Sigma), Gil-galad/Xseanzee disco, Gilraen, Gwaihir, Lungorthin/sauronjagFarmerMaggot/Bridge/Musics4Me, The SirG3, Menelvagor, Orodreth, Ulmo/HeruRasa, Varda (AIM and Sigma) (presiding) 
Member News:
    Isildur-V - reinstated after accidental drop
    Arwen-V - an hour or two before the meeting, went into the Emergency Room with an infected tooth, dropped by the meeting anyway.
Web News:
    Meeting Notes - last two sets now updated.by Menelvagor
    Humor Page - new Tough Guide jokes added. Links repaired. by Menelvagor
    WoW Page - new member names added. by Menelvagor, convert screenshots to usable jpgs with the converter
    Forum - new section added for World of WarCraft questing by Menelvagor
Gaming News:
    WC3 map - Cherryville
    WoW:
      USA:
       Every Friday guild grouping at 5pm EST (which is VST), changed from 4pm after talking with some members. No others had comments for or against.
       Last Friday we had guild members grouping together for the pre-planned meeting. Much fun was had in the Wetlands. Longbraid and Motley gave quests and we did them for a number of members. Participants: Alatar/Morinehtar, Beline (guild-friend, brother of Eonwe), Elatan/Dusksinger, Eonwe/Auros, Eowyn/Mairowen, Gil-galad/Ereinion, Meriadoc/Merryv, Varda/Fainan
       "Under development" page on Blizzard has lists of many updates planned
Tolkien:
    The Watchful Peace
    Appendices
    Noldorin hair and eye color
After-meeting:
    Forum rp. Much of the discussion took place in private messages but some can be seen in the chat

February 25, 2005
    World of WarCraft:
     Guild group/raid questing every Friday 5pm EST (VST).
       Suggested areas so far: Deadmines, Blackfathom Deeps, any area members request as needed. May run groups in several areas. We usually come on at various times, more coming in as people get off work.
       VST is Valar Standard Time, a term from the earliest days of the guild.

Feb. 23, 2005
    Caught up on Meeting summary and transcript for Feb 13. Learned while quilting transcripts that Dior and Isildur came earlier than my transcript showed. Isildur said he wished to remain in the guild, and this was before the Feb 15 deadline. Caught up on the Feb 20 meeting summary and transcript.
    Isildur-(V) reinstated as a member, as he should not have been dropped. Need a way to contact. 
    Letter from Menelvagor for those WoW screenshots that need converted to jpg before sending in:

The link mentioned below is for a pretty easy image converter, it converts about 15 extensions, amongst which *.tga files.
http://www.download.com/3001-2192_4-10364237.html?idl=n
 
Namarie
Menelvagor

Feb. 20, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST(VST) GMT-5.
    AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace (or message VardaValar1, expect pause)
    IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    Battle.net: Public Chat Valar
    Sigma Chat: click on http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005  Type in your guild name

Transcript: team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, and Varda
Attending: (16)
    Alatar-(Valar)/Alatar, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Caranthir-(V)/MoriFinwe, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Gelmir/Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Finarfin-V/FINARFIN010, FladrifV, Lungorthin-Valar/sauronjag, FarmerMaggotV/Musics4Me2, Menelvagor Valar, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1
Membership:
    New Full Member: Haleth-(V)
    Sweep completed.
    Keeping track of meeting members. Please say a greeting when you enter, preferably Aiya for the page search. Using !list to the bridge, and trying to be in several places at once.
    Varda having virus problems on her computer, came to the meeting using a different barely functional computer.
 Web:
    Forum: removed inactives from the Forum. If they want to become active, they can show up.
    WoW Page:
       New Screenshots 
       Converter for screenshots from tga to jpg so they can be sent in for the Screenshot page. Sent in on Feb 23 by Menelvagor.
Gaming:
    WoW:
       USA: Lothar server, Valar Guild WoW branch
         Gryphon Run in raid groups after tonight's meeting, so we can get together for future questing and "raid" groups. The Run starts one hour after the start pf tje meeting.
         Weekly "raid" quests on Fridays afterwards. A "raid" is a gathering of groups for the same purpose. Potential raids suggested.
Tolkien:
    Eonwe's topic: What would Tolkien think of Leet speak?
    Ar-Pharazon's topic: Udun, as when Gandalf called the Balrog of Moria a flame of Udun.
    Varda's topic: Middle-earth language use significance
After-meeting
    Includes much of the above Tolkien and a lot of WoW talk, mostly Europe WoW since US players went to the Gryphon Run.

