Valar Guild

December 27, 2015 Sunday Meeting

5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)

AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

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Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, PallandoValar, and VardaValar1 (presiding)
    Gilraen-(V) and Lenwe-(V) chatted in side windows after the meeting.

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
    Art
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Eowyn is one of the characters often mentioned by readers that I've met as a favorite character. What does she do in the books, and what makes her interesting?
After -meeting:
    Arien's gaming news
    Ar-Pharazon: gaming news including flashgaming reviews.
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1: Aiya Phar :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Another 15 minutes yet. :-) Think the webwork is done for now.
ArPharazonV: Doing an achievement run in normal Hellfire Citadel, we've managed 9 already :-)
VardaValar1: Go go! :-)
AriehnV has entered the room.
AriehnV: aiya all :-)
VardaValar1: Aiya Sunshine :-)
AriehnV: how are you Varda?
VardaValar1: Great! You?
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
AriehnV: yeah getting there :-) was a long workday and aiya Phari !
ArPharazonV: Well, that's the achievement run. We're saving the last 4 for next sunday, and with any luck I'll have the fel wolf by the end of it :-)
ArPharazonV: Gotta love them wolf mounts.
VardaValar1: Nifty :-)
AriehnV: great and with your luck you will get it ^^
VardaValar1: *pushes more luck Phar's way*
ArPharazonV: *hugs luck and puts it in a small box* I'll keep it safe.
AriehnV: i never win anything i want .. neither lotteries nor raids or other instance runs hehe
AriehnV: or rares ^^
ArPharazonV: It's not about winning the mount by roll, but by getting all the achievements, it's the reward for the meta-achievement.
AriehnV: nice one
VardaValar1: It's a grind to get those things by lotteries, raids, instances, etc. Just have to keep doing them.
ArPharazonV: Yep. Same with all those pets.
VardaValar1: Phar, sounds like an extra-special mount then.
VardaValar1: ok, invites made.
ArPharazonV: It is!
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: Here's hoping you all had a great Christmas vacation and enjoy the New Year!
PallandoValar has entered the room.
PallandoValar: Aiya
ArPharazonV: You too!
ArPharazonV: Aiya
VardaValar1: Aiya Pallando :-)
VardaValar1: Dis-V says that she got a special necklace for Christmas - the Evenstar. :-)
ArPharazonV: Grats to Dis :-)
AriehnV: grats to Dis :-D tis very nice
ArPharazonV: That kind of puts my christmas present in perspective
ArPharazonV: Still very good though, I got the EE of the third Hobbit movie ;-)
VardaValar1: yay!
VardaValar1: I'm still waiting to get the whole extended set. But it will happen someday!
ArPharazonV: I believe it's already out.
ArPharazonV: But I had the other 2 already, so didn't go for it.
AriehnV: I got Star Wars episodes IV to VI *blushes* and HP Boxset *blushes more*
ArPharazonV: Nice!
PallandoValar: I'm getting myself new desktop parts. :-P
VardaValar1: All sound very good. We made out well this year
AriehnV: And two Van Canto CD s ... and there is one interesting Song whiose lyrics i will link in the after meeting .or maybe now in the pre-banter?
AriehnV: iit is Hobbit related i promise :-)
VardaValar1: This is actually Membership right now. Go ahead and link.
AriehnV: or even Lord of the Rings okay
VardaValar1: Christmas for membership chat.
AriehnV: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/van_canto/frodos_dream.html#!
AriehnV: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/v/van_canto/frodos_dream.html#!
VardaValar1: Thank you, Arien
AriehnV: You are welcome
VardaValar1: Any other membership news?
VardaValar1: Visited for Christmas by Meriadoc and by Elwing. Very nice time!
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VardaValar1: Web News:
VardaValar1: New artwork from the Bohemian Weasel-(T):
VardaValar1: This is the Witch-king at the time that Eowyn took the head clean off the fell beast.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/BohemianWeasel/characters/Witchking/soni-topps-lotrm2-329b_witch_king.jpg
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VardaValar1: Gaming News:
VardaValar1: LotRO:
VardaValar1: Check out the recent letter from the Executive Producer!
VardaValar1: http://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/letter-executive-producer
