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News added by month, more or less.
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Dec. 31, 2007
Tolkien Site/Articles:
Battles
of Beleriand, project by
Fingolfin-(TV)
Nirnaeth Arnoediad: Battle of Unnumbered Tears by
Varda-(Valar) as an addition to the above project.
Dec. 30, 2007
Tolkien Site/Art:
Cave
of Siobhan-(TV):
"Small Ketral". New
cave! Original drawing by Siobhan of a young ketral, a pet kept by
young Legolas in the stories for the Mellon Chronicles.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Attending: (10)
Aerandir V/mordacil, AriehnV, arwenv1/windofhyperia,
Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar, GilraenV, Glorfindel
VG,
Farmer Maggot-(V)/thesirg3, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Meeting Transcript by Varda
Dec. 25, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Dec. 23, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"Far
from Home" by Jay of Lasgalen. Short story based on the
previous drabble.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (7)
ArathornValar, ArPharazonV, Elwing V, Eonwe Valar
(presiding), GilraenV, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1
Membership:
Ar-Pharazon will be in Belgium temporarily.
Web: reports by Eonwe
Search program glitches being attended to, improved
version in progress.
Art this week: "Cave
Troll" by DeepGroover-(TV)
Stories this week: "Far from Home" by Jay of
Lasgalen two versions: drabble
and an expansion of it to a short
story.
Gaming:
WoW servers:
Lothar: report by Eonwe
Uldaman: report by Elwing
Argent Dawn: report by Ar-Pharazon
LotRO: Landroval server: report by Arathorn
Battle for Middle-earth 2: report by Eonwe
Tolkien:
Upcoming movies: The Hobbit and an unnamed LotR
prequel movie, with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh as executive
producers. Director(s) not yet chosen.
Forum text RP in the LotRO section under "Scouting
Ahead" discussion.
Dec. 22, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"Far from Home" by Jay of Lasgalen. Elladan,
Elrohir. drabble.
Dec. 21, 2007
Happy Birthday, Elatan!
Movies: The Hobbit and the prequel
By now you all know that Peter Jackson and Fran
Walsh will be the Executive Producers for two upcoming movies: The Hobbit and a "prequel" to the Lord of the Rings.
Thread:
The OneRing.net's list of rumors and facts mixed together.
Article:
"Lord of the Rings Returns as Hobbit": Dec.18, this article in CNN Money says that Peter Jackson
and New Line settled their differences and that PJ will be executive
producer for The Hobbit.
Production is currently scheduled for 2009, release of The Hobbit 2010, release of the
prequel 2011, if a director is used other than PJ, and no director has
yet been named.
Article:
"The Hobbit Goes Hollywood": Dec. 18, Time
in partnership with CNN agrees with the above and tells more about the
reconciliation.
Blog:
Official blog for The Hobbit.
Dry statements about the conflict's being resolved and the movie's
intended production schedule, same as above.
Unofficial
Forum: The Hobbit Movie.
Article:
"Jackson 'too busy' to Direct Hobbit Films": Dec. 19, Stuff.com of New
Zealand tells that PJ isn't directing because by the time he was free
from his current obligations, the fans would have to wait additional
years, as he could not meet the proposed release dates. He would keep
creative control, so the movies would all fit together. The first film
would be the events of the book, The
Hobbit. The second would be in the 60 years between then and the
start of the Lord of the Rings,
much of it based on footnotes in The
Hobbit that help bridge the gap.
Article:
This is the Dec. 20 comment from the Motley
Fool, online investment news, saying that the movies are now a
sure thing to do well.
Dec. 17, 2007
Happy Birthday,
Miriel!
Dec. 16, 2007
Tolkien Site/Art:
Cave
of DeepGroover-(TV):
"Cave
Troll".
Three photos showing different views of this model by DeepGroover of a
fight scene between a cave troll and three Saxons (Rohirrim) amongst
ruins. The artist describes how he achieved this scene. The photos were
uploaded after the meeting.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by the illustrious Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (11)
Members: AriehnV, ArPharazonV,
arwenv1/windofhyperia, Eonwe Valar
(presiding), Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar,
Maedhros-(V)/RumblePurrLion, Melkorv, VardaValar1
Friend: crasyboy45
Membership News:
Year end check
for who is still in for 2008:
Full Members can request to be added to the guild for longer than one
year ahead of time, some requesting "life" or "eternity", but one
contact is still desired per year anyway so we'll know if your lifetime
membership expired. Tolkien-onlies need to send in a minimum of one
addition to the Tolkien Site yearly. Providing space for guild pages
counts as such an addition, thank you Alatar, Arveleg, Aule, Beren,
Elatan, Lungorthin, Farmer Maggot, and Tilion (and those of you I can't
think of at the second). Contact may be made via the Forum, games, AIM,
email, and those who knock on my door in real life (you know who you
are).
Web News:
The Search Engine
is again being worked on for even more functionality for the Tolkien
Site.
Art: DeepGroover-(TV)'s Cave
Troll fight scene model was added after the meeting.
Tolkien Trivia game (went into
After-meeting:
Questions were asked by those not afk in the chat
room in alphabetical order by Primary Guild Name.
No holds barred:
VardaValar1: Did Giles really
defeat Chrysophilax?
VardaValar1: What did Niggle
paint?
VardaValar1: What survived of the
painting?
Lord of the Rings only:
AriehnV: What game did Gimli and
Legolas play; who won and by what difference?
ArPharazonV: What was Arwen's mother's
name, who were her parents, and what happened to her in the end?
Eonwe Valar: How many times were the
Valar mentioned in LotR?
crasyboy45: In which book did Tom
Bombadil first appear?
RumblePurrLion: We all know Eowyn
disguised herself as a man to go to war. What false name did she use?
Bonus points if you can also tell what it means.
VardaValar1: Where was Aragorn's mother
while Aragorn was growing up at Rivendell as Elrond's foster son?
crasyboy45: When in The Hobbit did
Bilbo name his sword?
Eonwe Valar: Name for me the trees that
grow in Lothlorien, of which the new Party Tree Sam planted is.
RumblePurrLion: This one is a bit more
like a riddle: Gray, White, Brown, _____, _____.
Hint: Look at how many
items are on the list.
VardaValar1: What place do the white
boats sail from into the West, carrying the Elves (mostly Elves) to
Valinor?
Dec. 9, 2007
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
If you don't know how to get in, ask VardaValar1 for
an invitation. To come in for yourself, invite your own name to a chat,
then in the spot that says a random number for a chat room name,
overwrite it with Valar Guild Meetingplace. It is not sensitive to case
or space.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda the
Starry-eyed
Attending: (8)
ArPharazonV, arwenv1, CaranthirV,
Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco,
Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Glorfindel VG, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
(presiding)
Membership news this week:
Need to be confirmed for 2008: chat, email, forum
can help.
Caranthir's twentieth birthday!
Eonwe: out to see "Beowulf" with his family
Fladrif: visited Ar-Pharazon in real life
Theodwyn: starting a new family guild for Horde in
Uldaman.
Web this week:
Stories:
"Letters
from Elrohir" by Jay of Lasgalen
"Family
Trouble" by Cassia and Siobhan. 5 chapters.
"Coronation
Jitters" by Siobhan for Cassia. G. 1 chapter.
Link:
Lord of the Rings
Online Lore Book - from the site for the Lord of the Rings Online
MMORPG (game).
Gaming this week:
Dungeon Siege: Ar-Pharazon
WoW:
WoW dailies, flying
Argent Dawn
Lothar
Uldaman
LotRO:
$9.99 a month during the
holidays.
Bree
Horse
Tabletop games:
Dungeon & Dragons: Gimli,
Sauron, Varda
Risk: Ar-Pharazon, Fladrif
Trivial Pursuit: Ar-Pharazon,
Fladrif
Tolkien trivia:
ArPharazonV: What was made of mithril that was worth
more than the value of the Shire?
VardaValar1: Who led the elves that helped Frodo and
his three hobbit friends against a Nazgul in the Shire area?
Glorfindel VG: According to Merry on their journey
through the Old Forest, this was said to be the queerest part of the
whole forest.
VardaValar1: What was the name of the skeleton in
the Paths of the Dead?
Dec. 8, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"Letters
from Elrohir" by Jay of Lasgalen:
"Letter
to Arwen"
"Letter
to Glorfindel"
Links Page:
Lord of the Rings Online Lore Book
- from the site for the Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG (game).
Dec. 7, 2007
Happy Birthday, Gelmir!
WoW Uldaman:
Theodwyn pulled her Horde character from our Uldaman server branch to
start a new family-oriented guild since so few of us now come on there
at all.
Dec. 6, 2007
Gaming/LotRO:
The "Bree Horse" is available to
players who applied a Pre-order key to their account before June 1,
2007, and have an active subscription as of December 1, 2007. It is
also being made available to Lifetime accounts. The receipt is in the
inventory on each of your characters, and any you create (does not say
for how long). It's usable at level 25. Don't try to race a level 35
horse with it unless you want to lose, but it still beats walking!
Dec. 3, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"Family
Trouble" by Cassia and Siobhan. 5 chapters. Newly written
and inserted into the series after "Mistaken Identity".
"Coronation
Jitters" by Siobhan for Cassia. G. 1 chapter.
Dec. 2, 2007
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript: by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (8)
Members:
AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, arwenv1, fladrifv, GilraenV, Menelvagor Valar,
VardaValar1(presiding). Eonwe tried to enter but AIM and the internet
did not cooperate.
Friend:
LaurealasseHelka
Membership:
End of the year check to see who's still in for 2008.
Christmas party discussion
Web:
Languages:
Beren-(Valar)'s Quenya Lore Book has
moved to this blog and
has undergone work.
Articles:
Isildur
by Varda-(Valar)
Kings
of Rohan now has dates for the kings, and the successors may be
followed from page to page.
Story:
Ch. 47 "What
Is Seen And Unseen" by Nightwing. Latest chapter of To
See a World.
Gaming:
WoW:
Uldaman server
Lothar server
Argent Dawn server (also in
Before-meeting)
LotRO
Tolkien:
Trivia gaming:
Menelvagor Valar: What are the
names of the Two Towers of Gondor, in both languages, before and after
one fell to Mordor?
ArPharazonV: Full name of the
fifth hobbit in the conspiracy, the one who wasn't in the Fellowship?
VardaValar1: What report was
Legolas bringing to the Council, unaware that there was to be a Council?
Menelvagor Valar: What is the
name of the energy-boosting drink only made in Rivendell (as far as I
know at least)?
VardaValar1: What food can only
the elf queen or highest lady give out?
ArPharazonV: What was the name of
Aragorn's horse, the one Elrond's sons and the Rangers brought with
them from the North?
AriehnV: Which are the hobbit
requirements to make a legal document proper, such as appointing an
heir?
AriehnV: What was the former name
of Gollum and where did he come from originally?
AriehnV: What was Fredegar
Bolger's part after the four hobbits had enterd the Old Forest?
Fladrifv: How was the love story
of Aragorn mentioned in the LotR books?
Menelvagor Valar: What is the
patch of land next to Rauros called upon which the Fellowship landed
and camped for a short while?
VardaValar1: What is a name for
the places where elves stay, up in the trees?
After-meeting:
Thoughts of food, including Zangarmarsh mushrooms.
Nov.
30, 2007
Tolkien Site/Languages:
Beren-(Valar)'s Quenya Lore Book
has moved to this blog
and has undergone work.
Nov. 27, 2007
Tolkien Site/Articles:
Isildur
by Varda-(Valar)
Kings of Rohan now has dates for the
kings, and the successors may be followed from page to page.
Nov. 25, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
Ch. 47 "What
Is Seen And Unseen" by Nightwing. Latest chapter of To
See a World.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript: by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (7)
ArPharazonV, arwenv1/windofhyperia, Eonwe Valar,
fladrifv, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, VardaValar1
(presiding)
Gaming:
SC/BW:
Bilbo, Eowyn, Fangorn, Meriadoc, Sauron, Varda
Dungeon Siege:
Ar-Pharazon
Halo 2:
Eonwe, Dracxil, Sauron, Bilbo
Non-pay-to-play
games: Fladrif offers to game with Valarites, can be contacted
on AIM.
WoW:
Ar-Pharazon and Eonwe both
earned their elite flying mounts.
Lothar branch now has a
guild bank with two pages.
LotRO: Ulmo
entered the Valar's LotRO branch as Niequi. Numerous instances, much
crafting progress.
Tolkien:
Flying in Tolkien: who did it?
Nov. 22, 2007
Happy
Thanksgiving!
http://img-fan.theonering.net/rolozo/images/price/fellowship.jpg
The Fellowship around a campfire in the woods listening to Gandalf.
Artist: Peter Xavier Price.
Nov. 18, 2007
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (7)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, arwenv1, Eonwe Valar,
fladrifv, GilraenV, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
Tolkien site: new linking for Timeline and The
Valar. Need articles.
Gaming:
Brood War: Fangorn, Sauron
WC3: The Frozen Throne: Arien
Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna: Ar-Pharazon
Chess: Fladrif
Nexiuz: Fladrif
Worms: Armageddon: Fladrif, Sauron, Bilbo
WoW:
Argent Dawn: report by Arien
Lothar: report by Eonwe/Auros
Uldaman: report by Varda
LotRO: report by Varda
Tolkien:
Two main types of readers according to Orson Scott
Card: detached analysts or immersed.
Nov. 14, 2007
Gaming: Hellgate:
London
Pallando-(Valar) plays on
Shulgoth server as Pallando, engineer.
Pallando emailed Nov. 5 that the
old Diablo team got together to make Hellgate: London. Eonwe-(Valar)
emailed that they did this as the "spiritual sequel" to Diablo 2, since
they can't make the "actual sequel" as they are no longer with Blizzard
but have their own company.
Pallando emailed: "it's rated M
for "Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Violence". So far the only
obscenities I've noticed were bleeped out, and to be perfectly honest I
don't even rate the others anymore. It's pretty decent 3D graphics, but
the only truly humanlike monsters are the zombies. At any rate, it
would best be left to someone else to rate the violence and gore as
compared to other games." "future additions and specials are
subscriber-only, but those of us who don't have the cash for subs still
get normal patches."
Eonwe added: "only those paying
the monthly fee can create or run a guild. I don't think it'd be worth
it to pay the fee just for the guild privileges though (you do get more
than just that, but essentially if someone wasn't already going for the
subscription to get the extras, guild creation shouldn't be the
deciding factor). "We" can always just get together and stay in
contact if we get anyone else in this game."
Pallando said: "I plan on
subscribing anyways eventually, and I'm sure someone else will as well
- it's cheaper than WoW or LoTRO (unless you're a founder)."
Nov. 11, 2007
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (13)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AragornValar1, ArathornValar
(crashed), AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, arwenv1, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Fangluin-(V)/MelchiahAC,
fladrifv, Gilraenv, GlorfindelVG (crashed), Gwaihir Valar, VardaValar1
(crashed)
Membership:
Varda and Fangorn came back (note: Fangorn will be
gone for a week staring Monday for work)
Ar-Pharazon: exams over
Eonwe: couple of more exams
Fangluin: not able to be around much, but still there
Valandil: still gaming with us in WoW Argent Dawn
Gwaihir: taking a degree by correspondence course
Gaming:
Hellgate: London
WarCraft 3
Dungeon Siege expansion
Middle-earth mod for Diablo 2 Expansion
WoW:
General: patch 2.3 including new
areas and guild bank
Lothar server : Valar
Argent Dawn : Valar. High Guard is
once again run by Valarites and includes Valarite characters.
Uldaman : Valar. Elwing was
present for the Wednesday designated day.
LotRO: Valar
Trial account for Aragorn-(V)
whose name is Telecontar
Tolkien:
Topic from Arien-(Valar): I recently read the Farmer
Giles of Ham in an edition together with the master's original,
previously untold version of that tale .. quite nice and something
different to all the ME stories But there are similarities, at
least some same factors turn up in that story as they do for example in
the Hobbit .. I wonder if we get them all together...
Nov. 10, 2007
Varda's 54'th birthday. That was a good
three-layer chocolate cake!
Nov. 5, 2007
Varda and Fangorn left for a week's vacation.
Back Saturday evening.
Nov. 4, 2007
Americas: time change.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EST (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (9)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AragornValar1, AriehnV,
arwenv1, Eonwe
Valar, fladrifv, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, Farmer
Maggot-(V)/thesirg3, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Aragorn: back with us, hoping to come into LotRO
Eonwe: 8th anniversary of joining the Valar Guild
Varda and Fangorn: gone next week, not sure if back
in time for next meeting.
Web:
Stories
Art
Gaming:
Dungeon Siege
Silver
WoW: Uldaman, Argent Dawn, Lothar
LotRO
Tolkien:
How many names can we think of for Aragorn? You also
get to tell when the name was used.
Nov. 3, 2007
Tolkien Site / Art:
Cave
of Turgon-(V):
"Ulmo in the Waterfall of a Lake"
Nov. 1, 2007
Tolkien Site / Art:
Cave
of Turgon-(V):
"The Captivity of Morgoth in Mandos". Turgon-(V): "I tried to do
something new, not like the ugly-armour-red-flaming-eyes
variety, especially since he still could assume a fair form after he
was released. That's why only his cowl is "radiating" with darkness.
That is, with the darkness of his thought and hate." Sent in Oct. 27,
2007.
Turgon is now in a university and finds
himself with less time for art, but still finds a way.
Tolkien Site /
Stories:
"Counting
the Days" by Jay of Lasgalen, drabble. "Elladan is away from
Imladris, and Elrohir can't wait for him to come home."
Four
spooky stories from Branwyn-(TV):
Wave-Singer drabble (Maglor)
In Moria, In Khazad-Dhum drabble
(dwarves)
Unfinished Work drabble (Denethor)
Beggars' Night short story (Pippin,
Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, Eowyn, and Faramir)
top
Oct. 31, 2007
Membership:
Aragorn-(V) of Sweden is back
from the army, now working at the hospital fixing wheelchairs and other
handicap equipment. He also takes a pottery class after work. After a
year or two, he hopes to study. He's dropped his WoW account and hopes
to be in a LotRO trial soon. He would like to join us on Landroval
server (as Telecontar). Turbine allows European ip's so he may do this
as Irmo, Miriel,
and Arien have. He also hopes to download AIM and join us this Sunday,
although he has work early in the morning. More power to you, Aragorn!
Oct. 28, 2007
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (11)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV, arwenv1, Eonwe
Valar, Fladrifv,
Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar,
Pallando Valar/Oessala/OrodrethV, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
Arwen's birthday was Friday
Morwe returned to Full Membership, still plays LotRO
Web:
Stories this week
Upcoming
Gaming:
Eve Online
Dungeon Siege
Monkey Island 1 2 3
Discworld 2
Full Throttle
Chess
WoW
LotRO
Tolkien:
Tolkien brought seriousness to fantasy and various
creatures and things that have become staples.
After-meeting continued Tolkien
in a lighter way:
What was Tom Bombadil? We went more into character
traits than into discussion of Maia or whatever as those talking were
already in agreement on that point..
Oct. 27, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
Siege
of Dread by Cassia-(TV) and Siobhan-(TV). 16 chapters. Part
of their Mellon Chronicles series, following "Curse of Angmar".
"Rivendell has always been a
place of peace. When
that tranquility is threatened it leads to a cascade of events that
seek to destroy Aragorn's adopted family. Two mysterious figures from
the past become suddenly important and in a bizarre turn of events,
Aragorn and Legolas find themselves faced with trying to save not only
the future of Rivendell, but Mirkwood as well... if they can save
themselves, first."
Aragorn, Legolas. Elladan,
Elrohir, Elrond, Glorfindel. Thranduil.
Oct. 26, 2007
Happy Birthday Arwen-(V)!
Gaming / Eve Online:
Letter
from Pallando-(Valar):
For an unfortunate reason, I will need
to suspend funding for my
second Eve-Online account, which holds the Pallando Luineistar
character. As the only other member is Menelvagor, who is inactive,
this will leave the branch without anyone to run the corporation. I
will still be somewhat active on Debes Sparre, and will keep the
mailing list and chat channel manned for what it's worth. My offer of
a free month will not be available on demand, but still extant. The
offer for 6 months runs out on the 4th.
Oct. 24, 2007
Gaming / LotRO
Landroval server:
We have our kinship house. It is near
Thorin's Hall, Neighborhood Frithdal, 2 Frothing Road. We have all
three storage chests and taxes are paid through December (as far as we
were allowed to pay ahead). Members have been buying and crafting
decorations for the kinhouse, leaving some in the storage chests. All
members have decorating privileges and may use the storage chest items
on the kinhouse to try differenct looks. Even the paint is re-usable.
We have a lot of different music boxes so that you can change the music
playing inside the house. The only thing we ask that you not move
(without Ancalagon's permission) is the taxidermy item that greets you
as you open the door. Certain monsters drop purple "bodies" that may be
taken to the taxidermist in Bree to be made into decorations for the
kinhouse and personal houses. Crafting members generally are willing to
make items for personal houses too, but may need your help with
materials.