Feb. 15, 2005
    WoW page:
       Screenshots:
          Report from Arathorn-(Valar):
           
I added some new WoW pics to my web page. Some snaps of my new horse there too :-D

      A WoW channel tip. /leave channelname will let you leave an unwanted channel. /join channelname puts you in one.
      We type /join Valar for our non-guild, unofficial channel. That gives a number to type instead of retyping the channel name every time. Thus type, /4 message.

    Membership newsInactivity Sweep - removal of members
       The inactivity sweep list is complete for full members. If you've been listed as inactive, call on a Maia or Vala honor member for joining again. They can be located at a meeting or game. A time convenient for you can be chosen by email with Varda. Please take care of this before someone else takes your name, as this can be a hassle for active gamers' character names and recognition, and requires changes in the Encyc.
       The inactivity sweep list is complete for Tolkien-only members. If you've been listed as inactive, please email Varda if you wish to rejoin. You will need to turn in at least a small contribution to the Tolkien Encyclopedia to show interest and be added to the 2005 roll. These can be articles (as in notes on the books or more), poems, stories, jokes, book reviews, translations, or whatever else you think would make a good addition.
 
Feb. 14, 2005
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Haleth-(V)! Haleth is 14, from Arizona, USA, in MST. She found emailed and tested on AIM with Varda. She plays WC3/TFT about once a week, sometimes more. She is currently working on a fanfic and, after completing, plans to send it to our Encyc. AIM is Druidfalconwolf. She tried to make an AIM name for Haleth but it didn't work. She is on AIM most evenings. She is currently most interested in the Sil and is re-reading it. She has read: H, LotR, Sil, UT, Lays of Beleriand, Shaping of Middle-earth, The Lost Roads and Other Writings, and Morgoth's Ring. Her favorite LotR character is Gandalf: wise, courageous, compassionate, and humble; he showed the way.

Feb. 13, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST. Bridge allows meeting interaction from AIM, Sigma Chat, IRC, and Battle.net.
    For AIM, come to chat room Valar Guild Meetingplace
    For Battle.net, come to East, Public Chat Valar

    For IRC
irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
    For Sigma Chat, click this link: 
http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005 and enter your primary guild name as your user name.

Transcript: team of Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor, Varda
Attending:

    Aerandir V, AlatarValar2, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Dior-(V)/MyCantalopeH8tsU, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Gil-Galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Gwaihir,  isildur-V (in Bnet), FarmerMaggotV/Musics4Me2/The SirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor Valar, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V, Ulmo-(Valar)/HeruRasa, VardaValar1  
(Type !list to the bridge for list of all those on all bridged areas)
Membership
    Dior - showed up for the before-meeting but did not say if he wished to remain in the guild, left before it started.
    Isildur - showed up from Bnet and said he wanted to remain in the guild, but had to go afk before the meeting got far. Reinstate, as this was before the Feb 15 deadline.
    Varda - slightly late for meeting and apologizes, missed seeing Dior and Isildur in my own transcript, therefore. Had to finish painting a walk-in closet.

Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
      Humor Page:
       New link:
         http://valarguild.org/menelvagor/humortext.html#toughguide 
    Chat Bridge:
       Good for linking the meeting from Battlenet, IRC, SigmaChat. But Farmer Maggot says he can't bridge to MSN. Anyone else out there able to help him with the programming?

Gaming:
    WoW:
       USA: Lothar server, Valar Guild branch:  
          Next Sunday's Event, scheduled after the regular guild meeting: The Gryphon Run. We are gathering in StormWind, Cathedral of Light. Escort provided for those needing it. For the Gryphon Run, we will be guiding and escorting each other to increase everyone's number of gryphon flight paths so we can get together more easily for groups. Higher levels will help lower levels find and survive these runs, or at least reach them eventually. The travel alone adds experience to those who have not been in those areas before.
          Afterwards, we will have weekly guild "raids" Fridays at 4pm EST. Our raids are not PvP. Suggestions are instanced dungeons such as: The Redridge Quests, the Blackfathom Deeps quests. From StormWind, we can break into groups of five or more and go into Raid or Parties.
          Group leaders will be chosen randomly, although those who were leaders last time don't lead the next time. The leader types up a report. The minimum on the report is: Name/Class/StartingLevel of his group's members, Where Quested, Short Summary. If the writer is creative, he/she can type it up in Tolkien-style and put it on the Forum under WoW's RP section. Strategy and Tactics would be nice.
          Gil-galad came into WoW, intending Lothar server as Ereinion.
       Europe:
           Europe now has WoW, but cannot yet reach USA.
           Server Argent Dawn (role-playing) being used by Menelvagor.
           Server Thunderhorn being used by Elatan, a Hunter wth the Alliance. If he can get on USA, he expects to drop Europe.
           Ar-Pharazon's CD for WoW is on order. He says buying it in a store (Europe) would have been faster. 
Tolkien:
    Varda's topic: How did each of the Fellowship members "go the extra mile"?
       Fellowship members discussed: Gimli, the Conspiracy (including Sam, Merry, and Pippin), Gandalf (discussion skewed off into when "death" is death and for whom), Sam, (Tolkien talk continued after the meeting was adjourned).
    Orodreth's Random Fact: A river in Bulgaria is named Arda.

