May 3, 2015 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EDT (UTC/GMT - 5)
AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace
Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.
Attending: (4)
ArPharazonV, Indis-(V)/karakedi25, Pallando Valar, VardaValar1 (presiding)
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Phar's birthday is coming up
Web:
Tolkien Site: new art from DeepGroover-(T)
Games Site news for games, see Gaming
Gaming
Tolkien:
Topic: Corsairs of Umbar. What do we know about them from the books?
After-meeting:
More gaming news
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
VardaValar1 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: /wave
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Logging out of LotRO
VardaValar1: Inviting
VardaValar1: See Arien anywhere?
ArPharazonV: If I recall, Arien was not here today.
VardaValar1: Away, I think
VardaValar1: Aye
VardaValar1: Thanks :-)
ArPharazonV: Visiting family.
VardaValar1: Very good.
VardaValar1: No other responses, maybe later.
VardaValar1: Are you in-game?
VardaValar1: It's fine, just checking.
ArPharazonV: Oh, right, yes, still in WoW, just paying a short visit to the Darkmoon Faire before I log.
VardaValar1: Sounds fun. :-)
VardaValar1: Ok, I'll start in on the business news.
ArPharazonV: I'll keep the new racing achievement for later in the week. Just going to pick up a balloon ;-)
PallandoValar has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Enjoy!
ArPharazonV: Aiya Pallando!
ArPharazonV: And thanks.
PallandoValar: Aiya
VardaValar1: Aiya Pallando :-)
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
VardaValar1: A star shines on the hour of our meeting.
karakedi25 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya Indis :-)
karakedi25: Aiya.
karakedi25: You were certainly fast, Varda!
VardaValar1: Happens. :-)
VardaValar1: Membership:
VardaValar1: Arien is away today visiting family. May they enjoy the warmth of her sunshine.
VardaValar1: Any other membership news?
ArPharazonV: Aiya Indis!
ArPharazonV: Birthday in a few days.
ArPharazonV: I'm officially becoming slightly less young.
VardaValar1: Happy birthday in advance, Phar!
VardaValar1: Gaining experience levels.
ArPharazonV: Hehe.
VardaValar1: I broke a toe pretty hard, a good thing in a way as that means being in front of the computer more.
VardaValar1: Sauron says hi
karakedi25: Ow ow ow
ArPharazonV: Ouch.
VardaValar1: Spiral fracture, nothing halfway is my motto. It's taken care of, and I get some goof-off time. ;-)
VardaValar1: Any other membership news?
ArPharazonV: It's a strange thing that we should suffer so much pain over so small a thing.
karakedi25: That's the silver lining I guess
ArPharazonV: Such a little thing. As a toe.
VardaValar1: Well put. :-)
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: Tolkien Site:
ArPharazonV: *strange fate
ArPharazonV: Bah, I was so close.
VardaValar1: We all got the reference, worked fine. :-)
VardaValar1: In art, we have a new model from DeepGroover-(T), a bit more Tolkienesque this time.
VardaValar1: The box for the original had to call it an orc on a wolf, but we all know it's a Warg Rider.
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/art/gallery/DeepGroover/WargRider/WargRider.htm
VardaValar1: This page has a batch of progress photos at the bottom as links too.
VardaValar1: The red background picture was specially emailed.
VardaValar1: The other pictures are by permission and come from his Facebook.
VardaValar1: Games Site:
VardaValar1: Eonwe has put up lots of good news for us that we're about to mention.
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: LotRO:
VardaValar1: Coming Soon:
Update 16: Ashes of Osgiliath.
See the Developer Diaries on
Legendary Item Imbuement
and the
new Instance Cluster
that are coming with this update.
VardaValar1: More links are also on the News.
karakedi25: appropos of LotRO: http://lotroplayers.com/2015/05/03/poll-what-part-of-update-16-will-you-do-first/
karakedi25: A fun site.
