2002 News Archives

Eonwë's article invited me to call into remembrance the "well-known" truth that Santa Claus is originally a folklore from Holland, the Dutch SinterKlaas was copied and introduced to the USA by the Coca Cola company at the start of last century:)).

Discussion about The Two Towers - of course - and on the old but never tiring questions - brought in by Beor - why dragons were not given wings from the start, and whether all balrogs had wings, and then discussion evolved into the question whether valar and valier really were distinguished by real gender, or just by male and female features.

It's Gwaihir, I can't get into my elrohir_16@hotmail.com account because I can only get online at school and hotmail's blocked by the proxy.
My processor fan broke on Saturday so I won't be able to get on for a while, just e-mailing to let you, and everyone, know why I'll be absent.

Namarie, 
Gwaihir

 Dec. 1, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
    Members(9): Beor, Curufin, Eonwe/Fionwe, Eru, Finwe, Gil-galad, Gwindor/Gwaindor, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
    Over the shoulder: Sauron
    Too Late: Gildor, Glorfindel, others
    Visitors: BerenCamlost (rude), Elenwe (did the membership info part of test), Musics4Me (programming for us)
Membership: 
    Beleg sent his regrets, unable to come, via Turgon.
    Glaurung was away from home and his computer at meeting time, sent regards via Turgon.
    Old Mablung dropped by about meeting time, but I missed the spelling on his new name and couldn't whisper. Something like Inkink but not.
    Turgon's primary email is now Turgon_V@swirvemail.com 
Web Report:
    Links page:
      New Links:
      Brobdingnagian Bards: Celtic Renaissance duo. Also on MP3.com page, very popular, with the CD, Memories of Middle-earth. Free samples from "Tolkien", "Mordor", and "Shadowfax".
     Fathom: Celtic rock band. They are also listed on the MP3.com page with the song, "Two Towers", inspired by the Two Towers book. Lyrics. Free download.  Link suggested by Carlos Bermudez
Gaming:
     Turgon hosted a tourney this weekend, four of the twelve who said they would come showed up. 
     Salmar is now on DaoC Europe, expects to be on DaoC USA and on EQ later.
Tolkien:
    Testing: Eru, Eonwe, and Varda went with Elenwe to do a test, but she needed to leave before completion. Turgon joined the testers who had started into a Tolkien chat waiting to see if she could return, and we did not return to the channel soon enough for any formal chat. 

Nov. 29, 2002
    Salmar is now on Dark Age of Camelot - Europe's Excalibur. He's waiting on his ordered USA DaoC with Expansion and EQ. He says not to worry, claiming we'll still see him on bnet too.

Nov. 28, 2002

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Nov. 26, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new article on the Hobbit page, "SamWise", by Mr. Nicki T. Hansen, aka GWiZ

Nov. 25, 2002
    The Two Towers movie made the cover of Times magazine. See the cover picture and articles at their online location.

Nov. 24, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST  b.net channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
    Members (17): Balin, Beleg/Cuthalion, Beor, Daeron, Dain, Elrond, Eomer, Eonwe (presiding), Finglas/Leaflock, Frodo, Glorfindel, Gwaihir, Gwindor/Flinding, Ori, Thror, Turgon, Varda
    Over the shoulder members (2): Oin, Sauron 
    Visitors (1): Elenwe (would like to join)
Membership: 130 full members  
    Beor: our new member was called on to say his few words of introduction.
    Ori is back! He came in on BroodWar, with Oin in over-the-shoulder attendance.
    Ulfang is also new, but did not make it to the meeting.
During the meeting, Diablo 2X members on East could not enter, receiving a Realms Down message.
    Letter from Eru:

I've been Blizzard product-less for a couple of weeks (gave back WCIII and took a while to get back D2), and when I tried to join the US-East realm for the Sunday meeting on 24th November, I kept getting a battle.net message which claimed that there were no realms available.

I'll keep trying a few times after I send this email.

Hope to speak with you soon!

Kind regards,
Eru Iluvatar, The One.

Web:
    News page: Varda is better and again doing the News page, letting Eonwe concentrate on the Gaming pages.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: articles this week from Varda on Elf page and Orc page. See Nov. 18 for list.
Gaming:
    EverQuest:
        Fourth expansion now available is "Planes of Power"
    Dark Age of Camelot:
        First expansion coming up is "Shrouded Isles"
    WarCraft 3:
        Trailers showing scenes from WarCraft 3 will be showing at various fantasy and science fiction movies to target the right audience. Movies listed as carrying the trailer are James Bond, LotR Two Towers, Star Trek: Nemesis, and Solaris.
        AMC Theaters has an additional WC3 promotion: patrons buying a large coke and a Butterfinger candy bar receive a CD with a WC3 demo and maps usable on the full scale CD. 
    Diablo 2 Expansion:
        The Rings game first tried out at the 5th Anniversary of the Valar Guild has been re-worked and needs your feedback. The new guidelines are listed on the Tourney page and on the News Nov. 21.
    Turgon's 3rd Anniversary:
        Turgon is hosting a tourney for his third anniversary in the guild. Quest for Three in any Diablo series games are this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Rings game (needs beta testers for the new guidelines) is Saturday. WarCraft 3 is Saturday and already has 7 members signed up. For more details, see Turgon's page. 
    Non-PC:
        Dain told about the versions of LotR games he's tried out on non-computer playing. They sound like fun.
Tolkien:
    Toys: Elrond-(V), while surfing the internet, came across the toys for the upcoming Two Towers movies at Toybiz. They appear to be of better quality than the ones for Fellowship, notably Legolas and the Easterner. They can be found a number of places, probably including, as Daeron suggested, Electronic Boutique and, as Eonwe mentioned, are now at regular stores, others certainly by Christmas.
    Topic from Daeron-(V): Why was Saruman head of the Istari?
        Lively discussion, including that he had ring knowledge as a Maia of Aule, and liked power. Aule and Melkor had similar abilties, with the difference that Aule enjoyed the making and Melkor enjoyed the having. Saruman became prideful and fell after going to Middle-earth.
    Topic from Eonwe-(Valar): Once the Ainur came to Arda, it was evident the Valar had a purpose. This was to shape Arda and watch over it, protect it. Melor, on the other hand, deemed it his purpose to destroy all that his brethren made if he could not twist it to his own. Which do you think most completely accomplished his purpose?
    Lively discussion, Valar winning. (Talk continued but I unfortunately had to leave and the scroll crashed during supper.)

Nov. 22, 2002
    Blizzard, starting today, is putting a trailer for WarCraft III in such movies as "James Bond: Die Another Day", "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers", "Star Trek: Nemesis", and Solaris. AMC Theaters adds the incentive, that if a patron buys a large Coca Cola drink and a Butterfinger candy bar, he receives a WC3 game sampler CD with a demo of 3 single player missions and new multiplayer maps usable with the full version.

Nov. 21,  2002
    D2X: After some difficulties discovered in the beta test of our Rings game, here are the revised guidelines:
Rings Game:
    In Diablo 2 Expansion, we choose up two teams, preferably 4 versus 4, everyone starting at level one, any class. One player on one team stands in for Gandalf and, on the other, for Sauron. Each team collects rings, up to all 20 from the poem. The rings are not considered collected until they are in Gandalf or Sauron's stash. The rings can be special ones stashed around the game by a teleporter who is not a hunter, but these rings will disappear within an hour, sometimes faster, and the teleporter may put them too deep or stir up monsters excessively for lower level characters to handle. So we suggest finding rings natural to the game. The twentieth ring would be the One Ring, and an automatic win for whichever team finds it, so keep track of the number stashed, perhaps several people keeping a tally paper. Most of all, have fun! This can be a way to start new characters for normal play, or work up mules, or for characters deleted right after.

    Turgon is setting up a gaming event for his third anniversary in the guild. Hey, any excuse for playing! His page has the details.

Nov. 18, 2002
    Ulfang, Welcome to the Valar Guild! He's 29, from New York state in the US, EST. He came in as GrondTheHammer after finding us on the web and emailing. He tested 5/5 with Varda, Glaurung observing. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, UT, Sauron's Defeat. Sil was his favorite. His favorite LotR character is Eowyn. He can be found on AIM as rhaated . He plays NeverWinter Nights and D2, may get D2X in the future. He has but doesn't play SC, BW, and WC3, and is online weekly. He had a laugh when I typed Aiya Glaurung, since he says Aiya in Chinese means "uh-oh". No, he doesn't know a lot of Chinese.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia - new articles by Varda:
        Elf page: "Celebrian", "Lalaith"
        Orc page: "Orc, the Word", "Orc Types and Gear", "Gorbag", "Grishnakh", "Lagduf", "Lugdush", "Mauhur", "Muzgash", "Radbug", "Shagrat", "Snaga", "Ugluk"

Nov. 17, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:
    Members: Beleg/Cuthalion, Daeron, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Legolas/Greenleaf, Rog, Salmar (presiding), Thingol, Turgon, Varda
    Visitors: *Elenwe - friend of Turgon's from England; *V-Olwe - from Clan Valar, took test after meeting and became *Beor-V
Membership: 128 with Khamul
    Khamul, new member, said his "few words". Has a LotR map for WC3 for all to play with.
    Turgon is excited about his upcoming 3rd anniversary in the guild, would like to celebrate, maybe gaming.
    Balin: says hi. Has to miss meeting
    Eol: comp problems, emailed to say still with us
Web:
    Story page: "Cirdan's Goodbye", by Daeron-V
Gaming:
    World of Warcraft rpg starting next year, not long. We will have a guild there, so please use your guild name. May need to put a v on the end to use the name, such as Orome's using Oromev. We will have Valar guild marks on such things as shields.
Tolkien:
    Discussion of how metal made by the elves in Gondolin or Eregion could glow in the presence of orcs. Possible input from Maeglin, Eol's son, on special techniques with metal infusion.
    Entry test for V-Olwe who became Beor-V, by Salmar and Varda.
   Beor, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Beor is also in Clan Valar as V-Olwe. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, Farmer Giles, and Roverandom. He tested 5/5. He plays WC3 almost exclusively although he does have D2X. He cannot give out his email or AIM address, parental requirement. He's from Illinois in the USA, CST. He gets to be online 7 hours a week.

Nov. 13, 2002
    An email from Eol to let us know he's still with us:

The lack of home internet and a crack-down on internet usage at work has left me horribly out-of-the-loop.  Plans are in the works for me to have online access once again... but it is slow going.  Until then I will peruse the Guild pages as often as possible and email when I can.

Namarie,

Eol

     We also have a new addition to the Story Page: “Cirdan’s Goodbye” by Daeron.  This is a working title at the moment, and may change.
    Khamul, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Khamul has been visiting as V-Mordor, leader of Clan Valar. He's 14, from New York state in the USA, EST. He plays WC3 mostly, and a great many other games. He's read a few chapters of the H, all of the LotR, and part of the Sil. He made a WC3 Middle-earth map which guild members have been helping beta test. His favorite LotR character is Gollum.

Nov. 11, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending: Report by Eonwë and Beleg
    Members (127 listed on the Member page)(11 present): Alatar, Beleg, Daeron, Dain, Eonwë/F.Urion (Presiding), Gwaihir, Gwindor, Mahtan, Rog, Thror, Turgon
    Came in during chat: Gil-Galad, Ecthelion
    Came in after main chat, but stayed to join in after-meeting chat: Elwing, Frodo, Fëanor, Meriadoc, Varda
Membership:  by Eonwë
    Amarie sends her regards via Turgon.  She regrets she is not able to be on bnet for a while, as she is having problems getting D2 to work with Win XP.
    Cirdan changed his name to Daeron.
Web: None
Gaming: by Eonwë
    Warcraft 3 has update 1.04, which changes many things in the game, and at least in my opinion, some of them are for the better :}
Tolkien:
    At first we talked about the upcoming Two Towers movie and how we hope things are in it.  Somehow this discussion steered itself into talking about the Noldor and Fëanor, and how they would fare against Morgoth under different conditions.  After this had died down, some had come in and those of us remaining engaged in a lively after meeting chat :}  Varda reports she received the One Ring and Sting for her birthday :}  Happy Birthday Varda! :}

Nov. 10, 2002
    Cirdan has changed his name to Daeron.
    Thorondor emailed. He's still serving his year in the Norwegian army and says hi. He can be emailed at eagle@welho.com
    Warcraft 3 has a new patch out.
    October’s news has moved to the  2002 News Archives, a clean-up I try to do every month to improve loading speed for current news. 

