2003 News Archives
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News added by month, more or less.
Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept
Oct Nov Dec
Dec. 31, 2003
Happy New Year's Eve!
D2X Ladder banks:
We have quite a few bank ladder characters
that are about to be deleted by B.net for lack of use. Any volunteers
to put in some time would be welcome! Thanks to the folks who've given
warnings and those who have been rebuilding deleted banks, as well as
the ones putting in time.
Dec. 28, 2003
New idea from Ulfang-(V)!:
There are quite a number of things that are going on, all of which
I'd love to be more interested in (if it weren't for my job; I
work for
an investment bank in New York so my hours have been horrible, plus,
I'm now engaged so wedding plans take a front seat to Tolkien).
It's
hard for me to add anything to the list....
Although here's an idea...
My fiance and I both enjoy Tolkien, and we were actually thinking
of
having our wedding bands inscripted with tengwar writing. (The
running
joke is that while my ring will say 'I love you' and so on, hers will
say 'One Ring to rule them all') We've seen a couple of places on
the
web where one can get this, but if anyone else knows where to get
customized Tolkien jewelry, i think that would be nice.
Thanks once again,
Ulfang
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, 22:00
GMT AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Meeting Transcript, by Arathorn-V. Summary below:
Attending: report by Thror-(V) and Varda
AIM group (14): Akhoril, Arathorn,
Ar-Pharazon, Caranthir, Elatan, Galdor, Gil-galad, Gwaihir, Huan,
Orodreth, Osse, Thorondor, Thror, Varda (presiding)
Change of meeting format:
Discussion of changing meeting format. News page
does not need to be repeated, have folk check News before the meeting
gets rolling, then tell any new business. Then switch to Tolkien chat
right away.
Reason to change format: News repeat is a repeat.
Many are not in the same games, so much of the gaming details will be
irrelevant to many, and may be handled better on the Message Board aka
Forum. Europe has short time to be in chat.
Reason to change to AIM: Guild now is across many
games, quite a few don't game at all, and we need a way to meet live.
Membership:
Eonwe went to see RotK during meeting time.
The movies are very helpful to those who test, besides being fun.
Elatan made two longbows plus arrows and a
quiver, in real life.
Arathorn's Java problem: The .toUppercase
property of an object won't work with an array. He needs a workaround
for the problem and none of us could help. Please email Arathorn.
Tolkien: (details in transcript)
Many were coming and going from the Return of
the King movie, two during the meeting, and a few had not seen it
so we tried to keep talk to the books.
Chat topic by Varda: Friendship in the books.
Chat topic by Thror: Spiders and Dark Lords
Suggested topic for another time: Orodreth fishing
for WoS help: Did elves use money of any sort? Did they barter?
Dec. 26, 2003
D2X Ladder:
New banks made, will need to be
played up. Gems, Rares, Runes, Uniques. Help needed!
Dec. 25, 2003
Merry Christmas!!
Dec. 24, 2003
New page: Quick AIM -
lists AIM screen names of full and Tolkien-only members, plus
information on how to get and use AIM for meetings. Found on the guild
index under Members and on the Activity page.
Half-Life/CounterStrike:
Half-Life and especially HF's CounterStrike players,
please note that you can get together on the Message Board Forum. You
also need to list that you like to play with Eonwe's Games page. Also,
please send Varda your CounterStrike Valar guild name for the Activity
page and so that you can find each other.
Dec. 22, 2003
Paladin Took-V, Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Paladin found us from the web site, doing a search for Tolkien and
Blizzard. He stayed around our channel a while trying to join, until
some of our kindly members suggested he email Varda. His outside
character is Berolsar, account SWRPG. He's 20, from Nevada, USA in the
PST. He's online nightly, preferring SC/BW, but also playing D2X, WC2,
and WC3. He's read the H and LotR. His favorite LotR character is
Aragorn. His email is Protoss72000@hotmail.com, his AIM is
MyLifeforAuir72.
D2X Ladder:
Thorondor just set the bar high
for all of us D2X Ladder players. He went Hardcore! His paladin is 67
and still alive! More info such as account name for it etc on the D2X
Ladder page. Still, that means we have a lot of new player slots for
hardcore with no record, so a level one has a chance!
Arathorn's javazon
still has the highest overall standing.
Dec. 21, 2003
Sunday Meeting 5:00pm EST, 22:00 GMT
Meetings are held on AIM (AOL Instant
Messenger) in chat room Valar Guild Meetingplace.
We have helpers in channel Clan Vala, and you can still receive credit
for showing up if you are listed by a roll taker on Bnet. According to
Eonwe, today's meeting was held in Bnet due to the lack of people
showing up in AIM who weren't also on Bnet.
You can enter the chat room in a couple of ways. You
can invite yourself or make the chat room, much like making a channel
in B.net, by sending a chat invitation to your screen name (not display
name), typing in Valar Guild Meetingplace as the chat room name. The
chat room will come up. Then choose "no" when the box asks if you wish
to accept the invitation, or it will make another chat room of the same
name and wind up nowhere.
To invite another member to the chat, use the menu
from the chat room (not the buddy list) to automatically give the
correct chat room name. Invite the person's screen name, not the
display name.
AIM can be downloaded free from www.aim.com
. Please make a screen name using your guild name so we can recognize
you for the roll to give you proper credit. If you already have a
screen name, you can use that, but you can also add a "new" screen
name. This is done as if you never had a screen name before, but when
it comes back up, you'll see a drop down list of your old screen names
and your new one.
Please email Varda your AIM screen name for the
meeting. Please also mention the screen name for general use if you use
another one normally but would like it to be contacted by guild
members. If you want the outsider screen name kept private for helping
attempts to find you during inactivity sweeps, tell Varda so it won't
be listed on the Activity page.
Any AIM names Varda is aware of will be listed on
the Activity page, unless told differently.
Attending: roll taken by Thorondor-(Valar)
Gwaihir-Valar@Azeroth
Fionwe-Valar@Azeroth
(Eonwe)
Daeron-V
(also has been playing during the week)
Orodeth-V
Beleg-V
Thorondor.Valar
Dior: Seen before meeting (by Eonwë)
Also on AIM:
Orodreth,
Eonwë
Membership News:
Varda (I) was going to apologize for missing
today's meeting,
but no, I'll say Woot! instead. I'm going to see Return of the King
with Eowyn-(V) and a
friend, so you guys have fun talking Tolkien without me. :) I'll
try to drop in late or after-meeting. Someone please email meeting
notes!
Erestor sends greetings, having to work
during the meeting.
Dropped for
inactivity, group 2: You can reapply before January
without a test, or rejoin after January with a test. Please email Varda.
Elenwe (left, nice
letter, not gaming or following Tolkien now)
Finrod Felagund (email
undeliverable, no contact since July 2002)
Folca (email
undeliverable, no contact since July 2002)
Fuinur (email
undeliverable, no contact since January)
Girion (email
undeliverable <bedwards321@hotmail.com>. No
contact since 2002)
Dec. 20, 2003
WC3/TFT meeting 1pm EST channel Clan Vala.
Gwaihir had to be at work.
Emailed tip:
any clan member who has registered an e-mail address with
WC3 can be contacted through 'clanmail'... allowing you to contact at
least me (I registered mine) over bnet when I'm not online.
Dec. 17, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Poetry:
"Rohirrim
Battle Hymn", by Turgon-(V)
"Trollish
ode to themselves", by Turgon-(V)
Elatan, Happy 40th Birthday! He's
heading out for Christmas vacation and should be back around the 22nd.
Dec. 14, 2003
Saddam was captured Saturday. Photos, DNA tests
prove identity.
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Poetry:
"Brave
Heart", by Laurelin Caline, Tolkien member. The words of those
who went into battle against Sauron, supporting Elendil and Gil-galad.
Sunday Meeting: 5:00pm EST, 22:00 GMT, on
AIM, Valar Guild Meetingplace, with helpers in the Battlenet channels.
Meeting
transcript in AIM, sent in by Arathorn-V from the time he entered
the chat room. Great idea, Arathorn!
Attending:
AIM: member name: AIM name for your list
Arathorn-V: ArathornValar
Earendil-V: gelondil2
FarmerMaggot: Musics4Me2
Gil-galad-V: Xseanzee
disco
Grimbold-V: hearnoevil80
Gwaihir-Valar: HeraldTantras
Orodreth-V: OrodrethV
Thror-V: chuginchub
Varda-Valar: VardaValar1
Clan Vala channel only: Beleg-V. He said his AIM is
off.
Membership:
Eonwe and Erestor are at work.
Members dropped so far, activity sweep still in
progress:
Amroth, Beorn, Beorn, Bolg, Celebrimbor.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia/ Poetry page: "Brave Heart" by
Laurelin Caline, Tolkien member.
Message Board: New trivia section started.
Gaming:
D2X Ladder:
Arathorn is leading the guild with an
82 javazon.
WC3:
Osse promoted to shaman!
Christmas tourney proposed. May also
have all game gaming during the holidays.
Lord of the Rings:
Co-op LotR Board game. Hobbits
try to reach Mt. Doom before corruption points reach 10.
By Hasbro.
Created by Reiner Knizia. Co-op, so no competitive issues.
Tolkien:
Upcoming Return of the King movie discussion.
Rumored cuts.
Earendil: How were Ents involved in the history of
Middle-earth?
Varda: Helm's Deep, Orthanc
Earendil: Helped Beren vs dwarves.
Gwaihir: Doriath. And Entwives
taught Men to farm.
Thror suggests as a future topic: House of Play.
Dec. 13, 2003
Promotion! Osse became a shaman in
the
WC3/TFT branch today at the meeting. He will be able to handle the
gavel at WC3/TFT meetings, full guild meetings in Battlenet, and Vala
flag incoming branch members. Osse is already a Maia honor, so he can
test entry. He joins Gwaihir and Draugluin in the Maiar shaman list. A
person doesn't have to be a Maia to be a shaman, but he does need to be
able to communicate with Chieftain Eonwe and play the game.
The meeting was at 1pm, channel Clan Valar, Eonwe
presiding. Osse accepted the shaman job. Sauron got his Vala flag.
Varda was also present. Thror came by just as the meeting closed.
Ancalagon, although in WC3, seemed to be afk in the other channel, as
was Orodreth's Halmundo.
WC3/TFT Christmas Gaming: from Eonwe:
We would like to try a Christmas Tournament, not on
Christmas of course :} but on the Sunday before Christmas, next Sunday
the 21st. If you would like there to be a tournament you need to
repond to me or Gwaihir immediately. At least 8 people excluding
judges must be willing to meet for this or its no go. This was
announced at the end of November on the Valar Guild Message Board (find
the link on the Main Page. You remember where that is, right?
:}). If you haven't signed up yet, it's a good idea to. The
sooner you guys get talking on it the sooner it'll become a bustling
hub of Valarness :} We've got about 27 of us (total Valar Guild
members) already, and at least most of the new members are
already on board.
Hellos:
Aragorn says hello. He's been out due to
internet connection difficulties. Lately he's been playing in D2:LoD
Europe. He hopes to make tomorrow's meeting.
Erestor will be at work during tomorrow's
meeting. He hopes to be on earlier that day burning in more D2X Ladder
banks.
Hello letter from Bain and Cirdan:
Sorry we have dropped off the map. The two of us were relying on a satellite broadband connection for gaming that
was extremely dibilitating due to a huge latency. Quickly dying in every game we played, we opted to retire to the
green hills of Southfarthing. Recently I ditched the satellite connection (because DSL became available in our
area). BTW, if you are ever faced with the choice between a Hughes Direcway Satellite and stepping outside to send
smoke signals, choose the tried and true blanket and fire method! We would love to get back into to loop after the
winter solstice.
Dropped for inactivity:
You can reapply before January without a test, or rejoin after January
with a test. Please email Varda.
Amroth: email
disabled, no contact all year.
Beor: email
undeliverable, no contact all year.
Beorn: all people who say
they are a Beorn will have to rejoin under another name and will not be
considered members until then. None replied to the Eonwe email in Sept
and none have shown any activity since. All the emails I sent Dec12
came back undeliverable.
Bolg: email undeliverable, no
contact all year.
Celebrimbor: email
undeliverable, no contact all year. Gwaihir had contact, says
Celebrimbor's no longer interested.
Dec. 12, 2003
Letter from Eonwe:
Hail!
Just thought I'd let you know I won't be able to make the meeting
Sunday. One of our shift managers quit (this place seems to be
rough on management, hehe), leaving just me and my main manager (like
it was most of the semester during school), and so she could attend a
family Christmas thing I went ahead and said I'd close for her.
Hope you have fun. I assure you I'll be wishing I was there :}
Take care.
Eonwë
Activity Sweep: Those who didn't
respond to Eonwe's games email in September and have
no recent activity mentioned need to contact me to keep from being
dropped for January. Those
who have nothing listed after Eonwe's games email are questionable as
being active. If you see a question mark by your name's active status
on the Activity
2003 page or just to make sure, then please email Varda.
Please sign with your guild name!
I will be sending out emails to help you get
in contact, but emails are
not always updated properly (a dropped "n" on verizon in the address
book
recently prevented an email from going through) or have weirdnesses
preventing them from going
through, and some of you don't have emails. Beor has no email.
Some ways of showing documentable activity:
Email Varda.
Come to a meeting for at
least a few minutes to have your name on the Attending rolls on the
News.
WC3 players in the Clan Vala branch
will show up on the clan profile showing when they were last in
the Clan Vala channel.
Anything that puts you on the News
page: emails, articles for the Tolkien Encyclopedia or the Gaming
pages, meetings.
D2X ladder page participant with a
dated update.
Web page for the guild.
The new Activity page for 2004 will show who
is still in the guild in January. If you seem to have been dropped for
inactivity, email Varda if you want to rejoin, then try to make some
form of monthly contact afterwards.
Dec. 10, 2003
AIM tip
Letter from Gwaihir:
you CAN invite yourself into a chat. if you know the name
of the chatroom, that is.
All you have to do is type your name in stead of someone else's into
the section where it asks you to type who you want to invite... and
type the name of the room into the appropriate spot and then push
invite. It'll open up the chatroom and you'll be in it
Namarie,
Gwaihir
In another letter from Gwaihir:
You can invite yourself into an AIM chatroom. You just type
your name in stead of someone else's into the "Screen names to invite"
section and the chatroom you wish to go to into the "Buddy Chat Room"
spot. Then push invite and the chatroom will pop up and miraculously
enough, you'll be in it
Dec. 9, 2003
Links page:
By the Sword
- medieval and fantasy swords, clothing, collectibles. Second URL
Squelch button exercise again.
Woohooimback@Azeroth says he's the old Calvin, leafieslover, back in
the Valar channel being nasty saying the same old same old. Another
account being used for ugly remarks, probably shared by Calvin and a
guild member, is
Mr.Aznpanda@Azeroth. He plays with Buntcake@Azeroth,
Someonewhocares@Azeroth, and Quickbeam-V@Azeroth. The first two are
outside names for guild folk.
Dec. 7, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East, channel Clan Valar,
5:00pm EST, 22:00 GMT
Attending: report from Thror and Varda
Members: Arathorn, Bombur, Caranthir,
Earendil, Eonwe/Fionwe, Erestor, Galdor, Gil-galad, Gwaihir, Orodreth,
Thorondor/Sorontar, Thror, Tilion, Varda (presiding)
Guest: Virtuous (joined guild after meeting
as Grimbold-V)
Member Report:
Welcome to the Valar Guild, Grimbold-V! Grimbold
is 23, from Illinois in the US, CST. He plays D2:LoD and WC3/TFT. He is
on bnet daily. He's read the H and LotR. He's learning about being a
veterinarian. Galdor scouted, Earendil and Varda tested for a 5/5.
AIM experiment:
After the main meeting, we tried an experiment to
see if we could meet in AIM. This was more successful than any other
non-Bnet chat we've done especially with so little preparation time.
This could really be a way to go, and let non-Bnet gamers and
Tolkien-only members join in much better. Several of us added our guild
names to our AIM accounts. AIM seems to be safer for us than ICQ or
IRC, and most found it available.
Tolkien fonts may be found at
www.barrowdowns.com/fonts/Quenya.ttf. Put them in
c:/windows/fonts and that's it.
The main problem seems to be that we seem to need
someone to do an invitation. Ask someone already in AIM chat for an
invitation, or someone at Bnet. Although afk, we tend to check back on
Bnet and scroll. Also, we can add a shortcut in some versions, to
Valar Guild Meetingplace.
Varda will be adding AIM names to the Activity page.
Please send yours in or correct what I have up.
Gwaihir: Herald Tantrus
Arathorn: ArathornValar
Bombur: BomburV
Caranthir: Good_Times695
Earendil: Gelondil2
Galdor: GaldorV
Gil-galad: Xseanzeedisco
Grimbold: hearnoevil80
Thror: chuginchub
Tilion: tilionvalar
Varda: VardaValar1
Web Report:
Message Board:
Middle-earth Online section
added by Eonwe, with a discussion section for suggestions on how to set
up the guild branch when it comes out late 2004. We have to be
positioned to jump in fast with a guild branch and go for it. :)
Sierra has a message board for Middle-earth online,
but it doesn't accept free email account registrations. To handle this,
we might try using Yahoo email, as it is hard to tell if it is paid or
not. This could help some of us who are not in possession of large
amounts of gold.
Gaming:
D2X Ladder:
Top score is now 78 for
Gwaihir's paladin!
Ladder bank: Due to the
incredible work of such members as Erestor, Galdor, Fangorn, and Varda,
the Ladder banks are being burned in despite the time requirements.
Great work, all! So, more are being added. *Collective groan from
stabilizers.*
Tolkien:
Thror, for a report he has to give tomorrow,
asked how long Gollum was in the cave.
Gwaihir was fastest at finding the reference:
Appendix B: The Tale of Years. Gollum entered the Misty Mountains in
2470, then left to search for the "thief" 2944. That makes it 474
years. Stretched life indeed!
As a side comment, twins Elrohir and Elladan were
111 years older than sister Arwen. Interesting number, eh Bilbo?
Dec. 1, 2003
D2X Ladder Bank:
We have some accounts up with
storage characters, but many will need to be run a bit to stay up.
After enough of these look secure, we can start others.
top
Nov. 30, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East, channel Clan
Vala, 5:00pm EST, 22:00 GMT
Attending:
Arathorn, Beleg, Caranthir, Eonwe, Erestor,
Orodreth, Thorondor, Varda (presiding)
Members:
Caranthir is reading the Iliad for homework. We
should all be so lucky!
Web:
Games page:
Eonwe has re-done most of it in HTML,
taking up less space and for fun. Beats using Word!
Ladder page:
The page may have to go defunct due to
low info input from guild.
Ladder Bank page up.
Gaming:
D2X guild ladder:
Legolas is ahead with 74!
D2X regular:
We had 5 people in the same game
today. Felt like old times!
D2X Middle-earth mod: (bless
Elrohir and Fingolfin!) report from Eonwe, after playing it
Old charcters are ok.
Inventory is about 3 rows bigger!
Can overwrite old mod files.
Easier to get running. Use .bat file,
no file switching.
WoS:
Orodreth's unofficial Valar server is
back up and running! Same pass.
F'nok is an old friend of Orodreth's
from WoS, also has a good guild. His comments are on the Message Board
under WoS. You have registered for the Message Board, right?
Middle-earth Online:
Arathorn and Erestor as well as Varda
said they'd like to get into this MORPG after it comes out, probably
late next year.
It will be a memory hog and need a good
video card. We hope to have improved comps by then.
It begins just after the Fellowship
leave Moria, having stirred up Barrow-Wights and Moria baddies in their
wake. If there is to be a home for them to return to, we'd better take
care of the mess! Later installments will have the Fellowship
moving farther along the Quest, causing more ruckus for us to handle.
We will continue to have our primary
names from Tolkien characters, but will have to doctor them for this
game. We can't have our Aragorn actually play Aragorn and then bump
into the one in the online game, etc. So we can add on words, perhaps
elven or other Tolkien languages, perhaps appropriate to the class. For
instance in Dark Age of Camelot, one character is GafferSong. Our guild
will have the back story that we are a group that believes the Valar
exist, bringing a higher (or lower, in Morgoth's case) octave to our
play. We will continue to adhere to the philosophy of fair play,
courtesy, and honesty as Tolkien would have preferred from those who
honor his ideals. We intend to have a presence on the Middle-Earth
Online forum. In the Message Board, we already have a thread started
under Other Games, and could set up a separate section for handling
such sticky problems as naming and types of compware needed.
Tolkien:
Varda's topic: Loyalty as shown in
Tolkien's writings
Erestor: Loyal to what? Ideas? Person? Thing?
Varda: all
Eonwe: Boromir was loyal to the Fellowship although
he fell to the Ring. He gave his life for Merry and Pippin.
Thorondor: Were Melkor's creatures truly loyal to
him? His Maiar were.
Erestor: continued trying to define "loyalty"
Eonwe: Loyalty and faithfulness
Varda: Sam was like loyalty personified, as Aragorn
was hope.
Erestor: Legolas and Gimli: sense of loyalty
Erestor: Gimli loyal to Galadriel
Orodreth: Merry and Pippin: loyal to their
respective kingdoms
Erestor: Shadowfax loyal to Gandalf
Tangents: Free will, choice, can good and evil exist
without each other? Nature of light and dark and color. Black holes,
spectra. Computers we first met. Why some people consider our games
bad, and where they have a point. Computer addiction. What parents can
do. Moderation needed in all things. We will continue gaming.
:) Wootz is a real word, for Damascus steel, which people have
only recently re-learned the technique for making. For more detailed
info, try a Google search for wootz, or http://www.brisa.fi/wootz3.html
After meeting: D2X tip from Galdor, seen on
D2.net, Griswold in nightmare can give stuff as good or nearly as good
as any boss up to Baal.
Nov. 25, 2003
Games page:
Eonwe re-made the whole page,
this time using HTML. Take a look (use Explorer) and be sure to update
your info. Congrats, Eonwe!
Nov. 23, 2003
Sunday Meeting 5:00pm
EST, 22:00 GMT: Battlenet East Realm, channel Clan Vala
Attending:
In channel:
ArathornL-V, Ar-Pharazon-V@Azeroth, Earendil-Valar@Azeroth,
Eonwe-(Valar), Faramir-V@Azeroth, Gwaihir-Valar, Orodreth-V,
Thorondor-Valar, Varda-(Valar) (presiding)
On AIM:
FarmerMaggot -V
Over the shoulder
hello: Fangorn-(V)
Members:
Farmer Maggot's CD is broken, so he came to the
meeting by AIM and spoke with Arathorn for relay.
Gil-galad hopes to be in the channel in the coming
week between family get-togethers.
Web:
"You know you're in Valar when..." joke from Galdor.
Gaming:
WC3/ TFT:
Thanksgiving Tourney! This
coming Thursday at 4:30pm EST. 1 on 1 pvp planned. If enough people
show up, teams can play. A Tourney thread is available on the Message
Board. You can add to the post with whether or not you plan to show or
if you will be 5 minutes late. You can also get together for practice
gaming.
Meetings
every Saturday 1pm EST in channel Clan Vala for planning and gaming.
Maps:
The guild needs your WC3/ TFT Tolkien-based maps. WC3 art tools are
available for download.
D2X guild Ladder:
Our ladder gaming is more like regular
friendly gaming, but we use the ladder characters and special traits
provided by Blizzard.
Ladder
page:
Legolas currently has the highest standing at 73. He stopped leveling
waiting for a guild team in Hell difficulty, and started other ladder
characters. (Only in Valar "competition"...) We have a Ladder
page listing our standings. It's main use is to see who we can play
with, but it's also slightly competitive. We have a highest overall
standing and highest class standing. It's updated when Varda meets you
and remembers to jot down your name and level and doesn't lose the
note. A better update system is to email Varda regularly as a habit
with updates. This can be after making a particular goal level, or on a
particular day. You can also mention the name and level of fellow
ladder guild folk to give them credit too. Without guild input, this
page cannot work.
Ladder bank: We had a request for
a ladder bank. When Blizzard changes the ladder accounts to regular,
the ladder mathoms can be unloaded into the regular banks. The old
ladder banks would then be deleted and new ones started for the new
ladder. Those few present thought a Ladder bank was a good idea.
We've had one dissenting voice saying it didn't seem
to fit the idea of a ladder. True, but we are not really competing. We
have too many ways of gaining levels. Some of us play in public games
and others wouldn't touch a public game with the tip of even the
longest halbard. We have varying amounts of time we can play, some much
less than others. Some play mostly solo, often due to time of day, and
others have buddies they tend to play with. Many of us play with
whomever happens to be around, as we're all good company. So we have
some thoughts on doing an actual competing ladder, but sufficient guild
interest didn't seem to be present.
Tolkien:
The Two Towers Extended DVD is available. Some
members reported that they were glad they bought it for the extra
scenes put back in . Faramir-Valar reports that the Faramir character
now seems more like a good guy.
The Collector's Set includes a Gollum statue and
book, so it depends on whether you want them or not as to whether you
should pay the high price for that set.
Topics developing as tangents of the DVD discussion:
Did
the Valar set up Bilbo's finding of the Ring?
Valar
influence is shown subtly in the Lord of the Rings, occasionally
obvious. It is much more noticeable after reading the Silmarillion and
the Histories.
Arathorn-V's topic:
Was
Feanor a good guy, bad guy, grey, or something else?
This took a great deal of thought to answer,
but we had some thinkers available. :) A few of the
comments, abbreviated:
Eonwe -
Feanor was a good guy brought low by Morgoth's malice. Feanor was proud.
Pharazon -
Something appeared bad in him with the death of his mother and
remarriage of his father. Thought of himself as the only true Noldor
prince, instead of Fingolfin and Finarfin, the "half-bloods".
Eonwe
- Feanor buried himself in his work, began to care only about
that and his father. He was his father's favorite in many ways.
Earendil-
On the whole, he's a bad guy, but he has many attributes appropriate
for an elf of his stature.
Pharazon -
Feanor refused to give up the silmarilis before he heard they were
stolen.
Eonwe -
Feanor truly was heir to the kingship of the Noldor.
Pharazon -
Feanor didn't seem to consider his half-brothers as true princes. The
strongest sin of all, pride.
Some discussion on semantics: pride can be good when
it's reasonable confidence. Arrogance is overbearing pride, even if it
has a basis. Hubris. General agreement that excessive pride was a major
problem.
Earendil
started a list of characters whose pride caused them to use their power
for evil and who were at the tops of their types. Others in the
channel, after understanding the qualifications, agreed and added to
it, with comments on why these characters fit. Melkor, Feanor,
Pharazon. Additions suggested were Saruman, Sauron and Turin. Boromir
was considered not to fit the list, although proud, as his main desire
was for Gondor rather than himself, although he expected to inherit the
Stewardship of Gondor. Sauron was iffy for the list as well, as Eonwe
might have been the top of the Maiar, and he, although proud, mainly
worked for Morgoth rather than himself.
Gollum did not fit. There was some discussion on
whether he started out evil or not. He was certainly no Frodo!
Another tangent was about those opposite to the
arrogant people. Faramir (brought up because of the movies and DVD's)
was the nearest human in Middle-earth to being like Aragorn.
Eonwe
mentioned another parallel of quite a few people who were just below
the
top person. Unfortunately this was not jotted down, and it would be
great if Eonwe adds this to the Message Board under Tolkien!
Nov. 22, 2003
EverQuest:
Congrats to Oropher-(V), for reaching the top
level in EverQuest of 65. Good luck with your Alternate Advancements
and flags!
WC3/ TFT:
WC3/TFT gamers
meeting in Clan Vala 1pm East. Planning and gaming. It's a
get-together to game even when no formal meeting is held.
Nov. 20, 2003
New Links for Links page:
Aragorn and Legolas
- The Mellon Chronicles -
fan-fic, intended to be clean as in no smut/ slash. Articles. Maps.
Name generator. Shop. .
War of the Ring
- Tolkien fan site, books and movies. Includes a list of Tolkien sites.
Letter from
Gil-galad:
I'll most likely see you in the channnel next week - that actually
depends on what time my family get togethers are. I am
sorry I havent
been to any meetings in a while, busy schedule like Eonwe said.
-Gil-galad
Nov. 19, 2003
WarCraft3/The Frozen Throne: Thanksgiving Tourney
Letter from
Chieftain Eonwe excerpt:
Remember that we have a
weekly gathering scheduled at 1 pm Eastern Time
(Valar Standard Time) every Saturday for WC3/TFT.
Even if no formal
meeting is held, this is prime time to be getting together
for games.
The WC3 art tools are now available for anyone to
download. Check them
out if you're an interested mapmaker.
I also want to remind everyone we still need Tolkien-Themed
tourney
maps. Doesn't necessarily have to have quests.
If you just wanted to
make a WC3 version of one of our Starcraft Tourney maps
(like Bridges of
Osgiliath for example) that's perfectly fine. The
Tourney Guidelines
page linked from the Games Page has more suggestions and
two different
styles for tourney maps. These maps will typically be
Player vs
computer, competing for best time, but that doesn't rule
out a creative
mind who wants to make, say, collectiing part of the map
either :}
Last, but not least, we are scheduling a fun one on one
person vs person
tournament to be
held on Thanksgiving (next Thursday).
Battle is
expected to be honorable as always. Replays of each
battle may be
requested. I and Gwaihir for sure will be outside the
tourney (I.e not
participating in it) as judges. More info to come, so
expect some of it
to be given when you get there :} It's appreciated if
we could know who
would like to participate (so we know if we have enough for
a
tournament), but anyone who shows up in Clan Vala with
their WC3/TFT
suit next Thursday will not be turned away.
Time? 4:30 Valar Standard Time.
Prizes? Well, we'll have to see,... :}
Nov. 17, 2003
"You know you're
in Valar when..." page: new joke by Galdor-V!
Nov. 16, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet
East, 5:00 pm EST, 22:00 GMT, channel Clan Vala:
Attending:
Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon, Elrond, Eonwe,
Erestor, Galdor, Haldir, Legolas, Theoden, Thror, Varda (presiding)
Member News:
Galdor's
birthday is Nov 29, when he'll be 28. Congrats!
Turgon:
comp and economic problems. Expects to return so please keep his name.
Web:
Guild-wide
story: Eonwe doesn't have time to work on it now. Perhaps we
could run a non-official one on the Message Board.
New page: D2X
Ladder for guild, helping us get together and see how we're
doing. Bnet can't show us as we're mostly too low.
Gaming:
D2X:
Gaming tip from Galdor:
To keep the game from
dropping your character when you need to be afk (transfer aid, mom
called you for a chore, etc) type /fps to keep the character active.
This can also be used during a game to track your ping. It means frames
per second. The same thing with more detail may be accomplished by
typing /framerate
D2X Ladder:
Updates may be emailed to Varda on all
your D2X ladder players, even level one. Top characters may be sent to
Eonwe for a mention in the new Games page with the same email.
D2X Middle-earth
mod:
Varaya and Khan (aka Elrohir and
Fingolfin in the guild) have already made a Tolkien mod (1.9) for the
new Battlenet patch (1.10), incorporating some of the changes they had
intended before the patch. Expect another patch shortly, but it
shouldn't tear up your character.
Tolkien chat:
Varda's topic: How
did Tolkien show the idea of hope in the LotR and other writings?
Some comments:
Eonwe: Aragorn and Arwen share a hope.
Elrond: Giving up hope conceded defeat.
Eonwe: Council of Elrond met with hope.
Pharazon: Small hope in the form of a hobbit.
Galdor: with odds stacked against him.
Erestor: Gandalf spoke of a "fool's hope".
Elrond: Defeat of Sauron was hope of elves, showing
Middle-earth would be alright without them.
Eonwe: Frodo had to destroy the Ring, Aragorn had to
call out Sauron's armies so Frodo could make it. They each had hope in
the other's efforts.
The hope after the Last Battle of Arda re-made as
Eru intended.
(Much more, hard to jot down and participate. Great
job, all!)
(Tangent: Melkor, Eru, the Flame Imperishable)
Nov. 14, 2003
The Valar
Guild Ladder for D2X page is up.
If we can keep it reasonably updated with once a week emails and visual
sightings, we will keep the page. Our guild ladder characters will
mostly not show on Battlenet's ladder, so we need a separate one. It
can help us locate each other by account names for friend lists and
suggest which ones are of a level to play with our own characters. The
Ladder page can be reached from the main guild page under Gaming/
Diablos/ Ladder
Nov. 11, 2003
Letter from Turgon:
Aiya!
I have very bad news for everyone. I went to a
friend last weekend who knows a tad bit more about comps than I do, and
it seems both my processor and my motherboard are fried. That means
I've got a huge bill on my counter if I want to replace them. At this
moment I cannot do that, so it will most probably take til early next
year to get back online. I am trying everything I can to be back on
earlier, but the best I can do (hopefully) is getting a small comp on
which I can install and play WC II B.net edition and at least have
access to b.net.
Namarie
Elen sila lumenn omentielmo,
Turgon
Nov. 9, 2003
Sunday Meeting 5:00pm
EST, 22:00 GMT: Battlenet East Realm, channel Clan Vala
Attending: report by Thror
Members:
Ar-Pharazon, Beleg, Earendil, Erestor,
Gwaihir (presiding), Mahtan, Orodreth, Thror
Guest: Sinecare
Rest of meeting report by Gwaihir:
Members:
E-mail from Galdor:
Thingol is doing well in
Germany, hoping you have wireless access on laptop soon
E-mail from Legolas:
He’s alive and well
Earendil is
able to be on bnet weekends now and should be most weekends
Eonwe away
from the meeting, work
Varda away
from the meeting, with family and friends for her birthday get-together
Web news:
Poem “Valar” by Orodreth
New site by Merry: Central
Texas Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (CTVOAD)
Gaming News:
Trivial Pursuit for LotR on sale now
Blizzard has released art tools for WC3/TFT – Appear
to be plugins for a 3d rendering program known as “Discreet 3Ds Max
4.0(4.26 is recommended)
Nov. 8, 2003
Letter from Tom Bombadil:
I want to begin this letter by expressing my sincerest
apologies! My life has been really hectic as of late,
because I have moved to Paris. I have not had a
computer until just yesterday, when it finally arrived
by mail!
During this time, I have had no mail and no contact
from my server, so I assume that it went off-line due
to non-payment! I want to apologies as well for this,
but I have had no idea until today when I was surfing
and noticed that everything is gone!
I truthfully miss the old times at the guild, but I do
not have enough time to drop by regularly. I do not
exactly want to hand in the badge, so to say, but
realistically I am unable to fulfill my duties as a
member!
Perhaps in a little while, my prospects will look up
and I will once again be able to smash some goonies
with you all! Send my wishes to the guild for me,
until the day when I will be able to send them myself!
Yours,
Tom
jbgentry4@yahoo.co.uk
Nov. 6, 2003
Letter from Galdor:
I was on the d2.net forums yesterday & ran into
Thingol of our guild there. He wanted me to let the
guild know that he is doing fine in Germany and wants
to say Aiya to everyone and he also hopes he can soon
patch in to the the wireless internet there with his
laptop.
Namarie,
Galdor
New members site up by Meriadoc-(V), on Guild
index:
Central Texas Voluntary Organizations
Active in Disaster (CTVOAD) - a new page just started by
Meriadoc-(V)
Merry is also
the group's VP and has been nominated for another term. Now if it only
paid!
