Joining the Valar Guild:
How do I Join?
We have no age, gender, or country
requirement. You may have other guild memberships as
well.
We currently have two styles of membership:
Tolkien-only or Full
Member.
Guild-friends: they
like
our game-style.
Tolkien-friends: they like our Tolkien
discussions.
Tolkien-only
Member:
If you do not wish to do online gaming at this
time
but would like to indulge your inner Tolkien, this is for you.
To join as a Tolkien-only, email Varda
(erase the NOSPAM) to say what you're interested in, and then send
something that can be added to the Tolkien
site. This can be an article, humor, art, poetry, story, book
review, or something to do with Tolkien's languages. Varda and
others
can help you, but the work should be original with you, your very
own
Precious. Articles must be researched from the books as your last
fact
check, as non-Tolkien books and the web have incorrect information
that
others pick up and pass on. Let's not be part of the incorrect
information dispersal.
You should be familiar with at least the Lord of
the Rings, at minimum have listened to the audio books or even seen
PJ's movies, although having read Lord of the Rings or more
is even better. Remember, we are a book club predating those other
mediums. Canon is the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, and more or
less the Silmarillion, although we also use Histories of
Middle-earth.
You may use the Forum and enjoy live
Discord
chat meetings every
Sunday at 5pm EST in Valar Guild's meeting_place. Please use
courtesy of
which Tolkien would approve in all communications.
Full Member:
If you've finished reading the Lord of the Rings and
enjoy
courteous gaming, then email Varda
(erase the NOSPAM). Or come to a Sunday Discord meeting, using
courtesy,
enjoy the meeting and get to know a few of us, and ask to join. Let
your helper know which games you are interested in and which Tolkien
books you've read.
Take a simple entry test to show you've read Lord of the Rings
(LotR)
answering four of five questions right. The test can be
retaken.
Together pick your primary guild name (a Tolkien character from any
book not
yet taken) not yet used by another member (check Membership page for
used
names).
You are welcome to indulge your Tolkien Side by
contributing to your guild's Tolkien site, but it is not required.
(Still, we like it!)
As Valar Gamers, Members need to prefer following
Tolkien's values of
working
together, fair play, trustworthiness, clean language, and literacy.
We
have a nifty yellow boot for the other sort.
The current main guild games are 1: Lord of the
Rings Online. 2: World of Warcraft.
World of WarCraft (WoW) has official branches of
Alliance on Lothar server and Horde on Uldaman
server;
Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has an official
branch on Landroval server, of mixed race, light rp. We have a
text story running in our Valar Guild Forum in Lord of the Rings
Online: "Scouting Ahead" and Discord where you can say hi and tell
your guild names
and crafting/gaming needs.
We have members playing nearly anything online
and try to keep track of this on our Games page and using Discord.
What is the Valar Guild
?
We are an international Tolkien fan club that
first
came together while gaming in Diablo 1. We made a haven online to
join
together
with trustworthy, clean-spoken players, much as the Valar tried to
create Arda Unmarred. Then we created web pages for Tolkien and
Gaming,
making ourselves a productive guild rather than just a clan or kin.
We formed
our current system in October 4, 1997 in Battlenet East, using the
original Diablo game. We went on to everything Blizzard put out, but
now we play all online games, including MMORPGs, with games
defaulted
to Eastern USA to help
us find each other. We default all our times to Eastern Standard
time.
We are not a movie guild and pre-date the movies,
although
most of us did see those movies and enjoy chatting about
them as well.
But if you really want to know us, see these
jokes
by Guild members (mostly from Diablo players)!:
"You
know
you're in Valar when....".
I never finished or never heard of Lord of the Rings!
What do
I do to game with you?
You're kidding, right? If not...
Guild-friends are not members, but are
people whose gaming values are
the same as those of the Full Members. They might be considering
membership, they might not have finished reading
or never read The Lord of the Rings, or they did read it but
haven't
fully joined or rejoined yet.
They can game, scout for new members, and
do
anything that does not require a password.
In Lord of the Rings Online, Battlenet and World of WarCraft, and
Steam (Scatha runs the Steam spot) they can
come into the Valar friend channel to find us for gaming and
chatting;
courtesy required. Friend lists are also helpful.