Anyone who'd like one of the LotR posters(there're Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and an Orc) in two sizes: large and small, e-mail me(elrohir_16@hotmail.com)... for US residents, it'll be $25 for two posters... with $2 extra per small poster or $4 for each large(on top of the initial two, which can be of either size). This price is for anyone who wants AT LEAST one large poster... if you want all smalls the pricing will be different. I haven't figured out the exact yet, but it'll probably be a fair bit cheaper. I'll give my address for sending the money to when you e-mail me... and when I get the money, I'll send the posters to you. For any Canadian residents... it'll be a great deal cheaper... around 10 I believe... not 100% sure though...
Thanks!

    A person named Elwing (not our Guild’s Elwing) has informed us of a musical project she has been working on.  This is the e-mail she sent:  

"Anyone who'd like one of the LotR posters(there're Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and an Orc) in two sizes: large and small, e-mail me(elrohir_16@hotmail.com)... for US residents, it'll be $25 for two posters... with $2 extra per small poster or $4 for each large(on top of the initial two, which can be of either size). This price is for anyone who wants AT LEAST one large poster... if you want all smalls the pricing will be different. I haven't figured out the exact yet, but it'll probably be a fair bit cheaper. I'll give my address for sending the money to when you e-mail me... and when I get the money, I'll send the posters to you. For any Canadian residents... it'll be a great deal cheaper... around 10 I believe... not 100% sure though..."

Dear  Lady Varda,
thank you for  your appreciation, and for  putting my review on you site and the banner as well.
Do not be impressed for my English : I wrote the review in Italian , and then I paid a mother language person to translate it into English !
If you have a tolkienian friend of yours capable to understand Italian, I shall send you a copy of the book Introduzione a Tolkien for having published an English review of it on your web site. In this case you should write me the postal address of that person.
I am not able to get the money to pay a person for translating the issues of Endore magazines into English, but if you find out somebody in your country, I shall send you freely all the word files and give you the permission to publish all the issues either on the web or on paper.
Thank you again
Ciao !

Franco

A couple of days ago Blizzard brought out the 1.03 patch for Warcraft 3.  It made some unit changes, as well as fixed some bugs, and also gave us the ability to assign different unit sounds to units in the World Editor.  The changes are a bit long to include in an e-mail.

Also, just a few hours ago, V&K released version 1.8 of the Middle-Earth mod.  They were hoping to hold back until 1.10 for LoD came out, but decided to go ahead and release it now.  It contains some changes, some fixes, and some additions.  Of course, since ME 1.8 is out, Blizzard will release patch 1.10 any day now and make V&K have to go back and create v1.9   I'd almost say it was safe to hold your breath,... but I won't :}

Elatan will be my choice of name. The choice of a character, forefather to a line of royal blood who never abandoned the true wisdom and remained faithful to the old Gods.

 As you may have discovered by now I have chosen to step down from the Council due to my lack of appearence on B.net and what follows of that. I have no intensions of leaving the Valar guild and I will keep the Memberpage for as long as it is needed unless you deem it should be done by another.

 I am sorry if it comes at a bad time and I admit I should have done it 6 month ago when I tried to set up a letter but I guess I hoped for some kind of change in my mind.

It has been 3½ year wonderful years in the Council and I will miss the laughs and the at times annoying mailbox-stuffings but the time has come to step down and let another eager soul try his strength.

 

Amillo

I can't attend the meeting today because of a family get together. I wish to convey that I am happy to be in the guild and I will try to get more active in it. 

Namarie,
Feanor

       Well, as many of you who I have talked to have heard me complain about many many times, I am a complete web master failure.  Apparently I messed up on the design of my Map collection, and due to lack of time I am not going to fix it.  Instead that will act as a list, any who wants a map or maps email me the name of maps that you want, and I will reply with an attachment of the items you requested.  Now be sure that the maps are spelled perfectly.  As you can tell there are many similarly spelled maps, so to avoid confusion please be sure the spelling is correct.  Sorry for taking so long to those who have emailed me, but sending an 8 mg file with dial up connection (AOL) takes forever, and I need to have a good hour and half of nothing in order to send.  So it may take me awhile to reply.  My email is AJMfalcon@aol.com 

Greetings all and happy anniversary

It has been a long time since I was by B.net. Several reasons for it but none mentioned here   The Moment has to me always been a great pleasure and something I look forward to hear. Though, when I had to do it, it more and more often ended up in what to me was interesting information from other sources than LotR presented as short, sometimes rather long stories. At least for B.net 
 I intend to get to the meeting this Sunday ( sorry I can`t today ) with a little piece of original poetry I have never seen before : Celebrian`s Farewell to Elrond. 
In its true origin it was written in Quenya but Forodrim, a Swedish Tolkien oriented group made a translation into English in 1973 and published it in their journal Palantiren.
 This piece is not meant as an topic to discuss, at least not for me. It can stand alone   Still, it may lead into a chat of what has and always will touch me, the great lovestories and their often bitter ends.

Hope to see you all Sunday.
Amillo

THe Updated Games Page is now on the web :}  Most notable changes/additions are the addition of two new player listings, NeverWinter Nights and Half-life/Half-life mods, and a new links page, Azeroth and Surrounding Realms.  The latter is for links involing any of the Warcraft series games, and has at this moment links to Blizzards pages on WC3 and WoW, as well as a link to Marn Thunderhorn's WC3 Guide, the WC3 equivalent of the Arreat Summit.

I removed the section D2 mods and the link to the 1.08 Patch on the D and kin page.  Instead, I put a section called D2 Patches and linked it to blizzard's patches page, which has the current patches on the page, plus links to the older D2 and LoD patches(just remember LoD is 1.07 or you'll wonder where all the LoD patches are :})  Since the ME mod (and probably most other mods)  have gone over to LoD, I thought we didn't need to have the 1.08 patch up anymore.

Also, about discussion groups.  I realize this comes a bit late (darn real life :}).  If anyone would like to get together Friday and discuss the Sil or the Histories, I will be glad to host a discussion.  I will try to be on bnet/DB Chat room around 1pm Eastern time.  If anyone would like to attend who does not normally get on bnet I would be most happy to move the discussion into the DB chat room, or even just hold it there.  I will try to bring a few good topics (and have one or two formulating as we speak :}), but if anyone would like to suggest some for consideration that'd be great :}

Take care :}
Eonwe

As everyone (hopefully :}) knows, the deadline to send in gaming info for the Mass-Update was yesterday (Sept 30th).  The complete updating should be done and up either tonight or tomorrow.  I'd like to say thanks to all who sent in their info for making my updatng easier, and to those who haven't yet that I'd still like them to send it in, preferably sooner than later.

Take care :}
Eonwe

If you want to enter the lands of Arda (Middle earth) at this moment, you will need to download the 66,9MB hakpak.
You can find it here:

http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/hakpacks/data/1032629952958.shtml

Just unzip the file into your neverwinter nights/NWN directory and then connect to the server 24.68.237.6

I haven't tried the hakpak yet (D/l'd it though), but will do so as soon as possible. Although, at this moment the servers seems to be down. Sindi is probably updating the server with the hakpak, so please be patient for a while.

With regards,

A'dicne neverwinter
Member of Caledonn
The NwN part of Moralltach
With great power comes great responsibility

This is a message regarding the NWN server.
Note that this server has its chars stored on the server, so there is little chance of cheaters :}

Elen sila lumen omentielmo
Turgon

Lost addy books are a pain.....thats why I use the "export" function and
drop a copy on another drive or possibly the root directory.  I also export
a copy of my WinDoze registry to another place when I install a new game (or
prog) on the off-chance it  goes 'poof' on installing.

This is a nice game
This game is my first work.
You're the first player.
I hope you would like it.

 sorry to respond so late, i had probs with my computer, but now im up and
running again

new machine (AMD 1800+) and Cable, yeeeehaw 

Thank you for sending me the new pw, i will join in D2 games from time to
time.
Best wishes

Galadriel-Valar

Greetings,
Rumil-V here, just sending word that I do have
Warcraft III and do intend on playing it, but I don't
know how much and/or how soon.  I still haven't beaten
the campaign and I intend on doing so before
multiplayer.  Family... issues and work and other
stuff take up a lot of time.  But I hope to see you
and the rest of the guild online as much as possible.
Namarie

Trolls:

Bert

William

Tom

Ents:

Old Man Willow

Leaflock

Skinbark

Bregalad/Quickbeam

Spiders:

Shelob

Attercop used derogatorily

Dragons:

Smaug

Chrysophilax

Scatha

Orcs:

Gorbag

Shagrat

Hobbits:

Farmer Maggot

Gaffer

Gollum (aside from a poem, no character description of any sort)

Pippin

Sam

Merry (aside from a poem, no character description of any sort)

Rosie Cotton

Ted Sandyman

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

Bullroarer

Dwarves:

Thror

Thrain

Fili

Kili

Bombur

Dain

Floi

Oin

Nori

Ori

Gimli

Gloin

Mankind:

Beorn

Denethor

Hama

Grima Wormtounge

Places:

Henneth Annun

Amon Sul

I'll be online much less frequently now.  The army starts in a week, and
it means that I'm off from there rarely. Some weekends and Christmas, perhaps.

-Thorondor

  Banned visitors: *10011000100100 (XRandomHeroX), *Dough_Boy (EricsJavelinZon), *Stormrape (Wench_forHire and others), *SL_Mystical, *xVIx (hYdra_Trix), *gollop (inuterce), *Natchez (Anti-Aux), *doe2, *monkeybonesz

Hi everyone, well it is finally here. After many hours and a lot of work by all concerned the site is now open. I will keep this short and just say a big thanks to all who have and are helping build the site.

We would be honoured if you would stop by and say hello and let us know what you think.

Regards

James aka Fatty

http://warofthering.net

Heyas all,

 

I will not be able to attend meeting tonight, going fishing early in the morning and have to get up at 0400 local time so i need the hours.  
Next week ill be on vacation and thus not comming for that meeting either.

 Hope you are all well and doing fine. Take care and group hug :)

 

See you

Amillo 

From Varda:1.) Book by TA Shippey titled JRR Tolkien Author of the Century

From Wassa: 3.)  Is Treebeard the oldest living thing?

Hail all! :}
My apologies for missing the meeting yesterday.  The computer I had to use has recently had all its programs deleted and reinstalled, and now for some reason either the internet connector program or modem gives us problems trying to connect to the internet.  I spent the entire 30 minutes before meeting time trying to connect, but to no avail.

Aiya,

Unfortunately I won't be at the meeting tonight.
I have a six-hour written exam tomorrow morning, so I'm gonna get some serious dreaming done instead!

Have a good meeting,
Irmo.

I have sad news...as of 2 july this year i have to enter the army for a year. I fear i will have few opportunities to interact with the guild during this time, as i will be stationed gods know where...

But i have hope that i will be able to retain my membership despite this, and if you have patience I will be back

Beregond

P.S: I will probably have access to E-mail, but not much more, so I will be able to watch the happenings of the guild, but not participate...

hail all

 

I have not had internet for the last month and been having major computer problems hope to be up and running soon again fairthee well all.

 

Fingon

Still well and fine... still playing and hoping to participate in the ladder team.  Sorry I can't get to meetings - a change to my work schedule just won't allow it.  Thinking of you all...