Nov. 5, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Poetry:
"Valar", by Orodreth-(V)
Nov. 3, 2003
Letter
from Legolas: Nov 3
this is
Legolas... just droppin ya a note to let ya know i'm still alive an'
kicking and such... finally got going again on d2x with the new ladder
and all that... not able to make the meetings, since i work every
sunday so i havent been able to drop by there and say aiya to y'all
Nov. 2, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet
East, 5pm EST, 22:00 GMT. channel Clan Vala
Attending:
Alatar, Ar-Pharazon, Beleg,
Caranthir/Morifinwe-V, Eonwe, Erestor, Mahtan, Orodreth, Varda
(presiding)
Seen after the meeting:
Faramir-V@Azeroth, Eomer-(V),
Gwaihir-Valar, Thror_V, Turin(V) , ex-Maglor-(V) as Teki-San
considering rejoining us in WoW when it comes out to have someone to
play with.
Members:
Dior
is back, senior in high school, new email. His sister Earwen, BW player, has gone to
University and can also be expected to have a new email once settled.
Finwe hopes
to be on more now that mid-terms are over.
Gwaihir
and Legolas working at meeting
time.
Orodreth:
new email:
Orodreth_V@yahoo.com
MSN: Orodreth_V@yahoo.com,
Orodreth_V
AIM: OrodrethV
Blizzforums: Orodreth
Turgon and Tulkas are having computer troubles.
Web:
D2X-Middle-earth
mod: report by Eonwe
The V&K page will be moving back to
Planet Diablo. The forum is still in its old place, Phrozen Keep.
V&K had just come out with a new
patch when the 1.10 patch came out. They are now working on a mod that
uses the new Blizzsard patch and intend to incorporate the new things
they had been working out. It may come out in a two-step: first one
useable, second one with all the bells and whistles added by Blizzard.
StarCraft/BroodWar:
Alatar asks Dior to send him an email
so he can set a space up for him on the valarguild.org server.
Games page:
Still under re-construction
Message Board:
Now handled by Eonwe until Turgon's
computer is repaired. Turgon can still do a few things.
Gaming:
D2X:
1.10 patch is out. Hell has frozen over.
D2X Ladder:
Game name format: Arda#-L
Quite a few of us are playing
ladder characters as well as regular. Some of these are:
alatar_valar,
Arathorn-V, Erestor2-V, Fangorn-(V), Galdor, Gwahir-Valar, Legolas,
Mahtan-V, Sauron-(V), Varda (using account Elentari-Valar)
LotR RPG: email and live report by Orodreth-V
Tolkien:
Varda's topic: How did JRRT handle the
subject of death in his writings?
top
Oct. 29, 2003
Letter from Turgon:
I have to regret to
announce that I still have troubles with my comp and will not be able
to come online for perhaps several months, depending on what part of my
comp I need to replace.
I will miss all of you while I'm gone and I hope I
will be back asap.
I will still handle the Message Boards through
Internet at my job, but I would like to give full command of the Board
to Eonwe as he is the one most regularly checking it, in case my job or
internet there is cut short. I will write a short how-to on the MB
asap.
Elen sila lumenn omentielmo,
Turgon
Letter from Finwe:
Sorry I've been away for so long, my
last
semester at school has been rather hectic. As such,
I've only just noticed that there were apparently some
problems with getting a hold of me through e-mail.
I'm not sure why, as the address on the member
activity page seems to be correct. Anyhow, not that
my last midterms are over, I should be on more often
(I hope, it's been too long since I last had a chance
to relax on b.net).
Thanks
Finwe
yakintosh_98@yahoo.com
Oct. 28, 2003
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction - The 1.10 patch is
out!!
Details on Blizzard,
Battlenet, Arreat Summit
(recommended), Diabloii.net.
Ladder gamers (for fun and friend list): Arda-L
Elentari-Valar of new account *Elentari-Valar
aka Varda
ArathornL-V is still *Arathorn-V
Fangorn_V is still *Fangorn-(V)
(After Oct 28, Galdor, Gwaihir-Valar, Legolas, Alatar, and Mahtan-V
also laddering. Others as well, but these I know about.)
Oct. 26, 2003
Daylight savings time ends for US and Canada.
Sunday Meeting 5:00pm EST, 22:00 GMT Battlenet East,
channel Clan Vala
Attending: (8)
Arathorn-V, Ar-Pharazon-V@Azeroth,
astaldo-valar,
Beleg-V, Eonwe-(Valar)/Fionwe-Valar@Azeroth, Orodreth-V, Theoden-V,
Varda-(Valar)/Varda-Valar@Azeroth
(presiding)
Members:
Tulkas is having computer problems, kept him
from staying for the rest of the meeting.
Web:
Games page is still under re-construction, quite a
bit
of progress. Eonwe is struggling to do it in his tiny bit of time
available.
Tolkien Languages page can use input.
Gaming:
We can gather together for games after the
Sunday
meeting. WC3 and TFT players can also gather to game Saturdays 1pm.
D2X:
Beta 1.10 gaming is closed. That
should mean it is close to coming out for public use.
WC3/TFT:
Gamers can get together in Clan
Vala to play, Saturdays at 1pm EST. A leader is not required for clan
members to join up for gaming.
Eonwe came in
and
made sure the clan stays in one piece. Be sure to bring in your WC3/TFT
account
to the Clan Channel, as it needs at least one visit from you every 28
days,
although it has a grace period.
WoS:
Orodreth still takes in folk who enjoy playing WoS
on his server.
Tolkien:
Ar-Pharazon: Discussion of Amroth and
Nimrodel.
Tangents:
Ulmo and his waters, the waters having the greatest
amount of Eru's theme present
Tom Bombadil possibly being a Maia remaining in
Middle-earth
to be with Goldberry who was either a Maia of Aule or daughter of a
Maia
of Aule called the River-woman. We know of no children.
Ainur didn't generally marry each other to have
children
as they were immortal. The life of Elves is attached to Middle-earth,
not
like the immortality of Ainur that didn't depend on Arda's existence. A
Maia
is known to have married an Elf and had children, however, as in the
case
of Melian and Thingol. Thus Tom Bombadil might have stayed in
Middle-earth
with a non-Maia if Goldberry was a half-Maia. If both were Maiar, they
could
also have stayed together, as the Valar Manwe and Varda did.
Oct. 22, 2003
D2X News from Eonwe:
News just off the
presses:
Blizzard has
closed the beta for 1.10. It's coming.... :}
Oct. 21, 2003
D2:LoD Middle-earth mod 1.8 patch was out last year.
Please pardon my not paying closer attention to the number on my own
mod.
V&K's page for the mod,
which is temporarily down, is also listed on the guild index under
gaming:
http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~vkmods/
Unfortunately, xfernet server for
V&K
mod page and other D2 mods is down. Repairs underway and temporary new
hosting.
More Main Forum
Phrozen
Keep Forum V&K tells some of the bugs in the mod and how to
overcome or live with them, plus tips.
Middle/Earth on Open is one way to play with
fellow modders outside guild.
Oct. 19, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East, channel Clan
Vala, 5:00 pm ESDT, 22:00 GMT. Report from Eonwe:
Attendance:
Battlenet:
Gwaihir, Ar-Pharazon,
Eonwë(Presiding), Arathorn, Orodreth, Galdor, Turgon
Yahoo Chatroom:
Orodreth, Arathorn,
Ar-Pharazon(?)
Membership:
Varda and family went to Renn Faire, so were unable
to make it to the meeting.
Boromir went out hunting, so was unable to
make it.
Turgon is having computer troubles, having lost his
hard drive. He may not be able to make it for anywhere from a few
days to a few weeks(attended this meeting via a friend's comp).
Gelmir sent in a letter, letting us know he's still
with us.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Events Page Added to
Encyclopedia. Suggested by Ron Smith, a Tolkien member.
Article by Varda
:"Creation" found on the Events Page.
Gaming:
Orodreth:
Public Tourney for UMS
map Trees of the Valar.
LotR RPG FO (Fourth Age)
175 after death of Elessar.
Arathorn: CS Helm's Deep mod review, not yet
set up on Games Page, which is not yet in it's new format.
Tolkien Chat:
Sort of Free Format, began with comment by (pardon,
didn't grab name, either Arathorn or Pharazon) on a scientific
discovery that there are tiny strings vibrating to musical intervals
that make up quarks, once thought to be the smallest particle.
Did Tolkien know about this when he wrote about his Ainur and the
Music?
Oct 19 Letter from Boromir:
Aiya,
I can't make the sunday meeting
because im goign out to hunt.
Namarie,
Boromir
Oct. 17, 2003
I (that's Varda) will probably be absent from
the
upcoming Sunday meeting. I'm going with family and friends to the Texas
Renaissance
Festival all day Sunday, and may be back late that night, which is very
late
for many of you or even morning. Others have been notified so someone
can handle the
meeting. If none of them can make it, please feel free to enjoy
chatting
and gaming anyway! It's faintly possible we may have some people show
up
in the Yahoo chat, so someone needs to pop in there for them.
Oct. 16, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
New page: "Events".
This page is for events in the books, such as battles or a meeting or
wedding,
rather than individual characters. Suggested by ~Gandalf, aka Ron
Smith,
Tolkien member.
New article,
"Creation", by Varda
Oct. 15, 2003
GOBI DESERT,
China (AP) - Against a clear blue sky, China fired
its first astronaut into orbit without any visible hitches
Wednesday, becoming only the third nation capable of manned
spaceflight. The government said the mission was going smoothly and
its ``taikonaut'' radioed back: ``I feel good.''
More
Letter from Irmo:
DaoC meetings have lately been scarcely attanded, and last very short
anyway. Since we have organized pretty much everything which need organizing
(crafts/house/alliance) the need for business meetings has indeed lessened.
Most members are not too fond of organizationale discussions and want to
hunt as soon as possible, and I grant them that if possible, hehe:).
So not much to make reports about, really.
Cheers,
Irmo.
Letter from Orodreth-(V):
Orodreth-V here, and I have a few things
to report.
Namarie,
Orodreth AKA Ondollo, Halmundo, and Alan
Oct. 13, 2003
Letter from Gelmir:
Aiya Valar!
While
I regret the fact that I was unable to attend the meeting Sunday, or be
present
for games and chat, in celebration of our 6th anniversary, I would like
to
congratulate everyone on keeping the guild going thus far. While I
joined
a few years after the “bleak period” I myself have run into a few
occurrences
that are akin to that in one sense or another. Namely the
Ex-communication,
if you will, of Grimbold. While he made some mistakes, and said some
things
that weren’t quite pleasant, the vault of the misunderstanding should
have
fallen largely upon his brother. This situation wasn’t too different
from
incident that befell Aule. But I didn’t write this to defend a comrade.
I
wrote this to both congratulate us all, and to announce that I have now
been
a member of this glorious guild, and taken haven in its channel, when
it
was a haven, for a little over three years now. I know that I’ve upset
a
few members, and that I said some things that were quite immature. I
say
this because I’ve changed a lot in the past three years, I’ve seen a
lot
of friends come and go, both in the guild and in real life. That makes
me
appreachiate what we have here, and I hope to rekindle or spark anew
friendships
with a lot of you. This group has been a constant in my life when I had
nothing
else. For that I will be forever grateful. <sighs> real life
beckons
me once again. Perhaps I shall write a brief history, it would be nice
to
see some more on that page. <pokes and Prods>.
Once more,
congratulations! May we endure for years to come! I take my leave.
Namarie Melinde,
Gelmir
(Historical addendum from Varda: Grimbold returned to the guild as
Oropher
and celebrates his one year return anniversary Oct. 11. He now mainly
plays
EverQuest. Aule also returned to the guild with full honors reinstated
and
plays mostly EverQuest and some WarCraft3.) Oh, and I agree with
Gelmir.
Send in your Histories and feel free to update them over time.
Oct. 12, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East 5:00pm ESDT, 22:00 GMT,
channel Clan Vala
Attending:
Amrod, Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon, Beleg,
Gil-galad (late), Haldir, Thror, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Membership:
Sweep underway to remove inactive and
presumably
disinterested members. Help needed from all members. If you are listed
as
being in danger, please email Varda
promptly to keep your name. If you are removed when you wished to
remain,
please return and rejoin as soon as possible before your name is given
to
a new member. If you know how to contact someone on the list, please
let
him know to email me. If the person is currently unable to make contact
but
wishes to remain, please make the contact for him. Ways to make contact
besides
email are: come to a meeting and be shown on the "Attending" list in
the
News, post to the Discussion Board,
post to the Message Board.
The Member
Activity page is useful to check status, question marks meaning
sweep endangerment; email Varda to update that page. Also, see Oct
9 sweep status for the list by Eonwe.
Arathorn, starting Tuesday, will be working
towards
certifications and will have much less play time for a few months, but
expects
to have more time afterwards.
Turgon ably handled a short part of the
meeting when Varda had to be afk. Thanks, Turgon!
Web:
Joining:
Revamped page to make it
more user-friendly
Tolkien
Encyc:
Mankind:
"Thengel", by Ron Smith
"Fengel", by Ron Smith
Acknowledgements:
John Howe's new page with art,
sketches before some of his famous works, and text info.
Lord of the
Rings - Downloads:
Page by Arathorn (see guild
index).
Contains FotR original movie trailer, LotR maps,
Half-Life/Counter-Strike/Helm's
Deep mod.
Message
Board:
Half-Life/Counter-Strike area
added
(by Turgon the Swift) under "Games" after Well of Souls, due to
requests
at meeting.
WC3: Eonwe and Osse's tale,
"Beating Fate", told from the viewpoint of the Ainu.
DAoC: Dusksinger tales by Elatan
fka Amillo.
Turgon reports only 19 members
had
signed up, but had posted over a hundred messages already. Thror signed
up
during the meeting.
Tolkien-Only
Members:
New page by Varda, starting a
list
with those showing recent activity. All they need is interest in
Tolkien
and email or board contact.
Page reached from Member Activity.
Game Maps page:
Ar-Pharazon suggests we make a
new
map download page for all games. This sounds good, but we need
volunteers.
Dior had collected a map page for
StarCraft/Broodwar,
but it was on the now defunct Tom Bombadil server, and Dior has not yet
answered
emails. We could use another such collection project for each game and
tie
them together on the Games page. Any members interested in doing such a
project,
please contact Varda or Eonwe. Space might be available free with no
ads
on Alatar's valarguild.org server, but we should check with him first.
Geocities/Yahoo
is an option also.
Gaming:
TFT (The Frozen Throne):
New LotR map found
by Ar-Pharazon called LotR: The Ring Wars, by Lord Allout. Official site . Found under File
Updates with a Beta 13 version, 710.93 KB. Maps/trigger maps/modified
melee.
Half-Life/Counter-Strike:
Helm's Deep mod. Arathorn located
it and put on his Lord of the
Rings - Downloads page. It's the arm/disarm bomb, where terrorists
try to blow up the Keep
door and counter-terrorists try to stop them. You're going to need that
light,
because it's dark down there. After the Tolkien chat, a group went
together
to try it out, of Arathorn, his brother, Gil-galad, and Turgon.
Tolkien:
Ar-Pharazon's topic: There was a question
about whether Arwen lost her elven immortality.
Pharazon found the answer in the Return of
the
King's Appendix A, Section I "The Numenorean Kings" (i), "Numenor" and
quoted
it for us. Others enjoyed reading along. It is after the list of the
unions
of elf and man, telling the choices of the Half-elven.
"At the end of the First Age the Valar gave to the
Half-elven
an irrevocable choice to which kindred they would belong. Elrond chose
to
be of Elven-kind, and became a master of wisdom. To him therefore was
granted
the same grace as to those of the High Elves that still lingered in
Middle-earth:
that when weary at last of the mortal lands they could take ship from
the
Grey Havens and pass into the Uttermost West; and this grace continued
after
the change of the world.
But to the children of Elrond a choice was also appointed: to pass with
him
from the circles of the word; or if they remained to become mortal and
die
in Middle-earth. For Elrond, therefore, all chances of the War of the
Ring
were fraught with sorrow.
"Elros chose to be of Man-kind and remain with the
Edain;
but a great life-span was granted to him many times that of lesser
men."
"His (Elros') descendents were long-lived but
mortal."
(v)
"...she (Arwen) laid herself to rest upon Cerin
Amroth; and there is her green grave..."
Then we brought up the question, what about her
brothers, Elladan and Elrohir?
Another question that came up was about the warrior
Valar
who were later written out of the story, but show up in the earliest
writings
in BoLT1, Makar and Meassa. Were they on Morgoth's side? Not
intentionally,
was the answer, not as in going over to be with him. Their warrior
nature
went along with the discords that Melkor made in the Song. They,
however,
remained in Valinor, not going to Angband.
Oct. 10, 2003
Joining:
Revamped the page "Joining". I hope it better
answers
the questions potential recruiters have asked. Suggestions welcome.
Oct. 9, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Men:
"Fengel", by
Ron Smith.
Current
status of sweep: the removal
of inactive members. Currently Eonwe is working on locating people by
email,
in conjunction with his Gaming page update. Here is part of the report
by Eonwe:
We started this process with 142 members listed on the
Members and Member Activity Pages.
56 of our members were informed they have not been seen since May 2003
at the earliest and were warned they were in danger of being swept. Of
these, I recieved responses or viewed activity in some manner from the
following:
Akhoril (responded, Amlaith (responded), Earendil (responded), Eomer
(responded), Gorbag (spotted on the new MB), Mablung (e-mailed Varda),
Menelvagor (responded), Olwë (responded), Peregrin (responded),
Rumil (responded), Scatha (responded), Ulfang (responded)
The following have resigned : Amandil, Azaghal, Bandobras (aka
Bullroarer)
(Note from Varda: all said they didn't have enough time)
The following I recieved a delivery failure:
Bolg, Celebrimbor, Daeron, Falathar, Finrod, Fuinur, Gloin, Gorgenhad,
Rog, Smaug, Smeagol, Thranduil, Beorn (badiccico)
Beor had no e-mail through which to contact him.
These following gave no delivery failure, and did not respond to the
e-mail:
Aldor, Amroth, Bain, Balin, Beorn(all other forms), Beruthiel, Bilbo,
Celeborn, Celegorm, Cirdan, Curufin, Denethor, Dior, Durin, Earwen,
Edrahil, Elendil, Elenwë, Elros, Fladrif, Gimli, Girion, Imrahil,
Ingwë, Isildur, Oin, Ori, Saruman, Shagrat, Thorin
Unless someone has seen or heard from the people in the last two
groups, or there is some condition I am unaware of that they have
informed others as to remaining in the Guild, those are our sweep
lists. 42 members total.
Oct. 8, 2003
Letter from Arathorn:
Sorry... been involved in
getting a loan for my MCSA certification ... been a long couple of
weeks.. finally went thru and will be WAY busy trying to pass my 4
major certification tests in the next few months ... I apologies for
being so brief last meet but my sleep habits have been very tiring and
non-existent... I hope to have more to offer the group in a few weeks..
don't expect to hear from me for a bit... but please keep me on your
thoughts.
Namárië,
~Arathorn~
Oct. 6, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Mankind:
"Thengel" by
~Gandalf, aka Ron Smith, Tolkien member
The Encyclopedia Acknowledgements
page
now has a link to the page of the artist, John Howe.
Oct. 5, 2003
DAoC meeting 3:30pm EST, I think.
Yahoo chat
4pm EST. Ar-Pharazon and Varda showed up, discussed the ancient
Egyptian
aspects of his name and the Numenorean culture, with its emphasis on
death
and the attempt to escape it, and that running from death led them to
it.
Pharazon sounds suspiciously like pharoah, and making it Ar-Pharazon
the
Golden could be no coincidence. Tombs were made greater than the
buildings
of the living. Another discussion touched briefly on a Histories #11
passage
in which Finrod and human woman discussed the mortality of Man and the
possibilty
that them might become Valar with Eru.
Bnet meeting approximately 5pm EST East
Realm, channel Clan Vala.
Hope you can make it to one or more of these! Happy
6th Anniversary, Valar Guild!
Sunday Meeting 5:00pm EST, 22:00 GMT.
Battlenet, East Realm, channel Clan Vala
Attending: report by Draugluin
(17) Aragorn, Arathorn, Ar-Pharazon, Amras,
Amrod,
Caranthir, Draugluin (gavel), Elwing, Eomer, Eonwe (co-chair), Erestor,
Galadriel,
Gwaihir (gavel), Maedhros, Osse, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Over-the-shoulder: Sauron
Orodreth was afk in the play channel.
Membership:
Ar-Pharazon said his few words of
introduction.
He's from the Netherlands and hopes to clear the bad taste from the
guild
name he took, as a challenge. He is very well-read in Tolkien and plays
many
games.
Gaming:
Saturday's Anniversary gaming included Osse and
Eonwe beating fate on WarCraft 3/TFT; Eowyn, Faramir, Orodreth,
Sauron in BW; and a continuing stream of D2X players
across the day, mostly morning and evening. Taglos and Sauron were in EverQuest.
We reminded the group that we try to default all
guild gaming to East , including Azeroth on WC3/TFT and D2X,
so we can find each other. We have members scattered all over wondering
where everyone else is.
Half-Life: Arathorn reports Half-Life has a
new world called Helm's Deep
Tolkien:
We intentionally devoted most of the meeting to
Tolkien with a bit of reminiscing.
Draugluin's topic: What was the role of the
Palantiri in the LotR storyline?
Discussion was lively. Ar-Pharazon started us off
with
the Orthanc-stone. A boiled down version is below, made by many
contributors.
The Orthanc stone was thrown out of the tower window
by
Grima Wormtongue, apparently in a confusion of mind about whether he
wanted
to hit Gandalf or Saruman. When Pippin rescued it before it went into
the
water, he came to Sauron's notice as the hobbit who potentially had the
Ring
and believed to be a captive held by Saruman. Gandalf passed the
Orthanc-stone
to its rightful owner, the heir of Isildur, Aragorn. Aragorn showed
himself
for who he was to Sauron and wrested the stone from the grasp of the
Eye,
almost breaking Aragorn. This act made Sauron believe Aragorn had the
hobbit
with the Ring and would challenge him for Middle-earth. So Sauron
struck
before he was ready, removing his vast armies from Frodo's path.
Frodo's
mission was the only real danger to Sauron, from which he was
distracted.
The Ithilstone was used by Sauron to deceive
Denethor,
showing him only what facts Sauron wanted him to see. Thus he could see
a
huge fleet of Corsairs moving against Minas Tirith but not that it was
taken
over by Aragorn and his forces, so he was driven the final step to
despair
attempting a suicide/murder.
The stone at the Grey Havens held by Cirdan had been
set
by Elendil to look with "straight sight" towards Tol Eressea.
The palantir controlling all others was lost in the
destruction of Osgilath.
Weathertop (Amon Sul) stone caused infighting o fthe
Arnorian
sub-kingdoms of Cardolan, Rudhaer, and Arthedain, affecting how the
world
was set up at the time of the War of the Ring.
The inevitable tangent discussion involved spirits
in
Aman doing what sounded like physical things, as well as Frodo's mortal
self
going there still alive in Arwen's place.
Oct. 4, 2003
Happy Anniversary to the Valar Guild!
Today marks our 6th year of trying to make some kind of online haven
worldwide
available in all games while being a Tolkien fan club.
Ar-Pharazon,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
He was Minotaurofchaos@Azeroth in TFT. He started a test with Eonwe one
day
and finished with Varda today for a 5/5. He's 18, from the Netherlands.
His favorite
game is TFT. He also plays WC3, SC, BW, Dungeon Siege, Empire Earth +
expansion,
Diablo 1. He plans to get Diablo 2. He's read H, LotR,
Sil, UT, and all 12 Histories.
People I've seen on the Anniversary in Bnet today
include: Arathorn, Ancalagon, Ar-Pharazon, Beleg, Boromir, Elrond,
Eomer, Eowyn,
Erestor, Faramir, Fingon, Thror, Turin, Orodreth, SamWise, Sauron, and
Varda.
Two Letters from Orome:
Yay Congrats to all! Orome
I work week-ends too Orome
Letter from Elatan:
Hail,
I do not have B.net access anymore so not able to join the 6th Anniversary
there. Gave my Cd`s away. I will try get on Yahoo though.
With some luck the 7th in MEO ? http://www.lordoftherings.com/meo/
Happy Anniversary to everyone
Elatan
Letter from Eonwe:
Haill all!
I regret to inform all I will be working all day Saturday and thus will
have no time to attend any festivities that day. I wish you all a
Happy 6th Anniversary and hope you will all have fun. Hopefully
I'll see you Sunday.
Take care all and Happy 6th Anniversary mellyn.
Eonwë
Letter from Gwaihir:
Unfortunately, I'm in the same situation as Eonwe
Saturday... between work and my school situation, I won't be able to
make more than a token appearance at best on Saturday... I know not yet
whether I work Sunday, but I hope I do not, so that I can attend the
meeting at least... but I'll have to wait and see... Happy 6th
anniversary to you all from me as well! I hope to see you all tomorrow
and Sunday...
Namarie,
Gwaiihr
Letter from Lungorthin:
Hail all,
I wish I could attend.. college is robbing me of my time! fell behind in classes and hoping to catch up.
sorry and hope to see you all soon,
Lungorthin / Rauko
Oct. 3, 2003
Guild Anniversary tomorrow! Come online if
you can: play, reminesce, talk Tolkien!
Thror! Happy Birthday!
D2X: Varda's hoping to take Eowyn's
suggestion
of cramming as many level one characters as we can into one D2X game in
a
Quest for As Many as Possible. Those games tend to be plagued by bnet
drop-outs,
so we may have to play again. hehe.
SC/BW: We dare you and two team mates to
survive
or make a record on Bridges of Osgiliath! Orodreth has a new version of
Bridges
to check out, also.
Meetings: We'll have our regular meeting
Sunday,
skipping the usual business part (except for any records we may have
made
Saturday, bragging rights, you know) and going directly to Tolkien.
Bring
topics!
There's some talk of having a Yahoo Tolkien chat,
(maybe
early for the DAoC and Europe guys?), so we can bring in people from
all
games and those with destroyed or lost CD's.
Galdor,
Welcome to the Valar Guild! Galdor
met Varda in a public cow game a few days ago, checked out our web
site,
then took the test with Varda passing with a perfect 5/5. Galdor is 27
from
Chicago, Illinois in the USA, CST. He plays D2X. He's read the LotR and
some
of the Sil and UT. His AOL is CC2005ST, Yahoo is steve2401a, the Yahoo
being
more used. He can be found on D2net forums 5 days a week between 8:30
and
4:15 central (9:30 and 5:15 EST). He visited as *st74656 and
*Aragorn_Elessar.
He plays odd days during the week, M, F, sometimes Tu, W, Thur, weekend
evenings.
For the Valar Guild, since Aragorn was taken, he chose the name of the
Grey
Havens Elf Galdor (not the Man), Cirdan's messenger and representative
to
the Council of Elrond. He had multiple favorite LotR characters
including
Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, and Pippin. Hey, Galdor! I forgot
to jot down your email. Please email me.
Oct. 2, 2003
Faramir,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Faramir used to be in the guild a long time ago as Fingolfin, a
recruit
of Aule's, then went inactive, then waited for the Fingolfin name to
come
clear again, which it didn't, then decided he's been a loner long
enough
and is back with us. He made 5/5 in a test with Draugluin and Varda.
Faramir
is 41 from Delaware, USA, in the EST. He plays on Bnet about 5 days a
week:
WC3 very little, TFT a lot, some SC and BW. He has the Diablo patch so
he's
not allowed in regular play yet. He tried Ultima Online, but didn't
like
it. He hopes to get into WoW when it comes out. He
generally doesn't use any instant messenger-type services. He's
read the H, LotR, Sil, Lost Tales 1&2, Farmer Giles of Ham. His
favorite
LotR character is Faramir, who represents the best in men. Noble
without
being ambitious or pretentious. Strong presence. Instinctively trusted
Frodo.
It was as if he could search Frodo's soul in the books. Didn't like
movie
portrayal, but caused more thought about the original character.
Oct. 1, 2003
Aiya from Varda! I'm back. Email and
therefore News is being caught up today from the last entry on Sept 23,
listed under its date.
Correction to Amrod's email address: joey_1014@hotmail.com
D2X Banks
have been receiving a great deal of attention with additional banks and
items. Great job, guys!
Links Page:
Numenore - Tolkien fan
page, including articles. Has links to our Tolkien Encyclopedia as
article reference credit.
Melmoth - MUD. Text-based
online
game. Join in a Medieval Fantasy setting by our own Rumil-(V) as
Maglor.
Other worlds include science fiction, Star Wars. Site sent in by
Rumil-(V).
The Tolkien Meta-FAQ -
index to several major lists of
Frequently Asked Questions about J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth:
by Steuard Jensen.
Letter from Rumil-(V):
I'll try to drop by either this weekend or
next.
And to let the people know who seem interested, my
character names on Melmoth are: Maglor, Tirion
(obviously another Tolkien ref.), Myrddraal, Locklear,
and Krys. The clan I lead is Vendetta, and my best
friend plays the character Attarno.
So if anyone is interested you might want to let them
know about that so they have someone to talk to and
hang with when they first join the mud.
Alright, thanks again, I'll see you at the next
meeting (hopefully... this is homecomming weekend,
so... lol)
Namarie,
- Rumil
Letter from Mablung-(V)
hey
its been forever since i sent a msg to any of you ive been soo busy
lately
but i do hope to start coming to meetings. Im getting my car soon
so i might
be on and off but i finally retreived my starcraft disk from a friend
and
might be able to start attending meetings... i was trying to check up
on
all the news ive missed but theres alot. Tell all the members i
say hello
and im definately still active and boy i cant wait for the third movie
to
come out.
Namarie
Mablung
top
Sept 28, 2003
Sunday Meeting: Battlenet East Realm, channel Clan
Vala. 5:00 pm ESDT, 22:00 GMT. Report by Eonwe-(Valar)
Attendence:
Members:
Fionwë/Eonwë(chairing),Gwaihir, Huan(Via Valarguild),
Arathorn, Beleg, Turgon, Theoden, Erestor, Thror, Amrod, Amras
Guest: MinotaurofChaos (began test, didn't
get to finish)
Membership:
Varda was unable to be at the meetng tonight
as she had some rl stuff to do. She will be back Monday or
Tuesday, so if you e-mailed her, she won't be able to respond until
then. If it's an urgent question, I (Eonwë) might be able to
help :}
Lenwë emailed. He's going back to
college and working hard, so he hasn't had much time to stop in.
New Members Amrod and Amras joined after last
week's meeting. They gave their few words as a team-effort (as
Turgon commented, "sounds like twins to me :)" )
Amras - Hullo, my name is Amras. And that is my
friend Amrod and twin
Amrod - Amras found the clan and he led me to it.
Amras - Ok. Orodreth got me to join. I had
been to a meeting and liked the people.
Amras - Everyone is real nice, unlike other people
on bnet.
Amrod - Yes, I agree.
Amras - And I only play Starcraft.
Amrod - Yeah me too
Amrod - I'm from Canada
Amras - I'm also working on a 4th Age map, and
request any help, taking place during the Aftermath of LotR year after
Elessar dies.
Web:
Encyclopedia:
Several new pics, none
named at the meeting :} For a complete list, check the News page
:}
Articles - "Brief History
of Arathorn II", by Arathorn-(V)
Poems - "Arathorn's
Sonnet" found by Arathorn-(V), placed on our page with permission
from the author
D2X Tolkien mod router page:
Arathorn - sent in link to
web page he made himself, describing setting up a router for open bnet
http://members.fortunecity.com/mikenowo/lotr/open_bnet.htm
Message Board:
Turgon - Remember to
register at the new Message Board
Major update - put each game in its own section, as well as added
Marketplace sections for
D2, EQ,and DAoC
Turgon
also asked if anyone had experienced any pop-up ads. Those who
responded
said no,
and felt the banner ads that were at the top were not too distracting
(they're
related
to our games or Tolkien anyway,.. almost like they're targeted for us
:})
I also reminded
everyone present they should use their Guild name when signing up.
They can
either register using their Guild name, or use the method described by
Turgon in the Announcements section of the board.
Games Page Update:
Last call for everyone to send in
their info. I need it by September 30th. Thanks :}
Arathorn informed me his ISP was
knocked out for a while, and others might've been too.
Dead Aim:
Arathorn - Addition to AIM,
called DeadAim, allows saving/archiving of IMs (Instant Messages)
Letter from Arathorn: AIM users
DeadAim: add-on
to AIM (AOL instant messenger):
***
Description:
An unobtrusive
free add-on that works within AIM, DeadAIM can tweak transparency, keep
all conversations in a single tabbed interface, log sessions and events
(such as log-on and log-off) separately for each buddy, and hide
elements of the main AIM window. In addition, DeadAIM can pop up a
notification when buddies sign on, sign off, set "away" messages, or
come back.
***
Anything before v4 is free
(particularly v3.2.8). Works with AIM v5.2.3292 and before.
Link to
download:
Namárië,
~Arathorn~
Gaming:
Well of Souls:
Orodreth once again asks for help
with his Tolkien mod for Well of Souls. Any ideas, thoughts,
suggestions can be sent to him or posted on the Message Board.
Tolkien:
I went with MinotaurofChaos to begin his test
(Turgon observing) and left Orodreth with the chat since he had a
topic. If anyone has any notes from the Tolkien chat please send
it in :}
Sept. 25, 2003
Letter from Eonwe: for the whole guild
Heya all! :}
Just thought I'd give a reminder (to go on the News page as well
if possible) that I need everyone's current gaming info. That's
for you and any family/members of honor who have not yet responded
themselves. Out of the ~140 members in this guild only 33 have
responded so far. I need the info by September 30th if at all
possible.
For some of you Council guys, it may be painfully obvious
:} but then you also might be playing online games I don't know
about :} Humour me please :}
Please encourage people you see in your games to send in their
gaming info and include their guild name (Earendil e-mailed me, didn't
include his name, can only guess it's him by his e-mail address.
I don't know everyone's e-mail that well :}).
Any full member who hasn't recieved a letter requesting this
info is hereby requested :}
Thanks and take care :}
Eonwë
Letter from Arathorn: for Open B.netters (such
as D2X Tolkien mod) having trouble joining each other's games:
I wrote up a web page that outlines how I setup my router that may help
others. You might want to take a gander to see if you can figure out yours
based on this example as reference. If anyone wants help testing 'Open Bnet'
with their router, they can email me and we can set up a mutually convenient
time (maybe you can jot down a short note in the News or we can bring it up
at the next meeting).
Here's the URL for the new page at its current location (will let you know
if that changes):
http://members.fortunecity.com/mikenowo/lotr/open_bnet.htm
l8r,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Namárië,
~Arathorn~
Letter from Rumil: MUD
For the last 4-5 years I've been playing on a MUD
(Multiple User Dimension). I don't know if you've
ever played one or even know what it is... but I
thought I'd let you know about it so you can let the
rest of the guild know (if you think it's a good
idea).
Basically a mud (if you don't know) is an online,
text-based rpg. I can explain it more in more detail
if you want. But basically this one has a fairly
small, centralized player base (average of 20-30
people on during average hours). I run a clan on that
mud and also help build new areas for it. It is a
fantasy/mideval times based mud (as opposed to sci-fi
or star wars based... there are a lot out there) so i
thought some of the tolkien people might be
interested. However, I already use the name Maglor
there (I made the character over 4 years ago, long
before i joined the guild) so the guy who has Maglor
in the guild might not appreciate not being able to
play his char (of which you can have many). Anyway,
just thought I'd let you know. Let me know if you are
more interested, I can give you the address and all.
It's called Melmoth, the website is www.melmoth.org,
though it isn't fantastic or anything (the mud is far
better than the website).