Oct. 23, 2007
Membership:
Morwe-(V) opted to
change to Morwe-(TV), no longer interested in gaming but interested in
the Tolkien site. Update, the next day he decided to keep gaming in
LotRO and is back to Morwe-(V). We're glad you stayed! (The run with
you in the new High Pass and Goblin-town was great fun!)
Oct. 21, 2007:
Tolkien Site / Stories:
The Temptations of Eönwë by
Enerdhil-(TV). "Eönwë
and Morgoth, and the futile bids for pardon I imagine Morgoth must have
made before he was sentenced."
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Varda
Attending (14):
Aerandir V/mordacil, Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV,
arwenv1, austeinM, Eonwe Valar, fladrifv, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco,
GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
(presiding)
Membership:
New: Maedhros-(V)
Web:
Stories
WoW Lothar Tourney Report
Gaming:
Solitaire
WoW
LotRO
Tolkien:
Rhythmic images and events in Tolkien.
After-meeting:
Science-fiction convention that Menelvagor went to
Helping Eonwe test his new Tourney area on the Games
page
Reviews for the Games page: what is acceptable
Game ratings
Info on the Internet
Wiki and Britannica
AIM Lite
Oct. 17, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
The
Prisoner by Jay of Lasgalen. "What if" a different decision
had been taken, drabble challenge. Legolas, Thranduil.
Brigid and Greg in Middle-earth
by Maedhros-(V). Humor drabble: comments on a Noldo.
Oct. 14, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Maedhros-(V)!
Maedhros joined us today in LotRO, where he has a lifetime
subscription, with a perfect score of 5/5 talking with Varda (me). His
Galadhalion and my Fainan gamed together a couple of times, yet he was
still willing to join! He may be gone sometimes for two months at a
time, but returns so don't write him off. He's read the Hobbit several times and
the Lord of the Rings
twice. His favorite character is Gandalf with his snarky personality;
other favorites were Bilbo and Legolas. The changes to Faramir were a
prime movie gripe. He has a blog that includes this short Middle-earth story; also
note the animated icon at the top.
Sunday Meeting:
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon,
Eonwe, and Varda
Attending: (11)
Arathorn Valar, ArPharazonV, AriehnV, arwenv1, Eonwe
Valar
(presiding), Fladrif, GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, Farmer Maggot-(V)
/thesirg3, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1
Suggestion:
Fladrif: one live chatroom all day for a particular
day.
Tolkien:
Elf hair color
Silmarillion main events, equipment to make a card
game.
Oct. 11, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
Mind's
Eye by Cassia-(TV) and Siobhan-(TV) is up. "Aragorn lost his
memory in Harad. It returned, but not all of it
returned at once. The healing mind is a funny thing. So
when he finds
himself somewhere strange, in an unthinkable situation, what is he
supposed to think? Where is he? What’s happening? How
can he set it
right?" Aragorn, Legolas, Death, Namo. Follows "Stars of Harad" in the
"Mellon Chronicles" series.
Oct. 10, 2007
Tolkien Site / Articles:
Tolkien
and Beowulf by
Ancalagon-(V). Sent in for the Tenth Anniversary of the Valar Guild.
Tolkien Site / Stories:
Discoveries
in the Dark by Jay of Lasgalen. AU drabble challenge for The Hobbit. Bilbo.
Old Swords by Jay of Lasgalen.
Could have happened during The Hobbit.
Elrond.
Gaming:
WoW
Uldaman server night, Elwing-(V)
reporting:
I was on Uldaman tonight from about
8:30 to 11:00 - didn't spy another guilder :{
Oh, well...my char for the evening spent some time questing a bit and
doing leatherwork for a change. While in Ogrimmar, I accidentally found
the orphanage - it's in the far east ("military" sort of) section,
close to the pool there :}
[Editor's
Note: Time was CDT, so 9:30 to 12:00pm EDT.]
Oct. 8, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
The
Valar Guild
by Alcardilme-(TV). Young Boromir and Faramir's differing opinions on
the Valar. Sent in for the Tenth Anniversary of the Valar Guild.
The reasonably
complete List of what the Valar Guild did for
the Tenth Anniversary.
Oct. 7, 2007 Sunday
Chat Room Marathon, last day, participants:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil,
ArathornValar, ArPharazonV,
arwenv1, Eonwe
Valar, fladrifv, Pallando
Valar, VardaValar1.
Silmarillion Card
Game! Tenth Anniversary project. Fladrif-(V) and Ancalagon-(V)
are working on a card game based on the Silmarillion
in the style of Magic the Gathering. Join in to create cards that may
(or may not) be used, or just for the fun of suggesting a card for your
personal Tolkien adopted character; go to this Forum
thread under Games/ General Game Talk.
Tolkien Site /
Articles:
"The Corruption of the Lord of the Rings" by Ancalagon-(V). Sent in for the
Tenth Anniversary of the Valar Guild. Another one will be put online
soon.
Sunday
Meeting: Tenth Anniversary
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda. This will be only the meeting, not the entire week's
marathon although we could do that. You had to be there. :)
Attending: (9)
Ancalagon-(V)/
Sarujil, Arathorn Valar, ArPharazonV, Arwen-(V), Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv,
Farmer Maggot-(V)/
thesirg3, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding).
Tolkien:
Eonwe Valar: The choices of people had an impact of
the fates of their
kingdoms, their people, and their lines. Usually they greatly affected
the longevity of the aforementioned.
Oct. 6, 2007 Saturday
Tolkien Site / Articles:
The Complete Chronology of the First Age of
Ea by Arveleg-(V)
is now online! This is an enormous resource in progress, intended to
show the timeline from the creation of the Ainur to after the end of
Arda. It was written to come out for the Tenth Anniversary of the Valar
Guild, and is complete through the First Age of the Sun.
Gaming: WoW
Lothar and LotRO were active.
Chat Room Marathon
participants partial list:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil,
ArathornValar, ArPharazonV,
arwenv1, Eonwe
Valar, fladrifv, Pallando
Valar, VardaValar1.
Oct. 5, 2007 Friday
Gaming:
WoW Lothar Friday:
For the Tenth Anniversary,
Eonwe/Auros had an idea he tried out for a WoW Guild Tourney game,
based loosely on past tourneys in other games. Arwen, Bellene/Dracxil,
Eonwe, Fangorn, Sauron gamed together in Scholomance.
People showing up in
Lothar (that I know of) were Arwen, Bellene/Dracxil (guild-friend),
Elwing, Eonwe, Eowyn, Fangorn, Sauron, and Varda (briefly).
LotRO:
Added more to the LotRO
housing report for Oct. 4.
Chat room marathon participants seen Friday:
Ancalagon-(V)/sarujil, ArPharazonV,
AriehnV, arwenv1, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar, Farmer
Maggot-(V)/thesirg3, Fladrifv, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1
Farmer plays Team Fortress 2, free if
one buys the Orange Box from Valve.
Tolkien Site:
Stories:
"A
Song the Size of the World" by Fladrif-(V) is now online.
Written and illustrated for the Valar Guild's Tenth Annversary.
"Old Swords" by Jay of Lasgalen. A
story that could have happened during The Hobbit. Elrond's pov.
Oct. 4, 2007 Thursday
Happy Tenth Anniversary
to everyone in the Valar Guild. Thanks
to every person who has ever been in the Valar Guild, making it the
wonderful creation it is today. May we enjoy the next ten years
together!
The reasonably complete List
of what the Valar Guild did for the Tenth Anniversary.
Tolken Site:
Articles:
First Age Timeline:
Arveleg-(V) has been working hard on research to make a
complete timeline for Arda. His first installment of the First Age is
now done, just in time for the anniversary as he had hoped. Thank you!
Varda hopes to have it online today.
Stories:
New today: A
Song the Size of the World
by Fladrif-(V), betaed by Arien-(Valar). This story is done and almost
ready to go online, and should be up today (was but not linked in). It
was written and illustrated
by Fladrif for the anniversary.
Stories
already up and written for the anniversary are re-listed here:
The
Game of Kings
by Branwyn-(TV). Early Tolkien gamers. The leaving and returning of the
rangers is a salute to the soldiers in our group who leave for a while
and return.
Revelation:
What Evil Fears by Eonwe-(Valar). Sauron's fear.
Roots Up: An Ent's Tale by Fladrif-(V)
Poetry:
The Guild - Ten Years On
by Barahir-(V) already up, but now the formatting has been improved by
his request to make a special quality more obvious. :)
Chat room
marathon participants spotted in room Valar Guild Meetinplace:
Arien-(Valar), Ancalagon-(V), Ar-Pharazon-(V), Arwen-(V),
AuSteinM-(TV), Eonwe-(Valar), Eru-(Valar)/Eru68, Fladrif-(V),
Varda-(Valar).
Gaming:
LotRO:
Landroval server: We grouped
together when we saw each other (before the world went down at noon) in
Angmar: Irmo, Miriel, Gorlim, and Varda.
Roheryn test server: Housing test
started today.
Ancalagon's personal house
is at 6 Fairwood Lane, Gundalaf, Falathlorn Homesteads. Drop by for a
visit! As Fainan, I (Varda) went with him to see it going through the
house person at Duillond. The place is a deluxe edition, and Anc kindly gave
fellow decorator privilege.
The place was in elf-lands and very grand. He had already bought a
storage chest, trees and pumpkins and a well for the spacious yard,
interior decorations including fireplaces, a lawn chair, fancy rugs for
a couple of rooms, elf-style dresser and floor vases, a standing
candelabra, and much more. He could also choose a color theme and had
picked red, which went well with his beard. Since his character is a
dwarf, he plans to next try out dwarf housing when it comes available
from the Frerin's court area at Thorin's.
A simple personal house is 1
gold, deluxe 7 gold. It does require monthly upkeep in the silvers
(deluxe is about 45 silver per week) to make sure that houses go to
active players. The first month's rent is included in the initial cost.
About 25 silver can cover decorations. Only one house is currently
allowed per account. Please remember that this is the test server's
first day with housng and many things may change.
Ancalagon then brought me for an
open house tour to an unused kinship
house.
That thing was a mansion! Nearly a castle. It even has stairs and an
upper floor. It too may be decorated and furnished. We can set
privileges to let all officers or even all members be decorators and
helpers with the weekly cost.
A kinship house can only be
bought by the guild leader of a guild that has reached level 7; in
Landroval, we are already level 8. Good thing we have about a month to
prepare, as I sure don't have 15 gold. If everyone can pitch in a gold
from a high level character, then the lower level alts can probably
handle quite a few decorations, many of which are in the low silver
range. Kinhouse tax is about 100 silver per week. Please weigh in on
where we should put the kinhouse and why. One or a few personal houses
held by kin members in the same neighborhood can make the kinship house
price drop.
Wherever we choose, we need to
join together for reputation quests in the nearest town to unlock the
superior forge and workbench.
WoW
Lothar:
We have members coming in and out of Lothar as time and computers
permit. Don't forget to type /join Valar since the last patch pushed
everyone out of the channel. Speak friend, and enter.
Oct. 3, 2007 Wednesday
Chat room marathon continues for Wednesday.
Ancalagon/Sarujil, AriehnV, ArPharazonV, arwenv1,
austeinM, Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, and VardaValar1.
Tolkien Site / Art
"A
Song of the World" by Fladrif-(V).
Poem
for the Tenth Anniversary from Barahir-(V):
The Guild - Ten Years on
by Barahir-(V)
October 2, 2007
Vast and wonderful was this new place,
a mighty bastion within
cyber-space.
Luring Tolkien fans into their
brigade,
a small yet passionate fraternity.
Revering Tolkien's works,
chatting and playing
games on Middle-earth, for a
decade.
Under its banner, a common liking
imbibed a bond, ever enduring.
Led to blissful peace, by the
Council's grace,
destined to last for all eternity.
Poet's note: This poem contains exactly ten syllables in every line and
is an Acrostic with a twisted Rondeau!
Oct. 2, 2007 Tuesday
Chat room marathoners spotted on Tuesday:
Members: Aerandir V,
Ancalagon/Sarujil, AriehnV, ArPharazonV, arwenv1, austeinM, Eonwe
Valar, Fladrifv, VardaValar1
Friend: excelsiorjss
Tolkien Site /
Stories:
More new
stories written for the Tenth Anniversary of the Valar Guild! Thank you!
The
Game of Kings by Branwyn-(TV). Early Tolkien gamers. :)
Revelation:
What Evil Fears by Eonwe-(Valar). Sauron's fear.
Brotherly
Love by Jay of Lasgalen, formerly titled "Charity Begins at
Home", is now complete as a story told in five drabble chapters. This is not connected to the
anniversary. The drabble series has lengthened and changed in story
line so much that she decided this change was needed.
Gaming / LotRO: Housing report from Ancalagon-(V)
In the test server, Roheryn,
where guild housing is being worked on, Ancalagon found a taxidermist
in Bree to whom one turns in bodies to make into statues for the house.
So far the taxidermist can do a barghest, two different bears, wolf,
warg, cave troll, and another that Anc forgot. :)
House prices are locked until
Thursday at least.
Four housing areas are being
tested:
Southeast of
Staddle, along the road just over halfway towards the Lone Lands. Not
very close to Bree.
South of
Michel Delving, in the Southfarthing.
Southwest of
Thorin's Hall, just a bit south and a bit west of the horse. With
acquaintance reputation, Thorin's Hall has a superior forge &
superior workbench.
Across the
river from Celondim, but the one in Celondim is actually closer to
Duillond; its just south of the gate to the Shire.
Oct. 1, 2007 Monday
Chat room marathoners for Tenth Anniversary
Monday:
Ancalagon/Sarujil, ArPharazonV, Eonwe
Valar, Fladrifv, VardaValar1
top
Sept. 30, 2007
Tenth Anniversary Week begins with this meeting and ends with the
meeting next Sunday. Have fun!
Chat room marathoners for
Sunday:
Ancalagon/Sarujil, Arathornv, AriehnV, ArPharazonV,
Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, VardaValar1
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Varda
Attending (7):
Ancalagon/Sarujil, Arathornv, AriehnV, ArPharazonV,
Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, VardaValar1(presiding)
Membership:
Tenth Anniversary week begins now!
Web:
Robert Jordan passed away.
Gaming:
Regular gaming reports, with talk of the Forum rp
scattered through the whole meeting, since most of those active are in
it.
Tolkien:
If we looked at the whole Fellowship ensemble as one
person, what would each member have contributed to this one over-all
great hero?
Marathon chat room week begins.
Sept. 28, 2007
New
spot for
the fun Search Everything search engine by Arveleg. He's been working
on it to clear glitches and would like to know if we find more.
Explorer has been strange today, but the site seems
alright on Netscape.
Tolkien/Stories:
Two new drabbles by Jay of
Lasgalen in which Aragorn meets his brothers at Bree and what happens
next.
Charity Begins at Home
Charity Begins at Home II
Sept. 27, 2007
Sauron-(Valar)'s birthday.
Sept. 24, 2007
Bilbo-(V)'s birthday.
Sept. 23, 2007
Membership:
Erkenbrand-(V)
left the guild. He joined as a kindly friend to help us form the LotRO
kinship within the tight time limit, but he is uncomfortable with the
use of book characters as
names. He continues to be a friend under the name "Herdy".
Guild pages:
An additional Search
engine
for looking up everything in the Valar pages rather than just for the
articles, by Arveleg-(V) using Google, is currently being experimented
with.
People have expressed discomfort
with the way the pages are currently set up, so we are trying to make
stronger divisions into the three main areas of the guild as Community,
Tolkien, and Gaming. Use of frames or no-frames menus continues to be
supported so the individual may take his pick. Comments may be directed
to Varda.
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00 Sept. 23
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Varda
Attending: (10)
Members:
Arathornv,
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, arwenv1/windofhyperia, Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv,
Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Glorfindel VG, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends:
Srekal86
Membership:
Eonwe-(Valar)
Erkenbrand-(V)-ex
Bilbo-(V)
Sauron-(Valar)
Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Varda-(Valar), Varda's family + guild-friend,
Elwing-(V)
Web:
New: Search engine for everything experiment under
Tolkien/Fun. From Arveleg-(V).
Gaming:
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Eve Online
StarCraft 1
Suggestion: SC1 party during the
week before the new SC2 comes out.
gtr2
Diablo 2 Expansion LAN party
WoW:
Possible tourney gaming for WoW
Argent Dawn
Uldaman
Lothar
LotRO
Magic the Gathering Online
Tolkien:
Bilbo and Frodo's birthday
After-meeting:
German, Swedish, Spanish
Art: Fladrif's project for Valar, suggestions, links.
Photoshop
Bryce
Blender
Zbrush
Eonwe's pick-up truck
WoW gaming afterwards in Lothar by Arwen (using
Evenstarr and Myrrh, outsider characters), Bilbo, Dracxil
(guild-friend), Elwing, Fangorn, Sauron, Shanaynae (guild-friend), and
Varda.
Sept. 22, 2007
Bilbo and Frodo's Birthday! The two book
characters were born today.
Sept. 19, 2007
Varda and family as of this evening now have a
new working DSL modem installed and are back online.
Sept. 16, 2007
Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, has
passed away. He will be sorely missed.
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Eonwe and Varda
Attending: (9)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArathornValar, AriehnV,
arwenv1, Elwing V, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Fladrifv, GilraenV,
Glorfindel VG
Membership:
Varda and family's DSL modem is dead and a new one
ordered.
Arwen is now able to be online for meetings and
games now that she's set up at the University.
Arwen collected new books by Tolkien or related to
gaming.
Web:
Stories this week:
Roots
Up: An Ent's Tale by Fladrif-(V) has been updated.
Wedding
Nerves by Jay of Lasgalen is a new story for this week.
Gaming:
StarCraft 2:
New unit announced
WoW:
general: in-game voice chat and guild
banks (like LotRO) are planned in the future.
Lothar
Uldaman
Argent Dawn
LotRO:
Arathorn discovered that his problems
were due to dirty RAM and motherboard, LotRO worked afterwards so he
bought the game. He is now in the Kinship with us.
Chess: Fladrif
LotRO for the SuperNintendo: Fladrif, Eonwe
Tolkien:
Elwing's topic: What were the descriptions and
actual uses of the Three Elven Rings?
After-meeting:
Ancalagon's riddle solved.
Sept. 12, 2007
Gaming: WoW Uldaman server Wednesday report from Elwing-(V):
I was on WoW from about 8:15 to 11:15;
chatted a bit with Theodwyn (~10 level char of Vaire), she was running
thru dungeon accompanied by high level of Vlmo. She commented I was
first "guildie" she'd caught in awhile, thought maybe most were in
other games more now. I said I thought school starting might be big
reason for scarcity too.
Report end :}
Elwing (as Thtarthpray)
Sept. 11, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
Updated: Roots
Up: An Ent's Tale,
by Fladrif-(V)
New
story: Wedding
Nerves by Jay of
Lasgalen. Aragorn, Elladan, and Elrohir. "Aragorn as King, on the brink
of his wedding to Arwen. Elladan and Elrohir - of course - make their
presence felt." Short story, written as a birthday request.
Sept. 9, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Arien-(Valar), Ar-Pharazon-(V), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (12 or 13)
Members:
Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil,
Arathorn-(Valar)/mikenowo, Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV(presiding),
ArPharazonV, Arveleg-(V)/King Arveleg I, Elwing V, Eonwe Valar,
Fladrifv, GilraenV, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
Guest:
rienzi0711
Membership:
College started this week in UK and Europe.
Ar-Pharazon, Arien, Fladrif, Menelvagor.
DSL modem for Varda's family will have to be
replaced, cuts off intermittently. Repairman came just before the
meeting started. Arien chaired the meeting. Thank you, Arien!
Eonwe had to leave shortly after the start of the
meeting for family activities.
Arien's family is having car troubles, but managing.
Arveleg tried to enter the AIM meeting but had
connection protocol difficulties not allowing him to stay.
Web:
New story by Fladrif-(V): Roots
Up: An Ent's Tale
New music
poll on the Forum by Fladrif-(V). Vote for your favorite style of
music.
Gaming:
StarCraft: Aerandir-(V)
Doom 3: Arathorn-(Valar)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Arathorn-(Valar),
Fladrif-(V)
Archlord: Fladrif-(V) still downloading, as it's a
large file, hoping to test it this week. Arien-(V) intends to try it.
WoW:
Argent Dawn server: Arien and
Valandil
Lothar server: Friday saw Eonwe
and guild-friend Beline (Eonwe's brother aka Dracxil). All week long
the Laytonrim (Varda's family and rl friends) came in for many hours at
odd times, along with guild-friend (Bilbo's g/f).
Uldaman server: Elwing. (Most
remained on Lothar Wednesday including Varda, slackers). Some short
questing during the week by Laytonrim.