 

Finrod

 

*also there's a neat photo competition on LoTRonline too...

The old schol diablo times were good ones as were the vk times and my brief glory days with a high-kings axe of haste.   Looking back i think the friendship and fun helped me through those monotonous hours between school and the parents getting home. And i still have good memories of actually getting to know what some of you were like Aule and Morgoth (when i visited you in colorado).  It was definitely a pleasure.  So those of you who remember me wish me luck with life as i go into my 3rd year of college, keep trying to grow up and figure out who i am. Once again, they are, without a doubt, warm memories!

God bless you all,

formerly known as Tuvo.

Hail,

I should have done this long ago. You may count me out of the guild. I leave Ilmare to someone who will make a better use of that name than I did.

I have internet at home now and I tried to get back to the guild. But it seems to me that nothing is much the same anymore in the channel. Or maybe I am the one who changed...

Well, I had a great time with you guys when I used to be there every days (and even nights sometimes), but this time is over now.

Babaille and may Valar Guild have a long existence!

Heyas,

 

I did not forget last nights meeting but due to a massive huge attack upon our realm, ( Midgard In DaoC ) It was impossible for me to leave the game and my guildmates there for the meeting. A realm wide Call for Arms may not, at my lvl, just be ignored. So I simply had to stay.  

 Well the war went fine, we fended the attackers off and even brought the war into their grounds and took one of their forts.  A great night for Midgard :) 

 

Hope you all had a nice meeting.

 

Amillo

I noticed that Thingol posted a few links with free
online games on them.  Well, I have another one to
add; Synthetic Reality (www.synthetic-reality.com)'s
Well of Souls.  It's a RPG that can be played both
online and off.  One of its advantages is that you can
bring a single-player character online and not be
penalized.

P.S. If anyone's interested, e-mail me.  I'm always
looking for companions when I'm slaying evil
wizard-types 

Signing out,
Glorfindel

If The Lord of the Rings Were an Episode of Star Trek: Voyager
http://scifi.about.com/bllordofthevoyager.htm
Heehee.  I thought you'd like this.

It's been a long while I've been away at school for the past six months
working my tail off and having a heck of a good time.
Unfortunately the amount of work I have means I don't get much time to spend
on games. I live with three Tolkien and Star Wars freaks which is a lot of
fun. I am currently well on my way to attaining my animation degree and have
been putting some serious work into my project. I have been going on tours
of animation studios the most recent being an indepth look at Big Idea
Studios the creator's of Veggie Tales. My pal Wonchul and I are hoping to
tour all the game and animation studios in the area in the next few months,
maybe after that we'll head to the west coast and hit Blizzard and Valve who
knows! I'll try and pop onto b.net on sunday to say hi to everyone.

Namarie,
Menelvagor

P.S. The new site me and my friends are working on is up at
www.vertigolabs.org/bbs2 the only functioning section for the next few days
is under  - The Work  and then under Silencer go to Art . I hope to get the
rest of the site up in the next week. Talk to ya all soon.

May 9, 2002
    Barahir left the guild due to difficulties with bnet. He is back home to Norway from Spain.

May 8, 2002
    Tourney Record!The Quest for Three in Diablo 2 Expansion record has been set today at 33 by the team of Alatar, Bert, and Salmar. See a detailed report by Alatar at the top of the Tourney page , along with the tables for such records at the bottom of the page.
    New Tolkien Encyclopedia article under Elves: Anaire by the Lady Vasiliki, whose questions caused both her and me to update the Encyclopedia.
    Sweep: We are receiving many sweep replies, including Undeliverable Emails. Active members are listed in green. More details are on the Active Member s page.
    Undeliverable emails are endangering these members: Arwen, Bard, Bombur, Fram, Gandalf, Gil-galad, Gorbag, Grishnakh, Guilin, Nori, Turin, Tuor, and Ulwarth. (Names now in danger zone red.)
    We are still waiting to see if 53 more members are active (Names now in black.)

May 7, 2002
    Sweep mails complete.
    Thorondor reports that the virus wrecking his internet connection is now repaired. Diablo, watch out!
    Link to Eorl-(V)'s site: http://www.g-landgames.com/lothlorien.htm with a hearty hail back to him. :) It's been fun reading the battle reports on G-Lands.

 Letter from Girion:

Yes, I want to keep my membership. My access to BattleNet has been extremely limited with finals and whatnot. I will not be on over the summer because I will be studying Spanish in Mexicoand in the fall my ability to participate will also be marginalized because I will be interning in DC. Thanks, Girion

May 6, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new and updated articles by Varda: Elves: "Aredhel", "Finarfin", "Fingolfin"; Powers: "Orome" with a Nahar addition.

May 5, 2002
    Letter from Thingol with free game links:

     Thingol here! It's been a while since I've played
online and its been even longer since I've been too a
meeting   But, my Valar buddies have never been far
from my thoughts!  I just ran across a few  FREE
online games that some of our fellow members might
enjoy (They seem to be real-time games).  I don't have
time to explain them right now, but I do have the
links.  http://swirve.com/ has two really neat games,
one is called Earth 2025 (Futuristic Country/War
Management/Co-Op Game) and the other is Utopia
(Fantasy Kingdom War Management/Co-Op Game)  The third
one is called Simcountry (Nuff Said   This is its
link http://sim01.simcountry.com/browse.html  Hope to
be back gaming with you all soon! 

Elu Thingol 

May 5, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
    Bandobras/Bullroarer, Bert, Denethor, Dior, Eonwe (presiding), Erestor/Erestar, Gwaihir, Gwindor/Flinding, Imrahil, Salmar/Lirillo, Thranduil, Thror, Varda
    Visitors were present, but were asked to leave during the business meeting. This allowed us to say some things that we normally could not in front of outsiders. They were welcomed back for the Tolkien chat.
Membership: 153
    The sweep is now ongoing. Inactive names will be removed in June. Be sure to contact Varda to reserve your name, if yours does not show up as Active on the new Member Activity page.
Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia Maps page: Huge digital map of the Shire and updated link for the digital map of Arda by Gecko Artist are up. Amillo and Varda agree they are beautiful maps.
    Varaya and Khan's mod page and forum moved to Phrozen Keep's server.
    SC/BWTolkien maps: Dior is working on the Tolkien StarCraft/BroodWar map page, having some difficulties, but don't forget to send him the maps you locate. Your review of maps you send is also a help. Be sure to say so if you made the map yourself, with or without others to credit.
    Member Activity page: new, to help everybody keep track of the sweep, which is going slower than usual.
Gaming:
    D2X: In June a patch will be coming out. New characters made after that time will not be able to play or trade with characters from before that patch. This is intended to aid in game balance and to increase difficulty. The Council has decided to make some new characters over scratch at that time. We will probably keep an old Hell difficulty character available to be able to enter the old style games at need, at least until everyone converts over. At the rate bnet is "expiring" characters after only a few weeks in some cases, we may all be switching over involuntarily after a while. ME mod will be updated for this patch.
    Report on this patch from Eonwe:
  New D2:LoD patch 1.10 slated for June.  Adds a new type of
 character called a ladder character.  It will be made similar to making
 an expansion or hardcore character in that you will have to check a
 box.  You will still be able to play current characters, and make 1.10
 characters that can play will older characters.  These ladder characters
 will be in a separate economy from other characters and will not be able
 to play with normal(pre-1.10 and 1.10 non-ladder) chars. (From what I
 have read, I assume that these chars will become normal chars at the end
 of the ladder season, and so each ladder season will start with a fresh
 economy.)

    D2X Middle-earth: name of games
    Dark Age of Camelot: Celebrimbor is now in DaoC. Look out for the Ring-maker, Melkor and Orome!
Tolkien:
     Erestor: During a previous discussion, a person asked whether the land of Valinor gave power to its inhabitants. Erestor wished to address that question and explained quite well how the Valar brought their own power with them.
    Thranduil: Do you think that Earendil was a good father? He left his children Elrond and Elros, only four years old, and went to Valinor. Elwing left them as well, joining Earendil. Maglor brought them up lovingly.
    The concensus had it that at four years old, the children probably could handle the change of guardianship pretty well. Once they became older, they would be able to understand the enormous contribution their father and mother made, returning the silmaril to Valinor and speaking for both the First and Secondborn Children of Iluvatar, as was awaited in prophecy that had to be fulfilled so that the Valar could once again give them aid. Elrond and Elros could continue daily to see their father and mother as the brightest star and as the dawn, so their separation was not complete.

May 4, 2002
    Celebrimbor is having bnet problems due to a firewall. This is happening to a number of people. If you have this problem on a home comp, try checking your settings and family permission to see if it can be removed or taken down temporarily during play. Celebrimbor is able to come in on friends' computers, but not on Sunday for the meetings.
   

May 3, 2002
    I'm pretty sure some of you guys getting the Sweep mail are active, but I can't prove it on "paper" and need your replies. Thanks. :)
    Azog's computer fried in a power surge, but he hopes for a new one on his birthday May 8. He is still with us. Good luck to you, Azog!
    Bandobras Bullroarer is still with us and says he hasn't been able to bump into fellow guild guys in weeks, although he's been on quite a bit. Look him up, guys!
    Ulmo is out of state, possibly picking up a boat. :) Is he well-named or what?
    Aldor is having internet connection problems, so he is now trying to set up a DSL. He also says his time zone of GMT+2 in Finland causes problems with making it to meetings and finding fellow players.
    Azaghal says hi, could not enter Baldur's Gate II games with others probably due to a firewall. Playing Planetarion mostly now and looking for Valar guild company

April 30, 2002
    D2X patch scheduled for June. V&K will be updating for it.
    Letter from Khan:

Hail

I just wanted to let you all know that V&K Mods changed hosts - we are now
part of Planetdiablo's Phrozenkeep Mod community. The new URL for the D2
MEmod is www.Planetdiablo.com/VKmods and the forum is found in the forums
section of www.Planetdiablo.com/Phrozenkeep

Khan
  

April 29, 2002
    Letter from Gecko Artist (map added to Encyclopedia's Maps page):
Hi!

    He also has a huge digital map of Arda , included on our Map page.

April 28, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT bnet channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
    Dropped in before meeting as he can't stay during meeting time: Amandil
    Azaghal, Denethor, Dior, Eonwe/Fionwe (presiding), Erestor/Erestar, Fladrif, Gwaihir (doubling on DB), Gwindor/Gwaindor, Isildur, Khamul, Thror
    Over the Shoulder: Earwen
    During Tolkien chat: Elros, Smeagol
    After meeting: Glaurung
 Membership: 153
    Eol returned, now that he once again has a phone connection.
    Feanor sends regards, waiting on a new internet connection.
    Luthien is not well. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her.
    Letter from Salmar on April 29, partial:

    Note from Varda: Out of town during the meeting, but sent email to Council before leaving as usual.
Web:
    Articles by Gwaihir: Descriptions on Aragorn(as Strider), Gandalf, Sam, and Boromir.  Thanks to him for doing that digging! :}
    By Eonwe: An article on Athelas, and a paper on Gandalf's death.
Gaming:
    Amandil now has D2X Lord of Destruction.
    Eomer is now trying Dark Age of Camelot.
    Denethor is playing the Middle-earth mod of D2X and says it's great!
Tolkien: report by Eonwe-(Valar)
    Tolkien Chat: Topic from Eonwe (on which I decided I would play "Melkor's advocate" :})
    Should the Eagles be considered one of the Free Peoples?
    Dior: yes, they fought just like everyone else did to protect the "free people"
    Gwaihir: of course, we're sentient
    Eonwe: But why? they are not among the Children of Iluvatar, or the Dwarves whom He hallowed.
    Gwaihir: Manwe created us and we are as sentient as humans
    Dior: If not moreso
    Eonwe:  Are you sure?  Even the lesser birds could talk, yet they are not considered Free Peoples.
    Khamul: well that's just wrong then
    Dior: Eagles fought against the Dark Lord though
    Gwaihir: Ah, but did any of the other birds participate so actively in the wars against two Dark Lords?
    Eonwe: They(lesser birds) acted as spies on both sides of the War.
    Dior: they just flew around and talked but none fought
    Gwaihir: But that was someone's command, we did it of our own volition... or Manwe's
        --Lesser birds were asked to do something, we surprised everyone when we helped

    In this discussion, we lightly touched on whether Huan was also a Free Person, and also somewhat on what constitutes a free person.
    In the end, the concensus seemed to be that Gwaihir and his people may, at least for now, claim the title of "Free Person" :} 

April 27, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia : New articles by Eonwe-(Valar):
        "Athelas ": the article is on the Plants of Arda page with information from the Histories of Middle-earth as well as Lord of the Rings.
        "Gandalf's Death ": link to the paper from the Maiar page under Gandalf.

