Valar Guild

January 17, 2016 Sunday Meeting

5pm EST (UTC/GMT - 5)

AIM: Valar Guild Meetingplace

Back to News
Transcript work by Ar-Pharazon and Varda.

Attending: (4)
    Arien-(Valar)/AriehnV, ArPharazonV, Lenwe-(V)/perseid28, VardaValar1 (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
    Article work
Gaming
Tolkien:
    Topic: Medicine
After -meeting:
    Art by the Bohemian Weasel-(T) of David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King.
    Ar-Pharazon: gaming news including flashgaming reviews.
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Before-meeting
You have just entered room "valarguildmeetingplace."
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Aiya Phar :-)
VardaValar1: We're over thirty minutes early. Yay us!
AriehnV has entered the room.
VardaValar1: Aiya Sunshine :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya
AriehnV: Aiya Star Lady :-)
AriehnV: Aiya Golden One!
perseid28 has entered the room.
VardaValar1: I'll drop into LotRO to see if anyone there would like to join in, maybe relay from the game.
VardaValar1: Aiya Lenwe :-)
ArPharazonV: Aiya!
VardaValar1: Meanwhile, inviting
perseid28: Aiya :-)
AriehnV: Aiya Lenwe :-)
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VardaValar1: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Membership:
VardaValar1: In LotRO, I see Elwing-V gaming. :-)
ArPharazonV: *waves*
VardaValar1: All members are welcome to scout for new members, nice folk that have read at least the LotR.
AriehnV: Aiya Elwing :-)
VardaValar1: or for Tolkien Site contributors.
VardaValar1: Copy/pasted your hellos. Think she's afk at the moment.
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VardaValar1: Web:
VardaValar1: Tolkien Site:
VardaValar1: More work done to make some articles look better and be a bit more accurate on the diacriticals, a real bugbear.
VardaValar1: such as
VardaValar1: this one that had most of the marks
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/articles/b/bookreviews/SilmarillionA.htm
VardaValar1: and needed to be brought more in line with the formatting
VardaValar1: which led to looking again at Arveleg's hard work on the Timeline
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/events/timeline/Complete_Chronology_of_First_Age.htm
VardaValar1: which includes a few links to articles in our Tolkien Encyclopedia.
VardaValar1: But he had to stop work before going on to the Second Age, so I'm setting up a page to do that in his place, preferably with help from the Valar Guild (you guys included!)
VardaValar1: that is just now barely up in bare bones fashion to be added into:
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/events/timeline/Second_Age.htm
VardaValar1: put up just minutes ago to give you an idea of what's happening.
VardaValar1: It will have dates that link to articles
VardaValar1: Another of our nifty ways of organizing our articles
ArPharazonV: RotK appendix should be good for that.
VardaValar1: Aye, and many other things including the HoME where most of the previous info came from.
ArPharazonV: Unfinished Tales, kings of Numenor
VardaValar1: Christopher didn't have access to a lot of the later notes for the chronology when he was putting together the Silmarillion
VardaValar1: Aye, our Kings section needs love too:
VardaValar1: http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/articles/k/kings/kingsMan.htm
perseid28 has left the room.
VardaValar1: The idea on the Kings pages was to mention the events of each king's reign and link to them from that article, as well as helping with the line of kings and each of their info.
VardaValar1: Lenwe-V said he'd have to leave after half an hour. Busy day on Sunday.
ArPharazonV: Aw.
VardaValar1: Elwing-V is wrestling the settings on her new computer. Hi to everyone.
VardaValar1: Gaming page is updated
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VardaValar1: Gaming:
VardaValar1: LotRO:
VardaValar1: The long-awaited move of all the data from the old servers to the new has been completed.
VardaValar1: We are now off 32-bit into 64-bit, with a new operating system.
VardaValar1: Much insanity has resulted with hotfixes going for that reason, but it's showing signs of smoothing out.
ArPharazonV: Doesn't that give any problems with older hardware, on the client side?
VardaValar1: O yes indeed.
VardaValar1: The Devs are trying to work with every type of old junk computer we use as well as the super fancy new rigs. We gamers are a mixed lot. I don't envy the Devs.
VardaValar1: A lot of us on the player side are old curmudgeons, due to it being Middle-earth, so there may be more than the usual number of junk comps to deal with.
VardaValar1: We even have Linux operators in the guild. Lenwe for one.
VardaValar1: Lots of variety.
ArPharazonV: Makes things tricky :-)
VardaValar1: Too right
VardaValar1: World of Warcraft:
VardaValar1: The Legion Alpha test is going again. See what's currently available to test in this blog.
