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News:

June 18, 2013 Tuesday
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Network maintenance is expected to take about two hours.


June 17, 2013 Monday
    Tolkien:
       LotR Trivia quiz for prizes
now up on our forum!


June, 16, 2013
Happy Father's Day!
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
    Attending: (5)
        Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, fladrifv, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    Tolkien:
       LotR Trivia quiz for prizes
now up on the forum!

June 14, 2013
    Happy birthday, Elemmire!

June 12, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Servers are back up.


June 11, 2013
    Happy birthday, Pengolodh!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Update 11.1 release notes.


June 9, 2013
    Happy birthday Earendil!
    Happy birthday, Scatha!
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
    Attending (7):
        Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, Menelvagor Valar, VardaValar1
    Tolkien:
       Trivia contest upcoming on the forum, answered in pm's to Eonwe. Prizes will be available in-game for WoW and LotRO branches.


June 6, 2013
    Happy birthday, Ancalagon!


June 2, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
    Attending: (5)
        Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar, fladrifv, VardaValar1 (presiding)


June 1, 2013
    Varda's back. The News page is being retro-newsed now.

May 26, 2013
    Happy birthday, Boromir!

Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
    Attending: (4)
        Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), Indis-(V)/ karakedi25


May 24, 2013
    Happy birthday, Haleth!
    Happy birthday, Forlong!

May 21, 2013
    Happy birthday, Gilraen!

May 20, 2013
    "The Fall of Arthur" poem by JRR Tolkien put out by Christopher Tolkien, available from Amazon.com.

May 19, 2013
    Happy birthday, Eomer!

Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), Indis-(V)/ karakedi25

May 17, 2013
    Happy birthday, Eonwe!
    Happy birthday, Maglor!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Indis gave us a head's up warning and a link to this LotRO.com thread, from our forum. Paraphrased and shortened from the thread:
            If you have the quest "They Deserve a Better Fate" & are ready to turn it in to Cyneberg in Lornsettle make sure you do so before you turn in other quests to her because she phases out and moves on. This prevents being able to turn in that quest or any others to her. To prevent this bug you must turn in quests in this order: Paralyzed by Grief, They Deserve a Better Fate, Preparing for a Siege, and The Next Stage of Grief.

May 16, 2013
    Membership news:
    Happy birthday, Hamson!

    Varda, Fangorn, Sauron, and Bilbo went to Arizona to visit Eowyn and Faramir-(init), and all went to Phoenix Comiccon (included Star Trek's original Chekov and Uhura, Babylon 5 Reunion, and a writer's conference).  LotRO has been loaded onto a laptop so there were short forays by Varda into LotRO, although mostly at much later times than normal.
    Retro-updates to the News page begin here, yay!

May 14, 2013
    Lord of the Rings medley with violin played and sung by Lindsey Sterling. Video suggested by Eowyn-(V).

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Start with the book quest beginning at the ford on the Entwade west of Garsfeld in the Sutcrofts, where we left off last book; a flag should show on your map. Doing the book quests will eventually lead to the quests given at Harwick. Optional quests open during progress in the epic book.
       The third picture down on this link is a map showing the starting place for the book.


May 13, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:

       Success!
  Closed launcher and restarted it, and it started patching at  6:24 EST pm. It then required a restart for the launcher changes. Interesting new download progress bars. Game's up!
       LI traits and mount traits (Shift M) have been re-set.
       For the new book, go to the ford where we left off last time, on the Entwade west of Garsfeld in the Sutcrofts. The quest takes you to Harding in Harwick eventually.
       Speak with Harding in Harwick for the new quests in Wildermore, as well as part of the book quest.

20:35 EST launcher note (I noticed the note at 4:00pm EST, which might mean they have a clock problem):
Login Issues
We are currently investigating an issue preventing players from patching and/or logging into the game. We do not currently have an ETA on a resolution.

        From Turbine:
The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Monday, May 13, 2013 for the release of Update 11: Treachery of the White Hand. Maintenance will begin at 7:00AM Eastern US time (Click here for your local time) and is expected to take approximately 4 hours. Patch notes will be available during the downtime.