    Letter from Luthien:
    I would like to apologize for my absence, I have not been feeling well and won't be for awhile.
I am still very interested in staying with the Valar guild and will try to read the webpage as often as possible to stay on top of things.
I hope to return as soon as possible.

Luthien

April 26, 2002
    Letter from Feanor:

Hiya All....


Must've been a long time since I wrote here 
I'm happy to report that I've recently moved to my own home and I'm 
starting to get things in order. Unfortunetaly my financial sitiution 
isn't that good, so I'll have to wait before reconnected to the net 
again 

I just can't wait to get reconnected and talk to all you guys on 
b.net again.

Elen sila lumen omentielmo 
Feanor.

April 22, 2002
    New Tolkien Encyclopedia articles, by Gwaihir! They are descriptions from the Fellowship of the Rings of Aragorn as Strider, Boromir, Gandalf, and Sam. These are very valuable for their own sake as it takes much digging, and for artists doing the anime movie with DarGab, role-playing artists, calendar artists, and other artists as well as word-smiths. Please feel free to send in your own research to Varda for this special project, needed for virtually everything in Tolkien.
    Congrats to Amandil! He now has D2X and showed up ready to play!
    Eol is back, now that his phone connection has returned to life. He may not be on as much as he could be, for the fun reason of a fine lady lighting his eye.
    Luthien is going into the hospital where they will be doing tests. They don't know what is wrong, but have ruled out a brain tumor. Her brother, Eomer, could use our support, and Luthien our prayers and good wishes.
    Eomer is now trying out Dark Age of Camelot. Maybe Orome and Melkor can catch him there.  :) He also plans to try WC3 when it comes out, along with many others in the guild!

April 21, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT bnet channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending: (19)
    Amandil, Curufin/CraftyKnight, Denethor, Eonwe/Fionwe, Erestor/Erestar, Fangorn, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Gwaindor, Herumor, Irmo, Khamul, Melkor, Pippin, Salmar/Nandaro, Thorondor, Thranduil, Thror (handles bot), Varda (presiding)
    Glaurung came by after the meeting.
Membership (153):
    Alatar is our new Maia! He used to be Aldarion.
    Amandil is our newest member. He could not stay long enough to say his "few words", but we'll try to catch him another time.
    Curufin said his few words. :)
    Earwen, Dior's sister, joined after the last meeting.
    Khamul reminded us after the meeting how important it is to show up for Guild activities, to keep a guild together. He has seen other bnet groups break up and expressed concern for this one. For those who can't make meetings, they can check the minutes on the News, discuss Tolkien on the Discussion Board, and email Varda to bring up issues at the meeting or in Council email discussions. The Council does not meet online for discussions, but by email.
    The Guild Sweep has begun. Please make contact with Varda or the Discussion Board before we clear inactive names from the web pages and put them up for new member use. My email is layton2@flex.net
    The Valar Guild is not just a Diablo club. We play all online games and make web pages for Tolkien and all online games. Please remember to let Eonwe know which online games you are playing and use a name as close as possible to your guild name for recognition, even where we have no formal guild in that game.
Web News:
    Links Page: 3 new Tolkien music links:
        Blind Guardian, found by one of our former Bilbos
        Led Zeppelin & Tolkien Relations Page, found by Folca
        Stairway to Middle-earth, found by Folca
Gaming:
    Before the meeting, 6 people were playing together in D2X: Alatar, Bert, Curufin, Elendil, Salmar, Thorondor.
    Pippin is interested in finding fellow players for Counter-Strike's Half-life. Menelvagor and Olwe have been active in this game as well.
    Thursday is the Council's special day to play D2X, for the ones who have the game. Times are mostly afternoon ESDT. Council is trying to get around their many time zones, work, and school to show up. Any others interested in D2X are certainly welcome.
Tolkien:
    Thranduil asked about the character, Rog. Varda told his story, which comes from Book of Lost Tales 2 , of his leading the charge against orcs and balrogs to give time for the evacuation of Gondolin, saving many who would have died. He and his people died to a man, but were the first to prove balrogs could be killed.
The group broke up into games afterwards.

April 19, 2002
    The Sweep begins. This is the sweep of inactive members from our Member pages. Anyone removed has the fun of going back through the rejoining process to re-enter. Contact Varda before the end of May. This means that in June, we will have only active members.
    Methods for contacting Varda:
    1. Email Varda at layton2@flex.net
    2. Show up to a meeting and make sure your name is on the attendance roll on the News. Meetings are Sunday 5pm ESDT bnet channel Clan ValarGuild.
    3. Post to the Discussion Board using your guild name, as Ori has.
    4. Write an article, story, poem, or joke and send it in. Having it published puts your name in the News page.
    5. The bots may or may not register your presence in the channels. Valar is our main playing channel.
    6. With luck, seeing Varda in the channel might get you noted down on a piece of paper.
    How do you know if you are considered to be on the active list? Check the new, perhaps temporary, Member Activity page to see. After June, if you do not show up on the regular Member page by Amillo, you've been dropped and need to rejoin. We are assuming you are not active unless you make some sort of contact.

April 18, 2002
   Congratulations to our new Maia, Alatar! Aldarion passed a test by Eonwe, Salmar, and Varda with a perfect 5/5! We thank him once again for playing long hours daily in the guild, buying our domain name, and hosting so many of our pages on his own server. He is 41, and you can look up more of his info under the Aldarion entry. He's fun to be with; what more do we need to know? :) Ok, he joined March 28, 2001.
    Amandil , welcome to the Valar Guild! This must be the day for brilliance, as he too made a perfect score for entry. Testers were our new Alatar, Eonwe, Salmar, and Varda. His previous name was Nazgul89. He had to contend with lag and drops for all of us that were not there earlier in the day, and kept his cool very well. He is 12, from Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada in the EST zone, and has been emailing Varda for some time as well as visiting the channel and chatting. He's read the H and LotR, working on the Sil which he finds slow. He has been in other guilds and likes this one for its emphasis on Tolkien, courtesy and being organized. He makes SC maps which we hope to be seeing soon! Online 2 or 3 nights a week, he likes to play SC/BW, WCIIBNE, and regular D2.
    Khamul has a new email. It also sends but won't receive. Khamul, please check your settings, maybe phone your email providers again. I looked again myself and believe his email automatically had the "s" truncated from microsoft, preventing replies. This may be on my end, also happens to Amillo.
    Icky, guild-friend, tells us that although the chest hack accounts have been removed, packets are hitting the games very hard causing potential crashes. It's not a good idea to be transferring items on the ground for a while! That seems to be the cause of the lag that hit during Amandil's test. Icky is also requesting suggestions for good Tolkien terms, places, names for the bot's Hangman game. He is also looking for a good, funny name from Tolkien for his bot.
    Dior reminds us all that he needs Tolkien-themed StarCraft and BroodWar maps for the web page he is making for the guild.
    Eonwe reminds us to update which games we currently play for the Games page, and send in reviews for any online game. Tips for game play may be sent to Varda for those pages.

April 17, 2002
    Links page: Folca found these music links for Led Zeppelin which he prefers over Blind Guardian:
    The Led Zeppelin and JRR Tolkien Relations Page , made by Scott Selisker, contents last updated in Sept 1998.  Folca reviews this one as better than the next link, having more in-depth analysis. Each set has an illustration, the lyrics alone, then a breakdown of how the writers believe the lyrics go with Tolkien's stories. It is fun reading, making one think. We can see allusions of our own as well. And yes Avalon is referred to in the Silmarillion as Tol Eressea, the island of the elves between Numenor and Valinor.
    Stairway to Middle-earth Folca says this one looks better, but the analysis is not as good. I preferred the first page's system of letting us read the lyrics for ourselves before taking it apart.

April 16, 2002
    Links page: our former Bilbo found this music lyric link: Blind Guardian - band that made songs relating to Middle-earth, by following Discography/"Nightfall in Middle-earth" (lyrics based on the Silmarillion!).

April 14, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending: Amillo/Omar, Beleg, Celegorm, Dior, Eonwe, Erestor, Folca, Irmo, Varda (presiding)
Membership: 151 members
    Earwen is our new member, sister of Dior. She is rejoining after a long absence, previously known as Amarie. She passed her test after the meeting. Welcome back! Eonwe and Gwaihir had the honor of giving the test. She is 17, from St. Louis, Missouri, USA, in the CST zone. She's read the H, LotR, BoLT 1 & 2, UT. She plays SC/BW, and D2, looking forward to WC3.
    Khamul! Your email is not working for us. Please check to see if it is set to not receive email or if your box is full.
    Letter from Boromir:

Web: no news
Gaming:
    StarCraft/BroodWar:
        Fingon-(V) made a new map: an RPG in which you and four other players are versus the comp to take Frodo to Mount Doom.
        Dior-(V) requests that if anyone finds a Tolkien map to send it to him for a web-page collection we can all share. Tell him in your email that you have an attachment with the file and what it is, so he will know it's not a virus.
    Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction:
        Blizzard has deleted over 20,000 accounts including their CD-Keys, if any one of the characters on it repeatedy used the "chest hack" which has been loading down the servers and creating terrible lag. It opened the chest 100 times, dropping the same items, also creating a lag spike. Any dupes meeting in a game can expect one to disappear, as usual, so it is dangerous to depend on a dupe. Remember that guild characters do not accept outside items unless the guild character buys them from an npc or sees the item dropped by a monster. Outside items may be accepted by your outside account, but do not bring them into the guild.
    Battle.net news:
        April 18 ISP maintenance will take down the East server for up to 6 hours. The date, time, and length of down-time keeps being changed, so you might want to check with the battle.net page for updates.
Tolkien:
    Erestor-(V)'s topic: With the phial of Galadriel, could one sail west for Valinor?
    Discussion: the phial included the light of the star that Earendil steers. Earendil wears a Silmarillion. A silmaril is not what helped Earendil enter Valinor, rather that he was the representative of both the first and second-born children of Iluvatar, coming selflessly, and foretold long ago. 

April 11, 2002
    Fingon reported by email April 6 that he has made a new StarCraft Tolkien map:

I Have made an great new LotR Map for Starcraft it's an RPG were you and four other play against the computer to take Frodo to Mount Doom.
I hope others get to tryt it soon.