VardaValar1: See the latest hotfixes for the live servers.
VardaValar1: Oh, back to LotRO, almost forgot. We have this weekend a player event called Winterstock.
ArPharazonV: Sounds musical.
VardaValar1: This is a music and dance event put on by players. Devs are spotted in the crowd sometimes, trying to hide.
VardaValar1: It started on our server with Weatherstock on top of Weathertop, a big summer music event.
VardaValar1: Now we have one going for each season. :-)
VardaValar1: Weatherstock is one day, but Winterstock is all weekend.
VardaValar1: Marigold-V and Gorlim-V just popped into LotRO. Hi!
VardaValar1: Diablo 3:
VardaValar1: Patch 2.4.0 is live and so is Season 5.
ArPharazonV: Also hi!
VardaValar1: Season 5 begins January 15th.
ArPharazonV: Yep. And they did go through with the stash space thing, which makes it quite difficult to get.
VardaValar1: That's all my gaming news. Does anyone else have a bit of general news for gaming?
ArPharazonV: Greymane's been released for Heroes of the Storm.
VardaValar1: A challenge or just annoying?
ArPharazonV: Challenge, really. Time-consuming, mostly.
ArPharazonV: Requires you to finish... chapter 7 or 8 in the season journey, I think. Quite tough, requires a lot of time. I was happy just finishing chapter 4 in the last season.
ArPharazonV: Anyway, Greymane's a combination of melee and ranged assassin, shooting with his pistol in human form and meleeing in worgen form. Haven't tried him yet, but looks fun :-)
ArPharazonV: And I don't think I know anything else for general news!
VardaValar1: Thanks. That was quite a bit. :-)
VardaValar1: Is there any other business, news, suggestions, requests, or comments anyone would like to bring up while you have an officer handy?
VardaValar1: If not, then...
VardaValar1: Tolkien!
ArPharazonV: Hmm.. had dentist appointment last week, gotta go back in 2 days?
VardaValar1: eek
VardaValar1: Hope all goes well for you, Phar.
ArPharazonV: me too!
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VardaValar1: Tolkien:
VardaValar1: JRRT made an amazingly complete world. Included in this were mentions of medicine used in different areas, and that of course tends to be mixed up with what happened after the death if any of particular races.
VardaValar1: In Valinor, what might medicine be needed for?
VardaValar1: (magic healing counts)
ArPharazonV: Could trip and fall off a cliff, might be injured!
VardaValar1: The king of the Noldor was murdered in Valinor, first death there.
ArPharazonV: Bit tough to heal.
VardaValar1: Some very high mountains and cliffs, true.
VardaValar1: And yet, we have the Halls of Mandos in Valinor. An elf could come back from there, or choose not to.
ArPharazonV: A healing of the spirit, yes. If possible.
VardaValar1: or Namo could refuse to let them out.
ArPharazonV: Might be quite boring in there.
VardaValar1: As in the Doom of the Noldor pronounced as Feanor's followers left. No getting out, even if all their victims forgave them.
VardaValar1: One mention is that they had to go over their lives (often very long for an elf) and work out what they did right or wrong. Learn from it.
VardaValar1: The weirdest thing to me was the batch of humans in the pit that seemed to remain. Some Ar-Pharazon guy and followers.
VardaValar1: They didn't get to move on to beyond the Circles of Arda as most humans did. Ticked off Eru.
ArPharazonV: Not exactly the Halls, but similar. Trapped in our bodies, perhaps.
VardaValar1: They might be in an awesome state of boredom.
VardaValar1: Humans are mentioned as doing a stop-over in Mandos to review their lives for a short time, then move on outside the Circles of Arda.
ArPharazonV: Depends on what supplies we get down there.
VardaValar1: True. Those cards get ragged after a while, need replaced.
VardaValar1: Anyway, in Valinor they could have accidents or fights, be kinslaying victims.
VardaValar1: Presumably since elves heal fast and they are in the presence of the Valar and other Ainur, they heal even faster.
ArPharazonV: Something in the air..
VardaValar1: They probably also have decent patcher-uppers.
VardaValar1: The Numenoreans mistakenly believed (from Sauron's disinformation) that they would become deathless if they could land in Valinor. It was not the land, but the people that were deathless.
VardaValar1: Still, the Valar probably did healing and the teaching of healing, at least some of them.
VardaValar1: This teaching would have gone with the elves to Middle-earth. And whatever magic they learned to use for it as well, whether they called it that or not.