VardaValar1: Thanks!
karakedi25: very brief poll
VardaValar1: Imbuement info from Bullroarer:
VardaValar1: http://rarebreed.guildlaunch.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10816195
VardaValar1: Indis, which one do you think you might do first? :-)
karakedi25: nicely done site. Looks as though they also borrowed some from Crichton's work in progress.
VardaValar1: I've already nearly completed work on my hunter's LI to be
ready for imbuement, probably get surprises when it actually hits.
karakedi25: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?567833-Imbued-Legendary-Items-Guide
VardaValar1: Thanks!
karakedi25: I did it on my LM items on Bullroarer, so I'm feeling reasonably confident of doing it on live
VardaValar1: Experience tells. :-)
VardaValar1: (See Phar? Go for that experience. ;-) )
karakedi25: The LM changes aren't bad, and some are good.
karakedi25: I'm also ready for the questing on my LM: finished all the quests (and trait points) today for Central Gondor.
VardaValar1: Congrats!
ArPharazonV: (don't have much of a choice, Varda!)
ArPharazonV: Grats :-)
karakedi25: I will say that I'm looking forward to visiting Central and Eastern Gondor after the Dawnless Day cloud dissipates.
VardaValar1: It would sure look different.
karakedi25: They will be lovely in the sunlight :-)
VardaValar1: Ever more to look forward to.
VardaValar1: Anyway, Servers will be down Monday May 4th 8:00am to 1:00pm for an update.
VardaValar1: WoW:
VardaValar1: From Eonwe:
VardaValar1: See what's going on
this month in WoW.
VardaValar1: Check out the
PTR patch notes
and the
Tanaan Jungle Zone Preview.
VardaValar1: Don't forget the
recent hotfixes.
VardaValar1: StarCraft 2:
VardaValar1: There's been a
ladder update.
Follow the link for more info.
VardaValar1: Check out the
Balance Update Preview.
and the
Balance Update
announcements for the Legacy of the Void Beta.
VardaValar1: Hearthstone:
VardaValar1: Now Open:
Blackrock Mountain: The Hidden Laboratory.
VardaValar1: From our general News:
VardaValar1: SWTOR:
VardaValar1: On April 28, we had a verrrry long patch.
VardaValar1: Update 3.2 "Rise of the Emperor". Be sure to start up the
game well before gaming time today, if you can. There's also a one-time
log-in password for this particular time. Patch notes here. Among the
changes are: new Imperial planet Ziost and a new outfit designer,
season 5 is starting on the Ranked Arena. Relics of the Gree event is
back from May 12 - May 19. Bounty Contract week returns from May 19 -
May 26.
VardaValar1: And here's this page:
VardaValar1: http://www.swtor.com/gameupdates/rise-of-the-emperor
VardaValar1: Cinematic there as well as news.
VardaValar1: Pallando has EVE Online news.
PallandoValar: Let's see
PallandoValar: The new patch hit last Tuesday, with the biggest changes being the addition of a proper ship skinning system.
PallandoValar: So now too in Eve can you pay silly amounts of money to make your ship pretty colors..
PallandoValar: http://puu.sh/hxdS5/d8bc5ce305.jpg
PallandoValar: http://i.imgur.com/ECDGi4v.jpg
PallandoValar: The issue is that these were only intended to go on specific ships.. each one was custom-designed.
PallandoValar: But there's a bug where you can apply them to any ship.
ArPharazonV: Make them pink!
PallandoValar: People are now clamoring for it to stay that way, CCP
doesn't like it cause the skins weren't designed to do it.. we'll see.
PallandoValar: Big sov changes still slated for June.. and the new opportunities system that replaces the tutorial is live.
PallandoValar: So if the Eve totorial seemed awful before, come try out this new system. All reviews suggest it's great.
VardaValar1: Good to hear. :-)
PallandoValar: and of course I'll shower you in gifts if you join.