Patch Notes for Update 11.
Known Issues for Update 11. (For the Play button bug, change the language then back again. This tiny button is at the top to the right of the Support button.)
Article: Update 11 Housing foreclosures and escrows, handling the vacant house problem.
Article: Update 11: Volume III, Book 10 "Snows of Wildermore" quest notes. The 15 chapters begin where the last left off, at the crossing of the Entwash in the Sutcrofts. The Volume III Interlude is a series of optional quests to flesh out the story, unlocked as the character progresses through the required book.
Article :Update 11 Mounted Combat changes.

The Helm's Deep expansion comes out in the fall of this year. Features intended (copied from the announcement):


May 12, 2013
Happy Mother's Day!
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda


May 10, 2013
    Happy birthday, Barahir!
    Happy birthday, Fladrif!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Alt Finder. Nifty toy. It didn't find all my alts but found a fair number of them.

       Melkor's account has been repaired. Be sure to use anti-virus programs that remove key-loggers and the Trojans that drop them.

       Turbine news:
Scheduled Server Downtime: Monday, May 13, 2013
May 10, 2013 21:31 EST The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Monday, May 13, 2013 for the release of Update 11: Treachery of the White Hand. Maintenance will begin at 7:00AM Eastern US time (Click here for your local time) and is expected to take approximately 4 hours. Patch notes will be available during the downtime.



May 9, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Update 11 Here's a link to some of the new items coming up (may change before live).


May 8, 2013
    Gaming / Zerg Rush
       Need a quick, low tech game while waiting on something? Just in case you haven't heard of this one yet, go to http://www.google.com/ and type zerg rush into the search bar.  Mouse click on the O's that move like bugs and try to eat the words off the screen. Your score shows on the right top with APM for actions per minute and Count showing how many of the bugs you killed.

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Melkor and possibly Gorlim's LotRO accounts have been hacked, as Orome's was previously. Make sure LotRO has your current email address; they have a good anti-hack preventing loss of equipment, but may have to replace your gold and some marks by having each of your characters come online and put in a ticket.

       Hytbold Dress-up guide, from LotRO Strategy.


May 6, 2013
    Happy birthday, Ar-Pharazon!


May 5, 2013

Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
    Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon the Golden and Varda
    Attending: (5)
        ArPharazonV, EonweValar, fladrifv, Indis-(V)/ karakedi25, VardaValar1 (presiding)
    Web:
       Links:
            "International Congress on Medieval Studies" May 9-12 in Michigan, USA.
            "The Tolkien Meta-FAQ"
    Gaming:
       SCBW
       SWTOR
       flashgaming
       SC2
       Chess
       WoW: Children's Week ends Monday at 2pm.  Darkmoon Faire upcoming. June will have the Midsummer Fire Festival.
       LotRO
    Tolkien:
       RP
       Tolkien topic: Illusion.
    After-meeting:
        RP


May 2, 2013
    International Congress on Medieval Studies is May 9-12 in Michigan at Western Michigan University in the US.  Nar-(V) and Mirabella-(V) plan to attend. The Tolkien Society usually comes out strongly as well.


May 1, 2013
    Happy birthday, Finarfin!


April 28, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by the Fabulous Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar, farmermaggotv, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Gaming:
    SWTOR
    flashgaming
    D3
    WoW
    LotRO
Tolkien:
    RP
    Topic: What sort of economic system was in use in Middle-earth
    Topic on the Side: The Rangers and how they lived.
After-meeting:
    Phar finds an illustration for the concept of the Roman money chains, well, sort of.

    Gaming / WoW:
       Upcoming Patch 5.3 "Escalation" notes and story.


April 27, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:
       from Turbine:
Scheduled Server Downtime: 7:00 AM - 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) Monday, April 29.
The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Monday, April 29th from 7:00 - 10:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) for an update to the game. Thanks for your patience, and we'll see you back in the game soon! Patch notes will be available during the downtime.


April 26, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:
       from Turbine:
The LOTRO Game Servers and http://myaccount.turbine.com will be offline for maintenance on Saturday, April 27th from 5:00 to 7:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT). The forums and wikis will remain up, but players may not be able to log in.


April 24, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:
       from Turbine:
    Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unveiled today The Lord of the Rings Online™: Helm’s Deep™, the next expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Helm’s Deep will continue the Epic Story into the western plains of Rohan, allow players to take a direct role in the battle for Helm’s Deep and advance the level cap to 95. Press release.
    LotRO's newest Quarterly Wallpapers.
    FAQ: Hobbit Presents


April 22, 2013
    Happy birthday, Pallando!

