August 30, 2015 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (3)
AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Varda Valar (presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Tolkien Site: New art by the Bohemian Weasel-(T)
Gaming
Tolkien:
Discussion topic: What did the normal people of various races see during the War of the Ring?
After-meeting:
Gaming news from Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya Phar!
VardaValar1: Please forgive me. Need a few more minutes.
VardaValar1: back
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Aiya :-)
ArPharazonV: Sorry, was away eating something.
VardaValar1: Hobbitish!
ArPharazonV: Very.
VardaValar1: Only fair. I had to take care of some things right quick - working on a fence.
VardaValar1: Hope Arien is doing ok. Don't see her.
VardaValar1: Invites sent.
ArPharazonV: Just poked her, hope she's around, she's only on the general bnet system.
VardaValar1: Okie dokie. Thanks.
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: Hi from Fangorn, Bilbo, and Sauron. :-)
VardaValar1: Any news on your side?
ArPharazonV: Hmm, not really.
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: Tolkien Site:
VardaValar1: Art from the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
VardaValar1: These are of Haldir:
VardaValar1: "Allegiance" ‘Men and Elves once fought and died together’
VardaValar1: "No mercy" 'Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none.'
VardaValar1: The Book List and Reviews for Tolkien Subjects:
VardaValar1: https://sites.google.com/site/vgbookreviews/
VardaValar1: a part of our site handled by Arveleg-(V),
VardaValar1: has updated.
VardaValar1: His new email is there so we can send him books for the list and our reviews of them.
VardaValar1: Also, he repaired the Search Everything on the Tolkien Site search engine that is on the Book Review page.
VardaValar1: It's in the top right corner.
VardaValar1: The old Search Everything is still glitched, but hopefully
he'll respond to the email and we can put the new version on the main
site as well.
VardaValar1: The Search Articles search engine by Eonwe for all Tolkien
articles is completely separate, Eonwe's own coding, and is still
operating just fine.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/VGEncycSearch.php
AriehnV has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Different jobs for each, both handy. :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya Sunshine :-)
AriehnV: Aiya Varda and Cala :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
AriehnV: Thanks for poking me Phari :-)
VardaValar1: I may have been hasty in giving the web news, not just art this time, but here's a spot for a quick review of it:
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/guild/news.html
VardaValar1: just put up barely before the meeting. *cough*
ArPharazonV: That's good enough, isn't it? :-)
VardaValar1: Right right. :-)
VardaValar1: Eonwe updated the Games Site. He said he had trouble connecting with LotRO for that news, so I'll give some of that.
VardaValar1: Arien had trouble with the LotRO download too, maybe the same reason.
ArPharazonV: Which is news in itself.
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: Just to make it official that we're talking about gaming. :-)
VardaValar1: The most recent LotRO patch was Wednesday.
VardaValar1: Here are the Patch notes:
VardaValar1: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?575678-Update-16-5-Release-Notes
VardaValar1: The Auction House bug has been fixed, so people can't put
up a price of 1150 with the word "current" covering the first 1. Very
expensive to a number of people!
VardaValar1: Transfers between server worlds that are not being removed are now working, partly to work out bugs.
VardaValar1: The other transfers may be starting up again in October.
ArPharazonV: That's a long way away.
VardaValar1: After the transfers, they intend to change out the hardware of the servers.
ArPharazonV: Ah.
VardaValar1: The new servers are huge, enough to put everyone on one or two if they like, but they kept it more broken up.
VardaValar1: That should make it easier to find other players doing
what you're doing, and allow them to expand the game a lot, as they
want. We are only to Osgiliath right now and have a lot of world left
to go.
VardaValar1: They are planning on continuing past Mordor into Harad.
ArPharazonV: Ooh.
VardaValar1: Other areas will be fleshed out, as they have been doing all along over time.
VardaValar1: When you already own an expansion and that area is increased, you already have access to that new area.
VardaValar1: That's already happened a number of times and will continue.
VardaValar1: Any other LotRO comments?
VardaValar1: Good luck to Arien in her next attempted download. :-)
VardaValar1: World of WarCraft:
VardaValar1: The final wing of Hellfire Citadel
is open.
VardaValar1: September is two days away. See what's going on
this month in WoW (well, that month in WoW).
VardaValar1: Check out the
latest hotfixes.
VardaValar1: Any other general WoW news?
ArPharazonV: Hmm... just that the boss of that final wing is pretty difficult, even on LFR difficulty ;-)
ArPharazonV: Oh
ArPharazonV: and this week's Arena weekend, if you haven't done it yet.
ArPharazonV: Win 10 for a conquest bonus.
ArPharazonV: And that's the general news.