LotRO:
Arathorn started the seven-day
LotRO trial during the meeting, but it's crashing his computer a lot.
Kinship Recruiting Faire. Valar
was represented by Ancalagon, Beleg, Melkor, Meriadoc, and Varda
Gamers for the week (off the top of my
head) included but not restricted to: Ancalagon, Beleg, Borin,
Finduilas, Gorlim, Irmo, Melkor, Miriel, Orome, Meriadoc, Rumil, Varda.
Tolkien:
Topic by Arien-(Valar): What might have happened in
the Brown Lands that they got devastated?
After-meeting:
WoW Lothar gaming by one group, LotRO gaming by
another group.
Sept. 7, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
Roots
Up: An Ent's Tale,
a short story by Fladrif-(V), long-time member but new author for the
Stories page. In the early days, Tom Bombadil fears that immortality
will lead to boredom but discovers that it is not so. Written for the
Tenth Anniversary of the Valar Guild.
Sept. 5, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
The Price of Being Peredhil by
Jay of Lasgalen. Elrond and Elros.
Sept. 4, 2007
LotRO:
Regular questing including
grouping together, then a run by nearly all the high levels together in
the Ettenmoors as freeps (free peoples) versus creeps (creature
players). Varda's first pvp group raid ever, including any other MMORPG.
Sept. 3, 2007
Barahir-(V) said hello by email, and
congratulations to everyone on the upcoming 10th Anniversary of the
Valar Guild.
LotRO:
Much questing together and leveling by
nearly everyone!
Sept. 2, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V), Fladrif-(V), and Varda-(Valar)
Web:
Stories:
New one sent in during the meeting
by Fladrif.
Website needs work. Do we want to go with a wiki?
Problems in navigation of the website, due to using two systems at the
same time.
(Previously meeting
mentioned Forum colors are hard to read and they might be better in the
same color as the main site.)
Gaming:
Eve Online: news and offer from Pallando-(Valar)
Tolkien:
Posted a discussion topic to the Forum, riddles are
still going.
After-meeting:
More discussion about improving the website
top
Aug. 29, 2007
Sorry for the belated News notice on this new
MMOG. Please see Aug. 24.
Aug. 26, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (11)
Members: Aerandir V/mordacil,
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil,
Arien-(V)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Star
of Phaet, Glorfindel VG, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends: Ecthelion-(V)-ex/suilenroc01,
Hyarion/Srekal86
Suggestions for the Valar Guild's Tenth Anniversary:
For anything written or drawn especially for that,
please label as such so that
it will be included with the story, article, poem, translation, etc.
(One story was being written during the meeting by Fladrif.)
10 question quiz on Guild history? :} (from
Eonwe)
Tradition (started by Orodreth who is now Pallando)
of keeping the Valar Guild Meetingplace open all anniversary week.
Meet in person where possible: Netherlanders, Texans
might meet up in their areas. Texans might get together in garb for the
Texas Renaissance Festival. Please send in at least a short report of
who came, photos if possible, for the News.
Collage of our characters from various games, if
anyone is able to handle putting bits of screenies together in one
spot? Volunteer photo-manippers, please email Varda. One suggestion was
adding photos of gamer's actual faces onto the character body.
Special anniversary decorations for the Valar front
page: http://valarguild.org (from
Fladrif, side window).
Show up in-games for fireworks, ale, food, crafting,
chat, questing. Get good screenies and perhaps also add them to the
collage.
More suggestions may be made by email to Varda to be
included on the News, or put on the Forum.
Membership:
Classes starting soon for many members
Rumil goes on vacation Sept 6
Ar-Pharazon will be missing all or part of upcoming
meetings due to upcoming school - early Monday morning class.
Elwing's birthday party is going on today at Varda's
house
Web:
Riddles
Stories
PHP and CSS for the Tolkien Site
Book Reviews
Timeline project
Gaming:
D&D Eberron tabletop
StarCraft 2 news report by Eonwe
Terran Banshee unit added. SC2 page.
LotRO: report 1 from Varda, report 2 from
Arien.
WoW:
Argent Dawn server, report by
Arien
Lothar server, report by Eonwe
Uldaman server, reports by
Varda and Elwing
General news:
Armory, report
by Eonwe
RSA, which is
Menelvagor and Ar-Pharazon's old raiding guild group (non-Valar) is
disbanding. report by Ar-Pharazon.
Archlord (free game downloaded by Fladrif)
Tolkien:
Fladrifv: Was the sun there during the creation of
the ents?
Riddles
After-meeting: riddle discussion continued to rule, so we had no actual
"after" meeting.
Aug. 25, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
"The
Duel in the Sky" by Ancalagon-(V).
Ancalagon versus Earendil in the War of Wrath. Silmarillion fic. New
author but long-time member.
"Some
Words from the Mor-galad" by He that Walks Unseen-(TV). "A
message of old has been delivered by
fate. Read it and pass it on for he who arose in might must be heard".
Aug. 24, 2007
Invitation for Joining
into the AOA US 2nd CB test. From Snailgame.net
Hello,
Our MMOG title Age or Armor is supposed to start its 2nd Closed Beta
test by the end of Aug,2007.
It's a Robot-type online game which emerged those characteristics of
the famous Transformers and the Gundam. For many robot fans, this game
might be a good choice to entertain.
We realized that your guild is one of the best online-game guilds, so
we try to invite you and you teammates to join into our game for
testing the guild-war system. If you accept our suggestion, I will
afford you beta keys which are different from those given away from the
official website. These keys will supply you and your friends all the
armors and weapons for characters before 21 lvls and afford an initial
fund for the guild. We will also take your suggestions into our
consideration if you want any extra bonus for guild.
We sincerely invite you to test the AOA. You could find more
information about it at: http://www.aoaus.com
Aug. 22, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
"Watching
the Sunrise" by Jay of Lasgalen. "On midsummer's day,
Elrohir tries to persuade Elladan to wake up early."
Aug. 20, 2007
Tolkien Site / Quizes:
The Riddles
page has been repaired. Enjoy!
Tolkien Site / Stories:
"Too
Much of a Good Thing?" by Elwing-(V) for her Lessons of
Life
series. "Searching for comfort in the aftermath of battle, Legolas
discovers whether one can truly receive too much of a good thing. A
‘gap filler’ set just after the battle at Helm’s Deep in Two Towers."
Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Eomer, Gandalf, and Herubrand.
Membership:
LotRO: Rumil-(V)
emails that he accidentally quit the Kinship trying to leave a note
that he was going to be absent on vacation. He requests a re-invitation
for Rumilden. His greatly needed vacation will last until September 6.
Aug. 19, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm EDT (GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (11)
Members: Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Beleg-(V)/bigdadd363cook, Elwing V [Happy Birthday!],
Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv,
Glorfindel VG, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends: Srekal86
Aug. 15, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
Two short stories by Jay of Lasgalen:
Balrog's
Balls! Celebrian sometimes finds parenting the twins difficult
around Glorfindel and Elrond.
Promises
to Keep Thranduil takes a walk in the snowy woods during a
difficult time with an unexpected meeting.
August 13, 2007
Tolkien Site / The Riddle Game:
The
Riddle Game is
a new section put up today by Varda. The riddles are by members of the
Valar Guild, continually in progress. It collects riddles from the
Forum and the Poetry page
in one place. The riddles must be in poetic form. Riddles not yet
answered on the Forum may not have the answer posted on the Riddle
page, and are answered in turns so no more than two riddles should be
unanswered on the Riddle page. This new section is linked to both the
Poetry and Quizes sections. (Taken down on Aug. 19 to repair bugs
discovered at the Sunday Meeting.)
Aug. 12, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending:
(8)
Members: Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presiding), Fladrifv, GilraenV, VardaValar1
Visitor: excelsiorjss (friend, now in LotRO,
hasn't yet read LotR)
Membership:
New Full Member: Rumil-(V)
New Tolkien-only Member: Bohemian Weasel-(TV)
Gwaihir-(Valar) has a throat infection.
Grimbold-(V) and Muzgash-(V) have birthdays today!
Web:
New helmsman and website for the Book Reviews
page: Arveleg-(V) on googlepages.
New story by He that Walks Unseen-(TV): "Two
Eyes Stare at Mine"
New art Cave
for Bohemian Weasel-(TV)
Gaming:
SC2: new info on the upcoming game
WoW:
Lothar: Eonwe, Sauron
Uldaman: Elwing
Argent Dawn: Arien, Valandil
WC3: Ar-Pharazon
LotRO: new member Rumil from there, we've been
having around 8 online at once.
Tolkien:
Fladrifv: what if lord of the rings was in the
modern time: would sauron have won?
Riddle-game. Starts with Ancalagon's riddle on the
forum, then we did another batch of riddles, the end results of which
may be seen on the Forum LotRO trivia thread. Our meeting chroniclers
had to leave before the riddling finished.
Aug. 11, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, to the Bohemian
Weasel-(TV)! The Bohemian Weasel is the talented Soni
Alcorn-Hender, a
working artist who exhibits her artwork on her gallery site. The Bohemian Weasel
Galleries.
As a fellow Tolkien fan, she has allowed us the use of her artwork to
illustrate our Tolkien Encyclopedia. She has allowed us to place the
artwork on our site. However, all is still copyrighted and any use for
another site must be requested from her. Originally from England, she
now lives in Portugal.
Tolkien Site / Art:
New
Cave in the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, the Valar Guild's
Tolkien Site art section for Bohemian Weasel-(TV).
Aug. 9, 2007
Tolkien Site / Stories:
"Two
Eyes Stare at Mine"by He
that Walks Unseen-(TV). Who is that looking back?
Sudden fiction. The author calls
it a Proem, for poetry in prose form.
Aug. 8, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Rumil-(V)! Rumil
gamed and chatted in LotRO with us as Tagmyre for several days, tested
for the overall guild, then joined the branch with his freshly made alt
captain metalsmith Rumilden. He's 26 from Alberta, Canada, using MST.
His birthday is September 13, 1980, so he'll be 27 in just a month.
He's usually online in the evenings but has a hectic schedule; in
practice, he's on a lot and seems like one of our later night runners
due to the time zone. He dropped WoW for LotRO, and used to play BfMe2.
He's read the H, LotR, and the first part of the Sil. His favorite LotR
character is Sam, whom he considers inspirational with his loyalty,
innocence, and goodness "without being all warrior-like about it. For a
story so enmeshed in battle, he was a refreshing reminder of the
more...humanitarian (if you will) side of the conflict."
Aug. 5, 2007
Tolkien Site/ Book List & Reviews
Arveleg-(V) is now at the helm for
the Tolkien Site section: Book List &
Reviews for Tolkien Subjects. See
the new link and rebuilt section. Lungorthin, after long
service, has decided to step down from the site as he no longer feels
he has time to
work on it properly.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (8)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Fladrifv, Eonwe Valar,
GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership:
New member in LotRO still trying to choose a name.
Web:
New Book List and Reviews management by
Arveleg-(V) and on a new server.
Gaming:
LotRO: added Roheryn test server branch for the
Valar Guild this week
WoW: Expansion Wrath of the Lich-king
Tolkien:
Sections of HoMe we'd like to see pulled out for a
separate book like Children of Hurin, and made into movies.
Ainur on Middle-earth
Ancient viewpoints in Middle-earth
Glorfindel-(V) agreed to write an article on
Glorfindel (side window). Current ones are on the problem of the two
Glorfindels and on names.
After-meeting:
In-chat playful rp of Ar-Pharazon unluckily invading
Fangorn Forest.
Aug. 1, 2007
Happy Birthday, Orome-(Valar)!
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"Pride
Goeth..." by Jay of Lasgalen, drabble. Elrohir overreaches
himself, but achieves victory.
top
July 30, 2007
LotRO:
Roheryn server now has Book 10 up
live for testing.
July 29, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (8 and 1/2)
Members: Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar (presided over Business), Gilraen-(V)/Star of
Phaet, Glorfindel VG, Menelvagor Valar (presided over Tolkien chat),
Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory.
Visitor: brief pop in by Khamul-(V)-ex
Membership:
Includes Tolkien discussion on Numenor and its
colonies.
Ar-Pharazon is back from vacation and transcripting
again for the guild.
Quite a few members will be starting back to school
during August, about midway, including Eonwe. If Ar-Pharazon's
University hopes work out, he will be in class in September.
A Valar group went to the movies together
(unfortunately during the meeting) including Elwing, Gimli, Fangorn,
Eowyn, Sauron, and Varda.
Web:
Articles
by
hard-working Arveleg-(V)
Gaming:
LotRO: The Valar Guild is adding a new
server for guild use when Landroval is down: Roheryn, which is the test
server.
WoW:
New short story.
Lothar
Uldaman
Argent Dawn
WC3: Ar-Pharazon-(V)
BfMe2: Arveleg-(V)
Tolkien:
Topic 1: Numenor and its colonies, during the
Membership section. from Ar-Pharazon-(V).
Topic 2: tales of Dark Elves within Tolkien's books?
from Eonwe-(Valar).
After-meeting:
Forum Role-play parts for "Scouting Ahead" are
now stickied by Eonwe in the order that one would read them.
July 24, 2007
Tolkien Site
Articles by
Arveleg-(V):
Animals:
Arroch
Men: Gethron,
Grithnir,
Titles
and Names of Turin,
Úmarth
Objects: The
Helm of Hador
Places: Haudh-en-Nirnaeth
July 23, 2007
Please pardon the recent lack of updates. My
usual
computer has died a horrible death and the rebuild attempt combining
parts of two computers has not worked out (yet). Files have been
shifted to another computer so that webwork can continue as
usual. If you see this message, then /cheer! -Varda Backlog now
being handled.
July 22, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ancalagon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (6)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV, Eonwe Valar,
Fladrifv, Glorfindel VG, VardaValar1
Some chatted by relay through Varda from LotRO.
Membership:
Includes working out times when we game in LotRO, in
EDT:
Arien 3pm, maybe every second day.
Eonwe: midnight to 4am.
Irmo and Miriel: around 2-6pm. Miriel:
also 4am.
Dirhavel (for now) and Varda:
Random.
Web:
Articles
by
Arveleg-(V)
Timeline project, partly into it with the Events and
Kings pages. Help especially needed to fill in articles for kings and
leaders of any race, especially human.
Ted Nasmith's art site keeps having more pictures
Gaming:
BFME2: Eonwe
WoW:
Argent Dawn: Arien, Valandil
Lothar: Eonwe, Fangorn, Sauron,
Bilbo, Eowyn, Varda
Uldaman: Elwing
LotRO: (17 this week) Ancalagon, Angrod, Arien,
Beleg, Dirhavel, Dis, Elrond, Eonwe, Finduilas, Gorlim, Irmo, Melkor,
Merry, Miriel, Orome, Varda; Aeronwy.
Tolkien:
Mixed into Web and After-meeting sections. See
several After-meeting topics
After-meeting:
Review of book by Arien: Rise of the Horde
by Christie Golden
Game: Graal
Game site: free rpg games
Why didn't Glorfindel go with Frodo? This was more
of a fun rp with Glorfindel-(V) who doesn't resist the Ring all that
well.
Numenor = the lost city of atlantis
When was the first time Aragorn heard he should go
to the Paths of the Dead?
Then we went into trying the trivia questions on our
Forum and discussing them:
What craft alone out of all crafts is it said the
Dwarves were never outmatched?
No man am i and no man is me...
Suggestion: Put a Riddle section on our Tolkien Site.
What craft alone out of all crafts is it said the
Dwarves were never outmatched?
July 15, 2007
Tolkien Site/Articles:
by Arveleg-(V) for Places: Bar-en-Nibin-noeg,
Cabed-en-Aras,
Celebros,
and Crossings
of Teiglin.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ancalagon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (9)
Members:
AriehnV, Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, GilraenV,
GlorfindelVG (after-meeting not recorded), Lungorthin-(V)/sauronjag,
Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Hello's from over
the shoulder or from another game (5): Irmo-(Valar) in LotRO,
Fangorn-(Valar) in WoW, Sauron-(Valar), Eowyn-(V) in WoW, Bilbo-(V).
Membership:
No new members this week.
Web:
Links: author
updated link to the novel "Isildur".
Games:
Eonwe updated LotRO members and made a sortable table out of it.
Tolkien
Site.
Book List
and Reviews section: Lungorthin-(Valar) requests a new webmaster
for his section of the Tolkien Site, and regrets that he cannot find
time for it. This also means we will be losing that server space and
the section will be moving, possibly to the area donated by
Alatar-(Valar). Volunteers please email Varda.
Articles:
New articles (sixteen) by Arveleg-(V).
Stories:
Chapter
46 up for "To See a World" by Nightwing
Gaming:
Overlord:
Fladrif-(V)
Battle for
Middle-earth 2: Eonwe-(Valar)
WoW:
Argent
Dawn: report by Arien.
Summary: Thursday is the chosen night but is not working out very well.
Arien and Valandil quested.
Uldaman:
report by Varda. Summary:
Wednesday night gaming in the Barrens by Elwing, Sauron, Varda. Eowyn
made a new Horde character and brought her into the branch, although
not yet ready for the Barrens.
Lothar:
report by Eonwe. Summary:
Arathi Highlands questing by Eonwe, Eowyn, Fangorn, Turin, guild-friend
Dracxil (as Wymor). Varda's 63 hunter Fainan ran alongside when the
group was full, joining when one or another had to leave for short
times. We completed Stromgarde quests, some several times, and the
entire Myzrael chain quest. Later, Sauron and Eonwe took Elwing through
every quest in Maraudon.
LotRO: report by Varda for the News page.
Monday is the requested special
get-together and event day/night, suggested by Orome-(Valar) with no
dissenting voices. No time was set, so it is assumed to be the usual
time of 5pm EDT until we find a better time. We have a definite day and
night group that have difficulty getting together, and some who play at
times across both groups.
The level 50 group is mostly
broken up, playing alts now to try out new things.
Lindir-(V) pulled out of the
Valar LotRO kinship, although not out of the overall guild, as it was
not consistently active enough for him.
Turin-(V) is trying to join the LotRO
kinship, but may not be able to until after his new computer comes in.
Arien-(Valar) is now gaming in the
LotRO kinship, using several characters.
Borin-(V) and his wife Finduilas-(V)
each pulled out one character to help friends start a new kinship, but
still have their other characters in the kinship and are still playing
them.
Tolkien:
Nature of Dwarves, including the Petty-dwarves, the
Seven Fathers, and more.
July 14, 2007
Tolkien Site/Articles:
"Gamil
Zirak" by Arveleg-(V)
July 13, 2007
Happy Friday
the 13th!
Tolkien Site/Articles:
"Aranrúth"
by Arveleg-(V)
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"To
See a World": Chapter 46 by Nightwing is now up.
Gaming: WoW Lothar
Friday:
Eonwe, Fangorn, Eowyn, Turin, Varda and
guild-friend Wymor (Eonwe's brother)
gamed together mostly in the Arathi Highlands. Afterwards, Eonwe,
Sauron and Elwing completed every quest in the Maurodon instance,
adjourning after the wee hours started growing large. Leveling and
upgrading happened along the way.
Sauron, Eowyn, and Fangorn played
together again once they were more or less conscious on Saturday
morning. And of course we don't just play Friday, that's just the
special day for it.
July 11, 2007
Gaming: WoW Uldaman
Wednesday:
Sauron and Varda, then Varda and
Elwing, partied in the Barrens knocking off strings of quests. Eowyn
brought a new character into our Horde guild. Everyone leveled at least
once.
July 10, 2007
Tolkien Site/ Articles by Arveleg-(V):
Men: Algund,
Andróg,
Forweg,
Orleg,
Ulrad,
"Gaurwaith:
Outlaws of Turin"; Larnach,
"Urwen
or Lalaith", Sador
Links:
updated the link to the novel: Isildur by Brian K. Crawford with Gary
D. Crawford. It can be read online or as a pdf, and has a map by the
author. Update requested by the author. The Grey Havens also has this copy
of it.
July 9, 2007
Tolkien
Site/Articles:
"Flame
Imperishable or the Secret Fire" by Arveleg-(V)
July 8, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda
Attending: (11)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/Bior the
Ythling, Eonwe Valar, GilraenV, Lindir-(V)/Curulinde, VardaValar1
(presiding)
Friends:
B0nedriver, SecondAgeGM, Srekal86
Membership:
Ar-Pharazon
is on vacation for the next 2 weeks starting next Saturday far from the
internet. Ancalagon volunteered to take over his transcript duties
meanwhile.
Web:
Tolkien Site:
Articles
Stories
Gaming:
State
of Valar Gaming Report by Eonwe
D2X: Varda
BFMe2: Eonwe
WC3: Ar-Pharazon, Elladan
WoW:
Argent Dawn: Arien, Menelvagor (maxed
at
70!), Valandil
Uldaman: Fangorn, Varda, Theodwyn-V (as
Vaire), Nynnaeve, Vlmo
Lothar: Fangorn, Varda, Eowyn. Eonwe,
Turin. Sauron, Bilbo.