Anyway, give it some thought & I'll see you later.
Namarie,
- Rumil
Sept. 23, 2004
Excerpt from letter from Lenwe:
I havent come on recently for a variety of reasons, but I
still maintain an Interest in being a part of our community. Near
the time when the 1.10 beta was released I purchased my very first
hub. I setup a LAN with my gf and her sister's computers and I
didnt even get on the internet till literally 3 weeks after that.
But I couldnt come on to play much because I had to work a lot before
school. Finally, I returned to college after an entire year of
absence. I'd be interested in learning about that Port thing you
said Arathorn discovered. After we complete d2x beta i was hoping
to introduce my girlfriend and her sister to the mod. They have
both not yet completed the game on hell yet.
Well its nice to be back in school. I'm taking easier classes to
take it slow at first but its coming back and I'm really enjoying
it. I have to go back to studying so this is all I can write for
now but I wanted to let you know that I missed playing with you.
Peaceful be your journeys,
Lenwe
Encyc
pics:
It's come to my attention that
when
new images are added to the Tolkien Encyc, it should be mentioned here.
Most
of the pictures come from Ryan Lovett's incredible Rolozo Tolkien page for
the Encyc, with his permission. Browse and enjoy! (And now you can ask
me to never do this to you again!)
Animals:
Image:
"Warg Rider". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo (Also under Orc
images)
Elves:
Image:
B&W "Eol attacks Maeglin". Eol attacks his son, but Eol's wife
jumps in the way. Artist Luis F. Bejarano. Rolozo
Image:
B&W "Feanor and Gothmog". Artist Maciek Wygnanski. Rolozo
(also Maiar)
Image:
"Feanor". In anger. Artist Luis Bejarano. Rolozo
Image:
"Fingolfin". Includes device, sword Ringil. Artist Felix Sotomayor.
Rolozo
Image:
"Morgoth and Fingolfin". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo (Also on
Powers page, Melkor)
Image:
"Haldir". Artist Maria Lombide Ezpeleta. Rolozo Tolkien page
Image:
"Bloom as Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood". Legolas with bow. Artist Sharon
'Lynx' Tanhueco. Rolozo
Image:
"Legolas". Movie Legolas learning about mortality. Artist Marina
Zhukova. Rolozo
Image:
"Legolas". Angry, with bow in forest. Artist Jason Zilian. Rolozo
Image:
"Luthien". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo
Image:
B&W "Kelegorm and Luthien". (K was the early spelling.) Celegorm,
Luthien,
and Huan. Artist Maciek Wygnanski. Rolozo
Image:
"Elu Thingol". Artist Felix SotoMayor. Rolozo
Mankind:
Image:
"King". movie. Artist Marina Zhukova. Rolozo
Image:
"Aragorn". movie Strider. Artist Marina Zhukova. Rolozo
Image:
"Aragorn". movie Aragorn as in Rivendell. Artist Marina Zhukova. Rolozo
Image:
"Boromir's Fate". Boromir, remorseful. Artist Sharon 'Lynx' Tanhueco.
Rolozo
Image:
"Eowyn as a Shieldmaiden, protecting Minas Tirith" armed, in front of
Meduseld.
Artist Sharon 'Lynx' Tanhueco. Rolozo Tolkien
Image:
"Faramir". Faramir using bow, back to a building. Artist Mirela
Orozovic. Rolozo
Image:
B&W "Faramir". Artist Alexandra Kitlickova. Rolozo
Image:
B&W "Mouth of Sauron". Artist Maciek Wygnanski. Rolozo
Dwarves:
Image:
"Thorin Oakenshield". Artist Jason Zilian. Rolozo
Ents:
Image:
"Fangorn Forest". The forest with the river running through it. Artist
Alan Lee. Rolozo
Image:
Merry and Pippin walking through Fangorn Forest. Artist Ted Nasmith.
Rolozo
Image:
"Welling". One of Fangorn's homes, Welling Hall, where he brought the
hobbits. Artist Ted Nasmith. Rolozo
Image:
Treebeard feeding and speaking with Merry and Pippin at Welling Hall.
Picture
for ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises') MERP. Artist Angus McBride.
Rolozo
Image:
"Searching Fangorn Forest". Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli search for
Merry and Pippin. Artist Peter Xavier Price. Rolozo
Image:
Entmoot, Fangorn speaking while holding the hobbits. Artist Ted Nasmith
for Danbury Mint Plates. Rolozo
Image:
"Entmoot". The hobbits watch the entmoot, up close. Artist Darrell
Sweet. Rolozo
Places:
Angband: Image:
"Siege of Angband". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo
Barad-dur: Image:
"The Dark Tower". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo
Hobbit Places:
The Shire: Image:
"Last Sight of the Shire". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo
Image:
"Minas Tirith". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo
Morannon: Image:
"The Dark Gate is Closed". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo
Image:
"Vinyamar". Artist Felix Sotomayor. Rolozo (Turgon's first home
in
M-e, before Gondolin, where Ulmo had him leave arms for Tuor)
Powers:
Image:
"Morgoth". Morgoth armored, with Grond. Artist Luis Bejarano.
Rolozo
Image:
"Fingolfin and Morgoth". Artist Luis Bejarano. Rolozo (also
Elves, Fingolfin)
Image:
B&W. "Morgoth and Ungoliant" attacking the Two Trees. Artist Luis
Bejarano. Rolozo
Maiar:
Image:
" Gandalf vs Balrog". Artist Maciek Wygnanski. Rolozo
Sept. 22, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Men:
"The Brief History of Arathorn
II,
Father of Aragorn II, in Chronological Order" by Arathorn-(V)
Poetry:
"Arathorn's
Sonnet",
by Alawa, submitted with the author's permission by Arathorn-(V)
Sept. 21, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East Realm, channel
Clan Vala, 5:00pm ESDT, 22:00 GMT
Attending:
Members: Arathorn, Beleg, Elwing,
Eol, Gwaihir, Orodreth, Thror, Turgon, ValarGuild bot (Huan presumed
scrolling), Varda (presiding)
Over the shoulder hellos from Sauron, Eowyn
Visitors: Told@Azeroth, GoME-Amras
Membership:
Eonwe
sent regards. He had to work during the meeting, but played with us
last night until the wee hours.
Amras-V,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Orodreth scouted, meeting GoME-Amras while BroodWar gaming. Varda and
Gwaihir
tested. Amras takes AP English and it shows in his speech and unusually
good
spelling! Amras started the GoME guild for BW-only last week with seven
friends.
ME means Middle-earth. He created a web page for it, Guardians of Middle-earth.
He is building a Tolkien-flavored BW map and is requesting help: beta
testers
as well as those who are good with map-making. Amras is 17, from
Memphis,
Tennessee in the US, CST. He plays BW and games from
www.geocities.com/illcarn,
for about two hours a day. They play from op GoME. He's read the LotR
and
Sil, but not the H. His favorite character from the LotR is Eomer, for
his
loyalty to his country when he could have succumbed to evil or left.
His
men love him and follow him against overwhelming odds.
Amrod-V, Welcome to the Valar
Guild!
Amras-V scouted, bringing GoME-Manwe to see us, as one of his folk,
bot-runner,
who would fit into the Valar as well. Double memberships are okay for
both
groups, so no problem. Amrod tested with Varda for a whopping 5/5
score!
He does indeed fit in well and we are glad to have him too. He's 15
from
Ontario, Canada; CST. He plays about once a day for 2-3 hours on
weekdays,
weekends an irregular amount. He plays BW, regular D2 and is
considering
buying the expansion, and mislaid his WC3 CD for now. He
has
MSN as joey1014@hotmail.com He's read the H, LotR, and is
currently
reading the Sil. His favorite LotR character is Aragorn who is a good
fighter
and leader. He led the Fellowship after Gandalf's death and tries to
make
good decisions.
Web:
Members forum:
Be sure to register! While
you're
there, Arathorn says to check out the picture of him. It's under
Main/General.
Hey, nice sunglasses!
Gaming:
Well of Souls: Orodreth reporting
Orodreth asking for help.
Arathorn reports a lot of crashes.
DAoC: Turgon reporting
Turgon didn't make it to the
meeting, no report.
AD&D: Turgon reporting
Group still unable to get
together due to work schedules.
D2X: Thror reporting
Some guild banks are full, others
nearly
full, time to make new ones. (Full now shown on the Bank page.) He
volunteered
to start a new set account.
BW:
We now have more BW folk to play
with.
Middle-earth maps continue to be worked on and new ones started.
Tolkien:
Turgon's topic: Aragorn revealed himself
in
the palantir (taken from Saruman) to Sauron. Why was it important to do
so?
Why was Sauron afraid?
This set off a great deal of
discussion, only a little of which I jotted down:
Sauron had a special hatred for
Numenoreans
partly from the time when he had to humble himself to take them over by
deceit,
a Maia groveling to the merely human Ar-Pharazon to get to his huge ego.
Gwaihir quoted, one of them was:
"And
he was crafty, well skilled to gain what he would by subtletly when
force
might not avail. Therefore he humbled himself before Ar-Pharazon and
smoothed
his tongue."
Orodreth's topic #1: How likely is it that
Elves
from Cuivienen survived into the Fourth Age, and what would their
technology
be like concerning warfare?
Orodreth's topic #2: Would dwarves not of
Durin's
folk who went east have survived until the Fourth Age?
Sept. 14, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East Realm, channel
Clan Vala, 5:00pm ESDT, 22:00 GMT.
Attending:
Arathorn, Bard, Eol, Eonwe, Finglas/Leaflock
opened channel, Orodreth, Osse, Thror, Tulkas, Turgon, Varda
Membership:
Bard, new member, gave his few words.
Tulkas still doesn't have his new computer, plans to
play D2X Tolkien mod when he does.
Finglas/Leaflock could not stay for the meeting,
family
things, but opened the meeting channel for us, warned that Calvin is
still
in control of his old account. Calvin is often seen as
Mr.AznPanda@Azeroth
and has a nasty mouth, was previously on a lot as leafieslover in D2X.
Emails to all members:
Eonwe is emailing all members he can reach
this
weekend. If you have not received an email by Monday, please email Eonwe.
The purpose of this email is to update the Games
page,
which shows what games and in what names we currently play so we can
get
together. Since the guild plays all online games, this can be very
helpful
to everyone in the guild.
The secondary purpose is to check if our email
contact information is correct.
The last purpose is to see if members still wish to
be
counted in the guild, and give you an extra opportunity to comment on
what
you are happy with and what improvements you would like to see.
Members who need to email Eonwe (email didn't go
through at all):
Amroth
Angrod
Beren
Beor - parents require him not to give
out
email. Beor, please contact us at a meeting, game, discussion board,
message
board, ValarBuddy botmail, or send word through another if you are
still
with us and what you are playing. If someone has seen him, please email
or
tell Eonwe or Varda.
Beorn badiccico
Bolg
Celebrimbor
Daeron
Ecthelion
Elrohir
Falathar
Finrod
Finwe
Folca
Fuinur
Gelmir
Gildor
Gloin
Gorgenhad
Luthien (heard from another member it is now
Silamiliel@yahoo.com)
Rog
Rose
Smaug
Smeagol
Tuor
William
Web:
Links:
Middle-earth Online
- Lord of the Rings massively multiplayer online role-playing game
MMORPG,
expects to come out in 2004. Some Council and other members have
already
expressed interest in going into it when it is available, so we will
most
likely have a guild branch there. See Gaming:
Gaming:
Middle-earth Online:
We are considering ways to work our names into forms
usable
there, when the names will already be in use for the storyline, and we
possibly
may be forced to keep our version of Tolkien chat restricted to our
guild
chat channel. Some suggestions are:
* using obscure versions of the
names, many of which the amazing Irmo
already has listed on the Names page. He also researches more for
anyone
requesting such by email. These are found in Tolkien's books, including
the
12 Histories and Unfinished Tales, or by translating the name into
Westron
(English), then translating to the equivalent name in other Tolkien
languages.
* adding suffixes such as -wen
for
maiden, -iel for woman which has a short form of -el; and -we or -weg
for
son or man; -her for lord.
* The -v or -ev or -iev suffix
could also be used for reference to the guild.
* We expect a guild tag will be
available
so v and valar won't be required as parts of our names.
More suggestions are very
welcome; please email them to Varda.
Dark Age of Camelot: report
by Turgon
Congratulations to the
DAoC
branch! They have been accepted into the huge Alliance. The Alliance
web
site is Anam na Eirann.
WC3:
Actively gaming. Don't forget
Saturday meetings at 1pm!
NWN:
We have gamers in NWN. Meet Bard,
our newest NWN player.
Tolkien:
Tolkien chat conducted by Osse-(Valar).
Sept. 11, 2003
Bard,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Bard met a member a while back and checked out our web page, then
visited
us as blueraccoon@Azeroth. He tested with Varda, and met Gwaihir and
Arathorn
while there. He's 21 from Miami, Florida, USA in the EST. He plays WC3,
NWN,
and Soulcalibur2. He's read the H, LotR, and Sil. He goes to the
University
of Miami, taking Music EngineeringTechnology and Computer Science. His
favorite
LotR character was hard to pick, so he said Gandalf for firepower,
Gimli
for befriending Elves, and Merry for his part in killing the Nazgul.
Links page:
Lord of the Rings MMORPG - Massive
online game in the world of Middle-earth. Release planned in 2004. Link
found by Eonwe-(Valar). : by Vivendi and Sierra game companies.
Requires
a high speed, high memory computer. Has had previous planned release
dates
starting back in 1999, but looks more likely to happen now.
Sept. 8, 2003
Members take note! Eonwe
sent
out the first guild email to the Council to check which games they are
using
currently. This email also checks to see if emails are correct and
possibly
if people are still in the guild. Check to make sure your email is up
to
date before the next wave of email so you won't be left out!.
Sept. 7, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battle.net, East Realm, 5:00pm
ESDT (ESDT is GMT-5, so this is 22:00 GMT), channel Clan Vala
Attending:
Members: Arathorn, Beleg, Bregalad/Quickbeam,
Elwing, Eonwe, Erestor, Fangorn, Gwaihir, Lungorthin/Raukoluin,
FarmerMaggott, Orodreth, Theoden, Tulkas/Astaldo, Turgon, Varda
Visitor: VO(V-Amras Friend of Orodreth's, fellow
Tolkien fan
Membership:
Adunaphel is our new member, joining in DAoC.
Scar88, Feanor's outside character, dropped by the
meeting briefly to say hi.
Gwaihir will be at work the next couple or so
meetings.
Haldir dropped by after the meeting and
said
hi briefly. He was tending to a family matter during the meeting and
wanted
to let us know.
Lungorthin/Raukoluin has just started college. He
still
plays DAoC, but his time is curtailed. He checked with some web-weavers
after
the meeting to discuss how to do a web page the no-money way. :)
Web:
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Elves:
"Orodreth" by
Orodreth-(V)
"Oropher" by
Varda-(Valar)
Offline Tolkien Encyclopedia Viewer:
FarmerMaggott has completed
programming
worthy of the Wise, so that he now needs volunteers to aid him in
adding
the data to the program. He asks for your help in copy/pasting articles
into
the viewer's field, adding the date written, author, and then go to the
next
article. That Encyc we've made is *big* and ever-growing. Email FarmerMaggott
if you'd like to aid the project.
Games
page:
Eonwe/Fionwe intends to
wipe the Game
page gaming info clean for an update. He will email everyone he can
reach
in the Guild for current gaming info. If you don't receive an email, it
is
because we need to update your email, so write him with which games you
now
play!
Gaming:
World of Warcraft rpg:
Turgon says Blizzard is aiming
the beta to start in October.
Eonwe will be the Vala in charge
of
that rpg and will be setting up our guild branch when it is time. He
will
help guild members coordinate efforts there and keep in communication
with
the rest of the guild as your Council representative.
WarCraft3:
A meeting was held Saturday,
minutes
listed there. I deeply apologize to Eonwe for jumping too quickly into
Tolkien
and not asking for his report. I'll try to do better next time, good
buddy!
DAoC:
Ouch. Did it to Turgon too.
Sorry. Whisper me, guys, when I forget!
Tolkien:
Tulkas-(Valar): Was Luthien based on
Edith, JRRT's wife?
Turgon answered yes, and
no one disagreed. What a tribute!
Erestor-(V): Are Orcs immortal, in the
sense that the
Elves are in not dying of old age? Of course they can be killed by the
sword.
Orodreth-(V) and Beleg-(V)
promptly answered: yes. :)
Elwing-(V): If they had a place
to
go like the Elves went into the West, I don't think their personalities
would
allow long survival. (Several others said words to the same effect.)
Orodreth: Death was a gift from
Eru.
Why give corruptions a gift, or take it from the Elves?
Raukoluin-(Valar): Would be tales
of such.
Elwing: They'd kill each other
off.
Beleg: They normally died in
battle.
Raukoluin: They're too ethereal
to make a big deal of.
Beleg: Doesn't mention them dying
of old age.
Orodreth: Azog was a big mean
Orc, old.
Elwing: Maybe timed death was
included (in the making of Orcs)
Orodreth: Who needs (an Orc)
leader if they have Morgoth or Sauron?
Fangorn: Length of time that an
Orc
lives was not considered because it is unthinkable that such
aggravating
neighbors would continue with us long.
Orodreth: Yes, they are immortal,
but for all intents and purposes, no.
Eonwe: Morgoth could not affect
their nature.
Erestor: Orcs once were Elves.
Quickbeam: "Were", yes.
Eonwe: Even he Valar of Valinor
did not have that power.
Orodreth: Luthien and Arwen's
immortality was taken.
It was the granting of their
choice.
Eonwe: The taking of Eru's gifts
lies
within the power of Eru alone. Manwe did it through Eru's permission.
Erestor: So Orcs are...
Orodreth: immortal.
Discussion continued after
this decision. Some comments:
Eonwe: Two Orcs at Cirith Ungol,
Shagrat
and Gorbag, remembered the Dark Years before Sauron lost the Ring.
Concerning age: No Orc
could be older than the oldest Elf.
Earliest Orcs may have been
formed
when they ran from Orome, believing him to be Morgoth's Dark Rider
intended
to cause this confusion. Elves who stayed to investigate saw the
obvious
difference in the Rider of Light; these were the curious and brave. The
less
so ran and were captured, changed into Orcs.
Sept. 6, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Elves:
"Orodreth", by
Orodreth-(V), who expects to add more in the future.
"Oropher", by
Varda.
WarCraft meeting: Bnet East, Clan Vala channel, 1pm
ESDT
Attending:
Eonwe (presiding), Gil-galad (popped in),
Gwaihir, Haldir, Orodreth, Varda (scribing)
Luthien has TFT now, Gwaihir reports.
Web:
Eonwe is updating the Games page. He will
wipe out all present info and start from scratch with our answers.
Message Board: planning Tales of Lore section, for
writing
out your defeats or victories in WC3 in role-playing fashion, using
your
skills to paint a word-picture.
Gwaihir suggested the Message Board could use a spot
for
discussing other authors as well, a desire long held in the guild as
mentioned
by Varda.
Rewards:
Eonwe and the Shamans (Gwaihir and Draugluin) are
considering
types of rewards for various guild actions, such as Tolkien knowledge,
official
Guild tourney participation and wins, Bnet tourney participation,
role-playing
stories of your WC3 defeats and victories on Message Board.
Maps:
Eonwe's map tutorial will be going up with
the re-vamped page.
Need maps for guild use, Tolkien theme, co-op
preferred.
First Age was suggested as a good time to make maps
in.
Gwaihir's friend's map is nearing completion stage
for testing: Zoator TD2. Not Tolkien, but probably fun.
Tourney players:
So far, players who said they would like to
do
Tourney are Aragorn, Bombur, Boromir, Draugluin, Elrond, Eonwe,
Gwaihir,
and Turgon.
Sept. 2, 2003
Adunaphel,
welcome to the Valar Guild!
Adunaphel passed the full member test with Irmo in DAoC. Favorite LotR
character
is Legolas: less high-hearted than high elves, more open to short and
short-lived
beings.
top
Aug. 31, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East, channel Clan Vala 5:00
pm ESDT
Attending:
Caranthir, Elwing, Eonwe, Feanor, Huan,
Meriadoc, Thror, Turgon, Turin, Varda (presiding)
Membership:
Erestor emailed that he would be at
work, but emailed a Tolkien topic.
Thingol emailed. He's learning to speak in
German,
getting ready to spend 9 months there. He's unsure if he will have
computer
access, but is still one of us. See letter Aug 29.
Turgon's email is now settled as
thewouds@hotmail.com
Turgon has a new job, so he won't be able to
play as much.
Web:
Message
Board (MB): Turgon set up a message
board for the whole guild, with parts for Tolkien discussion, gaming
including
WC3, DAoC, EQ. Check it out and see if you'd like to adopt this one for
the guild.
Links:
Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza
- lots of goodies, both movie and books
Maps: added link to Turgon's page
Games page: Eonwe reported that he
will be doing another massive update. Please email him your updated
gaming
info. He will also be switching how he makes the page to his own HTML
programming for better control.
Gaming:
D2X:
Arathorn talked with online Battle.net tech support. He reports
that
they've had problems with players being "tagged" after being
disconnected
and unable to join unpassworded games unless the game creator was
tagged
as well. The tag goes away after a few days. The tagging problem can be
gotten
around by using a passworded game.
Valar Guild D2X bank accounts are
now
operating! Lots of goodies are available but we can always use more. We
could
use help in finishing up set suits including low levels. We could also
use
your help in putting cubes on the mules.
Cubes can be picked up if you put
yours
down (on the ground or maybe in a bank mule). There are three locations
for
cubes: Halls of the Dead and Travincial were two mentioned. The more
people
in the game, the more cubes drop.
WC3:
Eonwe is conducting meetings for
WC3
on Saturdays at 1pm ESDT in channel Clan Vala. He had to miss the first
meeting
due to work, but has been at all since then. It's a good time to get
together
with buddies for games, news, map making, discussing strategy, and
bragging!
DAoC:
Turgon missed the DAoC meeting,
then
couldn't get a response from other DAoC folk about it before his game
crashed.
They were busily raiding and active though!
Tolkien:
1. Orodreth's topic: Which books should we
use for timeline canon?
LotR and Sil.
2. Feanor: What color of hair did silvan elves have?
3. Thror: What happened to the Entwives? (Lots of
discussion.)
4. Arathorn's emailed topic: nature of Huorns. (Lots
of discussion.)
Meriadoc -
maybe
older types could tap into the primeval state of darkness.
Eonwe- the darkness
the
Huorns made was used in righteous anger, while the Nazgul used theirs
to
subjugate others.
Aug. 29, 2003
Letter from Thingol:
I just wanted to send you and all of my Valar
buddies greetings from Germany. I've been here for
about a month now and I'm having a great time. My
german language training is coming along nicely and I
can almost keep a decent conversation (much emphasis
on the almost part
I hope everyone is doing fine without me. I
really miss all of those games of D2 with my
Valar buddies, but the real world was calling me.
After my language training is over I will have a host
family for 9 months in the city of Chemnitz. I'm not
sure if they will have a computer that I will be able
to use, but if they will let me install D2 then I
might be able to jump online for a meeting or two.
I'm keeping up with the news page whenever I get
a chance, so I'm not completely out of the loop. I
hope to keep everyone informed of my adventures in
Europe. Namarie for now. / Elu Thingol
P.S. Maybe the 1.10 patch won't be out until I get
back, that way I won't miss out on too many goodies
Aug. 28, 2003
Theoden
is back, with a new email since his old one is filling up with junk. He
hopes
to make the next meeting, which would be great! Welcome back!
Message
Board:
Turgon is setting up a message board for DAoC and for the main guild
including
games and Tolkien. It's still being worked out, but is in useable shape
now.
His email is now settled.
Aug. 26, 2003
D2X:
Letter from Arathorn:
FYI:
I talked online with Bnet support
today and they admitted that they have been having problems with
players being 'tagged' after being disconnected from a game and thus
not being able to join other games unless those who created them were
tagged as well. This is some kind of problem that fixes itself in a few
days but as such is an annoyance when it happens. SO, it has nothing to
do with our firewalls, it's a Bnet 'anomaly'. That's why we've been
getting the errors at times. Only way to get around it right away is to
create a passworded game. They work fine in all cases.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Namárië,
~Arathorn~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aug. 25, 2003
Links page:
Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza
- links to websites for LotR and Tolkien. It has a
discussion forum.
It has quizes for rank points. Members are grouped in kingdoms and have
an
AD&D style play. The site also has merchandising. It is run by
Philip
Kooijman. Suggested by Gwaihir. It links back to Annals
of Arda
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Maps:
Added Turgon's Tolkien site, since he has some beautiful maps on
it. Right, your fellow Valarite, Turgon-(V)!
Valar Guild D2X Bank
Accounts:
Listing of the D2X bank accounts
on
which all members may put their surplus items (mathoms) or take out for
use.
They are not intended to be taken outside the guild.
Aug. 24, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet 5pm ESDT East channel Clan
Vala
Attending:
Arathorn, Caranthir, Draugluin, Grima (popped
in
and out), Gwaihir, Khamul (popped in and out), FarmerMaggott, Orodreth,
Thror,
Turgon, ValarGuild.bot, Varda
Membership:
Many members are either back in school now or
about to be.
Legolas emailed to let us
know he's still alive, just unable to make the past few meetings or be
on Bnet much recently.
Thror goes back Tuesday.
FarmerMaggott goes back
in a week or two.
Orodreth goes back Sept 2.
Sauron and Eowyn
go back to university tomorrow.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia search program V.2:
Orodreth is working on Version 2.
He
asked for helpers to copy the article to the text field in the
application,
then add the name, author, date, and related articles. If you're
interested,
email Orodreth at Musics4me@wonderwarp.com
Virus:
Arathorn's router crashed,
crashing
his firewall, and his comp picked up the nachi virus. To get rid of it,
he
learned that a person can go to www.sophos.com for instructions to
remove
it or a removal program. Also, a patch can be picked up from MicroSoft.
Plaza:
Gwaihir mentioned the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza
and suggested we link to them. They have a link to Elatan-(Valar's)
Annals of Arda.
Varda checked on it and will put
it
on the Links page. It is collecting links to websites for LotR and
Tolkien.
It has a discussion forum. It has quizes for rank points. Members are
grouped
in kingdoms and have an AD&D style play. The site also has
merchandising.
It is run by Philip Kooijman. (Went on Links page Monday.)
Gaming:
Well of Souls: Orodreth reporting
Orodreth on Sept 2nd will
announce
the Elvondel world on a few WoS sites. The bare bones version should be
up
in December. Email, or meet him online on Bnet where he often is, to
help
play and brainstorm to improve the world. Turgon and Erestor
volunteered
at the meeting, and have been helping.
Dark Age of Camelot: Turgon
reporting
Application for the alliance is
still
in progress. A decision to accept the Valar Guild into the alliance is
expected
shortly.
Guild crafters are now available
in nearly all crafts at the highest levels.
Turgon is looking for a new place
to
host the DAoC forum, as Irmo requested. Raime, ex-Lindir, is no longer
handling
the old forum and has not set up anyone else to do it and has been out
of
touch on this matter, so it has been unattended. Turgon has several
possible
locations and Orodreth had some more possibles. It is possible that in
the
process we may also find a new location for the main guild's Tolkien
forum.
Email suggestions to Turgon.
Lungorthin is handling the DAoC
website.
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction aka D2X:
Guild Bank Accounts were
suggested
by Varda and enthusiastically approved by the membership. These are D2X
mule
accounts open to all guild members. The type of items should go with
the
account and character name. Use the game pass. If the game pass
changes,
so will the accounts. Turgon and Varda are making the accounts to keep
down
chaos. All members may add or take items from the accounts, and play
the
characters to bring them up to Hell difficulty if you like, but please
don't
kill the Cow King! Some items have already been added to the bank by
Turgon,
Varda, Arathorn, Erestor, Draugluin and no doubt others who were
zipping
around!
Accounts created after the
meeting:
ValarUniques-V
by Turgon
ValarSets-V
by
Varda (elite and exceptional, will be making ValarSetsii-V as this is a
very
large group)
Created Monday:
ValarSetsN-V
by
Varda (has sets termed Normal Difficulty on Bnet's Arreat Summit.
Too
small for all, so will have to make ValarSetsNii-V also.
Aug. 19, 2003
We have phone service again. :)
Aug. 17, 2003
Our phone line was cut a few blocks down on
Monday,
thus the lateness of this posting. On the plus side, we escaped the
telemarketers
for a while!
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East, 5:00pm ESDT, channel
Clan Vala
Attending:
Arathorn, Beleg, Elrond, Feanor/ Curufinwe,
Gwaihir, Orodreth, Thorondor, Varda (presiding)
Eol dropped by after the meeting and gamed with us.
Membership:
Arathorn's router is temporarily
defunct
due to an "upgrade" from the router company. It disconnected every 30
seconds,
so he had to mail it back. He is still with us by connecting directly
this
week.
Eonwe was working, hoped to come to the
After-meeting.
Gwaihir got his university textbooks a few
days ago, will be taking class in Java.
Haldir was getting his hair cut during the
meeting, according to Beleg.
Orodreth resolved his computer space problem
and is once again back on StarCraft. He'll be working on computers for
the school, at
www.cva.k12.mn.us
Thorondor finished his year in the Finnish
army and will be starting university.
Web:
Links page: TheOneRing.net (not to be
confused with Virbius' OneRing.net
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Hobbits: "Pippin", by
Laurelin Caline
Humor: "The Pint of
Eggnog", by Laurelin Caline
Men: Updated Kings of
Gondor section, still needs a lot of work. Feel free to send in
articles!
Gaming:
D2X: Arathorn
Arathorn requested aid in
completing
sets. Since the Trading Board is down, here we go: He needs:
Sigon's: Belt
Cathan's:
Visage (received Visage after meeting), Rule
Cleglaw's:
Pincers
Isenhart's:
Horn, Parry
Well of Souls: Orodreth
The major server, Aerianell, went
down
for an indeterminate time. Orodreth turned his server public to fill
the
need, but for our guild or others needing a private server, he offers a
temporary
passworded server.
Tolkien:
Beleg-(V)'s topic: Why did Saruman take on some of
Gandalf's
interests, such as pipeweed, hobbits, and the Shire?
Aug. 15, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia
Men: Updated the
Kings of Gondor, added to the name list in the Encyc.
Aug. 12, 2003
Links:
TheOneRing.net
- huge Tolkien site. Includes art, fan-fic, music. I requested
permission
to use some of their original art by linking to the Tolkien
Encyclopedia
and hope for a positive response of some sort.
Aug. 11, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Hobbits:
"Pippin", by
Laurelin Caline
Humor:
"The Pint of
Eggnog", by Laurelin Caline
Aug. 10, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East, 5pm ESDT, channel Clan
Vala. Dark
Age of Camelot report by Turgon
Attending:
Members (10): Ancalagon, Arathorn,
Eonwe, Erestor, Gwaihir (gavel), Huan, Orodreth, Thror, Turgon, Varda
(presiding)
Visitor (1): Beorn[1]@Azeroth (was in the
guild earlier as Beorn, email akitucan@hotmail.com) and would like to
rejoin.
Members seen after the meeting (5):
Boromir(V)@Azeroth,
Caranthir-V, Glorfindel-V, Curufinwe-V@Azeroth, Oropher-V@Azeroth.
VinyanorII,
the old Gwindor, dropped by briefly while working on his other
computer,
probably testing his comp, said hi, going to college classes at night
and
working in the day, so he doesn't have game time.
Membership: 149 on Member page
Haldir is back.
Khamul will be absent next week, on
vacation.
Thror goes back to school Aug 26th.
Turin's comp is misbehaving so that he can't
get on SC, but he expects to have a new comp by next month.
Web:
Tolkien Poetry: "Bitter End", by
Laurelin Caline
Links:
"Erynodil" - LotR fan club
"From Pointy Ears to Grima's
Tears: A Tolkien Investigation"
Gaming:
AD&D: Turgon and Gwaihir
reporting
Moved to 8:30 pm Friday since
Gerontius
works at the previous 7pm meeting time. Unfortunately other members are
also
running into work conflicts, so a proper game hasn't been played
lately.
Ancalagon is DM for three games
in off-computer life.
D2X: Arathorn
Arathorn asked who at the meeting
currently
plays D2X: Arathorn, Erestor, Thror ("once in a blue moon"), Turgon
(sometimes),
Varda. Gwaihir is playing D2X 1.10 beta.
D2X 1.10 Beta Gwaihir reporting
New patches came out for both PC
and
Mac betas. It removed the items from all but three of his characters.
DAoC: Turgon
reporting (Bnet crashed the whole channel during the report, but I
caught this much)
Sunday meeting 3:30pm ESDT,
Percival/Hibernia
Irmo's Yrma character
achieved Elder status, topping out at level 50.
Melkor reached Legendary
Grandmaster Weaponsmithing.
The group is working on
role-playing.
WarCraft3/The Frozen Throne:
Clan Vala, the WC3/TFT branch
held
its first meeting Saturday August 9 at 1pm ESDT in channel Clan Vala. Report
minutes are listed on Aug 9.
Tolkien:
Ancalagon's topic: What was the fate
of the entwives?
Arathorn's topic: How did Gwaihir and
Gandalf meet? There is a comment about fixing his wing.
Much other discussion spun off these two, including
Melkor's ultimate fate.
Aug. 9, 2003
WC3/TFT Meeting: 1pm ESDT, Bnet
East channel Clan Vala (Bnet only allowed 4 letters)
26 members in WC3
or TFTwere still listed by Bnet for Clan Vala last Sunday.
Attending: Ancalagon,
Grima, Sauron, Oropher, Varda
Eonwe/Fionwe intended to
host
a meeting for WC3/TFT players and sent out an email to that effect.
Eonwe's
power went off for two hours including that time period, then he had to
go
to work. He's now a shift supervisor.
Email addresses need
updates or box cleanings for Frodo, Grima, and Quickbeam. Grima said
his is <metalmind85@hotmail.com>
Some members met in the channel
anyway.
Tourneys: There, Grima
said
he would like to see more members in the Bnet Tourney games with him,
and
is willing to help train them. A tourney started up 45 minutes after
meeting
time, perfect for members to join up and go to it. Grima went.
Drop danger: Eonwe had
asked
that the following WC3/TFT characters be brought to Clan Vala before
Bnet
drops them from the clan for inactivity: Draugluin, Eowyn, Fangorn,
Finwe,
Leaflock, Varda. Eowyn, Fangorn, and Varda came in and are no longer in
danger.
We need to remember to show up in Clan Vala at least once before the 28
day
mark is reached each month. Coming to meetings in WC3 suits can take
care
of that, as well as gaming.
To check how long since your
character
was last on, double click your name, click Vala (your clan), and it
will
show your info. Or go to the WC3 Ladder page (top right), on the bottom
right
is box called "Player Search", type in your account name and click on
Vala.
WC3 World Editor: Eonwe will
be placing an outline page for his planned WC3 World editor tutorial in
the next week. It will go from simple issues, like selecting and
placing units, to more complex issues, like actually editing and
changing those units. Once this is up, anyone who wishes may
contribute a section or more.
Aug. 5, 2003
Tolkien
Poetry:
"Bitter End" by
Laurelin Caline, about the flight of the elves.