VardaValar1: Diablo 3:
VardaValar1: Guess what's live? That's right,
Path 2.3.0!
Go get your Kanai's Cube!
VardaValar1: Season four
is also live.
VardaValar1: Check out the
updates to the official site
that came with Patch 2.3.0.
VardaValar1: Hearthstone:
VardaValar1: The Grand Tournament
has arrived.
VardaValar1: Heroes of the Storm:
VardaValar1: There's been an
update to the Placement and Ranking systems.
VardaValar1: And that's the news from your friendly neighborhood Valar Guild Games Site
VardaValar1: Any other gaming comments?
ArPharazonV: Giving personal news at the end as always!
VardaValar1: Okie dokie
VardaValar1: Others are also welcome to do that. :-)
VardaValar1: I should mention that Sauron has been busy with the fence, work, and college classes so he hasn't been on Eve Online as much as he'd like.
VardaValar1: But he expects to be back at it when the fence is fixed. :-)
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
ArPharazonV: ...If you hadn't mentioned working on the fence earlier, I would've assumed he was taking fencing classes.
VardaValar1: Same word with such a different meaning.
VardaValar1: In the time of the War of the Ring,
the situation seemed hopeless for most of the free peoples that were
aware of the dangers.
VardaValar1: The help they were receiving mostly remained secretive.
VardaValar1: What would the regular folk of the main races have been seeing?
VardaValar1: Dwarves for instance?
ArPharazonV: What dwarves would've been seeing?
ArPharazonV: Not much, because most of them were far away from the main
action, it seems. The battle of Dale wasn't all that secretive.
VardaValar1: What would dwarves have thought of their situation during the War of the Ring?
ArPharazonV: They might have known about an emissary to Elrond, but not further aware of the details.
VardaValar1: Aye, the Battle of Dale was huge for people in that area, both dwarves and men. Leadership changed during that one.
ArPharazonV: Not sure if they would've considered themselves hopeless. Erebor was always pretty resistant to a siege.
ArPharazonV: Unless it was a dragon...
VardaValar1: Thanks to Bilbo and friends, that area was not ruled by Smaug, able to fight back.
VardaValar1: Before they were hit by the Enemy at Erebor, would they
have been feeling safe? Far from the action? Or worried and working
hard at defense?
ArPharazonV: They were probably pretty happy to have their old home
back, and not willing to give it up to the first enemy army that comes
along.
ArPharazonV: Hmm.
VardaValar1: Aye. Their attitude would have been very ready to fight.
ArPharazonV: I imagine they had a lot of repairing and stockpiling to
do after Five Armies, so they might have been hard at work still. And
they did know something was brewing, because of the Nazgul paying them
a visit.
ArPharazonV: But with Dale to the south and Thranduil to the west, they
might've felt pretty safe. Maybe they did not expect the Easterlings to
show up.
VardaValar1: Gandalf knew the area was in danger of attack, so at least the leadership would have been trying to keep ready?
ArPharazonV: Yes, that's true. Couple of extra defenses here and there, cranking up the forging.
VardaValar1: That means the regular people would have been doing the
work of getting ready and been suspicious of a potential attack.
VardaValar1: Armor and weapons kept in good condition, fortifications.
VardaValar1: Humans and dwarves working together there. A strong force!
ArPharazonV: Humans taking down anyone the dwarves can't reach!
VardaValar1: If that had been breached, Gandalf said there might not have been an elven queen for Gondor.
VardaValar1: Aye
ArPharazonV: There was still Mirkwood between them, but that was having its own problems.
VardaValar1: Different ways of handling the defenses and places they considered important, probably helping cover everything.
VardaValar1: True
VardaValar1: On to Elves. :-)
VardaValar1: Dol Guldur was a tremendous danger. What did the elves do about it?
ArPharazonV: Keeping patrols, dedicating themselves to keeping Dol
Guldur's forces to the south. Lorien punching it from the west surely
helped.
VardaValar1: Right
VardaValar1: Thranduil's forces worked with Lorien's to make a pincer attack from both sides.
ArPharazonV: Always useful.
VardaValar1: Celeborn handled the military forces for Lorien.
VardaValar1: Once they managed to get Galadriel in position, she used
what she claims is not "magic" and cleaned up the evil magics.
VardaValar1: That let the elves from both sides go in and mop up the more normal fighters.
ArPharazonV: She may claim it's not magic...
ArPharazonV: but we know better?
ArPharazonV: Nobody was buying it.
VardaValar1: Semantics.
VardaValar1: She felt that what she was doing was so different that they should use different terms.
ArPharazonV: That's what we call white magic.