Feb. 12, 2005
Inactivity drop status (broom sweep):
Let Varda know if you have seen any of these folk in guild activities this year, or let them know to contact Varda or make a Forum post. Perhaps you can contact some of them on an instant messenger or game. They can rejoin, but someone else may have taken the name meanwhile.
Dropping for inactivity occurred early morning Feb. 15.
 
Full members (16 + MoH) in danger of dropping for inactivity are:

Akhoril  (Dropped. No response. AIM:
PhoenixLord264)
Ancalagon (Dropped. No response. Usually played WC3/TFT)
Bain (Dropped. No email response, no AIM)
Beleg (Dropped. No email response, no AIM)
Bregalad/Quickbeam (Dropped. Little time now for online gaming)
Celegorm (
AIM: CelegormV, MaritimeMan5 )
Cirdan (Dropped. No email response, no AIM)
Daeron (Dropped. No working emails listed, no AIM)
Dior ? (Feb 22 note: Dior came to the Feb 13, 2005 before-meeting very briefly in AIM as
MyCantalopeH8tsU, said it had been a long time, did not say if he wanted to be in the guild and did not stay for the meeting. )(Dropped but could return without test because of the Feb 13 visit.)( No email response. AIM: ajmfalcon -old. Visited as MyCantalopeH8tsU)
Eol (Left. Emailed that rl too hectic to allow gaming: just married, looking for better home and job. May rejoin in future. His business page no longer on guild index Members' Personal Pages, but the link is still on 2004 Member Activity. No AIM)  
Finduilas with Nimrodel (Dropped. No response. Usually played EQ on non-guild server. No AIM.)
Idril (Dropped. No response. AIM: narthais, VIdrilV)
Isildur - Not dropped, although accidentally removed and being returned to the lists. (Feb 22 note: Isildur came to the meeting from Bnet on Feb 13, said he would like to remain. Put him back on the lists since this was before Feb 15.) (no email response, no AIM).
Khamul (Dropped again. No email response. AIM: KhamulV) 
Legolas (Dropped. No email response. No AIM)
Mahtan (Left. Emailed that rl too hectic to allow gaming.
His business page no longer on guild index Members' Personal Pages, but the link is still on 2004 Member Activity.)
Ugluk (Dropped. Unreachable. No known activity in 2004)

Tolkien-only members (18) in danger of dropping for inactivity are:

Amanlathwen
Anarion (AIM: AnarionTV) .
Arien (
AIM: Idril1970  ArienTV) .
Bill Ferny .
Durin .
Elenna
Falco/Naz
Feanor
Finwe
Gandalf
Khaira .
LaurelinCaline
( AIM: shoutin utter)
Lynganell
Luinwen (
AIM: Mircrenarchangel)
Maglor
Shiremaiden
Tar-Palantir
TJ (found another email on Feb 15 and re-sent activity letter) 

Feb. 9, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Events:
            Time Changes Between the Third and Fourth Ages new

       Trolls:
          Updated Trolls article

Feb. 8, 2005
    Links page:
       Images: Three Tolkien artist pages:
          Roger Garland's
          John Howe's
          Ted Nasmith's
      
Encyclopedias, Tolkien FAQ, Article Collections:
         
Chronology of the Silmarillion
    Tolkien Encyc:
       Elves:
          Types of Elves - new article
       Events:
         Finally made the Events page workable and showed link in the Encyc. List of major ages with links to the already made articles pertaining to events of the time, leaving individuals to the rest of the Encyc. New articles of Events type should also be linked here.
         Under Events: started new pages for notables of the War of the Ring's Marriages, Births, Deaths.

