Valar Guild

May 19, 2019 Sunday Meeting

5:00 P.M. Eastern time (-5 GMT)
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place

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Transcript work by
Varda.

Attending (and spoke): (5)
    Discord: Arien, Celebrian, Elrond, Eonwe, Varda (presiding)

Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership news
Web
Gaming:
    General reports.
Tolkien:
    Topic: the little things
After-meeting:

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Before-meeting
(times are in Central from Varda's Discord, so add one hour for Eastern. Example: 4pm Central in the transcript is 5pm Eastern)

VardaToday at 4:01 PM
Aiya
CelebrianToday at 4:04 PM
Aiya
VardaToday at 4:04 PM
Aiya Celebrian : )
Aiya from Fangorn : )
It's that time again, yay!
Hello to Arien in LotRO Ithil!
Ok, I have the report pulled together for LotRO players.
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Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Membership:
We have Celebrian and Varda live already. A lot of others lurking on the side in Discord. Yay lurkers!
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Gaming:

World of WarCraft:
The World of Warcraft: Classic launch date has been announced: August 27th.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/22990080/mark-your-calendars-wow-classic-launch-and-testing-schedule
    World of Warcraft
    Mark Your Calendars: WoW Classic Launch and Testing Schedule - WoW
    World of Warcraft Classic goes live worldwide August 27! Learn more about the launch and the upcoming test schedule.
In addition, the beta is going. Check out that announcement for more info.
There's also a new cinematic out: "Safe Haven".
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/22937756/watch-the-new-rise-of-azshara-cinematic-safe-haven
    World of Warcraft
    Watch the New Rise of Azshara Cinematic: “Safe Haven” - WoW
    Where do you find safe haven in a world torn apart by war and strife? Varok Saurfang may just have the answer.
ElrondToday at 4:17 PM
aiya
VardaToday at 4:17 PM
Aiya Elrond : )

Hearthstone:
Eonwe ValarToday at 4:17 PM
Heya
VardaToday at 4:17 PM
Check out the blog discussing improvements to Masters qualifiers.
https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/22988583/how-we-are-improving-masters-qualifiers
    How We Are Improving Masters Qualifiers
    New changes to Hearthstone Masters’ entry-level tier of competition will kick in June 7.

Eve Online:
Aiya Eonwe : )
Elrond, would you like to re-post your Eve news here?
ElrondToday at 4:19 PM
Sure.
VardaToday at 4:19 PM
Thanks : )
CelebrianToday at 4:20 PM
https://imperium.news/state-of-the-goonion-2019-march-to-war/
    INN
    Rhivre
    State of the Goonion 2019 - March to War - INN
    The Mittani has tonight made a State of The Goonion address to assembled Imperium members.
    This address has been hotly anticipated across New Eden as it will reveal the location where The Imperium will initiate their war. Last week it...
VardaToday at 4:20 PM
https://imperium.news/prelude-to-war-panfam-begins-evaccing-tribute/
INN
    Moomin Amatin
    Prelude to War - Panfam begins evaccing Tribute - INN
    It is no secret that The Imperium is preparing for war. The Mittani, leader of The Imperium, declared on the Meta Show of May 11 that someone was in for a pounding. This would not be a campaign to expand...
ElrondToday at 4:20 PM
We've gone to war, as I posted that article in the harbor. Plenty of info out there in the State of Goonion above.
VardaToday at 4:20 PM
Ahh, thanks Celebrian.
It sounds pretty rough out there.
ElrondToday at 4:22 PM
We're heading to purge some of our enemies space, which should be fun. Plenty of pictures in the first article there of our massive supercapital fleet.
VardaToday at 4:22 PM
Impressive
Sounded as if there might be an actual beef with them.
ElrondToday at 4:24 PM
Goes back over 10+ years. But yeah, time to turn their space into a wasteland. Both Celebrian and I fly titans, biggest ships in the game. That's about all going on our end :smiley:
VardaToday at 4:25 PM
Sounds like a lot! And wow on your Titans.

Lord of the Rings Online:
The 12th Anniversary is wrapping up. Grab your cool stuff while you still can. : )
Gamers in our three LotRO branches this past week were:
Landroval:
Arien
Dis
Eonwe
Fangorn
Mirabella
Nar
Thranduil
Varda

Ithil:
Arien
Dis
Falco
Fangorn
Varda
Walda

Anor:
Fangorn
Varda
Walda
If I missed one of you, sing out now! : )
Tickled to see Walda back playing.
Any other gaming news? Business?
Ok, on to
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Tolkien!
Has anyone seen the movie yet?
Some of our tabletop gang had some comments about it.
The trailer looks good, the cast looks good, but a documentary it's not, heh. Don't expect it to mesh with what we actually know all that much. That's the movies for you.
Sometimes the movies can bring up details I missed, such as in the Hobbit, there really were things like those cave-worms, just not at the Battle of the Five Armies.
JRRT put in all sorts of bits that didn't really matter a lot to the exact tale of taking the Ring to Mordor, but they were fun for atmosphere.
The giants for instance, throwing rocks in their own battle that had nothing to do with the Ring as far as we know. Unless Sauron or Saruman stirred them up at that time on purpose?
It's kind of fun to try to imagine what might have been in the background story of some of those apparently throw-away bits.
One of the complaints that JRRT and some fans had about the LotR was that "the book was too short".
Was there anything you wish had been gone into in more detail?
Mention it if you think of something like that. Don't worry about interrupting. : )
He kept getting mail requesting tons of info on the world itself: geology, fauna and flora, more on the various civilizations.
More on the languages, runes.
He made an attempt to answer a bit of that in his mail, some of which is collected in  the Letters of JRR Tolkien.
I recommend that as an intriguing read.
Just because JRRT kept thinking about his stories and tweaking them the rest of his life does not actually change what is put down in the books. We call that "canon", as in that is what we go with rather than the various ideas he kept coming up with later, once out of the stream of making the books themselves.
It's not fair to make everyone here know every comment he made later about what could have been done instead. Imagine having to take a test like that!
But all these extra bits give us a chance to play with fan fiction and fan art that isn't the mainstream that we see all the time.
Feel free to enjoy the giant playground Tolkien gave us, and thank you to him for reviving fantasy with much higher standards.
Does anyone else have any other comments before we close?
the gavel takes a meandering path down the table, apparently lost
the hammerpad rolls over to it, jumps up, and pops itself on the gavel's snoot
thunk
and escorts the confused gavel back to the shelf
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After-meeting!
Free chat. : )
We have no Ar-Pharazon tonight, so no flashgaming reviews.
ArienVToday at 4:57 PM
aiya :smiley: pardon my delay .. my mind got a wandering by creating the most delightful foods and some brushing up naughty boys
VardaToday at 4:57 PM
Aiya Arien : )
Namarie for now!
ArienVToday at 5:33 PM
Namarie for now :smiley:
Eonwe ValarToday at 5:48 PM
Time for me to be off. Take care all, good night, sleep well, and have fun.
ArienVToday at 5:51 PM
Namarie :smiley:
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