2000 News  Archive

News added by month, more or less.

2000

Dec. 31, 2000
    Please pardon me (Varda) for being so unavailable lately. The modem fried Friday. We have new modems that don't want to install so the whole LAN system was dead to the internet for a while. Eowyn worked her magic to make this one behave and Meriadoc hopes to swing by and help us with the others today hopefully (and eat ham and black-eyed peas!). I'm doing a minimum of guild business while visting home, as my mom is in the hospital. She's improving and we expect to take her home sometime. Meanwhile, I have every confidence in all of you to keep things running smoothly.  :)  With luck, I may be able to drop in at meeting time today, but can't count on it. I've told some potential good recruits about the meeting time, so if you see any, please help them for me. One is a lady who seems to know her Tolkien very well. The meeting is planned to be informal: say hi, catch up on the news with each other, chat Tolkien informally, and go play! No obligation to show up, as these are holidays with guests in all directions and families need the phone. If any member would like to report how the meeting went, email me and I'd be happy to put up your news item.

Sunday Meeting (informal for the holidays)
Report from Valacirca:
    At most there were 3 to 4 people in the channel at any one time.  There were a few, however,  who stopped in and said hi :}  Tulkas also came through and asked   that one of us tell you that he is heading out to sea once again.

Dec. 27, 2000
    Azog joined. Welcome! He did what is probably a guild first, finding us by typing Tolkien names for channels until he ran into us. Some others have seen our names and typed in the channel suggested by that, but this is new as far as I know.  He was tested by Aule. Azog is 18, from New York, and has read the H, LotR, and first 5 pages of the Sil.
    Testers need to be more kindly to potential recruits and help them out rather than running off to games in such a hurry.

Dec. 25, 2000
    Merry Christmas!

Dec. 23, 2000
    The next two meetings will be during major holidays. Drop by if you have a minute to say hi, if you have the time, but please don't feel obligated.
    Welcome to Celebrian! A friend of Imrahil's, she brilliantly passed a hard entry tested by Gandalf (Ulmo interviewed) with 5/5 with lots of extra info. Her parents ask that we keep her email unlisted, so please be sure to help her out as we can't email her any info or Discussion Board invitations. She's read H, LotR, Sil, UT, HME 1, 2, 4, and 7. She's 14 from the UK. She plays SC and BW.

Dec. 22, 2000
    Happy Hanukkah!

Dec. 21, 2000
    Games page: temporarily up for use on the 50megs server until the permanent server's problems can be worked out. Here's the current temporary address for the re-vamped Games .

Dec. 20, 2000
    Diablo II News from Salmar:

Thrilling news:
Finally the long-awaited 1.04 patch is active!
I just picked up this news from DiabloII.net:
"Diablo II v1.04 is up and functional on the USWest, East and EuropeRealms right now. You will download it automatically when you connect to Battle.net with Diablo II. There are some changes to the log on interface, including an easy realm selector for your account, and also a change password button. We'll have much more on the patch changes shortly."
So the one day/night downtime of the realms was indeed to update the realms to 1.04. Now let's go find out what changes have and have not been made, and what bugs have and have not been repaired:)
Merry greetings,
Salmar.

Dec. 19, 2000
    Games Page: Makar is making progress with a new more user-friendly Games Page. He is also figuring out how to use a different server and FTP system provided by Tom.

Dec. 17, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
Attending (22):
    Members (20): Amillo, Arothir, Aule, Beregond, Cirdan, Elendil, Earendil, Gildor, Gorbag, Guilin, Gwindor, Imrahil, Melkor, Salmar, Thranduil/Ellome, Thror, Tom, Ulmo, Valacirca, Varda
    Visitors (2): (V)Alys (ex-Grimbold), bilbobolson
Chat Experiment:
    The membership present tried out the chat program on the Yahoo Valar Guild Discussion Board with good results. The main meeting was held in the regular bnet channel.
Member Report:
    143 total membership reported by Amillo
    New Member: Guilin (present at the meeting and said a few words)
    New service by Salmar: aid in finding alternate names for your character
Web News:
    New Page:
        EverQuesters: helps EverQuest players in the Valar Guild meet each other
    New Articles:
        "You know you're in Valar when...":  addition by Dior
        Diablo II Experiences: paladin advice by Valacirca
        Tolkien Encyclopedia: "Arothir" by Salmar, and "Ancalagon" by Varda
    Changes:
        Web Team: medieval clip art moved to a new server, link updated and old items now available on CD
        Games Page: Makar can no longer access it on GeoCities, so he's moving to another server and then updating
        Glittering Caves: Amillo can no longer access it on GeoCities, still considering options
        Folklore & Mythology page: FTP access down until the giant pirated software problem on Homestead is handled
        Suggestions for those with access problems: Eowyn suggested going to www.50megs.com for new service with a good FTP
            service. Another suggestion was made, please email it as it never made it into the scribbles aka meeting notes.
Gaming:
    Tourney Results!:
      The three week Tourney is over.
        In the Diablo II Quest for Three, the winners are in the team of Salmar (7), Ulmo (7), and Thranduil (8) totalling 22 for a record.
            Only Thranduil is eligible for a prize as the other two are of Vala honor.
        The StarCraft winners for the new map by Earendil are in the team of Aule, Elros, and Sauron with a record time of 52:26. Elros
            and Sauron are eligible for prizes, as both are Maiar.
    Tourney game rules change:
        All tourney games may now be played at any time. If your score is a record, please send email it to Ulmo preferably with a cc to
            Varda as well. (Non-records may be sent to Varda.)
Tolkien:
    Transportation in Middle-earth. Normal transportation was very slow: foot, horse, boat. Special transportation was used in special missions where applicable such as eagle (by command of Manwe), winged beast (for Nazguls only).
    The One Ring was hard on its wearers. It took a finger from Sauron and Frodo, and the life of Isildur and Gollum.

Dec. 16, 2000
    Glittering Caves: Amillo is unable to access the caves which are located on GeoCities/Yahoo. Tuvo has a great picture of a model of Frodo which needs to be put in the Caves.
    Guilin, welcome to the Valar Guild! Gwindor scouted, Salmar and Varda tested. Guilin is from Ontario, Canada, is 15, and ready the LotR and is currently working on the Hobbit.
    Melkor hasn't been able to connect to the USEast server in about 3 weeks, although he has no trouble with USWest or Open Battle Net.  Any ideas/advice?

Dec. 15, 2000
New on the guild pages:
   Games page: Makar is still unable to access the Games Page which is located on GeoCities/Yahoo and hopes to move it to another server soon, then update it.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new articles:
        Ancalagon under Non-Human Intelligences/Dragons
        Arothir by Salmar-(Valar)
    Diablo II Experiences: " Pet Peeves and Paladins " by Valacirca. Re-vamped page Diablo II Experiences , so beware of your bookmark.
    You know you're in Valar when... Page's new funnies by Dior

Dec. 14, 2000
    New page: EverQuesters . Has names of guild members who play EQ, news. Please send in your name if you play EQ to be added, and any news, comment, or suggestion you would like to have on the page.

Dec. 13, 2000
EverQuest:
Letter from Eru:

With regard to Everquest, I'd like to add my name as one of those interested in playing with
members of the guild.

At the moment I only have a couple of low-level characters on PREXUS server, though I'm willing to
switch servers and start afresh if there is enough interest from others.  I'd recommend starting on
a low population server though as PREXUS has been around for a while and regularly has 2000
players.  Newer servers only have about 500 so the world is much less crowded.

I'd also be happy to co-ordinate the EQ people and send in news for the web site.

With utmost respect,
Eru Iluvatar, The One.

Beleg Strongbow plays on EverQuest as Subitai on the server of Druzzil Ro.

Dec 13, 2000
From Bnet:
            Ongoing maintenance will begin on Thursday, December 14th and run
                   though Friday, December 15th for the US West Battle.net and
                   Diablo II Realm servers.  This maintenance may cause intermittent
                   service and/or increased latency for all users.

                   When completed, this maintenance will increase the capacity of
                   the Battle.net and Diablo II service for the USWest realm.

                   -The Battle.net Team

Folklore & Mythology page, users of Homestead:
    We have been unable to post new articles due to Homestead's FTP problems. Their message:

-Homestead's FTP servers are down indefinitely. A small group of people were abusing this service by posting extremely large pirated software files which had a negative impact on the performance of all member sites. At this time, there is no definite date set for the restoration of FTP services.  It remains a matter of top priority for our technical team to find a reasonable solution to the problem.  Our apologies for the current inconvenience.

Dec. 9, 2000
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new article on Thranduil by Thranduil-(V).

Dec. 5, 2000
    To find someone by using the /whois or /whereis on D2, use the account name or the account number. It does not work on the particular character's name. Thanks, Mandos, for clearing that up.
    WarCraft III 's fifth and final race, the Night Elves, have a write-up in Computer Games Magazine for January, with a picture of one of their mean faces on the cover. The game may actually come available someday, rumored by Blizzard for the last half of 2001.

Dec. 4, 2000
    Welcome to Dwalin! Our newest member has been visiting us as magic_plyr/TheGreatBoromir. He made a perfect 5/5 in a test with Amillo and Salmar! He's 17 from the USA, read the H and LotR.
    EverQuest: Ghan-buri-ghan (old Murezor) suggests we collect 10 or more of our EQ players, pick the same server without the PvP, and play EQ together. Failing that, at least send Makar the name of the server your EQ character is on and the alias so you can recognize each other. I'd also be willing to post it to the regular News, but that will scroll off into the archives. Another way is for those of you who play EQ to email each other, perhaps making a group email list. Or you can even show up at regular Sunday bnet meetings to meet each other and talk.
    Evil doings by bnet: bnet is not allowing people in different games to talk to each other in the same channel, sometimes to not even join. This has been reported by Eru, Fingolfin/Khan, Salmar, and Varda, and is surely affecting others. This is making it tough to discuss which game to go into or have mixed meetings, as we don't all have the same games, and may be some misguided effort at marketing. Eru said he was sent a message that he was not authorized to enter or view the channel, even when he tried switching gateways.
    Quote from Blizzard:

"Battle.net is limiting the channels that Diablo,  Diablo Shareware and Starcraft shareware can enter. These applications may interact within their own channels and are able to access our support channels. We have taken this step in order to reduce the amount of extraneous text generated by abusers of our Battle.net service. We anticipate that this will make for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
The Battle.net team."

Dec. 3, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
Attending:
    Members (15 visible): Amillo, Arothir, Bert, Earendil, Elendil, Elros, Gorbag, Gwindor, Maedhros, Melkor, Salmar, Thingol, Thranduil, Ulmo, Valacirca (Eru unable to enter. Varda not home.)
    Visitors (3): Godsdemand, Nooneelse, Magic_Plyr/TheGreatBoromir. The last became Dwalin-(V) after the meeting
Salmar sent the roll. Thanks!
top

Nov. 29, 2000
Letter from Murezor-(Valar), now Ghan-buri-ghan-(V):

heyas!
Indeed it has been quite some time since I was on bnet... the major reason
for this is that I'm getting really bored with BW. I play a lot of Diablo2,
this can't be played online from the netcafe I go to though, something to do
with patches I think... (got a 50 necro, corpse explosion rocks) :) Also,
I've become totally addicted to Everquest. heh did you think D2 was
time-consuming.......? :) So if you're ever on the Innoruuk server, look me
up, I go by the name of Savidhlin. As for my continued guild membership, I'm
not sure what to say... if I get my own connection, which I may actually do,
I'll start playing D2 on bnet... if not,I don't think I'll be on much :(
Another problem is that when I go on bnet from the cafe in BW suit, I can't
see or hear anyone in guild channel, so I've more or less given up on the
pure social visits.... As for my job as BW trainer, it's pretty clear that
it should be given to someone that actually spends time on bnet. How about I
change name to Ghan-buri-Ghan, the wose chief, and we'll give it some time
to see how things turn out? Name because noone else is likely to want it
with the bnet naming system and all, also he is kinda cool, eh? :) I'll try
to get on one of these days and say hello, bnet permitting.... Say hello to
the rest of the guild for me :)

Murezor...
errrr Ghan :)

Nov. 27, 2000
From Ulmo, Tourney Master:
First Tourney of our 4th year

Games:

Quest for 3 D2:  same rules as reg D

Race to Kill D2: start at River of Flames waypoint and race to kill Diablo, all other rules are the same as reg D

SC/BW (play either version but include version in reporting results):new map by Earendil and Bridges of Osgiliath can both be played, use end game results to report time.

Make up/recruit your own teams, all games require 3 to play.  Read Tourney page thoroughly for the game(s) you want to play, printing out the rules is a clever thing for forgetful people :) If you have questions, (only after reading tourney page  :)) feel free to ask Ulmo
or Aule for clarification.

At the conclusion of a successful game have one team member mail results to Ulmo .

The tourney runs from now until meeting time, 10 December, all results must be sent before the meeting.

Ulmo

Nov. 26, 2000
    Tourney starts today, right after the meeting, continuing two weeks until the meeting of Dec 10. For how to play, see the Tourney page.

Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, GMT-5
Attending:
    Members (16): Amillo, Aule, Elendil, Elros, Glaurung, Gwindor, Isildur, Maedhros, Makar, Orome, Salmar, Thingol/Singollo, Thranduil, Ulmo, Varda, William
    Visitors: 'Saruman' aka Beruthiel, magic_plyr, tolkien_addict (36898310), doomdrake666 (50329438), Doughboy18 (52709168), Thaisan, TheGreatBoromir, KingOfStorms,
Member Report:
    141 current full members
    Amillo was able to be with us and give the report!
Web:
    New page:  Diablo II Experiences - Advice, pet peeves and joys, your characters. Idea and first entries from Elros.
    Gaming pages that were on FlexNet are now on GeoCities. If you experience a bad link, please email Varda.
Gaming:
    Ulmo announced that the Tourney begins right after the meeting and will continue for two weeks until Dec 10. Make your own teams during that time and email Ulmo the results. Info on how to play is on the Tourney page to prevent having to send out 141 emails. New features for this time include the addition of Diablo II and the new StarCraft map by Earendil.
Tolkien:
    Salmar gave us two topics:
    1. What is Fangorn talking about in the LotR when he sings longingly about Tasarinian?
    2. In the history of Middle-earth, when did the entwives get lost from their husbands?

Nov. 20, 2000
    New link, good photos from the Lord of the Rings movie trailer, good links. Link sent by Keyser Soze.
Lord of the Rings and Other Things - photos from the Lord of the Rings movies, good links: by Keyser Soze/Dave
    Gaming pages are back on GeoCities, except the Tourney page.

Nov. 19, 2000
Letter from Amillo:

One solves a problem, another turns up somewhere else :/  4 days ago my cd-drive burned out but was replaced emidiatly, now today my schreen have
taken the long road, it simply will not work so i am on my ancient ( and i mean ancient :) 14 schreen but that can`t run D2. I am not sure why not but
that`s of small or no matter. Since D2 is the only game i have on the comp i am not able to be online until i have the shreen replaced which hopefully
will not take long. Right now i just wish the stores here had open on Sundays.

Amillo, who now have to labour hard with housework.

Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
    Bnet was truly abominable, so that people could only connect to the channel for frustratingly brief moments. My ISP wouldn't connect at all yesterday evening to anything, so I missed the fun although I tried for half an hour to reach the meeting.
    My special admiration goes to Ulmo for Herculean efforts, and thanks to Salmar for his info, and thanks for all who tried whether or not anyone will ever know about it.
    Everyone who doesn't have the Valar Guild Discussion Board yet needs to get it. We have a guild chat channel there that could serve us in such emergencies and it's already set up. Take a look at it from the link on the home page, first item under the Tolkien section.
    If you're not already on the Discussion Board, email me or another member who is in it to receive an invitation. Yahoo will send an email which includes a link to follow to register for the Discussion Board. Use your guild name with an underscore before the guild mark, as Yahoo can't handle a dash or parentheses. Now is good.
    Amillo's page reports 141 members.
Here's a report from Salmar on last night's meeting:

    We did not have a meeting yesterday:(
    After 40 minutes of frustrating efforts to keep the thing going, Ulmo had to throw in the towel.
    Characterization of the situation we had: abominable netsplit, never more than 10 member present, half of whom were constantly in and out the channel by evil b.net plots, some others not able to make themselves audible (readable :), time lags where answers to questions came after the initial question could not even been seen on the screen anymore (which made for hilarious misunderstandings).
    Tulkas suggested that if things are going to be this way with B.net, we could consider using an Internet Chat Channel for our meetings.
    I have observed (efforts at) presence by the following members:
Amroth, Aule, Denethor, Elendil, Elros, Eru, Isildur, Maglor, Makar, Melkor, Salmar, Thingol, Thranduil, Tulkas, Ulmo.
And these are only those who even succeded in getting connected - albeit some for a few seconds - for no doubt many never even came that far.
Greetings from Salmar.

...it is incredibly difficult for me to
make the Sunday meetings due to church services, in which I am the song
leader, and youth leader.  Also, Saturdays have been fairly busy too, so I
haven't been gaming or surfing much at all lately. Yes, I would like to
remain a member of the guild.  I would hate to lose yet another name.  I
will try to make a meeting as soon as I can!

Thrain

Nov. 14, 2000
    From the Blizzard page:
           The Hell Bovine has been added to the Secret Cow Level page
    Melkor is back in D2, bnet accepting him once again.
    Varda's D2 shows a splash screen, but when the Play button is hit, D2 disappears without even an error message. Still working on it.
    Letter from Tom:

For some reason my computer completely failed on me...
I have no idea why, but that is why I am using this
Yahoo! Mail at school. I hope to at least have my
computer running in a few days, and I will try to get
the internet working after that. My modem has always
been kind of messed up, I hope this didn't send it
over the edge. Would you please excuse me from
meetings, etc. Thanks.

Thanks,
Tom

BTW - I have updated my pages again, but I can't
upload them!

Nov. 12, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm (GMT-5)
Attending (including very late arrivals)(26): Aule, Amillo, Arothir, Barahir, Bullroarer, Durin, Earendil, Elros, Eru, Finduilas, Gelmir, Gildor, Gimli, Gwindor, Huan, Isildur, Mandos, Melkor, Orome, Osse, Thranduil, Tulkas, Tuvo, Ulmo, Valacirca, Varda
Visiting (2): .:wK:.Gandalf, TarotBuddy
(Thanks, Huan, for helping take roll.)
Membership: 139+3
    New members: Beregond, Arminas, Arothir. Arothir said a few words.
    Bilbo: has a new hard drive and D2 CD, hoping to make them work soon
Web:
    Guild pages on the FlexNet ISP have been having some problems, were running on a generator, and are occasionally down as repairs are being effected after storms.
    Blizzard pages have been troubled by hackers. An international team is working on the problem.
Gaming:
    Bnet has been troubled by hackers. The same team as is working on the page hackers is working on the bnet hackers. They could use your help if you actually know something.
    Tourney news: Ulmo was kept away by the evils of bnet, showing up very near the end of the meeting. Earendil's SC Tourney map is ready, and Elros has one that needs testing. Ulmo will be sending us an email with more information, probably after work Monday, which will be posted to this News page.
Valar/Council Test:
    Huan was tested for Vala honor and to join the Council, passing brilliantly. He chose the name Salmar. He said he did so in honor of Ulmo, who was his mentor, but said not to ask him to make any Ulumuri, and because he liked the idea of having Amillo for a brother, and because he likes being a harpist. In real life he long played classical guitar.
Tolkien:
    While the Council was giving Huan problems in another channel, Eru handled the Tolkien discussion for the brief time he could remain. Thanks Eru!

Nov. 11, 2000
    Welcome to our new members, Arminas and Arothir. Arminas tested yesterday and was name today, making him official. He was tested by Ulmo, an excellent 5/5! Makes his name even more appropriate.  He plays Diablo 1, WarCraft II, an IRC RPG, and hopes to have SC later. He found us through our web pages looking for D1 tips.
    Arothir joined today, 14 years old from Connecticut, USA, EST. He has played Diablo one; now plays Diablo II, StarCraft, and BroodWar. He also plays a fantasy online game called Dominion, if any of you want to play with him in that. He's read the H, LotR. He tested with Elros, Mandos, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda. He too found us through our web pages. He played D2 with guild members and a good time was had by all.

