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16th
Anniversary of the Valar Guild
October 4, 2013
Phial of Galadriel
Click to enlarge the movie poster image.
Intro
AIM Marathon chat
Forum
Light Shots
LotRO
WoW
Tolkien Site
Gamers
LotRO: fireworks at
the capitol cities. Oct 4
WoW:
fireworks at the capitol cities. Oct 2
Games
Site Mass Update 2013, aka GSMU
State
of Valar Gaming 2013 (uses info from above GSMU)
Letter from Eru-(Valar)
Intro:
When is the 16th Anniversary?
October 4, 2013. That's a Friday.
Do we have a theme?
The theme this year is Light. This can be light vs
the absence of light (darkness) or light as in beauty. Thank you to
Eonwe-(Valar) for proposing the theme.
What happened worthy of an anniversary celebration?
We were founded October 4, 1997 in our current
form by Eru-(Valar) with the able assistance of Manwe-(Valar).
Eru-(Valar) set the vision of a haven from the unpleasantness
ruining the Diablo 1 community by bringing together like-minded folk
who were literate, courteous and wanted to actually play the game. He
set the goal of literacy and similar ideals and tastes by requiring
that members must have completed reading the Lord of the Rings
and liked it (It's hard to finish for people who don't like it!)
Manwe-(Valar) set the ambience of friendly light-heartedness,
remembering that we are *playing a game* with other good folk.
From
there we went on as a co-operating, communicating unit into new games
while working together to create a Tolkien Site as a service to all
other fans of Tolkien's works. This business of creating is why we are
called a "guild".
As the
group became larger and included more areas, organization passed
to the Council of Mahanaxar. Some members helped the Council even as
the Maiar and Free Peoples helped their brothers, the Valar, in the
books.
Just being around this long still including original
members as well as new blood is pretty amazing for any online group.
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Marathon Chat:
Where? AIM
room (reachable also by Trillian and Pidgin) Valar Guild Meetingplace
When?
Starting Sunday meeting Sept. 29, ending after the Sunday meeting Oct.
8.
Who? All
members of any kind and guild-friends.
Doing what?
Guild members and guild-friends
endeavor to keep our AIM meeting place continuously open or as near to
it as possible from one Sunday meeting through the next to include the
anniversary date. This is a way to participate in the
anniversary nuttiness with other members even if you can't game or put
up anything for the Tolkien Site, and is credit for participating in
the guild that gives membership extension into the next year as well.
This is also a nifty way to see
members from all parts of our pan-game or Tolkien Site only,
international guild. At times we will just chat or do trivia or quotes
for fun.
The main chat theme
this year is coming up with anything concerning light or the absence
thereof (darkness) in Tolkiien's works.
Participants we
know of, huzzah!:
Arien-(Valar), Ar-Pharazon-(V),
Eonwe-(Valar), Fladrif-(V), Gilraen-(V), Gwaihir-(Valar), Indis-(V),
Ioreth-(V), Menelvagor-(Valar), Nerdanel-(V), and Varda-(Valar).
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Forum:
We have a
thread where you can say plan, report, or say things like "Yay
15th!" and "howdy".
Here's the Light
or Absence Thereof
thread, which can be added to from now on as we please, but is a
special project starting for this anniversary. It can be used as
"prompts" to help think up more goodies to put on the Tolkien Site.
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Light Shots:
We're showing some of the screenshots demonstrating
light or darkness effects in
our games to go with the theme for this year's anniversary.
Click to enlarge thumbnail images.
Lord of the Rings Online, aka LotRO:
Rivendell evening stars. The lady claims to be the elf, Glindanor, but
one wonders.
Shot by Varda.
Rivendell evening stars with another constellation.
Shot by Varda.
Trollshaws clouds of gold at dawn.
Shot by Varda.
Trollshaws: Vault of Celebrian's Legacy to her daughter Arwen.
Shot by Varda.
Tomb of Maenadar, lit by braziers, being examined by dwarf Timbridhil
the Short. LotRO-wiki.com link to
the place it's in.
Shot by Varda.
These Ents of Balewood
in Wildermore have awakened, more or less. Ok, so that one on the right
is still yawning. They are the lights of the forest, not to be confused
with kindling at one's own risk.