 

Fingon

April 7, 2002
Sunday Meeting5pm ESDT (Daylight Savings Time has hit EST)
Attending:
    Amillo/Lindelome, Bert, Denethor, Elendil, Eonwe, Erestor/Erestar, Finwe, Folca, Gwaihir, Gwindor/Flinding, Irmo, Khamul, Salmar/Ulumurcar, Thranduil, Varda (presiding)
Membership News:
    Amillo reinstalled D2 just in time to make the meeting!
    Eonwe finally got to speak his "few words". After about 2 1/2 years, it was time.
    Erestor, our earlier Fingolfin, is back in the guild and quite active again.
    Finrod Felagund, after discussion with a bnet supervisor, has his accounts back which were labeled expired in age. 
    Khamul spoke his few words. Congratulations for making it to the meeting!.
    Khamul's email does not seem to work for me, rather like Earendil's. We are now trying to work around this problem. Khamul, if you have a secondary email, please send that one. We have not forgotten you.
Gaming:
    BroodWar:
    Map making: Khamul would like help from our guild making a map RPG for BW, needing trigger help. He already has a story line for it. He expects to find help from a friend in his previous clan. Map makers and beta testers, please see if you can contact Khamul.
    New map: Thranduil reports beta testing an excellent new BW map called LotR vs Last Alliance. Gwaihir says it came out yesterday on bnet, but is not certain if it is the final version or a leak, and has played a version similar to it twice. Some features Thranduil reported are:
    Sauron has the Ring, adding 500 to his 2100 hit points. If he is killed, the Ring drops and any hero can pick it up, adding to his hit points.
    The dwarves can delve too deeply and unleash a balrog.
    Shelob can dark swarm and wipe out Osgiliath easily.
    One player is Angmar, the Witch-King, Lord of Ringwraiths.  
     D2X:
    Bert reported that Blizzard has taken action against people using the cache chest dupe hack. The hack opened the chest over and over so that the items in it came out a hundred times, causing terrible lag spikes when it happened, along with increased lag from the excess number of items. Those people using the hack have had their accounts deleted, over 7000, not one of them a guild guy.
    Please remember that guild account characters are not to trade outside due to dupes, hacks, and stolen items. This keeps them from being traded around inside the guild with the many attendant problems. It is okay to trade outside with an outside character, of course, but keep it separate from the guild.
     EQ:
    Varda as Bridhil attended a wedding on EQ and learned something interesting about Aule and Ulmo's doings at the same time. More on our EverQuesters News page.
Web:  
    "You know you're in Valar when..." page: joke by Dior added. Feel free to email yours to Varda to be put on the page.
Tolkien: 
    The sons of Elrond - did they choose to be men or elves? What was their eventual fate? Topic brought up by Thranduil-(V).
    The discussion in short: They were not half-elves but 3/4 elves and were counted as elves. They were rangers of the north, working with Aragorn. They stayed behind with Celeborn after Elrond and Galadriel took ship to the West. The brothers remained to help the new age of Men, then eventually took one of the last boats out to the West.
    The group went into trivia questions.
    Valar of Time:
    Varda commented on the Valar of Time, early Valar later dropped by Tolkien, incorporated into other things. Eonwe remembered the name Ranuin. Varda found it in Book of Lost Tales 1 and is now presenting it on this page since it could not be gone into at the meeting. Ranuin is "Month", child of Aluin "Time". Aluin was the eldest of the Ainur, being "Time". His three children were Danuin "Day", Ranuin "Month", and Fanuin "Year", and all look like old, powerful men, their heights according to the length of time they command. Aluin stayed beyond, with Iluvatar, and the three returned to him when they were done with the business of giving Manwe control of the Sun and Moon's comings and goings. In the final version, it was Varda who set their path and time and no Ainur had children.
     The Book of Lost Tales also gives some mention of part of the Last Battle, saying Melko (later Melkor) would cause a quarrel between the Sun and Moon. Ilinsor, steersman of the moon (later called Tilion) would try to follow Urwendi, she who steers the sun (later called Arien) through the Gate into the outer dark. The outer dark escapes the world and death, and hears things mortals are not meant to hear, blocked from the world by the deep blue Wall of Things. The Valar created two gates through the wall, one east and one west. The western Door of Night can only be opened by the word that Manwe told only to Urwendi. This word is reversed to re-enter the world through the Gate of Morn in the east. Ilinsor  is supposed to take another route below the world sometimes slowed by the underground grotto paths, aided by Ulmo who controls the Sea of Vai on which the ship of the world floats. But when the moon follows the sun through the Door of Night (western gate), both  East and West gates would be destroyed and the sun and moon could not return. Then Fionwe Urion (later Eonwe), son of Manwe, for love of Urwendi, would destroy Melko by destroying the world. It is after this that all, Ainur and the Children of Iluvatar, sing together with full knowledge of  what should be, gained from the lives they have spent, to create Arda as Eru intends as was planned from the beginning.

April 3, 2002
    Welcome to Khamul ! Khamul is from Florida, USA in EST. He's read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. As Lord Ringwraith, he tested with Tom Bombadil for a 5/5 score. Unfortunately even a reply to his email did not work for me.
     New joke for the "You know you're in Valar when... " page, from Dior:
... You know you're in Valar when you answer a question affirmatively in Physics class and someone asks you, "What is wrong with your eye?"  

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March 31, 2002
    Happy Easter!

Sunday Meeting 5pm EST in bnet channel Clan ValarGuild, since Blizzard decided only channels with a "Clan" name will be allowed ops. Regular channels still used for gaming and chatting as always.
Attending:
    Aldarion, Aragorn, Bregalad/Quickbeam, Dior, Eonwe, Erestor/Erestar, Gwaihir, Salmar/Nandoro, Thror, Varda (presiding)
    Finglas/Leaflock and Glaurung came in way after the meeting, but they are around. Sauron, Fangorn, and Eowyn said Hi over the shoulder.  
Membership: 149
    Some of our Europeans showed up one hour early, since Valar Guild time is EST. It has not yet switched to ESDT.
    Amillo sends regards. He will be at a  family party during the meeting.
    Melkor! A hearty welcome back to you! He has visitors during this meeting, but hopes to be around more now.
    Sauron, Fangorn and Varda traveled this weekend to see Meriadoc, who treated us to the latest release of Fellowship (Fangorn passing out Ent-draughts with popcorn), this time with the trailer for Two Towers after the main show. It was the fifth viewing for Sauron, fourth for the rest.. We had a great time pointing out stuff to each other, generally discussing both movies, and a blast was had by all.  :)  In the trailier, we saw Aragorn get serious, armies, a freckled Eowyn, and Fangorn before Pippin realizes that's not just a tree.
Web:
    Pages are moving. Gaming pages are shifting to Bombadil's TenPeaks server. Tolkien pages are shifting to Aldarion's ValarGuild server. Flex.net now only provides 2MB, GeoCities is about to start requiring payment for FTP. Links can be updated from the main index page for the guild. when you see link problems, please email the page maintainer.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new article "Tom Bombadil" by Dior-(V)
Gaming:
    StarCraft/BroodWar: Like to make a review of a BW map, especially if it's Tolkien? Rate it from 1-10, 1 being waste of time and 10 being must play. Email your review to Dior-(V) for his upcoming maps page. This will be linked to the main Valar Guild site and the Games page once up.
Tolkien:
    After a long absence, ex-Fingolfin proved himself under his new name of Erestor-(V), letting himself be used for recruiter training for all members present during the Tolkien part of the meeting.  He also gave a question back to the group: What is the name of Fangorn's home and what type of trees are the two standing in front of the entrance?
    Amarie came within half a point of re-entering the guild. Watch out next time! 

March 28, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new article " Tom Bombadil ", by Dior-(V)

March 27, 2002
    Many Gaming pages have moved from the GeoCities server to the TenPeaks server space belonging to Tom Bombadil-(V). This is because GeoCities was taken over by Yahoo and is about to start charging for FTP activity in April. FTP means File Transfer Protocol and is the direct way of uploading and downloading files, very fast, and my preferred method. The corrected addresses are on the main guild index page.

March 24, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:report from Salmar
    (11) Beregond, Bert, Dior, Elendil, Eonwe , Finwe, Gwindor/Flinding, Salmar/Lirillo, Thranduil, Tulkas , Varda (presiding)
Membership: 149
    Quickbeam and Leaflock dropped by before the meeting.
    Aldarion came in after the meeting once he was off work.
    Folca has had internet problems since the beginning of March, but expects to be online early April.
Web News:
    Poetry page : "Song of Beleriand", by Amillo-(Valar)
    Links page : Hideout of Imladris
    LotR Online: 5 members left and will be starting a new page, which we have received email about and will link to when it is ready. We will have links to both.
    Thranduil - asking for volunteers to help him make a page for a personality quiz to show what race a person should have been if he had been born in Middle-earth. Dior volunteered. Thranduil asked for more volunteers for this large project, so email him if you are interested. Besides the main races Thranduil mentioned, some members suggested breaking "elves" down into Noldor, Teleri, and Sindar.
    Discussion Board: Bilbo is setting up a new discussion board which should improve our ability to locate topics we wish to add to. Aldarion has volunteered his server, so we also won't have to put up with ads.
    After the meeting, Dior said that the Bravenet forum is easy to use and free, and that he would be willing to set us up with one and moderate it if something should happen to the above plan. See www.bravenet.com.
Gaming News:
    Falathar is trying to set up an EverQuest server. It might also be used for the new D2X mod.
    Thranduil reported that WarCraft 3 will be using some mithril weapons.
    Aldarion reports that his next radio show will tell about Blizzard.
Tolkien:
    Thranduil commented that little is said about elf children. Bert commented that immortal races shouldn't have lots of children.
    Amarie, Dior's sister, tested to rejoin after a long absence due to an extreme number of extra-curricular activities with which she is no longer involved. She's been reading Lost Tales and had gotten rusty on LotR. Better luck next time! She allowed Aldarion to sit in with Eonwe and Varda to let him train for Maiar.

March 21, 2002
    Poetry page of the Tolkien Encyclopedia: "Song of Beleriand", by Amillo-(Valar).
     Links page: Hideout of Imladris - dictionary, articles, fanfic, poetry, pictures, music 

March 18, 2002
Letter from Folca:

Heyas,
Greetings to all the Valar Guild, I have been having internet problems since the beginning of March and will get my access back at the beginning of April. See you all then!

Namarie, Folca

March 17, 2002
    Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:
    Members: Amillo/Lindelome, Bert, Durin, Elendil, Eonwe, Gwaihir, Gwindor/Flinding, Ori, Thranduil, Thror, Varda(presiding)
    Over the shoulder: Oin, Sauron, Fangorn
    Visting: BarelySkimpy/*Elchuey28
Membership: 149 with new member Thorin
    Regards from these members missing the meeting:
        Curufin - at Wrestlemania, the big event for people like himself who love wrestling.
        Beregond - having bnet problems
        Bombadil - in Paris, France looking for a new home
        Irmo - meeting friends at an Irish pub for St. Patrick's Day
        Ulmo - has new email, comp being upgraded
    Special message to the missing. Bert hopes Ulmo will drop by and play with him.
Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia: new Frodo article by Varda
    Gaming pages: being moved onto Ten Peaks since GeoCities decided to drop free FTP. The links are all wiggy right now due to the shuffle.
    Discussion Board: a poll in the channel showed that the Discussion Board was not being used by most of the ones at the meeting (hey, they are in bnet where they can chat directly!). Of the ones who were using it, they found the ads annoying but it would not prevent their using it. Setting up an ad-free, no-pay discussion board was considered the best plan if we can find volunteers in the guild to handle it. Since only 10 of 149 people were at the meeting, this is not a major vote but a small poll. The Discussion Board is being discussed in Council as well. Volunteers please email Varda.
Gaming:
    D2X: Bert reports a rumor that Blizzard plans to nerph Mephisto. He will be harder to find, to kill, (that part's ok), and will drop lousier items (bad, since already the Meph runs can be disappointing).
Tolkien:
    Some movie talk.
    A question came up about knights as they are shown in Tolkien, but received little discussion.
    An after meeting discussion was more lively. Eonwe showed that in the Return of the King Appendix "Tale of Years" that it states that Gandalf "came back to life". Gwaihir located the spot and quoted it in the channel. Eonwe also showed that Tolkien uses the same word to describe the deaths of both Gandalf and Saruman - a passing. In the "Mirror of Galadriel", Gandalf returns to life and lies in a trance. Eonwe plans to send in an article on the subject for the Encyclopedia later on.
    Entry test: better luck next time to *Elchuey28.

March 15, 2002
    The family of Ulmo, Gothmog, and Elanor has a new email . Good luck with the continuing computer re-vamp!