Nov. 9, 2000
    Diablo II: If you need to change your account password, use a different Blizzard game such as StarCraft, because D2 doesn't support password changes.
    Bilbo is still with us. He just got a new hard drive and D2 to install this weekend, hoping to make the meeting if it works. Good luck!

Nov. 9, 2000
Nov 4, 2000 Letter:

At our last meeting there was an unmistakable (and understandable) desire for further explanation concerning a Council decision to remove Grimbold-(V) from the guild. Fortunately, the decision to expel a member is one the Council rarely has to make and, it is important to stress, one that has never been made haphazardly or without objectively and thoroughly weighing the possibilities. When there are serious problems with a member it is a last resort to be used after warnings have been ignored and fundamental bounds have been over-stepped. It would not be fair to go into every detail concerning Grimbold’s exit here, nor is it needed to illustrate the necessity of this decision.

Grimbold:
For some time, the channel had been invaded by his brother, his brother’s bots and his brother’s friends all of whom were rude, hostile and would ban members at random whenever the gavel fell into their hands. Grimbold was not held accountable for this since it was clear to the Council that he had no control over his brother and he seemed to do his best to prevent the attacks. Though this has been the greatest security hazard the guild has ever had, it was agreed that Grimbold should not be punished simply for being related to the problem. However, when Grimbold himself started attracting similar hostile intruders – who on one occasion took over the channel to ban everyone in sight – and added some unacceptable behaviour to the bargain, the line had to be drawn. Not out of malice towards Grimbold as a person, but for the good of the Guild. Again, I will not describe the specifics since what we have to do is put this behind us, this statement is simply to elucidate matters, not to list accusations.

On a general note, I will say this:
The Valar Guild is based on a Code of Conduct (which applies to both games and channel) and a set of simple rules designed to ensure the friendly and courteous atmosphere which for 3 years has characterised the channel Valar and kept our games safe, legit and co-operative. Being a guild-member is about recognising the sort of environment we all want to spend our time in and meeting it with the same respect and good humour that you yourself meet. What it is NOT is using the channel as an outlet for your real life problems and aggressions, bringing in acquaintances who cannot follow the simple rules of courtesy, nor is it for venting any other form of abuse.
Cherish the Guild as the haven it is and do your part to keep it that way.

We have never been a guild of supervisors with some monitoring others, or high-ranking members acting like army sergeants, nor will we ever be. Ideally, it is expected of everyone to follow these guidelines by themselves. However, the founding values are not to be taken lightly for they are part of what distinguishes the Valar from hundreds of other B.net guilds and clans where careless management allows trash talk, bad manners and disrespect to flourish. (Generally, these last about six months and then fade away with nothing to be remembered by, but a bad name…) ?

This guild, however, was founded not only on a strong Theme of Tolkien, but also in the spirit of Tolkien.

Enthusiastic members who by long-term commitment and concern for the Guild and by demonstrating Tolkien-lore were promoted to the rank of Vala now form the Council of Mahanaxar. They share the management of the guild and lift the daily chores that go into running all the branches of the organisation.
Also, their role is to determine what’s best for the group, maintain what we’ve achieved, arrange and co-ordinate new ventures. Representing the guild’s best interests sometimes includes seeing to it that everything runs smoothly and that nothing threatens or disrupts our efforts. Most of this work goes on behind the stage, so to speak, unless some serious problem demands direct intervention. To some degree the Councillors have all helped build the Valar Guild and make it what it is today. Whatever path they may choose to walk and whatever decision they deem necessary, know that their efforts are, at all times, to keep the Guild steadily on the course that was outlined in the Vision.

The Council of Mahanaxar.

Nov. 7, 2000
    Hackers are attacking bnet and the Blizzard pages, so the troubles you are having may not be on your comp. Blizzard is taking measures against this, and tells about it here . Thank you to Huan for bringing this to our attention.
    Guild pages: pages that are up on the Flex.net isp have been running on their generator for power due to storms, and may be down at certain times while work is being done. If you are having trouble with accessing these pages, that may be the problem.

Nov. 6, 2000
    Welcome to Beregond, our newest member! He's a friend of Barahir's, 17, lives in Norway, read the H and LotR, and is currently reading the Sil. He passed a test by Orome and Amillo. Although English is his second language, he spells better than most.
    Letter from Amillo:

A day of grief and sorrow, an era has come to its end and lives only in our songs and tales.
Darkness creps upon my shoulder as i feel the the burden of mortality falling upon us; the successors
I will light a candle in my window that her soul may find its way and guide us the path we shall now tread alone

The Queenmother of Denmark has quitly past away this afternoon but it is good to know she have had a long life and was ready for her final task and
her family were with her as she fulfilled the ending quest of life.
I mourn for her family and kin but rejoice for her soul eternaly united with her predecessors.

Amillo

Nov. 5, 2000
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST (GMT -5)
Attending (during the first 15 minutes while Varda was able to take names) (21): Aule, Bullroarer, Durin, Elendil, Eru, Gimli, Gwindor, Halbarad, Huan, Irmo, Isildur, Maglor, Makar, Mandos, Melkor, Nori, Thranduil, Tom, Ulmo, Valacirca, Varda
Member Report: 138 members
Letter from Thorin :

        Greetings,
Sorry for my absence, I had a heart attack and was required to
undergo  quad bypass
surgery. I have been kept from all my toys and locked in hospitals for
almost 2 months due to complications (infection and influenza ) resulting
from the surgery. Coming back on line slowly but surely. Hope to get a comp
capable of playing D2 by christmas. I will be back!!!!   Thanks for your
concern and again sorry for the long absence.
                                                                        Thor
Thorin-V

Nov. 4, 2000
    Fingon left the guild.
    Feathalion is in the middle of job changes, but hopes to be active again in about a month.

Nov 3, 2000
    Sweep: We've had many people answering the sweep letter.
    People with comp probs:
        Barahir - 2kbs download speed allows meetings but not play. He expects to be able to play again when he comes home from Spain.
        Bilbo - hopes to have a new comp for Christmas.
        Finduilas - had comp probs, but trusts the new comp will let her play now
        Meriadoc - theft and low power comp parts causing probs. He's working on replacing things from his home and for the comp.
        Ugluk - hoping to have a comp
    People with real-life getting in the way, but wish to stay and hope things will lighten up soon:
        Eorl - moving, buying new house
        Haleth
        Meriadoc
        Turin/Agarwaen
    Others:
        Fladrif's and Smeagol's D1 CD died a gruesome death. They were disappointed in Diablo II's not changing any quests after beating the game in single player, but will still show up and be around more often on multi-player.

Letter from Ugluk:

    Enlen Sila Lumen Omentieluo
    Yea ... alas for now, I still wonder alone in the dark world (with
insufficient computing power) - repenting my sins. Ugluk's evil has been
great.  Though, I have seen a glimmer of hope from time to time  (I played
Diablo II - single player - on someone else's computer and have read LotR
again during the summer) I must continue my quest.  (I plan on aquiring a
new computer over the next several months and would like to remain on your
list for now if possible.)
    Oh...how I yearn to join agin with you in the great battle.
    (Hope you and your family have been well and please say hello to Tulkus for
me.)
    May your doom be other than mine and your treasure remain with you to the
end!
Ugluk - (V) (The Grey)

Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending (24): Aule/ValarBuddy, Barahir, Bullroarer, Earendil, Elendil, Elros/Tar, Elwing, Eru, Gildor, Gimli, Gorbag, Gwindor, Halbarad, Irmo, Maedhros, Morgoth, Olwe, Omar/Amillo, Quickbeam, Thror, Tom, Tulkas/Astaldo, Ulmo/Gulma (with gavel), Valacirca, Varda
Member News:
    Sweep: Emails are going out to people who have not been in contact for the last two months, during what is called a "sweep" of inactive members.
    Emails not working. Please email to update: Aragorn, Amrod, Celeborn, Pippin, Radagast
    Leaving due to real life interference: Aerin, Alatar, Eonwe, Finglas, Salmar
    Grimbold was removed by Council vote, and was told about the decision before the meeting by Ulmo and Amillo. This was for continued channel misbehavior, misbehavior by his brother and friends, and discourteous language, after much discussion by email among the Council members. More explanation forthcoming later as requested by the membership at this meeting.
Tolkien Discussion:
    Earendil-(V)'s topic: When the Nine Walkers were silently questioned by Galadriel, what do you think she offered each?
    Tangent discussion: Part of the future was set ahead of time and part was up to individuals, in Tolkien's universe.
    Tangent discussion: Difference in kinds of power in objects such as the One Ring and the Silmarils.

Oct. 26, 2000
    New: by Eru - article on Balrogs , with connected articles on Gothmog, the Balrog of Moria, and Lungorthin

Oct. 26, 2000
    New: " You know you're in Valar when... " from Eru-(Valar)  :)

Oct. 25, 2000
    Reminder: we try to keep the first Diablo II game as Normal diff for trading, transferring, new characters, and regular playing. It's not a kicking offense, but a compromise worked out at a meeting.
    Reminder: anyone holding the gavel is expected to behave responsibly with it. If you feel the temptation is too great to misbehave with it, please pass it on to another person, preferably a Vala or Maia.
    Reminder: have fun  :)

Oct. 24, 2000
    Balin left to join another guild. Have a good time in Moralltach.  :)

Oct. 22, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
Attending (28): Amillo, Aule, Beren, Bullroarer, Carcharoth, Durin, Earendil, Elrond, Elros, Eru, Gildor, Gorbag, Gwindor, Halbarad, Huan, Irmo, Luthien, Melkor, Orome, Quickbeam, Shagrat, Thingol, Thranduil, Tom, Tulkas, Ulmo, Valacirca, Varda
Member business: Amillo reports 146 members.
    Amarie left, tired of comps and gaming.
    No new members due to the halt, although we had 5 requests this week.
    Temp halt on recruiting. Most new members seem to now understand the concept of honor in all games as done in the guild now, but the recruiting method is now under discussion to prevent future problems. Hopefully this will be figured out shortly and we can go back to normal. Every member needs to continue to try to help the new members, not expect them to know everything the minute they enter the guild, also guide by example and patience.
    Melkor brought up a request for a guild mail if approved by the membership to ask Blizzard to remove the 15 minute loss of items in games, and the experience penalty in Nightmare and Hell difficulties in Diablo II. 5% in nm and 10% in hell is lost at each death even though usually due to lag. Others said the penalty was fair enough, and it was agreed that this was true on the newer computers. This request did not pass.
    Halbarad reported that he has handled a problem in the training of two new recruits. He is dissatisfied with the management of the problem, as is the Council, which  management is the reason for the recruiting halt. Thanks for the input, and more suggestions are needed from other members.
Web Report: not all was told in the meeting due to other business discussion, but here is the info:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        by Elros: "Bilbo Baggins, Loss of Innocence"
        by Huan: "Contingencies of Doom: Destiny vs Freedom of Choice in Middle-earth"
    Tom's pages are under reconstruction, although his map page is kindly still up for guild use.
    Discussion Board: no requests for posting were received by email.
Gaming Report:
    No one emailed Ulmo about having a Tourney. One member reported problems working on a SC map for the Tourney.
Tolkien Discussion:
    Why did Boromir became worse about the One Ring after Lorien?

Oct. 20, 2000
    New article for the guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia by Elros: Bilbo Baggins, Loss of Innocence . Bilbo as the archetype of the Initiate.

Oct. 19, 2000
    New article for the guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia by Huan: Contingencies of Doom: Destiny versus freedom of choice in Middle-earth . Excellent discussion.

Oct. 15, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
Attending (15): (Ulmo handled the gavel, Varda the meeting, trying new format.) Amillo/Omar, Carcharoth, Earendil/GilEstel, Eru, Gelmir, Grimbold, Halbarad, Huan/HoundoftheValar, Irmo/Dreamlord, Khamul, Thror, Melkor/Morgoth, Ulmo/Niequi, Valacirca, Varda
Member Report: by Omar
    147 members
    New member Carcharoth spoke a few words, saying he came because we had the only decent conversation on bnet.
    Beren has posted to the Discussion Board with his usual insight, so he's ok. (He's the old Tulkas from Argentina.) Welcome back!
    Aule's motherboard may be fried. He's coming in on his laptop sometimes, but that's why he can't get to his email or put VB up for now. He hopes it will be an inexpensive repair that can be done soon.
Web Report:
    Valar Guild histories: A very good insight into what the Valar Guild is all about is shown in the new article on Valar Guild Histories, by Huan. He tells what he found on public Diablo, then what he found in the guild.
    New short stories:
        "Repentance" by Valacirca
        "Wizard at Work" by Irmo
        "Dain's Last Stand at the Lonely Mountain" by Maglor
Discussion Board: several members need to email Varda for invitations to post to the Tolkien Discussion Board on Yahoo clubs. The current topic is the nature of Huan, whether or not he is a Maia. Is he only a wolfhound, perhaps bred by Orome? Topics change rapidly, and several may run at once.
Gaming Report:
    Diablo I Middle-earth mod: Khamul has found the One Ring! The bad guys win! (Cheer from Sauron.)
    Tourney: Ulmo the Tourney Master is still waiting for the promised SC or BW maps promised for the Tourney. Please ask for help if you need it, and let Ulmo know by email as soon as you're ready to test it, or catch him on bnet.
Guild Discussion: Members all had a chance to state what the guild was supposed to be about to them. Some comments were: freedom, Tolkien, courtesy, peace, no pk or pkk's or cheats or hacks, discussion, co-op games, Tolkien haven, family and friends on bnet, classiest spot on bnet, fun without disrespect.
Tolkien Discussion:
    Earendil-(V)'s topic: Did Frodo by the power of the Ring cause Gollum's demise? He used the quote from the chapter, "Mt. Doom" when Frodo told the traitorous Gollum, "Begone and trouble me no more! If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom." Right after Gollum bit off Frodo's finger, he fell into the Fire of Doom. If the Ring had caused it, it may not have realized Gollum held it, as it was still on Frodo's finger. Most members said that it was coincidental, no agreement reached.
    Grimbold-(V)'s topic: What races other than humans or elves kin-slayed? This discussion had difficulty as the term kin-slaying needed definition.

Oct. 12, 2000
    Halt!NEW RECRUITING IS TEMPORARILY HALTED, AS OF OCT 12, 2000. ONCE THE CURRENT NEW MEMBERS ARE TRAINED CORRECTLY OR REMOVED, WE CAN CONTINUE AGAIN.
    Recruiting is being stopped for an indefinite period of time. Members playing Diablo II, please remember to ask before picking up anything in town. These are not public games where theft of a stash item has to be accepted as the miserable way of life. We are supposed to be a haven from that sort of thing. A halt is being called to new recruiting until the current members are trained to understand how to play with the honor expected. If you have a problem with someone else picking up your items, gently remind them what the Valar guild is - a haven. Let's get all these new members trained, so that we can continue in peace. The moratorium is expected to be short.
    Cursing is for characters outside the guild. A person can curse into the air without typing it. If you have time to type it, it's not an accident and you could substitute another word less ugly.
    A quick way to understand the guild in general is to consider this place as being in polite society, using knightly behavior.
    Most of you already understand the concept of our haven, part of the reason you joined. Please help train and be good examples to the new members who are present and who will be coming in. Show sportsmanship.
    Recruiters, we used to chat with people a long time before considering giving an entry test. We are not hurting for members, don't rush it. If they want to join, they'll be back. If all they want is free items, you can be generous if you like, but you don't have to give them membership.

Oct. 11, 2000
    Tolkien Discussion Board: Anyone who would like an invitation or re-invitation to the Tolkien Discussion Board, please email Varda .

Oct. 10, 2000
    New story: " Dain's Last Stand at the Lonely Mountain " by Maglor-(V). Filling in the parts that Tolkien had to leave out, in this case, a lonely stand.

Oct. 9, 2000
    New stories :
        " Wizard at Work " by Irmo, written specially for the guild's third anniversary, well-received by the group when he told it during the meeting.  :)
        " Repentance " by Valacirca. Thanks to him to, for his present for the anniversary.
    Bullroarer's picture as MadDoc is on the page where he works at Warlocke's Lair painting figures for board games. Have a look at the page to see what he looks like and the neat stuff he does. Any fellow dungeon masters out there need some figures painted?

Oct. 8, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
Attending: 23
    Members (21): Amillo/Omar, Azaghal, Bullroarer, Dior, Durin, Elendil, Erkenbrand, Eru, Gandalf/Greyhame, Gildor, Grimbold, Gwindor, Halbarad, Huan, Irmo/Dreamlord, Luthien, Quickbeam, Tuvo/Gloaming, Maglor, Melkor, Valacirca, Varda
    Visitor (1): +Gothmog+ After the meeting, he joined the Valar Guild with a perfect score of 5/5! His new name is Carcharoth-(V), and he's already playing RedMaw-(V) as a variation.  :)  Welcome to the group! Carcharoth is 17, from Ohio, USA. He's read H, LotR, Sil, BoLT1, and working on BoLT2. He's been a long-time visitor, playing with many of the guild members outside and attended the whole meeting today (which not all full members do!). The test was given by Ulmo, Huan, and Varda.
Member Report: 146 members
    New: Gorbag
    Temporary absences: Tulkas will be at sea the next 3 weeks, hopefully able to connect on occasion.
        Barahir, who has moved to Spain, hopes to have the Internet sometime in November, maybe around the 15th.
        Menelvagor's CPU and DSL were lightning fried, but he should be able to take your emails again now for CounterStrike, at the new address of menel@earthlink.net
    Departing : Amarie. We will miss her. Dior reports that his sister is no longer in the guild, due to a
        disinterest in continued playing and numerous new real life friends. Enjoy life out there, Amarie!
        We prefer that a person leaving the guild send his or her own letter, so that we can be sure this is actually the case.
Web Report:
    Guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        New articles:
           Omar/Amillo by Amillo-(Valar)
           Earendil by Earendil-(V)
    Horadric Cube Recipe Page: nice collection of recipes now. More guild experiments are still needed.
    Tom's page: new article on Tom Bombadil's nature, Tom-(V)'s opinion
Gaming Report:
    Tourney: anyone interested in a Tourney please email Ulmo-(Valar) , Tourney master. New Tolkien BroodWar map needed; but please check with Ulmo first so that it can be set up for a Tourney, and check back with him again later for testing the map.
    Diablo II:
    Trading page: Amillo dropped the project due to apparent lack of guild interest.
    "Normal" game: popular suggestion to make the first D2 game Normal difficulty for transfers and trading, as well as Normal play. We can start doing this immediately.
    Picking up items in town: always ask before picking up items from the ground that aren't yours, as we don't have a set Town Square right now. Some people are dropping stash items and transfer items in very public areas such as by the Rogue campfire, so be careful. Also, be forgiving to us slobs with big feet who accidentally step on your stuff in public areas.
    Picking up items in Nightmare and Hell difficulty : during a battle, please wait until the fighting stops to pick up items, to prevent deaths of self or companions and losing both gold and experience.
Tolkien Discussion:
    Dreamlord told an original story about Irmo's checking out a disturbance in Lorien. This will be posted on the Story page. It is specially written for the guild's third anniversary which took place on Oct 4.
    Maglor's discussion question: what are the flying creatures the Nazgul rode after being unhorsed?
    Quickbeam's discussion question: please email me as it somehow was not written down in my notes. (Ducking flying tomatoes)
Oct. 7, 2000
Letter from Barahir:

Hi there.
Sorry I havent been online in a LONG time, but i moved to Spain in the
beginning of september, and the house we live in doesnt have a phone. To get
a phone we must first get a residencial number, takes a month, then we can
order a phone-line and that stuff, takes a month, and THEN we can get
internet. Hoppefully i will be online in the beginning of november, maybe
around 15th of november. I still want to be in the guild, and hope i can
despite that it takes a long time for me to be online.