PallandoValar: That's it for me.
ArPharazonV: Allow me to add here that this month, May, yet another Hearthstone season has started, awarding a Ninja card back.
VardaValar1: Thank you. :-) Sauron was definitely considering EVE when he heard there was non-pvp too.
ArPharazonV: Both theme and colorscheme scream "Rogue!" to me, but feel free to use it anywhere after you earn it ;-)
VardaValar1: Rogue/ninja/burglar... :-)
ArPharazonV: Burglar works too!
ArPharazonV: http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/18872058/ US link for ye across the pond.
VardaValar1: Cute. Strike-out through prey and put in opponents. :-)
VardaValar1: the words, prey and opponents I mean.
ArPharazonV: Hehe, yep.
ArPharazonV: If they ever put in the option to assign card back to
individual decks/classes, I can promise you that that one will go on a
lot of rogue decks. Including mine.
ArPharazonV: For now, though, sticking with last month's card back, cupcake!
VardaValar1: All sounds so hobbity, cupcakes, burglars. :-)
VardaValar1: Any other business, comments, suggestions? This is your chance!
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
VardaValar1: If you have any Tolkien topic suggestions, let us know. Or you get mine. :-)
VardaValar1: Corsairs of Umbar. What do we know about them from the books? They are quite prominent right now in LotRO.
VardaValar1: Phar, you may have somewhat to say on this one.
ArPharazonV: Well, I did look them up once. Wish I could remember where.
ArPharazonV: Probably appendix A? Anyway, I can keep it general.
VardaValar1: It's fine to look up stuff for this so we can have more depth, not a quiz.
ArPharazonV: While the Elendili had their strongholds and colonies up
north, the King's Men of Numenor had a series of fortresses to the
south. If I recall, the northernmost was Umbar.
ArPharazonV: It's also the only one we hear about.
karakedi25: We're getting a lot of information about them in LotRO,
which has included quite a lot of lore from the books. Lots about the
kin-strife, Castamir and his putative heirs, some about Thorongil.
ArPharazonV: After the end of the Second Age, the Corsairs were pretty
much what was left of the King's Men, as they continued to control
Umbar and control parts of Harad.
VardaValar1: When Ar-Pharazon came with his ships to fight Sauron, he landed at Umbar.
ArPharazonV: That's also true!
ArPharazonV: Presumably it was a foothold that was already under
control, then. Or Sauron had taken it, and it was a good spot to start
fighting back.
VardaValar1: Aye, the King's Men were in oppositon to the Faithful, as
you said the Elendili, and therefore against the Valar. That led them
to be called Black Numenoreans.
ArPharazonV: I believe there was a monument raised there to remember Pharazon's landing.
VardaValar1: At that time, the landing was a great thing, apparently a huge victory.
VardaValar1: Sauron gave up to Ar-Pharazon and was taken back to Numenor.
ArPharazonV: Yes. While the King's Men continued to govern Umbar and the surrounding lands.
VardaValar1: Hey, you may still have a statue up, Phar. :-)
ArPharazonV: Doubtful. After the Third Age Aragorn might have paid it a visit.
VardaValar1: He did, at that. Might not have cared much about the statues, being busy and in a hurry.
ArPharazonV: True.
VardaValar1: It was one of the good things Ar-Pharazon did, trying to free Middle-earth from Sauron, even if partly for glory.
ArPharazonV: Anyway, there are stories in Appendix A about raids by
these Black Numenoreans, or Corsairs, towards Gondor. The kin-strife
plays a part, and the place switched leaders a few times, taking up
Gondorian blood, but ultimately it remained in the service of evil. If
you want the details, I'll have to grab the book from upstairs.
VardaValar1: The Haradrim kept attacking Umbar, leading to Gondor having to trounce them.
ArPharazonV: I'll go get the book.
VardaValar1: yay
VardaValar1: The wars with Harad just kept going. Lots of room there for future animosity that can show up in LotRO.