LotRO: 18 plus
Second Life: Second Age Romenna: Interview with the game creators
New Romenna information:
Synopsis
The plot, or what's happening in Numenor.
Miriel's
blog (includes pictures)
Tolkien:
Numenor
Kin-slayings.
July 6, 2007
Gaming:
The
State of Valar Gaming report for 2007 by Eonwe-(Valar) is
now available.
July 5, 2007
Tolkien Site/Articles:
New articles by Arveleg-(V).
Dwarves: "Azaghâl",
"Dain
I"
Updated article
on "Origin
of Orcs" by Varda-(Valar). First orcs coming against Beleriand,
against Thingol's kingdom.
Updated article
on "Thorin's
Company" by Varda-(Valar). Small addition on which ones were of
Durin's line.
July 4, 2007
Happy 4th of
July!
Gaming: WoW
Uldaman server Wednesday. Fangorn and Varda gamed finished several
Ghostlands quests and parked in a place inside an enemy village for the
next run.
Also on Uldaman: Elwing came in for
three hours. There she also saw Vaire (Theodwyn-V), Vlmo, and Nynnaeve.
WoW Lothar. As no one else was showing
up in Uldaman at that time, Fangorn and Eowyn went to Lothar server.
Varda joined
them later in Stranglethorn Vale to aid in the toppling of a giant into
the water - twice. The three collected fireworks and added to the
lights in the sky at Booty Bay's firework celebration for the Fourth of
July. About that time, Eonwe and Turin also came into Lothar and all
chatted with some item and advice swapping. And more fireworks. And
tapping of Booty Bay kegs. And more questing, although that dock looked
considerably less straight than before. :)
July 2, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"When
the Days are Warm" by Branwyn-(TV). Short. Boromir,
Faramir, Finduilas.
"The
Eyes of the White Tower" by Branwyn-(TV). Short story, 1
chapter.
"The retelling of a familiar tale, with some blank
spaces filled
in. Denethor and Peregrin during the siege of Minas Tirith."
Denethor, Faramir, Pippin. Glimpses of Boromir,
Gandalf, Witch-king
July 1, 2007
Tolkien
Site/Stories:
"The
Best Begetting Day Ever" by Jay of Lasgalen. Short story 1
chapter. Reprint.
"Elladan and Elrohir celebrate their begetting day,
and an unexpected
visitor returns."
Celebrian, Elladan, Elrohir, Elrond, Glorfindel
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00 July 1
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda
Attending: (10)
Members:
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar,
GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, GwaihirValar, Lindir-(V)/Curulinde, Farmer
Maggot-(V)/thesirg3, VardaValar1
Membership:
New Full Members: Thorin-(V) and Lindir-(V)
Universities (during Tolkien chat):
Menelvagor is applying to
Groningen University, Netherlands
Ar-Pharazon is applying to
Utrecht University, Netherlands
Web:
Art
Poetry
Stories
Articles
Valar Guild Site
Toolbar free download
Games Page:
Games Page Mass Update, page rebuilt using PHP and CSS.
Gaming:
Second
Life gaming offer to the Valar Guild
WC 3
WotR
StarCraft
StarCraft2
WoW guild servers:
Argent Dawn
Lothar
Uldaman
LotRO: Landroval server
Tolkien:
Architecture in Middle-earth: Hobbit-holes
top
June
29, 2007
Tolkien Site/Poetry:
A
Ballad of the Unsung by Jeff
Russell fka Manwe-(Valar).
Filk lyrics showing the battle in front of the Black
Gate of
Mordor. A filk is a new set of words set to known music so that it can
be sung.
The original music and words come from Gordon
Lightfoot, who wrote
an Irish style folksong called "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
The unusual use of "Dagorlad" is intentional: first
because it fit
better within Lightfoot's template, and second because of the literal
translation of the word as "Battle Plain".
June 28, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Thorin-(V)! He's
from Florida in the USA, EDT. His birthday is coming up July 25 when he
will be 20. He used to play NeverWinter Nights on Amia, still plays WoW
as a Horde raider on Sargeras server, and plays LotRO where he met us.
He found us on the LotRO forum and wanted a kinship
that role-played (some people and groups are hostile to it even on our
unofficial rp server) and messaged Fainan (Varda) in-game and took the
quiz right then. He enjoys the LotRO music system and was in the
Prancing Pony playing an instrument and rp'ing during his test.
He's read LotR and plans to read more of Tolkien's
works. His favorite character in LotR is Gimli for his courage and for
being a Dwarf, his favorite race. For instance, when the elves of the
Golden Wood were going to blindfold just him to prevent his spying on
their land, he pulled his axe and was ready to fight all of them alone.
Arveleg-(V) made a gift for
the guild, free
to any of you if you want to download it. This is a Valar Guild toolbar
to aid in navigating our huge site.
Letter from Arveleg-(V):
I recently finished building a toolbar
for the Valar Guild. It is downloadable at
http://valarguild.ourorganizationtoolbar.com/.
I designed as much as I could... You only have to download once. Any
changes will be updated automatically. To instantly update hit the down
arrow next to valar guild and hit refresh toolbar. It contains a search
engine for the entire guild website.
Tolkien Site/ Articles:
New articles
by Arveleg-(V).
Many are from the new Children
of Hurin:
Dwarves: "Ibun",
"Khîm"
Elves: "Nellas"
Men: "Asgon",
"Indor"
Objects: "Danwedh"
Non-human
Intelligences: "Spiders
of Mirkwood"
Plants: "Aeglos",
"Seregon"
June 27, 2007:
Gaming offer to the
Valar Guild: Second Life in Romenna. Excerpts from a few of the
letters to Varda are available at this
link. No longer available.
June 26, 2007
Tolkien Site/ Art:
New
page for the art of Lindir-(V). He is sharing a photograph
with us of himself in Tom Bombadil garb and his wife as Goldberry,
while he tells a tale as Tom at the annual Bay Area Hobbit Picnic.
Excerpt from a letter from Lindir-(V) today:
I had been reading Ents, Elves,
and Eriador: the Environmental Vision of JRR Tolkien
by Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans ... (My wife and I
met
Dickerson this past April at the Medieval Fantasy Festival in
Vacaville, CA when he spoke to a group, and several of us went to
dinner together afterwards. It was a good time. He laughed
when he
saw me in my Bombadil costume the next day.)
June 25, 2007
Barahir-(V) of India emailed between one of
his schoolwork-required cyber-brownouts, and says that he does get to
read our page and keeps up with the News. He requests more rhyming
poetry from the guild. He's busy cranking out the A's, since he has to
keep up a 95% average, and would appreciate that bit of fun from us.
Surely we can do that for him. Start typing!
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Lindir-(V)!
Lindir came to us in LotRO having heard of us there from guild-friend
Genessa and Finduilas-(V) as Finora. He emailed, then tested as
Curulinde in LotRO for a very brag-worthy and strong 5/5 with Varda.
Lindir is 45 from California, USA putting him in PST. He plays only
LotRO and has settled on Minstrel as his favorite type.
He has read H, LotR, Sil, UT, some of HoMe, Letters,
Tolkien Reader, and part of Roverandom.
Lindir-(V)'s 45 now, but read the Hobbit and LotR
when he was 11. His favorite characters include of course Tom Bombadil.
Once you meet him, you never forget him. Sam said something about never
meeting anyone queerer or better. Lindir-(V) likes Sam very much and
would have liked to have been cast as Sam in the movie.
When he first read the books, two of his favorite
characters were Faramir and Galadriel. Faramir he liked for nobility,
humility, gentleness, and wisdom. Lindir-(V) is a second son also, but
never had the problem of feeling to be in his brother's shadow. As for
Galadriel, everyone who met her was in awe of her. You knew she was
special.
He belongs to a live group of friends called the
Tolkien Friendship
Society who meet monthly at a friend's home for a potluck picnic. He
send
us a photograph of himself telling tales at one of those meetings as
Tom Bombadil, with his real life wife as Goldberry visible in the front
of the group listening. It will be included in our art gallery in his
new section.
June 24, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"Curse
of Angmar" by Cassia and Siobhan for their Mellon Chronicles
series.
19
chapters. Illustrated by Cassia.
Aragorn and
Legolas investigate a report from the rangers of trouble that the
Bree-land folk think comes from the Barrow-wights. The story involves
Aragorn, Legolas, Elladan, Elrohir, Elrond, Bilbo,
Gandalf, Halbarad, and more of the Rangers.
This was
written before LotRO came out, making an interesting extra spin.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00 June 24
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda
Attending: (5)
Members:
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friend:
Hyarion/Srekal86
Membership:
One new member: Celeborn-(V)
Web:
One new story online this week: "Curse
of Angmar" by Cassia and Siobhan
Numerous works in progress.
Games page update progressing
Gaming:
WC3: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Fladrif
D2X: Varda
StarCraft/BroodWar: Eonwe, Varda
LotRO: many members. Summer Solstice Festival
WoW special get-together days:
Argent Dawn: Arien, Ar-Pharazon
Lothar: Eonwe, guild-friend
Dracxil/Beline
Uldaman: Eonwe
Tolkien:
Numenorean colonies.
Names of Arien
Added new link to the Links page for a language
course:
Parma Tyelpelassiva
Diacritical remarks
June 20, 2007
Gaming: Lord of the Rings Online:
Summer Solstice festivities are underway,
continuing from today to July 10. Now is the time to learn new dances
(dances start every 20 mnutes, click the ring shortly before it starts
and don't leave the dance floor), eat pies (timed but right there on
the table), tavern crawl (timed with travel, beware of vision and
coordination problems), collect fireworks (timed with travel), play
team hockey with chickens (Hobnanigans), and go on scavenger hunts to
help a few npc's who have lost their items. Be sure to visit all four
festival areas: Duillond, Bree-fields Festival Grounds, the Party Tree,
and Thorin's Halls. The dances have to be learned now or wait until
next summer.
Dance-impaired?
Tip 1: Note that the leader will
call a step twice in a row, notably /dance2, that might make you think
you've already done it.
Tip 2: Here's a trick from
Miriel-(V) to handle those fast dance calls from the Dance Leaders: use
macros, called shortcuts in LotRO.
Example: /shortcut 37 /dance1
This puts a shortcut icon on quickslot 37 for the emote of /dance1
But you see no quickslot 37? To figure the
number, note the first bar that starts with 1 including =, and figure
that as slots 1-12. The quickslot bars go up in multiples of 12. Thus
1-12, 13-24, 25-36, 37-48. So the above example put the icon on the
very top quickslot bar on the left. Go to the Menu/Options/Quickslots
and choose to lock the bar chosen.
You can add /shortcut 38 /dance2 and /shortcut 39
/dance3 to intuitively hit the dances in order when called.
Have the new dance but don't see how to make it
show? Instead of /dance1, use /dance_elf or whichever dance is
being taught. Any race can learn all the racial dances, and they work
as shortcuts too, if you want to synchronize dancing with a buddy.
Miriel called out 1, 2, 3 on voice in our fellowship, then Ancalagon
and I started dancing with her at the same time. Maybe we can try it as
a raid...
June 18, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Celeborn-(V)!
Celeborn found us through Elrond-(V)'s RingCast site and tested as Falian
with Varda on LotRO (when he probably should have been sleeping before
work). He's 21, from Texas, USA; CST and travels a lot for work.
He plays daily afternoons and evenings, more on
weekends. He plays LoTO, Guild Wars, and StarWars Galaxies. On Guild
Wars he plays as Lucian Dorath with the Black Hand Gang.
He's read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, and Children of Hurin. He is
drawn to Elven histories, especially that of the House of Finwe. Two of
his favorite LotR characters are Celeborn and Galadriel, the only King
and Queen-like pair in the LotR that the reader has the opportunity to
know, although they call themselves Lord and Lady. They've seen so much
history that it gives them an all-knowing aura.
June 17, 2007
Happy Father's Day!
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda.
Attending: (7)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV (presiding), Fladrifv, GilraenV,
VardaValar1
Menelvagor came in after the recorded meeting.
Friends:
excelsiorjss, Srekal86
Membership:
Two new members this week: Gorlim-(V)
and Muzgash-(V)
Web:
One new story this week: "The
Outsider" by Jay of Lasgalen
Gaming:
LotRO: Evendim expansion is running and we're in it.
Jan
13 report. (Main gaming group.)
WoW:
Lothar Friday: Bilbo, Eonwe,
Fangorn, Varda
Uldaman Wednesday: Elwing, Eonwe
Argent Dawn: no report, although
members were gaming there.
WarCraft 3: Ar-Pharazon, Fladrif
StarCraft: Ar-Pharazon, Fladrif
StarCraft/BroodWar: Ar-Pharazon, Fladrif
Chess: Fladrif
Tolkien:
Hobbit housing (during Before-meeting)
Fladrif is now reading the Swedish version of LotR..
Topic: Gorlim the Unhappy
Topic: Bargains with Sauron: Gorlim's, Luthien's.
Quote: excelsiorjss quoted Huan's entrance into the Silmarillion story of Beren
and Luthien.
After-meeting:
Elrond-(V) mentioned the Valar Guild on his RingCast podcasts.
June 13, 2007
Tolkien Site/Stories:
"The
Outsider" by Jay
of Lasgalen. Drabble. "Aragorn's melancholy thoughts on one of his
lonely journeys."
Gaming/LotRO:
The Evendim expansion is now live! It's a free
patch downloaded on entering the game. It is a new area reachable from
the Shire or the North Downs, especially intended to add more content
for level 30's, although I saw much lower levels racing through it, and
our higher level people also walked in and took a look. I can only
report on the northern side into which I (Varda as Fainan) went.
Evendim holds the enormous ruins of the old capitol of Arnor that had
been abandoned. It's in much better shape than most of the ruins we are
used to and a good place for refugees, but also for bandits. Some of
the refugees have made deals with some of the bandits, but find
themselves regretting them. Being right against the North Downs, they
also have a problem with Barrow-wights and barghests.
June 11, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Muzgash-(V)!
He was scouted by Miriel and tested by Irmo in LotRO as Nitryt. He's 24
from Virginia and plays both City of Heroes and LotRO. He's read the
LotR and his favorite character there is Aragorn for his strong
leadership.
June 10, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Gorlim-(V)!
Gorlim used to play EQ, DAoC, and WoW but has now dropped them for
LotRO. He has been gaming in LotRO with our higher end players for a
few weeks and even then was still willing to join the guild. He tested
5/5 with Irmo. He's 51 from Texas. He's read H, LotR, and the Sil, and
I've been told he's read other Tolkien books as well. His favorite LotR
character is Gimli because, unlike some others, he's content with what
and where he is.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00 June 10, 2007
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon,
Eonwe,
and Varda.
Attending: (9)
Ancalagon-(V)/sarujil, Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar (presiding),
GilraenV, GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
Membership:
Ancalagon's recent birthday
Arveleg tested and has gone from a TV to a V
Web:
GPMU in progress
Gaming:
WoW
LotRO
WC3: Ar-Pharazon, Gwaihir
SC: Eonwe, Gwaihir
Tolkien:
RP on the forum
June 6, 2007
Happy Birthday, Ancalagon!
WoW Uldaman Wednesday:
Due to a slight mistake,
Fangorn, Eowyn, Bilbo, and Eonwe wound up playing on WoW Lothar. Fun
was had.
June 4, 2007
LotRO Monday:
The eighteen players who made it
into LotRO Monday (with much grouping) were:
Amaranth, Ancalagon, Angrod,
"Armatorn" of the Melkorrim, Beleg, Boromir, Elrond, Fangluin,
Finduilas, Irmo, Legolas, Melkor, Merry, Miriel, Morwe, Orome,
"Pennypincher" of the Melkorrim, Varda.
(Melkorrim refers to
members of Melkor's three-generation real life family, just as
Laytonrim refers to members of Varda's two-generation real life family.)
June 13 is the date for the Evendim
expansion, plus the new music notation for the musically inclined.
(Your friendly neighborhood guild woodcrafters/Foresters may be able to
make you free or inexpensive instruments.)
WoW Argent Dawn:
Group met Monday instead of Thursday
due to real life activities coming up:
Menelvagor's Anarore, Valandil's
Orophin, Ar Pharazon's Calaron and Arien's Finduilasse plus a High
Guard Mage went to the Underbog.
June 3, 2007
Welcome to Full Membership in the Valar Guild,
Arveleg-(V)! He joined us originally as
Arveleg-(TV) on May 30,
2007. During today's meeting on AIM,
he took his test with Varda for a bragworthy 5/5. He plays Battle for
Middle-earth 2 and Age of Empires. His favorite character is Sam for
courage and loyalty, such as at the pass and tower of Cirith Ungol.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00 June 3, 2007
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda.
Attending: (10)
Members:
Arveleg-(V)/aiguernz, AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Elladan-(V)/Bior the
Ythling, Eonwe Valar (presided over last half), Fladrifv, Menelvagor
Valar, VardaValar1 (presided over first half).
Friends:
excelsiorjss, Srekal86
Membership:
Arveleg-(TV) took his test and became Arveleg-(V).
Arien is still waiting on her new computer,
borrowing husband's laptop to attend.
Varda opened the floor to suggestions from members
for improving the meeting. The general agreement was to shorten the
gaming reports and not have the side comments during them. This would
let us start the Tolkien chat sooner. The rest of the business parts
are already streamlined enough for now.
Web:
The
Silmarillion: Book Review by Arveleg-(TV)
Gaming:
WoW:
WoW Lothar: Eonwe
WoW Uldaman: Eonwe
WoW Argent Dawn: Arien,
Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor
StarCraft: Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe
WarCraft 3: Ar-Pharazon, Arien, Boromir, Fladrif
Battle for Middle-earth 2: Arveleg
LotRO: many of us
Tolkien:
What overarching themes, if any, were present in The Silmarillion?
Pride in the extreme form of
arrogance/hubris/arrogance caused downfalls. Redemption was another
theme, needed mostly because of the aforementioned problem.
top
May
30, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Arveleg
I-(TV)! Arveleg joined us from Florida, USA as a
Tolkien-only member with his review of The
Silmarillion. He's read the H, LotR, and Sil (three times), UT,
BoLT 1&2, Children of Hurin, Smith of Wooten Major, and is working
on the rest of the Histories of Middle-earth. He hopes to be writing an
article helping us with the Kings project as well. If you're not
impressed yet, he's doing all this and is only twelve. He plays Battle
for Middle-earth 2 and would like to game with others in the Valar
Guild. He plans to join as a Full Member as soon as he can take the
quiz.
Tolkien Site:
Book List and Reviews:
The
Silmarillion: Book Review by Arveleg-(TV)
May 27, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda.
Attending: (8)
Members:
ArPharazonV, Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, Gil-galad-(V)/
Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends:
excelsiorjss
Membership:
New Full Member: Fangluin-(V) from LotRO.
Arien's computer died, new one ordered.
Web:
Put up today on the Tolkien Site's Story section:
Drabbles by Jay
of Lasgalen:
"Hide
and Seek" The twins, Elladan and Elrohir, see the point of
the game.
"Breaking"
Elrond, through his bond with Celebrian, realizes that she is being
attacked.
"Parental
Ambitions" Arathorn and Gilraen consider the newborn Aragorn.
"Meeting in Bree" Ranger Aragorn meets Elladan and
Elrohir in Bree.
"No Smoking" A new sign.
"Starlight
and Darkness" In Moria, Aragorn recalls Elrohir's words that
help him face the evil memories of this place.
"The
Darkness Behind" Gimli has help on the Paths of the Dead.
"Beware
of the Sea" Legolas rides to battle while recalling
Galadriel's message, believing he is about to die.
"Before the Gate" Elladan and Elrohir in front of
the Black Gate of Mordor.
"Labour of Love" Arwen has her first child,
Eldarion. Aragorn and her brothers, all trained healers, want to help.
Gaming:
The Games page is being re-done and all information
will be wiped. This ensures that the information is current for active
gamers and checks to make sure our contact information is still good.
The Membership page gaming info tends to be out of date.
Chess online: Fladrif
Empire Earth: Final Conquest: Ar-Pharazon
Mario Brothers - 1 for the nes, 2 for the snes:
Fladrif
Galaxians: Eowyn, Fangorn, Sauron, Varda
StarCraft 2 movie link from Fladrif: http://starcraft2.com/movies.xml
WarCraft 3: Boromir. Fladrif's DVD is at his other
house, considering buying a new one.
Battlenet East, Valar channel is our official Valar
Guild meeting spot for Battlenet-using games. AIM can be helpful,
especially for other games.
Battle for Middle-earth 2: Arveleg-(TV)
WoW Argent Dawn server Thursday: Arien, Ar-Pharazon,
Menelvagor. Ar-Pharazon can no longer join in guild night on Thursday
and asks for another date.