Barahir

Oct. 6, 2000
Letter from Menelvagor:

  My cpu and DSL modem got fried in an electrical storm a month ago. Its taken
me forever to get everything working again. Any1 whos been asking about
Cstrike tell them Im really sorry and hope to have everything running
smoothly again in a few days.
  Ill catch ya later I have somethin like a 140 messages to go through talk to
ya later

Menelvagor
new email adress for now:  menel@earthlink.net

Oct. 5, 2000
    New: Earendil-(V) wrote an article on Earendil for the guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia, and a story about Gandalf called " Dark to Light " for the guild's Story page. Thanks!
    New: Tom wrote an article on Tom Bombadil for his personal encyclopedia, and redesigned his nav bar.

Oct. 4, 2000
    Happy Third Anniversary to all of us in the Valar Guild! Anyone who wants to attempt a Tourney game, like Quest for Three, in Diablo II, feel free and email me the scores. This would be unofficial for fun but the scores would still be posted. Anyone who likes please send an article for the Tolkien Encyclopedia, either on your own character or any interest in Tolkien.

Oct. 2, 2000
    New Encyc article: Omar/Amillo by Amillo-(Valar). Thanks for the Anniversary present, Amillo!

Oct. 1, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm (GMT- 5)
Attending: Members 23: Amillo/Omar, Aule, Azaghal, Bert, Earendil, Elendil, Elros/Tar, Eru, Grimbold, Gwindor, Halbarad, Huan, Imrahil, Irmo/Dreamlord, Quickbeam, Mandos, Melkor/Morgoth, Shagrat, Tulkas/Astaldo, Ulmo/Niequi, Valacirca, Varda, William
    Orome over Melkor's shoulder  :)  Look-ins over Varda's shoulder by Eowyn, Fingon, Sauron (as usual); Fangorn out of town. Possibly some others.
    Visitors 5: (sorry, did not write all of your names): Lady-of-Rage, N@il, Saruman_the_Old (old member), VerdenLeafGlow; everlon dropped by briefly for game
Member Report by Amillo: 146 members
    New:
      Gildor joined this morning, brother of Elros. He's 11, read the H and LotR. Perfect 5/5 score testing with Tulkas and Varda.
        Gorbag joined after the meeting last weekend.
    News:
        Tulkas will be missing for the next 4 weeks, missing 3 meetings, as he goes to sea again this Wednesday. He had lunch with the Attorney General, rep of the Queen, since the Prime Minister had to bow out. Tulkas is later than expected in leaving as his previous ship was T-boned by another, narrowly missing killing 50 people aboard. We are thankful they and especially Tulkas are okay. He is going out on another ship, which goes with our good wishes!
        Olwe is still with us, mostly playing CounterStrike, and says Hi to those on bnet.  :)
Web Report:
     New Guild Page!: Now requesting recipes for the Diablo 2 Horadric Cube Recipe   page, and links to others. Please email Shagrat-(V) if you wish to send recipes. Shagrat volunteered to do the page and got it up all during the Tolkien discussion in the meeting!
    Folklore & Mythology continues to add new articles, uploaded every few days. Amillo joined in with his Creation paper for Norse mythology.
    Requesting articles for the guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia for the Third Anniversary of the guild.
Gaming:
    Diablo 2: See the new Horadric Cube Recipe page under Web Report.
    CounterStrike: email Menelvagor for guild member practice and teaming against the public teams. If no response, email Varda .
Third Anniversary :
    The Valar Guild will be three years old Oct 4, 2000. To honor the event, a request was made for all members to contribute a few lines or articles or links to images for the guild's online Tolkien Encyclopedia. This could be on your own character, or anything you find interesting.
    Eru made the huge gift of renewing the www.valar.org domain name for two years.
    Shagrat volunteered when the request went out at the meeting, and made the Horadric Cube Recipe page as his gift. See Web Report for link.
Tolkien Discussion :
    Halbarad's topic: Did dwarves dwindle away the same as other groups, after the ascendency of man?
    Saruman_the_Old's topic: Why didn't Sauron see through the Nazgul that Frodo had the Ring? Frodo didn't wear it much. They did go after "Baggins" from Gollum's info, but thought the ring was headed for Gondor and Aragorn's use, not Mt. Orodruin for destruction.
    Irmo's or Amillo's topic: What really happened to Gandalf at Moria? Most said he lost his body, returned to Valinor, and was sent back to Middle-earth with greater power, white clothes, and white beard instead of grey, taking Saruman's place as top Istar, and more active as he replaced 4 the other four Istari who had gone in the wrong directions of action. A minority view had it that Gandalf did not lose his body, but came out of the fight with the balrog as a greater person from his own efforts, changed physically by the magical nature of the battle. A view later expressed by Earendil-(V) in a short story says that Gandalf's body remained but his spirit returned temporarily to Valinor, sent back to his body afterwards with the changes.
top

Sept. 29, 2000
    Gildor, who's been out due to computer problems, changed his name to Erkenbrand getting around some bnet difficulties and for personal preference.

Sept. 28, 2000
   Amillo now has a special paper up on the Folklore and Mythology page: Creation of the World and the Gods: Norse Mythology.

Sept. 26, 2000
    Going afk for extended times in the main channel: This used to be okay, but with the recent difficulty due to certain unpleasant interlopers, it is requested that this be done in a separate channel, as we are unable to ban the annoying person without the gavel. We should not have to use /squelch in our own private channel. For those of you unaware of this channel command usually required in public channels, mute the speech of an annoying person with /squelch nameofsquelchee or select the person by mouse and then hit the squelch button in Diablo II.

    Letter from Azaghâl:

Heya Varda and the Valar guild!

Maybe you noticed, but I haven't been on B.Net a lot for a couple of weeks, you see, school and homework are putting quite a
lot of presure on me, but prolly the most important reason: I am quite done with Diablo1, and when im on with d1, there usually
aint much d1 ppl on in the guild channel. And there is no way to get me back in the world of cheaters and PK's : the public
games :)
Of course this isn't a excuse for not showing up on Guild-meetings. But usually i find a empty room, because Bnet is having
splits again...... I promise to show up again when i can get my hands on DiabloII, and if the splits are getting a bit fixed :-/ this
doesn't mean i wont come pass by at certain times, but just aint that much anymore :-(
If ppl still want to contact me: talk to me over ICQ, or send me a mail to Azaghal@Belegost.CJB.net.
I hope you ppl understand it.....

Farewell!

Sept. 24, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (GMT-5)
Attending:
    Members: Amillo/Omar, Bullroarer, Dior, Earendil, Elros/Tar, Eru, Gwindor, Halbarad, Huan, Huor, Irmo/Dreamlord, Maedhros, Maeglin, Maglor, Nori, Quickbeam, Tom, Tulkas/Astaldo, Tuvo, Valacirca, Varda
    Visitors: FrostieOne, Everlon, Palurien. Frostie passed Tulkas' test, but did not have time to fully join with a new name and info from us, having to leave. Palurien is still in the process of reading LotR, also a welcome visitor meanwhile. Everlon dropped in to play with Quickbeam.
Member Report: Amillo reports that we now have 143 members. (FrostieOne once named will make 144).
    New this week: Helm Hammerhand
    Returning with a new name: Fuinor, once Khamul, friend of Cirdan's
    Temporary absences coming up:
        Tulkas will be going to sea tomorrow for four weeks, having lunch with the prime minister, then picking up buoys.
        Tuvo is moving to Los Angeles and taking classes, making his attendance special.
    Elwing did the reporting for this News story.
Web Report:
    Folklore & Mythology page link repaired on the main page, updates added
Gaming Report:
    Diablo II mod experimental work going on. A Tolkien's Middle-earth mod is being figured out. Caution to be sure to switch patches to switch between mod and regular at this point, and to not cross mod and regular players in a game which throws it out of synch and can cause morphing.
Tolkien Discussion:
    1. If Frodo had not been late, what would have happened?
    Halbarad-(V): easier, quicker trip to Rivendell
    Eru-(Valar): Nazgul may not have been there. Good reason for Frodo's trip over the Sea.
    Earendil: Saruman might have been at Rivendell.
    Tuvo: Hobbiton might not have been under watch.
    Maeglin: Questionable whether they would have met Aragorn.
    Eru: Aragorn was already looking for them. Having the party be late plants seeds of despair, later overcome.
    Tuvo: might've made it harder for them to meet Smeagol.
    Mentions of Valar string-pulling, free will, luck.
    2. Eru: Radagast could have been a good addition to the Fellowship.
    3. Irmo-(Valar) and Amillo-(Valar) may get to meet each other at a performance of the Tolkien Ensemble . http://www.tolkienensemble.dk/
The Ensemble performed in Priscilla Tolkien's living room (translates to the Queen's throne room to us). Their project is to set all of the Professor's poems to music. They were begun by a classical guitarist/composer who teamed with a second guitarist. They now include professional singers and musicians, with soloists for special characters. They have 2 CD's out at this time. More about them is on their page.
    4. Relative ages of hobbits and men. Some mentioned: Bilbo born in TA 2890, Gilraen born TA 2907, Aragorn, TA 2931.
    5. The upcoming Peter Jackson live movie and the older animated Bakshi movie were discussed.
    6. Halbarad-(V) may have been partly net split from the chair as our whispers did not seem to be reaching each other, but wanted to do a discussion on whether or not the dwarves declined as did the elves, hobbits, and ents. He has posted it on the Discussion Board, and we can also try to take it up next meeting. This gives us time to do some book-digging.  :)

Sept. 20, 2000
Diablo 2:
Letter from Fingolfin aka Khan, excerpt:

You should never play any mod
unless you know your fellow players use the very same version too. That was
a general rule in D1 and it is still valid in D2. The current mod might be
used by normal open chars since you can switch back and forth without much
morphing (the game is quite tricky so we couldn't avoid morphing totally)
but there should not be players with different versions of Diablo2 in the
same game (though it is possible in D2).

Sept. 18, 2000
    Diablo II mod players:
    Caution! The VK mod patch will affect your regular "Closed" characters, morphing their items and not necessarily in a good way. I do not recommend it as a guild game at this time, especially if you have a lot of people using the same computer, unless they all want to play the mod. Be sure to save the original patch mpq file from the game to swap out with the VK patch before you try this mod. Switching back to the original patch returns the character's items to normal. However, it looks good for a future Tolkien's Middle-earth mod!

Sept. 17, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending (22): Amillo, Aule, Bandobras, Bombur, Durin, Earendil, Elendil, Elros, Feanor (netsplit), Gelmir, Gimli, Gwindor, Halbarad, Luthien, Mandos, Thingol, Thror, Tulkas, Tuvo, Ulmo/Niequil, Valacirca, Varda
    Visitor but netsplit - Raptor139. Scouted by Dior, likes SC.
Member Report : Amillo reported membership now at 141
    New this week:
        Huor
        Rose Cotton, Orome's daughter
    Potential Maia? Gwindor is up for a Maia test in the future. Wishes to finish his current re-read of the LotR first.
Web Report:
    Tom Bombadil would like feedback on his new concept for a Valar web site.
    Tom's SC/BW map page link is now corrected on the guild web page.
    V&K page has added a new Diablo 2 page, just starting out.
    Domain News: Eru will continue the www.valar.org domain name for the next two years, having it go directly to the current home page. He has dropped some of the unused services to make the cost more nearly liveable, and is offering this as our Birthday present for the upcoming Third Anniversary.
    Trading Post by Amillo for guild members. Mainly for Diablo 2, but could also be other games. Amillo is setting this up, but needs input on how to make a good message board so that he is not flooded with email. The items for trade will be deleted about every 2 weeks to keep it current.
Third Anniversary :
    For the Valar Guild's Third Anniversary, we will have our domain name renewed by Eru, a Tourney by Ulmo, and possibly some Tolkien Riddle Games in the channel.
Gaming Report :
    Diablo 2:
        Trading with other Closed characters outside the guild is still allowed. Be careful not to swap between a mod character and a regular D2 character, as the items morph into something else. Open characters often hack, or take hacked items, so their trades are not to be trusted as legit.
        V&K have started experimenting with a D2 mod, and hope to have a Middle-earth mod out by the time everyone is bored with regular D2.
Tolkien Discussion :
    Tuvo-(V) kicked it off with a discussion on how the relationship between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien affected their writing.
    Tulkas-(Valar) started a discussion, which had to be dropped last meeting due to time, about why Huan spoke only three times in Middle-earth. Ulmo-(Valar) commented that Huan had to be wise enough to know when speaking was worthwhile. Valacirca-(Valar) said Huan joined the Noldor in exile in Middle-earth by choice. Another said Huan only needed to speak three times to help Beren and Luthien make the right choices, so that Earendil would exist and be set on the right path. Halbarad-(V) said, because he was a dog  :)  Huan was a Maia of the Valar, Orome, choosing the hound form as best to work with Orome the Hunter. He then entered Middle-earth with the Noldor to carry out his mission of helping Luthien and Beren. We slid off on a tangent about how dragons spoke and could enchant.
    Tulkas mentioned that he had a Maia honor test question for Gwindor but, since the test was postponed, would use something else. Several regular members asked him what it was to give them a clue to the type of questions they might face:
"Name two times Frodo volunteered to go blindfolded; describe and tell why." Answering this question kept the channel lively, and I was sorry to have to leave.  :)

Sept. 15, 2000
    Diablo II news:
    V&K have their first D2 mod out, with a new page for it:
http://www.vkmods.de/d2mod.html
    This is not an official guild game (yet), but looks as if it would be fun to try!

Sept. 14, 2000
Letter from Glaurung:

      I am swamped with homework, sports, and my newly adopted hobby of
paintball :). Well i may be on battle.net at intermitent times, but when i
get on it seems no1 is there to talk to so I just get off :(. I am on ICQ
again a lot so if ppl wanna talk to me i am on that, but if i am "not on",
tell em to msg me neways i am prolly invisible :). Well, I feel that
homework always comes first. Sorry again.
                                                     Glaurung

I have been working on a brand new design for my section of the web page
system. I just finished the concept site. I am not going to be able to make
it to any of the meetings for a little while because of Soaring lessons. I
am very sorry for this, but I would like you to announce it to the guild
that I am going to open this up for feedback on the style of the whole
design. I hope to fit it out with more and more stuff, and hopefully with
some feedback from the guild, I can make it better. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Tom

Sept. 13, 2000
    Domain name news. We definitely plan to try to keep it. Currently we are working on finding a way to get in line after Eru before certain others take it. Also, we are looking at some lower cost alternatives, but they require a third party to handle it and would most probably have ads.

Sept. 12, 2000
    Rose Cotton, welcome to the Valar Guild! Rose is an honorary member, daughter of Orome. She will be seen mostly in their family games, so rejoice if you are lucky enough to spot the young lady, and remember your courtliest manners, o knights of the Valar.  :)  She is also our 140th member!
    Huor, welcome to the Valar Guild too! Congratulations on the perfect 5/5 score on Menelvagor's test. Huor's visited as WitchKing(LotR), and plays CounterStrike with Menelvagor, as well as StarCraft. He's 16, from the USA in EST, and has read: LotR, Hobbit, Silmarillion, Unfinished tales, Tolkien reader, tolkien biography, and the inklings.
 

Sept. 10, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending (18):
    Members: Amillo, Aule, Earendil, Elendil, Elros, Eru, Grimbold, Gwindor, Halbarad, Huan, Irmo/Dreamlord, Luthien, Maeglin, Menelvagor, Scatha (late), Tulkas, Valacirca, Varda
    Visitor: WitchKing(LotR)
Members:
    Bombur is new this week. Welcome to the Valar Guild.
    Maeglin is the new guild name for ~gw~redstealth #39487767
    Maglor is buried under homework, but hopes to send some stories to us.
    Denethor's monitor is blown. He expects a new comp around Christmas time.
    Halbarad's baseball teams are in play-offs, so if he misses the next two meetings, that is good news.  :)
    Meriadoc is currently saving money for a new comp to play D2.
    PROBLEM: remember that any character operated with the -(V) or -(Valar) must be totally legit. No hacking, cheating, taking of questionable gifts. This includes all! This includes Diablo II Open characters, which are easily cheated. If you must try out the cheats in any game, don't do it with a guild name. Thanks.
Web:
    Amillo has moved the Members page and Annals of Arda to a new server. Please inform Varda if the guild links to his
        pages are not working correctly, as they are supposedly all updated.
    "You know you're in Valar when..." has additions from Elros and Imrahil.
    Eru is no longer able to afford to keep up the Domain name of www.valar.org. Council is currently looking at lower cost
        methods of using it when it comes up for renewal in October, and having a different person or persons handling it to
        take advantage of lower costs in other countries.
Gaming:
    CounterStrike:
        Menelvagor is continuing collecting guild members for CounterStrike games. Please email him for details.
    Diablo II:
        Aule says to help combat lag, update your computer's video and sound card drivers.
    WarCraft III:
        The latest build was displayed Sept. 2 in London, England at the European Consumer Trade Show 2000.
    Tourney:
        We had several requests for a Tourney, although no date is yet determined. Diablo II is not yet ready for Tourney play, although a possible game by Gothmog is now being tested. StarCraft and BroodWar are able to run in a Tourney (practice on old Tourney maps recommended), although new maps are under consideration. Regular Diablo is a possibility as well, with the established Tourney games (practice recommended). Some brave souls who might want to try the Diablo mods (VK and T) on the Australian server could also have a go at the Tourney games (practice highly recommended).
Tolkien Discussion:
    Huan: We somehow missed Tulkas's discussion on why Huan, the Hound of the Valar, was only allowed to speak three times. This could be in next week's discussion.
    Legolas: Legolas's hair color due to the history in the Silmarillion and Hobbit was guessed at, and whether he was present in Gondolin. The general conclusion was that he was blonde from his ancestry through Indis the Vanyar going through his father Thranduil. The Lost Tales II tell of Legolas Greenleaf's leading an expedition for Gondolin due to his special night-sight and his great knowledge of the forests and plains in the area. This was generally considered to be a different Legolas, possibly one the later Legolas was named for, and/or an earlier version of the character before Tolkien decided to make him part of the Fellowship.

Sept. 9, 2000
    Annals of Arda , by Amillo, has moved to a new server.

Sept. 8, 2000
    Members page, by Amillo, has moved to a new server. Please update your bookmarks.

Sept. 6. 2000
    New: "You know you're in Valar when... " from Elros.
    Letter from Denethor:

Hello there, just mailing you and all of Valar to say that the monitor on my
comp. has blown out, and I won't be able to get back on until the end of my
highschool semester ( I'm getting a nice comp at Christmas :) ). I know
you'll all be troubled by my absence, but I'm sure that you can make it
without me for awhile  :)

Farewell gentle Valar :)

P.S. If you're wondering what comp I'm using to mail you with, I'm in a
future shop, in a city not too far from my own humble town :)

P.P.S. I liked the new jokes page about the Valar and crew, hoping to add to
it :)

                                                        Denethor

    I am writing to tell you and all of Valar that I will not be online very
regularily anymore as I have to go back to school now and will most likely be
overloaded with homework.  Hopefully I will be able to get some stories done in
English class and I will be able to find the time to type them out and send
them in for all of you to read.

                      Until I have some free time,

                                     farewell to you all.

Sept. 5, 2000
    New additions to the " You know you're in Valar when... " page, from Imrahil.

Sept. 4, 2000
    Welcome, Bombur, to the Valar Guild! Bombur found us through the web site, and tested with Tom Bombadil. He has played Diablo and Diablo II. He's read the H, LotR, and Sil. Bombur is 16, from Seattle, Washington, USA, time zone PST. He first emailed Aug 31 and made it in Sept 4; persistence counts.  :)
    CounterStrike:
    Letter: Excerpt from Menelvagor - Info for those wanting to play CounterStrike with other guild members:

    CounterStrike is a MOD for HalfLife ive been playing since last
november. It doesn't come in demo form.
    Right now it is the number one online game being played outranking
ultima and everquest. It is a game where 10 terrorists fight 10
Counter-Terrorists. The game is still in beta stage and with each new update
new features are added. With the last update they introduced drivable
vehicles.
    Valve the makers of HalfLife are so impressed with the team thats
making the game that they are going to release it commercially for them.
    The game allows u to have any name you'd like the thing is that theres usualy
about 3000-4000 servers to play on so we'll have to select a few.
    The thing about Cstrike is that we'd like to get a team togther
because in order to win a game teamwork is required. In order for a team to
work well togther they need to get some practice with each other only about
a half hour is needed. I've had no wish to join any of the small clans out
there because they usually break up. In public games every1 kind of does
there own thing so its usually only luck determining which side wins or
there's an expert player on one team. Control isn't required in Cstrike just
a game plan and an understanding of the play style of evey1 else on the
team.