Shot by Varda.
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#
World of Warcraft, aka WoW:
The White Tree in the courtyard, suspiciously
similar to the White Tree in the courtyard of Gondor.
Screenshot by Varda-(Valar) on Holy Priest Varda.
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Tolkien Site Contributions:
Art:
Articles:
Poetry
Light
and Dark by Varda-(Valar)
Stories:
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Gaming:
Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO):
Fireworks
runs went off at noon and 8pm Eastern, October 4th. Blasting time! Many
screenies were taken by us all, so more will be going up over time.
Click thumbnails to see larger images.
Noon
Evening
#
Noon run with Dis-(V) as Disvandl, Nerdanel-(V) as Fylla, and
Varda-(Valar) as Fainan. We drank from the Sinister Keg afterwards, o
my!
Evening run with Fangorn-(Valar) as Fangbark, Hurin-(V) as Hiurred,
Ioreth-(V) as Aleyne, and Varda-(Valar) as Fainan. We enjoyed music and
dancing afterwards.
Noon LotRO run:
Those that came for the noon fireworks were Dis-(V)
as Disvandl, Nerdanel-(V) as Fylla, and
Varda-(Valar) as Fainan.
We shot fireworks from Bree, Michel Delving,
Thorin's Hall, Esteldin,
Rivendell, Ost Guruth, and the kin house.
Then we drank from the
Sinister Keg, from which Dis woke in scary Angmar, Nerdanel woke in
Dead
Man's Perch in the Barrow Downs, and Varda woke in Evendim at Tyl Annun
(Angmarim fortress).
Shots by Nerdanel:
Gathering outside Bree.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Look out, Bree! Here we come!
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Shooting for the sky!
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Fiery eyes in the sky.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Outside Thorin's Hall.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Esteldin
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Fireworks outside Rivendell.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Fireworks outside Ost Guruth.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Fireworks at the kin house.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
Black bear at the kin house.
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
One sip from the Sinister Keg is too much!
Shot by Nerdanel-(V).
#
Evening
LotRO run:
The pyromaniacs for this event were
Fangorn-(Valar) as Fangbark, Hurin-(V) as Hiurred,
Ioreth-(V) as Aleyne, and Varda-(Valar) as Fainan.
We shot fireworks while at the kin house,
Bree, Ost Guruth, Thorin's Hall, Rivendell, Galtrev, and Michel Delving.
Then we topped it off with a little music and
dancing.
Galtrev fireworks near the stable.
Left to right: Varda, Ioreth, Hurin, and Fangorn.
Shot by Hurin-(V).
Rivendell fireworks from the bridge looking towards the Last Homely
House.
Left to right: Fangorn, Hurin, Varda, and Ioreth.
Shot by Hurin-(V).
Rivendell fireworks showing the waterfall..
Left to right: Fangorn, Hurin, Varda, and Ioreth.
Shot by Fangorn-(Valar).
Link
to Ioreth-(V)'s photo gallery to enjoy her slide show of 74 screenshots
for the evening LotRO fireworks run.
#
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World of WarCraft (WoW):
Fireworks shot off in the capitol cities! Here's proof! More incoming
from Eonwe.
Click to enlarge thumbnail images.
If you were there snapping screenies, please email
your favorites to Varda.
These are screenshots of the anniversary run that
was held early on October 2, for those who could not come Oct. 4 due to
work.
The Valar Guild assembles
at the Shrine in Pandaria in the courtyard by the White Tree, our
second stop.
From left to right, Eowyn (Aeowyn), Eonwe (Auros), Varda (Varda),
Elwing (Whitetower), and Bofur (Diziet).
Screenshot by Varda.
On the bridge looking up at the stars.
From left to right: Eowyn, Bofur, Elwing, Auros, and Varda.
Screenshot by Varda.
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Letter
from Eru on October 4, 2013:
Too all of you, congratulations on
reaching this anniversary, you deserve so much praise for keeping the
Valar Guild alive for so long.
I never dreamed that it would endure, and you good people are the
reason why it has and continues to do so.
With you in spirit,
Eru-Iluvatar, The One.
page by Varda-(Valar)
begun Sept. 30, 2013
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