WoW Lothar server Friday: Eonwe, Elwing. Other days
included Bilbo, Eowyn, Fangorn, Sauron. Varda briefly. Gollum and Arwen
are usually on their alt characters but are present in the friend
channel.
WoW Uldaman: dedicated gamers are Elwing and
Theodwyn. Vlmo guild-friends with them.
LotRO: Monday doesn't seem to be any different than
other days. Frequent players during the week are Amaranth, Ancalagon,
Angrod, Arminas, Beleg, Borin, Elrond, Falathar, Fangluin, Finduilas,
Irmo, Legolas, Merry, Melkor, Miriel, Morwe, Orome, and Varda. Faramir
and Vorone come on sometimes. Alatar and Beorn were not as visible as
they had been. Dis is usually on her alts with her husband's guild
these days. Erkenbrand usually plays his Herdy alt. Eowyn's Mairawyn
and Bilbo's Ristanaste still need invitations.
Tolkien:
Topic
1: What period of time would you folks most
like to see new stories for?
Answers:
ArPharazonV: Second Age I'd like
to see stories for, either Numenor or Middle-earth would be nice
Fladrifv: I would like to see
melkors adventures
Fladrifv: side storys about ents
would be nice too
ArPharazonV: in the History of
Middle Earth series, book 12, it ends
with a story taking place in the Second Age called Tal-Elmar if I
recall correctly... how the coming of the Numenoreans was perceived by
the peoples already living in ME. I'd like to see more such stories
:-) The "dark ages".
Topic
2: Forum rp. This brought
about several Tolkien discussion tangents.
May 26, 2007 (Saturday)
Varda is back after a week's absence due to
travel. News articles are being added retroactively at the proper date.
The Tolkien Site backlog is being handled.
May 25, 2007
WoW Lothar
server Friday
May 24, 2007
Eonwe-(Valar)'s Birthday! He's now 25.
LotRO buddy
keys have been emailed to gamers.
May 23, 2007
WarCraft 3:
Boromir-V has re-downloaded
WarCraft 3 and is looking for fellow Valar Guild members to game with.
Please remember that our official Battle.net channel is Valar in the
East realm, and to try to use some version of your guild name and guild
tag for recognition.
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Fangluin-(V)!
Fangluin was scouted in LotRO by Amaranth Brandybuck-(V), and tested a
bragworthy 5/5 by Irmo-(Valar). Fangluin is 19, from Minnesota in the
USA. He plays LOTRO, Guildwars, and Realm of Kaos He's read H,
LOTR, and Sil. His favorite LotR character is the loyal Sam.
May 20, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (9)
(Almost all were from Europe. Congrats to the Europeans!)
Members: Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Eonwe
Valar, Fladrifv, GilraenV, Glorfindel VG, Menelvagor Valar, Valandil
Valar
Friends: Srekal86
Membership:
Eonwe's birthday: 25 last Thursday
Ar-Pharazon and autism
Menelvagor's foreign internship will be in the USA
Eilinel-(V) is currently in China, traveling a lot,
communicated via Skype to Arien
Web:
Games page: being redone, mass update coming up
Gaming:
Forum rp chronology problem (before-meeting)
StarCraft 2 second mention, most discussion was in
the Before-meeting
Empire Earth: Art of Conquest Ar-Pharazon
Poker Texas Hold 'em Menelvagor
Ninja Gaiden Black Eonwe
Mass Effect: Link. Discussion of upcoming
game by Menelvagor and Eonwe.
LotRO: no LotRO gamers were present to make the
report
WoW:
Lothar: Eonwe, Eowyn (leveled a couple
of times), Elwing
Uldaman: none of those players were
present to report.
Argent Dawn: well-reported. Leveling by
all.
Tolkien:
Menelvagor Valar: We all know that even after the
Bending of the World, the Valar still maintained a certain degree of
influence in Middle Earth. One of the greatest (or even the greatest)
example is the sending of the Wizards. However, one that is more
obscure, yet no less important is Irmo's influence. Now, what I would
like to know is if you can think of any examples of this.
After-meeting:
Link to
Gaming Delight given to Menelvagor who is into archery, from
Ar-Pharazon.
May 18, 2007
WoW
Lothar server Friday (Alliance)
May 17, 2007
WoW
Argent Dawn server Thursday (Alliance)
May 16, 2007
WoW
Uldaman server Wednesday (Horde)
May 14, 2007
LotRO
Monday
May 13, 2007
Happy Mother's Day!
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (13)
Aerandir V/mordacil, Alatarvalar1, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV,
Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Elrond-(V)/RingCast,
Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe Valar, Fladrifv, Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe,
Menelvagor Valar, Oropher-(V)/MJKeenan1234, VardaValar1(presiding)
Suggestion:
Ar-Pharazon-(V) suggested an AIM alternative, still
allowing talk with AIM users: http://www.pidgin.im/
Membership:
Three new Full Members joined this week, all from
LotRO:
Dirhavel-(V), Elrond-(V) [who came to
the meeting, yay!], and Morwe-(V).
Web:
RingCast is a
site by Elrond-(V) on LotRO including PodCasts and screenshots.
Gaming:
We have a special
day for each of the large branches, helpful especially for
people who have all the games to know when and where to show up.
Members have said they want 5pm EST but it usually turns out either
nearer 9 EST or all day.
Monday is for LotRO's Landroval
server branch; Wednesday for WoW's Uldaman, Thursday for WoW's Argent
Dawn, Friday for WoW's Lothar.
Non-WoW or LotRO
also played this last week:
Empire Earth: Art of Conquest by
Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Guitar Hero 2 by Eonwe-(Valar)
Starwars galaxy trail by
Fladrif-(V)
Kirby Canvas Curse by
Eonwe-(Valar)
WarCraft3/TFT by Arien-(Valar).
Fladrif-(V) is moving back into this game.
Well of Souls by Arien-(Valar)
Age of Empires by Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Hearts of Iron 2 by Bombur-(V)
[Fladrif-(V) says he has all the games
above and can join in.]
LotRO:
Landroval server (unofficial rp
server)
This is now the most
heavily played Valar Guild game by numbers and time spent. It abrubtly
became our major game. A number of our members dropped WoW for LotRO
for financial reasons and to be in Middle-earth. DAoC members mostly
came here, as LotRO came out at about the time that DAoC was nerfed. As
far as I know, we still have two members in EQ. The main recruiters
moved to LotRO.
WoW:
Argent
Dawn server branch (Allliance):
Euro tends to
break across several games besides WoW and different areas in WoW but
still hang out together.
Main gamers
are: Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Menelvagor. Arien's Finduilasse maxed out at
level 70.
Fladrif is
opting out of all MMORPG's for now.
Uldaman
(Horde):
Elwing and
Theodwyn are dedicated Horde players. We have guild-friends here as
well.
Lothar
(Alliance): main WoW group.
Fangorn,
Bilbo, Sauron, Eowyn, Elwing, and Eonwe are the main ones showing up
during the week. Guild-friends are most numerous here.
Tolkien:
Fladrif-(V): What trades are made due to all
influences from abroad like films, fan art, and movies?
Varda-(Valar): Who were mothers that we saw in
Middle-earth?
May 11, 2007
WoW Lothar Friday:
Gamers: Eonwe, Fangorn, Bilbo,
Sauron, Eonwe.
Dirhavel-(V),
wecome to the Valar Guild!
Dirhavel joined us from LoTRO, scouted by Beleg and tested by Varda for
a perfect 5/5. (What is it with all these perfect tests lately?
:) He currently plays only LotRO, but has played WoW, SWG, EQ2,
FFxi, and the tabletop LotR game from Ice Crown Enterprises. He's 36
from Texas, USA, CST. He's read H, LotR, and some Sil. His favorite
LotR character is Gandalf for the mystery of him and because he's
always been partial to wizards.
May 10, 2007
Elrond-(V), welcome to the Valar Guild!
Elrond joined us in LotRO after running with us in-game a few times. He
has bragging rights for testing 5/5 with Irmo-(Valar). He currently
plays LotRO and has played Guild Wars and WoW. He's 35 from Georgia,
USA, EST and has read H, LotR, and part of the Sil. He and
his wife do RingCast, an online
LoTO podcast and fansite.
WoW Argent Dawn
Thursday
May 9, 2007
WoW Uldaman
server's Wednesday.
Gamers:
Elwing, Varda.
May 8, 2007
Morwe-(V), welcome to the Valar Guild! Morwe
came to us in LotRO, with bragging rights for a 5/5 test with
Irmo-(Valar). He's 38, from Kentucky in the USA, CST. He currently
plays only LotRO. He's read H, LotR, Sil, UT, HoMe 1-12, Letters,
Adv of Tom Bombadil, Leaf, Smith
of WM, Finn & Hengest, Roverandom, Mr Bliss, Monsters &
Critics, On Faery Stories, Sir Gawain, Homecoming of Beor, The Road
Goes Ever On.
May 7, 2007
LotRO Monday:
Gamers: (12) Alatar,
Ancalagon, Arminas, Beleg, Finduilas, Irmo, Legolas, Melkor, Merry,
Miriel, Orome, and Varda. We had higher level grouping with those in
their 30's and lower level grouping for those in their upper teens.
Leveling, questing, crafting, swapping, chatting.
May 6, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (14)
Ancalagon-(V)/sarujil, ArathornValar, AriehnV,
ArPharazonV, Arwen
V1, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar (presiding),
Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV,
Glorfindel VG, Menelvagor Valar, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1
Membership:
Legolas-(V) is our new Full Member
Ar-Pharazon's 22nd birthday is today. Yay!
Web:
Art:
Deepgroover-(TV):
this week's photos of his medieval and fantasy models
Varda-(Valar):
this week's pencil sketch
Poetry:
He that Walks Unseen's "The
Eyes of the Valley"
Gaming:
Empire Earth: Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Jagged Alliance 2: Menelvagor-(Valar)
LotRO Monday: many guild folk came and grouped
and/or chatted. One group finished up most of their Lone Lands quests
in a nearly day long run.
WoW:
Uldaman Wednesday
Lothar Friday
Gilraen and Gwaihir will be remaining with WoW at this time, not moving
to LotRO.
But
they will not be seen much on Lothar as they continue on their old PvP
server.
Argent Dawn:
AD
gamers picked Thursday as their get-together night
Tolkien:
Topic from Eonwe: What examples of unrequited love
do we have from LotR and Silmarillion, and what are some of the
consequences?
After-meeting:
Some people stayed a long time after the main
meeting to chat. Some subjects: Story page, programming, movie. Lot of
side windows going on.
May 5, 2007
Tolkien Site > Art
Cave
of DeepGroover-(TV).: New photos: medieval and fantasy models by
DeepGroover-(TV): "Sanctuary
Defiled", "Field
of Carnage", "Blue
Knights". Update to "Death
of a Warrior" showing the completed, award-winning model.
May 3, 2007
Tolkien Site > Art:
New cave: Cave
of Varda-(Valar) with new art. "Legolas portrait", pencil
sketch.
May 1, 2007
Tolkien Site > Poetry:
The
Eyes of the Valley by He
that Walks Unseen-(TV). Fingolfin versus Morgoth,
with an addition to the legend. Original work.
top
April
30, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Legolas-(V)!
Legolas came to us from LotRO Landroval, and tested with Irmo-(Valar).
His LotRO outsider but in-guild name is Thandril.
LotRO Monday
get-together. Irmo, Miriel, Ancalagon, and Legolas gamed much of
the "day", nearly wiping out the Lone Lands quests and leveling a
couple of times (thank you Ancalagon for the report). Varda had
difficulty reaching a computer until late but ran several characters.
Merry came in after work with Kalimacoin. Beleg/Belleg kindly passed
around goodies after a long time of questing (including some wonderful
recipes!), then switched to the farmer/cook addict character that his
Belleg supports. Others gamed as well, and I'm sorry to have missed
their sterling company. Erkenbrand's otherguild Herdy and Dis's
otherguild Astarte said hello.
April 29, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe-(Valar), and Varda
Attending: (16)
Members:
Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, Arien-(V)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
AuSteinM-(TV)/AuSteinM, DreamlordTV, Elladan-(V)/Bior the Ythling,
Eonwe Valar, Gil-galad-(V)/Xseanzee disco, GilraenV, Glorfindel VG,
Oropher-(V)/MJKeenan1234, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends:
excelsiorjss, Srekal86, the loser emu
Membership:
Manwe-(Valar): left
Amaranth-(V): joined as a Full Member
Ar-Pharazon-(V)'s birthday next week, party next
Sunday
Miriel-(V): joined as a Full Member
Web:
Question from Varda-(Valar) for the guild on whether
or not they want story reprints from outside. Positive response.
Gaming:
Well of Souls
Empire Earth
Total Annihilation:
Supreme Commander: sequel
Total Annihilation:
Kingdoms: mod.
Final Fantasy(s) (After-meeting)
WoW:
Argent Dawn (Euro server): reports
by Arien-(Valar) and Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Lothar: reports by Eonwe-(Valar)
and Varda-(Valar)
Uldaman: report by Varda-(Valar)
as related by Elwing-(V)
LotRO: report by Varda-(Valar)
Tolkien:
Topic from excelsiorjss: Barrow Wights: Anything and
Everything about these scourges
Topic: Tangent from Bombadil's having picked up the
Ring: If the One Ring had been picked up by Saruman and others.
Topic: Movies
After-meeting:
Dreamlord-(TV) visited (first Irmo-(Valar))
April 27, 2007
Welcome to the
Valar Guild, Miriel-(V)! Miriel came to us from LotRO Landroval,
and was scouted and tested by Irmo-(Valar). She's 33, and originally
from Ft. Worth, Texas, USA, but moved to the Netherlands to be with
Irmo. She's played DAoC previously, and now plays LotRO. She's read the
LotR and Sil.
April 25, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Amaranth-(V)!
Scouted by Manwe and tested by Varda on LotRO (her only current game),
she has bragging rights with a perfect score of 5/5. She's from S.
Carolina, 16 years of age. She's read The Lord of the Rings, The
Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The Letters of J.R.R.
Tolkien, most of the poems in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil,
and bits and pieces of a few books in The History of
Middle-earth series (primarily in Morgoth's Ring, but I
have three others.) She's also read Smith of Wooton Major, Farmer
Giles of Ham, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and
Sir Orfeo. She hopes to be sending in an eight page article
(originally for school) and a poem, both already underway. Her favorite
LotR character is Frodo. She loved the way he handled himself with
Faramir, speaking wisely under pressure while being questioned. In the
book he does not lie and says he told no lies and of the truth what he
could. He treated Gollum with respect and kindness, but he was still
master, which he showed many times, and Gollum knew it. Frodo is the
epitome of meekness. Frodo undertook the quest out of love and humility.
April 24, 2007
LotRO goes live today! The level 15 cap is
lifted.
Manwe-(Valar)
is no longer with the Valar Guild. He came back and gave it a try, but
found that he no longer has an interest in gaming or Tolkien. Thank you
for all you've done for the guild, for setting it up and giving it the
original friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
April 22, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (15)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, Arien-(V)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
Beorn-(V)/TwoSurlyDwarves, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar,
FladrifV, GilraenV, Glorfindel VG/VegetableMannn,
Manwe-(Valar)/Russ82275, VardaValar1 (presiding),
Voronwe-(V)/tristerfalm777
Friends:
excelsiorjss (friend of Glorfindel's), Srekal86
Membership:
Falathar-(MoH) passed his test, promoted to Full
Member Honor, now known as Falathar-(V).
Araminas-(V) joined, games with us in LotRO
Faramir-(V) joined, games with us in LotRO.
Melkor-(Valar) is back from vacation, gaming in
LotRO with us.
Fladrif-(V) has been scouting for us in WoW Europe.
Web:
New articles: "Borin"
by Borin-(V) and Finduilas-(V); "Finduilas"
by Finduilas-(V).
Story and Art: "Escape
from Mordor" by Cassia-(V) and Siobhan-(V), illustrated by
Cassia-(V).
Gaming:
Total Annihilation: Ar-Pharazon-(V) finished it and
Fladrif-(V) started it.
Empire Earth: Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Online chess: Fladrif-(V)
Nexiuz: Fladrif-(V)
Boulderdash: Fladrif-(V)
WC3:
Bombur-(V) describes how to do a creative strategy of his own
invention, a different style of gaming.
WoW:
WoW Argent Dawn group reports by
Arien-(Valar), Ar-Pharazon-(V), and Fladrif-(V) who hit level 70.
WoW Lothar Friday group report by
Eonwe-(Valar)
WoW Uldaman Wednesday group
report by Varda-(Valar)
LotRO:
Landroval Monday group report by
Varda-(Valar)
LotRO Europe report by Fladrif-(V)
Suggestion:
List fantasy books that you've been reading that are
non-Tolkien on the Forum and discuss them. Suggestion by Fladrif-(V).
Currently our Forum lists non-Tolkien authors and discusses their books
within those sections. More activity in that area would be most welcome!
Tolkien:
What do we know and what can we speculate about the
nature of huorns?
Elements of mythologies in Tolkien's writings. (Slow
theme shift.)
Tom Bombadil
Was everyone in Tolkien's world power-hungry? Is
control ever legitimate?
April 21, 2007
Tolkien Site: Stories:
"Escape
from Mordor" by Cassia-(TV)
and Siobhan-(TV), Mellon Chronicles series.
"Legolas has been sold into
slavery in Mordor, but
after everything he has been through, his wounded spirit no longer has
the strength to endure.
"By venturing into the heart of
Sauron's realm, Aragorn puts at risk the
thus far carefully guarded and deadly secret of his identity. But if
Aragorn does not find Legolas soon, the prince will die; one way or
another. Yet even when he is found... how can the two friends, alone
against all of Mordor, ever manage to escape the death trap of the dark
lands?"
April 20, 2007
Friday
WoW Lothar
Friday weekly get-together. Officially it starts around 5pm EDT, but in
practice some come earlier and some don't show until 7 or later, but
being a weekend it can run even into Saturday. Have fun!
April 19, 2007
Melkor, welcome back from vacation!
Two new members joined the Valar Guild today from LotRO,
testing with Varda. They met Earendil, Merry, Morgoth, and Varda today.
May the new folkd continue to have fun times with us!
Welcome to the
Valar Guild, Araminas-(V)!
As Fatale, he talked with us in LotRo Landroval server. Since
"Araminas" was blocked, he used Arminadir to join the guild branch, as
well as bringing in Fatale as his one outsider name. He has played many
MMO's and other games. Recently he cancelled his accounts for EQ2 and
WoW in favor of LotRO. He's 39 years old from New Hampshire, USA,
in
EDT. His AIM name is cada0310. He is married, but his wife doesn't play
computer games or read LotR, so he will not have competition for his
LotRO time. They have a son, 25 months old. He usually games in the
evenings. He's read, H, LotR (many times), and Sil. He discovered
during the test how much the movie had affected
his memory, something of a surprise to him. His favorite character is
Aragorn,
an excellent warrior who is responsible, protective, and courageous.
His favorite movie part was during Helm's Deep when the defenders led
by Aragorn-inspired Theoden-king charged out on horses against the orcs.
Welcome to the
Valar Guild, Faramir-(V)! Although he
joined a few hours after Araminas, as Larandir he has been gaming and
talking with us in LotRO Landroval server since at least the 14th,
meeting Manwe, Merry, and Varda. He dropped WoW not long ago, but still
plays NeverWinter Nights and plays LotRO. He works one week on and one
week off. On May 25th, he will be 25 years old, so here's an early
happy birthday! He's from the USA, in EDT. In AIM, he's go go
roflcopter. He says his brother can beat him in LotR Trivial Pursuit
and the two of them plan to gather up a group of hobbit minstrels as a
traveling band in LotRO. He enjoys reading and writing poetry and might
do some for us. He re-reads the trilogy of LotR every year or so. He
lucked out that his favorite character's name was currently free, and
said he liked Faramir because he likes tragic heroes. He considered
Faramir tragic because of his constant living in Boromir's shadow and
inability to find approval from the Steward. He ended up being a hero
in the defense of Gondor and bags Eowyn. He could accept Aragorn as the
returning king because he was wise beyond his years and a friend to
Gandalf, unlike Boromir.
April 18, 2007
WoW Wednesday: Uldaman server, Horde
characters.
5pm EDT is the suggested time,
but in practice it starts later as most of the actual gamers need to
get off work first.
Fangorn and Varda ran their Blood Elves
questing together, and his paladin gained two levels. Fishing and
mining also went up, as did cooking and first aid to a lesser degree..
April 16, 2007
LotRO
Monday: Landroval server 5pm EDT get-together:
Varda did not keep notes,
unfortunately. So from memory:
Falathar is now a member of the LotRO
Valar Guild Kinship!
Ancalagon and Varda were on most of the
day to late at night with a few short real life breaks for homework,
chores, and meals.