VardaValar1: Harad was under Gondorian control until the Kin-strife.
karakedi25: to say nothing of mop-up in Umbar
VardaValar1: Castamir's descendants had to flee Pelargir, relatives to the King and trying to usurp unsuccessfully.
VardaValar1: They ran to Umbar.
VardaValar1: They took over the place and gave Gondor an awful time.
VardaValar1: Fighting went back and forth, much bad blood.
VardaValar1: Then came the Plague.
VardaValar1: Sauron was behind that, and it weakened both sides.
ArPharazonV: Looks like I don't even need the book ;-)
VardaValar1: Gondor managed to attack first, and took down Umbar, wiping out the descendants of Castamir.
VardaValar1: Hey Phar, I am leaving out a ton, and could have mistakes. :-)
ArPharazonV: Well, got the book here, if you want details!
VardaValar1: Gondor was then in trouble, almost lost to the Wainriders.
VardaValar1: That left Umbar open so the Corsairs took it over again.
VardaValar1: They made life pretty tough on the locals, more serfs than villagers.
VardaValar1: So they were glad to help out after Aragorn brought the
Dead through and terrified the Corsairs right off their ships.
ArPharazonV: Must've been difficult, being a citizen of Umbar. Having to switch allegiances every once in a while.
VardaValar1: Who's in power today? Does it affect the price of vegetables and sheep?
VardaValar1: Can we go fishing and keep most of our catch?
ArPharazonV: reminds me of this webcomic's page: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0169.html I never liked him anyway!
VardaValar1: When Aragorn and his part of the Fellowship took the
Corsair ships (yep, they had black sails), their crew came from the
people they had just freed.
VardaValar1: yay Order of the Stick. :-)
ArPharazonV: It wasn't even Aragorn's first encounter with Umbar!
VardaValar1: heh, several leader changes in one comic page. :-)
ArPharazonV: But the first time he took the name Thorongil.
ArPharazonV: Yes, that's the point :-)
VardaValar1: "Eagle of the Star"
VardaValar1: He wore that star all the time, as the Dunadan, I think is where that part of the name came from.
VardaValar1: Must have been a shock for the oldsters to see him as Aragorn, still apparently the same age.
VardaValar1: Bet the stories flew thick and fast trying to explain that.
ArPharazonV: Can't be him, he's much too young!
ArPharazonV: Probably his son or grandson.
VardaValar1: After all, he came as King of the Dead. (not some green guy)
VardaValar1: Aragorn looked a lot like Valandil, so they might well
have though it was more of the family resemblance thing going.
VardaValar1: (In the LotRO game, we get to see the statue of Thorongil, and rangers staring at it.)
VardaValar1: In the books, the rangers traveled with Aragorn through
the Paths of the Dead and went with him to Umbar and Minas Tirith.
VardaValar1: And of course to the Black Gate.
VardaValar1: So Aragorn cleaned up Umbar again.
ArPharazonV: At least their invasion force. And after that he went back to the source.
VardaValar1: After the War of the Ring, Aragorn and Eomer had to take
their armies out together and keep the peace. The Haradrim and
Easterlings, and left-over orcs had to be kept from violence versus
Gondor.
VardaValar1: The locals had just gone through a war and looked like easy pickings. The armies kept that from being true.
ArPharazonV: They can't have been very organized, anyway. Though Umbar would still have some lords who did not go to war. Yet.
VardaValar1: Or had escaped.
ArPharazonV: Perhaps.
ArPharazonV: Well, let's see if we can fill in some more details, according to Appendix A...
ArPharazonV: It seems the Black Numenoreans were quick to dwindle and
mingle with the men of Middle-earth (presumably Haradrim) after the end
of the Second Age, so it's difficult to separate them. Ideologically,
though, they were still quite hostile to Gondor.
VardaValar1: True. The people of Umbar became mixed quite a bit with the Haradrim.