March 14, 2002
    Discussion Board. Yahoo has "updated" our Discussion Board from the way GeoCities used to have it. It is less friendly and forces us to see an ad in the message area taking up half the post space, and sometimes the entire space between messages. The photo albums have only a few words or less than one word left of description.. Never great, it is generally not as good a board as it was, so the Council is looking into a new message board. Bilbo needs to email Varda at layton2@flex.net so we can have a discussion about how to implement the suggestions he made in a Discussion Board post. If anyone else has suggestions, please email Varda as well. Your suggestions will be passed on to the Council. If you wish not to have a change made, please let us know the same way. Comments will also be listened to at the Sunday meeting. If you have expertise in message boards and wish to either advise or help handle it, email Varda.

March 13, 2002
    Letter from Beregond:

I am currently having Battle.net problems of unknown origin,

I have been working on this for a while, and i hope to be with you

again very soon :)

 

Miss you all...Beregond ;)

March 12, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia : new article on the Hobbit page -  "Frodo's Success or How can a Ringbearer Destroy the One Ring?" by Varda-(Valar).

March 11, 2002
    Web news: rules changed on some of our servers, not allowing links off their server among other rules or requiring payment for ftp up and downloads. I'm currently working on jumping to other servers. My HTML editor did not survive the XP upgrade and the Netscape Composer is buggy after being switched to the new hard drive. Images are misbehaving abominably. Bear with me, please.
    Tom Bombadil is looking for a home in Paris, France. He will have email but not games for a while, but hopes to find a cybercafe over there with bnet games.

March 10, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:
    Members: Bregalad, Elendil, Eonwe, Gelmir, Glorfindel, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Irmo, Thranduil, Thror, Tulkas, Varda (presiding)
    Visitors: *GandalfGreyhem
Membership: 148 members
    Finrod is working on computer problems.
    Ghan-buri-ghan says hi from EverQuest. His letter is on our EverQuesters News page (EQ pages have a link at the top of this page)
    Tulkas managed to stay with us in the channel for a while despite a tenuous computer connection.
Web:
    Links: new links to National Geographic, Kalevala. See March 8, 2002 News
    Pages that are free on GeoCities will no longer have FTP service after April. Some of our links are currently not working, that involve GeoCities. That server (under new management by Yahoo) also has a list of rules, some of which may be the cause of some links not working (map downloads on Tourney page) on our giant site spidered over multiple servers. Here are some which may be a problem for a number of us if read harshly:
Pulling files from your GeoCities account to a location outside of Yahoo! GeoCities, such as auction sites, message boards, and other web sites.
Using GeoCities for the sole purpose of storing files.
Using GeoCities for commercial purposes.
Using your GeoCities home page to redirect visitors to other sites.
Improperly promoting your website via email, message boards, or instant message (i.e., spam)
Tolkien:
    Books:
    Thranduil told some book names for Tolkien study, seconded by Irmo:
    The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-earth , by Ruth S. Noel
    The Mythology of Middle-earth , by Ruth S. Noel
    Irmo added this one, currently too expensive for his library so he has it on hold at his university, where he is working on a major Tolkien paper we hope to publish here later:
    Tolkien's Legendarium, by Carl Hostetter and Verlyn Flieger
    Chat:
    Thranduil's topic: Caradhras - was it alive or a figment of the Fellowship's imagination?
    Gwaihir: not necessarily alive, but definitely sentient.
    Eonwe: mountain not alive, but a Maia spirit may have resided there.
    The chat turned into what should be called living. For instance, are the Valar actually alive? (As a Valie, I must say I feel very much alive!-Varda) Can a being which is a spirit be called alive? Does it have to have a body? When is it dead? Can a Vala die? How about a Maia? Since there were differing opinions about what is alive even in Tolkien's universe (confused with comments that involved real life), this question was not resolved. I suggest Thranduil post it to the Discussion Board.
    Entry:
    Our visitor, *GandalfGreyhem, took the entry test after the meeting and passed!
    Welcome to the Valar Guild, Thorin Oakenshield ! He is a friend of Glorfindel's, who gets credit as scout. Eonwe and Varda had the honor of giving the test. Thorin is 12, from the state of New York in the USA, EST. He's read the H, LotR, and started Roverandom. His favorite characters in LotR are Sauron, because he is never vividly described so he can be imagined any way you like, and Boromir who heroically gave his life for Merry and Pippin, making up for his human frailty over the Ring. Thorin came into the meeting on StarCraft. He plays StarCraft, BroodWar, WarCraft2, Diablo1 (Gelmir take note!). He hopes to buy Diablo 2 Expansion before Glorfindel kills him, and WarCraft 3 when it comes out. He likes the guild because of the Tolkien and because Glorfindel is here. He is working with others on a web page they hope to publish when it is finished, probably s under an URL something like www.tradingsystems.net/max/gamingmagonline/index.htm. He hopes to write an article for us on his character, maybe about the Oakenshield. Good luck, Thorin!

March 8, 2002
    Link page:
        National Geographic page about the real life influences on Tolkien's work and on the movie in New Zealand. by National Geographic
        Kalevala: The Finnish National Epic - about the ancient Finnish epic on the Virtual Finland pages, with more links to Kalevala info

March 5, 2002
    Letter from Finrod:

 Just a note from me (Finrod) to let you know that my
computer is playing up on me at the moment...
Hopefully I'll be back online sometime this week, but
no guarantees...

Using this email account as I can't access my
home-email at the mo'!!

Namarie

FF

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Feb. 28, 2002
    Diablo 2X Mod fix: Letter from Khan/Fingolfin

Hoyas

There has been an extremely negative response on the stamina nerf we
introduced in the latest MEmod version (1.6). Since we don't want to split
the MEmod community into 1.5 (weaklings  and 1.6 users, we decided to give
in and partly remove the nerf in a new version (1.7). Staminadrain is still
more than in CLoD but it's much less then in 1.6.
There are also some new Runewords and minor bugfixes - so be sure to inform
the guild.

Hopefully this version will be one that can be settled with for some time.

Have fun

Khan - Fingolfin

Feb. 26, 2002
    Diablo 2X Mod news! Letter from Khan/Fingolfin-(V):

Hail

The new version 1.6 final is available at our site (www.VKmods.de).
Installation as usual.
The main changes were made to add more challenge especially to the very end
of the game (act 5 Valar). There are also some balance changes to skills,
some new cube recipes and minor bugfixes. See the readme for a complete
list.

We call it final but that doesn't mean we'll stop working on it. We will
still fix major bugs or even add nifty features. But there won't be changes
to the general gameplay. So you can be sure your Ubercharacter will stay
Uber

BTW due to some financial reasons we'll have to change the forum, probably
reducing it to a single one. In the course of this the current messages
won't "survive". We'll archive the most important stuff and we'll inform you
all in due time.

BTW2 MAC users will have to wait for me to make a patch version of the 1.6
mod or use the current 1.5 downloadable at:
http://khaaan.bei.t-online.de/DiabloIIPatch


Have fun

Feb. 25, 2002
    Poetry page: New - "Your Precious", by Thranduil.
    Links page:  Tolkien and Middle-earth - web page for Discussion Board group including a time line of JRR Tolkien's life. By Marina. Listed on the Links page under Tolkien/Groups, Fan Sites

    Channel news:

Battle.net Update - 2/25/2002
Users will no longer get operator privileges in standard private Battle.net channels. Clan channels, however, will support operator privileges. To become the operator of a clan channel you must create a channel "clan xxx" where xxx is your account name. To learn more about Clan Channels go here .

We made this change to improve Battle.net stability.

-Blizzard Entertainment  

As a temporary adaptation, the Valar Guild used a temporary clan channel last meeting. The name is under Council discussion now, so feel free to email your input to Varda for forwarding to the entire Council. Hey, you have to live there too. One possibility is to use the current channel as always and just use a "Clan" channel for meetings to help keep order, with the more usual channel name after the word Clan, set up by Thror's bot.

Feb. 24, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending: Amillo, Curufin, Elendil, "Fingolfin", Finrod/Sadrim, Finwe, Girion, Glaurung, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Halbarad, Hurin, Irmo, Quickbeam, Ori, Primula, Thingol, Thorondor, Thranduil, Thror, Varda (presiding)
    Visitors: Starke/*AvatarofWisdom, Homeslice
    Eonwe was not present during the meeting because he was testing a new member (long time visitor Homeslice), and helped Varda with another test after the meeting for *Avatarofwisdom, and joined into a Tolkien discussion after the main Tolkien chat. What's your excuse? :)
Membership News: 146 members at the start of the meeting, 148 after.
    New members who passed entry tests during or after the meeting!:
    Welcome, Beleg , to the Valar Guild! He joined us after the meeting. Beleg is 18 from Illinois, USA, CST, read the H, LotR, and most of the first half of the Sil. He plays D2X and SC/BW. He tested with Eonwe and Varda, letting us know that his favorite character is Sam, for his loyalty to Frodo throughout the books.  He visited with his level 60 Starke/*Avatarofwisdom. His account is *Beleg-V.
    Welcome to Finglas, aka Leaflock the Ent, to the Valar Guild! He joined us during the meeting, originally scouted by Quickbeam, and tested with Eonwe. He's been visiting as Homey_G_Funk/*Homeslice for around 6 months now, so he knows us well! He is trying to straighten out a problem with his email, which we hope will be soon. he's 13, from Florida, USA, EST. He's read the LotR and is almost done with the Hobbit, which he likes even better. His favorite scene in the Hobbit is the journey through Mirkwood. He plays D2X and BW. His favorite LotR character is Saruman for his confidence, awesome power, and power of persuasion with his Voice.  His account is *Leaflock-V. Go ents!

    Celegorm joined this week. See News Feb. 22.
    Fingolfin from before Khan (who now bears the name) is back after a long absence, keeping his account active in solo play. We hope he will re-test and take a new name. When it happens, it will be posted to the News page.
    The old Denethor dropped by as Cerufin/*-=Dune=-.
    Deagol, Tar-Aldarion and others came in well after the meeting. Al and others work, or have other schedule problems, but can show up for gaming and chat afterwards - sort of after-meeting meetings. The cow level was in considerable peril. At that time, Aldarion told us about a wonderful article he wrote for his radio show (under the name Mark Lautenschlager) about his son, D2, and Tolkien. There's another one about how he felt when his 5-year old daughter discovered the Internet. You can read them here .
     Salmar sends his regards. Real life has been keeping him from us lately.
Web News:
    The big news is the Poetry contest held by LotR Online with jaw-dropping prizes. See News Feb 21 for details and links.
    Poetry page:
      New poems today:
        "Lament for Gollum", by Amillo-(Valar). Entered in the LotR Online contest about Gollum.
        "Gollum", by Jerra, a guild-friend. Entered in the LotR Online contest.
      New poems this week:
        "Dark Caverns", by Finrod-(V). Entered in the LotR Online contest about Gollum.
        "Glîr Thingol ar Ardh în (a song of Thingol and his kingdom)" by Tal
Tolkien:
    Chat - hair color in elves, by Thranduil. Could use an article with good references in the Encyclopedia just on this subject! It could be of help to artists and role-players as well as for interest.
    Chat - special properties of the Blessed Land, where they came from, and could Melkor's Angband also have had special, perhaps Cursed Land, properties? by Eonwe. Also deserves more thought.
    Suggested reading: Irmo highly recommends A Question of Time: JRRT's Road to Faerie , by Verlyn Flieger, and has mailed the author receiving a surprisingly quick reply. Watch for this one!  

Feb. 23, 2002
    Poetry page -  New poems:
        "Dark Caverns", by Finrod-(V). Entered in the LotR Online contest about Gollum.
        "Glîr Thingol ar Ardh în (a song of Thingol and his kingdom)" by Tal.