Letters from Shagrat-(V) about the Sept 2 letter:

Well anyhow, I play the alto-saxaphone and if you do go there, please don't
call me shagrat because everybody will be wondering who shagrat is, and people
in the crowd will think the cheerer is weird and my band. But my name is Aaron
Ragan.. If you're there we'll be in red .... jackets  and white hats. I
shouldn't be hard to find since there are only 3 male alto sax players.

hello again,

I just found out that we'll be leaving for colorado on tuesday, the 5th at
around 11pm (1am valar time).

And if anybody thinks they are coming to estes park, maybe you could email me (
aragan@esweeet.com ) telling me you're going to be there just so I expect
somebody when I get a tap on my shoulder.

Shag

Hello,

I won't be on AT ALL for the next week because I'm going to Estes Park,
Colorado for the Longspeak Scottish/Irish festival.

So if anybody lives there, I'm with the Spirit of Alberta marching band, or you
can just email me at aragan@esweeet.com

Happy gaming!

Shagrat

September 1, 2000
Blizzard Announces Expansion Set for Diablo II
Today Blizzard released plans for an expansion to their #1 selling game, Diablo II.
Players will be able to play any of the existing characters, along with two new
classes, as they pursue Baal -- the final Prime Evil -- through the Barbarian
Highlands. To read the press release, click here .

sorry if i have not responded lately, I have been cut off the net ( and telephones ) for the last week and just got back on temporaly on my old connection so thats why if i do not respond. While i have connection i will try to fix memberpage by what i have recieved of the huge amount of member-letters but no guaranty. I will just have to wait and see what happens.

Just to let someone know what is going on
Amillo

Aug. 30, 2000
Letter from BGN , which as a third party now handles Blizzard fan sites for Blizzard:

The fansite submission mentioned below has been accepted to the Fansites
Database.

TITLE:  The Valar Guild
URL:  http://www.flex.net/~layton2/guild/guild.html

You can access the database at http://www.blizzardgames.com/fansites/

Aug. 29, 2000
    New page! Gothmog had a great idea, and you can add to it: " You know you're in Valar when... "

Aug. 28, 2000
    Welcome to Gelmir, our new member. He's our old friend and visitior, Freebe. Congrats on a stunning 5/5 on the test! Ulmo and Elros (late at night for him) tested. Gelmir's 15, from Windsor, Georgia, USA. He read the Hobbit and LotR.
    Irmo will be heading for London Wednesday to enjoy the books and atmosphere, but hopes to be back in time for the meeting. Have a great time, Dreamlord!
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Quickbeam! He's the one listed below on Aug. 23 as #49185714.

Aug. 27, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
    Ulmo presided (Varda was at the beach with family and friends.)

Aug. 23, 2000
    Welcome to our new member, Oin.  :)  Oin is 12 from College Station, Texas, USA. He's read the Hobbit, LotR, and is working on the Silmarillion. He has a brother in the guild. Thank you, Elros, for testing.
    New Link section on General research. This could be of help in your homework or business research.
    August ~19, 2000 Ori joined. Ulmo tested. He made a perfect 5/5. He's read the H, LotR, and is reading the Sil. He's 12 from Texas, CST time zone. This may be the same person as above?
    Aug. 23, 2000 #49185714 joined, needs to pick a name. Thror scouted, Tulkas recruited. (Later became Quickbeam Aug 28, 00)
    Aug. 17, 2000 #39487767 joined, needs to pick a name. Imrahil scouted. (Later became Maeglin Sept 10, 2000)

Aug. 21, 2000
    New short story! Maglor-(V) wrote The Dungeon of Dol Guldur , a Tolkien moment that should have been.

Aug. 20, 2000
Letter from  Aule:

    For those of you having trouble being seen on b.net, here's a little
something that might brighten your day. It seems that not all of the
Gateways (USWest, USEast, Europe) can see each other most of the time.
This is a little program that you can download from Blizzard that will
allow you to manually select the Gateway that you log on with. Once I
selected USEast instead of USWest I was able to log on and see people
for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks :)  Hopefully the rest of you will
also experience such success with the program.

http://www.blizzard.com/support/diablo2/problems/gatesel.shtml

Aule

Aug. 16, 2000
Letter from Finrod:

Aiya Aule, Varda & all frinds at Valar-Guild !

Bad enough, you haven`t seen me online for a couple of weeks :-(( The
reason is, that I am studying (besides my full-time job) and have to
write my dissertation. This is a hard job after you`ve been at work for
10 hours and such.  But I think I will come to an end in a few days :-))
After finishing my dissertation (it`s about Online-Marketing) i will
have MUCH more time to spend...

Can you imagine, that I hardly played D2 yet?????

I hope to see you soon at our channel & farewell,

Finrod-(V).

Aug. 15, 2000
    New link to the Valley of Singing Gold on the Links page, Tolkien section.
Since it's hard to tell when a new link has been added, I'll try to mention them here.
    For those concerned about net split while chatting in the channel, try using our chat room in the Discussion Board. If you need an invitation to the Discussion Board, please email Varda .
    For those concerned about the bot and outsider that sometimes bans people from the primary channel, please understand that discourteous behavior with this person causes him to be worse. When treated with our usual courtesy, the original perpetrator shows the ability to feel shame and had unbanned everyone, until some overzealous members came into the channel and threw out our work by accident, so that he started banning again. Please remember the incredible power of courtesy and honor that has been the back bone of our strong guild for over two years. Each of you has proven that you have it, or you would not be members, and I am proud of you all.  :)  Even if others do not have it, we do, and we need to continue to "show our quality" even under great temptation. If it gets too bad, we have long had alternate channels. If you don't remember their names, ask, and please don't say them aloud in the presence of this person. As a hint, many of you were tested in one or another.

Aug. 13, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending (20): Amillo, Amroth, Aule, Azaghal, Denethor, Dior, Elros, Eru, Finwe, Gandalf/Olorin, Grimbold, Haleth, Huan, Irmo/Dreamlord, Maedhros, Melkor, Tuor, Ulmo/Linqil, Valacirca, Varda
Member Report: 134 members. Varda has been gone most of this week, but is back.
Web Report: no new info reported
Gaming: D2 still seems to be the main game and will probably continue. BroodWar is second. We still have members playing Diablo, Diablo Middle-earth mod, and WarCraft among others.
Channel for meetings: netsplit from D2 and annoying outsiders are becoming a problem in our meeting channel. We are now taking suggestions, many quite good so far, for alternate locations. Please email your suggestion to Ulmo or Varda , to be forwarded to the Council for email discussion.
Tolkien: Strong settings in Tolkien's books. Some are alive, such as the forest of Huorns around Helm's Deep and the ents in Fangorn Forest. Lothlorien seemed to be the favorite setting of the group. Mordor gave an entertaining discussion, especially with input from Melkor! Side discussion on ents, Tolkien's interest in hiking and pics of him with giant trees, and what it would be like to have walking trees that we could meet.

August 10, 1999
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Aerin! Elendil scouted. Aule tested

Aug. 6, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending (20): Aegnor, Amillo, Amroth, Aule, Azaghal, Barahir, Elendil, Elros, Glaurung, Gwindor, Halbarad, Imrahil, Irmo/Dreamlord, Luthien, Maedhros, Melkor, Tilion, Thror, Tuor, Varda
Member Report:
    Elros just had his 2 year anniversary in the guild!  :)
    SamWise will be going away to school during the week, but hopes to be able to join us on weekends.
Web Report: New pages added to Folklore & Mythology
Gaming:
    Diablo II has many cheats for Open characters, so please don't let your guild Open character accept items from outsiders in those games. You can still use your own outsider character for that, as it has nothing to do with the guild.
    We still don't know what that gem does in D2.  :)
Tolkien Discussion:
     1. Shelob vs Frodo and Sam. Shelob, last child of Ungoliant, had the magical powers of holding and  darkness. She also had the physical powers of insatiable hunger, poison, strength, speed, and powerful cobwebs. Gollum was her ally, preventing Sam from rescuing Frodo. The hobbits had their indomitable will, the Phial of Galadriel through which the Valar, Varda, Earendil, or at least Galadriel may have operated, and a Numenorean sword which could cut the cobwebs, as well as greater intelligence.
    2. Imrahil-(V) asked where the Ent wives went and if they were still present. No consensus was reached.
    3. Tolkien - had much left he could and would have written about.

Aug. 5, 2000
Letter from SamWise:

I sadly i must announce that i can't be online as much anymore since i am going away to a school where i only will be home in some weekends. Also i have changed my email adress to: SamwiseV@hotmail.com

Namarië all
Samwise Gamgee

July 30, 2000
Interesting and educational letter from Thranduil:

Heyas

Uh-huh :) Summer cottage is not a summer college. Finnish people have usually
two apartments. One for summer holidays etc and another for non-holiday
periods.

Before I went to summer cottage, I really was in summer college :)

-Thranduil

July 29, 2000
    Look out US East Diablo II servers! Blizzard will be trying to increase bandwidth, server capacity this coming week. Expect lots of "Server Down" time.

July 26, 2000
Letter excerpt from Huan:

Aiya Varda and Valar Guild:)
This to let you know that I will be on vacation starting today until
augustus 12th. My wife, son and I will be in the tranquility of the German
mountains, where I will probably suffer some symptoms of afk abstention:)

Greetings and happy meetings and lots of fun chasing the D2 baddies:)
Huan.

Hey,
It's me Olwe, sorry i havent been on in a LONG time...but it really wasnt my
fault, i  got a new computer a few weeks ago and the next day i went on
vacation....when i got back my Dad hooked up the internet again, but it went
all haywire and i couldnt access hardly anything...
i plan to be on more often now, as i gt the internet fixed

  Well, we are back within range of land after a particuarily grueling
month at sea.  I am looking forward to getting home and getting started on D
ll .  I get home next Wed night and plan to have D ll purchased and loaded
by 10 am on Thursday.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  This month was not
wasted howver as I used the chance to reread the LOTR and Sil, concentrating
on all the little facts for the purposes of Quizzing, tests, and discussions
in the near future.

July 22, 2000
    Ingwe says Hi! He's having trouble loading Diablo II, but hopes to be with us soon in the new game.

July 20, 2000
    Diablo II news: Blizzard's Battle.net has a Diablo II guide site up, the Chaos Sanctuary , which they intend to keep updated. It looks as if they've noticed all those fan sites out there!Buttons are: News, Basics, Classes, Skills, Items, Monsters, NPC's, Quests, Shrines, Maps, FAQ, Files, Blizzard, Credits. The Exit button takes you to the Battle.net Strategy page. Good move, Blizzard! The Strategy page goes to similar places like the Chaos Sanctuary for StarCraft and WarCraftII, but Diablo goes to Jarulf's page. Way to go, Jarulf!

July 19, 2000
    New short story by Gwindor-(V), " Journeys ".

July 17, 2000
   Mac users! According to Blizzard, Mac versions of Diablo II are shipping to retailers this week.
    Bilbo has been having ISP problems and hopes to return to us shortly when that clears up.
    Boromir discovered that his comp problem is a virus, and hopes to have it doctored away soon.

July 16, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Attending (through netsplit!): Amillo, Denethor, Dior, Eru, Finwe, Gimli, Gwindor, Huan, Imrahil, Irmo/Dreamlord,
    Maedhros, Thingol, Tilion, Ulmo, Varda; (Saruman dropped in after the meeting, Gimli's brother)
   Visiting: Freebe, Melkor{LOTR}
Member Report: Could not hear Amillo, but he shows 133 members on the Members page
    Boromir hopes he has settled his comp problems and will be back with us on bnet.
    Feanor once again has internet access and a new email.
    Tuvo is going to UCLA, using a new email to keep in touch during his travels.
    Some members have not been seen lately and need to get in touch with Varda to keep their names. Earendil and Faramir,
        people are asking for your names.
Web Report:
    Biography Page: New bios for Amarie, Imrahil, and Shagrat!
    Names page: many new elf names have been added by the joint efforts of Huan and Tilion
    Elf page in the Encyclopedia: many new descriptions have been added by Huan and Tilion. A new article on the naming of elves by Tilion is new as well.
    Maedhros and Shagrat want to make a new front page for the guild. Their works in progress are at:
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/valar/
http://www.b5_sitn.homestead.com/files/valar.gif
    Old front page:
http://www.flex.net/~layton2/guild/guild.html
    Your comments are welcome, since this is your guild's page. Please send the comment to all three: Maedhros , Shagrat , and Varda .
Gaming Report:
    Problems the guild is reporting with Diablo II include worse lag since the patch, and the continuing much worse problem of going into a private guild game but showing up in someone else's private game. Of course finding server room is always a problem as well. But due to persistence, we have some characters attaining high levels.
Troublemaker Report: by Ulmo
    Please ban this annoying interloper bot on sight since, among other things, it uses auto ban on members when it gains the gavel: Tarotbuddy, Avontor(Tarot), Penatrador.
Tolkien: lively discussion  :)
    Quick poll of favorite LotR characters:
        Sam, Earendil, Legolas/Gandalf/Aragorn, Faramir
    Most characters seem to come from noble or prominent families except Sam.
    Did Gandalf really die? Death in Tolkien is even harder to define than in real life. Some called it death and some said not; no definite agreement.
    Morgoth's ability to create and what happened to it.
    What wasn't revealed in the Music of the Themes.
    Pride in Tolkien.

July 15, 2000
    Good luck to Tuvo! He's heading out to UCLA. He has a new email to keep in touch during all this zipping about, so check out the Members page and remember to keep yours updated too!

July 14, 2000
    New Encyclopedia descriptions, too numerous to list here, by Huan-(Valar) and Tilion-(Valar) are on the page of Elves . An article on Naming Elves is also by Tilion, same page. This is definitely a record number of new items (42, plus quite a few overlapping) for the Encyclopedia for one week, for one day, and for one page.
    This has also expanded the choices on the Names page, the main reason for this project. If you're an elf, you may have an extra character name now. More thanks to Huan and Tilion!

July 13, 2000
Letter from Elros:

Heya Heya Heya,

Elros here.  Sorry I haven't been around much lately (vacations, laziness,
tired of Starcraft).  Anyway,  for all you Macintosh fans Diablo II is out
for Mac.  This is the fastest that Blizzard has ever made the switch (took
'em long enough to figure out how),  Well, I'll try to get back on more when
I get Diablo II.   Milk?

Sincerely,
Elros Tar-Minyatur

July 11, 2000
    New Encyclopedia article: " Aragorn ", by Maglor-(V), telling his life.

July 10, 2000
    New Encyclopedia article: " Glorfindel ", by Maglor-(V), addressing the problem of the two Glorfindels.

July 9, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Attending (24): Amillo, Aule, Azaghal, Balin, Barahir, Eru, Finarfin, Gildor, Glaurung, Grimbold, Gwindor, Huan, Imrahil, Irmo/Dreamlord, Khug, Murezor, Saruman, Thingol, Thrain, Thror, Tilion, Tuor, Ulmo, Valacirca, Varda
Visiting (2): LordRatha (ex-Anarion), aaronk11787 (joined after the meeting as Aegnor)
Member Report by Amillo:
    We number 131 with new members this week Halbarad and Tuor.
    Thranduil will be absent for a month for schooling.
    Thrain is the new name of our old Thror who was moving and lost his name to the new Thror. Remember to try to tell
        someone if you know you will have a long absence gentlefolk! Especially if you have a popular name.
Web Report:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Paper about Imrahil on the page of Men
          Azaghal's Tolkien Site is up!
Gaming:
    Diablo II:
          Questions and answers about playing Diablo II.
          Diablo II gives a character a title instead of a dot after killing Diablo, according to the character. Thus Aule found
            himself with Dame Aule. Brace yourselves.
Tolkien:
    The choice of Luthien and Arwen to become mortal for love of a human man did not extend to Mithrellas who apparently did not love the Dunadan who harbored her as a refugee, took her to wife, and with whom she had two children. For she slipped away from him one night and never returned. But her blood still shows in their descendents in the people of Dol Amroth.
    Grimbold came up with many questions. Eru was one of those who could hear him on his side of the netsplit, fascinating others of us with his great answers to which we quietly tried to figure out the questions. One concerned the lack of Elf/Dwarf marriages.
    One of those interesting comments was that Alatar as a Maia of Orome would be unchallenged in the wild. Pallando as a  Maia of Namo would be quite disconcerting because of his link with death.
New Member:
    After the meeting, aaronk11787 became Aegnor-(V) with a perfect score of 5/5! Huan, Tilion, Valacirca, and Varda tested. He hopes to be on bnet more often since he is in the guild, and likes to play StarCraft. He's 13 from New York in the USA, and has read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion, and most of Lost Tales.

July 6, 2000
    Thrain is the new name of our old Thror (the one recruited by Manwe), who has been going through a lot of moving lately, losing contact with the guild. He is currently attempting to figure out Aule's special mod set up and could most likely use some help!
    Arwen has been spoken with on ICQ by Denethor! Hopefully our real-life soldier lady will be able to return to guild activity soon.
    Letter from Thranduil:

Heya!
I'd like to let you know that I'm away from bnet and internet about one month because I'm going to summer
cottage.

-Thranduil.

July 2, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Attending: badly netsplit
Member Report:
    Tuor joined us after the meeting, contributing first to the Tolkien discussion, tested by Valacirca and Varda through drops and separations from netsplit. Welcome to the madness! He's 24, from Oregon in the USA.
Web Report:
    Nothing new.
Gaming:
    Quite a few members are coming in on Diablo II now. We had members in the meeting in WarCraft, Diablo I, Diablo II, and StarCraft/BroodWar.
Tolkien:
    Lots of great discussion even with the ghastly netsplit.

June 25, 2000
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST
Attending: Aule, Amillo, Azaghal, Barahir, Denethor, Ereinion (late), Eru, Finwe, Glaurung, Gwindor, Irmo/Dreamlord, Maglos (late), Mandos, Melkor, Olwe, Samwise, Thror, Valacirca, Varda. Due to an evil netsplit, we had some difficulty talking and not everyone's name may be on here.
Member Report, by Amillo:
    Dior is our new member this week, Amarie's brother
    131 members currently
Web Report:
    Story page:
       "The Light of Hope", by Gwindor
        "The Unknown Noldo", by Valacirca
    Encyclopedia:
        "Trolls" updated
Gaming: (I apologize for not having noted down the names of the members who contributed to this section. Let me know if you are the one, or remember for sure who it was.
    Diablo II comes out this week. A member reported they were already on shelves in Florida.
    Kahn: Fingolfin aka Khan suggests using the Kahn program to let us continue using the Tolkien mod for regular Diablo.
    Tolkien MUSH's, MUD's, etc were discussed, several members are playing them.
        The MUD Connector page lists many MUD's. Try putting "Tolkien" in the search engine to find
            Tolkien-based ones, a number too long to list here!
        One member says he plays in Angband .
Tolkien:
    Irmo gave a highlight sparking lively discussion, quoting Gandalf's consolation to Bilbo that he was meant to have the One Ring at the time he did. The One Ring had been trying to return to its master, leaving those it used in bad straits such as Isildur from whom it slipped when he needed to hide from orcs, Deagol who was murdered, and Gollum inside a mountain full of orcs. It slipped from Gollum, but another Power, not of Sauron, guided Bilbo's hand blind in the dark. The Valar were at work.
    Valacirca quoted from the Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power & the Third Age". It tells the actual names of two of the Ringwraiths: Herumor and Fuinor. They rose in power to become lords of the Haradrim. Lively discussion followed, from those of us still in the channel by this time. Quotes flew thick and fast.  :)  As Irmo says, Valacirca is lethal with a copy of the Sil in his hands!

June 23, 2000
    Letter from Khan aka Fingolfin:

Hi, it has been a long time since we talked but there are some things I'd
like to share with the guild.
There is a finnish band called "Nightwish" and in their songtexts of the
song "Wishmaster" are two words (or lines) which are quite strange:
"Elbereth" and "Lorien" - The way it she sings it is very fitting in my
opinion (although you may not like the music, perhaps:)

It is rather unlikely (not impossible) that the mods will be converted to
1.08 so I strongly recommend the use of Kali(one time 20$ fee) or Kahn
(free) or the FSGS servers to play the mods. Varaya explained this on the
forum of the Lurker Lounge (www.lurkerlounge.com). With these programs you
can still play any mods over the internet.