Links:
Erynodil - LotR
fan club. Includes the movies, photos, Andune's elvish lessons,
Middle-earth
recipes, and LotR links. Made and suggested by SheElf Archer. Best
viewed
in Explorer rather than Netscape
The Boy with the Bow
- a traditional archery-enthusiast's guide (knows modern and old-style
SCA
archery) to Jackson's film of the Fellowship of the Ring. Well-written
by
Ellen Brundige. Very interesting comments on the amazing detail and
creation
of these dreadfully difficult old-style bows and their use by such
notables
as Legolas, Aragorn, Haldir's Galadrim, Faramir's rangers, and
"Boromir's
Least Favorite Orc". Includes photos.
From Pointy Ears to Grima's
Tears: A Tolkien Investigation.
- careful research and thinking on both books and movies. By Ellen
Brundage.
This is the home page for the bow article, with a great deal more.
Aug. 3, 2003
Sunday Meetings Battlenet,
Dark Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting
Battlenet, East Realm, 5:00pm ESDT, channel Clan Vala
Membership:
Thror plans to go to Ozfest Tuesday
Turgon was present at the meeting, but was
also
in DAoC as the only healer in the Raid, very busy there, so he could
only
give brief comments and no DAoC report.
Attending:
Members: Ancalagon, Beleg,
Eonwe/Fionwe (gavel), Erestor, Grima, Gwaihir (gavel), Khamul, Legolas,
Thror, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Visitor: Irken (Khamul's friend)
Web:
Please correct your links and bookmarks for
the
moved pages below, and email Varda or Eonwe if you discover a missing
link,
hairy or not. Try reloading the page first.
Tolkien
Poetry: pages moved to new folder to handle long poetry
Games:
pages moved to Alatar's server: valarguild.org
Tolkien
Encyc/Hobbits: "Bilbo Baggins", "Meriadoc Brandybuck", both by
Laurelin Caline
Tolkien
Stories: "Of Eldir and Dori" by Laurelin Caline
Gaming:
D2X Middle-earth mod:
Caranthir has his Tolkien
mod working now. Look for him, fellows of Middle-earth
Tolkien:
Varda's Topic: How did the Council of Elrond
come together?
Topic: Fates of Sauron, Saruman, Melkor
Melkor was in the Void, still had
influence, would return for the Last Battle
Erestor: The Flame Imperishable
could be taken back by Eru.
Varda: The removed Flame could be
reworked into a new improved version of the flawed feas.
Topic: Nature of Eru and Ainur
Bodies of the Ainur were like
clothing,
except for some who had gone to evil and become identified with their
bodies.
They were energy beings.
Aug. 1, 2003
Tolkien
Stories:
"Of
Eldir and Dori", by Laurelin Caline
Tolkien
Poetry has moved to this new location. Link change has been
made on the guild index and story page.
July 30, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Hobbits:
"Bilbo
Baggins" by Laurelin Caline
"Meriadoc
Brandybuck", by Laurelin Caline
July 28, 2003
Games
pages:
Eonwe has transferred the
Games pages to Alatar's valarguild.org server.
July 27, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet,
Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battlenet
East Realm, 5:00 pm ESDT, channel Clan Vala
Attending:
Aragorn, Arathorn, Caranthir, Elrond, Feanor,
Gwaihir
(gavel), Huan, Orodreth, Thingol, Tulkas/Astaldo, Varda (presiding)
(later: Grima played with us, just returned to Bnet,
found out the meeting place changed)
Membership:
Beleg is camping this weekend. Have
fun!
Haldir is on vacation.
Thingol is heading to Germany on a cultural
exchange program. He said his goodbyes for a while. Finwe is his real
life friend.
Web:
Tolkien:
Poetry: "Lament of Arwen"
by Laurelin Caline
Humor: "Answering Machine
Messages that might have been left by LotR folk" also by Laurelin Caline
Gaming pages:
Most are moving to Alatar's
server,
www.valarguild.org, after the disappearance of Tom Bombadil's Ten Peaks
server
and email. Pages already moved and on the Guild index are EverQuesters
and Tourneys.
Gaming:
Diablo all versions:
The original Iron Man page is no
longer
up. We are trying to reconstruct how the game was originally played and
put
it on our Tourney page. Some is there now. We would especially like to
know
the name of the originating person to credit. Our Fellowship game,
based
on Iron Man with the variant worked out by Ulmo-(Valar), is very
similar
with the same scoring style.
Tolkien:
Feanor-(V) now has Morgoth's
Ring and Peoples of Middle-earth of the
Histories of Middle-earth as has often been recommended, and
told us some
goodies from them while we waited to start the meeting.
Varda-(Valar)'s topic: The rangers' activities
were mainly implied. What are your thoughts on what they were?
Gwaihir: Hunting corrupted animals, orcs, signs of
evil
Elrond: Rangering. Guarding, observing, hunting,
fighting
for good, learning to fight (training and experience)
Astaldo: Observing and reporting
Orodreth: Emulating Gandalf on smaller level.
Feanor: Scouts collected info for the Wise on the
happenings of the North
Orodreth: Aragorn went to Gondor as well
Feanor: protected Shire
Orodreth: always protected the Shire, silent
watchers.
Feanor-(V)'s topic: Who were the most
powerful elves?
Galadriel, Glorfindel, Cirdan, and Elrond all had
supporters.
This included a discussion of the two Glorfindels
and two Galdors.
Sunday Meeting Dark
Age of Camelot: Sunday 7-27-03, 3:30 PM EDST
Members present:
Alatarch, Aurgus, Austi, Gelmirv, Ferali, Gerontius,
Gorgenhad, Jarn, Lashus, Turgonv, Yrma (pres.).
House
Alatar's house now holds an alchemy table
and an arcane merchant. More power to Alatar!
Yrma’s house will soon have a lathe.
The way to use the Guild Vault and the
Consignment Merchant:
The Guild Vault pages 1-3 are
accessible
to all for taking and bringing gifts. Gifts that are there longer than
one
week are sold to NPC (result goes to Guild Fund). Pages 4-5 are for
person-to-person
transfers, mainly crafting transfers.
Everyone can give self-crafted
items
to Yrma to put them for sale at the consignment merchant. Name your
prize
and when sold the result will be returned to you.
Membership.
Welcome to Ferali, our newest member who
could even attend the meeting.
Welcome to Aurgus, who was back with us
after a period of otherworldliness.
Alliance
Valar has formally applied to become part of the
Cairdeas
of Anam na Eireann, Arrym Sidhe, Fellowship of Dihn, Lema en Estela,
Thorns
of Eire, Tuatha Da Dannan and Vigil.
A decision is anxiously but patiently awaited.
Realm versus realm
With help from the Fellowship of Dihn (Deelia,
Jarale,
Gilrondaar), and Maobhin and Bliik, Valar could claim their first Keep
in
the Frontiers this week! Alatarsong and Gerontius Took and Yrma
attending.
A memorable feat!
Tolkien chat
Gerontius reported back from Saturday’s Tolkien
chat.
What happened to the elves who disappeared into holes? Did they evolve
into
hobbits? To be continued Saturday aug 2, 3:30 EDST in the Guildhouse!
Feel
free to bring a topic of your own as well!
Guild Fund.
Last saldo (July 13): 84 g
Expenses since then:
Stipendia spellcrafting 1000 g
(Ontius) and 583 g (Gerontiusia).
Yrma and Alatar bought the houses
flanking
the Guildhouse to right and left in Fullerton/Kilcullen.
Alatar's house
has
now a spellcrafting/alchemy table and arcane merchants.
Yrma's house
has portals to DL, DC and TNN.
Donations since then:
Yrma 1501 g
And then Yrma and Aalatar each
spent about 4 plat on the new houses.
At the announcement that the Guild Fund is now
empty, members came forward to donate:
Aurgus 51 g
Ferali 25 g
Gerontius 164 g
Lashus 30 g
Heartwarming indeed!
The Guild Fund is thus now filled with 270 g.
Guild Hunt:
After the meeting Alatarv, Entwise, Fedelone,
Gelmirv,
Gerontiusia, Maigan, Morgothv and Turukanov had a full group hunt,
first
in Treibh Cailte, then at the entrance of the Coruscating Mines. And a
very
successful and enjoyable Guild Hunt it was!
July 26, 2003
Tolkien-inspired
Humor
Answering Machine messages of the
LotR folk: by Laurelin Caline. Sent July 25.
July 25, 2003
Tolkien-inspired
Poetry
"Lament of Arwen", by
Laurelin Caline
July 21, 2003
EverQuesters page
for the Valar Guild has moved permanently. On Guild index.
Tourneys page:
temporarily until Eonwe's page is back up, this older page by Varda is
shown
on the Guild index. Added info about Iron Man since the original Iron
Man
page disappeared, and it was mentioned at the last meeting. Please note
that
the guild's Fellowship Quest is very similar..
July 20, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet,
Dark Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting: Battlenet
East, channel Clan Vala, 5:00pm ESDT
Attending:
Members(10): Bregalad/Quickbeam,
Elrond,
Gwaihir (gavel), Haldir, Khamul, Legolas, Orodreth, Thror, Turgon,
ValarGuild
bot, Varda (presiding)
Visitors: Horny-Toads@Azeroth (pleasant)
Membership:
New: Amarie. DAoC-only at this time.
Dropped for inactivity: Argon, Elladan,
Faramir, Hurin,Nain
Eonwe emailed that he would be at the movies
during the meeting: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Haldir expects to be missing from the next
meeting and game week while on vacation.
Naming:
Name versions: If a member is having
difficulty coming up with versions of his name, he can email Irmo
who will look up the versions Tolkien actually used, or translate it
into
a different Tolkien language. Meanwhile, feel free to play with such
things
as using a dot or underscore or abbreviated class or use type after the
name.
Maia and Vala recognition: More discussion
about
Maiar and Valar naming was held by the members in the channel. There is
a
feeling in the Council and membership that gaming is no longer allowing
us
the freedom to take an existing character and re-name it, and that it
is
therefore unfair to ask a Maia or even a Vala to change his name to
reflect
his new existence. Suggestions to make such persons recognizable when
their
services are required were: on the Diablos and SC/BW, the Valar tag
should
be only for testers, (although some long names can't fit the Valar on
the
end); this is already happening in actual use and could easily be
implemented.
In WC3 and rpgs, the same guild tag is applied automatically to all
members,
although the V and Valar is still being written into the WC3/TFT names.
Rpgs
seem to have the most difficulty. The honor is listed on the Members
page
and Activity page, and active members know who the testers are or can
look
them up on the pages, so all anyone really has to do is ask any member.
Scouting:
People who can't test wanted to know what they could
do
when they found a potential recruit (nice person, read LotR, games
honestly).
This is also on the FAQ page, but bears repeating in short. If you can
find
a tester, get them together if possible. If no testers are available,
tell
the person the domain name (www.valarguild.org/)
and to come to a meeting. In Bnet we currently meet in Clan Vala at
5:00
pm ESDT. Be sure to include the time zone! The person can also email Varda, and it's nice to let
Varda or Eonwe
know if you're sending someone, a point for your recruit and gives you
scouting
credit counting towards your Maia honor. With luck, your recruit will
remember
your name correctly, but don't count on it. If you scout, it's best to
find
someone you enjoyed chatting and/or gaming with. Spamming is generally
hated
and is bad for our reputation. Of course if you start up a Tolkien chat
aloud
with someone in the channel and others join in, that's not spamming but
adds
to the entertainment value. Expect to need eyewash after being in
public
areas.
Web:
Ten Peaks server has gone down. This
affects
Tom Bombadil's email, who handle the server and had his email there. It
also
means these pages are not currently up: Games, EverQuesters, Trading
Board,
and Tourneys. If the server doesn't come up soon, we may have to assume
Tom's
space is no longer available and move those pages permanently
elsewhere.
Some will start moving at least temporarily this week. This News page,
luckily,
is on Alatar's www.valarguild.org server.
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Hobbits: New article on
"Smeagol", by fellow Tolkien fan, Laurelin Caline.
Stories: New story by
Elrond-V, "The Battle of Five Armies, from Fili's Point of View"
Gaming:
Battlenet:
We discussed showing up daily
around
meeting time, including hour before and after, to meet and break into
whichever
games we wished. Those who want to play WC3 will naturally pop into
channel
Clan Vala as soon as they go to chat. Others will probably meet in
channel
Valar and be popping in and out of there. Of course we will continue to
play
at the times we want to, but this gives us a target to shoot for to
find
buddies. We can also /who the two channels.
Khamul says any time is good for him. Gwaihir has an
unstable
work schedule, but figures an hour after regular meeting time would be
when
he could show up. Varda's time is unstable, but will give it a shot.
Other
members didn't comment. At least we can all make an effort to pop by
around
meeting time or whisper a greeting. Of course we game for as long as we
choose.
WC3/TFT:
Active, many
playing.
D2X:
Still active.
People
tend to keep coming back to it when bored with other games.
SC/BW:
Still active.
Also
a great way to come to Bnet inexpensively for meetings.
Off-Battlenet:
Well of Souls:
Orodreth and Khamul have been
playing together.
Shadowbane:
Khamul no longer playing.
AD&D:
Turgon's group has not been
getting together lately. They were meeting Fridays.
DAoC:
Highly active. Turgon not playing
there
as much, more on Bnet currently, so he was available to give a live
report.
But Turgon said two more houses have been added, increasing the
strength
of the guild branch there greatly. He also said the houses were
supplied
by the generous Yrma's gold (Irmo).
EQ:
Ulmo and Taglos are running even
at
level 65, very high! Oropherv is very active and Elberethv is still
playing
now and then. I haven't heard lately from the others who are scattered
about.
Tolkien:
Turgon's topic: Gender in the Ainur.
Turgon: Are Ainur genderless
naturally, since they put on bodies as we would clothes?
All agreed that Ainur used bodies
as they used clothes.
The evil Ainur tended to keep the
bodies instead of switching them out frequently.
Gwaihir: Quoted from the
"Ainulindale" in the Silmarillion,
that they put on the bodies according to the difference of temperament
they
had even from the beginning, including for gender. Quote below:
"But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar
take
upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that
difference
of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied
forth
in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and
female
may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby."
July 17, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Hobbits: Laurelin Caline wrote
"Smeagol". Did you know Gollum's name is really Trahald? This
was actually received July 15.
July 15, 2003
Tolkien
Stories:
Elrond wrote "The Battle of Five
Armies, from Fili's Point of View
July 14, 2003
Inactivity drops: Argon, Elladan, Faramir, Hurin,
Nain. These names are now free.
July 13, 2003
Amarie,
Welcome to the Valar Guild! Amarie has
been playing on Dark Age of Camelot as the Odernia with our guild
branch.
She passed the Member test with Irmo today! She is from Quebec, Canada,
EST.
Cheerful and enthusiastic, she's 31 and teaches history. She's read the
H
and LotR and is trying to read the Sil which is extra tough since her
only
copy is in English. She plays DAoC only. Her favorite character is
Frodo,
who was always prepared to bear the burden and make the best of it.
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet
Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting: Battlenet
East, 5:00 pm ESDT, gathered folk from channel Valar and used channel
Clan Vala
report by Eonwe, additions by Varda. Many voices heard
:)
Attending:
Members (13): Alatar, Arathorn,
Eonwe/Fionwe
(presiding), Eol, Erestor, Finwe, Gwaihir (gavel), Legolas, Orodreth,
Thror,
Tulksa (before main meeting), Turgon, Varda
Over-the-shoulder hellos: Elwing, Eowyn,
Fangorn, Sauron
Channel Note:
Note to all: We are using channel Clan
Vala for meetings, the clan channel given to us through WC3's Clan
Support. Unfortunately non-WC3 members cannot enter until there
is a WC3 member in there. Likely it requires a Shaman or the Cheiftain
to be there and make the channel public. If the channel is not
open and it's not meeting time yet, don't worry, someone will be there
shortly :} Do a /who Clan Vala to see if anyone is in yet, or
wait in our main channel. Eonwë (aka Fionwë on WC3)
usually passes through there on the way to the meeting anyway.
Membership: 153 on Members page for the whole guild
Tulkas came in before the meeting, but had to
go before the meeting started. he reports he will be moving 7 hrs
east of where he and his wife currently live. They were married
last week, so congratulations to them!
Two of our DAoC members passed their LotR tests and
became Folco(a rl friend of Gelmir) and Amarie. Congratulations!
Huan is back from Nevada.
Ossë e-mailed Eonwe, says he has WC3:TFT and
would like to join in the Clan activities.
Yesterday was Gwaihir's 2 year Anniversary.
Congrats to Gwaihir!
Orodreth reports that, due to classes he will be
taking in the next school year, he may not have room for
Starcraft. Suggestions for ways to come to meetings were given,
including the bnet edition of WC2 and installing a spawn of Starcraft.
If, for any reason, you are unable to be around for
a while, make sure you keep in contact by e-mailing at least once a
month. You can e-mail Varda as general all-branch and activity
Contact person or the Vala currently handling your game (for example,
DAoC members can e-mail Irmo, WC3 can email Eonwe).
Web News:
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Orc page: "Orcs" by
Laurelin Calinë
Ten Peaks server:
Problems with the Ten Peak server
this
last week, and with Tom Bombadil's email on that server. Affecting
pages:
Games, EverQuesters, others
Gaming News:
Battlenet Games: Diablos, SC/BW, WC3's
D2X:
LoD beta patch is available for
Mac
users now, as well as PC users. Good idea to make it separate from
regular
D2X, the same way we do for the Tolkien mod.
SC/BW:
We can always use a good new SC
or BW Tolkien-style map!
WC3/ TFT:
1. Clan Vala tag. If you
haven't had a chance to be included in the Warcraft 3 branch (most of
you have), stop in and try to catch me, Draugluin, or Gwaihir to get
added. Account names are Fionwe-Valar, Draugluin-Valar, and
Gwaihir-Valar. You need to be on Azeroth Realm on WC3 or TFT.
2. Clan upkeep. Blizzard
has instituted "Clan upkeep". Once you join the WC3 branch, you need to
log in at least once every 28 days to keep our Guild considered
active. If fewer than 10 people do this, we will lose the WC3
branch.
3. WC3-only meetings.
Eonwe would like to have a small informal meeting either weekly or
bimonthly just for WC3 guys. This is not to replace the Sunday
meeting, which Eonwe encourages all who can make it to go to. It
is a chance to
get together and discuss strategies, mapmaking, WC3 issues, and even
brag a bit. Notes (if any) from this can be used to present a
report at the Sunday meeting (can be presented by anyone who wants to
present it). Business
for this meeting will probably be quite small most of the time, and
afterward
can go to the second part of the meeting's purpose: to give a second
day
(besides Sunday) during the week when we know a majority of WC3'ers
will
be on for gaming. Incidentally, it will also fullfill our clan
upkeep requirements
quite easily if at least 10 of us are able to get together.
So now here's the question: how many of you
would show up for this and what day would you most want it (and weekly
or bimonthly)?
Email Eonwe or Varda.
4. Tourneys. Gwaihir has
volunteered to set up guild player v player tournaments (and perhaps
other types?) to help us keep our skills sharp (just remember we're all
friends). He will release more information when he's ready, but I
would suggest those interested to speak up so he knows you're
there. Eonwe believes Gwaihir also has some other things, but
he'll let him tell them when he's ready :}
5. Practice games. Be
aware
that Grunt, Shaman, and Chieftain non-custom games count toward our
clan
rating, so it never hurts to practice with friends :}
6. Maps. We are in need
of Guild-made Tolkien-themed maps for official Guild tournies. If
you have interest in making maps or skill with the WC3 world editor, we
urge you to get out there and start making maps :}
7. Map Tutorial. Eonwe is
tring to put together a Tutorial for using the Warcraft 3 World Editor,
starting with simple concepts like making the terrain, then
moving to more complex issues like Triggers and eventually character
editing. Anyone with skill using the map editor or at least a
bit of good old curiosity and the willingness to experiment with the
Editor are welcome to to provide information for it.
As always, we get what we're willing to put
in. We urge you to join in and participate in the ways you can :}
More on WC3/TFT Tourneys:
Gwaihir here... as Eonwe
said, I've taken it upon myself to organize tourneys... and I'd REALLY
like to get one going soon. It'd be very good practice for us all and
it'd help us learn what we're good at and what we're not... and it'll
help us to get a little more used to the game...
I'd appreciate everyone who is interested e-mailing
me with what type of gaming they prefer most, team, single, etc... how
much wc3/tft experience they have... naturally, it wouldn't be fair to
match up the two players who play most often together in a 2v2
tourney...
Also, for teams, tell me if you'd rather it be
chosen teammates or pre-matched...
One more thing, for pre-matched, should we go that
route, e-mail me the name of any people you wouldn't want to be matched
with(I mean... we'rea ll friends here in Valar, but even among us,
there're bound to be SOME conflicts between some of us... and we don't
want to match you up with someone you don't get along well with :)) I
know I've had my problems with a member or two over my two years here
I think that's all for the time being... will get
back to you all should I think of any other comments/queries/concerns
Off-Battlenet Games: AD&D, Well of Souls, DAoC, EQ
AD&D:
AD&D meetings have not made
it due to various circumstances, so Turgon is working on a solution to
improve attendance. DM is Gerontius. For more information, e-mail
Turgon.
Well of Souls RPG:
Orodreth reported: E-mail
Orodreth for more information if any of you are interested in Well of
Souls. Also, let me know if you give it a try and decide you like
it. Remember to keep your Gaming info updated :}
DAoC:
Turgon gave this report:
"Kindest regards from every DAoC
playing Valar member, including Alatar (who made it to the Bnet meeting
also), Gerontius, Irmo, Gelmir, Gaffer, and many others.
The Guild on DAoC has implemented
new guild rankings, giving better use for roleplaying nature.
With Royal Donations of several
members with Irmo leading the way, the DAoC branch now has a guild
house in Hibernia.
Several of our members have
reached their 20th season today (note by Eonwë: season is
equivalent to level) and thus are awarded with bearing our guild
emblem.
Irmo reached 45 this week, making
rapid way towards elder character."
Alatar added:
"Tolkien chats are now held on
DAoC, on Saturdays occasionally."
Congrats to our comrades on Dark Age of
Camelot! It is good to hear they are doing well!
Irmo's
Full Report.
Tolkien Chat:
Varda: Favorite member in the Fellowship? (the
Fellowship itself, not the entire book)
Eonwë: Did the Valar succeed in their task? (to
form Arda as they had sung it)
This topic later changed to parts played by the
Valar and into in the end a discussion of what part Namo played in the
Music. There is no known mention of Namo's song (so go out and
find one! :}), but we do know what he does in Arda: he is the Doomsman
of the Valar and one of the Feanturi, Masters of Spirits. He
summons the dead to his Halls.
Discussion turned then to the movies and whether
Legolas should've had golden hair. Hobbit and Unfinished
Tales were cited for golden hair.
Sunday Meeting: Dark Age of
Camelot Percival/Hibernia 3:30pm ESDT July 13
report by Irmo-(Valar) aka Yrma
Attending:
Members present (12): Alatarch, Gaffersong,
Gelmirv, Gerontiusia, Gorgenhad, Jarn, Lashus, Morgothv, Odernia,
Orome, Turgonv, Yrma (pres.).
Celebration:
We celebrated the fact that Valar exist as a Guild
in Hibernia (Percival) for a half year! (since januari 11). Many of us
gathered for this anniversary occasion: twelve members sets a new
record for Valar-DaoC meeting attendance!
Guildhouse:
As a surprise anniversary gift Yrma
presented to Valar a brandnew Guildhouse. The house is in Fullerton
(nr. 9), House # 3700.
It has a grandmaster merchant, a Domnann portal, a forge, a consignment
merchant, a Vault keeper and a Guild Vault.
The meeting was held in the new house.
House access:
The house can be accessed in four ways:
1. fast: Buy a portal token and
port to Guild Hearth from either Drum Ligen or Domnann.
2. slow: Enter the housing area
from TNN North, buy a horse ticket to Ainslee, at Ainslee walk NE and
East left of river bank to Kilcullen, stables Gowan, buy horse ticket
to Cassidei, at Cassidei type /houseface guild and walk the few yards
to House.
3. very slow, unless
bard/chanter: Enter housing area from TNN North, type /houseface guild
and walk East and Southeast to House. Retype /houseface guild now and
then.
4. very fast, but hardly
recommendable: type /release house after dying.
House decorations:
The house is both internally and
eternally fully decorated (meaning that nothing further can be added
unless something is removed first <grin>).
Guild Vault:
Pages 1-3 in the Guild Vault are
mathoms (gifts), to be taken or put there freely by any member. Please
be selective with what you put in there! Pages 4-5 are craft materials
for transferability reasons, not to be touched.
Domnann Portal:
The
Domnann portal can at request be changed temporarily by Yrma/Fantura to
a Tir Na Nog portal or a Drum Ligen portal. Later there will be
alternatives to the GM merchant as well.
Bindstone:
Thanks to donations by Orome,
Alatar and Gerontius the house got a bindstone. Type /release house if
you want to release at home.
Membership:
Cloaks:
Jarn, Gelmir and Gerontiusisa
received their emblemed cloak because they came of age (20th
season). More power to them! Congratulations!
Ranking system:
Yrma explained the new ranking
system The resulting ranks for each character are now on the Message Board .
Members are requested to help
Yrma, Fantura or Morgothv with the implementation of the new ranking
system for their characters.
Guild Fund:
Previous saldo (June 29): 941 g
Expenses since then:
Guildhouse plus ingredients 8500
g,
Bindstone 1000 g,
Stipendia spellcrafting 2231 g
(Ontius)
Alchemy 472 g (Gerontusia),
Member armor 56 g.
Donations since then:
Alatar 500g, Gerontius 400 g,
Orome 500 g, Yrma 10.000 g.
New saldo (July 13): 82 g.
At this place a note should be made that Melkor is
of course not expected to donate to the Guildfund, because advancing
the craft skills of weaponsmith Austi (for which he does not request
support from the Guild Fund) is as expensive as it can get.
Also be noted the fact that in Valar only the rich
are expected to donate to the Guildfund.
Guild Hunt:
Between many things to arrange in and around the
house, the ranking system and crafting services, some of us found an
opportunity to hunt after the meeting.
Alatarwalker first led a hunt of young ones around
Dromnan.
Later Gerontius, Alatarsong and Yrma went to hunt in
the Vale of Balor,
while Fedelone and Gelmirv went to Thidranki
battlegrounds.
Edanyael dropped by during the hunt to say greetings
in between RL obligation
July 11, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Orc page: "Orcs" by
Laurelin Calinë
July 10, 2003
D2X 1.10 beta patch now also available for
Mac users in the US as a download from Blizzard. Battlenet also has
more info.
July 8, 2003
Folco
Boffin, Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Folco has been playing in Dark Age of Camelot with our branch as Jarn.
He
passed the full member entry test with Irmo and made a character called
Folco
with DaoC guild-rank of 5. He's 17, from the USA in PSDT. He's read the
LotR. His favorite characters in
LotR are Merry and Pippin..
July 7, 2003
Huan, welcome back from Nevada! Also,
thanks for the new WC3 bot, Vala! Huan picked up the Frozen
Throne yesterday, Fionwe please note! ;)
July 6, 2003
Sunday Meetings Battlenet
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East
5pm ESDT. Started in channel Valar, moved to channel Clan Vala for ops
ability
Attending:
Members (16): Bombur, Boromir, Bregalad/Quickbeam
(real),
Elrond, Eonwe/Fionwe (chieftain), Eowyn, Fangorn, Frodo, Gwaihir,
Haldir,
Legolas/Greenleaf, Lenwe, Thror, Turgon, Turin, Varda (presiding)
Visitors (2): canarde.jaune@Azeroth (Ducky,
long-time guild-friend who needs to read LotR), Dr.Love@Azeroth (read
LotR)
Member News (152 listed on Elatan's Member page):
A hearty Welcome Back to Beregond! His letter
is below, from June 29:
I am finished with my army life at last!
now, just give me a month or so to restore something I can call an
internet connection, and you should be seeing me some more again ^_^
...
Apart from that, nothing much to report.
I hope I'll find you and the rest of the guild in good health upon my
return.
Salutations!
Beregond, proud member of the Valar guild!
Frodo is back, trying to get a new email. He
has a job now.
Legolas Greenleaf expects to be on about
twice a week now.
Web News:
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Dreamlord's paper: Stages of
Imagination:
Theme and Vision in JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth
Gaming News:
D2X:
Beta patch can be played, set up
with an extra shortcut as you might for the Tolkien mod.
We can still have a channel with
ops
by typing /join op accountname If the bot is around (wasn't at
this
meeting), we can have channel Op ValarGuild. Another option is Op
Varda-(Valar)
or Op Varda-Valar.
We still have our regular playing
channel
of Valar, and can use /squelch instead of being concerned about banning
or
tagging.
WC3 and Frozen Throne:
The Valar Guild branch was set up
for
WC3 and Frozen Throne the day Frozen Throne came out: July 1.
Guild channel:
Clan Vala
Clan tag: Vala
Chieftain:
Eonwe
(sets up guild branch, can invite as Peon, promote to Grunt or Shaman,
kick
and ban from channel)
Planned
Shamans:
Gwaihir, Draugluin, Varda (can invite as Peon, promote to Grunt, kick
and
ban from channel) Shamans need two weeks in the Vala guild and should
be
good at responding to emails and showing up for meetings.
Founders:
Chieftain
Eonwe/Fionwe; Shamans-to-be but Peons now Draugluin, Gwaihir; Peons
Aragorn,
Bregalad/Quickbeam,
Ecthelion, Finglas/Leaflock, Maedhros, Thror, Turgon. Everybody after
this group is not a Founder, but very welcome.
Tagged many
members
at tonight's meeting. All but the "Chieftain" start as "Peons".
Members not in
WarCraft
could be invited into the Clan Vala channel by Chieftain Fionwe, in an
experiment
with D2X, but could not be tagged to make it a closed channel. The
Chieftain
and Shamans, however, can ban, which helps.
.aspx?Gateway=Azeroth&ClanTag=Vala
Tolkien:
Varda's topic: Who is Fionwe in the books?
Early version of Eonwe before the
Maia version. Son of Manwe and Varda, a Vala himself.
Elrond's first topic: Were any of the nobles of
Gondolin from the Lake of Cuivienen?
No. Even Feanor was born in
Valinor.
Turgon, the High King, was the second son of Fingolfin. Ecthelion was
only
a captain and warden, so he would not have been one of the First. Very
few
even of the Noldorin Exiles were from Cuivienen.
Elrond's second topic: Were the orcs an actual
species? Did they become one?
They started as tortured and
mutilated
elves. JRRT contemplated changing this but never got around to it, so
it's
still so. It's possible part of the mutilation by a Vala like Morgoth
could
have affected DNA and caused a continuing mutation so that they bred
true.
July 4, 2003
Happy July 4th, Independence Day to our US members!
July 3, 2003
D2X 1.10 beta patch available for US PC
users as a download from Blizzard.
Battlenet info.
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Papers:
"Stages
of the Imagination: Theme and Vision in J.R.R.T's Middle-earth"
by Rico Abrahamsen aka Dreamlord, our old Irmo. Brilliant university
paper. Must-see.
July 1, 2003
WC3: Frozen Throne:
Frozen Throne is now in stores!
We have a functioning
guild branch there now. :) How's that for speed? Contact Eonwe if you're not already in
it.
The WC3 guild channel turned out
to be channel Clan Vala
based on the guild tag rather than Clan Valar Guild based on the
guild's
name. Also, all channels starting with the world Clan have been turned
over
to WC3. For a channel with ops, non-WC3 people would need to type /join
op
<accountname>.
Eonwe's Report:
Hail all! :}
Today, July 1st, 2003, the Valar Guild's Warcraft 3 branch has been
officially set up through Blizzard's clan support system! :} In a
Tulkasian effort, 10 of us managed to gather in Channel Valar to begin
this branch of the Valar Guild. The founders number 11, as one was lost
for a time while we sought to gather our required 10. All listed
showed great patience, waiting for an incredible 2 hours to piece this
together. They are: Fionwë(myself), Aragorn, Draugluin,
Gwaihir, Thror, Maedhros, Ecthelion, Bombur, Leaflock, Turgon, and
Quickbeam.
My Shamen are Gwaihir and Draugluin. If any WC3 players would
like to have their Guild account added to the branch through bnet, all
you need do is e-mail the Cheiftain(me) or one of the Shamen(as soon as
Blizzard lets me promote them), or run into us on bnet :} News
later on any tasks they have brought upon themselves aside from what
I've given them :}
Our Guild name on WC3 is "Valar Guild" and our tag is "Vala," since the
maximum
number of characters was 4. In an unexpected turn of events,
Blizzard
gave us a channel named for our Guild tag rather than our Guild
name.
Since "Clan" channels are no longer accessible save by those clans, it
will
cause problems with our meetings. I would encourage members at
this time to check both Channel Valar and Channel Clan Vala before
assuming we have no meeting. (Also try a /whois on Varda-(Valar) and
others while we
work this out.)
Information concerning the Grunt and Peon ranks will come at a later
time to WC3 members, but suffice it to say: Blizzard will have a
Clan ladder ranking. If you wish to participate in this and have
your non-custom games counted toward our rating, you will get to be a
Grunt. If you prefer not to have any of your bnet games counted
either for or against our rating on this ladder, the rank of Peon is
for you. This will not affect or represent your actual standing
in the Valar Guild itself. New invitees are required by bnet to
stay a peon for at least one week.
D2X:
The 1.10 D2X patch is now
undergoing Quality Assurance testing.
Channel News:
According to the Battle.net site,
Bnet
Status Forum, in a post by the Battlenet Team June 30:
With the introduction of Warcraft
III:
The Frozen Throne, Battle.net chat channels with the prefix "Clan" are
reserved
for Warcraft III clans.
Users of the "classic" clan channels
(supported by Diablo II and Starcraft)
can get the old functionality of clan channels by using "/join op
<account
name>" instead of "/join clan <account name>".
top
June 30, 2003
WarCraft3 patch 1.10 is out.
June 29, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet 5pm ESDT report
by Eonwe
Attendence:
Caranthir, Maedhros, Beleg, Gwaihir,
Fionwë/Eionwë(presiding), Elrond
Coming in late: Haldir
Member news:
Eol was spotted by me(Eonwë) earlier this week.
Maedhros was also spotted and made it to the meeting
:}
Tilion e-mailed, says hi. Graduated
high-school, heading to Ottawa's Honours History program next.
Caranthir will be on vacation for 3 weeks starting
next week
Varda had to miss the meeting, had some stuff she
needed to do.
(Out of town all weekend.)
Web News:
Links:
Shire Shop- LotR movies,
collectibles, figurines, LotR board games. by Blake Morphis
Encyclopedia:
Menu: dark blue links hard to
read, changed to green. Suggestions welcome
Eonwë sent in more names,
from book 5 (first half of RotK).
Gaming News:
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
The game is out on Tuesday.
We're setting up the Valar Guild branch through Warcraft 3's clan
support. We need 10 people total, missing 3-4.
Tolkien Chat:
Elrond- in your opinion, are the Valar more like
angels or demigods?
They exibit qualities of both. They serve a
higher being and thus are angels, but exhibit powers that are usually
associated with gods/dieties.
June 27, 2003
Links page:
The Shire Shop - LotR
movies, collectibles, figurines, LotR board games. Site by Blake
Morphis Listed under Tolkien/Movies; Tolkien/ Tolkien
Games; Gaming/ Tolkien Games
June 26, 2003
Tolkien Encyc:
Encyc Menu:
Responding
to a non-guild email from "James", I have to agree that the dark blue
linking
on the Encyc menu is hard to read, and am now trying green. Suggestions
are
welcome.