ArPharazonV: Might be less of the required reagents around, though.
VardaValar1: The elves still in Middle-earth and the Dunedain probably picked up a lot of medical knowledge from them, added to what they learned.
VardaValar1: Aye. Have to really hunt for athelas and for a king to use it.
VardaValar1: Then the Dunedain Faithful would have brought over a lot of healing knowledge with them, plus the line of Kings
ArPharazonV: Apparently having a king around is good for medicine, yes.
ArPharazonV: Who knew?
VardaValar1: People that don't know how herbs and cleanliness help, would have difficulty telling ordinary medicine from magic.
VardaValar1: Someone knew as it was in the learning poems, apparently. They would know the king by his healing, and they called athelas "kingsfoil" like a weapon vs the dread coming from Sauron and from him through his minions.
VardaValar1: The main use we see in the books of athelas is against what they called the "black breath".
VardaValar1: We know they had a plague out of Mordor that killed many in Gondor. Probably related.
VardaValar1: All over Middle-earth, fighting involved sharp-edged weapons and blunt ones as well.
VardaValar1: Healers had to keep busy.
VardaValar1: We know they had Houses of Healing in a permanent state in Minas Tirith, complete with trained healers.
VardaValar1: "Wise women" like Ioreth were apparently in high esteem for their knowledge.
ArPharazonV: Pretty much a hospital.
VardaValar1: Not sure they were trained the same way.
VardaValar1: Aye, the early hospital.
VardaValar1: Fun to see the starting of many things we have now back in the pre-history of Middle-earth.
ArPharazonV: And with the most effective doctor being the king, he would've been a busy man.
VardaValar1: True. How about in Rivendell?
VardaValar1: We do know Aragorn was busy in the Houses of Healing cleaning up after the nazgul with their morgul weapons and dread.
ArPharazonV: Ah, yes. Rivendell. Didn't seem to have done Bilbo much good with his rapid aging, but they did manage to save Frodo.
VardaValar1: Rivendell was a place the chieftains of the Dunedain, really the line of the high king, learned healing.
ArPharazonV: Elrond was a good teacher.
VardaValar1: Bilbo might have died much sooner. As it was, they kept him in good enough condition so that he could make a trip to Valinor.
VardaValar1: Aye
ArPharazonV: That is true.
ArPharazonV: He would've gone there in any case, for a short while..
VardaValar1: His twin sons probably learned a lot of healing from Elrond, using it frequently on the rangers that they ran with so much.
VardaValar1: Being in the Halls of Mandos in the separated human section after death, Bilbo would not have had the fun of seeing the elves. It was a special privilege.
VardaValar1: He would have the unusual chance to compare where the elves went to where the humans went.
VardaValar1: What about hobbit medicine?
VardaValar1: We know they bathed often. Hey for the bath at the close of the day.
ArPharazonV: Was Sam aware of the uses of kingsfoil in the books?
VardaValar1: They had help from cleanliness, good freshly grown food, sunshine, exercise.
ArPharazonV: And laughter! That's supposedly the best one ;-)
VardaValar1: Sam knew it was a weed and could identify it. He learned the use from Strider.
VardaValar1: Good point!
VardaValar1: Elves also had a merry side. Plus they had story telling, read poetry, had illusion entertainment
ArPharazonV: I'm sure that kept them healthy too.
ArPharazonV: Less stress.
VardaValar1: Seems that the books didn't show much use of the illusions. They were used against the Outlaws of Barahir, and the elves used illusions for entertainment.
VardaValar1: Aye.
VardaValar1: Lots of music for the elves too.
VardaValar1: How about the dwarves?
ArPharazonV: Illusions for entertainment.. now I'm thinking shadow puppets or something :-)
ArPharazonV: Dwarves were especially sturdy, might not have needed much medicine. Bit lacking on the sunlight.
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: We do know the dwarves used musical instruments that they carried even on hard trips, such as those that came to Bilbo's house. And they sang.
ArPharazonV: That helps.
VardaValar1: Not sure if dwarves danced, but we know hobbits and elves and humans did.
AriehnV: Music seems to have been used for healing anyway
AriehnV: Tom Bombadil used it to drive the wight away and it helped to call back the hobbits
VardaValar1: Aye, if only for a feeling of fellowship and letting off stress.
VardaValar1: True
VardaValar1: Music was used for creation and sup-creation, so it probably could be used for a strong healing effect if one knew how.
VardaValar1: That might be one reason the elves sang so much.
VardaValar1: We know Legolas sang quite a bit, even though he was not with other elves.