VardaValar1: Aye. They needed that sort of term to help her out.
VardaValar1: Hers was based more on the side of the Valar. So source was a lot of the difference.
VardaValar1: The dark side used magic directly from Sauron's, and possibly from Morgoth's Ring (the planet)?
VardaValar1: Intent was also different. Hers was to preserve, mostly.
ArPharazonV: Her own Ring.
VardaValar1: Sauron also used his to build fortifications, which became a weakness when the magic was yanked out of them.
VardaValar1: Aye
ArPharazonV: Just goes to show. You're free to use your magic to
preserve and fortify your land, just don't use it as the *foundation*.
VardaValar1: Good old brick and mortar.
ArPharazonV: Or trees.
VardaValar1: It's a help, not a substitute, aye.
VardaValar1: I wonder what the mallorn forest was like after the Elves left?
VardaValar1: They were in great shape to start, huge. Would still have been an amazing forest.
ArPharazonV: And all the remained was the silence of the elves...
ArPharazonV: *that
VardaValar1: And human loggers, heh.
ArPharazonV: Oh yes.
ArPharazonV: Those Beornings would've loved that source of timber.
VardaValar1: Aragorn may have kept it as a national forest.
VardaValar1: Maybe some ents moved in!
ArPharazonV: That would be nice!
VardaValar1: Be a nifty short fic. :-)
VardaValar1: How about the regular hobbits during the War of the Ring? What would they have been seeing? It would've changed over time.
ArPharazonV: Walking trees, apparently... but no, that was earlier.
ArPharazonV: The Rangers must've withdrawn from the borders of the
Shire during the War, and Saruman's lackeys started coming in. Perhaps
they already had an influence in the southern parts, but would've moved
further north.
ArPharazonV: Hobbits would not be happy about the big men dropping by.
VardaValar1: Not much is told about what the walking trees at the Shire
did. They seemed to have become more active early on, and Old Man
Willow may have been a force against incoming baddies.
ArPharazonV: Especially when they started altering the place.
VardaValar1: Pulling out the Rangers definitely made a big difference.
They had been stopping a lot of horrors that the hobbits weren't aware
of? Barrow-wights among them, maybe?
ArPharazonV: I could see the Old Forest, Old Man Willow, and Tom Bombadil being a good line of defense against the wights.
VardaValar1: Bombadil would have been an obstacle for baddies to have to go around.
VardaValar1: Aye
ArPharazonV: The men would've gone around, though, using the roads.
VardaValar1: Right. The men were the problem. They could use the same roads the hobbits did and walk right in.
ArPharazonV: They considered they owned the place, and didn't need to sneak around to get there.
VardaValar1: Bill Ferny and strange creatures such as his friend were already in Bree.
VardaValar1: More would have come in quickly when told the area was no longer protected by Rangers.
VardaValar1: They could have been added easily to Saruman's people.
ArPharazonV: I had the idea that they were Saruman's men already. They had something Orcish in them, right?
ArPharazonV: Maybe not Ferny.
VardaValar1: Aye, certain ones showed different physical characteristics. Half-orcs or half-goblins, however you want to say it.
VardaValar1: Then there were corrupted men. A few coppers can be enough
for some, or the idea of pushing other people around for others.
VardaValar1: A chance to loot.
VardaValar1: Not exactly followers of the Valar, one would assume.
VardaValar1: Religion such as "followers of the Valar" really isn't mentioned hardly at all. That was more on Sauron's side.
ArPharazonV: I can't imagine too many men were, really. They'd been a
distant memory for some time. Only the nobility would be really
invested in them.
ArPharazonV: I doubt the "common" people would bother much with them.
VardaValar1: Interesting history, may or may not be true.
ArPharazonV: Atheism may have flourished ;-)
VardaValar1: In Gondor they had a ritual before eating, but that seemed the extent of it.
VardaValar1: Or more likely they didn't think about it. :-)
ArPharazonV: Probably not.
VardaValar1: Not sure what that would be called.
ArPharazonV: Frankly, the majority of atheists falls under such a
mindset as well. But mostly.. casually religious, perhaps? A prayer now
and then, when needed?
VardaValar1: Ok, so we mentioned dwarves, Dale men, elves, hobbits,
ArPharazonV: Ents?
VardaValar1: Casually religious seems likely.
VardaValar1: Ents, interesting.
VardaValar1: They didn't think much about the war until they realized their trees were involved.
ArPharazonV: And then they smashed Isengard that was taking down their
trees, extended their wrath to a bunch of orcs to the south, left a few
to guard Isengard, and went back to their lives.
ArPharazonV: Slow to anger, but quick to finish it up.