Feb. 22, 2002
    Welcome to our new member, Celegorm ! He's 15, from Virginia, USA in EST. He plays a few times a week, mostly weekends, on D2X and hopes to soon have StarCraft/BroodWar as well. He passed Gwaihir's test, his favorite two LotR characters being Galadriel and Tom Bombadil. His previous accounts were based on Tolkien, and he came in as *HouseofFeanor. He's read the Hobbit, LotR, Sil, and Tolkien Bestiary.

Feb. 21, 2002
Tolkien poetry contest held by LotR Online . Be sure to read their directions and send the entry to the right place! I am not running their contest and am not doing it for you. Also, please send a copy of your entry to Varda (me) for publishing on the Valar Guild's poetry page too, whether or not you win one of LotR Online's prizes. Their site can also be found from our Links page:

Calling all Poets! 
If you are a poet or want to be one for a day wait until you hear about our great contest we have for you! We have Partnered with Blades by Brown Cutlery, Badali Jewelery and Harper Colins to bring you one contest to rule them all! The winner will recieve an Official Sting Replica, A set of LoTR Movie Cover books as well as a One Ring. Interested? Drooling yet? Click Here for more info! Better hurry! The Contest ends March 1, 2002!

Feb. 18, 2002
    Tolkien Encyclopedia : Poetry section. New poem, "Shelob" by Jerra, Jerra9876@aol.com, non-guild member.

Feb. 14, 2002
    Happy Valentine's Day!
    A Valar Valentine:

Dear Primula

Thank you for making my dreams come true
Happy Valentines Day
                       Love  Deagol

Feb. 12, 2002
    Links page: new link Fan Fiction page. Includes Tolkien-inspired stories. See them under Books/Lord of the Rings. Link contributed by Elaine, non-guild member.

Feb. 10, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST Report by Eonwe-(Valar)
Attending:
    Amillo, Bard, Bert, Bullroarer, Deagol, Elendil, Elros, Eonwe (presiding), Eru, Finrod, Finwe, Folca, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Hurin, Irmo, Isildur, Legolas, Maedhros, Rog, Shagrat
    Came in during Tolkien chat: Azog, Glaurung, Theoden, Thingol, Thror, Tilion.
    Came by after meeting: Azaghal
    Gwaihir graciously held the double presence in the Discussion Board and bnet for Eonwe. Thank you!
Membership: 145 members reported by Amillo-(Valar)
    No new members this week.
    Amillo, back from vacation, courageously stayed for most of the meeting after a long drive, but had to leave before the chat  

    Letter from Melkor:

Aiya all,

We're off to play in the sun (Arizona) from Feb 12th 'til Mar 28th -
look forward to seeing you all at the Mar 30th mtg.

Namarie,
Melkor

    Varda sends regards. Had to be out of town during the meeting, but you were in capable hands with Eonwe!
    Salmar's family needed him, so he too had to miss the meeting.

Web:
    Tolkien Encyclopedia :
        Addition to the Men section under Faramir, "Faramir's Name" with a new idea of the origin of his name. Contribution by a Tolkien fan not in the guild, only identified by his email of N10361@aol.com. Addendum Feb 15, the contributor is now going by the name Lady Nan.
    Tolkien-inspired Poetry : "Lament for Gondolin", by Tal, non-guild member.

Gaming:
    WarCraft III:
        Report from Eonwe: Blizzard has completed the selection of the beta testers for the Warcraft 3 beta, and those selected will know shortly (if they don't already).
        Email report from Beregond-(V):

It seems Warcraft 3 is scheduled for release on the 25th of June this year.

I read this on a webpage at "http://www.tothegame.com"
This is a search engine for dates on upcoming games, it is surprisingly accurate, and several large game shops use it as a reference.

Anyhoo...you just choose pccdrom as platform and press search. This will bring up a list of all the games known to man that are supposed to appear in the future. (You can of course search for individual titles as well  )

    Note from Varda: More WarCraft 3 news is doled out on Blizzard's pages as well.
Tolkien Chat:
    What is the most beautiful place in Middle-Earth? (any Age, so long as the place is in the mortal realms)
    Irmo - Lothlorien, created as a reflection of Irmo's gardens in Valinor; tranquility and closeness to nature of the West.
    Thror- Lothlorien or Khazad-Dum
    Folca - Lothlorien
    Gwaihir - Gondolin, beautiful mountain peaks, fountains, elves in shining armor, Idril
    Eonwe - Gondolin, replicas of the Two Trees, beautiful valley, great mountains surrounding
    Gwaihir - Land of the Dead that Live. The beauty of Luthien wearing the Silmaril cannot be compared, also it would be a tranquil and serene place

Feb. 3, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:
    Bard, Bert, Deagol, Elendil, Eonwe (presiding Tolkien), Folca, Gwaihir, Halbarad, Irmo, Isildur, Pippin, Theoden, Thranduil, Varda (presiding business)
Membership:
    Three new members:
        Folca - said his few words  :)
        Glorfindel
        Edrahil - we still need your email
Web:
    Guild-wide story - part 2 by Salmar
Gaming:
    WarCraft: Gwaihir reports that WarCraft news is being slowly doled out by Blizzard.
    D2X: Bert has found the complete Assassin set by a stupendous number of Baal runs.
Channel:
    Halbarad brought up his feeling that the guild meeting on bnet is being cheated by having a presence on the Discussion Board at the same time as the battle.net meeting, as he feels the chair is too distracted by the double presence. Eonwe is the liason between DB and bnet, not the usual chair. Eonwe is sometimes the chair. The DB liason was set up for members who cannot enter bnet, and is rarely populated during the Sunday meeting as it is only an emergency measure. If Halbarad and other members are still feeling cheated, please email the Council to let them know and, if possible, explain what should be done instead. Halbard stated that Eonwe had shown real leadership.
Tolkien:
    A suggestion has been brought up in Council to have Saturday Tolkien chats on the Discussion Board chat area. These are not business meetings, just Tolkien chats. Anyone interested feel free to drop by the Discussion Board chat area on Saturdays between 11am and 2pm EST. Times are still under discussion, but this seems to be what we are doing.
    Chat: Thranduil had 2 topics:
        1. Origin of hobbits?
        2. What actually happens to Maia when they "die" in Middle-earth, such as Gandalf, Saruman, and Sauron?

Feb. 2, 2002
    Guild-wide Story Part 2 is up! Thank you to Salmar-(Valar) for this fine contribution!
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Jan. 28, 2002
    Welcome to our new members!
    Hail Glorfindel ! He is 15, from the USA, on Mountain Standard Time. He's read the LotR. He games in D2X and SC/BW and is on bnet daily.  He found us on the web doing a search for LotR Diablo groups. He joined after the meeting yesterday. Tested by Eonwe and Gwaihir, his favorite LotR character is Legolas.
    Aiya Edrahil! He is 13, from the USA, on Eastern Standard Time. He's read the H and LotR. He plays D2X and hopes to have SC/BW soon. He heard about us from a member, possibly Quickbeam. He tested as *Glorfindel105/ArwynTheElf with Eonwe, Gwaihir, and Varda.  He needs email (his old one expired) to complete his membership, but can play in guild friend games until then to build up his guild characters.
    Welcome Folca ! He almost became Hama, but changed to Folca before the webwork uploaded. He wanted this change to reflect his active lifestyle, as he enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, and cross-country running. He is 18, from Quebec, Canada. He has read the H and LotR. He games in SC (bored with it), D2, and is planning to get D2X, playing on bnet at least 3 times a week. He visited the meeting yesterday but work prevented his testing afterwards. Today, Monday, he tested under the name MrSanchez with Gwaihir and Salmar. His favorite LotR character is the modest but great Aragorn. Due to irregular Sunday schedules, he will have difficulty coming to meetings.

Jan. 27, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending: 21 of 142 members
    We remained in the main channel this time.
    Members: Amillo/Nyellolomin, Bert/Burt, Celebrimbor, Elendil, Eol, Eomer, Eonwe, Eru, Fingon, Finrod/Ingoldo, Fladrif/Fladriff, Gwaihir, Gwindor/Vinyanor, Irmo, Luthien/Tinuviel/Nightingale, Olwe, Salmar, Thorondor, Thranduil, Thror, Varda (presiding)
    Visitors: 7-icrack-7 (tested, needs email and name for full membership), Avontor (would like to join in the future), ShAgRaT-LoK3, *WingedNazgul/IceMasterz (would like to be tested), TheGreenDragon (visitor: Icky's bot renamed. Guild friend helping us with bots)
Membership:
    Amillo's report : 142 members, no new members reported this week. (We have a new Glorfindel but the report isn't in yet.)
    Deagol and Primula have an ISP again. Deagol has been seen playing so they must have their comp up and running now!
    Discussion on handling members who may be coming in from non-bnet games:
    It would be best if they had connection to bnet. We once used bots to handle people who had no game disk so they could attend meetings. This no longer seems feasible after how difficult Blizzard made it, but it is something to consider. They can also come to meetings by the chat on the Discussion Board where Eonwe always has a relay. If more people are in the Discussion Board than in bnet, we can move regular meetings over there. We have used IRC before.
    Netsplit caused problems at this meeting. Salmar fell out and never could re-log back in. Discussion ensued of how to prevent netsplit. Suggestions ranged from GreenDragon's of putting everyone on the same server by the registry number (63.240.202.138) to having all meetings on the Discussion Board or IRC, and to the evidently preferred keep it on bnet and put up with it
Web:
    Games page by Eonwe: many updates. See News Jan 23 for details. Make sure your information is updated.
    Dark Age of Camelot needs a web page maker.
Gaming:
    Diablo 1 gamers are playing after meetings. Some members who play D1 are Gelmir, Eol, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Halbarad, Gelmir
    Baldur's Gate 2 people are meeting this coming Tuesday. See details on News Jan 23.
    Diablo 2 Expansion : dupe program has been stopped by Blizzard that had caused a great deal of lag and lag spikes. The mass of dupes continued to lag down bnet but that may be taken care of by the time you read this.
    Discussion on what to do if a member has a dupe or outsider item:
    One: Don't get it in the first place! Avoid the problem!
    If you have such an item, what do you do about it?
    1. Go to destroy it in a game with a Vala Council member to witness on your behalf that you did it.
    2. Make an outsider account if you don't have one and put outsider items on it. Play the outsider account in the non-guild games and don't mix the items. Do not bring the outsider to the guild channel for meetings (your guild name is for recognition of who you are in the guild), preferably not at all into the guild channel, and absolutely don't bring it into guild games.
    3. Keep the item and leave the guild, dropping the guild character name. Email the Council to let other members and potential members know the name is free. You can transfer items to the new outsider account.
Tolkien:
    Chat:
    Thranduil's subject: "I think Eru made elves his greatest creation among the races."
    Eonwe - Yes. Joys of incarnate living, benefits of being very much like the Ainur.
    Gwindor - He acknowledged them as the fairest of his creations. They have and conceive of more beauty than others.
    Nom - Fairest...but greatest? One could say that Man was his greatest.
    Thranduil - Men were independent thinkers but that made it easier for them to become evil and harder to choose the right path.
    Gwindor - mortality was the greatest gift. Luthien was allowed to choose the greater gift of mortality that mankind had.
    Omar/Amillo and others - each race had its advantages.
    Discussion switched over to one about death. Elves going to Mandos and men going on to Eru. Thranduil postulated that being with Eru would be boring, but we are not told what they would be doing with Eru. Elves were bound to Arda, but men could go beyond Arda.
    Testing:
    *7-icrack-7 passed, needs name and email to become a full member. Friend of Quickbeam's who has emailed about membership.
    *WingedNazgul/IceMasterz started to test but ran out of time and intends to return.