    Tolkien Site / Art:
       Cave of Fladrif-(V):
          Photos of New Zealand including Hobbiton from his vacation there.


April 21, 2013

Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (8)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(T), EonweValar, fladrifv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1 (presiding).
Web:
    Poetry and Art from Luthien-(T)
Gaming:
    SWTOR expansion "Rise of the Hutt Cartel".
    League of Legends tournament finals coming up.
    StarCraft 2
    WoW Children's Week starts next week.
    LotRO 6th anniversary
Tolkien:
    RP
    Tolkien discussion: Nienna, the Gray Lady. We always hear of her weeping. Yet she's a Valie. What is her main function to make her so highly placed amongst the Ainur?
After-meeting:
    Gaming, webwork
    Url found by Fladrif for amazing domino structures on YouTube. Some of them make something new after the fall.
    Fladrif's New Zealand photos went up and he had us look for the one plastic tree in Hobbiton.



April 20, 2013
    Tolkien Site / Poetry:
       "The Gray Lady" is now illustrated. The art, Sindarin poem, and English translation are all by Luthien-(T).

    Tolkien Site / Art:
          Cave of Luthien-(T):
             New section and art: "Nienna".
             New art: high resolution "Sunrise at Mount Taniquetil".
             Hi-res versions of "West of West", "Elbereth", and "Yavanna".


April 19, 2013 Friday
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Morning maintenance.
       6th Anniversary of LotRO: anniversary festival. Double experience from April 19 - 21.
          For coupon users: 100 % experience boost for  Coupon Code 100XP 1/Account.
          Some things are 25% off in the LotRO store.

    Gaming / SWTOR:
       April 23: Game Update 2.0.1 will be put up during this scheduled maintenance time. This starts in the morning about 9am PST and is expected to take around six hours. Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion is live.  SWTOR main site.

April 17, 2013
    Happy birthday, Paladin!


April 16, 2013
    Tolkien Site / Poetry:

        Chiril Vith: The Grey Lady (Nienna) by Luthien-(T). Original poem in Sindarin for meter and rhyme, then translated into English.. Artwork goes with it, intended to be sent to us in the future.
        A Elbereth rîn elenath / Oh Star-Lady, Queen of the Heavens by Luthien-(T)  Original poem in Sindarin for meter and rhyme, then translated into English, plus original artwork. Both poems were emailed April 14, 2013.

    Tolkien Site / Art:
          Revamp made to Luthien-(T)'s art section better showing characters and places.


April 14, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin.
    If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation. Another way is to put your AIM name on your Buddy List, select it with a mouse click, click Group Chat, and type Valar Guild Meetingplace in the chat room name to replace the default numbers.
          Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(T), EonweValar (presiding), fladrifv, Nar-(V)/mcioutpost (had crashing problems).
    Varda showed up very late after the transcript time, home from traveling.
Web:
    Art by Luthien-(T)
    Forum changes
Gaming:
    SWTOR free to play. The Valar branch is on The Ebon Hawk server now, mostly playing Empire but Alliance has also shown up.
    WoW patch notes
    LotRO 6th anniversary Tuesday, April 16
    D3 patch notes
    Flashgaming: "Accelerator" and tip.
    Browser beta: "The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age"  website
    More WoW: Lothar server unlocked the final phase of Isle of Thunder Tuesday last wekk.
    More LotRO
Tolkien:
    Topic: Aragorn: How we saw him in the movies vs how we saw him in the source material.


April 12, 2013 Friday
    Tolkien Site / Art:
      
    Cave of Luthien-(T):
               New paintings: "Alqualonde", "West of West", "Elbereth" final version, "Yavanna", "Luthien at Tol Galen" final version.

April 10, 2013
    Forum:
April 29th is when Proboards version 5 is slated to go live. All boards will be upgraded (except those who asked to have it delayed, but that only delays to the end of the year). The new version requires a Global Account, so anyone trying to log in when v5 goes live will be prompted to upgrade/create a global account. At that point our login will be the e-mail connected to the account (and will no longer be shown on the profile to anyone, if it's not already set to hidden right now). You'll be able to access the forum/forum account for any Proboards forum you're a member of from this global account.