VardaValar1: Their version of whack-a-mole.
VardaValar1: heh, pardon.
ArPharazonV: Sounds about right.
VardaValar1: Saruman was their prisoner for a while.
ArPharazonV: But they didn't need many to guard him.
ArPharazonV: And they were somewhat "eager" to just let him go off
after a while and get back to their own lives. Understandable.
VardaValar1: But Gandalf said the power of his voice may have influenced the ents. Chances are they
ArPharazonV: They would've already had that desire to be done with the whole business, and Saruman simply played into that.
ArPharazonV: Saruman doesn't really place ideas in your head, as much as encouraging what you already want.
VardaValar1: Exactly
VardaValar1: The ents wanted to go home to their forest, not hang out at Isengard.
VardaValar1: Pardon, folks here in rl, fun company. :-)
ArPharazonV: That's fine. I should probably do my daily 10 minutes of fishing in WoW.
VardaValar1: Ghan-bur-ghan's people.
VardaValar1: Hey, a bit of chat and poking, maybe they'll add to our convo. :-)
ArPharazonV: Hmm, wouldn't have noticed much. Couple of men on horses trying to use their home to travel through.
VardaValar1: The Woses figured out they could use help and aided them as guides.
VardaValar1: They wanted the free people to make things safe for them.
VardaValar1: Hi from Sauron
ArPharazonV: Hi!
VardaValar1: The regular people in Minas Tirith had a rough time.
ArPharazonV: Had to watch Mordor on the other side of the river get more active, blow up smoke. Seeing the sky get darker.
ArPharazonV: Having to retreat from tending the fields.
VardaValar1: Dread. Nazguls. Heads lobbed into town. The Steward giving up and torching himself and heir.
ArPharazonV: And when the siege came, they would not have expected the help they got from several directions.
VardaValar1: Corsairs are not usually expected to be helpful, aye.
VardaValar1: And wasn't Theoden supposed to be near-comatose in his throne room? What's this heroic charge?
ArPharazonV: Right. Whoever would've thought that red arrow paid off?
VardaValar1: We sent a red arrow? The messenger made it? They paid attention? wow
ArPharazonV: And then there's that mad wizard running around doing who knows what. Do you think he's being helpful?
VardaValar1: Saruman is our wizard. We gave him a tower, right? Must be looking out for us. grateful even.
VardaValar1: This one has a white robe and beard. Probably the same guy.
ArPharazonV: Well, he's wearing the right color, but the pictures in the great hall show a different face...
ArPharazonV: I suppose he's gotten a bit older.
VardaValar1: You were close enough to see his face? Cool
AriehnV: moment .. that robe shimmers colorfoul ..or is it a trick of the light?
VardaValar1: Magic.
ArPharazonV: Some conjurer of cheap tricks, no doubt.
AriehnV: hedge wizard hah!
ArPharazonV: Good, my hedge does need trimming. Think he's up for hire?
AriehnV: depends on the price *chuckle*
VardaValar1: We'll let you ask while we stand way back.
ArPharazonV: Sure, what could go wrong?
AriehnV: the hedge could attack back ...
VardaValar1: oops
AriehnV: i mean the trees in the old forest did ... so why not hedges :-)?
ArPharazonV: Come on, he's a hedge wizard, he knows what he's doing.
VardaValar1: Walking hedges. Entings?
VardaValar1: *hefts hammer*
VardaValar1: *wham on a tent peg*
VardaValar1: What?
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VardaValar1: After-meeting:
VardaValar1: Feel free to take the hedges out for a walk.
ArPharazonV: They could use the exercise.
AriehnV: yeah for sure
VardaValar1: Fat hedges.
VardaValar1: Maybe just getting too frisky, need to let it out.
VardaValar1: Poking passers-by.
ArPharazonV: hehe
VardaValar1: Ok, time to let Phar say something intelligent for us. I'm getting way too silly. ^^
ArPharazonV: Right, before I go for my daily fishing in WoW, I'll give my personal gaming news for this week.
AriehnV: oh btw i finally managed to get the PHonex Hatchling pet from Kael in the little Sunwell instance on Quel Danas
ArPharazonV: Ooh grats!
VardaValar1: Cool!
AriehnV: thankies :-) nce little pet and quiite funy since the guild used to be caled Phoenix warriers
AriehnV: But we reformed as Ignis Nix
ArPharazonV: Rising from the ashes?
ArPharazonV: Right.
ArPharazonV: Let's start with flashgaming then!
ArPharazonV: I've got 2 games for you this week!