Feb. 6, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace; IRC: irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild; Battle.net: Public Chat Valar; Sigma Chat: http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005
Transcript - team Ar-Pharazon, Varda
Transcript No frills, by Farmer Maggot-(V)
Before-meeting:
    Worked on setting up the bridge so we could hear each other in all four programs. MSN still under construction.
Members: 
    Sweep: removal of apparently disinterested members will be finishing up by the end of this week. They can return with a new test and info update. It's easiest and with a better chance of keeping your name if you email Varda this week while you are still an official member.
    Gwaihir came to the meeting but felt too ill to sit up at the computer.
    Menelvagor cancelled DAoC so he could afford WoW.
    Orodreth's laptop is dying. He's having a new computer made, hopes it will be running in March.
Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Story section:
          Midnight Musings by Elwing-(V)
        Humor section:
          Menelvagor now has taken over the Humor pages, has them operating, and built a splash page for the main link. He also included the "You know you're in Valar when..." page on it.
          New link for the next part after Mordor and Catapult suggestion, found by Ar-Pharazon. Caution, bad language.
        Links?: Music: Far over the Misty Mountains
    Name Page:
        Helpers requested for research. Email Varda.
    Images
       Guild web weavers are checking out other sites to store images, as we were about to wipe out our valarguild.org server's space with them.
Gaming:
    MeO: Middle-earth Online:
       MeO official site revamped. 
       This summer is the current target date for MeO to start.
       Guild's MeO rp discussed. Still a good place to join if you want to be a Mirkwood Elf. We are soon heading for Erebor, a good place to join as a Dwarf. You can meet us on the road outside Erebor also.
    WoW: World of WarCraft:
       Valar Guild branch is on the Lothar server in full operation, with members of many levels. One or more are on almost any time of day or night. We can group and mail help.
       Tabard in use. Looks good, Eonwe! Buying a tabard requires one gold per character, unless bought in an area where your character has Honored status and gets a discount. Ask a guard for the guildmaster npc's location. The tabard npc stands next to the guildmaster npc.
       Type /who valar to see who is on in the Valar Guild if you are not in it yet. If you are already a Valar Guild Full Member, request an invitation. You might have to prove you're a guild member with an email from your known email address. If you can't find anyone who can help, come to a meeting and an officer will enter and help you.
       Type /join Valar to join our side channel. This is a good way to talk to our guild-friends and those members who keep a presence there. 
       Patch:
            Paladin's attack hit expected to be nerfed tomorrow. Repairs of some messed up parts.
       WoW Valar Guild page:
          Organization is now:
            Maglor (originator) handles Flash.

            Menelvagor helps with text updates.

            Arathorn handles screen shots for now.

Feb. 2, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia updates:
       Stories:
          Midnight Musings, by Elwing-(V)

       Humor:
          Menelvagor-(Valar) is now handling the pages for Tolkien humor both text and illustrated, including humor links currently on the text page.
    "You know you're in Valar when... joke page is also now being handled by Menelvagor. Varda (me), who made and maintained the pages before, thank him deeply for taking these off my hands. Feel free to email items for those pages to Menelvagor, or to your all-around contact person for everything, Varda, to have them included.

Feb. 1, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
      Title:
       Eowyn has created a .gif for the Tolkien Encyclopedia's title, rigged to match our regular Valar Guild banner. It may also be used as a banner. You may have to reload/refresh the page to see it.
     Humor:
       Arwen found these and Eowyn sent them in for the pages. Check them out in order for best effect.
          http://www.askesis.org/images/temp/mordor-vi.gif
          http://www.askesis.org/images/temp/catapult1id.gif

    Pictures:
       Imagezilla says the Valar Guild members may go ahead and post pictures for our site on their server. It is a free service, recommended by Alatar-(Valar). Please don't infringe on anyone's copyright!
        Each of us can make our own section on Imagezilla, allowing us to also use the space for personal use, not just for guild use. We have unlimited space for each user, but an individual file can only be about one megabyte, and will have a big number at the beginning of its file name. A file can be compressed by various means, and Imagezilla will have or does have something to help compress.
       Email the URL for your picture that intended to go on the web site, and say which page it is for. If we have no current section for it, we can make one. It needs to be gaming or Tolkien-related, or at least guild-related, even a picture of you or what you claim to be your picture if you like. I can add the link to your spot on the Activity page. :)  If you don't know who to send the URL to, send it to Varda (me) who will use or forward it to the correct webweaver.
top