I ordered D2 today - oh there will be a happy day soon :)

    Heat.net offers Diablo II cheaper at $44.95 than Blizzard does. Note, there is a button near the top left to reach Heat Europe.

June 22, 2000
    Blizzard's pre-order page for Diablo II is up.
    Astronomers at NASA say that the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor's pictures show possible evidence of water seeping out from underground on Mars where craters have delved. Scroll down the page for the Article .

June 21, 2000
    A Folklore & Mythology page is now up, by Varda aka Ferncurl, if you happen to be an enthusiast who wishes to read or contribute. Tolkien mythology will be included via a link to the guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia.

June 20, 2000
    Encyc: small update on Trolls .
    Channel security comment: whenever a stranger enters our channel, especially a potential trouble-maker, it is a good idea to pass the gavel to a higher "ranking" member if possible, especially a Council member. Let that person get into trouble instead of you, as he or she may have more experience in how to handle it.

June 18, 2000
    Happy Father's Day, to all the father's in the guild!   :)
    Welcome Dior-(V), to the Valar Guild! He's Amarie's 15 year old brother from Missouri, read H, LotR, Sil, UT, and is working on Lost Tales. He likes BroodWar games. He joined after the meeting, tested by Varda with a 5/5.
    New short stories:
        The Light of Hope , by Gwindor-(V)
        The Unknown Noldor , by Valacirca-(Valar)

Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Attending: Amillo, Aule/Mahal, Azaghal, Balin, Barahir, Bilbo, Elendil, Galadriel, Gwindor, Huan, Maglor, Makar, SamWise, Tulkas/Astaldo, Ulmo, Valacirca, Varda
    Visitors: Freebe (invited by Azaghal), [DoW]ElvenArrow (wanted entry test and became Dior-(V))
Member Report by Amillo
    New member: Amrod
    Shagrat has tests, should be back at the end of school
    Tuvo graduated Senior High School!
Web Report:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        "Maglor" by Maglor-(V)
        "Choice of the Half-Elven" by Valacirca
    Tolkien-themed Story Page:
        Eru sent in "Saruman", "The Valar"
        Gwindor sent in "Memories", "The Wonder of It", "A Moment of Doubt". He emailed another which has not yet been
            put up; watch for it.
        Valacirca sent in "Busted"
Gaming Report:
    Aule gave a report on the greatest blow to the Valar Guild ever: the Tolkien mod for Diablo does not work with the new 1.08 patch set up by Blizzard. The game can still be played in single player, LAN, or modem. Aule plans to put up the 1.07 patch in his Files page so that you may repair your game if it has been damaged by Blizzard.
    Suggestions made: try Heat.net instead of b.net, since it is also free. It has one chat channel per type of game, so we could meet in heat.net's Diablo channel to play our own guild games with our own passwords. It is not as high a quality as b.net, but may allow us to keep our mod play.
    V&K should be sent real monetary appreciation for having kept us happily playing Diablo in any form long after we would have quit. Their special, challenging Tolkien mod was especially brilliant and became our number one official game. $5 apiece might give them some idea of our feelings. They have never asked for anything; this is strictly our idea. It is planned to ask them their feelings on the matter on their message board. We are also asking them to do something incredibly difficult, by repairing the masses of things they would have to work on to use Diablo on the 1.08 patch. And then all that work could be wiped out in seconds by another patch. Also, they will be using Diablo 2 rather than Diablo, so they could gain no personal benefit. Quite a few of us who are unable to go to D2 would be the beneficiaries.
    An interview with Diablo 2 developer Peter Hu which touches on mods can be seen at the Lurker Lounge .
    Other games actually encourage mods, so it seems strange that Diablo is so discouraging. Many of us would have quit using our Diablo CD's long ago without V&K.
Tolkien:
    We listed fathers from the Tolkien books, with some comments.

June 16, 2000
   New Encyclopedia article: " Choice of the Half-Elven ", by Valacirca-(Valar)
    New short story:  " A Moment of Doubt ", by Gwindor-(V)

June 15, 2000
Letter from Tuvo, excerpt:

    Hey! i just graduated from highschool, woowoo!!

take car,
tuvo

    Well I have some bad news that I hope is only temporary. Blizzard
released a new patch for Diablo today (1.08) and the ME mod is no longer
playable on B.net. The minute you try to log on it will auto update you
from 1.07 to 1.08. The programs we use to activate the mod only work
with 1.07 so updating renders them useless. Khan already knows about
this but even if they can make their mod work with 1.08, an independent
still needs to update a program to run the dat file.

    So if you want to continue to be able to play the ME mod at all,
don't log onto b.net with Diablo :)  at least then you can still play
multi player modem games by yourself.

    Aule

June 12, 2000
    *New Encyc article for the Elves section:
        "Maglor" , by Maglor-(V).
    *New for the Story page:
      Changed title and link name, since any length story may be included
        "Saruman" , by Eru-(Valar)
        "The Valar" , by Eru-(Valar)
    *Guild page links are now in bold, as per meeting suggestion. Please note that our actual main page address is
http://www.flex.net/~layton2/guild/guild.html
The www.valar.org domain name is a quick way in, but has a frame trap problem and is not the official main page.
    *Congratulations to Murezor! He too has been added to the Blizzard's list of official stress testers for Diablo II!
    *Letter from Shagrat:

So I (and blackhawk00) won't beable to come on b.net in the near future
because of low internet hours (blackhawk) and exams for me...
We'll be on after school ends :)
and my page will be on soon :)

Shagrat-(V)

June 10, 2000
    New page: Tolkien-themed Stories . Webwork by Varda. Take a look, then send in your story! Today's story: Varda's "Staying Sharp

June 9, 2000
    Busy day and, as Ulmo calls it, knowledgeable recruit week! And a lot of them. Five this week already. One member asked us this week how we're going to be able to grow (as if we need to!). Guess this is how, good buddy.  :)
    New Encyc article: "Further notes on Nienna " by Gwindor-(V). This article has background on how she changed in Tolkien's writings into a character which this article helped me appreciate more.
    Rejoice for Denethor! He has been chosen to be a Diablo 2 Stress tester in this last wave!  :)  Aule is also a tester, in case I left him out. New list for this month is planned.
    Barahir, welcome to the Valar Guild! Now how did a name that good go this long without being taken. Way to go, Barahir! Gentle folk, he had a level 49 M-e character! He's been playing with Aule and other guild members for a while and, even with that warning, decided to join us. He also has StarCraft so look out. Tested by Irmo with an impressive 5/5 score, he's 17 from Norway. He's read the H and LotR in Norwegian and English, expecting his copy of the Sil to arrive tomorrow. He's on bnet about 3 hours daily, so look for him! Favorite LotR character is Sam.
    Khamul, welcome to the Valar Guild, even if you are a fiendish ringwraith! Sauron is tickled to see you, and hopes you will help him find that One Ring. He's glad to hear you already have the Tolkien mod working. Referred to us by Aule, Khamul made 5/5 when tested by Ulmo! He's 16 from the USA in EST (don't know which state, sorry). He read the H and LotR. Favorite LotR character is Gollum.
    Maglor, welcome to this crazy Valar Guild! You'll have to say hi to Maedhros  :)  Maglor's 16 and found us surfing for Tolkien poetry. He emailed Varda, and made a 5/5 when tested by Ulmo! This testing was unusual as Ulmo found a way to do it two at a time. Khamul and Maglor tested together. Favorite LotR character is Glorfindel.

June 8, 2000
Maedhros, welcome to the Valar Guild! He's 14, from Canada, and had a perfect score of 5/5 with lots of extras! He is interested in web work and comes onto bnet daily. Tulkas scouted, Varda tested. Favorite LotR character is Faramir.

June 7, 2000
Excerpt from a letter from Blizzard Entertainment to the stress testers:

Diablo II has gone gold and the master CDs have been released to manufacturing.  We expect the game to begin shipping to stores worldwide as early as the end of June.

Even though the game has gone gold, the stress test will continue throughout the next couple of weeks.  The optimization of servers is completely independent from the game going gold, so you will continue to see network improvement up until launch. We also will be sending out access keys to European and Asian gamers shortly, so we can fully test those local servers prior to the game hitting stores as well.

Blizzard Entertainment

June 5, 2000
Shagrat, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Ilmare tested. Shagrat is 14, from Alberta, Canada, and read the H and LotR.
Thror, sorry, we seem to have two of you due to an error on the Names page.

June 4, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Attending: (23) Aule/Mahal, Azaghal, Bilbo, Denethor, Elendil, Eru, Finrod, Finwe, Fram, Gwindor, Huan, Ilmare, Irmo/Dreamer, Namo/Mandos, Olwe, Omar/Amillo, SamWise, Scatha with Makar over the shoulder, Thror (new), Tom, Ulmo/Gulma, Valacirca, Varda
Member Report - by Amillo: Thror makes 124 members
    New members: Galdor and Thror
    Thror said a few words  :)
    Finduilas is back from computer problems
    Tuvo is trying to cut back on Diablo, but can sometimes be found in StarCraft
Web Report:
    Thranduil's Uniques of Middle-earth gaming page is updated
    Tilion's Salute to JRRT is back on the home page
    Tom Bombadil is moving to a new server, links from the guild are updated
Tolkien:
    Thror wanted more education on his character. Many people happily contributed. Then the discussion turned to Sauron, who had captured Thrain II and taken his ring, although the dwarf king managed to save back the map and key to Erebor for Gandalf. Gandalf had to have had plenty of adventure going in and out of Dol Guldur! Eru suggested that Sauron became the embodiment of his single desire, ever searching, consumed, and became the Eye or at least used it as a symbol therefore. From there the discussion went to Melkor, Sauron's chosen Vala, and how evil came to be, with side discussion on Maiar choosing a particular Vala with similar interests.
    Next meeting we may discuss Earendil, how he provided a turning point in the history of Arda.

June 3, 2000
Galdor, welcome to the Valar Guild! Ulmo tested. Galdor read the H, LotR, and his favorite character is Tom Bombadil.
Thror, you are welcome to the Guild too!

June 2, 2000
Page update: Thranduil's Uniques page is updated. Items are by type, qlvl, and price. Bad qualities are in red. Checklist includes qlvl # and is sorted the same way.

June 1, 2000
Guild home page: now using Tolkien picture backgrounds. If this is a problem, please contact Varda. Pictures will change.
top

May 28, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Aule presided and sent a report for the News, as Varda (at out-of-town wedding/reunion) and Ulmo were unavailable during the Memorial Day weekend. Thank you, Aule!
Attendance: Elwe, Taglos, Azaghal, Irmo, Huan, Elwing, Valacirca, Elendil  late Grimbold, Gandalf, Gwindor, Morgoth
    (Amillo, Haleth, Falathar came in after the chat, had been in a long SC game)
Membership Report:
    No new Members
Encyclopedia:
    One new article on Nienna by Gwindor
    Encyclopedia now in Frames or No Frames
Gaming:
    New Middle-earth mod for 5/28
    There are about 10 members so far that are in the D2 stress test of players nerves :)
Tolkien:
Moment by Huan:
    ...thunder echoed between sea and cloud. Then men grew afraid. "Behold the eagles of the Lords of the West."  they cried. "The eagles of Manwe are come upon Numenor!" And they fell on their faces. Then some few would repent for a season, ...
but others hardened their hearts, saying: The lords of the west have plotted against us!" They strike first. The next blow will be ours.
    These words the king himself spoke. But they were devised by Sauron.

Discussion ensued about why Manwe called on Eru to punish Ar-Pharazon instead of the Valar doing it themselves and why was Earendil permitted to enter Aman where Ar-Pharazon wasn't permitted.

Theory: Valacirca (was Aragorn) had a very good theory on the waning of the Power of the Kings of Numenor:
    well, there are periods in the kingdoms when the Kings take their names in the Quenya tongue... these times are usually accompanied by great success etc..
    and then they begin to take their name in Adunaic, their life span wanes, trouble broods on their borders etc...
ex.:
    while Numenor was ruled by Kings who took their names in the Elven tongue, they were mighty but not fearful of death and were noble..
then Ar-Pharazon attacks Valinor,
end of evil times and beginning of good time in ME
while they did not necessarily turn from the Valar, the lines began to turn back to Adunaic for their names... bad times followed.. in the North the Kingdom fell...
(Aragorn is an Adunaic name :})
and on and on till we get to Elessar, and we see his name in the Quenya language again..

May 25, 2000
New Encyclopedia article: Nienna by Gwindor-(V) on the page of Powers.

May 24, 2000
Diablo II stress test. Downloading has begun. If you are one of the lucky souls in the stress test, please email Varda to put it on the News page. This lets your friends know why the earth seems to have suddenly swallowed you up. It's not that Aule is peeved, but good news. Please do not shoot these testers on sight. The demo can be run only on bnet, is the barbarian character, and includes part of the first act.
    Guild Diablo II stress testers known so far (added to as I hear)!:
        Elrohir
        Eomer
        Fingolfin
        Gildor
        Ilmare
        Makar
        Menelvagor
        Sauron (how stressful can you get?)
        Scatha
        Varda
    First stress report is in the downloading. With about 500 people on the same download I was (bedtime in CST zone), it kept switching between us so that it is expected to take 14 hours. At 9 hours, my isp gave up. Resume. By May 25 early, a new download site was emailed to me due to the numbers of people. Gildor reports a 1% completion rate in the first hour.
With the aid of Go!Zilla downloader, I finally downloaded just before going on vacation.

May 23, 2000
Our Tolkien Encyclopedia now has both a frames and non-frames version. Frame escapes are built into the new menu, which is resizable if you don't mind a messy menu. If you espy glitches or have suggestions, please contact Varda .

May 21, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EDST)
Attending (20): Amarie, Amroth, Aule/Taglos, Azaghal, Denethor, Elendil, Elros, Eru, Finrod, Gil-galad/Ereinion, Huan, Irmo, Melkor, Murezor, Olwe, Omar/Amillo, Thorin, Tom (late), Ulmo, Varda
Member Report - Amillo
    Welcome to our new member, Finrod ! He met us through the V&K message board. He's from Germany, 28, collects
        Tolkien cards (around six thousand now), read H, LotR, Sil, and UT. He passed the test with a 5/5!
    Khamul changed his name to Olwe
Web Report:
    New Diablo II page by Saruman and Gimli
    Virus Alert page updated, including the random attachment virus report from Melkor
Gaming:
    Amarie played Diablo 2 half an hour and reported:
        Graphics far better
        Fighting is the same
        Far more monsters
        Sorceror clears room easily, Paladin has trouble
        Necromancer raises the dead to fight for him
Tolkien:
    Irmo started a discussion on the Erech stone near the Paths of the Dead. It came from Numenor, possibly from Sauron's temple. Netsplit of half the members from the other half interrupted. We hope to take it up again next time.

May 20, 2000
New Encyc article: Ungoliant by Gwindor-(V) for the Powers page

May 19, 2000
Letter from Melkor - random name attachment virus:

According to what I heard on TV last night, there is a new virus that
changes it's attachment name to some random word or phrase each time it
reaches a new computer - therefore, I guess we won't be opening any
attachments for awhile (unless it is specified in the email message
that the sender has attached the file and the name of the attached file).

This is a really nasty virus that wipes your hard drive once it has
been replicated and sent to all your email address book.

I suppose that I'll have to break down and buy the McAffee virus scan
now since this one is pretty hard to detect.

May 18, 2000
Khamul changed his name to Olwe, so the Khamul name is free.
Netherlands fireworks plant explosion update from Feanor:

Cassualties: 18
Missing    : 21

Now, 5 days after the disaster a warrant has been sent out for the 2
managers of the Fireworks plant. A justicial search has been started to find
out what the cause of the explosion was.

May 16, 2000
Report on the Netherlands disaster from Feanor-(V) in the Netherlands:

Cassualties: 15 bodies found, expected to rise to 20, but rumours say over
35.
Wounded: I don't know the exact number, but about 635. Over 50 still in
Hospital, amongst whom 6 on the Intensive Care.
Missing: Estimates say 200, but the lists aren't greatly updated, and even
people who have moved long before, are still on the lists. So that is very
rough estimate.

Already there is found a probable cause of this disaster to happen:
The fireworks should have been stored in bunkers, but the bunkers probably
weren't built properly and couldn't stand the pressure when the Fireworks
exploded. The doors of the bunkers were most probably open, which allowed
the fire to get into most of the bunkers. Also there were sea-containers
crammed with fireworks and they aren't built for big explosions, so they
just were cracked open and tossed through the air.
One more thing, which may have caused the disaster to happen. It may have
been that there was stored Magnesium. The Fire-Brigade didn't know of this
and started to extinguish the fire, (which had been there aforetime of the
disaster) which caused the Magnesium to react with water and exploded.

Final word:  These things are not facts but estimates on the causes of the
disaster.

Namarie,
Feanor

May 13, 2000
New Encyclopedia article: Melkor-Morgoth : motives, strategies, and his war of annihilation. By Gwindor-(V) for the page of the Powers.

May 12, 2000
New Encyclopedia article: Elendil by Elendil-(V) for the page of Men.
Letter:

This is Olorin.  My absence from meetings and gameplay lately has been
due to my computer crashing.  I still haven't gotten it back from the
computer store (I find it hard to believe that it takes 3 weeks to fix a
computer.)  I would have sent this e-mail earlier, but I can't send from
home, and my school computers (where I am now) have the hotmail site blocked
off and I just figured out how to get into it.  I hope to return ASAP, but
until then, good hunting to all in the Valar Guild.
     Namarie,
     Olorin-(Valar)

May 11, 2000
    Welcome to Amroth, our new member! You may have seen visiting as Kuula. Elendil and Thranduil scouted, Orome tested. Elendil could make a good recruiter, as he sent in the report when Orome had to leave for work, plus helped with choosing a name.  :)  Amroth is 15, from Finland, and read the LotR. Thranduil and Elendil had the honor of playing the first guild game with him in the Middle-earth mod.
    Farewell and good luck to Anarion, who left us due to personality differences with some of the guild and the feeling that it was not active enough. May his personal Tolkien Encylopedia do well, and his other sites.
    New Acknowledgements page for the Encyclopedia, in thanks to the many contributors!

May 9, 2000
Welcome to our new member, Azaghal! He's 13, from Holland, read the H, LotR, and part of the Sil. He's frequently on bnet and will be just starting out in the Tolkien mod.