VardaValar1: This last year we picked up two new cities: Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. Plus a new store and consolidated our servers to ten, so all are quite lively.
VardaValar1: The new hardware to move the worlds on to is ready, but they found out that when they switched from 32 to 64 bit, with a new OS, the chat system no longer worked and theyr rebuilding it. Puts off the move to 2016.
VardaValar1: Next up, we ride with the Rohirrim to the Battle of the Pelennnor fields, and push towards the Black Gate.
VardaValar1: Level cap will go up to 105, but we don't need new Legendary Items as those will grow with us.
VardaValar1: Finally a 12-man raid in the Pelennor cluster
VardaValar1: New UI elements
VardaValar1: A new emote collection, kind of like pet collection.
VardaValar1: Quarterly bug patches will continue, as that seemed to work out well.
VardaValar1: World of Warcraft:
VardaValar1: Read A Winterveil Carol, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
VardaValar1: Hey, Phar, is that something for your story collection? :-)
ArPharazonV: I already added the entire series. It's just too bad that they don't appear archived among the short stories themselves, so I'll probably end up copying em into a word file.
ArPharazonV: speaking of, I should probably update the version I've got in the Valarguild-forum one of these days ;-)
VardaValar1: That would be kind. :-)
[Note: addition, missed Diablo:
Diablo3: You can get a first look at Season 5 in the aptly named blog. ]
VardaValar1: Heroes of the Storm:
VardaValar1: The Winterveil event is going. See what's going on.
VardaValar1: Of course the winter festivals are still going in the various games, such as Yule in LotRO and Winterveil in WoW. Enjoy!
ArPharazonV: Get your Winter Veil gifts in WoW now!
VardaValar1: Any other general gaming news?
ArPharazonV: They're up from the 25th (2 days ago) to the 2nd of January, so don't miss em.
VardaValar1: Any further business, fun comments, suggestions?
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VardaValar1: Tolkien!
VardaValar1: Eowyn is one of the characters often mentioned by readers that I've met as a favorite character.
VardaValar1: What does she do in the books, and what makes her interesting?
ArPharazonV: She breaks the "role" set for her as a woman of royal blood, instead joining the war in the disguise as a man, and doing a pretty good job at it too.
ArPharazonV: *disguise of a man
ArPharazonV: So.. yes, that makes her interesting.
ArPharazonV: One of the few women with a prominent role in the books, and half the time she's a man. Makes you think...
AriehnV: nice one
VardaValar1: But she does her biggest part when she quits hiding who she is and takes down the Witch-king.
ArPharazonV: That is true.
VardaValar1: She picks up her actual husband/Steward/prince after showing who she is.
VardaValar1: But to get to those points, she needs to work through her need to be a true Shield-maiden.
VardaValar1: I don't understand how they can have shield-maidens and not have women warriors, unless they are strictly defense. And where were the others?
ArPharazonV: ..probably at home, defending?
AriehnV: she is a victim too, ..she s picked by Wormtongue as his "step to power" by him wantning her as wife be able to rule as King of Rohan .. his "legitimation" so to say.. and she is sort of pressed into looking after Theoden as he is under Saruman's spell
AriehnV: which is a kind of female role
ArPharazonV: Even if she didn't like that it was.
VardaValar1: She is a desirable woman with power, everything Grima could dream of. Worth throwing over the rest of the human race.
AriehnV: and you forget, to answer your question, she was of the ruling line .. Theoden tasked her to be his stewart while he was at war and maybe stand in the last defence of the Golden Hallls and get her chance at war anyway ((sorry playing devil's advocate here^^))
VardaValar1: Faramir found her more attractive than any of the local Gondorian women.
ArPharazonV: Probably preferred warrior princesses, then.
VardaValar1: She said she planned to go into the healing arts. With all the fighting to clean up the remnants of Sauron's forces. here's betting she stayed busy. And Arwen may have found her a fine midwife
VardaValar1: We know she had at least one child
ArPharazonV: Arwen? I recall something about a bunch of daughters too.
AriehnV: well he was warrior, wise man and lorekeeper himself , Lord Faramir was
VardaValar1: Yes, Arwen had one son and a scad of daughters