ArPharazonV: Earnil the first seems to have been the first to take Umbar, after repairing Pelargir and building a big fleet.
ArPharazonV: After his death in a storm, his son had to defend Umbar
from those who had been driven out, but was killed, though Umbar could
not be wholly retaken because of the naval presence of Gondor.
ArPharazonV: *His* son settled the matter for a while, invading Harad
from the north over land and sea, truly subjugating the Haradrim for
some time.
ArPharazonV: This king named himself Hyarmendacil, South-Victor, and
reigned over one of the most glorious periods in Gondorian history.
Seems Umbar was peaceful for a bit.
VardaValar1: Needed a chance to repair and get some fishing done. :-)
ArPharazonV: Time goes by, then we get the kinstrife.
ArPharazonV: Trying to see where Umbar gets involved again..
ArPharazonV: Yep, Castamir, the usurper of the Gondorian throne, had
the support of the havens of Pelargir and Umbar. When he was defeated,
his sons fled to Umbar and made it once again into an enemy of Gondor.
ArPharazonV: So now Umbar was under control of Gondorian blood, with
the Black Numenorean blood having dwindled. Would still have been
strong among some families of the Haradrim and of Umbar, I suppose.
VardaValar1: Still enough for longer life, strength, being imposing looking.
ArPharazonV: Indeed.
ArPharazonV: The great-grandsons of Castamir then raided Gondor once again, slaying king Minardil at Pelargir.
VardaValar1: /mourn
ArPharazonV: Then came the plague, which led to a period of calm wherein Gondor had to nurse its strength.
ArPharazonV: But Umbar kept raiding now and then until king Telumehtar
struck back, extinguishing Castamir's line, and making Umbar part of
Gondor for a while again.
ArPharazonV: But you've already mentioned part of that :-)
ArPharazonV: Then we get the wainriders, and the war with Angmar, and the end of the line of kings...
VardaValar1: But you're telling it better. :-)
ArPharazonV: And during all that not much is said of Umbar, but the
Wainriders did make alliance with the Haradrim, who, it seems, took
over Umbar again while Gondor was weak.
ArPharazonV: Eventually they succumbed to Sauron and his servants, and
cast down the monument of Pharazon's landing and Sauron's humiliation.
ArPharazonV: Poor monument.
VardaValar1: You could use Super-glue.
ArPharazonV: In the days of the 19th steward, Umbar sent 3 great fleets
to invade Gondor, while Rohan was attacked from the west.
ArPharazonV: The son, Beregond, of this steward, Beren, fought back the invaders and then came to Rohan's aid.
ArPharazonV: During the days of Turin II the Haradrim and presumably
Umbar invade once again, but this time Rohan returned the favor.
ArPharazonV: And then the next mention is when Thorongil attacked Umbar
by night with a small fleet, burning the Corsair ships, and returning
with little loss.
ArPharazonV: Umbar slowly tries to recover up to the point where they
can barely send a few ships to invade Gondor in the War of the Ring..
and then they're thrown out by a bunch of ghosts.
ArPharazonV: And so ends the story of Umbar! Now let me find that tube of super-glue...
VardaValar1: hehe
VardaValar1: It's near that empty tub of Ovalquick.
VardaValar1: Here endeth the Tolkien session.
ArPharazonV: *bows*
VardaValar1: /cheer
VardaValar1: *picks up the hammer recently glued back together by the illustrious Phar the Golden*
VardaValar1: *Kraaaaaaack!*
VardaValar1: *um, er*
ArPharazonV: Is it broken again?
ArPharazonV: So much for the superglue.
VardaValar1: Please pass the Superglue.
VardaValar1: Aule probably has more.
ArPharazonV: *passes the glue* *tube is stuck to hand*
VardaValar1: *warms the glue until it melts*
VardaValar1: *rebuilds Phar's hand*
VardaValar1: o and,
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VardaValar1: After-meeting!