The explanation of v5 is on the Proboards blog, topmost item: http://www.proboards.com/blog/

-Eonwe

April 9, 2013 Tuesday
    Gaming / SWTOR
(Star Wars: The Old Republic):
       SWTOR has free to play now.
       Sauron's account has resurfaced at last on The Ebon Hawk server after the old server went down. Bilbo is gaming with him on The Ebon Hawk.


April 8, 2013
    Happy birthday, Malbeth!


April 7, 2014
    Happy birthday, Edrahil!
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin.
    If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation. Another way is to put your AIM name on your Buddy List, select it with a mouse click, click Group Chat, and type Valar Guild Meetingplace in the chat room name to replace the default numbers.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (9)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, AuSteinM-(T), EonweValar (presiding), farmermaggotv, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, GwaihirValar, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Varda
Membership News:
    Hamson-(V) is back and playing LotRO with a new computer.
    Farmer Maggot-(V) is back after being ill.
    AuSteinM-(T) is back.
Web:
    Stories by Jay of Lasgalen
Gaming:
    WoW
    LotRO
    SC2
    D3
Tolkien:
    RP
    Tolkien chat topic: How does Gandalf set up the adventures for the Hobbit?
    Tangent: What insrtruments did the dwarves play in the Hobbit book version?


April 4, 2013
    Happy birthday, Turin!

    Tolkien Site / Stories:
      
"Nursery Crimes: Chapter 3 Hey Diddle Diddle" by Jay of Lasgalen.

    Nifty link:
       CalculatorCat.com to check typing speed, plus typing tips.


April 3, 2013
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Wednesday morning downtime for Update 10.1. Here are the Release Notes and Known Issues.
      
    Gaming / Diablo 3 (D3):
       Multiplayer Improvement news.  99 closest friends?


April 2, 2013:
    Happy birthday, Valandil!

    Gaming / StarCraft 2 (SC2):
       Patch 2.0.7 came out today.


April 1, 2013
    Beware of April Foolishness and check in-games for fun nuttiness.  ^^

March 31, 2013
Happy Easter!
    Tolkien Site / Stories:
       "Misunderstanding" by Jay of Lasgelen, third in the cooking horror drabble series "His Mother's Recipe Book".
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin.
    If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation. Another way is to put your AIM name on your Buddy List, select it with a mouse click, click Group Chat, and type Valar Guild Meetingplace in the chat room name to replace the default numbers.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), GwaihirValar, Varda
Web:
    Story: the cooking horror drabble series "His Mother's Recipe Book", by Jay of Lasgalen.
Gaming:
    WoW game events
    LotRO game events
    more
    SC2 players might want to get in a game soon for the "15 years of Starcraft" Feat of Strength.
         http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/9369230/Fifteen_Years_in_the_Koprulu_Sector-3_29_2013 for more info.
Tolkien:
    Hobbit DVD and Blu-ray.
    RP story on our forum.
    After the trivia game, the third part of the drabble cooking horror series: "His Mother's Recipe Book" went online "Misunderstanding".
    Trivia questions from LotR made up on the spot by members at the meeting:
        1. As the hobbits leave Bree towards Weathertop with Aragorn they have to cross an area .. what area and what does Sam think the inhabitants live by?
        2. What did Sam buy from a person who he would later throw an apple at?
        3. Identify the ultimate fate of every Maia we see in LotR.
        4. Quickbeam said he was called Quickbeam for being hasty at least two times before agreeing to attack Saruman so soon. What was one of them? (This question was corrected later by the asker, as only the first incident caused the nickname while other incidents merely added to the reason for the name.)
After-meeting:
    WoW Valar gamers met in Alliance and Horde. Varda's Horde guildmaster switched from tauren Gilbrennil to troll Elentariv.


March 30, 2013
    Happy birthday, Gwaihir!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Want a voice in how LotRO is made? You might be interested in joining the Players' Council.


March 28, 2013
    Happy birthday, Eomer!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       The lottery is working again. Good luck!


March 27, 2013
    Happy birthday, Meneldil!


March 26, 2013
    Tolkien Site / Stories:

"His Mother's Recipe Book" by Jay of Lasgalen.
    A cooking horror tale.
    "When Bilbo settled in Imladris in TA 3002 he brought a family heirloom with him – Belladonna’s recipe book. "
        Ch. 1 Jam Making (was "Making Jam"). Ailment: Headache.
        Ch. 2 Yule Pudding Ailment: Toothache
    This is a drabble series with more coming.The earlier "Making Jam" is now "Jam Making" used as the first chapter. "Yule Pudding" is new.