AriehnV: Eowyn really was Faramir's wavelength
VardaValar1: Renaissance man :-)
VardaValar1: He could give Eowyn the freedoms that she needed
AriehnV: so yes Eowyn had one son we know of? maybe more children though we don't know of
VardaValar1: She knew how to handle a kingdom and a lot of unruly Rohirrim
VardaValar1: Aye, we know she had one son, the rest were many daughters
VardaValar1: She may have influenced their gender to keep from having conflicts over the succession
VardaValar1: Arwen
VardaValar1: Sorry, Eowyn had at least one child - don't know of others. Sorry there.
ArPharazonV: Elvish magic.. *shrug* now including genetic manipulation.
VardaValar1: I think elves could do that, but might be an incorrect memory. Arwen may have kept the ability
VardaValar1: Eowyn knew a lot, making her valuable. More educated than most women due to her noble birth
VardaValar1: She had to help rule the kingdom for Theoden, and was trusted by the people
VardaValar1: She knew the quality she was seeing when she spotted Aragorn. While she didn't love him for himself, she admired what he was, the ideal of him.
VardaValar1: She may have had to handle Ithilien while Faramir was away sometimes as Steward of Gondor
VardaValar1: Although one wonders how much of the rule was handled in Gondor by Arwen, who knew plenty
ArPharazonV: I bet Arwen and Eowyn ruled Gondor from behind the throne.
VardaValar1: I figure they were really great helpers to their husbands, and understood the policies and implementation very well.
VardaValar1: Their men were very strong, not to be run over.
VardaValar1: Eowyn would not have found a weak man interesting.
VardaValar1: Both Eowyn and Arwen understood the concept of self-sacrifice
VardaValar1: Eowyn was a character well-fleshed out enough so that we can imagine what she might have been like outside the story
VardaValar1: JRRT could do that with a lot of characters with minimal info for us to go on. Nice trick!
VardaValar1: Eowyn was ok with hobbits. Merry's being another race didn't bother her. She never seems to have insulted the elf or dwarf either. In fact, the Rohirrim seemed to accept them fairly well, despite the fear of Galadriel, the elf-witch.
ArPharazonV: Rumors are just rumors, but up close, individuals can be quite friendly people :-)
VardaValar1: Aye.
VardaValar1: When they got away from the generalizations and met actual weird beings, they did fine.
VardaValar1: Except for orcs that wanted simply to kill them.
VardaValar1: *raises the newest hammer*
ArPharazonV: Unwrap it first?
VardaValar1: oops
VardaValar1: *unwraps hammer*
AriehnV: *ties bow on wrapping*
VardaValar1: *sets aside masses of ribbons*
VardaValar1: *unboxes*
VardaValar1: ohh, shiny!
VardaValar1: *tinnnng!*
ArPharazonV: Yay!
AriehnV: *flares golden rays on*
VardaValar1: *lttle bells ring for miles around*
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VardaValar1: After-meeting!
AriehnV: There is the song for the lyrics i linked earlier if you are interested... Van Canto fall under a genre called "a cappella metal* meaning they use no electronic instruments apart from a drumkit as far as i know .. and they are still unique in that although they do give workshops on how to do t ^^
AriehnV: van canto frodo's dream
VardaValar1: Cool :-)
VardaValar1: Sure, we're interested.
AriehnV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuTbzPB5RHg
ArPharazonV: a capella is always interesting :-)
VardaValar1: Oh, in case anyone thinks their sidewalk is long for shoveling, try this one:
VardaValar1: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20151225#.VoBz4FJqGSo
ArPharazonV: Gotta admit, that driveway is pretty clean now.
AriehnV: hehe reminds of Minas Tirith ^^
AriehnV: wish we had these masses of snow or maybe not ...i hate ice while i am okay with snow or rain ^^
AriehnV: but we have no snow and reasonably cold, but not icy
ArPharazonV: Just a lot of water, from what I hear.
VardaValar1: We have plenty of rain. Supposed to be cold tonight, hoping it doesn't go to ice.
AriehnV: good luck with it
AriehnV: they had horrendous floods in England and in the Borders area but today was a nice sunny day here on skye
VardaValar1: Ready to whisk the pot plants inside!
ArPharazonV: Quite sunny here too, but quite a bit of wind while I was cycling around.
ArPharazonV: So. You folks want my gaming section yet? :-)
VardaValar1: It's After-meeting, so that would be fine.
ArPharazonV: Right! My personal gaming.
ArPharazonV: I'll start off with 3 games for flashgaming.