VardaValar1: That was one of the less well-done hammerings for end of meeting. *cough*
ArPharazonV: Right. Personal gaming news. Not much to add for flashgaming..
I'll give you a game that is apparently a new version of a really oldy,
called Hi Roads, where you steer a ball over some roads with gaps in
them to try to reach the finish.
ArPharazonV: http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/hi_roads
VardaValar1: Did it improve?
ArPharazonV: And a launch/upgrade continuation of the Sushi Cat series, at http://www.kongregate.com/games/Jimp/sushi-catapult
ArPharazonV: I've no idea, never played the old one :-) It's fun though, but a bit difficult!
VardaValar1: Sounds like that road near Elwing's house.
ArPharazonV: As for other games...
ArPharazonV: I went back into Diablo 3
again for season 3. Good thing I did, too; apparently I was only 5 days
away from losing all the items from season 2 I hadn't claimed yet.
ArPharazonV: So if you haven't logged in since season 2, you'd better do it fast.
ArPharazonV: I found out that most of the seasonal achievements were
removed for season 3, leaving only a bunch of max-level achievements
for torment difficulty, rifts, gems, etc.
ArPharazonV: So I don't think I'll be getting the banner rewards for
100 and 400 achievement points this time around. Seems they wanted to
make those a bit more exclusive. But I'll live without them, I'll just
go for the reward for bringing a character to max level.
ArPharazonV: This time around I made my first monk, and got him to
level 8 today. Doesn't seem as fun and varied as the witch doctor so
far, since he just appears to have some melee martial-artsy moves so
far. But I'll be getting a lot more abilities as I level up, so we'll
see.
PallandoValar: Anyone try Heroes of the Storm yet?
ArPharazonV: I have not, but I'll try it around launch, I suppose, which is a month from now.
PallandoValar: It's interesting, I guess.
ArPharazonV: Not a big fan of MOBAs, but it should be fun, and there'll be plenty of stuff for me to collect :-)
PallandoValar: Basically 100% teamfights, all the time.
PallandoValar: Some of the maps are big enough that you can split up
PallandoValar: But there's so many movement abilities, plus the mounts..
ArPharazonV: Sounds rather fast-paced.
PallandoValar: Very
VardaValar1: Someone tried the beta, sounds like. :-)
PallandoValar: Most games I've played are sub 20min
PallandoValar: :-)
VardaValar1: Something one can do on his lunch hour. :-)
ArPharazonV: Should be good.
ArPharazonV: hearthstone!
ArPharazonV: Yes, wing 5 of Blackrock Mountain came out this week, but
I can't buy it yet. I thought it'd take 2 weeks more, but I actually
got 300 gold this week for getting 1000 victories in Hearthstone!
ArPharazonV: So I'll probably buy it next week instead. I haven't even finished wing 4 yet, so that's fine.
ArPharazonV: Most of my classes are level 34 now. 3 or 4 left, I think. Will max those out in the upcoming days.
ArPharazonV: Let's see, WoW...
ArPharazonV: Still wiping on Blackhand, still working on pets from old
raids. I got a bunch of new toys and a new pet from a vendor in
Stormwind, though, including 2 Children's Week balloons that I visited
him for. So there's that, anyway!
ArPharazonV: Also done a bit more questing in Gorgrond, but not much progress.
VardaValar1: 1000 victories...
ArPharazonV: Yes. In about.. 13 months I think?
ArPharazonV: It all adds up!
ArPharazonV: And I think that's it for me! Will be poking Darkmoon
Faire in the coming week, I think there's a new darkmoon racer
available now with some achievements.
VardaValar1: Nice
karakedi25: Time for me to call it a night. See you on the other side of the update, Varda. Namarie all
VardaValar1: Huzzah for Osgiliath!
VardaValar1: Namarie :-)
karakedi25 has left the room.
ArPharazonV: Namarie!
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