Around 5pm EDT, Manwe's guardian,
Varda's lore master, and Ancalagon's burglar joined up with
guild-friend Eodgifu's captain to quest north of Combe against the
Blackwold ruffians in the woods and to complete the Vigil against them
when they came onto a farm; into the Midgewater Marshes for goblins;
and into the Marshwater Fort ruins for spiders. The same fellowship
also worked on the human Epic Prologue for Eodgifu as the others had
already done it, numbers dropping as the hour grew late. Instance
gaming continued for Varda's lore master past the prologue into Book
One through the chapters until she could no longer go forward. Merry's
Kalimacoin worked on solo quests and chatted. Dis and her husband were
online crafting and aiding other friends. Dis' husband passed the entry
test with us but was stuck trying to pick a primary name, so he has not
yet officially joined. Other members (including Erkenbrand) and
guild-friends also came on for questing, crafting, exploring, and
chatting.
April 15, 2007
Congratulations to
Falathar-(V)! Falathar-(MoH) passed his test with Orome-(Valar)
and received his promotion to Full Member this morning!
Tolkien Site:
Articles:
Borin, new Dwarf article. By Borin-(V)
and Finduilas-(V).
Finduilas, new article under Man. by
Finduilas-(V)
Arien-(Valar)'s author's
page and article have new file names.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (10)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, Arien-(V)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Eonwe
Valar, Lungorthin-(Valar)/sauronjag, Pallando Valar/Oessala/Orodreth V,
VardaValar1 (presiding), Voronwe-(V)/tristerfalm777
Friends:
Srekal86
Membership:
New members:
Falathar-(MoH)
passed his Full Member honor test with Orome this morning, promoting
him to Full Member Falathar-(V)!
Finduilas-(V)
joined after the meeting last Sunday. She games with us a lot on LotRO
along with her husband, Borin-(V)
Voronwe-(V)
joined after the meeting last Sunday and came today!
Aratan is in the process of reading the books with
Angrod and has been invited by Orome to join us as an MoH once finished.
Web:
Three upcoming
Tolkien site entries are already in the mailbox and about to be worked
on. Two articles were published after the meeting and show in the News
above this meeting recap: "Borin", "Finduilas, Daughter of Adrahil".
Humor page:
problem of Menelvagor being unable to reach his area on valarguld.org
has been resolved. Farmer Maggot-(V) agreed to host the Humor page,
with Menelvagor-(Valar), Eonwe-(Valar), and Varda-(Valar) able to reach
it.
Gaming:
Eve Online:
Menelvagor-(Valar) has progressed to
being ready for his battleship!
Pallando-(Valar) is offering a free
month of Eve Online to Valar Guild members who mail him ingame from a
trial account.
Total Annihilation: Ar-Pharazon-(V)
WoW:
Argent
Dawn server: Fladrif and Ar-Pharazon gamed going into Durnholde
together with some friends from High Guard, into the Caverns of Time,
saving Thrall. Arien worked on her low level character.
Uldaman
server: timing was off for the reporter for the special
Wednesday night, but Theodwyn-(V)/Vaire and Elwing gamed. Varda ran all
her Horde characters through for crafting, then played Tinta the Blood
Elf warlock in questing. Guild-friend Consultrajan was also on.
Lothar
server: special Friday night. Eonwe's Auros quested in Blade's
Edge Mountains. Eonwe was pushed offline by storms, Varda coming online
as he went off, as she lives in a city south of him and the storms had
passed from her area to his. Fangorn, Sauron, Bilbo, and Eowyn came on
as well. Fangorn and Sauron have been on a lot this week. Arwen's
priest is now set up to do the first instance for kara attunement. We
added three new guild-friends to the channel. Arwen and Gollum are in
the friend channel a great deal and are often available to help, even
though they are usually on non-guild characters.
LotRO:
Landroval
server: special Monday night. Twelve guild members came in
during the afternoon and evening through midnight. Manwe joined, trying
out a human guardian to see if he would pre-order the game, then joined
the kinship to hang out with us. He and Varda scouted two people and
gamed with them, with Ancalagon's and Merry's able help. A
party/fellowship can currently have six people, planned to eventually
go up to nine. Finduilas and Borin quested together, trying out elf
lands for the first time. Erkenbrand and Dis worked with their
characters at the Open Beta cap of level 15, when mostly such
characters go to crafting, Deeds, or helping other members through
instances we've already done.
Tolkien:
Examples of loyalty without friendship, including
discussion.
Faramir and Denethor. Sauron and his
minions. Morgoth with Glaurung and Sauron. Gimli and Legolas before
Lorien.
April 13, 2007
The Lord of the Rings
Online
Special Edition will be available in limited quantities and contains a
number of benefits & bonuses priced at just $59.99 MSRP. The
Special Edition includes:
- Full Game on 2 DVD’s
- 30-days of free online play
- Free 10-day Buddy Key
- The “Beyond the Shadows. .
.The Making of The Lord of the Rings Online” DVD
– A collection of videos that show how Turbine brought the Books of
J.R.R. Tolkien to life. Hear from the game’s designers and see their
work from concept to completion.
- The Lord of the Rings Online
Soundtrack – In-game soundtrack of the
Shire, Rivendell, Bree, Thorin’s Hall and Angmar.
- Exclusive In-Game Item –
“The Glass of Aglarel”
– Carrying this in-game jewel will increase your Hope to aid you
against the effects of Dread brought on by the Witch-king and his
minions.
- A Full Color Special Edition
Manual
- Exclusive map of Middle-earth
April 9, 2007 Monday
LotRO day/night!
Landroval server, Open Beta, pre-order gamers.
Cheers to the 12 guild Gamers on today!
Ancalagon/Anc/Ancbeard, Beorn/Ardbeorn, Borin/Borloe,
Fangorn/Treebeerd, Finduilas/Piewyn, Merry/Kalimacoin,
Orome/Perianorome/Eldorome, Sauron/Tevildo,
Varda/Fainan/Fanuilos/Timbridhil, and Voronwe/Eledhriel! Dis was on as
her outsider Astarte, Beleg as outsider Herdy.
Ancalagon and Varda went to the
Dev (developer) live chat on www.chat.stratics.com. We heard that more
kinship features will be added and that they are working on an in-depth
fishing system that will be rolled out later, and they are working all
the way out to Mordor while using the many smaller and hinted places
along the way. They will continue adding large chunks of content even
for those who don't buy future area expansions. It is rumored that
+Patience+ may have gotten two hours of sleep, but that is probably
exaggeration.
European ip's will not be blocked
by Turbine.
People will be on throughout the
day, but we make a point to come in around the usual meeting time of
5pm EDT and stick around. This makes fellowship quests and instances
possible, as well as cheaply swapping crafting materials. We have a
LotRO thread on both the Valar Guild forum and the LotRO Beta forum
where you can post and edit your name list, adding that character's
crafting needs and what you can make.
Since LotRO currently has no friend
channel, use the posted names for your friend list to make contact
and/or LotROmail Fainan (Varda). Emailing Varda with your LotRO names
also helps. Frequently on, helpful LotRO players can achieve Officer
status, not to be confused with Maia Honor, allowing more people to aid
with bringing in alts. Please use some variant of your guild name to
help recognition, as we do not currently have notes to tell us who you
are. The actual name will probably be blocked.
One of our guild-friends today
suggested another site for languages, although it mostly makes use of
Council of Elrond info, probably worth looking at for the actual
ancient language content: www.ancientworlds.net/364996
April 8, 2007 Sunday
Happy
Easter to all !
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (11)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar, FladrifV, GilraenV,
GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar,
Pallando Valar/Orodreth V/Oessala, VardaValar1
Membership:
Reported the new members from during the week:
Borin-(V) and DeepGroover-(TV) (Elwing-(V)'s
brother).
After the meeting, Ancalagon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
headed into LotRO where we gamed and where two new Full Members joined:
Welcome to the
Valar Guild, Finduilas-(V)! Finduilas is Borin-(V)'s wife,
previously guild-friend Piewyn, and tested with Varda. Finduilas has
bragging rights for a 5/5 perfect score on her entry Honor test.
She found us on LotRO and finished the books, letting her Tolkien-fan
husband know about us to join first. The two migrated with us to
Landroval server. Finduilas watched the movies first, then read the
books, being in the Two Towers when she found us. Her name is from the
human Finduilas, mother of Boromir and Faramir. She was surprised how
much she liked book Sam. He wasn't a big warrior like Gimli (big to a
hobbit!) or a king like Aragorn. He was a little hobbit with huge
loyalty, endurance, love, and courage. Although starving in Mordor, he
gave his food to Frodo who needed it even more.
Welcome to the
Valar Guild, Voronwe-(V)! Voronwe's outside LotRO name is
Eledhriel, currently used in our Landroval branch, and tested with
Varda. He missed a perfect score by only 1/4 of a point. Games he has
played are LotRO, WoW, UO, EVE, Ragnarok, numerous other non-MMO. He's
read H, LotR, Sil, most of UT, parts of LT 1 & 2. His Tolkien
interests are in Tolkein interests: art, humor, chronology, maps,
languages (Sindarin mostly), games, table-top RP. He and Finduilas-(V)
tested at the same time with identical questions, having fun comparing
notes after they joined. He found us on Turbine's LotRO forum. When
asked for a favorite character, he first mentioned Radagast who
impressed him as a nice guy. Then he decided that a greater favorite
was Elrond. Elrond presided over the Council to determine the fate of
the Ring, told Isildur to toss it back in the day, inherited one of the
Elven Rings (considering only Cirdan/Gandalf and Galadriel had the
others, he must be doing something right).
Web:
New Art site by DeepGroover-(TV)
New art by Elwing-(V) "Braiding Session"
illustrating her story, "Midnight
Musings".
Gaming:
Final Fantasy XII : Menelvagor-(V)
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess : Gilraen-(V)
Total Annihilation: Ar-Pharazon-(V)
Eve Online: Menelvagor-(V). Pallando-(Valar) offered
guild members 30 days free gaming for Eve Online.
Diablo 2 Expansion's Middle-earth mod: Eonwe-(Valar)
Lord of the Rings Online: Open Beta, pre-order
players only. The largest number of guild members are now playing
together here on Landroval server. Group report by Varda-(Valar).
World of WarCraft:
WoW Lothar Friday report by Eonwe:
Eonwe, Eowyn, and Fangorn worked on the final quests in the Talbuk and
Clefthoof Mastery lines, as well as the quest to defeat the Elekk
Queen. Eowyn's character leveled to 62, Eonwe's to 69.
WoW Uldaman Wednesday report by Varda:
Guild-friend Kragen and Varda. Nearly cleared Ghostlands quests.
WoW Argent Dawn report by Ar-Pharazon.
Revered with Scryers
Tolkien:
Topic by Ar-Pharazon-(V): the role of ships, fleets
in Middle-earth.
April 7, 2007
Membership:
Welcome to the Valar Guild,
Borin-(V)! Borin joined us in LotRO on the
Landroval server,
after learning about us from his wife, guild-friend Piewyn. Borin
passed his test earlier, but today he picked his guild name to be
officially one of us. He's from
the US and is about to have his 37th birthday on April 15, so that date
has at least one good piece of news! He also plays WoW as Horde on
server Blackhand, and plays Alliance on another server. The name of
Borin belongs to a Dwarf of the Grey Mountains, of Durin's line as
second son of Nain II, and companion of Thror when he went to Erebor.
Borin-(V) has read both H and LotR, preferring H and Bilbo. In LotR, he
enjoys the character of Gimli for his "fly-off-the-handle" personality.
Courageous Gimli is always ready for a fight and speaks much about his
axe.
Welcome
to the Valar Guild, DeepGroover-(TV)! He joined us with his
artwork, which is now online. He's Elwing-(V)'s brother. See the art
below.
Tolkien Site:
Art:
Cave
of DeepGroover-(TV): New Cave
and art: Photos of medieval and fantasy models built and painted
by DeepGroover-(TV).
Cave
of Elwing-(V): New art: "Braiding
Session", illustration for the story, "Midnight
Musings" by Elwing-(V).
April 4, 2007
Membership:
Maglor-(V)
has been reinstated as a Full Member thanks to information located by
Eonwe-(Valar), showing that he was playing in the Valar Guild WoW
Lothar branch just before the cut-off date for contact. Happy hunting,
Maglor! Please send Varda your new email as the old one does not work.
April 1, 2007
You expected a joke, maybe? :)
Sonday Meetinng
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcripty work by
Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and
Varda-(Valar)
Attttending: (17)
Members:
Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, AriehnV, ArPharazonV,
Arwen V1, Beorn-(V)/TwoSurlyDwarves, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah,
Eilinel-(V)/oladys 123, Eonwe Valar (presiding), FladrifV,
Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, GilraenV, Manwe-(Valar)/Russ82275, Menelvagor
Valar, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1
Friends:
Srekal86
Memmership:
New member! Theodwyn-(V)
who plays WoW uldaman
New Maia! Arien-(Valar)
fka Finduilas-(V)
New member, almost. A gentleman in LotRO passed his
test but is still struggling with his name. He was guild-friend Borloe
along with his wife, guild-friend Piewyn.
Weeb:
Story page: "Traitor"
is now up for the Mellon
Chronicles book series by Cassia-(TV) and Siobhan-(TV).
Gaminnnng:
Noorderspel:
Menelvagor reported on this games convention in the northern part of
the Netherlands, the biggest convention of board and card and other
tabletop games in the 3 northernmost provinces. They stress the rarer
games not generally seen in normal stores.
EA Anthology:
Eonwe reported that EA is releasing an Anthology of the BFME games:
BFME, BFME2 Collector's
edition, and Rise of the Witch King all in one box for $40.
LotRO: Open
beta for Pre-Order people began, and more than enough people showed on Landroval server to sign the Mixed
Race Kinship Charter for the Valar Guild before the 24-hour expiration
period. Thank you so much for the great outpouring of support! The
first six charter members alphabetically are *drum roll*:
Ancalagon,
Beleg, Dis, Erkenbrand, Orome, and Varda.
Also aiding the cause if not
quite fast enough to be on the charter were Merry and Angrod. Guild-friend Borloe jumped in before choosing a
name (tough as he is working it out with his wife, guild-friend Piewyn
who will be joining after she finishes RotK).
Dis' husband said he plans to
make an alt for us once he takes the test. Melkor (through Orome) says
he plans to join (again) after he returns home from vacation later this
April. Sauron and Eowyn have their pre-order keys and will be
joining us.
More great LotRO
news! Turbine found a work-around to allow determined Europeans to join the Americas. They
stated
they will no longer block European ip numbers. Any of the European
group coming in, please join us on Landroval server! More information
on the LotRO official site.
Tolkien (I'd rahter not
mess wit d'master.):
Topics started by Manwe-(Valar):
"The Children of Hurin" is coming
out.
Turin's difference from others of
Tolkien's heroes was that fate was against him. His pride played into
Morgoth's curse.
Naming Rohirric role-playing
gamers
Reminiscing.
top
March 30, 2007
Gaming:
WoW Lothar Friday:
We hope to try once again to aid
Eonwe and Dracxil with their paladin quest in Scholo, but will clobber
monsters in the Outlands while waiting or if they don't show. The
brothers will be late as they are going to see the movie, "300". Varda
will be in another game, but we hope to have another of the Laytonrim
available for the great quest.
LotRO Open
Beta first day! Sign up for a LotRO game here
The Valar Guild branch will re-form for
Open Beta on Landroval server. We need to grab the names we want as
soon as possible. We can roll five characters into the Live game coming
out April 6. We will also be forming the Valar Guild Kinship that will
roll over into the Live game as well.
Charter
and time limit: Varda's Fainan character (elf hunter woodsman)
will buy a Multi Race Charter if it appears that we will have enough
people available that evening; we require six to be on the charter
before it expires in twenty-four hours. Please go ahead and make
your characters, preferably together, and LotROmail Fainan with your
new names and/or list them on the new LotRO Open Beta Forum thread for
Valar Guild created March 29. Please let Fainan be the one to buy the
charter to avoid the confusion that will ensue otherwise, as Fainan is
the LotRO contact person and the only one with a stable name (so far).
Melkor and Fainan tried transferring the charter before in a Beta run
and it was possible but messy; let's not do it this time.
Varda will be at a seminar from
early in the morning until nearly 8pm EDT, but will then game in LotRO
like crazy. Fainan has made the charter run several times before and
knows how to do it quickly and will easily have the money by the time
she reaches Celondim where she will buy it. This should be just right
for all of you to have created a character after work and school so
that we may start the kinship. Put Fainan on your buddy list and
whisper her if you are online at the same time.
Fainan will be on as long as I
can stay awake, which is often well into the next day. She will be on
again Saturday as much as possible (after some sleep) to continue
collecting kinship names for the charter. (Schizophrenia? Well, maybe.)
March 28, 2007
WoW Uldaman Wednesday:
Elwing and Varda gamed together
finishing many Ghostlands quests. Guild-friend Kragen (level 70)
chatted with us. Husband and wife Guild-friends Vlmo and Vaire came
online, Vlmo saying hi and having to leave. Vaire stayed and tested
with us, passing to become Full Member Theodwyn-(V)!
Membership:
Welcome to the Valar Guild,
Theodwyn-(V)! She joined in WoW
Uldaman, the only online game
she plays. She's been a guild-friend for a while as Vaire along with
her husband, guild-friend Vlmo, and is most welcome.
She's from Colorado, USA, MST. She's read the H, LotR, and Sil. Her
favorite LotR characters are Faramir and Eowyn. Faramir was a model of
strength and integrity, a wise and humble leader. Eowyn was full of
fire, grace, and beauty, rather outspoken at times.
Tolkien Site: Stories:
"Traitor"
by Cassia-(TV)
and Siobhan-(TV), Mellon Chronicles series
"Fifteen years is a long time... a long time in
which Aragorn and Legolas have not seen one another. When Legolas is
accused of being a traitor to Gondor there are some who would like
Aragorn to think that things have changed more than he realizes.
Embroiled in a strange mesh of deception and intrigue Legolas' one
chance may rest with his old friend... but will Denethor's dislike of
Aragorn turn the elf into a pawn in more than one game? And can any of
them figure out how they are really being betrayed before Legolas and
Gondor both pay the price?"
Pre-LotR
Aragorn, Boromir (ch 10, 2 years old), Denethor,
Ecthelion II, Legolas. Aragorn and Legolas' PoV mainly. Some Denethor,
OC.
12 chapters.
March 26, 2007 Monday
LotRO: last day of closed Beta. Events went
on from evening til early morning. Some of us ran our newly leveled
50's into the far places of the Middle-earth, even well into Angmar.
We will reconvene in Open Beta on Landroval server
March 30. Fainan will buy the Mixed Race charter. Our Open characters
and the Kinship will roll-over to the Live Retail version, that starts
April 6.
Talk is going on among the Devs of finding a way for
Europe and W. Hemisphere to game together. We'll see how that goes.
March 25, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript work by
Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and
Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (15)
Members:
Arien-(Valar)/FinduilasV, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Elladan-(V)/Bior the Ythling, Eonwe Valar,
Finrod-(V)/TH0R0NGIL, FladrifV, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet,
Gwaihir-(Valar)/Star of Phaet, Menelvagor Valar,
Oropher-(V)/MJKeenan1234, VardaValar1
Friends:
LaurealasseHelka, Srekal86
Membership:
Finrod-(V)
is going to Iraq as a soldier for a year, but we will keep his name
reserved for him.
Gollum-(V)
is our new Full Member.
Arien-(Valar)
is our newest Maia Honor, previously known as Finduilas-(V). Eonwe and
Varda were the Valar in attendance. The Maiar aiding were Gwaihir,
Menelvagor, and Pallando.
Proud owners of new computers are Ancalagon (made it
himself), Arien, and Eowyn.
Web:
Contest
and info for a deluxe edition of the
upcoming thirteenth book of the Histories of Middle-earth: The Children of
Hurin. The prize is a deluxe edition of The Children of Hurin
signed by both Alan Lee and Christopher Tolkien. Many other prizes are
listed as well. Click the Contest
link, enter by using the code "Hurin", the answer is "signed". Two more
signed deluxe editions will be given away at the Release Party April
15th-17th held by Tolkien Gateway. Information was given to us
by
Srekal86, also known as Hyarion, who runs Tolkien Gateway and comes to
Valar Guild meetings.
Gaming:
Eve Online.
Offer from Pallando-(Valar):
"Menel and I
did a little mining yesterday, and also got him started on
combat...I've also got a 30 GTC to give away. 30 day. Anyone interested
has to get a trial account and mail Pallando Luineistar that they want
it. :-) Do a drawing or summat at the end of next week."
Total
Annihilation: Kingdoms report from Ar-Pharazon
Total Annihilation
report from Ar-Pharazon
LotRO:
Valar Guild official guild branch
will be starting in Pre-order and rolling over to Retail gaming, on
Landroval server.