AriehnV: hang on first .. Phari i have just one piece in fact
ArPharazonV: Sure, go ahead.
AriehnV: you are a lot longer than i would be sorry for that
AriehnV: remember last week i mentioned how hard it was to meet Sauron in SWotR due to time differences?
AriehnV: In fact I managed to see him on the dark side was it yesterday i think?
AriehnV: or the day before :-)
VardaValar1: O good. :-) He does play SWTOR and EVE fairly often.
VardaValar1: Mostly Eve
AriehnV: cool :-)
AriehnV: have to try and get together at least once before the sub runs out in March ^^
AriehnV: he has probably a lot better ships than i have in the meantime
AriehnV: but that's all I had Phari :-) So was nice meeting him there
AriehnV: go ahead now pls
ArPharazonV: Okay, let's see.

ArPharazonV: Right, 3 games.
ArPharazonV: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/sprout is the first, a platformer where you have to move around a maze of rooms (with handy minimap) to collect bodyparts and abilities, and make it to the exit.
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/bontegames/christmas-cat is a sequel to a game I might have mentioned some time ago called "where is cat", and you have to click things and solve puzzles to find all 20 christmas balls.
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/bontegames/sugar-sugar-the-christmas-special is the third game, part of a series where you have to draw lines to guide sugar into the right cups.
ArPharazonV: From the same maker as the previous one, and with the same music, even. But completely different games!