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Orome's account was hacked. For now at least, the heirship is now with Eonwe to prevent malicious mischief to the kin.


March 24, 2012
Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin.
    If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation. Another way is to put your AIM name on your Buddy List, select it with a mouse click, click Group Chat, and type Valar Guild Meetingplace in the chat room name to replace the default numbers.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), fladrifv, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Varda (After-meeting)
Gaming:
    WoW
    LotRO
    SC2
    flashgaming
    Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft
Tolkien:
    Trivia questions from the Silmarillion made up on the spot by members at the meeting:
        1. What was the name of the father of Werewolves, and what was his role in the robbery of the Silmaril from Angband?
        2. A certain someone was brought to Nargothrond by a former inhabitant, and he played a prominant role in Nargothrond's fate. Who was the "someone" who was the "former inhabitant", and what role did he play in that kingdom's fate?
       3. Movie trivia on the side: What is the name of the town where Hobbiton is located that was used in the movies as a movie set?
After-meeting:
    Answer to the third question from the trivia is down in this section.
    Some of our Valarites joined the SC2 clan and group during the After-meeting..

March 23, 2013
    Happy birthday, Morwe!
    Happy birthday, Nimrodel!

March 22, 2013
    Happy birthday, Menelvagor!


March 20, 2012
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Patch notes for Update 10.0.2


March 18, 2013
    Happy birthday, Celeborn!


March 17, 2013

Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin.
    If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation. Another way is to put your AIM name on your Buddy List, select it with a mouse click, click Group Chat, and type Valar Guild Meetingplace in the chat room name to replace the default numbers.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), fladrifv, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Varda
Membership:
    Varda's intermittent  internet connection is being repaired today, we hope.
    Hello to Turgon-(V), and thanks for the email!
    Arien is back from vacation.
Web:
    Two new stories this last week from Jay of Lasgalen.
Gaming:
    StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
    WoW
    flashgaming: Plants vs Zombies
    LotRO
Tolkien:
    Item: The first Hobbit movie comes out Tuesday on DVD.
    Chat topic: What are some of the non-human intelligent races that we meet in LotRO and what role did they play in the War of the Ring?
After-meeting:
    The Return of Fladrif-(V)!
    Joining into SC2 together without worry about which continent we're on (Fladrif joins during the After-meeting), plus the SC2 folk using the forum (under StarCraft series) now with a note about getting together to play.
    Proboards (our forum provider) will be upgrading everyone's account to global on April 29th. However, Proboards will not automatically upgrade all forum accounts to global accounts. We the forum-goers have to do that ourselves, each personally.


March 14, 2013
    Happy birthday, Aule!
    Happy birthday, Ecthelion!


March 13, 2013
    Tolkien / Stories:
       "No More Confusion" by Jay of Lasgalen. Elladan, Elrohir.
       "Making Jam" by Jay of Lasgalen. Bilbo, Elrohir.


March 12, 2013
    Gaming / StarCraft 2:
       Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm was released today. Enjoy!


March 10, 2013
    Happy birthday, Arminas!

    Daylight Savings Time begins for Eastern Time
, the time we use to coordinate in Valar. The clock jumped forward, so what was 7am is now called 8am, what was 5 pm is now called 6 pm. EDT is UTC-5, previously known as GMT-5.
    My computer clock now says UTC instead of GMT; yours might too. Greenwich should be annoyed. For aviators, UTC is the same as Zulu time. UTC is similar to GMT in being based off of the longitudinal line running through Greenwich Observatory, but operates off the atomic clock. The letters UTC refer to Coordinated Univeral Time. UTC is 24 hour time rather than am and pm. For more info such as why UTC is a scrambled hash of letters, here's an article from About.com. Or maybe they just didn't want to call it CUT?

Sunday Meeting: 5 pm EDT (UTC-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin.
    If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation. Another way is to put your AIM name on your Buddy List, select it with a mouse click, click Group Chat, and type Valar Guild Meetingplace in the chat room name to replace the default numbers.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (7)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, GwaihirValar, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Ioreth-(V)/LizMarr
    After-After-meeting: Varda
Gaming:
    WoW
    LotRO, LotRO
    SC2, SC2
    GW2
Tolkien:
    Saruman: stalwart servant of the Valar who lost his way in Middle-earth, or compromised before he even got off the boat?
After-meeting:
    Tolkien chat on undead, wraiths.