May 7, 2000
Thanks Aule for emailing the minutes of the meeting and for the transcript from the ValarBuddy bot. Also thanks to Aule and Ulmo for handling the meeting by the unprecedented use of the bot to hold the gavel so that more than one Council member could, after a fashion, hold the gavel at the same time. Ah, technology.
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST)
Attending (21): ValarBuddy presiding :) Taglos, Anarion, Thingol, Huan, Thranduil, Bilbo, Elendil, Gwindor, Ulmo, Eru, Omar, Thorin, Melkor, Dreamer, Finwe, Khamul, Finwe, Amarie, Feanor2, Imrahil, Isildur
Encyclopedia News: 2 new articles this week.
The first one being written by Gwindor about his character, on the Elves page:  Gwindor .
The second being written by Huan about Huan , which also contains an image of Luthien riding on his back.
Tolkien Movie News.
For those of you interested in the upcoming Tolkien Movies, and that better be all of you :) theonering.net has some great info on the Movies. They mention in their HUGE FAQ such interesting tidbits as what will be changed, and what will be left out.
Also if you haven’t downloaded the Movie preview, and you aren’t paying huge fees to be on-line, I recommend that you download it. Found at the official site, Lord of the Rings Trilogy .
Web Report:
The Movies page has actually been updated! That lazy Aule actually got motivated and spent some time on it :)  Basically contains the Cast, Location and possible places they will be filmed, a link theonering.nets FAQ and a list of what will be changed.
Gaming News:
Feanor now has something he would like to mention, go ahead Feanor.
You have until tonight at 12pm Eastern to sign up for the Diablo 2 Open Beta Stress Test.
There is still some debate whether this is in fact to Test the Battle.net servers or to test our patience :)
Tolkien Moment
    and no battle of wolf and hound has been like it, for in the baying of Huan was heard the horns of Oromë and the wrath of the Valar, but in the howls of Carcharoth was the hate of Morgoth and malice crueller than teeth of steel; and the rocks were rent by their clamour and fell from on high and choked the falls of Esgalduin. There they fought to the death; but Thingol gave no heed, for he knelt by Beren, seeing that he was sorely hurt.
    Huan in that hour slew Carcharoth; but there in the woven woods of Doriath his own doom long spoken was fulfilled, and he was wounded mortally, and the venom of Morgoth entered into him.
    Then he came, and falling beside Beren spoke for the third time with words; and he bade Beren farewell before he died.
    Beren spoke not but laid his hand upon the head of the hound, and so they parted.”
Dicussion about why Huan was given to Celegorm ensued
Tolkien Music:
Irmo brought this up:
    Yes, some info I'd like to share with you Valar buddies...
    The Tolkien Ensemble has won great acclaim with their original music based on Tolkien's poetry. Now, 3 years after the first album, they have released their second and long-awaited CD called "A Night in Rivendell" (the 1st was "An Evening in Rivendell")
    The Danish ensemble has played at the Oxford Tolkien event, the "Oxenmoot" two years in a row and thrilled Priscilla Tolkien herself with a concert held in her house (attended also by John Tolkien, retired Priest and son of JRRT.)
    It is rumoured in shady inns and dark alleys that the composer behind the successful ensemble, Casper Reiff, contacted the crew behind Peter Jackson's Tolkien movie in the Autumn of '99, offering his music for the project...
    As the musical advisor of the Tolkien estate put it: "... I find this the most interesting and exciting work. It reveals a close sympathy with the original work and a remarkable ability to vary the music not only in relation to the different styles and moods of the poems but also in relation to the different characters from whom the poems come."
    In his function of Dreamlord and Desirer, yours truly has witnessed the Tolkien Ensemble in concert :) and was quite taken with what he saw/heard!
    If you want to know more, go to Tolkien Ensemble which is inEnglish.
    And in reply to Bilbo, the CDs can be ordered online - both from the site and from amazon.
Tolkien Fan Fiction:
    Feanor is writing a book on the time after LoTR and the first chapter is now on the web at The Legacy of Middle-Earth . Thanks go to Aule for doing the web work.
    Varda note: If anyone else has fan fic they need a link to or page for, please contact Varda or Aule . Caution, Varda has a tendency to edit, especially on grammar and spelling, so tell her if you want it left completely untouched.
    We have a page for original Tolkien poetry if you have some you would like to see published online.

May 4, 2000
My internet service provider sent this virus warning to us customers (as always, beware of strange email attachments):

1.  A new worm virus has emerged which has been labeled the "ILOVEYOU" worm
virus.  The virus arrives with a subject of ILOVEYOU, and contains the
message "kindly check the attached LOVELETTER coming from me."  DO NOT OPEN
THIS ATTACHMENT.  It will run a file which duplicates itself, sending
e-mails to everyone in your contact list. McAfee labels the risk assessment
of this virus as "high-outbreak."  If you use anti-virus software, you
should download an update to your software to stop this virus from affecting
your computer.

Much like Melissa, the "love bug'' spreads by infiltrating a computer user's address book and sending copies of itself to that person's contacts. However, the new virus also seemed to be using instant messaging or "Internet chat'' systems such as ICQ to spread, Computer Associates reported.

Those infected appear to be limited to users of Microsoft Outlook, and only if the user were to open the accompanying attachment. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment

The virus appears to have been sent by someone operating under the pseudonym "Spyder," citing a print-out of the virus programme, said Britain's Consumers' Association.

Computer experts advise people who receive the e-mail not to open it, but to delete it immediately.
If the message is opened, users should on no account open the attachment that comes with it.
If the attachment is opened, experts advise users to log off, switch off the computer, and contact their help desk.
Any one who opens the attachment triggers the virus, which automatically copies the same e-mail to everyone on the users address book.
The result is that systems are overloaded by the sheer volume of internet traffic, forcing them to crash or be closed down.

May 3, 2000
New Encyclopedia article: "Huan" paper written and image located by Huan-(Valar).

May 1, 2000
Blizzard is looking for 100,000 Diablo II beta testers worldwide for a stress test, registration starting today and going through the week. Sign up here .
top

April 29, 2000
Welcome to Aragorn! Fram's cousin from Finland is 13, read the Hobbit, LotR, and Sil, and was exceptionally well-informed about our pages. He's already ready to play M-e with us. Fram scouted, Ulmo tested, Elendil and Thranduil played with him for his first game.

April 28, 2000
Blizzard is looking for 100,000 Diablo II beta testers worldwide for a stress test, registration starting Monday and going through the week. Sign up here .

April 25, 2000
LotR Movie item:
The Film Preview "was downloaded 1.7 million times in the first hour breaking the old record of the Phantom Menace trailer which recieved only 1 million downloads in the same time."
It was downloaded 6.6 million times in the first week. Again a record."
Contributed by Anárion

April 24, 2000
    4/24 Tolkien mod version is now out. It fixes the High Priest and item morphing bugs.
    Aragorn chose Valacirca as his Maia name. Congratulations!
    Welcome to Khamul, newest member of the Valar Guild! He's 14, from Canada, and has read part of the Hobbit, all of LotR, the Sil, and Unfinished Tales. Imrahil scouted Insanity who brought in his brother Khamul, thanks. He was tested by Huan and is the brother of our visitor, Insanity. Unfortunately we didn't get the email address. Please email Varda and/or Amillo .

April 23, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm EST, 4pm CST, 10pm GMT)
Attending (19 members, 3 visitors = 22): Varda presiding. Anarion, Aragorn, Aule/Taglos, Bilbo, Denethor, Elendil, Fram, Gildor, Glaurung, Imrahil, Irmo, Luthien, Maedhros, Namo/Mandos, Omar/Amillo, Thingol, Thranduil, Tulkas, Varda.
Visitors: nealbmorton, Lord-Thomas, Insanity
Member Report:
    Omar says that with our new member, Fram, we number 118.
    Maedhros returned after a long absence and took a re-entry quiz for fun.  :)
    Our old friend, nealbmorton, long time contributor to the Discussion Board, took the entry test after the meeting and is now Gwindor! He's from California (heya Manwe!), 34, and has read (hold onto your helms) the Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, Silmarillion, Lost Tales, Lost Tales2, Unfinished Tales, Shaping of Middle Earth, Farmer Giles and Ham,
Sauron Defeated, Lost Road, and Morgoth's Ring.
    We did two Maiar honor tests, both passing difficult questions and showing their quality very well.  :)
    Felagund passed his Maia test to become Huan, Hound of Valinor. Does this mean he will only be able to speak three times?
    Aragorn passed his Maia test and is trying to get his name straight. He may become Valacirca, the Sickle of Doom - or not.
Web Report:
    New link to an interview with Varaya and Khan, mentioning the Valar Guild.  :)  See April 20 for the link on this page.
Gaming:
    The final version? Letter from Khan/Fingolfin:

We have just released the 4/22 update for the Middle Earth mod. It features
some new item graphics, that's why in the zip there is included a CEL file.
Don't worry about where that must be stored, just use winzip to unzip it
with subdirectories as you did with the graphics.zip and the sounds.zip. If
you encounter a crash at displaying the inventory you didn't unzip properly.

The new features are readable on our page as always. We included 9 new
uniques. We are not entirely sure if that's gone without morphing, be sure
to report any morphing you encounter.

Have fun and don't let yourself get engulfed by the fires of Glaurung's
minions :)

Then another letter the same day (excerpt):
I just realized a bug in the 4/22 (the high priest of Dol Guldur is on level
1 - that means he is not in the game) there also seems to be a morphing
problem so we will probably release a new version very soon <sigh>

April 17, 2000
Middle-earth mod news from V&K. Elrohir/Varaya says the probably final version may be available this weekend. It should be final because of a stroke of very good fortune: a Blizzard programmer offered them the chance to participate in the closed Diablo 2 beta test! Thus they will be happily engaged in that endeavor, and hope to report to the guild at the next meeting!
    Fingolfin/Khan says to hang on to any holy weapons you already have. No holiness will be added. They considered it due to complaints about the weakness of rogues, and the guild said the rogue is strong enough already.

April 16, 2000
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (4pm CST)
Attending (19): Ulmo presiding. Aragorn, Aule/Taglos, Balin, Elendil, Elros, Eru, Felagund, Gil-galad/Ereinion, Haleth, Imrahil, Irmo, Murezor, Namo/Mandos, Manwe/Sulimo, Omar/Amillo, Thingol, Tilion, Ulmo, Varda
Member Report by Omar:
    117 Members
    Grimbold is our new member this week.
Web Report:
    From Varda:
    New pages: Diablo and His Kin - collects all Diablo links including versions, mods, and DiabloII
                        Uniques - unique info and checklist for the 4/1 Middle-earth Diablo mod
    From Irmo:
    Links to be added to the Links page (please email links you want added to the Links page to Varda):
        J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth - articles
        Talk about J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth: A Guide to Tolkien Discussion on the Web
Gaming Report:
    Poll for Fingolfin and Elrohir: "Should holiness be added to bows via fire and lightning arrows, and for the golem?"
        Poll was aye to golem with only one nay; mixed on bows with two definite ayes and the rest nay or abstain, generally
        okay if you insist.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Highlight:
        Elros quoted the first paragraph of the Hobbit, describing what a hobbit hole is.
    Tolkien Discussion:
        The hobbit hole kicked off an involved discussion including:
        Why did hobbits stop leaving the Shire? Safe and protected, no other hobbits outside to see, tough to reach the Havens
            and it had become a dangerous trip.
        How did Hobbits come to be? Not really settled. Suggestions ranged from a branch of men to crossings, probably
            forced by the Dark Lord, between various races such as dwarf/man or elf/dwarf. It is not actually stated for certain in
            the Lord of the Rings or Silmarillion or the Hobbit. Other references may have a buried mention which we hope to
            locate, one vaguely remembered a sighting of their being a branch of men, but not which book. Quote required to
            handle this problem.
        How did other races come to be? Is the origin of orcs from elves, men, or druadan? This discussion will be continued
            next meeting, as many participants from Europe needed to go to bed.
        Comparison of Yavanna and Goldberry by Manwe. Some late stayers just couldn't stop.  :)  Manwe quoted the
            interesting parallel descriptions of Yavanna from the Valaquenta of the Silmarillion and of Goldberry as she took
            leave of the hobbits in the Fellowship of the Ring. One of the parallels was that Yavanna had her roots in the waters
            of Ulmo, and Goldberry seemed to have water about her feet. The similarities may arise from their both being nature
            spirits. I think Irmo suggested this one, and the rest of us liked that explanation very much.
BroodWar: Discussion of tactics, causing some people to dive into BroodWar (including me). Aule went into Middle-earth
        to level up his level 48 character. Will he and Ulmo reach 50 before Diablo II comes out? Diablo gold may be passed
        around on that one! I'm betting 50 gold they both make it, barring comp failure.

April 14, 2000
New Uniques page for the Middle-earth mod. Info collected by Thranduil-(V).
New Diablo and His Kin page collecting all Diablo, Diablomod, and Diablo II links in one spot.

April 13, 2000
Letter from Khan/Fingolfin excerpt:

...you will like to hear that we don't think to implement the level 15 thingy. But we want to add holiness to bows (via fire/lightning arrows) and to the golem.
check what the folks think about that.

April 12, 2000
Tulkas goes back to his ship this morning for the next 28 days. Good luck out there, captain!
Welcome to Grimbold of Rohan! He's 15, from the USA, and read the LotR, Sil, and Unfinished Tales. Although frequently on bnet, he found us through our web pages. Thanks Gandalf, for testing.

April 9, 2000
Tolkien mod possible update discussion. Please hold off on changing to any new version which changes the death penalty on 15 and 16 to no item loss, but lose attributes for death. This is still under discussion about whether or not to use it as an official guild game, if it occurs. Enough ifs for you?  :)

April 8, 2000
New meeting time to be announced. Tonight the meeting is at the usual time. Format may be changed somewhat as well.
More reviews on the LotR movie preview at OneRing.net and Daily Radar . Links from Anarion.
Sunday Meeting 6pm EST, 5pm CST
Attending (16): Ulmo presided. Aule/Taglos, Amarie, Denethor, Elros, Eru, Felagund, Finwe, Gil-galad/Ereinion, Haleth, Imrahil, Melkor, Omar/Amillo, Radagast/Aiwendil (welcome back from compless land!), Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda
Business:
    Informal rules due to low number at any one time.
    Time: Discussion on improving the meeting time. It was set for one hour earlier. Next time the meeting will be held at
        5pm EST.
    Tolkien part of meeting: Discussion over format. Decision: Tolkien Moments are only to be short quotes to act as
        springboards to actual discussion of Tolkien. Topic suggestions to start off chats are very welcome, but expect the
        conversation to immediately wander into an unexpected tangent.
Tolkien:
    Omar: Where do balrog spirits go at "death"? Agreement was that they go to the Void. Other evil spirits and probably orcs go there as well.  The Void could be considered as either outside the Theme or setting up the Theme for purging of error with the Last Battle, so that it may be sung aright by all the races intended to exist in association with Arda.
    Discussion then went into the nature of Ungoliant and some of the other evil beings. Ungoliant had several possible explanations, such as anti-matter since she is the anti-light, a thing that oozed out of the Void. She should probably be classified with the Ainur, possibly starting as a being between the power of Maiar and Valar, then becoming as powerful as Valar by drinking from the the dew of the Two Trees from the Wells of Varda, adding to that with the power of the jewels and other items she drained. She had many young, including Shelob. Her hunger was so insatiable that she may at last have consumed herself.
    Trolls may have come from stone, so when the sunlight that distressed Melkor hit them, his power receded and they reverted to their early matter. The Olog-hai later were made more man-like so that sunlight did not have this effect on them.

April 7, 2000
    Internet preview of the Lord of the Rings movie today on the official site . Thanks Anarion, Aragorn, and Aule for letting us know. Local channels may also be showing this. A review article is available on Canadian Online Explorer .
    Gildor's computer has returned from the dead! He hopes to join us for the meeting this Sunday. Looking forward to having you back, Gildor!

April 4, 2000
New paper for the Tolkien Encyclopedia's Objects page: Cormalaiqua: The Ring of Barahir by Felagund-(V) of the Netherlands. Interesting job tracing and speculating on the travels of this ring.
Diablo II Beta Test Report from Gandalf:

    Greetings!  I went over to a friend's house today to work on an English project, and seeming as how this certain friend got
picked for the beta testing of Diablo II, I'll just say that I didn't even look at my English homework :)  I would definitely have to say that within the 45 minutes that I played it, I was convinced that it was the best game I had ever played...smooth graphics, excellent sound, new NPCs (and old ones...Deckard Cain,) new monster types (and old ones again...Death Clan goats,) new bosses, a new skill tree system, and an ability to run!  I had to fight a boss who looked A LOT like one of the bosses from the original Diablo.  He was called "The Smith" and I had a hard time discerning him from The Butcher, although everything about him was better.  I have learned that repairing high end magical items will not be so easy in Diablo II.  After finishing 5 out of the 6 quests from the first act, the monsters still only dropped around 80 gold :(  The only unique item that had been found up to this point was... I think it was called "The Raven's Hew."  Anyways, after finishing the 5th quest, and returning a hammer to the blacksmith, she offers to imbue one of your items with a magical power, turning the item into a unique.  We did it with a sabre that we had found.
        I didn't see many bugs with the game...except for the dreaded lag :(  I experienced a group of monsters that I couldn't hit and that couldn't hit me, and couldn't figure out what was going on until I ended up on the other side of the level I was on :)  Other problems I encountered were when the cpu froze up when we tried to start the game (this will surely be fixed by the time the full game comes out,) and after we turned the sabre into a unique, the left mouse button wouldn't do anything...we couldn't talk to anyone or equip anything.  I am sure that these bugs will be fixed by the end of the beta though (they better be, or Blizzard's gonna have heck to pay...I didn't wait this long for a buggy game :)
        Well, that's about it.  I hope this letter ensures you that the game will be more than worth the dreadfully long wait.
                                                                                                                           Your Fellow Maiar,
                                                                                                                                    Olórin-(Valar)

"...it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.  What weather they shall have is not ours to rule."

April 1, 2000
Tolkien Diablo 4/1 version is out. The One Ring is in!
History page : "Bilbo Makes History!" by Bilbo-(V). Starts new sectioning by perspectives. History page now linking a bit differently to handle the number of entries. If you are setting bookmarks, please note that it has changed.
Movie news: sent by Anarion: watch for the preview coming up on the official Lord of the Rings movie page.

March 29, 2000
Daily Radar 2nd chance at Diablo II beta testing winner list .

March 28, 2000
New Encyclopedia article! Paper by Felagund-(V) on Finrod Felagund, in depth.
Aule is first to find all three of the Elven rings! Congratulations to Aule, Ring-Finder! In his own words:

I have completed the quest for the 3 Elvish rings having rescued Vilya from the clutches of Ungoliant :)  Hell dif again. Fitting that all 3 Elven rings came from pure Tolkien boses :)

Aule the Ring Finder :)

March 26, 2000
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST, 12 GMT)
    A number of the European contingent showed up an hour earlier than the North Americans, due to Europe's having gone
        to Daylight Savings Time a week earlier. We should be back in synch next week, however. A tip of the helm to the
        amazing Europeans who did make it to the meeting at such an evil hour!
Attending (19): Amarie, Aragorn, Aule, Denethor, Elendil, Eru, Gandalf/Olorin, Glaurung, Imrahil, Irmo/Dreamer,
    Luthien, Manwe, Namo/Mandos, Orome, Thingol, Tilion, Tuvo, Ulmo, Varda
Membership Report: 116 current members according to a report from Amillo, Keeper of the Members Page, passed to
        Aule.
    Feanor has been removed from membership.
    Finwe has joined us!
    The brothers Saruman and Gimli send greetings.
    Gildor currently does not have access to a computer but hopes to return.
Comments:
    Denethor, a new member, told us that he actually read some of our pages. He said that the Bios and
        Histories gave him a better understanding of the people and guild.
    By the way, have you sent in your Bio or History? Don't know what to put in the History? What about how you heard of
        the guild, what happened when you joined, your impressions, and whatever stands out to you, good and bad? Also, see
        what you find most interesting in the other histories and see if you can add to it. No one is too new, and you can update
        by emailing the page maintainer.
Web Report:
    Anarion is now concentrating more on his personal Encyclopedia rather than his Council of Istari page.
    Aragorn sent in a report on last week's Tolkien Trivia Free-for-All game, now shown in last week's minutes. Thanks!
Gaming Report:
    Aule found Narya, Ring of Fire, its first occurence, in Normal Diff Hell from Gothmog.
    Fingolfin sends email regrets at not having been able to make the meeting and greetings to his father in Tolkien, Finwe.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moments: (each with a bit of enjoyable discussion)
        Imrahil-(V) told of Theoden's glorious charge with his army of Rohirrim through the orcs, then of his killing the great
            chieftain of the Haradrim. Very stirring!
        Aragorn-(V) told of the foreshadowing of the return of the king, when Frodo discovers the head of the statue of the king
            crowned in silver and gold by encircling flowers.
    Trivia game:
        Most had to leave, regretfully, including myself, but some remained. Imrahil volunteered to host for those who could
            remain. Thanks, Prince Imrahil!
WoW:
    Words of Wisdom, paraphrase from Manwe: "It's not about how big the man is in the fight, it's about how big the fight
        is in the man."

March 25, 2000
    Feanor is no longer a member of the Valar guild for continual channel misbehavior disrespectful of all other members, even after a number of warnings by different Council members.
    Saruman and Gimli, the brothers, say Hi! Saruman is trying for the second chance beta tester. If anyone makes it in, please let us know!
    Finwe, Welcome to the Valar Guild! His friend and scouter is Thingol. The test was by Ulmo assisted by Aule and Manwe. Finwe's 21, from Florida in the USA.

