September 27, 2026
5:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time
Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place
[3:56 PM]Varda: Aiya
[3:57 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya All!! 🙂
[3:57 PM]Varda: We are a little early. : )
[3:57 PM]Sandalf13: Early is even better than late being better than never, ja?
[4:00 PM]Varda: Early is a good thing. : )
[4:00 PM]Sandalf13: Especially in the morning, heh heh.
[4:01 PM]Varda: It's 4 pm for me. What is it for you?
[4:01 PM]Varda: @Bounder @Guild-friend @Maia @Vala Yay! It's time for the Valar Guild meeting! Chat gaming, Tolkien, and just say hi!
[4:01 PM]Varda: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
[4:01 PM]Sandalf13: 3:01 p.m. (1501)
[4:01 PM]Varda: 1601 here then.
[4:02 PM]Sandalf13: Are you still getting rain in Houston? I hear that the Northeast is getting pounded with a Nor'easter.
[4:02 PM]Varda: Nope
[4:02 PM]Varda: We are not in the northeast. : )
[4:02 PM]Arien Valar: Aiyaall 🙂
[4:02 PM]Varda: Aiya Sunshine : )
[4:03 PM]Varda: We would like some rain.
[4:03 PM]Sandalf13: I know. Just an asode ad libem.
[4:03 PM]Sandalf13: So would we all here.
[4:03 PM]Varda: Whatever that is. : )
[4:03 PM]Varda: Membership:
[4:03 PM]Sandalf13: I mean an "aside..." sorry!
[4:04 PM]Varda: Guess you need to work that out in Sindarin or Quenya. ; )
[4:04 PM]Varda: In membership news, happy to say Elwing is visiting us.
[4:05 PM]Varda: Today is Sauron's birthday. Much strawberry cake and merriment was had.
[4:05 PM]Sandalf13: Great!! 🙂
[4:05 PM]Varda: Any other membership news?
[4:05 PM]Sandalf13: Happy Birthday to Sauron!!!
[4:05 PM]Varda: Our dining table tends to have a lot of Valarites.
[4:05 PM]Arien Valar: Aiya elwing and happy Birthday , Sauron 🙂
[4:05 PM]Varda: We had Sauron, Elwing, Earendil, Fangorn, and Varda.
[4:06 PM]Varda: Any other membership news?
[4:06 PM]Sandalf13: Sounds like a bunch of party animals, to me....heh heh.
[4:06 PM]Varda: Aye
[4:06 PM]Varda: Web:
[4:06 PM]Varda: Tolkien Site: article; also Anniversary article: "Bregalad/Quickbeam" updated for the Anniversary.
[4:07 PM]Varda: Bregalad/Quickbeam"
[4:07 PM]Varda: I need to shift back to Membership.
[4:07 PM]Varda: The chat marathon has officially begun as soon as we said Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
[4:08 PM]Varda: It contiinues until the end of the next meeting on Oct 4
[4:08 PM]Varda: Oct 4 is the anniversary.
[4:08 PM]Sandalf13: Speaking of Tolkien, I found this the following week...it was a very interesting read. Here is the note I sent to myself to share the article: I thought you would be interested in this story I found on MSN: 'Good often does evil': JRR Tolkien on 'the most tragic moment' in The Lord of the Rings - link
[4:08 PM]Varda: Here's a reminder from Eonwe (not an exact quote): anyone interested, please send in a screenshot of their main char to try and include in the guild "photo" I'm trying to do. Would like them all in before Friday so I can try to have the image ready by Sunday Meeting. 4k preferred when possible for easier isolation and better quality when merging in.
[4:09 PM]Varda: Thanks, Sandalf.
[4:09 PM]Varda: Membership/Web:
[4:10 PM]Varda: This is the Anniversary page, also found on the News. You can tell what is still needed almost at a glance. : )
[4:10 PM]Varda: On to
[4:10 PM]Varda: Any further comments?
[4:10 PM]Varda: On to
[4:11 PM]Varda: Gaming:
[4:11 PM]Varda: Pallando and Eonwe are not present.
[4:11 PM]Varda: Please feel free to add in your gaming comments during that game's section or near as possible or at the end of gaming. : )
[4:11 PM]Sandalf13: FINALLY! I Was able to get a picture of my guy...
[Discord-only Image
[4:12 PM]Varda: Grats for getting him built!
[4:12 PM]Varda: That is in Lord of the Rings Online
[4:12 PM]Arien Valar: he looks cool 🙂
[4:12 PM]Varda: Is this the pic you want for Eonwe?
[4:12 PM]Sandalf13: I could not find a wizard option, so I settled for what you see.
[4:13 PM]Varda: There is no "wizard".
[4:13 PM]Sandalf13: Yes
[4:13 PM]Sandalf13: Yes
[4:13 PM]Varda: We do have cosmetics though. : )
[4:13 PM]Sandalf13: Maybe some rouge or mottled skin would be better, yes?
[4:13 PM]Varda: We have lore-master, rune-keeper that are wizardly. Even minstrel a bit.
[4:13 PM]Varda: I assume he's still in the intro?
[4:13 PM]Arien Valar: looks like a loremaster or maybe runekeeper?
[4:14 PM]Sandalf13: I think he fits under the loremaster option, with a taste for healing.
[4:14 PM]Sandalf13: Still in the Intro. I am a very slow learner, as you all know.
[4:14 PM]Varda: It takes actually getting in the game and mashing buttons. : )
[4:15 PM]Sandalf13: Like beating the water, for me.
[4:17 PM]Varda: World of Warcraft:
[4:17 PM]Varda: This week's bonus event: Arena Skirmishes.