Eonwe's latest names
have
been added to the Encyc where not already present, and are available
for
the Names page. He added short descriptions with most. They are mostly
humans
(some animals and hobbits) from Return of the King Book 5 of
the LotR. Deeper articles would be welcome from the membership.
Here's the list:
Ingold- Man, guard at the Pelennor Wall (Rammas Echor "Encircling
Fence" or thereabouts) of Minas
Tirith
Denethor- Man, son of Ecthelion, Steward of Gondor
Vorondil- Man, Farther of Mardil
Paladin- Hobbit, father of Pippin
Beregond- Man, soldier of the Third Company of the Guard of the Tower
of Gondor
Baranor- Man, father of Beregond
Targon- Man; in charge of storehouse of Beregond's company
Nazgul- aka Black Riders, Fell Riders
Iorlas- uncle of Bergil(Bergil son of Beregond)
The following came to the aid of Minas Tirith, arriving before the
Siege began
---------------------------------------------------
Forlong- Man, aka Forlong the Fat; Lord of Lossarnach; slain on the
Pelennor
Dervorin- Man, son of the lord of Ringlo Vale
Duinhir- Man, Lord of Blackroot Vale in the Uplands of Morthond
Duilin and Derufin- Men, sons of Duinhir
Golasgil- Man, Lord of the Anfalas
Hirluin- Man, aka Hirluin the Fair; Lord of Pinnath Gelin; slain at the
battle of the Pelennor Fields(Seige of Gondor)
Imrahil- Prince of Dol Amroth; Legends say Elven blood runs through his
veins
-----------------------------------------------------
Halbarad- Man, Dunadan, Ranger of the North
Roheryn- Aragorn's horse, brought by the Dunedain to him from the North
Stybba- Merry's pony riding from Helm's Deep with Theoden
Malbeth- Man, Dunadan presumably, aka Malbeth the Seer; Made prophecies
concering the Return of
the King
Arvedui- Last king at Fornost
Dunhere- Man of Rohan; Cheiftain of the folk of Harrowdale; bore
messages from Gandalf to Theoden
Baldor- Man of Rohan, son of Brego; last man to attempt the Paths of
the Dead; Made a vow to do so
at the feast commemorating the completion of
Meduseld
Brego- Man, King of Rohan; built Meduseld
Hirgon- Man, Dunadan; errand-rider of Denethor; Brought the Red Arrow
to Theoden; was found by
the Rohirrim slain the night before they reached
Gondor
Windfola- horse of Eowyn as Dernhelm
Witch-king- aka Black Captain, Captain of Despair
Elfhelm- Man of Rohan, Marshal of the Eored Dernhelm rode with
Widfara- Man of Rohan with a keen sense of smell; the wind
"brought him messages"; he confirmed
Ghan-buri-Ghan's statement that the wind was already
changing
Grimbold- Man of Rohan
Guthlaf- banner-bearer to King Theoden
Deorwine- Man of ROhan; Chief of King Theoden's knights(Captain of his
guard); Slain by the Witch-King
Hurin- aka Hurin the Tall; Warden of the Keys
Gothmog- Lieutenant of Morgul
Harding,Herefara, Herubrand,Horn, Fastred- Men, all slain on the
Pelennor Feild; named in the song
lamenting them, Chapter 6 of Book 5 at the very end
Ioreth- eldest of the women at the Houses of Healing
Angbor- Man, Lord of Lamedon; Gathered to Aragorn after Aragorn had
passed through the Paths of
the Dead; Only one who had the heart to abide
Aragorn and his group
Mouth of Sauron- Black Numenorean; Lieutenant of Barad-Dur; forgot his
own name in the deeps of time; came to the Dark Tower when it first
rose again
June 25, 2003
Tilion, a few weeks ago,
graduated High
School (they have 5 years of High School in Ottawa). He's headed to the
University
of Ottawa's Honours History program next.
June 24, 2003
Tilion says hi! He emailed help with the
Tolkien
Encyclopedia on references and plans to go to Scotland in about 2
weeks.
With luck he'll make the next meeting on Bnet, so come and catch up on
old
times. Of the Histories of Middle-earth, he recommends two as
the best of the lot: Vol 10 "Morgoth's Ring", and Vol 12 "The Peoples
of Middle-earth".
Eonwe sent in a batch of names from the Return
of the King for the Names page and Encyclopedia.
June 22, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battle.net
, Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battle.net
5pm ESDT, East realm, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members: Arathorn, Beleg, Bombur,
Eonwe/Fionwe, Gwaihir, Haldir (late), Orodreth, Turin, Turgon, Varda
(presiding)
Visitors: CorsairofUmbar (wants to join,
friend of Haldir and Beleg rl) had to leave early
Discussion Board chat room: Eonwe
Membership: 152 full members listed on the Member page by
Elatan-(Valar)
Boromir dropped by the channel after
the meeting in WC3, says hi!
Draugluin emailed and hopes to be back with
us sometime. See News June 18.
Ecthelion came by after the meeting. He has
an
outsider character named Melodius@Azeroth. He thought he'd been dropped
by
now from the guild since he'd been away. After school he's been
practicing
four hours at percussion, his favorite being the marimba which looks
rather
like a giant xylophone. When he found out he hadn't been dropped, just
had
a question mark after Active on status, he made his Ecthelion-V@Azeroth
character.
He plays random. Ecthelion corrected the email I had for him. It's
really
Suilenroc01@hotmail.com. That's Cornelius backwards with a zero
one.
Elrond came in after the meeting in WC3 and
chatted.
He's been working with the White Council guild and added a forum to the
site
he built for them.
Gwaihir has a new comp on order, complete
with
desk and chair. It's supposed to come in middle or end of this week!
Gwaihir
reminds us that his icq address on AIM is Elrohir16
Orodreth said he would have trouble typing
in the
meeting after a wild one on one game of basketball with his Dad and
since
he was eating at the comp (common practice in the guild). But he
managed
to type plenty anyway. Go, Orodreth!
Turin has a new icq address on AOL:
TurinLDL
Web:
Tolkien Encyc:
Need more Encyc articles,
stories,
poems, art. Orodreth hopes to make an article about Orodreth, Beleg
hopes
to make an article about loyalty. Beleg reminded that we need
birth/death
dates in the Encyc where applicable.
Viruses:
Blizzard Support (Chad Jones)
suggested two good sites for removing Trojans:
Tauscan
MooSoft
Gaming:
D2X:
Gaming patch news in a
transcript from the Blizzard site:
Transcript
from Fan Site chat
Counter-Strike's Half-Life:
Arathorn-V said he's been trying
out "Sven Coop" and enjoyed it. This mod allows for cooperative
play.
Tolkien:
Turin's topic: Did Frodo actually
complete his quest.
Turin said that Frodo did not
complete
the quest, according to what he had heard from the Letters.
Others said JRRT kept changing
his mind.
Others said Frodo did not
complete
the quest directly, but did so indirectly due to the oath he'd made
Gollum
swear on the Precious.
Dark Age of Camelot Meeting
Report: by Irmo-(Valar) aka Yrmo
June 22, 2003 Sunday 3:30 pm ESDT, Percival/Hibernia
Members present:
Alatar/Alatarch, Gerontius Took, Irmo/Yrma (pres.),
Lungorthin/Raukov, Melkor/Morgothv, Turgon/Gondolinv.
Welcome to our new members:
Lashus, Jauncy, Pavender and Odernia!
Amnon is on holiday in the USA for two weeks and not near a
computer.
Irmo is working on a new ranking system which will soon be
mailed to all members.
Raukov is now the Valar character with the most RvR points.
Congratulations!
Fantura (tailor) has followed Yrma to the status of legendary
crafter, Ontius (imbues) and Austi (weapons) are now
seniors!
Guild Fund:
Donation of 400 g by Turgon!
Guild Hunt:
As Orome and Ettoip joined in, we went to Innis with
the
idea of hunting banshees. Alas, it took of time a bit to gather, and by
the
time we were set some had to leave again. So no banshees, but the far
darrigs
and dreamhances were fun enough though.
June 18, 2003
Letter from Draugluin:
I am merely writing to apologize for my
excessively long absence from the guild. Real life has been getting in
the way constantly, as I have a summer job and am helping my parents
refurbish their house so they can move. Just a funny circumstance of
life- I had more time for the guild when I was in school than I do now.
Well,
give the guild my best, and hopefully, I'll return to the guild soon.
-Draugluin Wolfsire
June 16, 2003
Blizzard Support recommended these programs, June 2003, to
handle
Trojan viruses that hackers use as backdoors to your computer, found at
these
sites:
Tauscan
MooSoft
June 15, 2003
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet,
Dark Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting 5pm ESDT,
East, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending: report by Thror
Members (12):
Aragorn-V@Azeroth,
Arathorn, Beleg, Bombur, Elrond, Eonwe/Fionwe, Erestor, Gwaihir,
Haldir,
Orodreth, Thror, Varda (presiding)
Over the Shoulder hellos (3): Eowyn,
Fangorn, Sauron
Visitors (2): Centuriate (friend of
Orodreth's, potential member), AoC-TyRaNiD@Azeroth (friend of
Aragorn's)
Discussion Board chat room: Eonwe
Membership News:
Quickbeam-V account has been stolen
by *leafieslover
who also came to the meeting as *1Lov3_v4rD4 so don't blame Quickbeam
for
that ugly language. If you squelch *leafieslover, the so-called
*Quickbeam-V
is also squelched.
Boromir visited his grandparents for the day
but emailed a hello to those at the meeting.
Gaffer, Alatar's son, is now playing in Dark
Age of Camelot as Gaffersong.
Gwaihir is hoping for a new computer soon.
Haldir will start school tomorrow, taking
Spanish
and band. Go for it, Haldir! This is also true for Beleg and a friend
who
would like to join.
Thingol is back to gaming. He earned his
Associate of Arts degree and has more time now.
Thror will have less time. He started his
new job at a video store. Congrats :)
Turgon had to miss the meeting but emailed.
Real
life got him. Also, he's having web and email problems since Swirve is
no
longer free. He is temporarily using thewouds@hotmail.com
Web News:
Nothing new reported.
Gaming News:
EverQuest: report
by Varda
Both Taglos/Aule
and Ulmo are at level 65!
Taglos is in Crusaders of Plilo,
Ulmo is in Alliance of Hope, Oropherv is in Beneficium Decem,
and Elberethv
is in Sacred Knights of Hearts. Sacred Knights is good for starting
characters
if you have any, and the others are good for high levels if you have
those.
Well of Souls: report by Orodreth
Orodreth-V is working on
a Middle-earth
world for the guild to play in, barely started at this point and he
could
use input from those interested. Well of Souls is a free rpg, created
by
Dan Samuel. It is 2.5D, meaning 2D with shadows. It allows 15-20 people
on
one server together, as if it were one game. A character can move
between
servers using the same world, but not between those using different
worlds.
A character maxes at 88. It has a guild system including uniforms. WoS
has
no central chat area, so emails and Battlenet and maybe the DB are
being
used to help co-ordinate. WoS has a small page listing members and some
info
about guilds. The zip file is about 10MB, with each added world about
5MB
more. Data is stored on your computer. Many hack detects. No
compatiblilty
issues between servers.
WarCraft: Frozen Throne: report by Eonwe
Out in a few weeks. "Clan" name will be Valar Guild.
Tag
will probably be Vala, as it prevents confusion with other V guilds,
and
only 4 letters are allowed.
Tolkien:
Thror-(V) says the the Two Towers
movie video is due out in August!
Centuriate says the band, "Blind Guardian",
uses LotR references and has 3 CD's out.
Thror-(V)'s topic: What other wizards did great
deeds besides the constantly spoken of Gandalf and Saruman?
The brown wizard, Radagast, took care of
animals and plants, meant well.
The blue wizards, Alatar and
Pallando,
made cults in the East. After the fall of Sauron, it is to be hoped
they
used the cults to improve mankind, but it is not very likely.
Thror-(V)'s topic: Who got rid of the
Necromancer from the Hobbit?
Elrond-(V): The White Council
Gwaihir-(Valar): Frodo eventually.
The Necromancer was Sauron in
early
form. He moved from Mirkwood to Mordor once his Ringwraiths finished
setting
it up, making it appear as if he had been forced out.
Orodreth-(V)'s topic: The world we live in is in
what Age?
Speculation that an age is about
3,000
years. If is is 2 ages since Elessar's time, he reigned about 4000 BC.
Elrond-(V) guessed that we are
only 7/8 through the age starting with Elessar.
Others said we are still in the
Age of Man.
Erestor-(V)'s topic: If Turin had not been
cursed, he would have been a different kind of hero.
Speculation ensued.
(I missed who came up with this topic, Beleg or
Thror, perhaps) Bay of Balar refers to what?
It refers to the Isle of Balar, which is the
Sindarin
name for Tol Eressea, the island used as a boat to haul elves to
Valinor,
but which was stopped part-way in the bay and placed on a pillar under
the
water, grounding it.
Turin-(V)'s original elvish:
Lome tulin ar en nar laiqueni na
tampe ta,
nan ava anta ama ilya estel an aure
enteluva.
Nan ana nte man nar voronda i cala
selma calta i yonta
velice.
June 14, 2003
Turgon emailed that Swirve is no longer a
free
service, meaning his email etc will be shifting to a new home. His
temporary
email will be: thewouds@hotmail.com
June 11, 2003
Thingol is back gaming. He attained
his Associates of Arts!
Thror starts a new job tomorrow, the same
day as getting his driver's permit. Now that's brinksmanship
game-playing!
June 10, 2003
Boromir says hi to everybody! He'll be
missing
the meeting this upcoming Sunday for the pleasant reason that he'll be
spending
the day with his grandparents.
June 9, 2003
D2X:
Battlenet's comments on
the upcoming D2X patch and on how about removing hackers. Click here.
June 8, 2003
Sunday Meetings Battlenet,
Dark Age of Camelot:
Sunday Meeting Battlenet, 5pm
ESDT, East, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending: 15 + 2
Members: Aragorn, Arathorn, Bombur,
Bregalad/Quickbeam,
Eonwe/Fionwe, Feanor, Finglas/Leaflock, Finwe, Gwaihir, Haldir, Huan,
Lenwe,
Orodreth, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Visitor: mwhiteFG (friend of Turgon's),
LotR-Melkor-
Discussion Board: Eonwe
Member News:
Special kudos to Huan for excellent
botwork, keeping undesirables out of our meeting! Way to go!
Hello from Aule, as Taglos in EverQuest, who
was
chatting there with Varda just before the meeting. His StarCraft CD is
broken
and he no longer has D2 loaded, so he is having some difficulty
reaching
us on Battlenet. He hears fairly often from Oropher and Ulmo on
EverQuest.
Accounts: If your account is stolen,
immediately
change the passwords to your other accounts. Notify Varda so that the
intruder's
actions won't be thought of as yours. Notify Blizzard's support so they
can
get your account(s) back; Varda can help you with this if you are
uncertain
what to do. Don't let it go!
Web:
Bombur's pages: One
is Mendeleev's Miracle
and the other is the Uranium
Atom. Be sure to click on that uranium atom!
Turgon offered to help guild folk with HTML
scripting.
Gaming:
WC3: Eonwe
1.06 patch came out June 2. More
on Blizzard page.
D2X Tolkien mod: Arathorn
Arathorn and Lenwe have been
fighting the forces of Mordor.
Dungeons & Dragons: Turgon
Friday games still going, action
about
to get hairy at last. Some availability issues, some new players.
Dark Age of Camelot: Turgon
Mythic, which produces DaoC, has
a new patch.
Our Percival server was
designated,
"underpopulated", so massive numbers of new characters popped into
Hibernia.
They tend to be rude, crude, and uncouth, but our group is now sifting
through
some of them for the gold nuggets, much as we do on Bnet.
Tolkien:
Varda's topic: What was the purpose of
the eagles?
Gwaihir: Manwe needed no spies
Eonwe: Manwe's representatives in Middle-earth, much
like Yavanna's Ents and Aule's Dwarves.
Turgon: Eagles lived with Manwe on Taniquetil, sent
them to Middle-earth after the Noldorin Exile.
Eonwe: Eagles lived in mountains guarding
Angband/Utumno before moving to the Ecchoriath.
Turgon quoted from the Sil, "Of the Return of the
Noldor",
from the section after Fingon found Maedhros hanging high on the
outside
of the wall of Thangorodrim. His prayer was answered swiftly by
Manwe,
to whom all birds are dear, with an eagle who took Fingon up to the
rescue
of Maedhros.
Discussion shifted to where the dwarf kingdoms
were located.
Discussion shifted several times and,
unfortunately,
I didn't manage to jot all of them down, but another one was an attempt
to
discuss elven magic. The attempt as usual was blocked by
semantics
about what "magic" means, but went forward better after switching to
the
word "power". All sorts of power use came under discussion,
including fire, the combination effect of Manwe and Varda on sight and
hearing, song, and items.
June 6, 2003
Bombur put up some pages you might enjoy. One
is Mendeleev's Miracle
and the other is the Uranium
Atom.
June 5, 2003
Accounts:
If anyone
else is having a problem with an account being stolen, please email Varda.
Guild tag:
Ancalagon reports that there is
another
guild using the -V after their names, so don't be confused. The guild
is
called Xvelocity.
June 2, 2003
WC3:
Patch 1.06 is up! More on Blizzard's page.
June 1, 2003
Sunday on Bnet
and DAoC:
Sunday Meeting: Battle.net,
East, 5:00 pm ESDT, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members: Beleg, Bombur, Caranthir,
Eonwe,
Erestor, Feanor, Finglas/Leaflock, Finwe, Gwaihir, Haldir, Huan, Thror,
Turgon,
Varda (presiding)
Visitor: Hal (joined after meeting as
Orodreth)
Discussion Board: Eonwe
Member News:
Orodreth,
Welcome to the Valar Guild! Meeting us as
*Hal on BroodWar, he found the Valar Guild from a link on the
Encyclopedia of Arda. He
has a group of friends he organized loosely into a clan called Lord of
Elves
on West, but came to check us out and joined. He is now online 7 days a
week,
about 16 hours a day. He's 13, from Minnesota in the USA, CST. He
mostly
plays BroodWar, sometimes Well of Souls,
which is a free MMORPG 2.5D, very
open. He has AIM: Halhundo and MSN: Halhundo@aol.com and
thelifeof
dark@aol.com and ICQ and IRC which he did not give names for, not
used
as much. He's read the H, LotR, Sil, and part of UT. He prefers the Sil
over
the LotR. Eonwe and Varda tested, perfect score. Orodreth's favorite
character in Lotr,
which he says could be different next time he's asked, is Faramir. He
said
Faramir is the kind of person he's always liked. He's not in the
spotlight,
but he can pull off some great things in need. He's the silent guy who
you
make fun of, then get whupped by.
Eol can now come online one night a
week at his parents' house. Watch for him!
Gwaihir works every other Sunday at meeting
time.
Thror will be out of school June 12.
Web:
Links:
Losse Alqua
- fan site starting up.
Lord of
the Rings - Download of the Fellowship's original movie promo.
Page by Arathorn-(V)
Encyc:
Haldir's paper on the Return
of the King, now under Special Papers. He wrote this for school and
made an A.
Gaming:
WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne, should be
on sale in stores July 1! This will be for multiple languages.
Pre-sales hit gold.
We intend to start a guild
branch
there and need to grab our name as quickly as possible. If you think
you
might be playing this game, email Eonwe so he can call you to the
special
meeting to create the guild. We will need at least 10 members. More
news
on Blizzard.
D2X:
Patch due out
between June 9 and 12. Report from Gwaihir.
BroodWar:
We have a hacker with a
bad case
of garbage mouth. He has hacked at least the accounts of Bombur-V,
Finglas-V
and Quickbeam-V. He is a real-life acquaintance of poor Finglas. If you
hear
a member using disgusting language, please don't be upset with him as
it
is probably this creepazoid. Please report any such stolen accounts to
Varda
and/or Huan. We are taking steps. You personally can type /squelch
*name
which will stop his messaging you for that time on Bnet. In channel
Clan
ValarGuild, he generally can't enter if the bot is present. If he finds
a
way in, any member can ban him. I reported his continuing harassment
and
theft to the Powers That Be of Blizzard.
Tolkien:
Haldir's Topic: Did Merry or Eowyn really
kill the Witch-King?
Varda quoted from Return of
the King,
"Battle of Pelennor Fields". Shows Eowyn kills the beast the Witch-King
rode,
Merry distracted and brought the Witch-King's head in range for Eowyn
to
remove. Thus they were both needed, but Eowyn actually did the deed.
Finwe quoted Glorfindel's
prophecy from Return of the King, Appendix A, subsection iv,
"Gondor and the House of Anarion".
Then we moved to quotes that make us feel good:
Haldir quoted from the Hobbit's
opening: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
Turgon quoted from Fellowship,
Bilbo's gift to Lobelia of spoons, she took the point and the spoons.
Serious Valar moment quote from Turgon:
Unfinished Tales, "Of Tuor
and His Coming to Gondolin". Tuor is revealed as the messenger of Ulmo.
Sunday Meeting on
Dark Age of Camelot, report by Irmo-(Valar), the italicized are
notes added by Varda:
Valar-DaoC Report Meeting June 1, 2003
Percival server, Mag Mell, 3:30 PM EDST
Members present:
Ettoip (Gorgenhad Oldbuck), Gerontius Took,
Gondolin (Turgon), Raukov (Lungorhin), Yrma (Irmo)
(presiding)
Discussing Guild hunts:
The age difference between main characters is rather
large,
which prevents well-formed groups. Should we all make starting
characters,
specifically meant to hunt together at the Guild Hunts? Obvious
advantages,
but these would disappear when members do not frequently attend the
Guild
Hunts (the age difference would soon grow again). Besides it will take
a
long time before such a group could gain funds for the Guild. Best
would
be if members would attend frequently: then we could form two or
three
groups of different age.
Recruiting:
Long time since we had new members. The entree test
is
sometimes considered a reason not to apply for Valar. It is indeed a
procedure
unheard of in DaoC (either invite a player or not, but test?).
Conclusion: The entree test does not have to be
taken
right away. People can enter at Guild Rank 9, to see if they feel good
with
us (and we with them). If all goes right, people will want full
membership
(test), if not they will want to leave anyway.
At higher season all nice people are already in one
Guild
or another. Could be an argument to do Guild Hunts with young
characters
(meet yet unguilded nice people).
Next Saturday
(June 7), 3:30 PM EDST, will be held a Tolkien
chat
in Mag Mell (postponed from May 17). Gerontius is organizing this. The
membership
will be notified by mail as well.
Guild Fund:
Previous (May 25): 741 g
Since then:
Stipendia spellcrafting 666 g
(Ontius) and weaponcraft 440 g (Austi).
Donations:
50 g Gondolin
150 g Rauko
900 g Yrma.
New (June 2): 747 g
Guild Hunt:
We tried for Darkness falls, but it closed as we
headed there.
Went to Treibh Caillte instead, with Gondolin,
Ontius, Fedelone and Maigan. (two enchanter + two bards)
top
May 29, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Language section added.
Currently has
Quenya and Sindarin role-playing phrases. Needs your help. Would prefer
words
and phrases to show research that says where the info is in the books,
for
instance, Silmarillion's Appendix.
Links page:
Lord of
the Rings - Download of the Fellowship's original movie promo.
Page by Arathorn-(V)
Listed in Links page under Tolkien/ Movies
May 28, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Haldir wrote "Impression
of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King". He made an A on this for
school and it is now included under Special Papers.
Repaired Danish paper "Kampen
mellem Godhed og Ondskab i Lord of the Rings" links, so you should
be able to access it now. English translation underway, which he says
is very difficult.
May 27, 2003
Eol now has limited computer access one day a
week at his parent's house and hopes to be gaming with us again.
Welcome back. :)
May 26, 2003
Links page:
Losse Alqua
- fan site starting up. Articles on Tolkien, elvish, the books, the
movies.
Site hosted by Rem Tolkienna, made by dunadan JHS, aided by Orodreth
Elensar,
Grigory Deepdelver, Shorty, and Mayur. Listed under
Tolkien/ Groups, Fan Sites
May 25, 2003
Sunday meetings: Battle.net,
DaoC
Sunday Meeting Battle.net 5pm
ESDT, East, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members: Arathorn, Beleg, Haldir, Gwaihir,
Turin
Late - "aftermeeting" held about 2 hours after
regular
meeting. Eonwe/Fionwe, Haldir, Turgon, Varda, with Beleg dropping by
before
he had to leave. Gaming afterwards in D2X included Eonwe/Kalmo,
Erestor,
Haldir, Turgon, Varda, with a howdy from Turin who was playing BroodWar.
Membership News: 147 members
Eonwe had a birthday last Saturday
and is now 21. He had family business during the regular meeting time,
coming late to the meeting.
Fangorn had a birthday today, 50th, and the
family including Varda went out to celebrate, coming late to the
meeting.
Gildor Inglorion, Elros' brother, is back in
D2X.
Finarfin is back for D2X, has been buried
under schoolwork and other rl.
Fingon has internet again and hopes to be
around.
Khamul's computer is working again. He's
playing Shadowbane now, rather than WC3.
Mablung has been grounded a long time,
contacted us by the Discussion Board, and expects to be returning to us
soon.
Gorgenhad Oldbuck/Ettoip and Merleau
of
the DaoC players passed their Tolkien tests for full membership in the
guild
on May 6, Merleu has yet to choose a guild name.
Web News:
Handy Elvish Words and Phrases has
new contributions
from Irmo and Tuvo, although unintentionally. Now all we have to do is
get
it online and see who will be handling the webwork. Varda has a start
on
it but Tuvo may be handling it, lightening the load.
Gaming News:
D2X, BW, WC3, DaoC, and EQ seem to be the
most
popular games at the moment with the group, or at least the ones that
contact
each other.
Khamul mentioned Shadowbane as his current favorite.
Azaghal was playing Planetarion and Baldur's Gate 2
(firewall problem)
Bain plays NeverWinter Nights, as well as D2X and WC3
Remember to use our Bnet playing channel and
meetings
to help you contact others who would like to change suits and meet you
for
a game. Also tell us about the new games you enjoy during the Games
section
of the meeting (whisper the chair to take your turn speaking; nobody
wants
to hear just the chair!).
Meeting report
Valar/DaoC Sunday May 25, 2003 Mag Mell, 3:30 PM EDST Report by
Irmo-(Valar)
Members present:
Alatarwarden, Amnon, Ettoip, Gerontiustook, Yrma
(pres.)
Tolkien:
Irmo (Yrma) has assembled a list of Quenya
role-playing
expressions. All members have received the list by mail, also published
on
the EZBoard.
Alliance:
Amnon (Tuvo) has written a story by which we have
introduced
our Guild to the Anam na Eireann Alliance. It has met with courteous
response.
Guild Fund:
Old (may 18 ) : 261 g
Since then:
Donation Gerontius Took: 100 gp
Donation Amnon 200 gp
Donation Turgon 80 gp
Donation Ettoip 100 gp
New: 741 gp!
Cheers to the gracious donators!
Guild Hunt:
After these announcements and their discussion
members
present joined in a hunt in Darkness Falls. We met with a member of
Anam
na Eireann, with which we had a jolly good time.
May 24, 2003
Announcement:
Tolkien Discussion on Dark Age of Camelot, 3:30pm
ESDT. Held in mag mall, same as normal meetings. This is the second
trial
meeting, to determine if enough people will show to make this a
continuing
DaoC guild feature.
May 23, 2003
Varda's back (that's me). That means
Fangorn,
Eowyn, Sauron, ex-Fingon aka Gotta_Scratch, and Meriadoc are also back,
ready
to come out from under computer withdrawal. Updates from the mass of
emails
are listed below according to their dates.
To prevent writing this same letter over 200 times
(we
have folks who aren't listed on the full Members page), here it is now:
My mother died and needed to be buried on the other
end of Texas in Alpine with her parents and brother.
Meriadoc took Eowyn and Varda in his plane and we
had
adventures flying around a cloud over Ozona, which was loaded with
hail,and
watching jets detour it above us at about 60,000 feet leaving big L's
in
the sky. We had haze all across Texas due to smoke blowing in from
Mexico,
where they were doing their yearly burn-off before planting. Below us
in
Ozona, golfball-sized hail and rocks from a cliff hit Eowyn's car, in
which
Fangorn, Sauron, and ex-Fingon were traveling, causing less damage than
gravel
from trucks. Past Ft. Stockton where there is little traffic, the
transmission
in Eowyn's car self-destructed so that ex-Fingon (whose turn it was to
drive)
had no brakes but pulled neatly onto the shoulder and stopped. The car
had
to be towed to Odessa and required a week to repair since the only shop
handling
the warranty (only on the transmission, not motel, towing, or rental
car)
was short three people, all on medical leave. We
had a nifty time flying over the end of the Rocky Mountains to land at
the
airport in Alpine, then rented a car and picked up the family stranded
on
the road between Ft. Stockton and Alpine. Meriadoc
never gets away from doing search and rescue missions!
This time also being Fangorn's two-week vacation, we
took
a rental car and visited with Fangorn's parents in Plains. Meriadoc,
Eowyn,
and ex-Fingon flew to Plains airport, the airport's first visitor in a
long
time, as they are used to crop dusters and cloud-seeders, so a bunch of
people
came running out to watch him land. We also visited Fangorn's uncle and
aunt
in Lubbock and, in the same town, enjoyed seeing X-Men 2 along with our
nephew
and visiting with his wife.
On the way home in Eowyn's repaired car, we took a
side-trip to walk through the Caverns
of Sonora
for the two-mile tour. It's a warm cave at 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with
helictites
including the only known "butterfly", a double helictite pictured on
their
site. It has pools so pure, testing at 99.0%, that what appears to be
about
3 feet deep is actually 6 and 8 feet deep, reflecting back with a
blueness
much as the sky does although completely clear.
May 21, 2003
Finarfin emailed. He's been working very
hard on
schoolwork and other real life, but is able to draw breath again and is
back
with us, hearing the call of D2X!
May 18, 2003
Khamul emailed. He's got his computer working
again, but instead of playing WC3, he found himself addicted to
Shadowbane! Have fun, Khamul!
Sunday Meeting: Bnet,
DaoC:
Battle.net 5pm ESDT, East, channel
Clan ValarGuild. Report from Eonwe.
Attendance:
Bombur (after meeting), Caranthir (popped
by),
Eonwe (presiding), Feanor (after meeting), Haldir (after meeting),
Tulkas,
Turin, Turgon
Membership:
Gwaihir sent his regards, had to work during
the meeting time.
Chat:
Tulkas told a memory about the early days of
the guild.
Meeting report
Valar/DaoC Sunday May 18, 2003 Mag Mell, 3:30 PM EDST Report by
Irmo-(Valar)
Members present:
Alatarwarden, Amnon, Ettoip, Gerontiustook,
Gondolin, Merleau, Raukov, Yrma (pres.)
Membership:
Last week we saw the return of Amnon, this week we
saw the return into our midst of Valinduil/Argon. Hurray!
Web:
The meeting minutes will hence forward be printed on
the Valardaoc Homepage by Lungorthin. More power to him!
Tolkien:
Gerontius called attention to the Tolkien chat
saturday
24, 3:30 PM EDST. (NOTE: Later in the week it turned out that the chat
had
to be postponed because both Gerontius and Yrma have real life
obligations
at that date and time).
Many of us are presently experimenting with using a few elvish
expressions to embellish our (role)play
Alliance:
Amnon and Yrma will introduce the Valar Guild to the
Anam
na Eireann Alliance. The members present repeated their commitment to
choose
honor and gallant role-play above power and powerplay..
Tradeskills:
Amnon has posted a
list of available alchemy services on the EZBoard. Impressive indeed!
Be
sure to take a look there.
Guild Fund:
Spending: 666gp spellcrafting
and alchemy. Donations: Amnon (100 gp), Merleau (40 gp), Gerontius (100
gp),
Yrma (600 gp).
Guild Hunt:
After these announcements and their discussion
members
present joined in a hunt in the Coruscating Mines. We had a full group
all
Valar! The Mines were overcrowded, and we did not find any gallantry
there.
Looking for a place to hunt, we were soon prey ourselves and suffered a
few
deaths. Not much “exp and loot”, but a learnable adventure in more ways
than
one.
May 15, 2003
Turgon is back in DaoC, his account now
re-opened.
May 14, 2003
Tuvo/Amnon is back to DaoC, and we hope his
health will be good.
Argon/ Valinduil/ Isil is back to DaoC,
having managed to re-open his account.
May 12, 2003
Letter from Fingon:
At long last I have returned to the
world of internet and will be able to join once more with my brethren.
Fingon
Welcome back, Fingon! :)
May 11, 2003
Meetings:
Bnet:
Sunday Meeting
Battlenet East, 5pm ESDT, channel Clan ValarGuild. Report by Eonwe
Attending:
Beleg,
Eonwë/Fionwë(presiding), Gwaihir, Arathorn
Coming in during meeting: Turgon, Thror,
Haldir, Shagrat
Passing through :Fëanor, Caranthir
Membership News:
Varda will be away for
two weeks on family business. If you have something that
must be addressed immediately, feel free to e-mail me
(Eonwë).
Welcome to Gorgenhad Oldbuck, a friend of Angrod’s of
Melkor’s family (yes, we have almost entire
families in the
guild :}) He joins us from DAoC.
Draugluin sends
his regards, as he was attending the Mother’s Day Mass at the basilica at Notre Dame
with his
mother. What have you done for your
mother lately? :}
Irmo also sends
his regards via Turgon, who made it to the meeting and is apparently
now playing
DAoC :
Finwë was spotted by me in the
main channel when I did a /who command :}
Web News:
The DAoC page is
up under Lungorthin’s maintainence now.
Check it out :}
Irmo sent in a link for the
Tolkien Online Art Gallery :}
Eonwë (me :}) is looking for
images of the Two Lamps Iluin and
Ormal. I have seen the one of Iluin by Ted
Nasmith, and while it is nice, it is inadequate as it has no matching
Ormal
:} I need pictures of
matching quality (both
image and artistic). If one can be
found to match Nasmith’s work, that’s
great.
I am also looking for images of all the
Valar. These too must be of good
quality. I have images of Ulmo and Melkor, but
need ones of the
other Valar, as well as the “Lost Valar” such as Eonwë and Salmar if possible. Check out images of Ulmo and Melkor by
artists such as Ted Nasmith and you’ll have an idea of the
quality I’m
looking for. Thanks in advance for the help :}
Gaming News:
Blizzard has revealed some of their
intentions with the 1.10
patch. Check them out! They’re pretty cool :}
Tolkien Discussion:
Thror has been
reading the Silmarillion, and was inspired to ask, “What
happened to all the Balrogs between LotR and
the Sil?”
Chances are, most were slain in the War
of Wrath at the end of the First Age.
Two were killed in the Seige of Gondolin
(Gothmog Lord of Balrogs among them) and one is known to have survived
until the Third
Age (the Balrog of Moria).
A brief
discussion was
held on what the name of the Balrog of
Moria may have been. I suggested
perhaps calling him “Moria” after his
realm would suffice
similar to calling the Witch-King “Angmar” after his realm.
“Balrog” also works :}
Haldir asked “What happens to
Elves after death?” They go to the Halls
of Mandos and wait. From
there, they may eventually be
released into Valinor and given a new body.
DaoC:
no report currently available
May 10, 2003
Mablung contacted us by the Discussion Board
(#1165)
and hopes to be around again at meetings, after having been grounded a
long
time. His email is
DemonicHorde69@aol.com.