VardaValar1: The Lorien elves identified Legolas by his singing
ArPharazonV: Might be why the Fellowship kept so healthy, despite their hardships.
VardaValar1: Tom Bombadil's healing music must have been stronger than even the elves', as he seemed to be like or was one of the Ainur.
VardaValar1: He was closer to the sub-creation.
ArPharazonV: If you think about it, Frodo's health didn't really go too far down until after they left Legolas behind.
VardaValar1: That's a new thought. Thanks, Phar.
AriehnV: The Elves had stronger healing powers for sure
VardaValar1: Even orcs, presumably descended from elves, had a form of medicine. They used a disgusting healing potion on Merry for instance.
VardaValar1: Did we mention all the races?
ArPharazonV: Hmm.
VardaValar1: We mentioned elves, hobbits, men, Ainur, dwarves, orcs
ArPharazonV: Dragons? Eh...
VardaValar1: heh
VardaValar1: Smaug used a coating of gems to cover his softer underbelly. That may have also worked for bandaging.
VardaValar1: Fire for cauterizing too, maybe.
VardaValar1: The dragons weren't stupid, so they probably had something.
ArPharazonV: Must be pretty agile to cauterize yourself.
VardaValar1: Snaky wiggling to reach a lot of spots, or have another dragon do it?
VardaValar1: We know little about any that weren't solo.
VardaValar1: The hoarded gold and gems may have had more effects than the dragons want us to know, including healing.
VardaValar1: Gold is a fine electrical conductor, if that has any bearing on it.
ArPharazonV: We know it prevents some injuries
ArPharazonV: Well, I mean, having a gold/gem coating helps against being stabbed :-)
ArPharazonV: It did take one very lucky arrow!
VardaValar1: They had to have a spotter to find the weak area, aye.
VardaValar1: True, good for armor.
VardaValar1: That seems to be most of the races we can think of at the moment. Unless we want to speculate on spiders.
ArPharazonV: I wonder if spider poison has a healthy effect on spides.
ArPharazonV: *spiders
VardaValar1: Maybe webbing for clotting surfaces, growing back limbs.
VardaValar1: Ahh, think they're merely resistant or immune.
VardaValar1: So maybe several spiders poisoning one spider might make it sick or kill it.
ArPharazonV: Not a good idea, unless you have a family feud.
VardaValar1: Likely the elves in Mirkwood, the Beornings, wildmen might have made antivenin from dead spiders.
VardaValar1: heh, aye.
VardaValar1: Doubt they could get into Lorien.
ArPharazonV: Would have to be very sneaky.
ArPharazonV: And possibly able to swim.
AriehnV: herbs of course were used
AriehnV: Athelas
AriehnV: Elves and Humans did anyway
AriehnV: possibly Orcs used plants too for making medicine
VardaValar1: Probably a lot of herb use by the wise women, such as comfrey and aloe for burns.
VardaValar1: Quite possibly. We don't know what was in that foul potion the orcs gave Merry.
ArPharazonV: I'd hope it's plant, because stuff made from animals can be much more vile, at least in my imagination...
VardaValar1: It was pretty vile. :-)
AriehnV: who knows with them ... could have used stuff gained from animal glands or bones .. yuck ^^
ArPharazonV: I suppose so!
AriehnV: it was effective however
VardaValar1: *picks up a tiny wooden gavel. Looks safe*
VardaValar1: *taps it on the gavel pad*
VardaValar1: *ferns and flowers spring up in all directions, rippling out from the hammer tap*
ArPharazonV: One of Yavanna's?
VardaValar1: Seems Yavanna must have walked in while they were making gavels.
VardaValar1: Aye :-)
VardaValar1: At least with her affecting it if only by walking by.
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VardaValar1: After-meeting!
VardaValar1: Free chat.
VardaValar1: No extra cost.
ArPharazonV: Must collect a troll heart from Ashran, then I'll launch into gaming news ;-)
AriehnV: thanks you :-)
VardaValar1: Here's a link fpr the Bohemian Weasel-(T)'s tribute to David Bowie. Sales go to cancer research:
VardaValar1: http://bohemianweasel.com/2016/01/12/jareth-auction-for-cancer-research-uk/2016-jareth-auction/
VardaValar1: David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King, as drawn by the Bohemian Weasel.
AriehnV: .. its my favorite song by him he quoted there .. "Heroes"
AriehnV: so poignantly used in a movie about a young German woman Christiane F. , a drug addict
VardaValar1: In LotRO, we had a group, the Harlequins, that made a new batch of abc files and did a tribute of his music in-game.