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/goshki/through-gbjam-4-version
ArPharazonV: Through is a simple, short platformer where you have to
jump around and phase through walls to get to your target. Not too
difficult, but the later levels probably require some trial and error..
but you could always get it right on the first try :-)
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/catukp/minecaves for the second, dig around and collect all the gems on a level, with additional optional challenges per level.
ArPharazonV: That should keep you busy a bit longer :-)
VardaValar1: *cut polish polish ohh shiny*
ArPharazonV: That one's based on Minecraft, actually.
ArPharazonV: Now my blizzard games!
ArPharazonV: Hearthstone: I
haven't actually bought any packs from the new expansion yet. I did,
however, do some research in what was available, and made a checklist
for me with all the cards missing (so all of them, right now) allowing
me to keep an overview on the collection.
ArPharazonV: But I guess I'll start buying and opening in a day or so :-)
ArPharazonV: All my classes are level 36 now, so all got a golden card
as a reward, and most of them are the ones I use in my decks as well,
so they're a tiny bit shinier now :-) Onward to level 38 for the next
reward, after stopping at 37 along the way.
ArPharazonV: The brawl this week gives you a random deck of cards per
class, so it can be rather luck-based. I had to try a bunch of times
before I got something good enough to win with.
ArPharazonV: It seems mostly meant to introduce you to the new cards
and the way they can combine with the old ones, forcing you to use both.
AriehnV: ah watch out for my guild mate Awyzu ! He is ranked 5 in legendary or something ^^
ArPharazonV: Heroes of the storm:
Been doing two or three battles a day in order to find enough treasure
goblins to finish the quest. I'm at 20 out of 50 now. Hopefully there's
plenty of time left, or I'll have to ramp things up.
ArPharazonV: Ah, I don't play against legendary people, really, I'm only in the lower ranks :-)
ArPharazonV: But might run into him in a brawl or something, who knows?
ArPharazonV: Oh, one more thing for Hearthstone... had a computer issue this week, which tried to reinstall windows, so I had to return to a restore point of a few weeks ago.
ArPharazonV: Since then I've been having an error every time I close
Hearthstone. Doesn't make it unplayable, fortunately, but it does get
annoying.
ArPharazonV: Not sure how to fix it, might be a drive error. I hope I didn't screw things up too much.
ArPharazonV: Anyway!
ArPharazonV: Diablo 3:
ArPharazonV: I've started my season 4 character, and am aiming to finish at least the first four chapters of the Season Journey.
VardaValar1: Was that a Windows 10 thing?
ArPharazonV: My first wizard is level 16 so far, but I plan to put time into the game on weekend afternoons.
ArPharazonV: No, windows 8. It was a crash, and I don't think I restarted properly.
VardaValar1: oy. Pardon, please go ahead.
ArPharazonV: I don't use windows 10. Not planning to for some time, there's some privacy concerns and setting issues, I think.
ArPharazonV: And I think that just leaves WoW!
ArPharazonV: Shipyard to level 2 now, and most of my ships are epic.
I'm far from level 3 still, but at least I'm able to continue the
legendary questline.
ArPharazonV: As for raids, nothing new. Had some attempts at Heroic
difficulty Socrethar, but with him having a lot more health, the fight
returns to the first phase eventually, making things rather more
complicated.
ArPharazonV: I've tried Archimonde on LFR difficulty, but like I said
earlier, he's really difficult, even with the stacks of "determination"
that give damage, healing and health boosts after each wipe.
ArPharazonV: Wiped on him 14 times before I decided to call it quits. Maybe I'll try again next week.
ArPharazonV: At least we're making progress on him on normal difficulty as well, got him down to 20% today.
ArPharazonV: Other than that, much is daily routine! Working on my
garrison, fighting some pet trainers, filling some work orders. Sending
out followers on missions.
ArPharazonV: Progress is happening slowly.
ArPharazonV: I did get a new pet this week! The rare pet you can get
from cooking certain recipes in Draenor, called Lil' Leftovers.
ArPharazonV: A bit disgusting, but very cute!
ArPharazonV: And that's the end of my gaming news!
VardaValar1: Thank you, Phar :-)
AriehnV: congrats on the pet :-)
ArPharazonV: thanks :-)
AriehnV: i heard it in guildchat on a small nelf hunter soneone took 2
hours and a bit for The black Gate dungeon and apparently thay
AriehnV: ran through six tanks ^
ArPharazonV: Yeah, that's Archimonde. Took me about 3 hours before I
quit. But we had the same 2 tanks for the entire duration, me included.
ArPharazonV: I wonder if they ever did make it...
VardaValar1: May be having connection problems.
VardaValar1: See y'all later. Take care!
AriehnV: take care Namarie!
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
VardaValar1 has left the room.
AriehnV has left the room.
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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