ArPharazonV: Now, blizzard gaming.
AriehnV has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Hearthstone: December season almost over, get your shaman thrall card back now, if you haven't already! Still pushing xp.
AriehnV has entered the room.
ArPharazonV: Heroes of the Storm: In addition to getting some more xp on some of my lower level heroes, I've also made use of the 4-day stimpack I got for winter veil after finishing 15 games (if you finish 50 games you get a 10-day stimpack, by the way) to level my first hero, Valla the demon hunter, to level 10!
AriehnV: uh .. closed wrong window .. sorry no intention to vanish without warnng or saying good night
AriehnV: and grats :-D
ArPharazonV: Giving her selection circle a gold color now, and completing part of the objective for a new portrait.
ArPharazonV: Thanks :-)
ArPharazonV: No idea what the max level *actually* is, but for achievement and portrait purposes, 10 is the important one. But you still get gold for 15 and 20, I believe.
AriehnV: cool
AriehnV: and yes .. its bed time for me i fear ..work tomorrow
ArPharazonV: No full christmas break for you?
AriehnV: well it wasnt too bad .. i was on 25th and 26th and monday and Tuesday before that
AriehnV: but that means i have to work a bit more this week with no extra days off ^^#
AriehnV: I get my two normal ones on wednesday and Friday
ArPharazonV: That's still good.
AriehnV: indeed :-)
ArPharazonV: Oh, what I forgot to mention, level 10 also comes with a new master skin unlocked for that hero, but you still have to pay 10000 gold for it. I don't think I like this one enough to spend that type of money on a skin while I still have other heroes to buy.
AriehnV: i am glad get the first off ^^ means i can spend the change of years my normal way either watching firework in one of the wow capitals or invading either orgrimmar or Stormwind or wherever gets decided has the honor this year ^^
ArPharazonV: Hah, that sounds fun.
ArPharazonV: Not going to watch fireworks outside?
AriehnV: well probably yes , i l have a look what the neighbours do ;-)
AriehnV: but afterwards
ArPharazonV: Aha!
AriehnV: anyway .. Namarie for now.. Irmo is waiting
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
ArPharazonV: Have fun on the other side of the rainbow.
AriehnV: Namarie :-)
AriehnV has left the room.
VardaValar1: Namarie Arien :-)
ArPharazonV: Right! WoW:
VardaValar1: What fireworks?
ArPharazonV: I got the challenge mode boost I mentioned last week. Finally we all had time for it yesterday, in the early evening.
ArPharazonV: Fireworks in WoW? Not sure, I don't think I ever sat down in a capital at new year's :-)
ArPharazonV: And while we are technically on raid-break during the holidays for our full community and our progress raids, tonight we started an achievement run on normal difficulty for those of us who wanted them (and were free).
ArPharazonV: Out of the 13 HFC normal achievements, we got 9 tonight, and saving the 4 from the toughest bosses for next week, if we get enough people.
ArPharazonV: This should get fel wolf mounts for all of us, http://www.wowhead.com/item=127140/infernal-direwolf if anyone wants to see it.
ArPharazonV: Lessee, what else... I fought all 15 legendary pets in Tanaan for the achievement, and am continuing to fight 5 of them every day until I get all the rare pets from the reward bag. Could take a while. Doing all 15 every day just takes a lot of time, and some of them are really annoying :-)
ArPharazonV: I'll probably add 5 more to the daily list after I can finally fly in Draenor, which shouldn't be too long now; I started the final step, getting 100 treasures outside Tanaan, and am at 20 treasures currently.
ArPharazonV: And also, I got exalted reputation with the Saberstalker faction in Tanaan, getting me to 84 exalted factions, and pretty much finishing the reputation-job for this expansion. Got nothing left! But I do have a variety of other projects that are very close to beginning now :-)
ArPharazonV: Still continuing with the Winter Veil daily quests. I don't have the Grumpus mount yet from the savage gifts you can buy from the daily quest rewards, but hoping I still get it before the holiday's over, otherwise it'll have to wait a year.
ArPharazonV: Oh, and following on my statement from last week's report, I finally did get that human carrier from my shipyard. Still working on levelling it, after that I'll probably continue the ship-building. Only a couple of boats left until I have my ideal fleet.
ArPharazonV: And that's my weekly report!

ArPharazonV: *testing* still here?
ArPharazonV: Yupyup.
VardaValar1: yep, we're still here
ArPharazonV: :-)
VardaValar1: So, being a ship-king again? :-)
ArPharazonV: Heh, yes, in a way. Too bad we're limited to a fleet of 10 ships.
VardaValar1: A lot in those times.
VardaValar1: Here's a neat number thing:
VardaValar1: A million seconds is twelve days, a trillion seconds is 33 years.
ArPharazonV: Not a forest of masts ;-)
VardaValar1: So you need a trillion ships?
ArPharazonV: Few hundred'd be nice!
VardaValar1: Granted. :-)
ArPharazonV: Being able to hop from mast to mast until I get to Tanaan from Shadowmoon ;-)
VardaValar1: Yay!
VardaValar1: Have them travel a while between mast jumps maybe
ArPharazonV: Nah, just completely occupying the sea between them.
VardaValar1: There you go
ArPharazonV: saving and sending transcript
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