March 8, 2013
    Happy birthday, Beren!


March 7, 2013
    Happy birthday, Ioreth!


March 6, 2013 Wednesday
    Gaming/ LotRO:
      
Update 10: Against the Shadow, Part 2. Patch notes.

    Gaming / WoW:
       Patch 5.2: The Thunder King, is out for WoW. Patch notes.

    The Games Site will not be updatable for a while until Eonwe's computer is repaired or replaced, but he and I are putting its news here.


March 5, 2013 Tuesday
    Gaming / LotRO:
        Turbine news:
Scheduled Server Downtime: Wednesday, March 6th
The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Wednesday, March 6th from 7:00 - 10:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) to launch the latest game update, Update 10: Against the Shadow, Part 2. Thanks for your patience, and we'll see you back in the game soon! Patch notes will be available during the downtime.

    Gaming / StarCraft 2:
        Letter from Eonwe:
Hail to the Valar Guild!
 
A couple of weeks ago, Blizzard released patch 2.0.4 for Starcraft 2, bridging Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. With this patch came certain new features for Starcraft 2, including support for Clans and Groups. As soon as I was able to last week, I created one of each for the Valar Guild. The information for each is as follows:

 Group: Valar Guild
Privacy: Private
Type: Online Communities

Clan: Valar
Clan Tag: Valar
 
You may ask, "why both a Group and a Clan?" I gave this some thought before proceeding, and while either one could serve most of our potential needs, neither could serve all of them. A Group would provide us with a chat channel and a "near limitless" capacity for any member to be able to join us, but it would not give an outlet for our members to bear our emblems into the competitive arena if they wished to (I hearken back to the days when some of our members occupied spots on the D2 and Starcraft ladders). Likewise, a Clan could give us that, but it would cap at 50. That may sound like alot, but one never knows what the future may bring, for us or for these features. In addition, Blizzard intends to make available to all players the ability to choose the region one plays in: meaning, all members from around the world can join us on the "Americas" server, in our Group and Clan on Starcraft 2. If they ever brought Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 together, we might need all the extra space we can get :}
 
In the end, I decided the best option was to have a Group that all members could be a part of, and a Clan for those who also wish to bear our emblems into battle, climb the competitive ranks and make us look good :} Right now, all members are welcome to be part of both. If we hit the 50-player cap on the Clan, priority in the Clan will be given to the most active. (That only means someone will be dropped from the Clan if they are the least active/ inactive by a fair margin and someone much more active is eager for a spot). Assuming the "near limitless" cap on Groups stays in place, no one will be removed from the Group for any reason we don't already remove members (inactivity sweep, conduct, etc.).
 
Yes, this means that many/all of us will have both a Group window and a Clan window open. To top that off, we'll still have the friend channel, "Valar," where members looking to get their characters into the Clan and the Group should come, and where those looking to join the Valar Guild are encouraged to look for us. Thankfully, the windows are usually quite clear on which one is getting new text added :}
 
For the near future, the best way to get your character added to the Group and the Clan is to seek me (Eonwë) at the weekly Guild Meeting (You DO know when and where that is, right? No? :} Sunday 5pm US East Coast time, AIM, Channel Valar Guild Meetingplace). Since there can only be one Starcraft 2 "character" per copy, members are not required to use their Guild Names for their "character" name. However, all members are encouraged to ensure their name abides by our Rules and Code of Conduct (i.e., no inappropriate names; a good general guideline is: if you have to ask, it probably is) before requesting to join the Group or Clan.
 
For more info on Groups and Clans, see http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7747190 and http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7994698.
Anyone with questions, concerns, or comments on the Starcraft 2 organizations for the Valar Guild are welcome to direct them to me.
 
Take care all!
Eonwë


March 4, 2013
    Happy birthday, Gimli!