May 9, 2003
I'll be out of town for possibly the next two weeks
on family business. Check out Eonwe's Games page
for News meanwhile! Also watch for the new look he's planning to
put up and let him know how you like it! Happy gaming!
Eonwe is needing pictures of both the
Lamps, not just that one. He also needs pictures of all the Valar. If
you find any such, please email him the URL.
May 7, 2003
Pictures:
Irmo emailed us this link to Tolkien
pictures: Tolkien
Online: Gallery
May 6, 2003
Gorgenhad
Oldbuck, welcome to the Valar Guild!
He's a real life friend and colleague of Angrod's of the Melkor family.
He
plays DaoC, and has been playing with the group there as Ettoip before
passing
his test with Irmo and choosing a name.
May 5, 2003
The new DaoC page by
Lungorthin is up! Beautiful job by the White Balrog.
May 4, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet, East Realm, channel Clan
ValarGuild, 5pm ESDT
Attending (6): Arathorn, Draugluin, Eonwe, Gwaihir, Haldir,
Varda (presiding)
People who show up to meetings automatically have their names protected
from
being handed out to new members, as we are sure they are active. Even
just
a few minutes is enough if we have time to jot down your name.
Membership: 146
Arathorn, our newest member, said his "few
words".
Gwaihir has a new job and starts this Wednesday.
Tuvo is back from the hospital.
Web:
Valar Guild domain name (www.valarguild.org)
now
has links to make fewer clicks to find our way to the desired section.
DaoC web pages are currently found on the main Valar
Guild
index page, under Gaming/ Dark Age of Camelot. It has links to the EZ
Board
and the Camelot Herald.
Computer
Consulting Services, Arathorn's page, is now
on the Guild index under "Other". If yours isn't up, email the URL and
your
guild name to Varda.
Games Page: Eonwe has updated the links for the
mod page by V&K; Mod users page; Tourney info; Gaming News.
Gaming:
D2:Lord of Destruction:
is looking for a
programmer. Maybe you. They need one to help with the 1.10 patch.
The patch, among other things,
has
a new unique jewel, which causes a level 47 chain lightning blast all
around
you if you die.
D2: LoD Tolkien Mod:
Arathorn found that it
works to use batch files to switch between D2X and D2X-T.
World of WarCraft:
WoW now has 5 player races, with
the addition of the Night Elves.
The WoW beta should begin
somewhere
between August and October. If you get into it, feel free to use your
guild
name so other guild members can recognize you. Also email Varda to be
put
on the News so we can all go "woot!", and so other beta players know to
look
for you.
Tolkien:
We considered phrases for opening and closing
the meeting and may use:
"A star shines on the hour of our
meeting." - Varda-(Valar)
"Freely ye came and freely ye shall
depart." - Eonwe-(Valar)
We considered greetings.
"Pedo" is a Sindarin greeting,
used on the Gate of Moria to Hollin.
"Aiya" is the Quenya greeting,
used by Galadriel.
We mentioned how to say "friend". This tense problem
may
be why Gandalf had difficulty at first in understanding how to enter
Moria.
"Mellon" is singular, "Mellyn" is
plural.
"Mhellon" is the objective form
singular, "Mhellyn" is the objective form plural.
May 2, 2003
Arathorn,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
He found us while trying to locate the place to download the D2X
Middle-earth
mod. He started playing D2X a few weeks ago, but has played many other
games
including D2. He came in as Stryder5, also having Stryder55 and plays
daily
since he's been off work with a back injury. He just turned 40 so happy
birthday!,
and lives in Quebec, Canada. EST. He's read the H and LotR, first
chapters
of the Sil. Varda tested and he had a perfect score. He can be cajoled
into
using ICQ for an emergency, number 971456, but since he was hacked
through
it once, he's not happy with it. His home page is Computer Consulting Services.
Besides computer work, he did comedy sketches onstage a few years ago.
His
favorite character is Strider, for his mystery and his great treks in
the
wild. Also, Aragorn looked dangerous, like an anti-hero, but willing to
die
for the right reason as in his fight with the ringwraiths, like a hero.
World of WarCraft update, brought to
us by Eonwe-(Valar), copied from the Blizzard page:
World of Warcraft Update: THE NIGHT ELVES ARE IN!
It’s official: Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that the
Night Elves are now a playable race in World of Warcraft, our upcoming
massively multiplayer online role-playing game. See them for yourself
in these exclusive screenshots, which include glimpses of their
architecture and lands. For a thorough first look at this colorful
race, check out the current issue of GMR magazine, which goes on sale
in early May.
Also on sale in May, the latest issue of Computer Gaming World will
preview some of the features that we’ll be showing in greater detail at
the Electronic Entertainment Expo (May 14-16), including trade skills,
transportation, and the all-new Warlock character class.
We will be updating our World of Warcraft Web site with information
about the Night Elves and more soon, so check back often. And, for
those curious about when the World of Warcraft beta test will start,
we’ve recently added an item to our F.A.Q. about this.
top
April 28, 2003
Tuvo, welcome back from the hospital! May you
be back to swinging your sword vs gaming and real life soon.
Dark Age of Camelot
will be having a new main page. Since ex-Lindir, who was handling that,
left the
guild, the old link now goes to his new guild, Darkness Before Dawn. It
is friendly to Valar.
Lungorthin-(Valar) will be the new DaoC branch web
person when he again has access
to a computer. For now, the EZ Board is still
operating, as is the Camelot
Herald.
They are both on the Valar Guild index page under Gaming/Dark Age of
Camelot.
The list of players so as to understand the Camelot Herald report is on
the
EZ Board /Introductions /Member
List
. Meeting reports, written by Irmo/Yrmo, were on the EZ Board's
"Announcements"
(March 10) and then moved to EZ Board's "General" (March 31, April 20).
April 27, 2003
Sunday Meeting: Battlenet,
Dark Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting: Battle.net's
East Realm, channel Clan ValarGuild, 5pm EDST
Report from Eonwe:
Attendence:
Members: Gwaihir, Turgon, Draugluin,
Eonwë(presiding), Lenwë, Caranthir, Feanor, Haldir
After Meeting: Bombur, Varda
Membership:
1 new member this week: Lenwë
Lenwë's few words:
"Found the Guild looking for ME mod players, e-mailed Varda and visited
a bit. Came to the meeting Last week, took the test, and that's
how I got here.
20 years old from California, first fell in love w/ Tolkien's works
when I was a junior in high school."
Web News: none
Gaming News:
D2X Tolkien Mod:
Reported by Gwaihir- "Varda,
Lenwë and I played a Quest for 3 in the ME mod. No record,
but hey! Great fun
We discovered a very annoying bug concerning tomes. They were
reduced in size from 2 inv boxes to 1, but still take up 2."
Lenwë added: "Varda and I had problems with the
Fëanor's Cube when joining another game. It
disappeared. When I went to get mine again in the Halls of the
Dead, I found all my stuff was still in my cube."
Eonwë and Draugluin report that we have never
experienced this problem. My tomes work just fine, and so does my
cube. My first suggestion was to make sure the filepath was
correct. It should look similar to this :
"C:/Program Files/Diablo 2/Game.exe" -direct -txt
Remember also that the mod is only playable on Open
and Single Player, never on realms. These things being correct
and noted, my only other suggestion is to try reinstalling the mod
(deleting it from your diablo 2 directory then reinstalling it) or at
the very extreme reinstalling Diablo 2 in its entirety. Hopefully
just reinstalling the mod helps.
Tolkien:
Gwaihir tells us a friend of his has written a big
paper on how the movies differ from the books.
Topic: Fëanor noticed that we discussed
the Blue Wizards at last week's meeting. He wished us to repeat
some of what we said, more specifically whether we think Alatar and
Pallando caused some problems in the Fourth Age.
Many thought it was possible. Speculation that
they would've caused Eldarion, Elessar's son, problems during his
reign. Some mention of the armies sent to deal with the Eastern
and Southern foes left from WotR, led by Elladan and Elrohir.
Some discussion on orcs and their dwindling. I
suggested that the Orcs, being originally Elves, would suffer from the
same fading as the Elves (perhaps a good discussion for next week).
Organizational note from Varda:
On who chairs the meeting, the current set-up is
Varda,
then Eonwe. The other Valar are unable to attend the meeting at that
time
but would have been next. So our third chair is the Maia Gwaihir who
shows
up regularly, is familiar with the proceedings, and has shown himself
to
be good at handling the channel. We may be having him do some chair
training
in the future.
April 21, 2003
Tip from Gwaihir for messaging on Bnet: Your
friend
list is numbered. Instead of typing the whole name, use just the number
this
way, if your friend is number 8: /w %f8 Aiya!
Lenwe,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Lenwe has visited and emailed with us for the past year as direwolv in
D2X,
although he has mostly been playing on West. He is 20, from California
in
the USA, PST. He plays Diablo 1, Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction, and the
D2
LoD Tolkien mod. He has CounterStrike but his computer isn't up to
playing
it. We all know that feeling! He uses MSN messenger as
direwolf_27@hotmail.com
. He's read the H, LotR, Sil and part of BoLT 2. His favorite character
is
Legolas, not because of the movie, but because direwolv started playing
a
MUD seven years ago as an elf ranger and has identified with such
characters
ever since. He came to the meeting yesterday. Today we played the
Tolkien
mod with him.
Quest for Three, Tolkien mod Tourney game.
The team was of Gwaihir, Lenwe, and Varda. Scored 20. This did not beat
the
record of 22 by Beleg, Glaurung, and Turgon back at the Fifth
Anniversary,
but was great fun!
After we got our characters started with the Quest
game,
we continued to play for hours. We learned about the Tome of Town
Portal
bug. The book in the mod appears to be shrunk to one space, potions pop
into
the space just fine. But the books remember each other as the old size
of
two spaces, so the tomes must have a "space" left between them or the
character
is frozen. To escape, alt + tab to the task bar and use the task
manager
to close the game. Then return. A disappeared book may return on
re-entry.
Gold also put in a re-appearance on re-entry.
April 20, 2003
Happy Easter!
Meetings: Battlenet,
Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battle.net,
5pm ESDT, East Realm, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending: (many sent regards, said they had Easter
family things they needed to do)
Members: Alatar, Aragorn, Eonwe,
Gwaihir, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Visitor: direwolv
Discussion Board: Eonwe
Web:
Collecting info for a page on Handy Elvish
Words and Phrases, not yet uploaded, but started. Email Varda
Elatan's Member page has not been updated
for a while. We suspect comp problems.
Gaming:
D2X Tolkien Mod:
We're locating people who want to
play.
Direwolv, Gwaihir, Varda, and Eonwe are interested. Eonwe has to wait
for
his new computer. Direwolv suggested another way to switch between
regular
and mod play, but it takes a fair
bit of room on the hard drive. Very fast. Install D2X twice, including
connecting
for Bnet patches, then make one the mod. Have two icons on the desktop,
one for mod and one for regular.
DaoC:
Alatar and Turgon dropped by. They said they were in
a
cave waiting for a rez during the Sunday Valar DaoC raid.
Tolkien:
Varda-(Valar) How did Tolkien use the
idea of rebirth in the LotR?
Listing his uses took a good half hour without even
going
into any of them in depth! Then we digressed into what probably would
have
happened to the Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, after the end of the
War
of the Ring.
Sunday Meeting Dark Age of Camelot
3:30pm ESDT, Hibernia on the Percival server.
Report from Irmo-(Valar):
Meeting report
Sunday april 20, 2003
Members present:
Alatar/Alatarv, Angrod/Aurgus, Ettoip, Gerontius
Took/Gerontiustookv,
Irmo/Yrma, Melkor/Morgothv, Merleau, Turgon/Turgonv.
A great attendance on this Easter Sunday!
Alatar and Gerontius
received their emblemed cloak and shining armour for reaching 20th
season
with their first characters today. Congratulations!
We discussed the possibility of joining a befriended Guild -
Lema en Estela
- in a renown alliance in the future. Irmo and Melkor will do some
research
and chats to explore.
After the meeting tradeskill services were exchanged. Then we
all joined
together in a hunt in the dungeon Treibh Caillte and had a jolly good
time
at it
April 17, 2003
We may be starting a page on handy elvish
phrases.
If any of you would like to contribute, please email Varda and include
references.
Letter from Feanor: Sindarin for Thank you
Well my searches have been fruitful! Now I have not taken apart the words yet, but I found a website that had quotes from The Two Towers movie. One of them had "Hannon le". That is thankyou in Sindarin. I assume "Hannon" means thank and "le" means you. I hope this comes of use and let me know if you need anymore phrases or etc.
Namárië,
Fëanáro
April 16, 2003
Letter from Feanor: Quenya for Thank you
I have taken up a search on "thankyou" in Quenya. Now I am not suer this is right, but this is what I got. Based on information from our own Quenya page and Ardalambion, I have deduced that thankyou that is courteous would be "Hantalyë" or just "Hantal". These are both hypothetcial, but I will explain how I got them. On Beren's High Elven Page, "hanta-" is a root meaning thank. It is from "hantalë" meaning thanksgiving. Now on the Ardalambion site and the Beren's site, the suffix "lyë" means familiar you. Now I guess a thankyou to somone that is familiar would be "hantaccë". The suffix "-ccë" being you formal. As for the Sindarin thankyou, I have not begun searching because Quenya is my favorite . Well I hope this information can be of some use. When I find the Sindarin equivalent to thankyou, I will let you know.
Namárië,
Fëanor
April 13, 2003
Sunday Meeting Battlenet, East Realm, 5pm EDST,
channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members: Beleg, Caranthir, Curufinwe,
Eonwe, Gwaihir, Haldir, Huan, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Early: Lungorthin dropped by briefly to let
us know he exists, although grounded for the present. It's tough being
a balrog.
Visiting: CorsairOfUmbar (would like to
join, friend of Beleg's and Haldir's), alonebymyself (briefly),
fatman84 (fast pop in and away)
Membership:
Gerontius Took is ill. May he feel
better soon.
Tuvo/Amnon of DaoC has been back and forth
from the hospital. Our best wishes attend him.
Web:
Links page:
Middle-earth Mythology
- a not-Encyclopedia and not-Discussion Board allowing readers to click
on a name to add information and comments, whether from the books or
movies,
with or without research. It also lets the reader add characters. This
can
be quite a bit of fun, although not particularly reliable. He has a
link
to both the Encyclopedia and Annals. Page made and suggested by Morten
Goodwin
Olsen.
Gaming:
WC3:
Curufinwe reports that he is new
come to the game of WC3. Have fun!
Eonwe reports that the WC3 map
contest ended today.
SC/BW:
Eonwe reports the new patch 1.10
is
out. You'll notice a short, automatic download if you don't have it
already.
D2:LoD aka D2X:
Eonwe reminds us that Tom
Bombadil's Trading
Board
is available to help pass along unwanted piles of mathoms (spare
items).
It might also be handy for rpgers, such as EQ and DaoC members. Be sure
to
list your game and server if on an rpg.
AD&D:
Turgon reports that the AD&D
gamers
were unable to meet the last two Fridays, but should be going again
this
Friday. Email him if you would like to enter before it has gotten far
into
this game. The group meets on MSN, 8pm EST. His web page is Turgon's Tolkien Site.
See Online AD&D Game. Current players are Gerontius, Gwaihir,
Cirdan, Turgon, and Meatloaf.
Tolkien chat:
Topic 1:
Curufinwe-(V): What is "Thank
you" in Quenya elvish? Sindarin would also be good to know.
We would like to set up a page of handy elvish
phrases. Please email them to Varda
with your reference, translation, and the language the phrase is in.
Topic 2: (abbreviated notes)
Varda-(Valar): In "The Hobbit", why did
Gandalf choose Bilbo Baggins instead of a Brandybuck or Took?
Eonwe-(Valar): A Took would not have been so
cautious.
Turgon-(V): Bilbo's wits and childhood dreams of
adventures.
Bilbo only was cautious because he had changed, which nearly ruined
Gandalf's
plans.
Gwaihir-(Valar): Had he picked someone who was more
adventurous
naturally, might not have worked as well. Bilbo dreamed of adventures
but
wasn't adventurous...sort of. Someone adventurous would not have had
the
caution to succeed.
Eonwe-(Valar): Good old Bilbo and his plain hobbit
sense.
Varda-(Valar): The Valar seemed to have chosen Bilbo
through Gandalf. Is this why they picked him also?
Haldir-(V): A Took or Brandybuck may have carelessly
died before the quest was finished.
Gwaihir-(Valar): Could have been because of Frodo.
Mandos
had some insight into the future. and would have known Frodo needed the
guidance
of his adventure-tested uncle. Also, they were influenced by Gandalf's
high
opinion.
Varda: and mithril coat.
Turgon-(V): Bilbo's torll adventure resulted in
finding
Glamdring and Orcrist. Also, he made a delay in the Battle of Five
Armies.
Varda-(Valar): Aye, he affected the outcome of that
battle, including the peace.
(At this point, Varda/me had to leave, hospital
called.)
April 9, 2003
Links page:
Middle-earth Mythology
- a not-Encyclopedia and not-Discussion Board allowing readers to click
on
a name to add information and comments. It also lets the reader add
characters.
He has a link to both the Encyclopedia and Annals. Page made and
suggested
by Morten Goodwin Olsen.
April 6, 2003
Daylight Savings Time starts in the US. Our
meeting on Bnet will be 5pm ESDT, which was 4pm EDT, so it's an hour
earlier for those not changed.
I have visitors, as my mother has double pneumonia
and people need a place to stay while seeing her. I will try to make
the meeting, maybe bring in a visitor with luck. No luck, didn't make
it back from the
hospital early enough. Thank you, Eonwe, for chairing the meeting!
Sunday Meeting Battle.net 5pm ESDT Meeting
minutes from Eonwe:
Attendence: Tulkas, Gwaihir, Eonwë
(presiding), Turgon, Haldir
Coming in during meeting: Huan via Valarguild, Elrond, Fëanor
Coming in After meeting: Varda (:})
Alatar
Guests: alonebymyself, fatman85, Cheese
Membership: 146
Gandalf was removed from the Guild for violating our Code of
Conduct. (Some minor discussion of our Code of Conduct and what
it allows followed.)
Varda had to miss the meeting because she was visiting her mother
who is sick.
Haldir reports Beleg had to miss the meeting due to Disneyland :}
Web: The Pages were down for some reason. For
some other reason, I could not access the Yahoo DB.
Note from Varda: Alatar accidentally deleted
his
folder which contained my folder which held the guild pages. I have
backup
files, Alatar set up the server so I could put them up (during the
meeting
when he heard we had a problem), humor page pictures I didn't have were
sent
in by Elros. We are operational again. Email if you spot where I
missed!
I also put up a new page to handle many emails: "Joining the
Valar Guild".
Note from Varda: DaoC:
Lungorthin is now handling the DaoC web pages. Lindir is letting us
keep the EZ Board
Gaming:
Gerontius is now playing Dark Age of Camelot.
Turgon tells us he hopes to be getting DAoC soon.
Tolkien chat:
From Tulkas- Tulkas told us he had seen
on one of those entertainment shows that many movies, including Return
of the King, were being rushed out sooner than originally planned due
to the earlier date for the Oscars, which are set in January of next
year. This sparked his question:
"Do you think the 3rd movie will be affected by an earlier than
planned release date?"
Most seemed to agree it would not affect it much, and discussion
diverged into aspects of the movies and books.
After this was exhausted we ended up in a series of
comments that led to another discussion :}
April 1, 2003
Melkor, welcome back from vacation!
Balin, welcome back to you too! Balin now
has a
new computer and finds WC3 addictive. He's also back on D2X aka D2:LoD
with
much less lag, also thanks to the new computer.
top
March 30, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Bnet,
DaoC
Bnet: Eonwe
chaired. Varda was painting her house with a time limit problem.
Sunday Meeting: 5pm EST Report of
Bnet Minutes from Eonwe
Attendenace:
Gil-Galad, Draugluin, Tulkas, Gwaihir, Eonwë (presiding)
After-meeting: Erestor
Web News:
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Kampen mellem Godhed og Ondskeb i
Lord of the Rings by Nicki T. Hansen, who is working on the English
translation
Encyclopedia- "Ungoliant" by
Turgon
Links:
Tolkien Music List: all recorded
or composed Tolkien inspired music
Games:
Beta Testers for WC3:TFT are Elros, Boromir,
and Gorbag
WC3 Map Contest
Tolkien Chat: none
DaoC:
Gandalf has been removed from the Valar Guild
for
continuous breaking of the Code of Conduct and guild mission statement
in DaoC, even
after repeated warnings. This was agreed upon by the Council after
evidence
was presented and with a great deal of discussion.
In DaoC: Lindir and Aredhel, full members,
quit
the guild over the discord with Gandalf. Nireis also left. Lindir and
Nireis
are setting up a new guild, friendly with the Valar guild.
March 27, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Papers: "Kampen
mellem Godhed og Ondskab i Lord of the Rings" by Nicki T.
Hansen, aka GWiZ. He is working on an English translation from the
Danish now.
WC3: Eonwe reports news
from the Blizzard page, contest
starts today!
Warcraft III Multiplayer Map Contest
Attention map designers. The opportunity to have
your multiplayer maps included in the retail version of Warcraft III:
The Frozen Throne has arrived. The final Contest winners will have
their map added to The Frozen Throne CD-ROM, along with a grand prize
package that includes a signed copy of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne,
inclusion in the game’s online credits and more.
Click here for
further details on the contest -- which will be ending on April 11th --
and click here
to read the official rules. Good Luck!
Beta testers: Elros
reports that he too is a beta tester for Frozen Throne! Elros, Boromir,
and Gorbag are those we know of, for those asking how to meet
each other on the beta and need names for the friend list. Go guys!!
Boromir uses Boromir(V) in the beta. Aim
MadHattaMayer
, Msn shire12@abe.midco.net , Emailed from:
shotgun225@abe.midco.net
Elros beta tester in the second wave.
Emailed from: iamthewaltrus@hotmail.com
Gorbag Emailed from: gorbag@swirvemail.com
March 25, 2003
Boromir, congrats on being accepted into the
beta test for WarCraft 3's Frozen Throne! Have a great time! Here's his
letter:
Can u give me the accounts that some of the valar use if
they have the
beta.i would like to play with them. I use Boromir(V) and where
can i find
peoples msn and aim. I dont know where to look it up. Or if you
could just
add me my aim is MadHattaMayer msn is shire12@abe.midco.net
Email is:shotgun225@abe.midco.net
thats mine shires my dads. just msn is
under his thing.
Namrie,
Boromir
Links page: Tolkien Music List -
all
the recorded or composed Middle-earth inspired music he could find,
even
listing bands just for having Tolkien-related names.: by Chris Seeman
March 24, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Powers:
"Ungoliant",
by Turgon-(V)
March 23, 2003
Sunday Meetings Battle.net,
Dark Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battle.net,
East realm, 5pm EST, channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members: Alatar, Eonwe, Beleg,
Caranthir, Feanor, Glorfindel, Gwaihir, Haldir, Imrahil, Khamul, Thror,
Varda (presiding)
After-chat: Oropher, Tulkas/Astaldo,
Turin, others.
Briefly spotted: K4th/Elenwe
Visitors: Turin(AoI), Cronos
Membership: 147 on Members page by Elatan
Eonwe was operating from his friend's
computer to reach the meeting. Thank you, kindly friend!
Khamul is having internet connection problems, but
managed to come to the meeting via laptop.
Tulkas has found a way back onto D2X, even making it
to
the meeting! He hopes to be able to upgrade the necessary things so as
to
go back into EQ in the future.
Imrahil is back! He says he has been playing in
Europe with the Greeks, mostly in BroodWar's Lost Temple.
Gerontius Took is very active now in DaoC.
Web:
DaoC:
Lindir has set up the website on what should now be a stable location,
and
has decided to stick with the EZBoard forum. Fine job!
Gaming:
AD&D (Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons text game): Turgon reporting
Characters have been started,
with
a short run at playing to try them out. Since it's still early, you can
easily
join up as well.
Play is Friday in MSN, starting
around 6-7 to 12 EST.
The story is recorded afterwards
to Turgon's page.
WoW (World of WarCraft rpg):
Eonwe needs email from you if you
are
planning to join this group, so that he can begin the administration
needed.
Later is fine too, but this could be a big help. Khamul has volunteered
to
help.
WC3 Frozen Throne:
Gorbag is beta testing and found
the
info showing how to make a channel and guild set-up as it is currently
figured.
The clans/guilds will be cleared after the beta testing and the regular
gaming
clans will then set up.
Eonwe is our chosen chieftain,
co-ordinating
the project and paperwork. When the game starts, we will have to act
fast
to grab our name. At the meeting, Gwaihir and Khamul
volunteered to help Eonwe.
Email Eonwe if you're also interested in helping. Also, we will need a
group
of us gathered at the same time to take the guild/clan name.
DaoC (Dark Age of Camelot):
Alatar gave a discussion
explaining
how to join the guild without as much difficulty as he went through.
Type
/who Valar to find the guild and ask for help. He also told how it is
played
and answered questions.
Tolkien:
Tolkien chat started very late, in the
after-chat group.
Turin's topic: What is Bombadil? The group in the
channel
at the time agreed that Eru and the Valar were highly unlikely. Maia
was
much more likely. It was also possible that he could be one of
Yavanna's
protectors of the forest, similar to the Ents' function, as a life form
originating
at the beginning of the world.
Turin: Did Frodo complete his quest? His answer was
yes,
because Frodo required Gollum to swear on the Ring not to harm him or
Sam
or take the Ring, on pain of jumping off a cliff or into fire. When
Gollum
bit off Frodo's finger, he harmed Frodo and tried to take the Ring, so
the
Ring enforced the oath both ways, by having Gollum fall off the cliff
into
the fire of Mt. Doom. It may not have realized that it was held by
Gollum
at the same time, since it was still on Frodo's finger leaving him the
master
of the Ring still. Thus it accidentally doomed itself fulfilling
Frodo's
command. Also, a part of Frodo, his finger, did indeed complete the
quest.
March 22, 2003
WC3 Clan Creation:
Gorbag sent nifty
screenshots
of the beta version of how to build the guild branch. We are nearly
there!
Eonwe is the chosen chieftain
and will be co-ordinating that project. Please email him with your
ideas!
March 21, 2003
DaoC:
The DaoC website has
moved to its new location.
March 18, 2003
Khamul sent an email letting us
know he's still okay, but
is having problems reaching the internet. He says to keep his name
active
and he'll be back as soon as possible.
March 17, 2003
Gerontius Took's daughter had surgery today,
so expect him to be less active in the guild for awhile. Good luck!
March 16, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet, Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battlenet
5pm EST, East Realm, closed. Channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members: Ancalagon, Beleg, Caranthir,
Daeron, Elrond, Eonwe/Fionwe, Glorfindel, Gwaihir, Haldir, Turgon,
Turin, Varda (presiding)
Visitor: Kor-Masterbarb aka Gotr-Uldor,
looking for a duel and not getting it as the guild doesn't duel
Membership: 147 active, full members listed on Members
page
New members since last meeting: Aredhel and Elladan
joined on DaoC. Beleg and Haldir joined on Battle.net.
Beleg and Haldir said their "few words".
Huan had to miss the meeting, to visit his
grandmother,
a worthy reason! He has started on the Middle-earth mod of D2X.
Web: nothing new reported
Gaming:
DaoC
Guild hunt now each Sunday after
the regular meeting on DaoC.
AD&D
Turgon's group is starting Friday
March
21 or Saturday March 22. It will begin on Bnet and intends to
eventually
move to MSN. Watch his web page for more info.
Tolkien:
Turin wrote in Quenya and gave us the translation of
this original work:
Night has come and no one
can stop it
but don't give up all hope
for day shall come again
and to those who are faithful
the light shall shine more
greatly.
Topic from DaoC group: Did elves participate
actively in the Third Age?
Turin - helped Arnor
against Angmar.
- role in the Battle of Five Armies
Gwaihir - Legolas. (That
one word was enough to cover a ton of discussion!)
Elrond - elves sat, didn't fight
Angmar.
Elrond didn't help or house the dwarves and Bilbo on their mission.
Wood
elves and Lorien didn't fight Dol Guldur in the war.
Gwaihir - Elrodn helped organize
and supply the Fellowship.
Turgon - Lothlorien threatened
Sauron so gondor didn't have to pull more weight.
Turin - they sat somtimes for
sure.
Turgon - they suffered three
attacks from the remains of Dol Guldur.
Gwaihir- Galadriel constantly
angered Sauron by being unreadable.
Turgon - as was Elrond in
Imladris.
Elrond - Gildor didn't scare the
nazgul away.
Gwaihir - Glorfindel saved
Frodo's life. Elrond saved his life as well.
Turin - Elrond fostered heirs of
Isildur.
Ancalagon - elves were active
just in more supportive roles.
Turgon - Cirdan gave Narya to
Gandalf.
Ancalagon - elves didn't have
numbers to field large armies.
Topic from Eonwe: What continuing Valar influence
might be likely in the Fourth Age, if any?
(Since I got into this one
a
good bit, I didn't have time to jot down the comments. It was quite
lively
and interesting.)
March 10, 2003
Aredhel,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
She is from Canada, EST. She joined the DaoC branch, but also has EQ,
SC,
and Diablo. She's read the H, LotR, Sil, and UT. Her score on Irmo's
test
was an impressive 5/5. Her favorite LotR character is Sam, because he
gives
hope for common folk of good heart and loyalty.
DaoC announcement from Irmo:
From now on we will have a Guild hunt each sunday starting at 3:30-3:45 =
PM EST, depending on the amount of Guild announcements. All members are =
welcome to join. Depending the attendance we can form multiple parties =
from different seasons
March 9, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet,
Dark Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battle.net
East Realm, channel Clan Valarguild, 5pm EST
Attending:
Members: Caranthir, Eonwe (DB),
Feanor, GerontiusTook, Gwaihir, Gorbag, Turgon, Varda
Visitors: FingolfinlLotrl, FeanorLotR (both
joined)
DB: Eonwe, Turgon
After meeting: Shagrat
Membership:
Haldir-V,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Haldir is 13, from California, USA in the PST. He is also
FingolfinlLotRl.
He plays SC/BW, D2X, sometimes Age of Empires, and plays nearly daily.
He
has AIM, using MagicBaller21. He's read the H and LotR. His favorite
character
in LotR is Eowyn because she killed the Witch-king. He completed his
test
March 8 with Varda, chose his name March 9 after the meeting, a name
suggested
by Caranthir-V.
Beleg-V,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Haldir scouted, bringing his friend FeanorLotR. Beleg is 13, from
California,
USA in the PST. He plays mostly SC, sometimes D2X, mostly on weekends.
He
uses Aim as jingohunter. He's read the H, LotR, and Sil. His favorite
character
in LotR is Gwaihir, because he is so above everything, almost
invincible.
Beleg joined the guild after the meeting, Varda testing.
Elladan,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
He met the DaoC folk where he joined, tested by Irmo after the DaoC
meeting.
He is 17, from the USA, PST. He plays DaoC, SC, and Diablo. He has read
the
H and LotR. His favorite character is Frodo, for his courage to take on
difficult
challenges, and to not take the easiest paths.
Argon joined this week also, see his report
on March
8.
Boromir had to take a course, missing the
meeting, but sends his regards.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia: Non-human Intelligences:
"Draugluin" by ~Maglor-V
Gaming:
WC3:
Eonwe will be the
Chieftain
for the guild, assuming we and Blizzard manage to make it. We will need
to
make it right away, with Eonwe and nine other players to be sure to
grab
our name. Currently Blizzard is only offering us a 4 character name. We
might
use V or Vala, waiting to see. Vala is the singular of Valar.
AD&D: report by GerontiusTook and
Turgon
Three people are confirmed
to
play, another said by email he would also like to play. Players don't
have
to be from the Valar Guild. Gerontius will be making his character
Thursday,
playing Saturday.
D2X:
We now have a name for
Guild
members to play public cow games, CowRaid1, CowRaid2, etc. This is much
more
fun than the impersonal, strictly public games. It works best for just
a
few members. If we have a lot of members, some can be left behind, so
it
is best to play in the regular guild games or add a -C to the game
name.
We had a suggestion (please remind me who) that we could also have a
special
passworded game for outsiders to join us. If they are potential
recruits,
we can use the game we already have for them.
Caution: While
testing
the CowRaid out, we found a public player who went hostile, then
without
our member agreeing to it, killed that member and stole the poison
resist
charms out of his inventory, not bothering the items on his body. This
has
to be a hack. He did not manage to kill the other member since that one
instantly
left the game when the player went hostile, having seen what happened
to
the other only seconds before. It all happened very fast.
Tolkien: chat held in Bnet
Feanor-V's topic: Who is Gil-galad's father:
Haldir, Orodreth, or Fingon?
It is interesting to note that although the
definitive Silmarillion
has Fingon clearly as the father, Tolkien had other thoughts about who
it
could have been instead. Feanor also gave an interesting discussion
about
how Ereinon and Gil-galad could be two different people.
March 8, 2003
Argon,
welcome to the Valar Guild! Argon aka Arakano,
is 19, from Canada in EST, read the H and LotR, and joined the guild
from
Dark Age of Camelot as member 21. He speaks a little Quenya. Gandalf
scouted,
Irmo tested. Argon plays DaoC, Anarchy Online, and EQ. His favorite
LotR
character is Fangorn, old and uses simple logic.
March 7, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Non-human Intelligences:
"Draugluin" -
new article by ~Maglor
Maiar:
"Lungorthin,
Names for Role-playing" by Irmo-(Valar). Accidentally
put in the wrong place earlier, now in its own location.
March 2, 2003
Sunday Meeting BattleNet, Yahoo Chat, DaoC
Sunday Meeting Battlenet East Realm 5pm EST channel Clan ValarGuild
Attending: report by Turgon
Members: Alatar, Cirdan,
Draugluin,
Elenwe (came in as K4th), Eonwe, Thror, FarmerMaggot, GerontiusTook,
Gwaihir,
Huan (through Valarbuddy), Irmo, Turin, Turgon, Varda (presiding).
After meeting: Gildor, Thror (Bain's account was
actually being used by Cirdan)
Visitor: Ex-Irmo honored us with a visit as
Dreamer_79
Discussion Board chat room: many tried to
come in, but the board was buggy. Eonwe, the many-times dropped, came
up with this list:
Amillo_v/Elatan, bunbunminilop, Celeborn-v, draugluin_v,
Eonwe_Valar,
Farmer_Maggot_v, gandalf_valar2003, gerontiustook_v, Irmo_v, Turgon_v,
Varda_Valar,
chubchub_02, Dreamer_78
Membership: 142 full members listed on the Members page by
Elatan
Amlaith has made it back online after
moving to a new home. We enjoyed his company in D2X after the meeting.
Web: see gaming
Gaming:
Advanced Dungeons
& Dragons online text game is being set up. Email
Turgon if you'd like to play, and check his web page for more info.
NeverWinter Nights LotR map, on a web page
utilizing some of Elatan's Annals of Arda material such as his text and
drawn map, needs players.
WarCraft3 Frozen Throne beta testers, 10,000 of
them,
have been selected and will be recieving email notification shortly.
Tolkien:
We adjourned to the Yahoo chat, after one of
the
shortest Bnet business meetings in history, to join the DaoC and any
other
non-Bnet Tolkien or full members for what we hope to be a monthly
get-together
for a Tolkien chat. A great many members had difficulty entering, or
once
there, found the chat very buggy. At least some members under 13 were
blocked
from the chat. Those who could chat had some really good Tolkien talk.