Jan. 30, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST.
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace. Battle.net: Public Chat Valar. IRC: connect to irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild
Transcript : team Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: 17/128 full members, 0/25 Tolkien-onlies, 1 guest
    Members: Alatar, Ar-Pharazon, Arwen, Caranthir/Morifinwe, Eonwe, Fladrif, Gil-galad/Xseanzeedisco, Gilraen, Grimbold, Lungorthin/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot/BnetValar/TheSirG3, Menelvagor, Orodreth, Scatha/STEvilaim, Thror/Chuginchub, Ulmo/HeruRasa, Varda (presiding)
    Guest: DwarfKing20 (Thror's friend, wants to join)
Members:
    Orodreth is hoping to get cable, as DSL did not work out.
Web:
    Alatar suggested trying this image hosting site:
http://www.imagezilla.com/
    Alatar also plans to let us try out a new chat program for the next meeting. We can meet in AIM and work our way over there.
Here's the free version we are trying out before the guild decides whether or not to go for the paid version. Alatar has offered to pay it. Some of us tried it at today's meeting:
http://client0.sigmachat.com/sc.pl?id=90005
http://www.sigmachat.com/login.html
Gaming:
    WoW event: Unlocking of the Tabard!
        The tabard is now unlocked and ready for any of the guild. A tabard is less than the usual 1 gold price if you go to a city where you have honored status.
Tolkien:
    Balrogs.

Jan. 29, 2005
    World of WarCraft Charter - draft posted. Members have one week to comment before it is made our official document.

Jan. 26, 2005
   
Corrected bad News links to transcripts
    Summary for very active Jan 16 meeting now up, links now on transcript.
    Transcript for Jan 23 now has more links.
    Activity 2005 page should show as updated from meetings, emails.

Jan. 25, 2005
    World of WarCraft:
       Arathorn-(Valar) set up a cool page for Valar Guild WoW Screenshots. This page should connect to Maglor's WoW page for the guild in the future when Maglor is back in contact.

Jan. 23, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST. AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace. Battle.net: Public Chat Valar. IRC: connect to irc.freenode.net, join channel #valarguild 
Transcript: team Ar-Pharazon-(V), Menelvagor-(Valar), Varda-(Valar)
Real time Log by Farmer Maggot's AIM Bridge
    AIM Bridge:
    Farmer Maggot tested his new AIM Bridge with Ar-Pharazon's help. The bridge allows a person to hear and speak to the main group in AIM as if he were present, printing everything said both ways in all parts of the bridge.  It worked for Ar-Pharazon's WarCraft3 character and Farmer's IRC sig. Farmer is now working on a bridge for MSN, which is more complicated. More testers would be welcomed for each section. 
    From Battle.net it looks like:
bnetValar: Ar-Pharazon-V@Azeroth (Bnet): well?
    From IRC it looks like:
bnetValar: SirG3 (IRC): hey you guys :-)
Membership:
  Attending: (18 of 128)
    AIM: Aerandir/mordacil, Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon/Ar-Pharazon-V@Azeroth, Arwen, Elros/
LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe, Finarfin, Gil-galad/Xseanzeedisco, Gilraen, Grimbold, Gwaihir, Lungorthin/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot/TheSirG3/SirG3/bnetValar, Menelvagor, Olwe/FallenGlory, Thror/ChuginChub, Ulmo/HeruRasa, Varda (presiding)
    Battle.net Public Chat Valar: Ar-Pharazon-V@Azeroth. Farmer Maggot's bnetValar.
    IRC: Farmer Maggot as SirG3.
Web:
    Transcript: Menelvagor added times in EST.
    WoW screenshots. Arathorn rigged a place for members to upload WoW screenshots. Maglor can link to them from there for the WoW page.
    WoW Christmas screenshots by Arathorn.
    WoW Beta screenshots by Arathorn
Gaming:
   
    Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction:
        D2X Ladder 2 continues. Please email your character's information to Varda to show participation and so others know how to look for you. 
    World of WarCraft MMORPG: 
       Guild branch officially formed. Members are being invited and given their usual guild ranks. 
       Leader: Eonwe-(Valar) is guild branch leader. In WoW, he is Auros, a human paladin. He also operates Kalasul, the guild money bank. Send contributions for the guild to Kalasul. The bank has so far been used to buy the guild charter signing-sheet and to unlock the guild tabard. If enough funds are available, they may be used to help buy guild tabards for individuals.
       Charter: Eonwe wrote up the charter but it was lost. He is re-writing it.
       Tabard: We have enough gold to unlock the tabard design for the guild.
        Some argument came up about the design, but it appears we will go with the original using the Flame Imperishable in gold in the center, darkish sky-blue for Manwe as the background, and a gold border probably the one with multiple open circles.
        One gold is needed for each individual tabard and is generally available from a tabard vendor next to the guild-master npc in major cities.
        The tabard is suggested to be for your primary character and might be given aid from our small guild treasury if needed. (If you have more than the guild treasury does, such as Annatar, consider donating a silver or more as if it were a hobbit birthday! Friends may contribute in behalf of the tabard recipient.) Alts might get tabards after the main is equipped, but probably not from guild funds. A ceremony for the presentation of the primary character's guild tabard may be conducted by Auros (Eonwe). Other members may come to cheer the member on and show him/her honor. Such ceremonies are most likely just after guild meetings when most of us are together, but can be set for another time.
        Guild character names. Make your guild characters of some variant of your primary guild name for recognition and education of other members. If you need help, email Varda. Name plus race or profession is sometimes used, as is adding a v at the end (although it will be a small letter against the last letter of the name).
       Guild channel: We have a guild channel. Type /guild to join it the first time, and it will be automatic thereafter.
       Valar channel: We continue to have Valar channel. This is helpful for members who haven't had their characters added to the guild yet and are trying to find others. It is also good for alts that aren't in the guild. Certain very good guild-friends join as well, who haven't finished the LotR, such as Eonwe's brother, Fellene/Beline, known as Dracxil in D2X, who often groups with members and is polite as well as funny.
Tolkien:
     
After-meeting:
    Group broke into D2X and WoW.

Jan. 22, 2005
    I'm back. :)  Now wading through the mass of email.
        Very good news, that Embla-(TV) is alive and well. An excerpt from her email is listed for the day sent, Jan 20.
        Farmer Maggot has coded a new AIM Bridge to help people attend meetings from AIM, IRC, and Bnet's Valar and hear each other. See Jan 17.

Jan. 20, 2005
    Letter from Embla-(TV), excerpt:

       I left Thailand a couple of days before the Tsunami happend. I wanted to
spend christmas with my parents so I was very lucky. The reason I haven´t
been writing to you until now is that I have moved to Finland, so it has
been much do to and little time.

Jan. 17, 2005
    New AIM Bridge program: Letter from Farmer Maggot-(V):

Woot, after a day's worth of coding it's online (and hopefully will
for a while, save when I update it).

Bridged channels:
Valar Guild Meetingplace on AIM
Public Chat Valar on Battle.net
#valarguild on freenode.net (IRC)

You think there'd be any interest in MSN? I've never personally used
it so it'd take me a while to get it working if there's interest.

Jan. 16, 2005 Sunday
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, AIM Valar Guild Meetingplace
Transcript team Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Members:  
    Gilraen and Gwaihir set their wedding date:
August 19th, 2006!
    Finarfin, Happy Birthday!
    Varda will be out of town from tomorrow through possibly next Monday. Backlog will be taken care of after returning, so it's ok to send email. If spam fills my three email boxes (how dare it!), re-send again after I'm home. Forum is also good.
    The sweep (as in a broom removing dust-bunnies) will continue to the end of January, so please email Varda soon. Anyone not known to be interested in remaining will be dropped and need to re-test. Such names will be up for grabs by new recruits.
Attending: (21)
    Members: Aerandir, Alatar, Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon, Arwen, Eonwe, Finarfin, Fladrif, Galdor, Gilraen, Gwaihir, FarmerMaggot/FarmerMaggotV/TheSirG3, Menelvagor, Finarfin, Olwe/FallenGlory, Orodreth, Thorondor, Thranduil, Thror/ChuginChub, Ulmo/HeruRasa, Varda (presiding) 
    Guest: the loser emu (Aerandir's friend, observing)
Web:  
    Chat program for the guild. Generous offer by Alatar-(Valar) 
    Spyware discussion, suggestions, warning about Internet Explorer
    Tolkien Encyclopedia
     
New section made just for Sauron.
      Two new articles by Thorondor-(Valar)! :
      
Heights of the Taller Numenoreans and Elves
      
Sauron's Ability to Re-form
Gaming: 
    WoW:
    The Valar Guild on World of WarCraft is now formed! Lothar server. The charter has been signed and turned in. We have enough gold to unlock the tabard, so it will soon be available to members. Check the Forum for more news.
    Welcome, Thranduil, to the WoW bunch.  :)  He bought the game the same day the guild formed. Nice timing!
Tolkien:
 
    Death of Humphrey Carpenter at 58. Writer of fine books concerning Tolkien and his world, excellent references.
    Aerandir-(V)'s topic: Ring of Barahir

Jan. 15, 2005
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
       Special Papers, Elves, Men:
          Heights of the Taller Numenoreans and Elves by Thorondor-(Valar)
       Maiar
         
"Sauron's Ability to Re-form", by Thorondor-(Valar)
       Slight changes to the starting pages for the Encyc. Dropped non-working Search Engine link for now. Started in on the Maiar page.