    Gaming / Guild Wars 2
        Letter from Irmo-(Valar):
Miriel, Celeborn, Thranduil, Annil, Hurin and Irmo have been playing Guildwars 2 for a while now.  They are on the US server called Jade Quarry, having re-established their old DAOC guild name Wolves of Valinor there together with some friends from LOTRO and AION. They let you know – without in any way wanting to distract any member of the Valar Guild from their present games:
-    Guildwars 2 is genuinely free to play; meaning that none of us have seen any cause to pay for anything after buying the initial game; there is no need to buy things in a store to be able to compete;
-    Guildwars 2 is ideal for casual gamers: it allows for a hop-in and out style – for any time -, never requiring hours of (dungeon or raid) involvement. The game has some entirely new and different concepts to MMORPG’s: the content is dynamic and ever changing, grouping is both not needed (in the general world) and nice (dungeons and fractals require a group of 5), classes are self-supporting (every player is healer, support, tank and DPS all at once);
-    A Valar Guild branch can and will be installed (name: Valar Guild, tag VAL): it is possible and even advisable to be a member of multiple guilds. The branch can encompass players from Valar Guild from different servers and allows communication (messaging) between members across servers;  if you are already playing GW2 somewhere we could join forces!
-    It is possible to play as a guest on different servers. If you have a different home server it is possible to visit us (or any world) and play any PVE content.  It might be hard to join Jade Quarry at any time, because by chance the server we chose at beta turned out to become the leading server (despite the fact we are on it :P). But the populations fluctuate throughout the day.
-    World versus World (equaling the old Real vs Realm in DaoC) is a very nice feature, but not in any way obligatory. This means trying to take camps and keeps from other servers. It is very addictive….
If you are happy where you are, more power to you! If you seek something new, then you will be welcome to come and share the fun. More game info: GuildWars2.com
Contact Irmo for more information.

         
Note from Varda: Irmo's email is on the Membership page (see the link at the top of this page).  Irmo shows up about weekly in LotRO if you would also like to LotROmail him (check the kin notes for his most recently used name). Many of us play more than one game keeping our favorite from going stale. Please let Eonwe know which games you play for the Games Site to help us get together. As a Tolkien fan club, the Valar Guild plays Lord of the Rings Online as our main, but certainly not our only game.
            The GW2 group makes heavy use of the same Ventrilo server the Valar Guild uses for LotRO, SWTOR, WoW, etc., paid for by Irmo alone. If you'd like to help with the cost when you have a little to share, go to the Wolves of Valinor site, then go to Forums on the left to the button that says Donate; no need to register with the site or anyone else. PayPal will charge $2.25 for the transaction, so anything above that will help!


March 3, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST (GMT-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin. If uncertain how to enter, message VardaValar1, Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar, Ioreth-(V)/LizMarr, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Web:
    Art by DeepGroover-(T)
Gaming:
    Mass Effect 3
    StarCraft/BroodWar
    StarCraft 2 beta
    Rift
    World of WarCraft (WoW)
    Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO)
    StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm new trailer
Tolkien:
    In JRRT's books, he makes mention a number of times in often very strong plotlines concerning oaths. What such plotlines did he use, and what seemed to be his opinion about taking oaths? (We had fun with tangent lines from the topic.)
After-meeting:
    Time change next week, EST moves 1 hour forward.

March 2, 2013
    Happy birthday, Thranduil!

    Tolkien Site / Art:
       "Wolfman, life-sized" by DeepGroover-(T)

March 1, 2013
    Happy birthday, Aragorn!

Feb. 24, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST (GMT-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin. If uncertain how to enter, message Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar, GwaihirValar, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Gaming:
    SC2 beta
    SC/BW
    STO
    flashgames
    LotRO
    WoW
Tolkien:
    Trivia round

Feb. 19, 2013 Tues.
    Happy birthday, Eowyn!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       8pm EST Fornost instance run. Completed Water and Earth and ready to start Fire next time.

    Gaming / LotRO from Turbine:
Feb 19, 2013 18:37 EST As a way of saying thank you for all of your patience, we will be offering a welcome back 100% bonus experience boost and a boost to lootbox drops from today until February 26th. So don't wait; walk the lands in Middle-earth today in search of adventure and treasure!