So we are considering another means, perhaps a chat
or IRC from Mirabilis, now called ICQ.com
perhaps using the old MiRC script from Beren/Tulkas or another method.
Experiments
and suggestions for an easy PC/Mac supporting well-nigh bug-free
meeting
spot are welcome. Email Varda with suggestions.
top
Feb. 28, 2003
AD&D (Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons) online: Turgon and Gerontius Took
have set up this page on Turgon's site for those interested.
Amlaith's real life move is complete
and he emails that he is trying to come back online with us.
For those in the USA interested
in model
rockets, help is needed to correct the Homeland Security
Act. Link from Meriadoc-(V).
Feb. 26, 2003
DaoC:
Lindir's DaoC
page is now the official Valar Guild branch Dark Age of
Camelot home page.
Tolkien Chat Sunday:
The DaoC group intends to be in
the
Yahoo chat room this coming Sunday for Tolkien. Battlenet will try to
make their business meeting very short and move to the chat board
right away. DaoC group's suggested topics so
far are:
1. How are the books of Tolkien
(LOTR/SIL/HOME etc.) related? In what order can they best be read?
2. Why did the High-elves of Middle
Earth not participate actively in the War of the Rings? Why did they
limit themselves to defending their homely regions? (With
the explainable exception of Elrond's sons)
3. The Eldar and the Numenorean-related
humans sometimes have the power of foresight and hindsight, seeing
what is hidden both in future and past. Do we have examples that even
hobbits can have that ability?
Eonwe of Battlenet also suggests this topic for one of our chats:
What form do you think the guidance of the Valar will take in
the future, or do you think mankind will be on its own until the End?
Feb. 25, 2003
NeverWinter Nights:
A new Tolkien map
for NWN is available on Lands of Arda.
The map and Lands of Arda site was created partly copying Tolkien info
from
Annals of Arda, the companion encyclopedia by Elatan fka Amillo to our
Tolkien
Encyclopedia, and Elatan kindly sent us the URL. I hope they give
Elatan
credit for his work at some point; at least we can do so! The map
continues
to have more add-ins, the nazgul module most recently.
We need beta-testers to send in reviews to Eonwe to remain on the Games
page; if a copy is also sent to Varda,
I can also put in a mention on the News.
Feb. 24, 2003
Tolkien book:
Turin told about a new book he
had bought, Tolkien's World from A to Z, the Complete Guide to
Middle-earth.
He hopes it will help him do Tolkien articles, with ideas and
leads
to where the original info can be found. It's sometimes entertaining
when
doing the original research with such books as leads to catch the
errors
that tend to creep in such books. With luck and our hundreds of
eyes,
may we continue to keep adding to and correcting our own Tolkien
Encyclopedia
Feb. 23, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet,
DaoC
Sunday Meeting Battle.net
5:00 PM EST
Attending: Report from Gwaihir
Alatar, Bain, Beor, Draugluin, Cirdan, Elrond, Eonwe
(DB),
Erestor, Eru, FarmerMaggot, GerontiusTook, Gwaihir (roll), Huan,
Isildur
(popped in and out), Maedhros, Thror, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Membership: Members page by Elatan shows 142
New Members since last meeting:
Faramir of DaoC, Caranthir of Bnet.
Haleth changed his name to Angrod.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Dwarves: "Bombur" by
~Maglor
Gaming:
World CyberGames: Includes Blizzard
games.
See Draugluin's report Feb 17 We somehow sidetracked and did not
get
to discuss this as we had hoped.
D2X: First successfully completed D2X Quest
for Four game.
NWN: no report
DaoC: See DaoC
Tolkien:
Gerontius Took's topic: What were the
large statues on the river, and the small statues at the entrance to
the Paths of the Dead?
The Argonath: Isildur and
Anarion. They were Numenorian kings, ancestors of Aragorn's.
Pukel-men, also called Druadan,
Woses. The people of Ghan-buri-ghan.
Erestor's topic: The making of the dwarves
by Aule.
His error, Eru's reaction, Aule's response, Eru's response. The fate of
the
dwarves. In the Letters of JRR Tolkien, the mates of the dwarves were
present
as well, treated the same.
Yahoo:
We worked some more to help members go into the
Yahoo Discussion Board chat room. More are making it in.
Those who made it into DB
that Eonwë jotted down are: Varda, Irmo, Eru,
Elrond_v_peredhil, chubchub_02, crazy_jackrabbit_stoopid_weezal,
Aragorn_valarguild, bananakid225
A number of these are the email names of members,
which
showed up instead of their guild names. chubchub is Thror, crazy
jackrabbit
is the old Cirdan, bananakid is Khamul.
Meeting report Valar/DaoC Sunday
februari 23, 2003
Members present Gandalf/Olorinv, Irmo/Yrma (pres.),
Lindir/Raime, Lungorthin/Raukov.
Membership: Yojimba chose Faramir as his Guildname.
Our
Valarguild member of honour Rose Cotton joined with her DaoC-character
Arowenv.
Big welcome to her, being the RL daughter of Orome. (For those that are
unaccustomed:
“members of honour” in the Valarguild – like Falathar and Rose Cotton,
are
members – sons/daughters of older members – who are young enough not to
be
a regular member (at the discretion of parents).
We now have 17 members at Valar-DaoC!
Funding: Due to expenses for advancing various
tradeskills we now have 200 g left in the Guild bank.
About 9 characters are in their mid-twenties now and will soon be
needing
new equipment. Level 30 equipment easily costs 200 g. Until now, the
Guild
has had no financial worries, thanks especially to Melkor and Orome
sponsoring.
Of course, at a given moment - being now - the Guild has to try and
stand
on its own two legs.
The following measures were proposed to further improve Guild economy:
- Members are asked to “buy locally”. If you buy from Guild crafters it
is
cheaper for you, while the crafters can advance their skills that way.
- Members are asked – especially from 25th season onward – not to sell
any
armour or weapons they find to the NPC’s (if the item will not be
used),
but to sell/give them to Yrma for salvaging.
- Services of Guildcrafters like Gandie (Gandalf), Yrma and Austi
(Melkor)
have until now been mostly free for members, this policy however can
only
be sustained for members whose main characters are younger than 20th
season.
Tradeskills:
We agreed that everybody is free to follow their heart as to
tradeskills, but the Guild cannot support all crafters.
We agreed on the following list of “main” Guildcrafters, whose skills
will be supportable by Guild financing:
- Spellcraft: 1. Gandie (Gandalf), 2. Aldaronv
(Orome)
- Alchemy: 1. Tamoin (Tuvo), 2. Aziriphael (Lindir)
- Fletching: 1. Raime (Lindir)
- Weapons: 1. Austi (Melkor)
- Tailor: 1. Olorinv (Gandalf), 2.
Chrysophilax (Nireis)
- Armour: 1. Yrma (Irmo), 2. Almaen (Lindir)
The list is based on present skills and commitments.
If your crafter is not on this list, but should be, please holler. If
your
crafter is on this list but should not be, please holler
<chuckles>.
If you want to exercise a tradeskill, but are not on this list (which
contains
2 crafters per skill maximally), you would do wisely to advance the
skill
in such a way that it does not cost you money, but actually earns you
an
income (by doing craft consignments). For now, it would be rather
inefficient,
if for instance we were all starting on alchemy/spellcrafting (no
tasks:
devours your income).
Next meeting: Sunday march 2, 3:30 PM EST, followed
by the Tolkien chat, in the Yahoo Discussion Board Chat Room, at 5
PM EST.
Feb. 20, 2003
Letter from Michael Bowman of Vivendi Universal,
concerning our use of Tolkien book names in Dark Age of Camelot and
elsewhere, for characters and websites:
Bowman, Mike wrote:
> Houghton Mifflin is the exclusive U.S. publisher for these line of
> books. I am sorry, but I do not know who would be able to grant you
> license (if
> anyone) to use the names.
> Check this site for more info
> http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/lordoftheringstrilogy/
> We only do some of the software games for these titles. EA also has a line.
> I would assume there are many, many places where this is broken up and I
> don't know if you will ever find the proper person who can say for sure if
> you are allowed to use the names for non-profit or not.
>
> Michael Bowman
> Manager Online Support
> Vivendi Universal
Note from Varda: The above Houghton
Mifflin link also has bits of Tolkien info.
Caranthir,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Caranthir was scouted by his real-life friend (and now father!),
Feanor.
He came in on BroodWar as Finwe_ and tested across two different days
with
Varda. He is 15, from Louisiana, USA, in CST. He's read the H, LotR,
and
some of the Sil. He plays SC/BW. He used to play Age of Mythology, but
is
not currently. He has been on from once to three times a week in Bnet.
His
favorite LotR character is Legolas.
D2X report: from Varda
I have the pleasure of reporting the first successfully
completed Quest for Four in D2X:
Team Score: 35
Tie-breaking number if needed: 203,224
Bain's assassin (lag, dropped a number of times, but completed!): 8
with 38,000
Gelmir's druid: 9 with 56,792
Thror's sorceress: 9 with 50,880
Varda's amazon, found bow early: 9 with 57,552
Feb. 17, 2003
Gaming Contest: Letter from Draugluin:
A bit of gaming news to pass along, and I didn't
want to forget it before next Sunday. The World Cyber Games, a kind of
Olympics for video games, are about to begin signing up entries. In
fact they may have already started. The world finals are being held in
Seoul, South Korea next November, and the grand prize is $20,000. The
point is, Brood War and Warcraft 3 are two of the "events" in this
year's games, along with other games like Counterstrike and Age of
Mythology. Thought I'd send this along, since maybe some of our guild's
game masters would like to take a shot at this. 50 or so countries
participate, so pretty much everyone can enter. Finally, the web site
is http://www.worldcybergames.org/.
Hope to see some Valar members there!
Namarie, Draugluin Wolfsire
Feb. 18, 2003
A Yahoo chat problem solution? Letter from Scatha:
I just tried it, and I think I have
found the problem people are having.
They are running WindowsXP and need to have Java
installed. Microsoft does not offer a download for this (although
there was a court injunction against them on this particulare issue)
Java can be downloaded from here: http://java.sun.com/webapps/download/Redirect/25697325/5847479377282807053505607246086069333228071972022813600060132859339008063305596058473206-3865/j2re-1_4_1_01-windows-i586.exe
I'll install java before I format.. having some
puter problems 8-/
Scatha
His follow-up letter:
I installed java from the Sun microsystems site and it
doesnt want to work with yahoo's java chat client. Go figure.
Heres microsofts java page: http://www.microsoft.com/java/
And microsofts java resources page (download their version): http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/gosupport.asp?TARGET=/support/java/default.asp
They sure made it interesting on how to get java to work on WinXP.. 8-/
Scatha
Scatha continues on the Discussion Board.
Feb. 17, 2003
Caution: Varda's computer may be infected
with a virus,
probably Worm-Klez. I do not send attachments of programs, screenshots,
or
anything else. If you see such a fake email, please do not
open the attachment! Delete it right away, even out of your trash.
Haleth-(V) has changed his name to Angrod-(V).
Isildur
has a new email. He's been moving to a new home, working overtime, and
getting
his high-speed internet connection going. Good luck drawing a
deep
breath!
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Dwarves: "Bombur" new
article by ~Maglor.
Feb. 16, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Bnet,
DaoC
Sunday Meeting
Battle.net 5pm EST East Realm, Clan ValarGuild
Attending:
Members (21): (report coming
from
Raukoluin) (partial report here from Varda): Aragorn, Beor, Daeron,
Dior, Draugluin/Raukoluin, Elrond, Eru,
FarmerMaggot, Feanor, Finwe, Gwaihir, Huan, Irmo, Khamul,
Lungorthin/Nimraug, Shagrat, Thingol/Singollo,
Thror, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Visitors: Elquesodebarabo/the)cheese,
Finwe_, Riddermark (last two interested in joining)
Discussion Board chat room: (report
coming from Thror)
Membership: 141 on Members page by Elatan
Gerontius Took emailed to say he'd be
on the road during the meeting.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Elves: "Haldir" by
~Maglor
Story Page:
"Keeping Faith", a
Valentine's Day story from Eonwe-(Valar)
Guild-Wide Story:
Now in frames. Eonwe has added
How-to helps.
Second Discussion Board:
Shagrat made a new Discussion Board,
simple and no ads, which he is offering. This is the early version
while
we consider it. It shows no chat, so we would have to stick with the
Yahoo
chat, but could be easier to work with on typed messages. Comments on
whether
you would like to use it, please send to Varda. If you want to join it
now,
go to the site and register. Shagrat is the current
moderator.
Gaming:
WC3: Frozen Throne: Sign-ups
for beta continue through Friday.
Letter from Khamul:
Not sure if you have heard yet but the Frozen
throne beta testers may not release any information
about the game. Im sorry to tell you about this but it
is in the contract if you sign up, so the guild will
not beable to write out any story about this without
being sued by the state of california. Also my
computer crashed thursday and i cant get it fixed till
probably monday. Hope to see you on b.net soon..
NeverWinter Nights:
Email report from
GerontiusTook-V:
This is
only a suggestion but it will help guild members get together on
NWN. What Turgon-V and I did was make Game Arda and use guild
password on action tab and would suggest that be the format for any
guild members playing on NWN. I.E. use same names as Guild Diablo
2X games and same password. Hopefully this will help us to play
together more often.
Sincerely,
Gerontius Took
EverQuest:
Ulmo-(Valar) has reached
level
61 and been accepted by Alliance of Hope. He is willing to help guild
members
who come into EQ. Please help keep our EverQuesters page updated so we
can
find each other with friend lists. Taglos is also willing to
help out.
Dungeons & Dragons:
Turgon
is trying to start up an online D&D game, working out details. He
needs
to know if there is interest. The amount of interest will influence how
it
is set up. Email him if you would like to do this.
The Experiment:
The news part of the business meeting was brief, so
that
we could work on an experiment. We need to see if we can get all our
battle.net
members into the Yahoo Discussion Board chat. It was a mess. Some had
never
used the DB, some had problems with the applet. Please practice to see
if
you can get in during the week. We would like to try to conduct Tolkien
chat
there to include Tolkien members who do not come on bnet or whose CD's
are
broken and other disasters. The chat is a place we can reach from any
computer
without a CD.
Using Explorer, we can use a microphone and have
voice capability. Eru demonstrated during our chat.
I did not find a voice capability on my Netscape
browser,
but the newer one might have it. Tell me if you know.
To reach the Discussion Board, go to the index
for
the guild pages/ Tolkien/ Discussion Board. Then sign in. If you need
an
invitation, email Varda.
Be absolutely sure to uncheck the advertising boxes
on
Yahoo! They send a huge amount of spam otherwise. Do this by clicking
Account
Info found in the top right. Then go to Membership Information and
uncheck
all those boxes. Also note the Newsgroup link, go there, and unclick
all
those boxes.
Turgon and Raukoluin: applet for chat would not
download.
Daeron: chat screen came up too small to read.
Please email Varda with solutions to chat problems
(including ones you solved) to post on News.
Meeting report Valar/DaoC
Sunday februari 16, 2003
Report from Irmo-(Valar), the Incredibly Hard-Working
Members present:
Angrod/Aurgus,
Gandalf/Olorinv, Irmo/Yrma (pres.), Lindir/Raime, Lungorthin/Raukov,
Orome/Aldaronv,
Tuvo/Amnon, Yojimba.
Membership: A warm welcome to Yojimba, who was
invited
into the DaoC Guild by Lungorthin and passed the 5 entry questions!
Yojimba
will yet choose his Guildname. And a warm welcome to Lady Nireis, who
was
invited to Daoc-Valar by Gandalf, and is currently reading LOTR.
Amnon reached his 20th season and was ceremonially handed his
emblem-engraved
cloak and shield during the meeting. We agreed this ceremonial will
from
now on be customary for all characters upon reaching 20th season.
Reaching
20th is not only momentous because of emblem rights, but also because
at
that age members start being able to defend the realm.
We now have 16 members at Valar-DaoC!
Web page: Big cheers went out to Lindir the
Formidable,
whose new Valar-DaoC www-page is a very beautiful site indeed! Lindir
told
about his plans for further augmentations. Please send him your
screenshots!
Tradeskills: Be sure to type [ /webdisplay
trades
on ] for your crafter, when in game! Everyone is free to follow their
hearts
regarding tradeskills. But, after reaching 650, specialization is
necessary
within the Guild. Advancing from there is very expensive, and is in
need
of Guild support. Alchemy and spellcraft need support from the start as
it
is, though tasking might be implemented at a next patch. As yet, only
Olorinv
(Tailor) and Yrma (Armour) are beyond level 650.
Funding: Due to expenses for advancing various
tradeskills we now have 330 g left in the Guild bank.
Discussion:
Topic: How do we organize our Tolkien commitments?
Discussion treated 3 dilemma’s: preparation (prepared in advance or
spontaneous),
frequency (weekly vs. monthly), place (DaoC/B.net/Yahoo Chatroom). We
reached
the following agreement to be put to the b.net community as a proposal:
Monthly
Tolkien chats, well-prepared in advance, in the Yahoo chatroom. Let’s
see
if both the DaoC and B.net communities are prepared to leave their
worlds
and go there for discussing Tolkien. Time: 5 PM EST, with the request
to
the B.netters if they would hold their business meeting after the chat.
If
that is not possible we could for instance choose 4 PM EST. First
combined
Tolkien chat would be March 2nd, to be prepared by one DaoC-er and one
B.netter.
Business meetings for DaoC-Valar will continue to take place every
sunday
in Mag Mell at 3:30 PM EST. To be kept short and to the point.
“Oromesque”
so to speak <grin>.
Suggestions by Amnon were discussed: to organize a tutoring of new
members
by experienced members, both regarding Tolkien and gaming, and to
stimulate
reading Tolkien by giving out “research” consignments for those who
would
like to advance Guild-ranks that way. Members present agreed on these
suggestions,
but how to organize this? Will be further discussed by mail.
Next meeting: Sunday februari 23, 3:30 PM EST.
Feb. 16, 2003
Faramir,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Faramir is a real-life friend of Lungorthin's who joined us from Dark
Age
of Camelot. He's on DaoC around five times a week. He's 19, but
celebrates
his 20th birthday on Feb 18. He's from the USA, in CST. His ICQ is
140222253
He's read the LotR. Lungorthin scouted, Irmo-(Valar) gave the
entry
test. Faramir's favorite LotR character is Legolas.
Feb. 15, 2003
DaoC:
Lindir has his new DaoC page up.
Feb. 13, 2003
Story
page:
"Keeping Faith": I've been
mulling this story over in my head for the last couple of weeks, and as
time passed it only seemed fitting that it should be typed up and ready
to be posted for Valentine's Day. I hope I have done justice to
the tale from which this is extended.
Well, Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovers in the Guild :}Take care
:}
Eonwë
Guild-Wide Story:
Now in Frame
format. Non-frames
is also an option.
WC3: Frozen
Throne: report from Eonwe
Beta signups
for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne begin tomorrow (Friday 14th) and run
through next Friday :}
Feb. 11, 2003
DaoC:
Web: The DaoC
guild is now listed on its own page in The
Camelot Herald listing members and their stats, picked up
directly from the game with a slight delay.
EQ:
Ulmo has found a spot in
The
Alliance of Hope, and is now a level 61 wood elf Warder. The
group
is not yet listed on Guild Magic.
Feb. 10, 2003
NeverWinter Nights:
Tip from GerontiusTook:
This is only a suggestion but it will
help guild members get together on NWN. What Turgon-V and I did
was make Game Arda and use guild password on action tab and would
suggest that be the format for any guild members playing on NWN.
I.E. use same names as Guild Diablo 2X games and same password.
Hopefully this will help us to play together more often.
Sincerely,
Gerontius Took
Feb. 9, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battlenet
and NWN; Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting 5pm
EST, East Realm, Battle.net, channel Clan
ValarGuild
Attending: roll report by Turgon sent Tuesday
Members:
Alatar (late), Bain (after meeting), Beorn, Curufin (came in before meeting, had a hockey game, couldn't stay), Dain (after meeting), Draugluin, Elenwe, Elrond, Eonwe (was also on DB), Erestor (late), Eru, FarmerMaggot, Gerontius Took, Gil Galad, Gwaihir, Khamul, Lungorthin (came in after meeting, was also on DaoC), Thingol, Thror, Turgon, Varda (preciding).
Visitors:
Gotr-Uldor, Ibun (was quite a nuisance), Telchar, ThesilverDragon (didn't stay for whole meeting).
(Varda notes):
Telchar would have been banned, had he stayed
longer, for channel misbehavior.
Ibun and Gotr-Uldor are the same person, his BW
character
has been muted before he met us. He is trying to join the guild and
working
on getting members to recommend him. Chair and co-chair considered him
to
be currently unsuitable for guild material, but he might learn.
TheSilverDragon was polite.
DB chat room: Eonwe, Thror
Membership:
New members:
Celeborn (DaoC) Feb. 1,
2003
Bain (D2X, NWN) Feb. 2,
2003
Cirdan (D2X, NWN) Feb. 2,
2003
GerontiusTook (D2X, NWN)
Feb. 6, 2003
DaoC hobbits:
Two new folks are now playing
with the guild in DaoC, Ettoip and Kirryn,
with hobbit status. Good luck to them on their tests!
GerontiusTook-V, new
member playing in D2X and NWN, said his few words.
Elatan, welcome back
from your ski trip!
Curufin dropped by before the meeting and
said hi. Time won't allow him to stay for the meeting, so he does this.
Good thought.
Bain-V came to the meeting too late to give
his few words this time, but we'll catch him yet. Cirdan was not home
during the meeting.
Shagrat dropped by after the meeting in the
meeting
channel, in D2X. He says hi and that he has sax lessons during the
meeting.
He is in three bands. He is doing his part by keeping the Music going!
He
hopes to be on a lot for the next few days, so be sure to look him up!
Melkor will be vacationing to warmer climes
from
Feb 12 to March 30 and asks us to hold all emails until his return He
gives
Orome his proxy.. Have a great time!
Web:
Server space:
Shagrat
kindly offered free server space to the Valar Guild
web pages. With Alatan, Bombadil, and Shagrat
all giving space, we are a
very lucky guild indeed!
Guild-wide
story:
Now in progress. Please be sure
to email Eonwe, coordinator,
to let him know you would like to participate. The first two
installments are up.
Humor
Page - New Links:
Messages
that Two Towers characters might have left on their answering machines.
Link suggested by Meriadoc-(V) via email
Engrish
the Two Towers Captions:
Captions garbled as if translated between Japanese and English as so
often
used to occur in service manuals. Link suggested at the meeting by
Gelmir-(V)
Good movie photos.
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Mankind:
"Hama" article
by ~Maglor
Elves:
"Legolas"
article by Varda-(Valar)
Places:
"Arda" article
by Varda-(Valar)
Animals:
"Wargs"
article by Varda-(Valar)
Names
and Encyc: massive
additions by Eonwe-(Valar). He's been taking notes while
re-reading:
Gaming:
NeverWinter Nights:
Gerontius asked the question a
number
of us were wondering about. How do we get together for a NWN game? It
seems
you have to know the name of the game you want to play, then that
particular
game has a channel. I suggest getting together in a bnet channel,
agreeing
on the game name there, then changing suits to go to that game on NWN
where
the next game name can be agreed on. Also, use the NWN friend list.
Names
mentioned in the meeting as operating on NWN or about to were:
GerontiusTook(V)
Turgon-M
Bain-V
Dark
Age of Camelot
will soon be operating its own News page, since Elatan-(Valar) has
returned.
He and Lindir-(V) are doing linked sites, in time-honored Valar Guild
tradition.
No DaoC folk dropped by bnet after their meeting.
Tolkien:
Topic from Varda: What influences from the
Valar can be found in the Lord of the Rings?
Bilbo was meant to find the Ring,
and Frodo was meant to inherit it legally.
Actions by the Istari, who were
Maiar, especially Gandalf.
Visions: Sent, among others, to
Faramir, Boromir, Frodo
Dark Age of Camelot - Sunday meeting:
Irmo's introduction:
Hail ye all!
A very warm welcome to Ettoip and
Kirryn who joined our ranks this week, invited by Melkor and Haleth.
And a very warm welcome to our maia
Lungorthin, who joined us in game in Hibernia yesterday with his
eldritch-to-be, Nimraugv.
We now have 13 members at Valar-DaoC,
all of them very active, check the attachments:
The meeting report - attached - gives
you a nice impression of how incredibly well we are all doing for a
Guild that is not even a month old! Thanks to you all for your
fantastic commitment! Be sure to check the links to the Camelot Herald,
where our Guild now proudly appears on the official DaoC pages!
The list of members - also attached -
has mostly been updated by me taking notes in-game. It is therefore
bound to be full of mistakes and omissions:). Please send us your
updates folks! Cannot have enough of them!
I am deeply grateful to Varda and
Eonwe, who are so kind as to update the Valar Motherguild pages with
our news and results. Even when keeping us organized on B.net takes so
much of their time as it is. <bows deeply>
Poor Elatan will have tons of
page-updating to do when he returns form skiing. I hope Lindir's page
is coming along too. The screenshots from our Thidranki adventure are
great, Lindir, thanks! Lots of laughter by Almaen's head on the bottom
of the Albion river:). For those of you that don't have it: to open
Lindir's screenies, goto http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm,
and download the free program winrar3.11.
Hope to greet you all soon again,
Irmo/Yrma.
Main Meeting:
Meeting report Valar/DaoC Sunday februari 9, 2003
Members present: Haleth/Aurgus, Ettoip, Irmo/Yrma
(pres.), Lindir/Raime, Melkor/Morgothv, Nain/Nainin, Orome/Aldaronv.
Membership: A warm welcome to Ettoip and Kirryn, who were
invited
into the DaoC Guild by Haleth and Melkor! Kirryn is the rl wifemate of
Haleth/Aurgus,
while Ettoip is a rl friend of Haleth.
Amnon is back from Australia and was seen in a group with Irmo/Yrma and
Melkor/Andr.
Welcome back! Elatan is coming back from skiing monday 10. Melkor will
be
going on holiday and will be away from computer starting wednesday 12
until
late in march.
Lungorthin came in later during the day with Nimraugv, who was properly
invited
and set at his due rank of maia! That was when most Valar were in
Thidranki
(more about that below), but we will meet again mellon!
We now have 13 members at Valar-DaoC!
Tradeskills: With Olorin (Gandalf, cloth, 650),
Yrma
(Irmo, reinforced, 650) and Almaen (Lindir, scale, 555) we now have the
armour
pretty much covered. Nainin (Nain) and Azriphael (Lindir) have started
on
alchemy, both at about 400. Gandie’s spellcraft is nearing 600, and he
rocks,
imbueing for all of us. Andr’s weaponcraft is now at 555!
All in all an incredible result for a Guild that is less than a month
old!
Be sure to set [ /webdisplay trades on ] for your crafter, when in
game!
Yrma, Almaen and Raime now are shown proudly on the Camelot Herald
ranking!
Thanks to Lindir for the tip. Check it out here: The Camelot Herald
Funding: Melkor donated yet another 100 g this week, so
we now have 500 g for Guild funding!
Discussion:
1. Technical game discussion on rams, siege, siegecraft and
siegemaster’s.
We have no expert in the Guild. Nain kindly suggested a friend of him
could
prepare a lecture for us. We also will look into what is on the
websites
about this.
2. Should friends who are invited into the Guild be allowed to wear the
emblem,
while they have not done the 5 questions (yet)? A question with many
aspects,
many of them discussed at meeting. We agreed that the Guild leadership
will
prepare a proposal for next meeting.
Muire quest: Gandalf, Irmo, Lindir, Melkor, Aurgus
and Kirryn have finished this challenge during last week!
Thidranki adventure: After the meeting Haleth/Aurgus, Ettoip,
Irmo/Yrma,
Lindir/Almaen and Melkor/Andr went together into Thidranki, the 21-24
battlegrounds,
to defend the realm against Midgard and Albion. We succeed in forming a
Hibernian
main force of – in the end – two fighting groups (16 players), and 5
scouts.
Even then we were massacred by huge numbers of enemies. Hibernians were
lead
by Yrma and Andr. Goto The Camelot Herald: Guild Registry, and see the
result
for Valar!
Almaen already sent you his delicious screenshots.
Next meeting: Sunday februari 16, 3:30 PM EST
Feb. 7, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Elves:
"Legolas", article by Varda-(Valar)
Places: "Arda",
article by Varda-(Valar)
Animals: "Wargs",
article by Varda-(Valar)
Feb. 6, 2003
Gerontius
Took, Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Gerontius, the Old Took, found our web site while looking for a
NeverWinter
Nights group. NWN guys, take note! He liked the Tolkien and legitness
of
our group and found us in the play channel on D2X, passing his test
with
Varda 5/5. He's 46, from Georgia, USA, in the EST. He currently plays
NWN
and D2X daily or ever other day. His favorite character in LotR is
Gandalf,
the smoke-ring blower who both enjoys himself and helps.
We had a Menelvagor sighting! Congratulations
for your new internet connection (or friend's connection), in your new
California home.
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Mankind: "Hama" -
new article by ~Maglor (not guild).
Additons to Names
and/or Encyc mentions or articles of characters
by Eonwe-(Valar) (some repeats):
[Men]: Eomund,
Eorl, Eothain (article, especially needed after
movie played around with name), Erkenbrand, Gamling, Garulf, Hama,
Thengel
[Orcs]: Ugluk,
Grishnakh, Lugdush,
Snaga, Mauhur,
[Hobbits]:
Gerontius Took,
[Ents]:
Beechbone, Fimbrethil
[Plants]:
Rowan trees
[Elves]:
Legolas
[Animals]:
Felarof, Firefoot, Snowmane
[Maiar]:
Gandalf
Hobbit page: Varda added
an ABC bar
at the top for navigation aid, now that this page has gotten so long.
This
seems to have worked ok on the Elves and Men page. Feedback on this
navigation
system is requested. If it is not good enough even with the browser's
Search
at the top, I will begin work on something more space-intensive for the
server
using more frames and splitting into multiple pages.
Feb. 2, 2003
Sunday Meetings: Battle.net,
Dark
Age of Camelot
Sunday Meeting Battle.net
5pm East Realm, Channel Clan ValarGuild. Report from Eru-(Valar)
Attending:
Members: Beor, Draugluin, Elros,
Erestor, Eru (presiding), Gwaihir, Huan, Nimraug, Thingol, Thranduil,
Turgon
Visitors: Ennor
As suggested by Thingol, a minute of silence was held for the
seven shuttle astronauts who died Feb 1.
(Note from Varda: Varda (Houston) and Eonwe (near
Dallas),
both from Texas not far from the accident with the astronauts,
especially
appreciate Thingol's bringing this up. Varda was out of town
during
the meeting, and Eonwe had intended to take the chair, but real life
called
him away immediately before meeting time, so we didn't have time to
call
in another. Thanks, Eru, for being there for the guild!)
Tolkien:
Ennor was operated by two people, a
father/son
duo who took the test with the team of Lungorthin (emailed recruiters'
report),
Draugluin, and Gwaihir, with Turgon observing. Congratulations to both
for
passing the entry and joining us!
New Members: reports from Lungorthin
Cirdan,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Cirdan is 12, from the USA, EST. He's read the H and LotR. He plays
D2X,
WC3, NWN, on bnet about once a week. His favorite LotR character is
Legolas
for kindness and immortality.
Bain, Welcome to the Valar Guild! Bain is
Cirdan's
father. His birthday is tomorrow when he will be 40. He's from the USA,
EST.
He's read the H, LotR, and Sil. He also plays D2X, WC3, and NWN, and is
on
bnet about once a week. His favorite LotR character is Tom Bombadil.
Meeting report Valar/DaoC
Sunday februari 2, 2003 report emailed by Irmo-(Valar)
Members present:
Gandalf/Olorinv, Irmo/Yrma (pres.), Lindir/Raime (late), Nain/Nainin.
Cheers to Celeborn (aka Caressas fka Ellemirev), who
passed
his 5 questions this week! He chose Celeborn as his guild character
because
Ellemire is mistakenly on the names page as a male eldar.
Ellemirë,
who made the Lament of the Two Trees, is a lady of the Vanyar.
Celeborn,
of course, is the Elvenlord of the Galadhrim in Lothlorien, husband of
the
Lady Galadriel.
Tradeskills: With Olorin (Gandalf, cloth, 624),
Yrma
(Irmo, reinforced, 610) and Almaen (Lindir, scale, 555) we now have the
armour
pretty much covered. Nainin (Nain) and Azriphael (Lindir) have started
on
alchemy.
Funding: Melkor donated yet another
200
g this week and with help from Gandalf Irmo raised another 200 g by
doing
craft tasks. So we now have 400 g for Guild funding!
Names: Mythic is one-sidedly changing character
names,
apparently for no sound reasons. Melkor and Gandalf were victims of
Mythic’s
zeal. We will see how this develops and whether measures have to be
taken.
Muire quest: Following Gandalf’s suggestion we
teamed
up for the Rest in Peace quest, requiring to beat the whole infamous
Muire
family. Team were Gandalf (Incanusv/Tharkuun), Irmo (Yrma) and Lindir
(Raime),
at the start helped by Nain’s Breniriu, then by Orome’s Durgil , and in
the
end by new group members called Hogold and Marceli.
Beare went down fast, then we had to search for a long time for
Alsandair,
who did not spawn where he should. But in the end he did. We then
beat
the Conaire group for about 7 times, dying when trying to reach the
stairs
behind Conaire to go to Shyena. Shyena was less of a problem. Returning
we
– again – died at the stairs, but in the end made it to Kasey. Then
came
disppointment. Kasey went down fast, but she did not drop the required
charm.
It appeared that it has to be taken from her using stealth. And none of
us
were stealthers. We agreed to try again next week, and then grouped
with
a nightshade or ranger.
We had fun though, and altogether it was a very instructive experience.
Next meeting: Sunday februari 9, 3:30 EST.
Additional note from Varda: I have asked the owners of the LotR text
copyright
about naming and websites. They said as long as we are not making real
money
from our activities, they have no objection. I must add that we are
also
giving them free advertising
Feb. 1, 2003
Celeborn,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Celeborn comes to us from DaoC. He was invited by Gandalf, and tested
by
Irmo. He's 34, from Tampa, Florida, USA, in EST. He's read the H and
LotR.
He used to play EQ but shifted to DaoC. His favorite character is Tom
Bombadil.
Please observe a moment of silence for the seven
astronauts
of the space shuttle Columbia, who died this morning in the service of
peaceful
exploration and learning.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/01/shuttle.columbia/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/
top
Jan. 31, 2003
New link: Messages
that could have been left on answering machines by Tolkien folk, if
they had answering machines. For the Two Towers only. You may
add your own joke to this message board. Link from Meriadoc-(V).
We can do a message machine joke section on our
jokes page, not restricted to Two Towers. Email it to Varda
to put up.
Jan. 27, 2003
DaoC ranking system, report by Irmo:
The ranking system is as follows:
Hobbit: (DaoC nrs 6-9): Invited, not yet passed entry questions
Rohirrim: (5): Member
Gondorean: (4): Member, after a few weeks, if active
Numenorean: (3): Member, after a few months, if active
Firstborn (2): Member, after specific merits to the Guild
Maia: (1): Maia in Motherguild
Vala: (0): Vala in Motherguild
DaoC, report from Irmo:
RIP Muire Quest:
“Rest in Peace”
(copied from http://camelot.allakhazam.com)
This quest is given by Gogarty Muire in Connacht, close to Muire Tomb
entrance, at loc: 37k, 41k.