Jan. 13, 2005
    Letter from Dreamlord-(TV) excerpt: Humphrey Carter:

Did you hear that Humphrey Carpenter (JRRT's biography, his
letters, the book on the Inklings, etc) passed away last week? A great
loss to Tolkien readers...to me his works were always indispensable.

For now,
Rico/Dreamlord.

Obituary links sent by Dreamlord-(TV)
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4147389.stm
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1427093,00.html

    Letter from Alatar-(Valar): WoW:

Aiya, friends.
 
I'm sending you a note to say that I'm returning to my home server in WoW. If you simply can't get enough Valar to sign the guild charter and you wish me to sign in at a pre-arranged day and time to lend my name, I will be more than happy to do so.
 
I've wandered the paths of Lothar for a week now, and it feels as if I am soloing the game. The Valar channel is ALWAYS silent, save for when I say something in it, and everyone I see in that channel is 20+ levels ahead of me in the game.
 
I miss my friends and guild on Elune, and I did not chose an MMORPG to play alone in the world. I'm sorry.
 
Namarie,
 
Alatar


Jan. 9, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace. Invite yourself or ask VardaValar1 or Eonwe Valar for an invitation.
Transcript 
Transcript team: Ar-Pharazon, FarmerMaggot, Menelvagor, Varda
Attending  (14 of 128)
    Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon, CaranthirV/Morifinwe/ElCapitan Chobo, Eonwe, ElladanV, Elros/louiekiskowski, Fladrif, Gil-galad/Xseanzee disco, Grimbold, Lungorthin/sauronjag, Farmer Maggot/TheSirG3, Menelvagor, Ulmo/HeruRasa, Varda (presiding) mirkwood hunter
    Members had difficulty entering, possible netsplit. The chat would show a member leaving but not entering, and the member would only see an error message. They could speak in a single window, so some relay was done. Some could come in with one name, but not other names.
Membership:
    Letters sent today those who may be about to be dropped due to apparent lack of interest, called a "sweep". Details at the bottom of page for full member Activity 2005. Results so far:

Full Members:
Letters sent to:  (green: replied remaining in guild;  black: went through awaiting reply;  red: non-working email)
Akhoril
Ancalagon
Angrod
Aragorn
Bain
Beleg
Bregalad aka Quickbeam
Celegorm
Cirdan 
Daeron (no Forum, no AIM available)
Dior
Eol
Eru
Faramir

Feanor
Finduilas
Frodo
Gerontius
Gildor  (tried Forum pm Jan 10, email to ex-Elros. No AIM available)
Gimli
Glorfindel
Gorhendad (no Forum, no AIM available)
Halbarad
Haldir
Idril
Isildur
Khamul
Legolas
Lenwe
Luthien
Maedhros (no Forum)
Mahtan (no Forum or AIM available)
Meneldil
Orome  (tried Forum pm Jan 6, 10. No AIM available)
SamWise
Saruman
Shagrat
Thingol
Thorin
TomBombadil (no Forum or AIM available)
Ulfang

No direct email available, no known AIM, not on Forum:
Rog
Ugluk

Replies from the still-interested:
Eomer-(V) Jan 10 email
Eru-(Valar) Jan 9  email
Faramir-(V) Jan 9 email
Halbarad-(V) Jan 9 email
Luthien-(V) Jan 10 email
Thingol-(V) Jan 9 email
Ulfang-(V) Jan 9 email

Gildor - was sent Jan 10, 2005
Orome - was sent Jan 6, 10, 2005

AIM:
LuthienV

Tolkien-only Valar Members:
Emailed all Jan 2005 around noon EST, wanting updates as well as whether or not they are still with us.
Results so far:
Email not working:
Amanlathwen-(TV) "User unknown"
Gandalf-(TV) "disabled or discontinued"
Khaira-(TV) "Failed permanently"
Manik-(TV) "mailbox unavailable"
TJ-(TV) "Over quota"
Responded as still interested: 
He that Walks Unseen-(TV)  Jan 9, 2005
Kanidhil-(TV) Jan 9, 2005
Indis-(TV) Jan 10, 2005

Posted to Forum and Discussion Board for Full and Tolkien-only members.

Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia;
      This year the Encyc article section is under rebuild so that each item has its own page locatable by subject and eventually by letter. A good part of this has already started. Individual Credit pages are barely begun.
       The story and poetry pages were rebuilt in 2004, but need illustrations, preferably original art by members, which can include photo manips where we don't intrude on copyrights. Credit pages are completed; email Varda to make corrections or additions. Much of this was done under the influence of midnight oil fumes.
      Even if the subject already has ten good entries, if you want to make a new one, go ahead. Sometimes it makes better sense to a reader from a different perspective.
      The Art page will also be rebuilt and has been passed from Amillo/Elatan to Varda (me). If any of you like working with such pages, please let me know as I am already snowed under with many pages and have trouble giving it proper attention.

Gaming:
    WoW:
       Eonwe is branch leader. His WoW player name is Auros, his guild bank name is Kalasul.
       Lothar is the server name.
       If you're in World of WarCraft, Lothar server, type /join Valar to give yourself the Valar channel. Good even if you are not yet signed up for the guild, for which we get a guild channel. Use /chatwho Valar to see who else is in the channel.

Jan. 4, 2004
    Rest of Palantiri discussion added to Transcript for Jan 2 meeting. Thanks, Ar-Pharazon! It also included Grimbold's arrival for the meeting.

Jan. 2, 2005
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace 
Transcript: team this week is Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
    Showing up for the AIM meeting long enough to be on the attendance list assures your listing on the Year 2005 Members roll. A  Member can still email until the end of January to keep his name active for 2005, after which re-testing is needed and your name is in jeopardy if a new recruit requests it. Also, feel free to update your information that we have on our web pages by email.
    AIM also helps find friends to play with in our favorite games for after the meeting, and/or chat Tolkien. We have members playing nearly everything, even if they haven't mentioned it on the Games page. Most of us play several games and can find out which to jump into from AIM. 

Before-meeting:
    Collected Tolkien topics 
Membership (128 current members)
    New full member: Imrahil-(V). Rejoined. He was the Amras previous to the current one. Not present at meeting.
    New Tolkien members: Maeglin-(TV) and Indis-(TV). Not present at meeting.
    Farmer Maggot's new computer finally lets him play D2X again. Starting new accounts. FarmerMaggot-V (ladder).
    Ulmo is coming over from EQ to WoW, with his son, Gothmog.
    Earendil has moved from EQ to WoW to the Lothar guild server. Using names Ardamire, Gelina. Not present at meeting.
  Attending: (15 of 128 full members)
    Aerandir, Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon, Caranthir/Morifinwe, Elladan/wolverinepcrew, Eonwe, Finarfin, Gil-galad/Xseanzee disco, Grimbold/HearNoEvil80, Lungorthin/sauronjag, FarmerMaggot/TheSirG3, Menelvagor, Olwe/FallenGlory, Ulmo/HeruRasa, Varda (presiding)
Web:
    Domain opening page re-done for ease of most-used topics.
    Forum: New section for WoW trading, use guild password to enter.
    Games page: problem was with database. Switched back to using tables.
Gaming:
    WC3/TFT:
     Considering re-start of Clan Vala branch of Valar Guild. Elladan offers hope.
    WoW:
       Guild funds: Eonwe's Kalasul is the money bank for guild on WoW/Lothar. Night Elf priest. Use WoW mail to make donations. If sent to Eonwe's Auros, label that it is for the guild treasury.
          Treasury report: 2 gold, 40 silver, 0 copper.
          Uses of guild funds:
             1: Bought charter for 10 silver. Yay us!
             2: Collecting gold to open tabard. 10 total needed
             3. Collecting gold to help characters buy a tabard. Each needs 1 gold.
             4. If a guild house is offered in the future, we can use the bank to help buy it.
             5. Decided not to subsidize professions. We will help in the usual friendly Valar manner and use the new Forum WoW trading post.
Tolkien:
    Army of the Dead. Ar-Pharazon's topic: In the books, Aragorn dismissed the Army of the Dead after they took the Corsair ships at Pelargir. Why didn't he keep them in his service as he did in the movie, to r-take Minas Tirith or even go after Barad-dur?
    Palantiri. Menelvagor's topic: Which of the palantiri Aragorn did, or nearly did, have access to.

Jan. 1, 2005
    Happy New Year!
top