Guild-friends cannot give entry
tests. They cannot go into
passworded guild games and areas such as banks. They can join a
friend channel with us in any game for contact. They do not have an
exclusive guild
name (but can be thinking about one!).
A guild-friend is like an elf-friend in Tolkien:
a
trusted companion to
elves
but who is not an elf and may not be able to understand all things
elvish. Best idea? Play with us and read the books! It is
recommended
to read the Hobbit
prelude to the Lord of
the Rings, but is not
required for simple entry. For non-readers, the movies can help a
lot
with understanding us although the movies are not good enough for
Full
Membership.
Meetings:
We meet as a whole every Sunday 5pm ESDT/ 22:00
GMT
on Discord for business followed by Tolkien chat. This is not
required, but
is a great way to speak with an officer or chat about gaming and
Middle-earth. Transcript links of past meetings are available from
the general News page.
Discord is where we meet as it goes across all
games and is good for Tolkien-onlies and guild-friends.
The Forum also helps keep up contact for those
who can't
make it to meetings.
Meetings can be a good place to find out which
suit to wear to game with your buddies, as well as talk Tolkien. We
often game after the Tolkien chat. OK, some are gaming during the
whole
meeting with alt+tab and scrolling, or homework, or surfing, but we
don't know about that, of course.
Organization:
Chairmen > Council of Mahanaxar > Gaming > Valar > Maiar
> Full Members > MoH's, and Initiates.
Chairmen > Council of Mahanaxar > Tolkien Site > Web
masters > Tolkien-onlies, Full Members, MoH's, and Initiates.
Special ranks only for a single game branch:
World of WarCraft: Tulca "Steadfast". Stuck with
the
guild branch through thick and thin. Title and extra bank
privileges.
Lord of the Rings Online: Warlord,
dropped title and is now simply an Officer who is a trusted player
in that branch; not an overall title in the guild. Leads instances
or invites members' alternates into the branch.
Entry testers: any Maia or Vala Honor officers (generally 1,
sometimes with a trainee or a fellow tester who wants to join in).
Testers often tend to give special help to those they brought in, at
least to start.
Maia testers: any Vala officers (previously a panel of 3, but it has
dropped to 2). (A Maia Honor has given great aid to the guild as a
whole, has good conduct, and passed a tough quiz over the Lord of
the Rings books.)
Vala testers: any Vala officers (generally including all other Valar
honor). (A Vala Honor has near-fanatically helped the guild keep
operating, has good conduct, passed the Maia Honor, and passed a
tough quiz over the Silmarillion.)
MoH: member of honor, title no longer used because they were
expected to eventually read the Lord of the Rings for Full
Membership, but rarely did so. They were mostly family members; now
we handle that as guild-friends.
Guild-friends: friends or family of guild members who are courteous
and are at least tolerant of fans of the Lord of the Rings books.
Contact:
Email Varda
for general contact about anything. Erase the words NOSPAM before
the actual email.
Web pages start at this landing page.
From there, the index
leads to all guild pages, including those added by members that are
using web space outside our main site. Our main space and domain
name is currently provided by Pallando-(Valar), after the death of
Alatar-(Valar).
Guild news in general is found on the
News page.
Forum - use your guild name and jump in.
PM's to
admins (Eonwe and Varda) will be read, as will emails.
Emails to the group go out for special
projects
and to see if an apparently absent member still wishes to be in the
guild.
It's kind to let Varda know if you are leaving, so we can adjust the
web
pages and naming system. If you wish to drop full membership due to
not
gaming,
you might consider shifting to Tolkien-only membership or
guild-friend.
Discord: we conduct meetings on Discord,
can give
tests,
and get together outside meetings and games just because.
Room name: For meetings, go to
Valar Guild's meeting_place, and for general chat go to Harbor. For
invitations, you can ask Varda or Eonwe, although we have others who
can provide this as well.
Name:
We recognize each other by a specific
Tolkien
character name as our primary way of reference, as if it were your
"real"
name, like "Joe". The name is used to refer to each other and give
credit for
articles and actions. (You do want credit!) It is not required to be
the character name in-game.