Feb. 17, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST (GMT-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin. If uncertain how to enter, message Eonwe Valar, or ArPharazonV for an invitation.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (5)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar (presiding), GwaihirValar, Nar-(V)/mcioutpost
Membership:
    Varda arrived home late tonight after being out of town for the weekend.
Gaming:
    World of WarCraft
    Lord of the Rings Online (online again) Fornost walkthrough (use Next to get to the next wing's walkthrough, starting with Water)
    Clash of Dreadnaughts
    Star Trek Online
    StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
Tolkien:
    Trivia round

    Gaming / LotRO:
Maintenance Update 2-17-13
Feb 16, 2013 17:28 EST
The LOTRO Game servers are now available.
Please note that the LOTRO Store and Myaccount services are unavailable at this time. We will update you when they become available again.


Feb. 15, 2013 Fri.
    This News page should now load faster. July 2012 -Jan 2013entries are now in the News Archives linked at the bottom of this page.

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Problems with the global server manintenance are leaving them uncertain when the game will be up again exactly. Maybe this evening.
       Facebook for LotRO for updates, no account necessary to look.
       Varda will be out of town during the weekend but will check all email on her return. Eonwe Valar will be chairing the meeting Sunday.

Feb. 14, 2013 Thurs.
    Happy Valentine's Day!

    Gaming / LotRO: Turbine notice:
Scheduled Maintenance: Thursday, February 14th
Feb 14, 2013 02:35 EST All Turbine Game Servers and http://myaccount.turbine.com will be offline for global maintenance from 6:00AM Eastern (-5 GMT) Thursday, February 14th until 6:00am Eastern Time (-5 GMT) Friday February 15th.


Feb. 13, 2013 Wed.
    Happy birthday, Maedhros!

    Gaming / LotRO:
       Tomorrow all servers will be down for approximately 12 hours for global maintenance, tentatively beginning at 6am EST.

Feb. 12, 2013  Tues.
    Gaming / StarCraft 2 beta:
       Letter excerpt from Eonwe:
Anyone who's in the SC2 beta should make sure to join the channel Valar (reminding people a hundred thousand times that they should join channel Valar to meet other guildies isn't a bad thing, right? ;}) to get with other guildies who might also be in the beta, before it ends March 1st. Can't guarantee much gaming on my part, but they can help me test the Clan/Group stuff if I catch them.

Feb. 11, 2013  Mon.
    Gaming / LotRO:
       Monday morning hotfix to the game. Patch notes. Rohan crafting instances just became more valuable.

Feb. 10, 2013
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST (GMT-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin. If uncertain how to enter, message Eonwe Valar, VardaValar1, or ArPharazonV for an invitation.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar, GwaihirValar, Hamson-(V)/Hamson Gamgee, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Membership
Web:
    Link from Meriadoc-(V)
    Poetry by Pippin-(V)
Gaming:
    miscelllaneous
    WoW
    LotRO
       Fornost run requested Tuesday around 8pm EST for Beleg-(V)
Tolkien:
    Rotating quotes on the News page
    Troll travel
    Logistics for Aragorn's assault on the Black Gate
    Forum story aka RP.

Feb. 9, 2013
    Happy birthday, Theoden!

Feb. 7, 2013
    Gaming Poetry for LotRO:
       "The Burglar They Call Penny" by Peregrin-(V) aka Pippin-(V)

Feb. 6, 2013
    Links:
       Fun link found by Meriadoc-(V): "Sarumon (sic) as the Bold but Incompetent Firefighter".

Feb. 5, 2013
    Happy birthday, Dirhavel!

Feb. 3, 2013
    Happy birthday, Fladrif!
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST (GMT-5)
    The meeting is held in the AIM room named Valar Guild Meetingplace. It may also be entered using Trillian or Pidgin. If uncertain how to enter, message Eonwe Valar, VardaValar1, or ArPharazonV for an invitation.
Meeting Transcript by Ar-Pharazon and Varda
Attending: (6)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, EonweValar, Gilraen-(V)/Iryenth, GwaihirValar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Tolkien:
    Forum story aka RP discussion, post.

Feb. 2, 2013
    Gaming Poetry for LotRO:
        By Hoegard Harfoot
           "Idyllic Alliterations for the Green Dragon"

Feb. 1, 2013
    Who else would like to try their hand at a bit of poetry? :)

    Gaming Poetry for LotRO:
      by Hargood Harfoot:
       "The Dragon Fight"
       "Ode to a Berry Tart"
       "The Green on Bullroarer's Day"
       "The Bullroarers's Day Race"


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