Europe, W. Hemisphere: Currently
they will be separated. Later news after the meeting said that the game
makers are trying to work out a way to allow both.
Eve Online and GuildWars still allow us to game
together across continents, as do Well of Souls and the Battle.net
games. Be sure to keep the Games page updated on which you play and
your name, so we can get together.
WoW:
Lothar: guild-friend Dagghar
joined as Gollum-(V)!
Uldaman
Argent Dawn
Tolkien:
Personal conflicts, any book. The discussion
developed into personal conflicts caused by the One Ring.
March 23, 2007
WoW Lothar Friday: Scholomance Paladin epic mount
runs planned. Auros (Eonwe-Valar) and Beline's paladins could
use your help. Unfortunately those two paladins couldn't make it
tonight. Eonwe was trapped in programming homework and sent an email
about 4:24 EDST, but Varda didn't catch it. Showing up were Arwen
(who also has a quest in Scholo), Gollum, Sauron, and Varda. Arathorn
also showed up.
More on WoW:
Eowyn-(V) now has a new WoW account on her own new computer.
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Gollum-(V)!
Gollum met us in WoW and has been a guild-friend in our friend channel.
He's 45 from New Hampshire, USA, in EDST. He's a guild-master on Lothar
and has characters scattered across other servers as well. He
pre-ordered LotRO and was in the process of downloading it tonight. He
used to play Heretic and FPS's (first person shooters). He reads the
Hobbit and Lord of the Rings every few years and has read the
Silmarillion twice. The LotR character that he discussed was Tom
Bombadil, liking him for his unceasing positive spirit and unquenchable
energy.
March 18, 2007
Finrod will be going to Iraq and will be
absent for about a year. We will be saving his name for him meanwhile.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon-(V), Eonwe-(Valar), and
Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (10)
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV,
Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah,
Eonwe Valar (presiding), FinduilasV, Finrod-(V)/TH0R0NGIL, FladrifV,
Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1
Membership:
Pallando,
our new Maia!
Finrod will be going to Iraq and will be absent for about a
year. We will be saving his name for him meanwhile.
Gaming:
LotRO: Open
Beta coming! Roll-over from it so plans have been laid.
Eve: Guild
branch started
BFME2:Rise of the
Witch-King
Total Annihiliation
WoW:
Argent Dawn
Uldaman
Lothar
Tolkien:
Topic by Fladrif-(V): How much did the Free Peoples
know of the origin of Ea or their own origin, and how is this reflected
in the story?
March 14, 2007
Wednesday
Gaming: WoW Uldaman server night.
Guild-friends Kragen and Vaire were present. Elwing (Rosereddawn) and
Varda (Tinta) ran blood elves together; both leveled, upgraded items,
did the Voidwalker quest for Tinta, and ran the length of the Dead Scar
(several times) clearing a batch of quests for zombie and skeleton
deaths and body parts. The two elves were not stomped by the two
wandering abominations, barely.
March 12, 2007
Gaming: Eve Online
Letter from Pallando-(Valar) to
any Valar Guild member interested in Eve Online:
I now have the character Romestamo in
Eve with the corporation Valar
Guild registered and an office open in Evettullur VI - Republic
Military School. It will be out of the way for Amarrian/Gallente
characters, so I might open another office later if someone complains.
:) Otherwise I'll be checking for apps every couple days or when I log
on to switch skills. I'm thinking that I'll only accept apps from
valar guild members, but it's trivial to kick someone out as long as I
don't give them any roles (which they shouldn't have anyways if
they're not a valar member) I'll work it out when it comes to that.
The oops update letter:
...unfortunatly, I had forgotten the rules of
transferring character
when I made Romestamo, so I'm going to have to recreate the corp under
a new name and character. I'll find a better office location too.
New name will be Pallando Luineistar (Luineistar
being of course Blue
Wizard) and the corp will be The Valar Guild with a ticker of [V G].
There is a large text area for a corp description.
March 11, 2007
Congratulations to Pallando-(Valar)!
Orodreth-(V) passed his Maia test with Eonwe-(Valar) and Varda-(Valar)
after the Sunday meeting.
Huan-(Valar) says hi from AIM and gave his new email.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Eonwe-(Valar) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending: (11)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, Arwen V1, AuSteinM-(TV),
Beorn-(V)/TwoSurlyDwarves, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar
(presiding), FinduilasV, Gilraen-(V)+Gwaihir-(Valar)/Star of Phaet,
Orodreth V/Oessala, VardaValar1
Visitors:
Srekal86
Membership:
Time change in the US started three weeks early.
Thirteen Full Members were dropped for inactivity.
Orodreth passed his Maia test! Hail Pallando-(Valar)!
Web:
Art
Stories
Humor
Gaming:
Eve
LotRO
Pre-order
Info from LotRO gamers
WoW
Tolkien:
Topic 1 from Eonwe: Comparisons of characters, what
they were compared to, etc
Topic 2 from Beorn: First readings of Tolkien's books
Topic 3 from Varda: Why First and Second-born? Why
not at the same time? Why let them ever see each other?
After-meeting:
Eonwe Valar: Homework assignment: Write an article
on your Tolkien namesake and send to Varda for inclusion in the
Encyclopedia.Use complete sentences and include references. :}
Belated reports included above
March 9, 2007
Gaming: WoW Lothar server Friday get-together. 5pm
EST.
March 7, 2007
Gaming:
WoW Uldaman server: Wednesday get-together,
starting around 5pm EST. Some show earlier, some later. Come say hi or
party up. Last time we grouped as Blood Elves in the Ghost Lands.
Elwing and Varda gamed for this run.
March 5, 2007
Membership:
13 Full Members dropped for no contact.
If you were dropped by mistake, please contact Varda and show where you
made contact to be reinstated immediately. Rejoin by next meeting
before losing the ability to regain Maia honor. Full members whose
names are taken can permanently lose the game, credit and recognition
name to a new member.
Celebrimbor-(V)
Ecthelion-(V)
Finarfin-(V)
Galdor-(V) -
Imrahil-(V)
Irime/Lalwende-(V)
Isildur-(V)
Luthien-(V)
Mablung-(V)
Maglor-(V)
Malbeth-(V)
Osse-(Valar)
Tom Bombadil-(Valar)
March 4, 2007
(Items posted after the meeting):
New art!
Cave of
Turgon-(V) / Places:
Dol Amroth
New stories!
Second-born by Alasse
Merenrel-(TV)
Faramir contemplates what sets
the First-born Elves and Second-born Men apart.
Pre-LotR
Faramir (pov), Gandalf
(Mithrandir). Mentions of Denethor and Boromir.
Short story.
Dark Visions by Cassia-(TV)
and Siobhan-(TV); Mellon Chronicles series
Aragorn's foresight
ability begins to show, and he tries to prevent
Legolas' death. Elrond knows that he will not see much of Aragorn any
longer and travels with him. Aragorn becomes "Thorongil".
Pre-LotR
Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir,
Elrond, Eomund, Galadriel, Legolas
11 chapters, edited
reprint.
March 4, 2007 (continued)
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (13)
Members:
ArPharazonV,
Beorn-(V)/TwoSurlyDwarves, Eonwe Valar, FinduilasV,
Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, GwaihirValar,
Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V/Oessala, Oropher-(V)/MJKeenan1234,
VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends:
LaurealasseHelka, Srekal86
Membership:
Eilinel-(V)
joined as a Full Member last Sunday during the meeting
Dreamlord-(TV)
was accepted into the USA for the doctorate program
Gwaihir-(Valar)
attended the meeting at an airport computer for very high prices, on
his way from Canada to England to see Gilraen-(V).
Beorn-(V)
will be away from WoW for about a month, but hopes to keep in contact
at meetings, the Forum, and perhaps some articles.
Web:
Tolkien Site:
Book
review by Franco Manni-(TV): "Recovery and Transcendence for the
Contemporary Mythmaker. The Spiritual Dimension in the Works of J. R.
R. Tolkien"
Short
story by Enerdhil-(TV): "The Fall of Thuringwethil"
Art
by Turgon-(V): "Tol Sirion"
Link sent by
Elwing-(V) that could be an explanation for Bilbo's mithril shirt with
nanotechnology.
Link sent
by Sauron-(Valar)'s fellow DM friend, Jason, "Twenty-Sided", a
photo-comic of a DM trying to run a D&D game with clueless gamers
who never read or watched LotR. Updated MWF.
Gaming:
Eve Online:
Orodreth recommends it and would like to know about other Valar gamers.
Please keep your gaming info updated with Eonwe for the Games page to
help meet such requests.
WoW:
WoW
Boardgame played by Gwaihir and Beorn separately, "feels like
WoW".
Blizzards's
WoW Armory is a work in progress, that lists every character
regularly used above level 10 and information from his character panel.
It also shows guild rosters but only for characters who have been on in
the last few months. Gross inaccuracy reported by Ar-Pharazon on his
character. Once completed, this could be a good feature.
WoW
Argent Dawn server: individual progress, no Valar grouping.
WoW
Lothar server: Friday night get-together was in Outlands doing
the instance quest: "Weaken the Ramparts". Participants were Varda,
Eonwe, Beline Eonwe's brother, Feroce a friend of Beline's, GitM a
friend of Tiramisu's and a Tolkien fan who became a guild-friend in our
channel, random player Tiramisu (not a Tolkien fan), and random player
Sunstriker.
In individual Lothar news, SauronV leveled to the max of 70 and
picked up his ebon flying mount. He's a demonology-specced warlock
gnome.
WoW
Uldaman server: Wednesday night get-together in Ghostlands with
our blood-elves (although Elwing's troll and Varda's Tauren played
before the blood-elf grouping). Beorn, Varda, and Sauron played in
Ghostlands together. Beorn spotted Vlmo in the area and we made
contact; Vlmo and his wife are Tolkien fans and came into our
guild-friend channel.
On
non-Valar servers:
WoW Frostmane server PvP:
Oropher-(V) invites others interested in PvP to come. He plays there
with old EQ friends. His names are Nikandros as his mage, Antiochus as
his warrior alt.
WoW Shattered Hand PvP:
Gwaihir-(Valar) also likes company. His main is Eleshakai, alt is
Therana.
Tolkien:
Some folks say there's really not any "magic" in
Middle-earth. It
is a fantasy, so do any of you care to differ with that person's
comment? Or agree with it?
Discussion bogged down defining "magic".
March 2, 2007 Friday
Link
to Chain Mail Fabric made in the Micro and Nanotechnology Lab at
the University of Illinois. This may be the way the mithril shirt
worked? Link passed on by Elwing from the SCA Ansteorra announcements.
Gaming: WoW Lothar
gamers' night. Gathering commences at 5pm EST and what we do will be
determined by who shows up. Outlands questing, and/or leveling
low-level mains so they can go to Outlands.
Tolkien Site Stories:
The Fall of Thuringwethil by Enerdhil-(TV)
Draugluin, Gothmog,
Sauron (pov), Thuringwethil
Short story
March
1, 2007
Link to
Twenty-Sided: DM of the Rings, ongoing comic by Shamus Young. D&D
arose from Tolkien, but has gone far to the side. In this comic, the DM
tries to reintroduce his hack and slash DM group to Lord of the Rings.
Link provided by that real life friend of our DM Sauron-(Valar)'s:
another DM named Jason. Enjoy!
top
Feb. 28, 2007 Wednesday
Tolkien Site:
Art:
Cave of Turgon-(V) / Places:
Tol
Sirion kep012
Gaming:
WoW Uldaman night
around 5pm EST.
Varda's Gilbrennil tauren shaman and Elwing's
Thtarthpray troll hunter ran some solo quests while chatting. Then
Beorn's BeornV blood elf hunter and Varda's Tinta blood elf warlock
knocked off a string of quests in the Ghostlands. After Beorn had to
go, Sauron's AnnatarV blood elf paladin joined Tinta for more
GhostLands questing.
Meanwhile, Beorn spotted Vlmo in the area and
commented. After contact was made, Vlmo and his wife Vaire joined the
friend channel and chatted. They also were blood elves in the Ghost
Lands and plan to be with us again. Congratulations to them on their
one week old baby!
Feb. 27, 2007
New book review by Franco Manni-(TV), seven
pages:
"Christopher
Garbowski, Recovery and Transcendence for the Contemporary Mythmaker.
The Spiritual Dimension in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien,
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Press, Lublin (Poland), 2000, 232
pages."
Feb. 26, 2007
Dreamlord-(TV) of Denmark has been accepted
for a doctoral program in the US! Everyone /cheer! He also sent us this
bit of news concerning things Tolkien:
Lots
happening on the Tolkien front now. Michael Drout's JRRT encyclopedia,
Christopher's "The Children of Húrin", Wayne Hammond and
Christina Scull's "Companion", (plus the very worthwhile proceedings
from the Richard E. Blackwelder conference), and, perhaps most
interesting of all, Doug Anderson's collection of all the JRRT
interviews, and first-hand impressions from his family and friends.
Feb. 25, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Eilinel-(V)! Scouted
by Finduilas, Eilinel has been coming to many meetings and joined us
tonight during this one, testing a bragworthy 5/5 with Varda. She's
from North Carolina in the USA, in EST, is 50, and usually is online
6-7pm EST. She games in D2X and WC2, has played EQ and Age of Empires,
and intends to play LotRO. She's read the H, LotR, Sil, Lost Road. Her
son is a Tolkien fan and her daughter is a strong Tolkien fan. An
Environmental Manager, she has two horses. Her
favorite LotR characters are Faramir for bravery, loyalty, not a
super-hero, and suffering from being the younger brother; Tom Bombadil
because he is earthy but superior, lets the world be, has endless
wisidom, and his main concern is Goldberry; and Gandalf as the wise
leader, one who knows but doesn't seek to claim leadership.
Feb. 25, (continued)
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by the team of
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending:
(14)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/sarujil, ArPharazonV,
Arwen V1, Beorn-(V)/TwoSurlyDwarves, Eilinel-(V)/oladys 123, Eonwe
Valar, FinduilasV, FladrifV, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Glorfindel VG,
GwaihirValar, Lungorthin-(Valar)/sauronjag, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends:
Srekal86
Membership:
Ar-Pharazon-(V)
switching course studies, may be more available for gaming this
semester.
Lungorthin-(Valar)'s
birthday!
Eilinel-(V),
new member! Completed test during Gaming section.
Web:
Tolkien Site:
Articles:
Search engine
updated by Eonwe-(Valar) to show subject names rather than file names.
Stories:
Spring
Planting by Branwyn-(TV)
Poetry:
Alchemy
by Branwyn-(TV)
Art:
Beorn-(V)'s
Cave: Armor made and worn by Beorn-(V)
Turgon-(V)'s
Cave different subjects were given their own pages to improve
loading speed.
Gaming:
Painkiller
(game)
Ways to look up info on
games that have no instructions
LotRO
branch:
Pre-orders
Non-disclosure Agreement lifted
from LotRO Beta.
News on Valar Guild's branch
operating in LotRO. Guild server: Meneldor. Contact name for Varda:
Fainan. Beta LotRO thread: Valar Guild.
LotRO event by Developers:
Ancalagon won a prize in the Tolkien Trivia contest!
WoW
branches of the Valar Guild:
WoW Argent Dawn (Alliance)
WoW Lothar (Alliance)
WoW Uldaman (Horde)
Tolkien:
Varda's topic: Who was Eilinel and how did she
affect history?
Suggested topic for next time from Ar-Pharazon-(V):
Events that seemed/were evil at their time but without them, things
might have turned out even worse.
After-meeting:
Continued discussion of graphics cards carried over
from earlier.
Feb. 24, 2007
Turgon-(V)'s
Cave is re-done, separating art
topics into pages for quicker loading.
Feb. 23, 2007
Tolkien Site:
Art:
Cave of Beorn-(V)
New cave!
New art: a photo of
Beorn-(V) in armor that he made himself.
Gaming:
WoW: Lothar night,
starting at 5pm EST and continuing until players keel over.
Sauron/SauronV, Eowyn/Mairawyn,
Elwing/ElwingV, and Eonwe/Kalasul partied for the Uldaman dungeon,
completing the dungeon, leveling characters, and gaining enchanting
recipes.
Feb. 22, 2007
Tolkien Site
Stories:
Spring Planting, a short story by Branwyn-(TV)
What hidden things are unearthed when the fields are
ploughed in the
spring? A short tale of Lord Denethor and his young sons.
Poetry:
Alchemy by Branwyn-(TV)
Feanor makes the Palantiri.
Feb. 21, 2007
Wednesday Uldaman gaming begins! Now is a
great time to start that blood elf or other Horde race you are curious
about. Pull out your old Horde Uldaman characters and shake out their
fur, scales, hide, or glue your arms back on.
Come on any time that suits your schedule and
re-familiarize yourself with the place. Then let's try to get together
for quests and dungeons. So far we are still selecting an official time
according to who shows up. Would you prefer morning, noon, night or all
three? ;) We have suggestions of regular meeting time of
5pm EST (Varda should be there then) and 9pm EST (Elwing) and others
who will come in wiggling around supper and family and work. You can do
it!
Don't forget to type /join Valar to help others
bring in their alts or to chat and team with guild-friends. If you meet
a nice person(?) who there who doesn't hate Tolkien and who you want to
see again, someone you want to introduce to friends and family, then
give that gold nugget our friend channel. This goes for Lothar too!
BeornV, AnnatarV, and Tinta (Varda) grouped as blood elves
doing a collection of quests in Eversong Woods. AnnatarV had to leave,
but Elwing came in (first as
DawnBringer, picking up her druid's aquatic form) joined the group as
the blood elf WhiteTower, and more quests went down. AnnatarV went from
level 8 to 11, Tinta from 11 to 13, WhiteTower from 9 to 10.
Feb. 20, 2007
Tolkien
Encyclopedia Search
update! Letter excerpt from Eonwe-(Valar), Programmer:
I took a bit of time to make a few
updates to the Search Program. It now
gives the article/paper name instead of the file name. Also, it mostly
weeds
out search results based solely on by-lines. I say it "mostly" weeds
them
out, because in tests, a few references to the author still sneak into
the
"Articles Mentioning" section...
Anyway, enjoy the adaptations.
Take care.
Eonwë
Feb. 18, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by the team of
Ar-Pharazon and Varda
We had a number of peculiar crash problems.
Attending:
(12)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
Beorn-(V)/twosurlydwarves, Eonwe Valar, FinduilasV, FladrifV,
Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friends:
LaurealasseHelka, Srekal86
Membership:
Sweep in progress, drops at end of February
Email problems
Scouting
SamWise-(Valar)
TJ-(TV)
Ulmo-(Valar)
Web:
Tolkien Site:
Poetry: "Tilion's
Haiku" by
Eonwe-(Valar)
Story: Ongoing novel "To See a
World" ch.
45 by Nightwing is up.
Gaming Site:
updates ongoing.
Gaming Reports:
WoS
Name? Small
game based on warcraft 3's tower defense
Astral Masters
WoW:
WoW Argent Dawn
WoW Lothar
WoW Uldaman
LotRO:
NDA (non-disclosure agreement) has
been lifted. We spill the beans about our guild branch there, but left
out the lifetime membership available during pre-order.
In Beta 2: We have official branches on
both servers that are currently up, called (surprise) Valar Guild.
Meneldor is our main server, Brandywine is used when Meneldor is down.
We have a thread called Valar Guild on both the main LotRO board and
the beta board. Please post your name on the Beta thread for our friend
list, as we still don't have a friend channel yet; I try to check the
thread before gaming. Also put Fainan and Ancwyn on your friend list,
and LotROmail Fainan in-game. If you want to really develop your
crafting on a particular character, please post this along with general
resources needed (treated or untreated wood, ancient manuscripts, gems)
and we'll dump them in your mail when we run across them.
Tolkien:
Varda's topic: We are always said to be talking
about trivia. This time, let's pick out what the Big Moments are - the
non-trivia.
After:-meeting:
Ar-Pharazon told us about an online comic that
includes LotR mixed with a D&D game. Go to Irregular Web Comic and
use the Fantasy theme at the bottom and keep clicking Next.
Feb. 16, 2007
Today is the Friday WoW Lothar server get-together,
at the same time as the regular meeting, 5pm EST. Show up, say hi, game
together if you can. We quested in the Outlands with Arathorn, Fangorn,
and Varda, plus lowbie questing as Draenei with Eonwe and Elwing.
Discussion is on-going concerning resource stack
collecting and
crafting (bags? jewelry?) and drops as prizes for things
such as answering Tolkien trivia and
to help members who craft for the guild. Who inside the guild will
craft, what do they craft, and what resources do they need? Comments,
suggestions, and aid
are welcome.
Uldaman Horde: We would like to hear either
during Lothar night, by email, or in a meeting when would be a good
night to game as a group in Uldaman server. So far we have a suggestion
for
Wednesday but much later than meeting time, another for Wednesday
starting around meeting time. Are those good, bad, or ugly for
you? Email Varda.