Meetings are helpful to both the member
and
the guild, to take care of the monthly contact and to give each
member
a
chance to comment. It's your chance to make your opinion or
suggestion
known in live
chat in a civil manner. Guild leaders are present and can be of
immediate
assistance. This is the member's guild. It will be what the members
help make it to be.
Meetings are not required, due to the problems of time zones, work,
and
school. They often include a "before" and "after" meeting for those
with time problems or just to hang out.
The Council of Mahanaxar coordinates
guild
projects
and handles issues. Council members must be Valar honor. Vala honor
can
handle
tests singly for Full Member and in twos or more for Maia, and Vala.
Varda
is
co-chair of the mother-guild (overall), is the contact person for
everything, does overall web page co-ordination, and does numerous
web
pages including the Tolkien and Community sites.
The Tolkien Site includes Articles, Stories, Poetry,
Translations, Art, Humor, and
Reviews (Review page handled by Arveleg). Varda and Eonwe are Forum
administrators, and they are admin for Discord.
She is branch master for
Lord of the Rings Online ( fka
Middle-earth Online). She currently plays Lord of the Rings Online.
Eonwe
is co-chair of the mother-guild (overall). He is branch master for
World of
WarCraft and helps on Lord of the Rings Online. Eonwe is the
main Forum administrator, working with Varda. He does a lot of
programming, including the
Tolkien Site Search Engine and the entire Games Site. He is bringing
the coding of the Tolkien Site into the 21st century so that is
changing over time.
He plays World of WarCraft and Lord of the Rings
Online.
Valar honor
members
are required to sit at least for a time on the
Council, but can then retire to just gaming and Tolkien while
retaining
the Vala honor.
Any Vala Honor can scout and do any test,
including
entry, Maia, and
Vala.
As Council, they handle security with member and
Maiar help,
handle issues, start,
join,
and handle projects. They must be able to email or otherwise contact
the other Council
members
to be effective. After retiring from the Council, they retain Valar
Honor in recognition that they have given great service and
commitment
to the
overall guild, and proven
strong knowledge of the Silmarillion
as well as the Lord of
the
Rings
books. They may continue as Advisors, return to the Council later,
or finally rest.
Maiar honor
members
help the Council, start (coordinating with
Valar),
join, and handle projects, scout and test for entry, and bring in
new
members reporting in email to Varda to let it be known on the web
pages for everyone.
They have given
service and commitment to the guild and show strong knowledge of the
LotR in a live test by Valar honor members. Service is weighed
higher than book knowledge, but book knowledge is necessary to be
good
as entry testers. A Maia can be
invited
to test for Vala honor.
Full Members
can start projects (coordinating with the Valar Council)
or join projects and scout for possible members. They can do
everything a Tolkien-only does plus game. Members of all honors help
with scouting and security. Full members can apply for or
be invited
to test for Maia honor if they have shown commitment, service, and
knowledge of the LotR books. They give suggestions which have been
known to change the
whole
course of the group. They are the major strength of the guild.
Tolkien-only
members can join and can start Tolkien-related projects
(coordinating with
Varda so it can go online and be linked to the main site), and scout
for possible members. Their main job is to help with
the
Tolkien site , which includes articles, poems, stories,
translations, humor, book lists, book reviews, and art. They can
join
the Forum and Discord meetings.
Members of Honor
are usually children of Full Members. The full member sponsor has
read
the LotR
to the MoH and makes sure the MoH plays honorably. They are one
reason
our guild requires all gaming members to keep their language clean
and
generally be role models of how to behave as an honorable person
should. Due to difficulties and to make the ability wider, this has
been dropped; see instead "guild-friend" below.
Guild-friend. Anyone, not just a family
member, who is courteous and is tolerant of fans of the Lord of the
Rings books is welcome. This includes Tolkien-friends who do not
game or add to the Tolkien Site but enjoy discussions about
Tolkien's legendarium. They may join the Discord channel and
meetings. They may join the friend channel in any of our games even
though they can't join the actual branch as a Full Member, to allow
chat and coordination of effort.
Rules and Code of Conduct:
If you want the Rules and Code of Contact spelled
out, instead of just saying "courteousy and fellowship", we can
oblige
you. Hop to the following! :)
Rules, Code
of
Conduct - rules in
gaming and chat behavior: page by Elatan-(T) fka Amillo-(Valar).
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