Jan. 23, 2002
    Games page news from Eonwe the Hard-working:

I've got the Games Page updated for the most part, and added some new things.  First are the links to Everquesters, Diablo and his Kin, Starcraft/Broodwar pages, D2 Experiences, and the Guild Tournament Page :}
I put the review section up, and now all it needs is a review :}
Also, I've made pages for specific games listings, as well as the main listing that shows everybody :}  There's a page that lists SC/BW players, D2/LoD players, WC2BNE players, ME mod players, EQ Players, and DAoC Players, albeit not as fancy as the main Games Page :}  The EQ listing atm lists the two most used servers (as best as I can tell) and who's on them.  The DAoC Page will also list servers and who is on them,.. as soon as that information becomes available :}  I will probably also add some links to these pages (the link for the SC/Bw stuff on the SC/BW page, D2 Exps and D and his Kin on the D2/LoD page, Everquesters page linked from the Everquest listing, etc...)  I'd be glad to put links to some DAoC pages on my DAoC player listing (pending permission from the web page maker, of course), and more detailed information on player chars etc if the DAoC players want it.
Eventually, any online game we play with at least 3-4 players will get its own listing page.

This Coming Tuesday Azaghal and I are getting to gether to play Baldur Gate2 or Throne of Bhaal. If any one would like to come play. We are starting at 5:00pm Atlantic Canada time and we will be playing in Game Spy. We will be in  Of the Eldar Room the Pass word will be Elven. So come play it wil be fun for all.

 

Fingon

    Diablo 2 Expansion report from Salmar :

B.net forum link:

http://www.battle.net/forums/battlenet-status/posts/qf/146.shtml

Blizzard is acknowledging that server instability is caused by the massive presence of duplicated items on the Realms. That gives you an idea of how many there are, sigh. But in any case, be advised that it is not your ISP or computer that is having problems, but B.net. So don't start defragmenting your hard disk unnecessarily:).

    Encyclopedia Article: In the Elves section - "Thranduil", by Thranduil-(V)

Jan. 22, 2002
    D2X:   A hack program came out allowing duping (duplicating) of any item. It also caused horrible lag spikes. Blizzard reacted quickly with a patch on their server stopping the duping and lag spikes, but many many dupes are floating about. If an outsider item offer looks too good to be true, it probably is. Please remember our policy on no trading with outsiders unless you see them take the item from a monster. If you just have to take outsider items, please use an outsider character and don't bring its items into the guild. Thank you.
    Links :
    1. Irmo found this fun page with a hobbit name generator. The names aren't from Tolkien but have a similar flavor. If someone wants to try his hand at a similar program with various races and real names, pass me the URL. Enjoy!:
The Hobbit Name Generator - Put your name into the form and it gives back a realistic-sounding made-up hobbit name and a hobbit town you are from. Link contributed by Irmo-(Valar). Web page copyrighted and made by Chris Wetherell
    2. Gwindor found a name generator for hobbits and other races (and a ton of other good Tolkien stuff) at:
The Barrow Downs .
    3. Elros found a fun site which gives the reader a test then matches him to a similar personality in Lord of the Rings, with a good description of the LotR character in the answer. (He came out like Galadriel.):
Lord of the Rings . 

Jan. 20, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending: report by Salmar and Varda
    Members: Amillo/Omar , Curufin, Denethor, Elendil, Eomer, Eonwe , Eru , Finrod/Ingold, Girion, Gwaihir, Gwindor/FlinNecro, Hurin, Irmo, Pippin, Quickbeam, Maedhros, Melkor, Ori, Salmar , Shagrat, Thingol/Elu, Thranduil, Thror, Tulkas , Varda (presiding)
    Discussion Board: Eonwe, Thranduil
    Visitors: *Minean_HC tried to join, better luck after a re-read..
Membership News:
    Amillo reports 142 members.
    Deagol and Primula expect to back online Wednesday with a new ISP.
    Melkor will be traveling between 2/10 - 3/28
    Tulkas is having computer problems and jokes that it has ebola virus.
Web:
    Irmo found an entertaining URL to a web page that gives pretend hobbit names.
    Varda's FTP still wasn't working in time for the meeting, so the webwork you're now reading couldn't be put up in a timely fashion. Apology extended.
Gaming:
    The Tolkien's Middle-earth mod for D2X was recommended for all Tolkien fans and for those tiring of D2X.
    Melkor says his preferred game is Dark Age of Camelot. Quite a bit of discussion of this game. No takers when I asked if someone would like to do a web page for it.
    EverQuesters have been very active as well on Zebuxoruk server. Varda plays Bridhil (a name of Varda) and has had the opportunity to chat across the world with Ulmo, Aule as Taglos, and Herumor as Shadowkin. Sauron plays Sauronv, Eowyn plays Dernhelm.
Tolkien:
    Active Tolkien chats!
    Thranduil's topic is also on the Discussion Board: Should Sindar elves be considered Eldar? The final decision after much discussion was that they are Eldar and that the Complete Guide to Middle Earth made an error in saying different. A few other small errors received comment, but overall people like the Guide.
    Eomer's topic: Frodo's dreams. The Gandalf dream generated so much discussion that we never really worked on the others that were mentioned. Expect to see them in future meetings. The dreams/visions Eomer brought up were:
    In Crickhollow, Frodo dreamed of a tower by the sea.
    In another, he was on a boat going to Gondor.
    Gondor itself.
    Gandalf pacing back and forth on Orthanc.
    Were the dreams due to the Ring or Valar influence?
    In the case of the dream of Gandalf on Orthanc, one suggestion said that Gandalf called for help to Gwaihir and the One Ring picked it up, partly because of Frodo's personal closeness to Gandalf and partly because he wore the One Ring that may have been more sensitive to Gandalf's Ring of Fire than the other elven rings of Elrond and Galadriel. Gandalf was surprised when Frodo told him he had that vision. Other rings could not hide from Frodo while he had the One Ring, Galadriel's was especially mentioned in that context.
    Tulkas said he felt it was Valar influence. This is our usual answer, so we especially enjoyed the Ring answer for novelty. Irmo could have sent the dream on Gandalf's and Frodo's behalf, so the Ring Bearer would know what had happened to his Ainur helper, that he was not abandoned. Frodo could not help and as Gandalf said, the vision was late in coming.

Jan. 13, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST
Attending:
    Members: Amillo/Omar, Bard, Celebrimbor, Curufin, Elendil, Eonwe, Eru, Finrod Felagund, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Hurin, Irmo, Thorondor, Varda (presiding)
    Discussion Board: Eonwe
    Visitors: *GANDALF(SCN) tried to join, better luck after a re-read..
Membership news :
     Ancalagon had to change his name to Celebrimbor after his account password was stolen and his items taken. His machine might have a Trojan worm. If you see an impostor Ancalagon in your game, don't speak with him but pack your items and leave immediately, as he is up to no good. After a few empty games, he should be bored and leave. Celebrimbor could use your help.
    Boromir's comp is giving him fits. We sympathize, having all been there! May you find the right glue to put your horn back together and patch arrow holes.
    Hurin joined Jan 7 and gave his few words.  :)
    Salmar sends greetings, had to be absent for family business.
Web News :
    Amillo's Annals of Arda has a new set-up for his Elf page along with new material. I highly recommend looking over his amazing pages, and admiring his artwork such as the leaves decorating his pages.
    Valar Guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia: Salmar added names for Gwaihir.
    Rune Word page under Diablo and His Kin for Diablo 2 Expansion now has a new section for tested rune words, including credit for the player who emails it in    
    Varda (me) now has email, a browser, a web page composer, and games, but the FTP for uploading web pages has a bad file, hopefully to be repaired soon.If you can read this, it's repaired.
Gaming:
    EverQuest : Eomer is back from Dark Age of Camelot to EverQuest. Varda's family is now on it as well as D2X. The main account is Bridhil, which Varda uses. Sauronv, Dernhelm and Maynardjames are on with her.
    WarCraftIII beta testers have done their sign-ups. If you make it in, please email Varda so we can put your name on the News and know why you disappeared. If you can make a review, great!
    D2X : Ancalagon had trouble with a person who pirated his account password stealing his Ancalagon character and stealing the items. So Anc has changed to Celebrimbor.
Tolkien:
    Unusual relationships in Tolkien.

Jan. 11, 2002
Letter from a reader of the guild's Tolkien Encyclopedia. I hate to think what he'll say when he checks the rest of the Fellowship.:

I happened across your Tolkien encyclopedia and noticed that the hobbit section was, shall I say, quite unfinished. It was rather disturbing to see there
was no Frodo listed, though he was mentioned, no Rosie, Fatty Bolger, any of Sam's kids (you could provide basic info on them with the apendix's at
the back of the book) and etc. But NO FRODO?!?!?!! I panicked. I'm wondering whether this is some absurd mistake, or you left him out on purpose?
Please respond!

--Most Broflovskily, Lindsey, the resplendent quintessence of the dystopian Kyle F. Broflovski

Jan 8, 2002
    WarCraft III is signing up beta testers today until 11 pm EST or they reach 5,000. Go to www.blizzard.com. Email Varda to let us know if you made it! Reviews would be nice too.
    Rune Word page: A new page has been added to the Rune Words site within our Diablo and His Kin page, using only tested rune words with a credit for the player(s) who tested it. I know we have members as well as non-members who can email this info in to Varda. Please send it when you can.
    Tolkien Encyclopedia : New! "Names of Gwaihir", by Salmar-(Valar)

Jan 7, 2002
    WarCraft III will be taking beta testers from 11pm PST until tomorrow at 11pm EST.
    Hurin , Welcome to the Valar Guild! Hurin is 16, from Illinois, USA. He heard about us from Bard-(V). Liking the "honest and friendly community" (Hey, thanks, Hurin!), he came to us as *Morgoth_69. Gwaihir the Active did the testing for him. Hurin has read the H and LotR. His favorite character is Smeagol because he's funny and goofy. He plays D2 and SC. He has D2X but has yet to install it.

Jan. 6, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST (not EDT)
Attending: Reports by Salmar and Eonwe
    Members:  Amillo/Lindelome, Bard, Bert, Denethor, Elendil, Eomer, Eonwe/Fionwe (presiding), Eru, Finrod/Felakgundu, Finwe, Gorbag, Gwaihir, Gwindor, Helm,  Irmo, Mahtan, Melkor, Salmar/Lirillo, Theoden, Tulkas/Astaldo, Ulmo
    Asleep in channel: Boromir, Thror
    Discussion Board : Eonwe
    Visitors: *Wassamatau, *starcraftnut
Membership : Reports by Salmar and Eonwe
    New Member of Honor: Gaffer Gamgee , son of Aldarion
    Salmar and others (including me) report a continuing problem with "sleepers" in the main channel, even at the meeting. Please do your long times away from the keyboard in another channel, such as one for members-only or one you invent for your character.
    Ulmo requested Eonwe take the gavel for this meeting, as he has shown a real talent for chairmanship. He once again did a beautiful job, as Salmar told me by email.
    Varda (me) regrets being unavailable for the meeting. I walked into the study to go into the meeting and saw Fangorn and Sauron over the sideways body of the computer tower. They looked up at me and the clock and said, "Oops." We are attempting to upgrade both hardware and software on our LAN system, with files moving all over to prevent their destruction, so please be patient with us for tardiness and repeats.
    Eowyn was seen during Christmas break on LoD.
    Gwaihir saw Arwen sometime during the week.
    Amlaith will be moving and might not be seen around for a while.
Web Report : report by Eonwe
    Article on Entwives by Thranduil, giving his opinion on where they are.
    Eru has a post on the DB about the Rings.
Game Report : report by Eonwe
    Maedhros is now playing DAoC.  For a price(I believe Melkor said 300 gold), you can register a guild emblem and have it put on your armor, shield, or cape.
    WarCraft: Beta testing begins January 7th at 11 pm PST.  The 5000 testers will get to play all 4 races.  For more information and to sign up, go to www.blizzard.com .
Tolkien Discussion : report by Eonwe
    Suggested by Eru, we discussed Boromir's motives for going to Rivendell and whether he recieved the dream to seek the sword that was broken as Faramir did. 

Jan. 5, 2002
    Pippin is still with us, although he has been grounded for a while. Could it have been those fireworks, perhaps?