VardaValar1: (pardon interruption, please go on)
AriehnV: :-)
VardaValar1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox3hx0dCp74
VardaValar1: We can be heroes
AriehnV: Just for one day
VardaValar1: Major Tom
ArPharazonV: Well, this is not happening. There are like 5 horde in this Ashran fight and no trolls.
ArPharazonV: I'll try again tomorrow.
VardaValar1: Good luck!

ArPharazonV: Right! Personal gaming.
ArPharazonV: For flashgaming I'll throw in 2 games.
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/eliolanda/wise-turn is a puzzle game where you have to rotate rows and columns to get all the tiles aim the same way.
ArPharazonV: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Chazsan/welcome-to-winkletown is a detective game where you have to guess the right culprit from clues you get from questioning people. Can be a bit difficult.

ArPharazonV: Now, Blizzard games!
ArPharazonV: Hearthstone: Not much news. Continuing to gather xp on all my classes. Got to rank 16 this week, probably the highest I'll get in January.
ArPharazonV: The brawl was fun, where both players had to team up against the same boss.
ArPharazonV: Heroes of the Storm: Made some use of the 10-day stimpack I got for playing 50 games during Winter Veil, but not getting as much xp from it as I'd liked. Still, slowly levelling some heroes. Haven't tried Greymane yet. I only focus on one of each role/franchise combination as I can, and I already have a Warcraft Assassin I'm levelling.
ArPharazonV: Diablo 3: Season 5 started, and with it I made my first crusader!
ArPharazonV: Got her to level 21 this weekend, not a lot yet, but I hope to be able to put in more time during the week. If I want to get the Conqueror rank before the end of the season, I'll probably need to step up a bit.
ArPharazonV: Class feels a bit slow and defensive, which is why I'm focusing on a build with high attack speed and holy damage all around, using 1-handed weapon and shield. I hope it functions well at later levels.
ArPharazonV: WoW:
ArPharazonV: Built my sanctum! Now doing the pvp quests, as mentioned above :-) I've already done the questline to get 500 orc kills, and now starting on troll if they're around.
ArPharazonV: I've collected enough bones to level the sanctum to level 3, unlocking the Highmaul Coliseum and its associated quests, but that feature is kind of dead. Might be queued for hours, which is why from now on I plan to queue *before* I start doing my daily things, and hopefully get in at some point now and then.
ArPharazonV: There's an interesting system where you can use the groupfinder to make a raid to kill horde in a large group, and because kills count extra if you're with more people in a party on the same quest, a bit of organization really speeds things along.
ArPharazonV: This project might not take all the months I thought it would take, after all. If the coliseum works out ;-)
ArPharazonV: Still fighting pets in Tanaan. Of the 4 reward pets you can get, I've gotten 2 of one, 3 of another, and 5 of a third... but still none of the fourth, so gotta keep going. I'm sure I'll get there eventually.
VardaValar1: Yay for less waiting
ArPharazonV: Let's see... I got my 25th "bonus" shipyard mission, finishing the achievement for getting all the different types of mission, and giving me the Captain title.
ArPharazonV: Also from the shipyard, I finally got the rare mission that gives the pet shark. Only one more rare mission to do for the achievement, whenever it may appear :-)
ArPharazonV: And for my happiest news: After 7 years of fishing of one kind or other during different WoW expansions, I finally got my Sea Turtle!
VardaValar1: Huzzah!
ArPharazonV: Spending 10 minutes every day fishing for carps, with which to summon mobs, which can drop the turtle, paid off.
ArPharazonV: So that's a bit more time I have free now :-)
AriehnV: congratz :-)
ArPharazonV: Speaking of fishing, I decided to join the weekly fishing contests in Stranglethorn Vale again until I get the heirloom. Wasn't too far off today, but not fast enough. I hope next few weeks will do better :-)
ArPharazonV: And thanks :-)
ArPharazonV: And that's my news for this week!
ArPharazonV: Sea turtle is very cute, by the way ;-)
AriehnV: Namarie all :-)
AriehnV: good night when you get to it
ArPharazonV: Namarie
AriehnV has left the room.
VardaValar1: Namarie
VardaValar1: Almost typed fast enough. :-)
ArPharazonV: Ugh, hearthstone today... already dropped 3 ranks and still haven't gotten a win for any of my quests.
VardaValar1: Yikes - rough day
ArPharazonV: Pretty much.
ArPharazonV: Heh, and of course, when I do win, I complete 2 quests at once ;-)
ArPharazonV: Saving and sending transcript.
VardaValar1: Thank you
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