LotRO: (Lord of the Rings Online). Pre-ordering
is going on with special pricing deals. We have a LotRO branch
organization set up for the Americas. Email Varda if you go into this.
It's a natural game for a Tolkien club and is inexpensive enough at
this point that some of us are going to be in both WoW and LotRO. Hey,
WoW is down for maintenance every Tuesday...
Feb. 14, 2007
Letter from TJ-(TV):
Hello,
Just a small passage to
thank VALAR GUILD. Year 2006 was good with
3385 unique guests come from your site to see my Map of Middle Earth ! It
is more than 10 % of the total of my guests ! Regrettably
I do not manage still from now on more than year to connect on
my ftp to update my interactive Map and my site maintaining the aspect
of an old site. But fortunately it is the Map who is the most important!
Thank you still miles
time and goodbye. Thierry Jungels.
Feb. 13, 2007
Nightwing's continuing novel, "To See a
World" now has Chapter
45: "Standing Tall".
Feb. 12, 2007
Tolkien Site:
Poetry:
Tilion's
Haiku, a haiku by Eonwe-(Valar)
written Feb. 11, 2007 for Valentine's Day! He now has a poetry author's
page to add to all his others.
The poetry site's opening
page moved onto a separate page.
Stories:
Eonwe's stories have all been re-filed. Please report sightings of
missing links to Varda who will hunt them down.
Feb. 11, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by the fabulous
team of Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending:
(13)
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
Beorn-(V)/twosurlydwarves, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah,
Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe Valar, FinduilasV, Gilraen-(V)/Star of
Phaet, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Visitors:
LaurealasseHelka, Srekal86
Membership:
Aragorn-(V)
decided to stay with us while he's serving in the military in Sweden
Thingol-(V)
invites fellow Valar members to join him in Runescape. Drop him an
email (see Members page)
Enerdhil-(TV),
welcome to our new Tolkien-only member!
Telchar-(V)-ex
decided he did not fit into the guild, but he is welcome back as he did
nothing wrong.
Branwyn-(TV),
welcome to our new Tolkien-only member!
Valandil-(V)
has been gaming in WoW Argent Dawn's branch
Melkor-(Valar)
leaves today on vacation returning in mid-April.
Beorn-(V), welcome to the Valar Guild!
He joined us officially during the meeting, kindly helping train two
potential Maiar with his test. His testers were Eonwe and Varda, with
Finduilas and Ancalagon observing. Beorn is a very person with his own
job working from home in sales, as a guild master named Cudaerg for The
Band of the Red Hand on WoW Lothar, playing tabletop Dungeons and
Dragons, and making and operating web sites including one for his guild
and one for his SCA group. He's very
interested in Old English and Vikings. He
has kindly offered to help us with graphics and art, and hopes to do an
article for us on Dunland. He plans to send a photo of himself in armor
and a picture of a signed book. He has played WC and the Diablo series,
although in WoW at this time, intending to be in LotRO in the future as
well. He's read H, LotR, Sil, UT, HoMe 1-12 (one signed by Christopher
Tolkien!, a gift), and the old Tolkien Reader. His favorite
Silmarillion character is Turin, who "appeals to his inner Viking". His
favorite LotR character is Sam for his honor, bravery, and loyalty. He
was an ensemble hero with Frodo, carrying his master when the Ring
weakened him too much, and bringing in the help of the other Hobbits.
Web:
Stories:
"Of
Gorthaur and Gothmog" by Enerdhil-(TV)
"The
Fords of Isen" by Branwyn-(TV)
Gaming:
Runescape
LotRO pre-order, Open Beta
WoW:
Ar-Pharazon's question: What if
you heal people who are fighting mobs you're not at war with/have good
reputation with?
WoW Argent Dawn (Euro)
WoW Lothar
WoW Uldaman
Tolkien:
Beorn-(V)'s topic: The meaning of the name "Beowulf"
and its relation to "Beorn".
Feb.
10, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Enerdhil-(TV)!
He joined us with his story, "Of
Gorthaur and Gothmog". "I always wondered what exactly were
the relations between such powerful
and power-hungry beings as those that made up Morgoth's cabinet.
Primarily the only two who appeared to be equals, being Sauron and
Gothmog."
Feb. 9, 2007
5pm EST WoW Lothar get-together. Drop in
and
say Hi! and game. A bit of Tolkien chat is always fun too. ;)
Auros,
Varda, Bellene (guild-friend Dracxil), and Undomiel partied together in
the Outlands on Hellfire Peninsula quests, mostly for Varda and
Bellene's quests. We have a new guild-friend, Caerdag, guild-master of
the Red Hand, who used to help with the Barrow-Downs story site.
Eowyn's new Draenei, Mairovende, played and was met by Arwen.
Others
who were online were Arathorn and guild-friend Jonac.
Feb. 8, 2007
Telchar-(V)
opted to leave the guild.
Feb. 6, 2007
New story
by a new Tolkien-only! "The
Fords of Isen" by Branwyn-(TV).
Branwyn joined as a Tolkien-only member with this story, after hearing
about us from Alcardilme-(TV). Branwyn is from Ohio and she is also
published on the site Stories of Arda.
This is a tale of two ghosts. The book characters
used are
Boromir and Theodred, along with original characters.
Feb. 4, 2007
Aragorn-(V) decided to stick with us as a
Full Member. He will be in the military service in Sweden until June
21, 2007. When he's home for a while, he sees his girlfriend and plays
a little WoW on Twisting Nether, Euro. He might join us in LotRO in the
future, on the American server.
Thingol-(V)
is playing in Runescape as Graycloak for your friend list, fellow Valar
Guild members. He's a paying member because it has more content than
non-paying areas, but those are good as an introdution. He's a top
level miner pretty good at smithing and crafting, willing to help.
Feb. 4, 2007 (continued)
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
the Golden
and Varda
Attending: (14)
Members:
Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArathornValar,
ArPharazonV, Bombur-(V)/MrMonkey2002Blah, Eonwe Valar, FinduilasV,
Finrod-(V)/TH0R0NGIL, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Glorfindel VG,
GwaihirValar, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Friend:
Srekal86
Membership:
Sweep letters have gone out to see if we have people
who are no longer in contact.
New Full Member: Erkenbrand-(V)
New story author: Norgen
Tulkas-(Valar) is back with us, playing in WoW
Lothar, after a rough real life adventure. Link
to Canadian news
article.
Web:
New story this week: "Haleth,
Son of Hama, Warrior of Rohan" by Norgen.
Gaming:
WoW Burning Crusade quest chart,
interactive. Interactivity by Syliel. Original research and chart
by Mose, Heel, Teza, and Kamikazeelf.
Tolkien:
Varda's topic:
What did the Valar do for Middle-earth?
Feb. 1, 2007
Membership news:
The story of Tulkas'
stormy time made the news. He shared this article
with us. Since such articles tend to disappear, we have a backup copy
of it including credits if that happens.
It's a good thing Tulkas, a genuine
hero, is on good terms with Ulmo and Osse. With a combination of
Tulkas' own expertise and courage and heavenly help, he and all people
aboard including his wife survived in reasonable condition, and
returned home. The guild is very lucky to have Tulkas back with us!
top
Jan.
31, 2007
Membership news: Tulkas-(Valar), Erkenbrand-(V)
Letter from Tulkas-(Valar):
Aiya Varda, I just
happened to be looking at the Guild pages
yesterday. Yes I would still like to be part of the guild.
I just
purchased WarCraft WoW and have a level 15 night elf hunter. I
guess
this game is too old now, and I won't run into any of you with out the
expansion. My game name is TulkasV.
My
diversionary work aboard that great big yacht is over for now. It
sank
in a storm. My 2 crew members my wife and I took to the
liferafts and
ended up in Cuba, where we spent the next three weeks in and out of
jails trying to secure our release. A long story.
Regards Tulkas-(Valar)
Later that day, Tulkas joined us in in WoW
Lothar and is looking into buying a new ship.
Welcome to the
Valar Guild, Erkenbrand-(V)!
Erkenbrand joined us as Herdy in-game, tested by Varda with input from
Beleg-(V). He has bragging rights
with a perfect 5/5! Erkenbrand plays SWG on Valcyn server as a guild
leader in one group and a Flight Officer in another, doing space-based
PvP as a Tie Fighter for the Imperial Navy. He would welcome seeing
other Valar who play there. Erkenbrand intends to play LotRO when it
comes out. He's 39. He does not wish to use AIM, because as a tech
support person he sees so much trouble with AOL, so he uses MSN's
messenger. For the past two years he's lived in California, USA (PST)
which has better opportunities for a computer person and for
construction than his previous Utah. He's read H, LotR, and some of the
Sil.
His favorite LotR characters are those who play the
"right-hand man". Leaders make decisions in the field and affect the
course of events, while the right-hand carries out these decisions.
This includes Eomer, right hand man of the true king of Rohan, who is
fully loyal to the idea of Rohan even after his dismissal. He keeps his
faith and requires his charges to do so also. Legolas and Gimli were
also right-hands, not affecting the story-line but unwavering,
executing goal objectives.
Jan. 30, 2007
Membership: We've had many great responses
from the membership for year 2007. With Burning Crusades, the upcoming
Lord of the Rings Online, and the increasing Tolkien Site activity,
this looks like a good year for the Valar!
Aragorn-(V)
of Sweden has changed his Full
Membership status to guild-friend, wishing to keep his association but
free the name. He's been with us since May 29, 2001. He plays mostly
WoW on Llane server under another name, Fahrenheit, as close as he
could come to honor Finarfin. Also he will soon be moving to a new home
and be without internet for quite a while. He says a special hi to
Arathorn and Finarfin. Good luck on your move and getting your internet
back! [Update, he decided to remain with us as a Full Member.]
Jan. 29, 2007
New story
by a new author! "Haleth,
Son of Hama, Warrior of Rohan" by Norgen.
This is set in movie-verse. Driven by Aragorn's
expectations and
his own experiences, Haleth becomes a warrior. "Haleth is the young
farm boy on the walls of Helm's Deep that Aragorn talks to about his
good sword."
Also in the Stories section, AlasseMerenrel-(TV)'s
links
have been moved to put all her stories in one spot, but should be
easily re-found from the Authors and Titles pages, or from this link to
her story author's page.
Jan. 28, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by the glorious
Ar-Pharazon
and Varda
Attending (15):
Members:
Aldarion-(V)/OneMatthus, Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArathornValar,
ArPharazonV, Arwen V1, Elros-(V)/LouieKisKowsKi, Eonwe Valar,
FinduilasV, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Glorfindel VG, GwaihirValar,
Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Visitors:
LaurealasseHelka, Srekal86
Membership:
Returning member: Maeglin-(TV)
New Full Members: Beleg-(V) and Telchar-(V)
Another person passed the Full Membership test
in-game but hasn't chosen a name yet, so he's not quite in yet, not
listable.
LaurealasseHelka is an AIM guild-friend who is
working on
membership, intending to start as a Tolkien-only with an article then
move to Full Member.
oladys started her test on AIM for Full Member but
had to leave and has not yet been able to get back in contact.
Earendil works during meetings but would enjoy
playing in Vanguard with fellow Valar. Info on the Gaming page.
For Menelvagor, this is the 21st day since he
stopped smoking!
Web:
Article in progress by Maeglin-(TV), still a draft
and not yet postable.
Article intended by Laurealasse
Gaming:
Vanguard:
contact Earendil (contact info for everyone is on the Members page)
SWG:
contact Beleg who is a guild master for another group there, and a
Flight Officer for still another. He plays a Tie Fighter.
LotRO:
release date, pre-order and also get into Open Beta.
WoW:
WoW Euro: Argent Dawn's week.
WoW N. Amer: Lothar's Friday
run
Tolkien:
Varda's topic:
Song is very important in creation and even in fighting in the Sil. How
does this idea of song carry over into the H and LotR?
Menelvagor's contribution
to this topic may be in an upcoming article.
After-meeting:
RP "Scouting Ahead" discussion
Jan. 27, 2007
Welcome back to the Valar Guild, Maeglin-(TV)!
Maeglin emailed his first draft of a new article for us in January to
rejoin. He previously wrote an interesting book review of Tolkien's
story, "Roverandom"
for the guild, in 2004 when he was only ten years old. What will he be
like in a few more years! Here's a kind word he sent that includes us
all, saying that he: "would like to rejoin the guild as it is one of
the only true lotr websites".
Jan. 24, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Beleg-(V) and
Telchar-(V)!
Telchar joined just ahead of Beleg, although
we were all playing together. They and Varda were trying to catch
up to Melkor in quests, and he helped the rest along. Hey Melkor, after
you left we finally caught up! The two had gamed with Varda and others
in a PUG the day before, running through a series of instances, and
enjoyed teaming up again.
Telchar was
using his usual character name of Corrakkas. He's 24 and has read LotR,
although it's been a while. He's read H, LotR, part of the Sil, and
part of BoLT. He is currently playing only the game in which he was
recruited.
Beleg was
gaming as Thorumoth. He's 33 from South Carolina, USA, EST, and left
Nottingham, England at the age of 7. We can meet him on AIM as
Bigdadd363cook. He's recently stopped playing WoW
although he's considering jumping back in to see us. He also plays
other FPS's. He's read LotR, Sil, and part of UT, and may write
something for us. His
favorite LotR character is Boromir as he seemed more human. Although
flawed, Boromir made up for his mistake.
Jan. 21, 2007
Tolkien Site: Articles:
"Finduilas, Daughter of Orodreth" by Finduilas-(V),
giving the two versions of the story of the elf maid as they are given
in the Silmarillion and Book of Lost Tales 2. This is Finduilas' first
article for us, but she has also given us short stories and humor.
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by Ar-Pharazon
and Varda
Attending (14):
Members:
Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArPharazonV, Arwen V1,
Elladan-(V)/Bior the Ythling, Eonwe Valar, FinduilasV,
Gelmir-(V)/Shaggyjoe, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, GwaihirValar,
Menelvagor Valar, Oropher-(V)/MJKeenan1234, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Guests:
Srekal86
Membership:
New Full Member: Tar-Aldarion-(V)
Finduilas' car and ice and heather
Gwaihir is not working on Sundays now and may be
able to come to meetings more often.
Web:
New article by Finduilas-(V): "Finduilas,
Daughter of Orodreth" put up today.
Forum:
WoW questing is now by
server.
Trivia threads going for
LotR and Sil
A-Z menu for the Tolkien Encyclopedia updated and
should be current.
Gaming:
LotRO
D2X
Eve Online
WarCraft3
WoW:
Lothar splitting by Blizzard? We
expect Blizzard to move our characters as a guild and will probably go
where we are placed. We will certainly announce it on the News if this
happens. Blizzard might not include the ones whose characters have been
inactive for a long time, but we're not sure what a long time is, so
you might drop in on your guild character for a few minutes at least.
WoW: Argent Dawn
WoW: Lothar Friday night
WoW: not reported but
Uldaman has been busy with the new blood elves, some need invitations.
Vanguard
NeverWinter Nights
Tolkien:
(link corrected)
Varda's topic:
We know Maiar were in Arda. I wonder how wide-spread that was.
Jan. 19, 2007
WoW Lothar Friday:
Sauron (SauronV lvl 60) and
Bilbo(Valtocolindo lvl 60) partied together for a look at the new
continent available with Burning Crusades, did quests and found great
loot. Arathorn (Harana) joined in. Varda came in on Bilbo's computer
when he had to leave. Auros' brother Dracxil/Beline joined us as did
Arwen's Undomiel warrior. For those who did not yet have Burning
Crusades, we finished Rakkalaith (wrong spelling) in the Blasted Lands
for the end of the Fallen Hero quest needed by Auros and Beline. Then
we killed Araj in Andorhal in the Western Plaguelands for Undomiel's
Scholomance key. Bilbo came back in while Sauron and Varda headed for
1am sleep (2am EST). For the rest, we'll have to ask Auros. :)
Jan. 16, 2007
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Tar-Aldarion-(V)!
Aldarion found our website while researching ancient backgrounds for
Middle-earth. He enjoys writing stories and may be sending some our
way. He is on AIM a lot as OneMatthus and his email is on our Members
Page. He also likes to game and plays WoW and Eve Online. He intends to
buy LotRO when it comes out. He's 22 and is in the California Highway
Patrol. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, UT, and is working through BoLT 1.
His favorite LotR character is Thain Peregrine Took because he can be
so simple, such as a hobbit should be, yet he can be one of much
courage. Shown strongly in his worry for Meriadoc at Fangorn when
they plan the escaping from the Uruk hai, and also earlier on in Moria.
He's fun, funny and yet has an outstanding ability to outlast anything
that comes his way with more ease than even he thought.
Ulmo-(Valar)
is bringing his Member of Honors back in with him for 2007:
Elanor-(MoH) and returning Gothmog-(MoH). Ulmo no longer has a WoW
account, but plans to go into LotRO when it comes out.
Jan. 15, 2007
Forum WoW News from Eonwe-(Valar):
"I've divided the WoW section's
Hunting, Grouping, Questing board into sub-boards for each of the
official Guild servers in WoW. Guild Questing reports for each server
will now be put in that server's sub-board. See the board for more."
LotRO News:
Watch for the first wave of new beta 2
invitations.
Jan. 14, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending (12):
Members:
Aerandir-(V)/mordacil, Arathorn Valar, ArPharazonV,
AuSteinM-(TV)/AuSteinM, Eonwe Valar, FinduilasV, Finrod-(V)/TH0R0NGIL,
Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Olwe-(V)/FallenGlory, Orodreth V/Oessala,
VardaValar1 (presiding)
Visitor:
Hyarion/Srekal86
Membership:
Sweep of disinterested members still going.
Orodreth-(V) will be working during most meetings
(after-meeting)
Recognition of member accomplishments (after-meeting)
Web:
rp: "Scouting Ahead"
Gaming:
BfMe2: War of the Ring
Populous: The Beginning
Discworld II
Eve Online (after-meeting)
WoW:
NeverWinter Nights
WC3: The Frozen Throne
D2X
WoW Lothar server
WoW: Burning Crusade Expansion
WoW Argent Dawn server
WoW screenshots
Tolkien:
Ar-Pharazon-(V)'s topic (started during Web News):
Do we have any instances in Tolkien's stories of possession?
Jan. 12, 2007
WoW: Lothar Friday gathering:
Quests:
Alas for Andorhal (Araj), Battle of Darrowshire.
Gamers:
Arathorn, Auros (Eonwe), Beline (Dracxil), Eowyn, Deathiscommin
(outside guildie of Beline's other guild).
Jan. 7, 2007
Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST
(GMT-5), GMT 22:00
AIM room: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting
Transcript by
Ar-Pharazon-(V) and Varda-(Valar)
Attending (16):
Members:
Ancalagon-(V)/Sarujil, ArathornValar, ArPharazonV,
Dior-(V)/MyCantalopeH8tsU, Elladan-(V)/Bior the Ythling, Eonwe Valar
(presiding), FinduilasV, Gilraen-(V)/Star of Phaet, Idril-(V)/Narthais,
Farmer Maggot-(V)/thesirg3, Menelvagor Valar, Oropher-(V)/MJKeenan1234,
VardaValar1
Visitors:
Hyarion/Srekal86 (guild-friend), oladys 123 (guild-friend), Russ82275
(unknown but peaceful lurker)
Membership
Happy first meeting of 2007 :)
oladys 123 is taking her entry test in installments
due to a time problem
Web
Article: "The
Seven Structural Wonders of Middle-earth" by Barahir-(V).
Gaming
Request by two members for Battlenetters to get
together for D2X, SC/BW. Remember to use East and channel Valar.
Dungeon Siege
Battle for Middle-earth 2: Rise of the Witch-King
World of WarCraft:
Lothar Friday get-together
Argent Dawn
Tolkien
Dior-(V) (Varda mistakenly said Oropher in the
meeting): Classes in
History and in International Relations for students in Middle-earth.
Jan. 5, 2007
WoW Lothar Friday get together:
We have a group working on the
key for Scholomance, most of whom had characters ready to start killing
Araj in Andorhal of the West Plaguelands. It's convenient for everyone
to have a Scholomance key. Valarites so far are Eonwe, Eowyn (going to
work, will switch out comps with Varda), Fangorn, and Merry. Come on
in, say hi, and slay monsters! Other questing will be done according to
who needs what, and instance running is very probable.
Jan. 4, 2007
Links:
Universities -
these provide course lectures and other materials free online. No
credit, but tons of info.
Jan. 2, 2007
Tolkien Encyclopedia
New article by Barahir-(V)! "The
Seven Structural Wonders of Middle-earth"
Jan. 1, 2007
Happy New Year!
If you haven't already, let
Varda know that you would like to help continue the existence of the
Valar Guild by being counted as a member for 2007.
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