Talk to him and he will tell you the story of his family and ask you to
get rid of the curse before he goes mad.
When you accept the quest you receive a Gogarty's Journal, which is the
main
tool you will be using for this quest as it has all the instructions to
finish
it, remember to check it often, it will update after each step is
completed.
All family members are located inside Muire Tomb, so a good map is also
very
recommended, I used this one:
http://home.iprimus.com.au/fraggle/maps/muire.GIF
(ed. note: or you can click link in menu box for multiple map/guide
options)
Now, the quest...
Step 1: Kill Beare. Very easy, no surprises here.
Step 2: Kill Alsandair. You receive a Dueling Sword, keep it!
Step 3: Kill Conaire. You HAVE to kill him using the Dueling Sword you
recieved from Alsandair or quest will not advance.
Up to this point can be done by two persons (We did it as 24 Druid and
24
Nightshade), but from now on you will need more people.
Step 4: Kill Shyene. Be aware several of her Guards will spawn as soon
as
you attack Shyena and most of other mobs in the room are linked to her.
Step 5: Kill Kacey. This is a bit more complicated. First, you have to
kill
her to get Kacey's Charm. This is a magical charm that protects her
from
permanent harm. Second, you must destroy the charm by using it at the
foot
of the stairs, then you can kill Kacey again and quest will advance.
Step 6: Kill Quillan. Nasty mob, be ready.
Step 7: Return to Gogarty Muire and give him the journal.
You receive nearly 1,000.000 xp and 2 gp.
Now you have several rewards to choose from. Note that after you pick
one,
you will be able to choose what material you want it made of (cloth,
leather,
reinforced or scale).
Beare's Seashell Belt - Empathy and Strength
Alsandair's Wading Boots - Constitution and Hitpoints
Conaire's Dueling Gloves - Dexterity and Quickness
Shyena's Gossamer Veil - Charisma and Dexterity
Kacey's Soft Sleeves - Intelligence and Dexterity
Quillan's Chest Armor - Constitution and Strength
Rewards:
Dueling Sword Beare's Seashell Belt Shyena's Gossamer Veil
Jan. 26, 2003
We have two separate meeting reports, the
motherguild on Battlenet
5pm EST, and an earlier one on Daoc
(Dark Age of Camelot) 3:30pm EST.
Pick your link or enjoy both. This way of reporting will change when
the
DaoC web folk are set up a bit better. Elatan is away skiing and
Lindir's
page is not quite ready.
Sunday Meeting on
Battle.net: 5pm EST. SuperBowl at 6 report by Varda-(Valar)
Attending: report by Lungorthin-(Valar)
Members (18): Ancalagon,
Beorn,
Daeron, Dain, Draugluin, Elenwe, Elrond, Eonwe, Eru, Feanor, Frodo,
Gwaihir,
Huan, Khamul, Lungorthin/Nimraug, Maedhros, Thror, Varda (presiding)
Over the shoulder: Frodo (with Lungorthin)
Discussion Board chat room: Elrond,
Eonwe. Dark Age and EverQuest folk are welcome to come here also.
If we have more on the DB than bnet, we may move a lot of bnet folk
there
as well. If you need a new invitation (as they expire in a week),
please
email Varda including your guild name, please.
Feanor dropped by just before the meeting and said
hi,
but had to leave. Boromir also sent a hi before the meeting, had a
SuperBowl
get-together.
Membership:
Thror was our new member this week, Jan 23,
and
he graciously said his "few words" at the b.net meeting. Huan, the old
Thror
before promotion, offered him help.
EverQuest Members:
Taglos and Ulmo have left their guilds in
EverQuest.
Taglos's old guild is dissolving due to the leadership deciding to go
on
to another game. Taglos's character is 63; Ulmo's is 60. Taglos says he
is
looking for a new guild where he can have fun now rather than waiting
on
one to build up for 6 months, nor does he want to lead. For Valar Guild
members
coming into EQ, however, he says, "I don't mind bestowing my lack of
knowledge
and wisdom to new people." Ulmo has given aid to folk from the guild in
every
kind of way. Ulmo needs a guild that can support his high level
character, but has no unhappiness with his old guild.
Web:
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Stories: Two new
stories by Irmo: "Anticlimax", "A Blessing and a Curse"
Mankind: New article by
Daeron: "Folca"
Non-human Intelligence:
New article by Irmo: role-playing names for Draugluin, also on the
Names page.
Names page:
Updated by Irmo, with input from
Eonwe and Varda
Guild-Wide
Story:
Eonwe-(Valar) is the coordinator
for
this project. He had to put it on the back burner due to real life last
time,
but is starting it up again for this February. The first two
installments
are on the Story Page. It is set in the First Age in the East, so it
has
plenty of potential for conflict. Eonwe is working out a general story
line.
Varda and Eowyn suggest also picking out two or three story arcs
(sub-plots)
to run as well. Eonwe has sent out emails to all members asking if they
would
be willing to add 200 words (that's not much). If you haven't received
such
an email, it means we are having problems with your email and you need
to
email Eonwe to have it corrected, even if you will not be contributing
to
the story.
Gaming:
EverQuest:
We were
considering
an EQ branch but are running into problems not present in DaoC due to
the
ranking system and current guild members not communicating.
Dark Age of Camelot:
Irmo-(Valar) is coordinating
this.
Please email him your suggestions and questions on how to hook up with
the
official Valar Guild branch on Percival/Hibernia. Members of the
"Motherguild"
on battlenet automatically can join up if they let the signer-upper
know!
Use your guild name with a v on the end, such as Irmov.
WarCraft 3 Expansion: Frozen Throne:
Beta Testers will be needed in
February.
Let us know if you get signed up! Sign-ups are currently planned to be
on
www.blizzard.com
World of WarCraft:
This will be an rpg, a persistent
world,
quite probably a pay service as DaoC and EQ are, and we intend to have
an
official Valar Guild branch there. Eonwe-(Valar) has the job of
coordinating
that, so be sure to contact him when the time comes and give him your
suggestions.
Tolkien:
Elrond-(V) found a 12-page book called Bilbo's
Last Song. It is a poem written as if by Bilbo at the Grey Havens
before his departure.
Varda's topic: Tolkien has recently been accused by
critics
of showing racism in his works. What are your thoughts?
The general answer seemed to be some sexism perhaps,
but
not really racism. Ancalagon and Khamul said it had some sexism. Some
of
us felt there was no sexism or racism except as it was shown by
characters,
not Tolkien, to illustrate points and because that was the way it was
in
ancient times. The reaction of characters against sexism can be shown
by
Eowyn's adoption of the Dernhelm disguise, and against racism in the
Legolas/Gimli
friendship. Tolkien himself refused a good deal of money that would
have
led to racist use of his work by the Nazis. Darkness was a way of
showing
uncertainty, fear, and evil since ancient times and is used that way,
not
to go against any particular race. Sam is horrified by the fighting
between
humans in Ithilien and wonders about the dead human enemy who falls by
him.
Nature of good and evil slipped in as usual in our discussions. (Ever
try
to participate and scribble down a transcription of fast typists? hehe)
Irmo adds from the Discussion Board and email: Any
character
in the stories who shows racism is proven wrong by the author, whether
elven
guards of Lorien or King Thingol of the Sindar. It is Saruman the White
who
fell to evil, and Radagast the Brown who withstood. It is Feanor, fair
of
form and best in crafts of all the elves, who caused the Bane of the
Noldor
and the Kinslaying. One has to read beyond the superficial to see what
Tolkien
is really saying. Many natives around the equator envisioned evil
spirits
as white, and the white men reinforced this by being slavers, but
Irmo's
dark-skinned friends don't speak of giving a white look when they mean
a
bad look at someone. Day was safe; night was insecure for all people,
and
so is associated with fearsome things. See Irmo's DB statement for more
depth.
Dark Age of Camelot Meeting:
report by Irmo-(Valar)
Meeting report Valar/DaoC Sunday januari 26, 2003
Members present: Gandalf/Olorinv, Irmo/Yrma (pres.),
Lindir/Raime, Melkor/Burl, Nain/Caressas.
Elatan is skiing in Norway (until feb 10), Tuvo is down under in
Australia
(coming back this week), and Ellemire, Haleth and Oromë were
occupied
by real-life obligations.
Caressas chose Nain as his Guild name. Nain followed Durin I and II as
King of the Dwarves.
Gelmir’s computer problems are solved and tells he will join us now
soon,
Lungorthin and Alatar are rumoured to join us soon as well. Which is
altogether
great news!
The Guild now has an emblem! The Valinorean Tree with
green
chevron on light blue background. Very distinctive and true to type.
The
emblem can be worn by characters older than 20th season or higher than
400
tradeskill, by members who are higher than hobbit rank (t.i. “full”
guild
members, who have passed the entry questions).
Tradeskills now represented in the Guild:
Gandalf has Olorinv (624 tailor) and Gandie (504 spellcraft); Lindir
has
Aziriphael (255 alchemy), Raime (armourer) and Almaen (fletcher); Irmo
has
Yrma (511 armor); Noin has Caressas (255 weapon), Melkor has Austi (405
weapon),
Tuvo has Amnon (tailor). We are looking good here!
Funding. After buying the emblem (and losing some gold in
the
effort, appeal outstanding), the Guild is almost penniless. Buying the
emblem
and advancing the spellcraft was made possible by donations from mainly
Melkor
and Oromë, and to the extent of their smaller purses by Gandalf,
Irmo
and Lindir.
Irmo/Yrma is treasurer, donations are voluntary and welcome:).
A regular report of income and expenses will be made.
Muling. As in keeping items for the general benefit
of
all, instead of selling them. Is as yet manageable by individual mules,
but
we hope that the introduction of Guild Houses will make it possible to
store
supplies and items for the benefit of the Guild. If that is not the
case,
then we might want to look at Gandalf’s suggestion of a separate Guild
account
(shared password).
Muire quest. Gandalf suggests to form a group to do the
challenging
Muire Quest (lvl 18 minimum), which requires wiping the entire Muire
Tomb
family, giving great rewards (million exp, nice items).
Gandalf
will organize for us a date and a time to do this together! The quest
requires
a group of at least 4 players around level 18-20, preferably more. Two
players
at 25 can do it, but none of our Guild characters are level 25 yet.
Meetings will be – as a rule – every week on sundays,
3:30
PM EST in the Hibernia zone (Town Hall Mag Mell if you want to see who
is
talking, hehe). Meetings are to be kept short and to the point. The
Valarguild
Council is looking at possible ways to organize combined Tolkien chats
for
the DaoC membership and the Battle-net community.
Jan. 23, 2003
Thror-(V),
Welcome to the Valar Guild! Our
old Thror passed his Maia test to become Huan. *Gimli_02@Azeroth
remembers
Thror as the first person he met after his scouter and so often present
in
the channel if only with a bot. *Gimli spent three months reading LotR
and
visiting with us, then today passed his entry test with Varda. He went
on
to play WC3 with Sauron-(Valar). Thror is 16, from Pennsyvania, USA;
EST.
He plays WC3 almost daily, but has SC, BW, and D2. Maybe someday he
will
find the CD-key that would let him play D2X again as well. He's
read
the LotR and is starting on H, with ambitious plans of adding the Sil
and
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil after that. He uses AIM as chuginchub.
His
favorite LotR character is Gandalf, for being wise, powerful, and
making
him laugh a little.
WarCraft 3
Expansion: Frozen Throne.
Thanks to Eonwe and Gwaihir for this link and comments. Registered
guilds might even have
special consideration with permanent channels and other goodies; if so,
we
will sign up. Also, Blizzard could use beta testers!
About
5,000 from the public! They will be signing up Feb on www.blizzard.com.
World
of WarCraft: Possible characters are now up. It's fun to see
their ideas of such things as orcs and dwarves. Thanks to Eonwe for the
link.
Jan. 21, 2003
Discussion Board: whoops! I didn't look at it
for
a little while since it seemed quiet, but then it took off! I
especially
recommend this article Thranduil-(V) located defending Tolkien against
the
insane charge of racism:
"Quickbeam's
Out on a Limb: The Shadow of Racism"
Jan. 20, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Non-human
Intelligences: "Draugluin, Role-Playing Names", by Irmo-(Valar)
Mankind:
"Folca", by Daeron-(V)
Stories: 2 new
stories by Irmo-(Valar): a funny one not yet named, and "A Gift and A
Curse"
Varda's comp is back. It needed a new power
supply and had a Trojan virus/worm/nasssty removed.
Jan. 19, 2003
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST East realm, channel
Clan ValarGuild, and the Discussion Board chat room.
Attending:
Members (14): Balin, Daeron, Dain,
Elrond,
Eonwe/Fionwe, Erestor, Eru, Frodo, Gwaihir, Huan (late),
Legolas/Greenleaf,
Maedhros, Turgon, Varda (presiding) Visitor:
TheCheese (considering joining, had to leave)
Discussion Board chat room: Eonwe
More members probably were present, but these had
the luck of being jotted down. :)
Membership: 136
Eol: comp problems. Emailed his hello, see
News Jan 15.
Irmo: emailed hello and said he needed to get up
early so he had to miss the meeting (Netherlands).
Varda: email and web page
comp in shop. Hope to have it back Monday afternoon.
Letter from Lungorthin:
Heya!
Long time no see... :(
My fault, of
course!, because real life has been taking away my time. I'm incredibly
busy with what we call "Academic Bowl", its like a trivia contest
basically (I got a question about Bilbo last weekend!!), and debate
which takes countless hours to research. Between these two, and my
other homework and friends, I have virtually no time on the computer.
What time I DO have left, I spend with friends.
However, debate
is letting up since academic bowl is taking up more of our time. FYI,
our entire debate team is on the academic bowl team, and most of us
chose academic bowl. So we're putting all our effort into that right
now, which is a bit easier and less time consuming than debate. On top
of all that, we've started our research paper!! I'm doing mine of
globalization. I haven't picked a thesis yet though...
So, needless to
say (as of right now), my weekends are officially gone, my weekdays are
spent at home studying or doing research, and all the time left is
spent doing something I didn't have time for.
I know how you
told me about all the maiar that attained the honor, then fell into
inactivity. Rest assured that I am still checking the site everyday for
all the current news, and am have my fingers crossed that all this
hectic stuff will be over soon.
Take care,
Lungorthin
Web Report:
Tolkien Encyclopedia: 3 poems by
Turgon; 2 Plant page articles by Varda in response to questions from
artist who found our page.
Gaming:
DaoC: Last Sunday, the DaoC Valar
Guild
branch became official on Percival/Hibernia! Irmo is guildmaster.
Members
of motherguild may join the guild branch since they've already
fulfilled
requirements. Use your guild name with a v on the end: Irmo would be
Irmov,
and email Irmo on how to join.
EQ: considering setting up guild branch.
Currently
we use a friends list to keep together on Zebuxoruk server, nothing
official,
but may have enough people now. Is anyone interested? Email Varda. The
v
at the end of the guild name also works for EQ.
Bnet: Gaming meeting. Is anyone interested
in setting
up a time during the week and/or weekend to meet for games? If you have
days
and times you play regularly, these can be listed on the Games page to
help
others join you. Email Eonwe and/or Varda.
Tolkien:
Maiar name question: Should Landroval
be
considered okay as a Guild Maia name? How about all eagles? Should we
consider
ents in the future to be Guild Maiar names or just the leader Fangorn?
All
7 Dwarf fathers although we only know Durin's name?
Tolkien chat topic: from Eonwe-(Valar):
Concerning this quote from "The
Black Gate is Closed":
Frodo to Smeagol: "'Give it back
to
Smeagol', you said. Do not say that again. Do not let that thought grow
in
you! You will never get it back. But the desire of it may betray you to
a
bitter end. You will never get it back. In the last need, Smeagol,
I should put on the Precious,
and the Precious mastered you long ago. If I, wearing it, were to
command
you, you would obey, even if it were to leap from a precipice or cast
yourself
into the fire. And such would be my command. So have a care, Smeagol."
Topic: Frodo arguably sets up conditions leading to
Gollum's
demise and the destruction of the Ring. However, did he also set up a
condition
where he succumbs to the Ring?
Eru: No.
Erestor: Agrees with Eru.
Eonwe: Does it show insight into the future?
Discussion continued on the first and second question.
Look carefully at the quote, gentle reader, as Eonwe
does make a very interesting point.
The topic shifted to the ability to resist the Ring,
hobbits
having it to the greatest degree. The hobbits were by and large
disinterested
in power which was the Ring's main purpose. Talk was lively.
Nain,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Nain came to us from Dark Age of Camelot, where he was invited by
Gandalf
and tested by Irmo. He's 19, from the USA in the CST time zone, one
hour
earlier than Valar Standard Time. He's read the LotR. He tried the Sil
but
was unenthusiastic about it. He has also played D2 and EQ, but is now
settled
in DaoC. His favorite LotR character is Gimli, since he has more depth
and
less stereotype than your average dwarf.
Jan. 16, 2003
Tolkien Encyclopedia:
Poetry
page: New poem by Turgon-(V): "Fingolfin's Arrival"
Jan. 15, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia:
Poetry
Page: Two new poems by Turgon-(V): "Gondorian
Battlesong", "Gil-Estel"
Plants Page:
Two new articles by Varda: "Elanor", "Niphredil"
Letter from Eol:
Just checking in with my friends at the
Valar Guild. I regret that my online absence continues, however
plans are in the works to fix this problem. I will continue to
check out the webpage whenever I can.
Namarie!
Eol
Jan. 14, 2003
Dark Age of
Camelot: New updated page for the branch now that it's on
Percival/Hibernia. Great job, guys!
Jan. 13, 2003
Hey Finrod! If you can read this, LotR
Online's Jeff Ledoux is
looking for you, would like to have you around again, and can't reach
you by email.
Jan. 12, 2003
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST, East Realm Battle.net
and
the Discussion Board chat room and DaoC (5:30pm and listed in DaoC
section
of Gaming, building own web page).
Attending bnet:
Members (13 of about 136):
Daeron-V, Eonwe-(Valar), Erestor-V, Eru-Valar,
Feanor-V, Finwe-V, Gil-galad-V@Azeroth, Gwaihir-Valar, Huan-Valar,
Irmo-Valar,
Maedhros-V@Azeroth, Turgon(V)@Azeroth, Varda-(Valar) (presiding)
Visitor: Gimli_02@Azeroth (reading books and
intends to join)
Discussion Board: Eru until switching to
StarCraft; Eonwe
Membership Report:
New members are Lindir (see Jan 11), and Tuvo
(Jan 12) from Dark Age of Camelot.
Thranduil's corrected email is
blizzard@verizonmail.com He joined Jan 5.
Web Report:
Tolkien Encyc and Names pages: Eonwe
sent 36 short entries Jan 10, 26 on Jan 11.
Tolkien Encyc: Elrond sent in an article on
"Elladan and Elrohir" for the Elf page.
Games page: Eonwe asked if anyone could help
him
find a picture of the Two Lamps standing and giving off light. He has
Iluin,
but needs Ormal. He also needs good pictures of Valar besides Melkor
and
Ulmo of which there are plenty.
Gaming:
EQ: Eru is on the Prexus server. His
characters
are listed on our EverQuesters page if you would like to drop by there.
Zebuxoruk
is the official guild server.
Dark Age of Camelot (DaoC): 5:30 EST the
DaoC group
met to officially form a branch of the Valar Guild on
Percival/Hibernia,
the most Tolkien-like of the areas offered. Report by Irmo follows:
Aiya All.
Yesterday, sunday januari 13, at
5:30 Guild Time (EST), the Valar Guild has been officially founded at
Dark Age of Camelot, on the server Percival, realm Hibernia!
For this joyful occasion the
following members were assembled at the Guild Registrator in Tir Na NoG:
Elatan, Falathar, Gandalf,
Haleth, Irmo, Lindir, Melkor, Orome and Tuvo.
These will now forever be remembered
as the founding fathers of Valar at DaoC!
The occasion brought old friends and
new friends togther, together we toasted many merry chats and hunts to
come.
May the Guild prosper on DaoC as it
has been prosperous in so many virtual worlds since 1997!
Namarië,
Irmo.
Tuvo,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Tuvo joined in Dark Age of Camelot (DaoC), recruited by Irmo. His
outside
name was Amnon. He's 26, from Belgium in Europe. He's read the H and
LotR.
He's played MMORPG Mushes, EQ, Asheron, and AO before DaoC. He helped
Valar
establish the new guild branch in DaoC Jan 12.
Tolkien Chat (bnet):
Turgon recited an original poem. He will be
emailing this one and another for the Tolkien Encyclopedia's Poetry
section.
Varda's topic: What or who is Caradhras? It
seems to be alive. How can this be?
The chat was lively and I had to leave after a
couple
of hours. Here is a part, sentences and areas often abbreviated in my
scribbled
hand notes. Some of us played Devil's Advocate here and there to keep
us
all thinking:
Erestor: Trees seem to be alive.
Eru: Need to establish what we mean by it seeming to
be
alive. Did anything happen that might not be explained as natural?
Varda: Sudden demarcation of snow, timing.
Erestor: Gandalf spoke of Caradhras as entity.
Varda: It had done this before.
Eru: "There are fell voices on the air"
Erestor: Call it the wind.
Eru: 1. Saruman calling down a storm.
2. Natural
storm, Orcs or Trolls casting stones.
3. Mountain is
an earth elemental.
4. Gandalf
made storm to force them through Moria and face the Balrog.
5. Valar
forced them into Moria to face the Balrog.
Elrond: Or stone giants throwing stones.
Erestor: Legolas listened to the ground in Hollin,
which seemed to speak to him.
Turgon: Thought stone giants were found only far
north of Rivendell.
Eru: Why aren't all mountains alive? Rumor made by
dwarves that it's alive to keep people from crossing it?
Elrond: Elves hear voices in all things.
Turgon: Both Saruman and Caradhras.
Finwe: Manifesting Balrog's will, not Saruman's.
Turgon: Balrog didn't know they were there until
Pippin and the well.
Finwe: Balrog may have known but Orcs didn't.
Elrond: It was Caradhras. In days of old dwarves
made him beautiful, then Orcs ruined him. Angry.
Erestor: His hand has grown long indeed.
Eru: Orcs on the pass working for Saruman wouldn't
necessarily converse with Balrog's troop
Daeron: Doubt orcs on pass
Elrond; No one wants to help Caradhras; Caradhras
won't help anyone.
Erestor: Orcs in mountain, why not on it?
Daeron: If Orcs above, company would know.
Eru: If too far above, Sting and Glamdring wouldn't
glow.
Turgon: Caradhras having grudge against dwarves
seems weird though. meaning Khazad-dum existed in First Age.
Elrond: Not grudge against dwarves but all people.
Daeron: If orcs so far above not even an elf could
see, how could orcs see Fellowship?
Erestor: Aragorn said when sun goes down, hills
would be alive with orcs. Why not mountain too?
Turgon: Natural storm enhanced by Saruman.
Eru: Moria is actually under the Silvertine, not the
Redhorn
(Caradhras). pass between the two mountains, Redhorn to the north.
Elrond: But why would Saruman halt? Storm stopped
but clouds hung with threat.
Daeron: Maybe casting storm takes a lot of energy.
Elrond: Saruman would've killed them and taken Ring.
Eru: Saruman wanted them to go for the Gap of Rohan.
Turgon: Might be showing will of the Valar. Maybe
Saruman didn't want to get his feet cold.
Elrond: Force them back. If didn't make it, orcs
would
find bodies. If they did, conveniently go through Moria.
Elrond: How did Balrog get deep and trapped? What is
Balrog
down there for? (Digression begins, Silmarillion tale of Melkor's fall,
evils
fleeing Thangorodrim, Balrog and nameless evils hid here.)
Eonwe: Melkor dug deep, could've fled and let wrack
of Thangorodrim cover tracks.
Elrond: Balrog could've used shadow as disguise.
Erestor: may have been trapped with the changing of
the world.
Eru: TA 1980 dwarves uncovered deep chasm while
mining
for mithril. Sound could have traveled and alerted dormant Balrog. No
reason
to be stealthy. Might not have appeared immediately.
More discussion.
Digressed into talk about movie treatment of
subject.
Jan. 11, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia, Names:
Eonwe added more names or versions to the Names page, most of which
were also included in the Encyclopedia:
Dwarves: Fundin, Narvi,
Floi, Frar, Loni, Nali
Hobbits: Families:
Banks, Brockhouse, Longholes, Mugwort, Puddifoot, Sandheaver, Tunnelly
Mankind: Bain, Brand,
Grimbeorn, Meneldil, Ohtar, Valandil, Witch-King/Morgul-Lord
Human: Families:
Appledore, Goatleaf, Heathertoes, Rushlight, Thistlewool
Maiar: Tom
Bombadil/Forn/Orald. Caradhras might be a possible Maia
name, could be discussed.
EverQuesters:
Eru emailed. He says he plays on Prexus server
where his real
life friends play and where he was before the guild got into Zebuxoruk.
His
characters are now listed on the EverQuester Member Page.
Lindir,
Welcome to the Valar Guild!
Lindir is the first person to be recruited into the guild from outside
Battle.net,
setting the precedent for many more to come. Members who don't have
Battle.net
are welcome to come to the Discussion Board for chats during the
regular
meeting where Eonwe keeps a double presence. Irmo tells us a bit about
him:
Invited by Gandalf/Olorinv on DaoC,
tested by Irmo/Yrma Loriena. He was Oloriin on DaoC. His main character
in the Guild on DaoC will be Raime, the ranger. He is 31 years old,
lives Oklahoma USA, used to play UO and EQ. He has read LOTR and is
committed to starting on the Silmarillion and the Histories.
Dark Age of Camelot: STARTING OFFICIAL
GUILD! Be sure to come help the start-up if you're on DaoC!
Percival/Hibernia. You can drop into bnet to say hi briefly for
the
regular meeting at 5pm EST, then skip over to DaoC before 5:30pm EST.
Use your regular guild name with a v on the end,. For instance, Orome
would use Oromev. Details below.
DaoC Letter from Irmo fka Salmar:
Aiya all!
First of all, a warm welcome to
Lindir, who has joined the Valarguild and will be joining us at Valar
on Perc/Hib. His main character will be Raime the Ranger.
Then to Amnon, we all wish you a safe
journey. Enjoy your trip to the other end of the world, and may your
path be clear and protected. Return to us healthy and well!
Establishing Valar on
Percival/Hibernia will be tomorrow, sunday 11th, 5:30 PM EST as
planned. This is 23:30 PM for our NW-European members. We will be
assembled at the Guild Registrar in Tir Na Nog. You are kindly
requested to move your characters there before this time in time.
Thanks for your feedback on our Code
of Foundation. I have edited your comments into the text, which is now
the following. (Nothing decided yet, so throw me your Boo's and Cheers,
*grin*)
1. The Valar Guild
The Valar Guild was established on
october 4, 1997, and is a worldwide interactive community of Tolkien
fans, students and scholars. Membership has been steady around 150
members. We have our web site at http://www.valarguild.org,
with an interactive Tolkien Encyclopedia. Many of our members come
together to play online games, where we advocate mutual friendship,
comraderie and honorable behaviour. Originally founded as a B.net
community - specifially Diablo 1/2/LoD - the Valar Guild has been
spreading over many online games. On januari 11, 2003 the Valar Guild
is officially established in the world of Dark Age Of Camelot, on
server Percival, realm Hibernia.
2. Who we
are on DaoC
We are a
group of friends who do not strive to be the strongest or the biggest
or the most powerful on DaoC. We share an interest in the world of
Tolkien, not only his literature, but also and especially his
definition of honour and light. We advocate altruism and
courteousness and chivalry.
Foul
language is unaceptable. Some of us like to fully role-play, others
have their own fine ways of expressing themselves. But we all chose a
roleplaying server for good reasons.
Powerleveling
is not supported by our Guild. We strive to group with
players of comparable levels, if you cannot contribute to the
performance of the group than you should not be in it. Put otherwise,
it is unlikely we will have players grouping being "grey" or "purple""
to eachother.
Between
friends, especially Guildfriends, we give and exchange gifts
without looking at reciprocity. We seek always to help eachother. Our
greatest joy is bringing joy to eachother.
Trading betwen friends means that in
principle only the costs of production - including material loss
and invested time - will be asked.
With
players unknown to us, trading will mean asking for reasonable
current prices, but we will not be a merchandising Guild.
2. How to
invite new members.
Anyone
coming from the motherguild is - of course - very welcome. New members
we will only invite for good reasons. We will invite
players who strike us as very honorable and whom we have had great
pleasure hunting or speaking with. We will never offer money to enlarge
our community. We will only seek alliances with Guilds who share the
principles of our Code.
Our Guild
has the tradition of asking aspirant new members 5 simple
questions ("entree test") to ascertain that they have at any time
read The Lord of The Rings.
With the above in mind, any member is
free to invite a player into the Guild. Entree tests however can only
be given by members who have the position of Maia or Vala within the
Valarguild. See http://www.valarguild.org/varda/guild/recruit.html
for reference.
3. Meetings
and organization.
Meetings will be held regularly in
Guild chat. Attendance of these meeting is voluntary. For the future we will seek a method of occasionally
combining meetings with the Motherguild meetings, especially for
discussing Tolkien topics.
Irmo and
Elatan are willing to start as Guildmasters to get the Guild on its
feet, with Irmo responsible for organising the Guild in general, Elatan
as his back-up and being a DaoC - especially RvR - expert.
4. Naming
New
members will be asked to choose one of the Tolkien names that are
available to new members (see our names page, http://httpd.chello.nl/d.berkhout/ for
further reference).
Any DaoC
member - new or old - is required to have or to make a character with
his chosen Tolkien name within the Guild, ending with the extension of
v or V for Valar. Within the motherguild he or she will primarilly be
known under that name. How much and how often (s)he will play that
character - or any character at all for that matter - is solely his or
her business. There can be no question of a minimum time investment and
if members like to play other characters than their Guild ones - even
in other Guilds -, or on other realms, then they are completely free to
do so.
Members
are free to choose other names for characters at will, and to tag them
as Valar. Members are free to roleplay within the Valar Guild whomever
they want, as long as the character is honourable and has an honourable
name. It is not advocated to use other Tolkien names - t.i. not related
to our primary character name - for Valar Guild alternates, for those
names could be names that other (even future) Guildmembers consider
their own. This could obviously cause confusion.
Hoping to see you all tomorrow, 5:30
PM EST, in Tir Na Nog,
Cheers,
Irmo.
Jan. 10, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia, Names:
Eonwe's been re-reading and came up with 36 short, new goodies for us
from the Fellowship for the Names page and the Encyc:
Hobbits (27):
Adelard Took, Angelica Baggins, "Blanco" (and "Marcho") first settlers;
Daddy
Twofoot, Dora Baggins, Esmerelda Brandybuck, Everard Took, Folco
Boffin,
Fredegar (Fatty) Bolger, Gorbadoc Brandybuck, Gorhendad Oldbuck, Hal,
Holman;
Hugo Bracegirdle, Lotho, Melilot Brandybuck, Milo Burrows, Mrs.
Maggott,
Mugwort family, Noakes, Nob, Odo Proudfoot, Otho, Rory Brandybuck,
Sancho
Proudfoot, Ted Sandyman,
Mankind (7): "Barahir",
grandson of Faramir II; "Bill Ferny", "Bob" the stablehand, "Findegil",
the king's writer; " Harry" the gatekeeper,
"Tim", "Tom"
Animals (2):
Merry's ponies, Fatty Lumpkin
Jan. 6, 2003
Tolkien
Encyclopedia: "Elladan and Elrohir", new article by
Elrond-(V). Listed under Elves/Elrohir.
Thranduil, we need a correction on your
email address. Please email Varda at varda@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!
Letter from Menelvagor on Jan 1:
The vertigo site is down for the time being cause the project is on hold. I
unfortunately have not had access to the internet for the last four months
due to the costs of setup and my living arrangements in San Francisco.
However I along with my new buds have moved out into a fantastic 3 bedroom
apartment in downtown san fran and they are fortunately avid gamers. When i
return to my apartment on the 17th at which my new dsl should be installed
our hope is to begin playing diablo2 on my return. A note coming this spring
i may be a part time employee at a game development company upon review of
my portfolio i will keep you posted upon my return to battle.net. The last
four months have been hectic and crazed but I think things are finally all
put together so that i can do some online gaming. AND GOOD LORD DID U SEE
TWO TOWERS? BEST PICTURE BLAST IT.
Anyway if i get any free time to myself (pshht right!)i plan on trying to
launch my own website this spring showing my continuing work on my own
projects. If u can offer a chat client that i can use to get on battle.net
this sunday id greatly appreciate it cause they don't seem to exist anymore
(Im in CHicago right now and dont have access to any blizzard games). Well
back to modeling and drawing.
Namarie,
Menelvagor A.K.A. Kingfisher
Jan. 5, 2002
Sunday Meeting 5pm EST East Realm, bnet channel Clan
ValarGuild, some on Discussion Board also
Attending:
Members: Alatar, Aragorn-V@Azeroth,
Beregond, Dain,
Draugluin, Elrond, Eonwe/Fionwe, Erestor, FarmerMaggot,
Gandalf/Stormcrow, Gwaihir, Irmo, Khamul, Oropher, Thorondor,
Thror, Turgon, Varda (presiding)
Later: Bombur, Gil-galad
Visitors: *randomperson (joined after
meeting as Thranduil-V!), *EFH-HellWarrior (Gwaihir's friend)
Discussion Board: MerryPippin, Tolkien
member, visited with Eonwe
Membership:
Beregond is now using a military
internet
service for meetings and gaming, but has to get up early in the
mornings,
so don't be keeping him up too late!
Khamul is back after being off since
Christmas, having had a birthday so that he is now 15!
Gil-galad is having comp problems when
trying to play WC3, keeps crashing.
Web:
No news
Gaming:
Dark Age of Camelot:
Gandalf reported that he's been
playing
for five days now. He said the best part was meeting old guild buddies
he
hasn't seen for a while. He played with Melkor, Haleth, Haleth's new
wife,
and Irmo. The second best part is the graphics. He says guilds and
co-op
are a big thing there. He also says the learning curve is very steep
and
there are lots of commands, guild buddies being a big help there or he
might
have been tempted to quit. Irmo told of the partying they had done
today
including the above list.
Tolkien:
We started off talking about eagles for a
short bit.
Varda's topic: What were the rangers like? We
speculated
from the little bits of information scattered around the books, the
conversation
being quite lively.
Tolkien testing:
Maiar test: Thror tested with Eonwe, Irmo,
and
Varda and is now the Maia Huan! He and Bombur went right out into WC3
to
recoup the 200 human wins he dropped with the Thror name, which are
being
immortalized temporarily here. :) Congrats!!
Entry test: Welcome to the Valar Guild, Thranduil-(V)!
*randomperson was scouted by Feanor and met Kalmo at that time. His
test was
after the meeting, the honor done by Thorondor. His favorite character
is
Thranduil, so he was lucky that the name was free! He's 15, living in
Virginia,
USA, EST. His email is said to be blizzard@verimail.com, but isn't
taking emails
"recipient isn't recognized". [Correction to email Jan 13, 2003: blizzard@verizonmail.com]
He's read the H, LotR, and Sil. His AIM name is blizzard370. He was in
a StarCraft/BroodWar suit, so we
presume he plays BW.
Funny detail: report from Irmo: Histoire
se
repete: :) . I who was once Huan co-tested Thror who became Huan;
Thorondor
who was once Thranduil tested randomperson who became Thranduil
:)
.
Jan. 1, 2003
Happy New Year!!
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