March 24, 2000
Letter from Gildor:
Yes sadly its true.  Gildors computer is once again being cast into the void.  I hope to see you all when it decides to return.

May he be resurrected as Glorfindel was, but much sooner!

March 22, 2000
Diablo II Closed Beta tester list . This does not include the Daily Radar contest group.

March 21, 2000
Diablo II Beta testing: Blizzard has up to 30 slots for the beta test of Diablo II through Daily Radar's Second Chance Contest, for its members. Sign-ups go through March 24 at 5pm. See the March 21 Blizzard news.

March 20, 2000
Narya has been found for the first time! Aule wrested it from Gothmog in Normal diff Hell.

March 19, 2000
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST, 11 GMT)
Attending (23): Amarie, Anarion, Aragorn, Aule, Balin, Bert, Denethor, Elros, Eomer, Eru, Felagund, Gil-galad/Ereinion, Irmo, Isildur, Makar/Ramandor, Namo/Mandos, Omar/Amillo, Thingol, Tilion, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda
Visitor: Yakintosh
(Thranduil fell asleep 3 hours before the meeting  :)
Membership Report:
    New members this week (both impressively present for the meeting!):
        Denethor
        Ereinion Gil-galad
Web Report:
    Links Page:
        Irmo's links to the sound files of Prof. Tolkien's readings are up
    Tolkien Encyclopedia project:
        New Encyclopedia descriptions by Anarion: Valar:Vana. Man: Gilraen, Anborn, Ar-Sakalthor, Meneldil.
                Orc: Ufthak. Places: Taniquetil, Michel Delving, Numenor, Ekkaia, Ezellohar. Dwarves: Dis. Elves: Elenwe,
                Felagund. Objects: Book of Marzabul, Ringil, Glingal.
          New Encyclopedia article by Anarion on the Maiar page on Saruman.
          Council of Istari - Anarion's personal page still being re-worked heavily.
Gaming:
    Voted to go ahead with using the 3/15 Tolkien's Middle-earth mod.
    The mod Message Board set up by V&K is a good place to report and discuss specific mod problems, and see if
        others are also having them. Direct email is also a way to handle problems.
    Nenya found in norm! Here's the report from Amillo:
         Another Nenya-ring found in ME-mod, norm, lvl15  dropped by Ungoliant.  In game was Namo, Turin, Isildur and I.
         Ungoliant killed by Namo and I.  I have the the ring.
    Nenya found in nightmare! Isildur found it on lvl 14, ME mod.
Tolkien:
    Discussion Board going strong. Current topic is possible Valar influences on Middle-earth in the Hobbit and Lord of
        the Rings.
    Tolkien Moment:
        Omar: the burial of Morwen Elfsheen.
        Tilion: "The Cottage of Lost Play" - poem of men in dreams visiting the Undying Land through the dreams sent from
            Irmo.
    Tolkien Trivia Game:
        Thank you to Aragorn for being the question asker and for this report!
        Since there were only a few people actually participating in the trivia, we used a free-for-all style, no teams.  It was a
            pretty long trivia too. :} We kept going until there were only two people still playing. :}  I don't know about anyone
            else, but i sure had fun. :}

March 18, 2000
    Welcome to Ereinion Gil-galad, our new member from Delaware, USA! Tilion tested him for a 5/5! Ereinion has read the LotR, and Farmer Giles of Ham.

March 16, 2000
Welcome to our new member, Denethor! He's 14 from Canada, Ontario, the great city of Alliston near Toronto. He's read the Hobbit, LotR, and started Lost Tales, eyeing the Silmarillion as possibly next. He plays BW and is looking into the Tolkien mod of Diablo.
New version of Tolkien mod is 3/15, downloadable from V&K page or Aule's Software Files.
Khan/Fingolfin says they tried to put in the One Ring, and tells his gruesome tale:
We tried to create the One Ring but the result was that every single unique
morphed. There would have been another way but then all Elven Rings would
have morphed. Thus we decided against it.

March 15, 2000
Diablo II beta sign ups. For info go to the Blizzard page.

March 14, 2000
Special Paper: Entering Aman by Amillo-(Valar) - The reasons Man has difficulty entering Aman in bodily form, but Elves don't. In the Encyclopedia home page under Special Papers and on the Places page.
Poetry: new haikus by Elros-(Valar)
Links to the Professor's recordings, as promised from Irmo (thanks!) and which will be added to the Links page:
An Interview including sound and written transcript, put out by News from Bree , which has other strange articles.
JRR Tolkien in which he reads from his own books, put out by Harper Audio , which has many other fine recordings.

March 12, 2000
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST, 11 GMT)
Attending (25): Anarion, Aragorn, Aule, Balin, Bert, Bilbo, Elendil, Elwe, Elros, Felagund, Gildor, Ilmare, Ingwe, Irmo/Dreamer, Isildur, Makar/Ramandor, Murezor, Namo, Omar/Amillo, Osse/Falman, Sauron, Thranduil, Turin, Ulmo, Varda
Visitor: -BF-NeO
Member Report: 113 members, including Thranduil
    New members:
        Thranduil joined us this week and was at the meeting! He especially enjoys Quest for Three, so if you're
            looking for a third...!
        Our visitor, -BF-NeO joined us after the Tolkien section of the meeting! She is now Amarie-(V), 15, and has read the
            LotR, UT, and started the Sil. Watch out for her Protoss!
    Ingwe has returned! He reports that his computer cratered last fall and he lost his characters, but he's back now.  :)  A
        member from the beginning, he finds himself beginning again.
    Durin emailed us saying that he would like to keep his name and stick with us.
    Feanor is often seen now, so he is still with us as well.
    Irmo has his second anniversary in the guild today! Congrats, Dreamlord!
Web Report: (all guild member pages may be visited from the home page, if you sent me your URL!)
    The Members Page has moved to a new server due to insufficient space, link updated from the guild page.
            Remember to re-set your bookmarks for the most important page in all the guild! It will be updating with all of the
            new and returning members soon. Please make sure your own info is up to date!
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        Poetry section: new original poetry by Elwing "For Elros and Elrond", and by Felagund "Ideas".
        Don't forget that the Encyclopedia is a guild project, not just for one or two members. All Tolkien fans may contribute,
           and you need to make sure your favorite character has an entry even if you have to write it yourself!
    Web Team page: Anarion added an article telling one of the ways to make your site more visible on the net: use marketing
        by submitting the URL to web search engines.
    Council of Istari by Anarion is still being updated, but is useable.
    Ademias' Earth, Bilbo's page, is under construction. You might watch it for a while to enjoy his changes.
Gaming:
    WarCraftII online Tolkien mod needs your input! Email the Old Gaffer . Work already done is detailed in the 2000
        News Archive Feb 3
    BroodWar Tourney map - Sauron is constructing a map for tourneys, and tested it with Murezor and Ulmo. They found
        glitches as requested, and work continues. Maybe you too can help beta test, suggest how to correct glitches, or make
        your own!  :)
Tolkien:
    Links:
        Irmo told us of links to sound recordings of the Professor himself. I copied one down right and hope for his email!
            These are going into the guild's Links page.
           Interview with the Professor, including written transcript, from News from Bree.
    Tolkien Moments:
        Irmo told of Sam's musing over how time went differently while they were in Lothlorien, as if they had been there a long time but outside it had been but a short while. From the LotR. This sparked a discussion on the nature of time. Did the elven rings flatten Arda somewhat in those sections to make it more like Arda before it was forced into roundness, changing time there? Did time go different speeds at different parts of history?
        Aragorn quoted about elf bodies being a thing of the earth which eventually are consumed by the fire of the spirit. Source "Of Men" in the Silmarillion.

March 11, 2000
    Welcome Thranduil, to the Valar Guild! Scouted by his friend Elendil, tested by Varda, scoring a perfect 5/5. He's 17, from Finland, read the LotR, and plays Diablo. Sadly his SC CD is broken.
    Feanor has been seen in the channel, so he is once again active. Welcome back, maker of the Silmarils!
    New Poem by Felagund, inspired while reading the Silmarillion, called "Ideas".
    New Web work article: How to do publicity for a web site, by Anarion.
    WarCraftII online: remember to get with the Old Gaffer to work on the Tolkien mod! See Feb 3 for details of what he's done and needs.

March 9, 2000
Eru, may you and your lovely wife have a great time skiing in Austria!

March 7, 2000
Welcome back, Durin! He was away so long that his name had been removed from our lists. Luckily it had not been taken yet, so he is back with the same name. The mods will be new to him.  :)

March 6, 2000
Original Tolkien poetry: Elwing-(V)'s poem: Elwing's prayer for her stolen sons: " For Elros and Elrond ". Interesting side note: at the bottom is the quote that inspired the poem and answers the prayer.
Encyclopedia: If you wish to contribute to the Valar Guild's Encyclopedia project, please send it by email to Varda. It could be a poem, Tolkien link, a description, or an article. It could be about your own or a favorite character, telling the names used, where he lives, something he did in the story, maybe the names of his weapons or horse, perhaps who he's related to, and the book in which you found the info. It could be helpful in your own role-playing, sort of like the kinds of biography we have to fill in for real life on ourselves.

March 5, 2000
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST, 11GMT)
Attending (23): Anarion, Aragorn, Aule, Balin, Daeron, Elros, Elwe, Falathar, Fingolfin, Gildor, Haleth, Imrahil, Irmo, Isildur, Luthien, Mandos, Manwe/Sulimo, Old Gaffer, Omar/Amillo, Osse/Falman, Tom, Ulmo, Varda
Membership: 110 members reported by Amillo. Tulkas is at sea, but drops in with a chat program to say hi. Watch for him!
Web Report:
    Glittering Caves (art gallery for the guild by Amillo): original art "Gate of Morannon" now up by Tuvo! Anarion's new
        cave has lots of great links.
    Links: new link to mass of organized Tolkien links set up in a new project by Netscape, called the open directory. It uses
        live people to find and organize links instead of search engine bots, to improve the quality of the search.
    Encyclopedia: new entries:
        by Anarion - Hobbits page: Chica Chubb, Will Whitfoot. The Powers /Valar page: another name for Ulmo.
           Places page: Adurant, Vinyamar
        by Varda - Valar page: Melkor update. Maiar page: Eonwe updated, including his role in the War of Wrath
    Council of Istari - undergoing another redesign. The server has been going down for short times occasionally, try again.
Gaming:
    Anyone finding one of the Elven Rings (Narya, Nenya, Vilya) or the One Ring in VK or the Tolkien mod, please email
        Varda to be added to the Tourney page for the ongoing Ring Quest.
    A poll of the meeting members was taken for those who wanted the One Ring added to the Tolkien mod, done early and
        out of order for Fingolfin aka Khan, who could not stay long. Watch for further news.
    VK mod is still being played, so the One Ring may yet be found!
    Blizzard is advertising a Limited Edition of Diablo II. In anticipation of D2 coming out for general guild use some day, the
        name of the game was told in the Meeting. Email Varda if you missed the meeting and want to know the game name.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moments and Discussion:
        Varda-(Valar) told of Bilbo's and Frodo's offering to take the One Ring to the fire. Some discussion, partly mixed into
            the next Moment's discussion.
        Aragorn-(V) told of Boromir's discussion with Frodo, in which Boromir fell to the Ring's influence and forced Frodo
            into decision and action, breaking the Fellowship. Much discussion followed.

March 3, 2000
Diablo II Collector's Edition is now available in limited, expensive quantities from Blizzard . Personally, I'm waiting for the next edition without the fru fru after the bugs from this one are worked out. But if you can get it, more power to you and please give the guild a review either at a meeting or by email to the Games page handled by Makar/Ramandor.
The Diablo II game name for the Guild will be available at the meeting and by emailing Varda or asking Council members.

March 1, 2000
Tolkien Encyclopedia: new articles on Gandalf and Eonwe in the Maiar page
Links page: new link to Netscape's open directory project, Tolkien section with an incredible number of well-organized links.
top

Feb. 26, 2000
Links page: new links to
    Tol Galen - LotR movie page set in New Zealand. Suggested by Anarion
    Barrow Downs - Tolkien info. Suggested by Anarion
    Lord of the Rings Trivia Club - Discussion board for Tolkien trivia. Suggested by Varda
    Also, Tolkien discussion boards now have their own section.

Feb. 23, 2000
Letter from Maedhros:
I have to report that I don't have an internetconnection anymore, so it
will be very difficult to reach you on the B.net
I have to go, my course ends!

Feb. 21, 2000
Tourney results up on the Tourney Page ! Also has a poll and a request.

Feb. 20, 2000
    Tourney continues until Meeting time.

Sunday Meeting: 6pm EST, 5pm CST, 11GMT
Attending (17 members + 2 visitors=19): Anarion, Balin, Elendil, Elros, Eomer, Eru, Felagund, Gandalf, Irmo, Makar, Manwe, Namo, Omar, Sauron, Scatha, Ulmo, Varda.
    Visitors: Earindil~bkv~ and -=DarkGun=-. Earindil joined after the Tolkien discussion, as Thorin.  :)  DarkGun is not quite finished with Return of the King, but keep an eye out for him!
Membership Report:
    109 members
    Finduilas is our new member this week.  :)
    Thorin joined us after the meeting. Welcome to the Valar Guild!
    Melkor requests that we not deluge him with emails for the next 40 days and 40 nights while he is unable to access his computer. Rain may begin again April 3.
    Celeborn has not been seen since his joining, by anyone at the meeting.
Web Report:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: some articles updated, such as the one on Melkor.
    Council of Istari: Anarion's page is still under construction
Gaming:
    The Tourney was a success! New records are out there to beat, too!  :)  See the Tourney page Monday for results, told partially in the channel by Ulmo.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moments and Discussion:
        Elros-(Valar) described Tom Bombadil. This started a discussion. Irmo spoke of Tom going right to the barrow wight's stolen treasures, and his emotions of sorrow, his knowledge not only in general of the people of Arnor who died fighting the Witch King, but his honoring one lady he knew in particular by making her brooch a gift to Goldberry.
        Omar/Amillo-(Valar) told of the rise and fall of the land of Numenor, known in our time as Atlantis.

Feb. 19, 2000
    Tourney! Meet in the channel at 10am EST, 9am CST to choose teams. Be sure to read the Tourney page for the how-to on your selected game. Send results by email to Ulmo, even if you tell him in the channel. Gaming and team-ups continue until the beginning of the Sunday meeting.
    Tourneys are guild members only, sorry visitors. However, friends of the guild can still have fun playing the games outside the guild games with members or just for the fun of trying them out.

Feb. 14, 2000
Tolkien mod update for 2/14 is out. See the Varaya and Khan page for explanation and download.
Do you want the One Ring back in the Tolkien mod? If so, please email Elrohir/ Varaya . Warning from Elrohir if we do this:
:) Sure, it would be relatively easy to put it back in. Those who vote "yes"
should be aware, though, that it could cause a little bit of item morphing
if we put an extra high lvl item in. And, of course, we would have to remove
one unique item to make room.
Welcome to Finduilas, our new member from Colorado, USA! She has read the H, LotR, and the Tolkien Reader. Her favorite LotR character is Sam. She is 32, married, and plays a great game of DiabloME even with an infant in her lap. She found us through Varaya and Khan's page, Varaya/Elrohir sending her on to Varda who sent her to the channel, where she met Ulmo who did the recruiting and gamed with her sorceror. Thingol and Aule helped with items, joining the game later.

Feb. 13, 2000
Tourney begins! See the Tourney page!
Sunday Meeting 6pm EST, 5pm CST, 11GMT
Attending (23): Aragorn, Bert, Celebrimbor, Elendil, Elros, Elwe, Eomer, Fili, Galadriel, Gildor, Glaurung, Haleth, Irmo, Kili, Mandos, Melkor, Omar/Amillo, Orome, Osse/Falman, Samwise, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda. Some of the late but very welcome arrivals were Eru and Fingolfin.
Membership Report:
    New Member - Hurin
    Galadriel has his own personal computer at last, so he can be with us more! (Just in time for the Tourney  :)
    Tulkas will be going to sea Wednesday for 4 weeks, so get in your team game with him early this week!
    Melkor's planned trip has been delayed slightly by a death in the family. Our condolences, good friend, to you and all your
        family.
Web Report:
    Anarion's Council of Istari page is moving to a new server and is being redesigned.
Gaming:
    The Tolkien mod now has the 2/12/00 update with cool new sounds and beefed up Shelob's brood! Thanks to Fingolfin
        and Elrohir for their wonderful work! (Also just in time for the Tourney  :)
    Ulmo announced the Tourney is on! Thank you, Tourney Master. We have a lot of new people who've never been in a
        Tourney and could use everyone's help with practice games and real games. A good time should be had by all, with all
        this excuse for playing.  :) Please check out the Tourney page for How-to's and ask questions if anything is unclear. Let
        Varda know if something on the page is unclear so that she and Ulmo can get together to repair it before Tourney's end.
        Everything is open to play - Diablo, DiabloVK, DiabloTolkien, StarWars, BroodWars - using our special Tourney
        game set-ups.
Tolkien:
        Irmo gave us a great Tolkien Moment from Unfinished Tales about Galadriel. It told of her past, her dislike of Feanor,
        her amazing hair, that Feanor wanted some of it (which she refused) and that it may have inspired him to make the
        silmarils. This led into discussion including that she gave some of that hair to the dwarf, Gimli, esteeming him higher
        than the great Feanor.

Feb. 12, 2000

Welcome to Hurin, Daeron's brother! Tom Bombadil tested this Texan.

Letter from Khan/Fingolfin:
Hi

We have released a new update (2/12) for the ME mod. It is absolutely
necessary to also download the additional sounds found on our page to get
the new dat working. These sounds have to be unzipped with subdirectories
into the diablo folder (you know the procedure).

The new dat fixes the elvish shortbow (it now is has no special ability
apart being indestructible and adequate damage for level 22), the Brood of
Shelob and the Brood of Ungoliant are now more dangerous and higher level
and some minor tweaks.

Cya on Bnet
Available from the Varaya and Khan page or Aule's Software Files .

Letter from Anarion:
heya!
I'm preparing to move the Council of the Istari to its new server at Line One. However, I'm redesigning it, and having
some problems uploading the jpgs so it'll be a while to get the new site up.

Anárion

Feb. 11, 2000
Melkor states that he is already going into withdrawal, knowing that he will be mostly absent from his computer from 2/17 through 4/2. He will try to slip in and see us as opportunity affords.

Feb. 6, 2000
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST, 11GMT)
Attending (25): Aragorn, Aule/Taglos, Balin, Beren, Elrond, Elros, Eru, Falathar, Feanor, Felagund, Gildor, Haleth, Imrahil, Irmo, Makar/Ramandor, Manwe, Melkor, Namo/Mandos, Omar/Amillo, Osse/Falman, Tom, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda, Voronwe. Some came in late and stayed for the Tolkien chat, such as Elrohir and Fingolfin. Glad they could make it!
Membership Report:
    Gildor now has a comp and is back with us.  :)
    Falathar, Haleth's son, is joining us with Honorary Member status. Welcome to the latest member of the Melkor host!
Web Report:
    WarCraftII page under construction, needs member input! See Feb. 3, 2000 News entry for details. Email
        Old Gaffer /Hamfast directly with suggestions, as he is the project leader/webmaster/originator/ coordinator/janitor.
    Council of Istari page redesigned by Anarion. Check out his quotable quotes from Tolkien for possible hotkeys for
        your character!  :)
    Web Team page: added a quick How-To on making a web page.
    Links page: Tolkien movie link added with non-rumor info: interview with Elijah Woods (Frodo) and a reporter's
        view watching them tape the scene of the Fellowship running from orcs into Lothlorien.
    News page: the Complete News has been dropped in favor of News by year. The News did not start in 1997 when the
        Guild was founded, but in 1998 after Ulmo and Varda became co-chair, so we lack that year and most of 1998.
Gaming:
    The Tolkien mod is alive and well, the main Diablo game now being played in case you wondered where everyone else
        went.  :)
    Tourney! Some new members were asking about the next Tourney. Tourney Master Ulmo says that if enough interest is
        expressed next meeting, he will see about announcing a time for one then. Possibly right away, so check the News to
        find out, if you miss the meeting. Please read the Tourney page for how to participate in a Tourney if you are not
        familiar with them.
Tolkien:
    We had so many people that we divided into two channels, one for those who wished to game right then and one for those
        who wished to talk Tolkien at that time. The number was about even! This division is a first for the guild.
    Tolkien Moments:
        Tom told of the Hill of the Slain, where the grass grows green over those who fought on the side of good even though
            buried by the forces of Morgoth. The quote is from the Silmarillion.
        Manwe told of Gandalf talking with Saruman apparently about the Hobbits' pipeweed, with an undercurrent of Ring
            talk. Saruman claims that the little things Gandalf finds so interesting are unimportant, and Gandalf blows a great
            Ring of smoke, followed by lesser Rings, then reaches as if to grab them, but they disappear before he can. The quote
            is from Unfinished Tales, "Hunt for the Ring - Concerning Gandalf and Saruman"
    Tolkien Discussion: sparked by the undercurrents in the quote from the Hunt for the Ring.

