Joining the Valar Guild:
How do I Join?
We have no age, gender, or country
requirement. We
currently have full
members from age 11 to over 63. 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-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.
Another
usable item is expected at least once a
year to keep membership. At least email Varda (or talk on AIM) to let
her know what you have in progress or ask for suggestions.
You should at minimum have seen the movies or heard
the audio books, although having read Lord of the Rings or more
is even better.
You may also use the Forum and enjoy live AIM
chat meetings every
Sunday at 5pm EST in Valar Guild Meetingplace. 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 AIM 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: World of
Warcraft. 2: Lord of the Rings Online
World of WarCraft (WoW) has official branches of
Alliance on Lothar server and Horde on Uldaman
server;
2: Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has an official
branch on Landroval server, Turbine 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 a kinship
thread on LotRO's forum where you can say hi and tell your guild names
and crafting needs.
We have members playing nearly anything online
and try to keep track of this on our Games page, by using versions
(some peculiar) of our primary guild names, and using AIM.
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. 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 (maybe all) 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, 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 cannot participate in Guild or
Kinship chat. They do not have an exclusive guild
name.
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 AIM 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.
AIM (AOL Instant
Messenger) is a free download from http://www.aim.com
and you don't have to use AOL for anything else. AIM names of members
are listed on the Members' page for contact and for your friend list.
If you don't like to use AIM, Pidgin or Trillian programs also work.
Transcripts of meetings are
linked on the News page from the meeting summary in case you can't
come. Links inside the transcripts allow readers to pick just the part
they want to read. The Forum 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 play 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:
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. Leads instances regularly and may specialize in certain instances.
Entry testers: any Maia or Vala officers (generally 1, sometimes with a trainee or just a fellow tester who wants to join in).
Maia testers: any Vala officers (generally a panel of 3).
Vala testers: any Vala officers (generally all other Valar).
Contact:
Email Varda
for general contact about anything. Erase the words NOSPAM before the actual email.
Web pages start from our
domain name
. From there, the index
leads to all guild pages.
Guild news is found on the
News page and Forum
.
Forum - use your guild name and jump in.
PM's to
admins 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.
AIM: we conduct meetings on AIM, can give
tests,
and get together outside meetings and games just because.
Room name: Valar Guild
Meetingplace.
The Members page
gives
guild AIM names.
Name:
We recognize each other by a specific
Tolkien
character name as our primary way of reference, as if it were your real
name. The name is used to refer to each other and give credit for
articles and actions. (You do want credit!)
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 a panel 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 (handled by Menelvagor and Varda), Art, and
Reviews (Review page handled mainly by Arveleg).
She is one of three Forum administrators, plus admin for the old Discussion Board.
She is branch master for
Lord of the Rings Online ( fka
Middle-earth Online) and helps with World of WarCraft. She currently plays Lord of the Rings Online and sometimes World of
WarCraft with a bit of BroodWar.
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 (fka Middle-earth
Online). Eonwe is a major Forum administrator, working with
Menelvagor and
Varda. He does a lot of already visible 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 it will
eventually all be in php and css.
He plays World of WarCraft, sometimes 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 with 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 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.
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 a major strength of the guild.
Tolkien-only
members can join and can start Tolkien-related projects
(coordinating with
Varda), 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 AIM 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.
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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