Feb. 4
The zip appears to actually still contain the 1/30 files. I'm sorry for the icky inconvenience!
Page redesigning done to the Istari page by Anarion.
Encyclopedia: Eomer-(V) has a new article on Eomer !

Feb. 3
Gildor has a computer again and is back with us! Congrats and welcome back!
Working on a new page: the Old Gaffer needs your input for a WarCraftII Tolkien version. Here are some suggested names:
Hail!
        I recently was searching the web, when I came across a mass of
warcraft 2
pages. I have downloaded an editor and am preparing to create a warcraft 2
Tolkien Version with characters from the Lord of the rings. Below is a table
of unit conversions. This is just in the preliminary stages, so please
forward this to the rest of the guild and direct feed back to
cooldude1512@hotmail.com.
                                                Thank you,
                                                Hamfast
PS- Many names are spelled wrong, but this is just a preliminary idea. Also,
art ideas would be appreciated.
PPS- Building names are still being worked on, mostly will be based on the
shire and the golden woods for the allies, and minus morgul for mordor.

Allied Forces:

<Ground Units>

Footmen -> Warriors of Gondor
Archers -> Elvish Scouts
Knights -> Riders of Rohan
Paladins ->Thaoeden's Elite Cavalry
Mages -> Lesser Wizards
Ballista -> Battering Ram
Peasants -> Halfling Laborers
Dwarven Demolitions -> Saboteurs

<Sea Units>

Destroyers -> River Vessels
Battleships -> Ships with Black Sails
Transports -> Dwarven Ironclads
Submarines -> Halfling Scouts

<Air Units>

Scouts -> Halfling Gliders
Griffins -> Eagles

Mordor and Allies Forces

<Ground Units>

Grunts -> Orcs
Axethrowers -> Mountain Trolls
Ogre -> Mounted Orcs
Ogre Magi -> Orcish Warlords
Death Knights -> Black Riders
Catapult -> Battering Ram
Peons -> Goblin Slaves
Sappers -> Hobgoblin Suicide Squads

<Sea Units>

Destroyers -> Corsairs
Juggernauts -> Black Fleet Command Vessels
Transports -> Landing Cogs
Turtles -> Hobgoblin Saboteur Ships

<Air Units>

Scouts -> Zeppelins
Dragons -> Nazgul

Feb. 2, 2000
Tolkien movie link : Q&A with Frodo (Elijah Woods). Reporter allowed to watch as the Fellowship runs from orcs into Lothlorien.
top

Jan. 30.

Sunday Meeting: (5pm CST, 5pm EST, 11GMT)
Attending (19): Aule, Beren/Erchamion, Bert, Daeron, Dior, Elendil, Eomer, Feanor, Fingolfin, Glaurung, Irmo, Isildur,
    Melkor, Thingol/Elwe, Tom, Tulkas, Ulmo, Varda, Voronwe. More came late and missed most of the business,
    but managed to get into the Tolkien discussion or at least say hi (normal).  Welcome also to our visitors: Xi,
    Tanja, Paladin, and JA)(~C()S
Membership:
    New this week. Welcome to: Celeborn
    Rejoining: Dior
    I'm sorry to say that Finwe had to leave the guild after his first day, for theft, duping, and hacking, and lying. He was
        caught in the act. Do not take items from him if he should show up, request that he leave, and leave yourselves if he
        refuses. He'll get the idea. This is standard with anyone who has to be removed, fortunately a rarity.
Web Team Report:
    Aule updated his pages, including the Tolkien mod dat that came out today.
    Anarion added a section of quotoble quotes from Tolkien to his page, The Council of the Istari.
Gaming:
    Fingolfin told us about the Tolkien.dat file added today, the 1/30, fixing a few bugs. It may be downloaded from the Varaya and Khan page or from Aule's Software page . Info on what was fixed is on the VK page.
    Discussion was held on whether LAN games for all guild characters should be allowed, or if it should be allowed only for people who don't have unlimited accounts, or allowed only for those overseas with prohibitively high costs for internet connection. It is being placed before the Council. Member input requested. The question came up because Fingolfin and Elrohir from Germany, who made the Tolkien mod, would like to be allowed to play their guild characters on LAN.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moment:
        Tom quoted from "The Flight of the Noldor", Silmarillion. Feanor made his oath and left Valinor. At the time of his leaving, Manwe sent a messenger stating that the oath made Feanor an exile, but the other elves were not yet in trouble and could exercise their free will to go with Feanor and fall under the oath, or to stay. Tom of the Guild said this showed that pride should not be held higher than making the right choice.
 

Jan. 29
    Welcome to our new member, Finwe. He's 15, from San Antonio, Texas. He remembered the Guild from conversing with Aule some while back, and was aided by Luthien to reach testers. Mandos (back and zooming throught the new mod!) and Varda tested. Congrats on a perfect 5/5 score! He's read the H, LotR, Sil, and a number of others.
    Dior has rejoined our Guild, welcome back! He was in it only briefly before, not the one from the Second Theme, for those who are asking.
    Anarion has added Tolkien Quotations to his page, Council of the Istari. These are the quotable quotes type, not Tolkien Moments.

Jan. 27
Letter from Khan/Fingolfin:
I just wanted to inform you that we have another updated dat on our page as
well as an EXE of that version. It fixes the very annyoing Necromancer bug
and some others
    Thanks Fingolfin! And also thanks for everyone who is helping check out the mod and letting others know of the bugs. Together we can help polish this great game!

Jan. 26
    Aule's Software Files page now has the Tolkien mod downloads and info! He has also done a fine job updating his entire set of pages. Thanks, Aule! This gives us two places to do these downloads.

Jan. 25
I'm sorry to have to explain this yet again. Do not bring items from outside the Tolkien mod into the Tolkien mod. We are not importing outside characters either. It is too close to cheating and can hurt the game synch. It is unfair to other players. If you have already done so, please remove the items from the Tolkien mod characters now. If you don't know which items, clear all items and start clean. This could be serious for those who continue to import.
    On the lighter side!: Elrohir and Fingolfin have fixed the b.net mod so that it can also use the graphics package (with the original .dll files). This means more of Tolkien's monsters. They also fixed the bug in the Cats that caused a crash when picking up chain mail off the armor rack. Thanks for your continuing hard work, team!!  Players, this is the same Tolkien mod as before, as it was intended to be, so you don't have to start over on anything. Just remember it is separate from the 9/8 VK game. Have a great time!

Jan. 24
Letter from Elrohir (aka Varaya) concerning the Tolkien mod for Diablo:
I have updated our page at http://www.glorious.de/vkmods
with a "mod troubleshooting" page which explains what to do if the mod is
not working correctly (i.e. what to do if anybody was a bit too eager with
installing everything found on our page ;) )

Welcome to our new member, Celeborn! He's 20, from Argentina (Beren, take note!) He has read the Spanish versions of the LotR and Sil. Gandalf scouted and tested.

Jan. 23
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST, 11GMT)
Attending (24): Anarion, Ancalagon, Aragorn, Boromir, Bullroarer, Daeron, Elrohir, Elros, Eomer, Felagund, Fingolfin, Gandalf, Glaurung, Imrahil, Indis, Irmo, Luthien, Makar, Manwe, Namo, Osse, Thingol, Ulmo, Varda
Membership Report: New members this week: Elrohir, Eorl, Fingolfin, Imrahil, Indis.
    Welcome to today's new member, Elrohir, aka Varaya of the Varaya/Khan team! He's from Germany, near Stuttgart. We are thrilled to have this team join us this week, especially after all they've done that's helped our Guild and all Diablo players!
Web Report:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia:
        New article: Balrog of Moria, by Varda
        New descriptions by Anarion: Gothmog, Formenos, Rivendell, Orcobal, Othrod
    Varaya and Khan Diablo mod page:
        The new page is up, with a link to it from the old page. See Gaming.
Gaming: Elrohir put the new Varaya and Khan page up, reachable from the old page , this evening, with the new Tolkien mod ready for download, and instructions on the page for the slightly different b.net and LAN set-ups. Elrohir and Fingolfin (aka Varaya and Khan) were still tweaking it during the meeting, together at Elrohir's house. They joined us at the meeting, although having to go to work in the morning. They do hope to show up for games pretty often, so watch for them and give them a hearty "Aiya!" and thank you.   Members at the meeting downloaded and beta tested, resulting in an improved dat file. Some people reported a problem of crashing on entering the dungeon, which Aule found was due to left-over info in the old cache file. This can be cleared in Windows Exporer or possibly by crashing a lot  :). More tweaking will surely be done later, but the mod is playable right now. The mod may be picked up from the Varaya/Khan page and, later, on Aule's Software Files page. For b.net play, just download the Tolkien.dat file. Email Varda for the game name, or ask someone who attended the meeting, or any Council member.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moments:
        From Gandalf - Pippin, although despairing, kills the great troll chief saving Beregond. This moment has the distinction
            of being the longest in Guild history, as well as being interesting and keeping people enjoyably occupied while
            downloading.
        From Manwe - Bilbo kills a spider, his first discovery that he can be heroic. This sparked a discussion of heroism, and
            the thought that Bilbo might very well be one of the greatest of the heroes. One reason is that he had the fibre, partly
            developed in his adventure with the dwarves, to give up the One Ring voluntarily even after having it so long. He
            was a fitting choice by the Valar to be a Ring Bearer.
    Tolkien Screensaver:
        From Imrahil: Sam vs Shelob

Jan. 22
Welcome to our new member, Imrahil! He's 13, from Kentucky, read the H, LotR, and Sil. He plays SC/BW, WC2, and some non b.net games, planning as we all are to get D2 if it comes out.  :)  Elros scouted. Aule tested, and said he is courteous. High praise from Aule! Thanks to Anarion and Luthien for your support.

Jan. 20
Welcome to our new member, Indis! She is 16, from Idaho, read the H, LotR, Sil (her favorite), and Unfinished Tales.  Scouted by Manwe, tested by Manwe and Ulmo.

Jan. 19
The Letter from Khan:
Ok then we are positive of releasing the mod this sunday. It's finsihed
sofar and needs only minor additions and fixes. We'll tell you if we won't
release it this weekend but I don't think this will happen.

May you be lucky in your search for Narsil or Grond.

The game name for this new mod will be announced at the Sunday meeting and by attempted email.
The general feeling in the Council right now is that this game will be so different, that it would be best to start new characters for the mod. If you really want to try it out with your old VK character, please remember to save first and expect your items to morph. Please don't pass these morphed items around. Some testing of that nature is planned, but not with the intention of keeping the characters.
Khan says a different folder is being provided for the Tolkien mod characters.
More cool news: Khan and Varaya intend to play the Tolkien mod, and may be able to drop in at the Sunday meeting.

Welcome to our new members!
    Khan (same as above) has joined us as Fingolfin !  He is 27 from Germany, and has read the H, LotR, Sil, and Unfinished Tales.
    Eorl, after discussions with Manwe, has joined. He has read the LotR and is starting the Sil.
We look foward to chatting and playing with you both.  :)

Jan 18
Congrats to the Guild! You no longer need to send any more ideas in to Varaya and Khan on the Tolkien modification for Diablo. Read on.
Letter from Varaya:
We are just about finished with the mod - today, we will apply the finishing
touches and playtest it. It took us longer than we initially thought, mainly
because

a.) we modified lots and lots of the monster - we even included some of the
Hellfire monster graphics/sounds, which will make the mod a 2.5MB download
b.) we put in dozens of new base items (in the style of ME, e.g., leather
armour/chain mail will be far more important than plate mail - plate mail is
only very, very rar)
c.) we replaced each and every unique item
d.) we put in some small, but nice surprises
e.) we had to think about and plan all of this. You should have witnessed
the discussions about unique items :) we really took this one pretty
serious, so expect something pretty nice

OK, we'll mail again when the thing is available for download

until then,

JB

Jan 18 (continued)
Encyclopedia:
    New article: Balrog of Moria by Varda, on the Maiar page.
    Images linked to Rolozo's Tolkien page tend to be be broken while he is re-organizing his pages. I don't have room to do my own image storage and apologize for the inconvenience. Link changes to his new places are now underway, and info on any problems would be appreciated.
    New descriptions: by Anarion - On the Maiar page: Gothmog . On the Places page: Formenos , Rivendell .  On the Orcs page: Orcobal , Othrod .

Jan 17
Welcome to Samwise, our new member from Denmark! Scouted by Elros, tested by Ulmo, passing with a 5/5 and showing more than entry level knowledge. He has read the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion. He's 14 and plays StarCraft. Unfortunately, no email at this time.

Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST, 11GMT)
Varda had to be absent for the meeting.  The Layton host was out of town (4 hours one way) helping Fangorn's brother make and mend fence and make a gate so we could move two mama cows and a calf into a good pasture.
Report from Ulmo:
Attendance:  about 14 members were present.
Web News:   Anarion's site  "Council of the Istari" has been further
upgraded
Membership:
    New member Samwise-(V)is our newest member.  He has chosen
        his favorite character, the answer he gave to my question #1 as his
        name.  He is 14 and hails from what is now our 3rd largest contributing
        country of Denmark.  If I recall correctly, one more and Denmark will
        have one Valar member per one million citizens (6,000,000 population).
        This should prove a hard record to beat!
    Amillo updated us on lost members and reported our membership to now be
        97.  Even after cleaning house we still have close to 100!
Tolkien Moment/Discussion:
    Irmo quoted from Celeborn's farewell speach
        at the end of LotR.  This led to a lively discussion on why Galadriel
        chose to sail to Valinor right away and Celeborn chose to remain for a
        while.b  Several side topics developed as well, hmm, I wonder how that
        happens  :)

Submitted by:
Ulmo

Jan 12
The Hobbit harp music CD may be ordered online from Fonix Music . The page has an interesting bit about the musician and a picture of him performing for the Tolkien Society. Thanks Amillo, for the info!

Jan 10
Maedhros has moved into a new home. Email remains the same, but he now has difficulty making the Sunday meetings.
Excerpts from Khan's letter today about the Tolkien mod:
    We are still working on it, so let those suggestions roll :)
    Well, if we knew specific things we'd just implement them ourselves :) what
we need are creative, new ideas like the thing with the axe (although it's
not possible). Just keep thinking. I'd say if we finish the uniqes next
weekend we could be releasing a few days after that (we'll see how long
bugsearching/squashing and playtesting need)

Jan 9
Sunday Meeting (5pm CST, 6pm EST, 11GMT)
Attending (19): Amillo, Aule/Taglos, Bandobras/Bullroarer, Bert, Daeron, Elros, Elwing, Eru, Felagund/Nom, Hurin, Irmo, Luthien, Makar, Orome, Thingol, Thorongil/Aragorn, Tom, Ulmo/Linqil, Varda
Membership Report:
    New member: Bert
    Dropped members for inactivity and no reply to emails: Amras, Bregalad, Durin, Feanor, Finarfin, Imrahil, Thorin
Web Report:
    Anarion's Council of Istarin has a new Linguistics Section with an Intro to Sindarin.
    Chrysophilax's photo index is now linked to the home page.
Tolkien:
     Names:
        Daeron told of more possible Maiar or Valar names from the Lost Tales, such as Danuin (Day), Ranuin (Month),
            Fanuin (Year), and Alluin (Time - the "oldest" Ainur)
    Movie News:
        Thorongil reports that Eowyn is indeed included in the movie, although not with many lines.
    Music:
        Amillo says email him for info on an excellent music CD from the animated movie, The Hobbit
    Tolkien Moments:
        Amillo: From the Silmarillion : the beginning of the Battle of Sudden Flame as Melkor sent rivers of flame.
        Thorongil: From Canto 9 of the "Lay of Luthien" in the Lays of Beleriand: Finrod, weaponless, slays the werewolf to
            save Beren, dying afterwards from wounds.
At this point, we were hit by massive netsplit which remained quite a while.
Maiar Test for Hurin:
    Hurin passed his Maiar test! He is now known as the Maiar Gandalf. Testers were Amillo, Aule, Makar, Ulmo,
        and Varda.

Jan 8
Letter from Gildor:
This is Gildor and I'm not going to be avalable for an
unknown amount time due to the fact that I have no computer:( .  I would like
to be able to keep my name and all and I might be able to drop in from time
to time but for the most part I will not be avalable.  Thank You.

Anarion has added to his Council of the Istari page (not to be confused with our guild's Council of Mahanaxar). He says:
Amongst lots of updates (I've been busy today), I have added the Introduction to Sindarin page to the Council of the
Istari (only the first installement though).

Jan 7
Welcome to Bert the Troll, our new member! He has read the Hobbit, LotR, and Sil. Scouted and tested by Varda, Isildur helping.

Jan. 5, 2000
Tolkien mod. Progress is definitely being made and I don't want to spoil the surprises. It does sound intriguing though!

Jan. 2, 2000
Sunday Meeting (6pm EST, 5pm CST, 11 GMT)
Attending (18): Aule/Taglos, Amillo, Elros, Elwing, Eru, Felagund, Gildor/Inglorion, Glaurung, Gothmog/Cosomot, Hurin, Irmo, Makar, Old Gaffer, Nori (late), Tom, Skinbark, Ulmo, Varda
Membership Report:
    New members this week:
        Glaurung and Chrysophilax. Impressively, both made it to the meeting. :)
    Letter from Mandos/Namo:
        Hail and well met Valar,
            Sorry I've been gone for so long....as Varda might have told
    you, I was down with pneumonia for a while. I had some family show up at
    my house for X-Mas (since I couldn't go out) figuring on doing me a
    favor by cheering me up. Unfortunately, one of them had the flu (or a
    cold) and gave it to me.....I was in the hospital the next day...and
    just got out today! Thanx a lot!
            Anyways.......happy late holidays to all of you.......I hope
    you all had fun.
        After thought:  If I was to die, would I go to Mandos?   :)
    Namo
Web Report:
    Annals of Arda by Amillo has a new layout.
    Chrysophilax has a page, including pix of himself.
    Aule's pages were scrambled when his isp re-organized. Hopefully all will be straightened out.
Gaming:
    V&K need specifics. Also, they will be using the 10/28 version and request that we let them know what we want to include from the 9/8 version that we liked so much.
Bots:
    ValarBuddy is the official bot of the Valar Guild. It is most useful for banning obnoxious strangers and giving info to potential recruits. It also gives a Tolkien Moment from the last meeting (changed weekly), for those of you who missed out.
    No other bots are allowed in the main channel, ours or outsiders, unless your gaming CD's are amongst the dead or missing. Of course you can set it up in your very own channel. This is due to the mis-use of bots that has been occurring lately.
Tolkien:
    Tolkien Moment:
        From Irmo: Sauron although beaten by Elendil and Gil-galad continues to have influence after death.
        From Irmo: The hobbits meet Goldberry.
    Discussion:
        What is Goldberry? Eru suggests that she is a Water Maiar who took humanoid form to be with Tom.

Jan. 1, 2000
Happy New Year!  :)

Letter from Anarion:
Heya! my computer playing
up...Christmas...fever...cough...cold...millennium celebrations a year
early.. I have not been seen around ol' castle valar that much
recently, I must admit. Still. It is given me a chance to watch some
tele! Also the coming of the 21st Century has given me a good excuse
to drink a lot of champagne! (hooray :). Let us hope that there will
be peace in this next century.
Anárion
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