[4:17 PM]Varda: This week's PvP Brawl: Packed House.
[4:17 PM]Varda: The Harvest Festival ends tomorrow.
[4:17 PM]Varda: A bunch of new blogs have been posted for WoW Forever, and you can see them all here.
[4:17 PM]Varda: World of Warcraft: Forever Headlines a Packed WoW Weekly
[4:18 PM]Varda: Check out this week's hotfixes.
[4:18 PM]Treebeard: Hello
[4:18 PM]Varda: Aiya Fangorn : )
[4:18 PM]Varda: Diablo 4:
[4:18 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya Treebeard of many names!
[4:18 PM]Falco [LOTR], : Aiya
[4:18 PM]Arien Valar: Aiya Fangorn 🙂
[4:19 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya Falco!
[4:19 PM]Varda: Treebeard is the Westron or Common Tongue translation of Fangorn
[4:19 PM]Arien Valar: Aiya Falco
[4:19 PM]Sandalf13: Still a different name, i believe.
[4:19 PM]Varda: A new patch is coming out Wednesday.
[4:19 PM]Varda: Diablo Immortal:
[4:20 PM]Varda: A crossover with Spawn is running September 29th through November 1st.
[4:20 PM]Varda: Aiya Falco 🙂
[4:20 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings Online:
[4:21 PM]Varda: Baggins day for characters that haven't done that quest yet. Starts in Rivendell's Hall of Fire.
[4:21 PM]Varda: Even though that was Sept 22 for the birthday
[4:22 PM]Varda: it keeps popping up when logging in my low level characters. : )
[4:22 PM]Varda: Baggins’ Birthday Event Guide
[4:22 PM]Arien Valar: i think I did that years ago o n one of my characters , forgot which hehe
[4:23 PM]Varda: Aye. It's a once-only.
[4:23 PM]Varda: Any other gaming news?
[4:23 PM]Varda: Falco, grats on having the most top-level characters in the Valar Guild. : )
[4:23 PM]Arien Valar: yes grats on that 😄
[4:23 PM]Falco [LOTR], : lol thanks
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: Congrats, Falco! Sounds wonderful.
[4:24 PM]Varda: I trust everyone is aware that we are now in the Chat Marathon for this year's anniversary?
[4:24 PM]Varda: Anyone typing here is now considered as having participated. Yay all!
[4:24 PM]Sandalf13: To recap: we need to keep the Guild Site open and chat with someone, right?
[4:25 PM]Varda: In the old days, we had to be in the chat channel to keep it open. It's not that way now, but we keep up the tradition.
[4:25 PM]Sandalf13: So what exactly must one do now to participate?
[4:25 PM]Varda: Chatting in a chat channel shows someone is here and gives a chance to do what we all love: Tolkien chat and gaming chat.
[Note: chat should be in meeting_place]
[4:26 PM]Falco [LOTR], : Well at least it’s not a BBS chat relying on 300baud dialup
[4:26 PM]Varda: You just did. You typed in meeting_place.
[4:26 PM]Sandalf13: I shall do my chatting best this week.
[4:26 PM]Varda: Aye to that, Falco!
[4:26 PM]Varda: If anyone comes up with a Tolkien topic, this is a great time of week to put it out there at any time of day!
[4:27 PM]Arien Valar: i usually have the channel open for as long as i can , that can be only a couple of hours/minutes in the morning or evening .. i still have my job to do and sleep sometimes :)#
[4:27 PM]Treebeard: We could pop in while playing LOTRO.
[4:27 PM]Varda: Any time at all helps!
[4:29 PM]Sandalf13: OK: I have been thinking about this for the past week. We all know that Tolkien was Army Officer in the U.K. Army during WWI, specifically, among others, the Battle of the Somme. Yet his writings in the TT and the RoTK, where he comes closes to describing battles, reflects almost nothing of his own military experiences serving in the trenches of WWI. So: why the disconnect? Would it not be likely to think that Tolkien would have involved some of his won military experiences in describing war in the LoTR? Or, most likely, was he aiming for something ompletely different?
[4:29 PM]Varda: On to
[4:29 PM]Sandalf13: THe above is my topic suggestion.
[4:29 PM]Varda: He does put in his feelings, his discoveries of what war is like.
[4:30 PM]Varda: Arien has a video she'd like to drop in here too. Go ahead, Arien.
[4:30 PM]Arien Valar: YouTube - Nerd of the Rings - Life of the Witch-king of Angmar | Tolkien Explained
[4:31 PM]Varda: For JRRT, it was probably therapeutic writing among other things.
[4:31 PM]Varda: Thanks, Arien.
[4:31 PM]Sandalf13: Excellent video! I have seen this one before.
[4:33 PM]Sandalf13: As regards the military, I was thinking more in terms of the battle strategy, setups, tactics...the only place that Tolkien comes close to describing trench warfare...his own WWI experience...is in the Silmarillion or the Appendices...where he describes just how long O(7 years) it took for the Last Alliance to battle through and past the Morannon into the land of Mordor for the final confrontation....had to be some trench like warfare in that particular advance.
[4:33 PM]Arien Valar: its not too long ... about half an hour but maybe too long to watch now .. but maybe for next week? or something for the marathon :D?
[4:34 PM]Treebeard: If Tolkien was involved in trench warfare, I would surmise that alternate methods of open warfare would be much more to his liking.
[4:34 PM]Sandalf13: Certainly true! And the Rohirrim obviously favor fluid, fast- moving tactics a la Patton or the Desert Fox...
[4:35 PM]Varda: How about Helm's Deep, Sandalf? or the Ents attacking Isengard?
[4:35 PM]Varda: We are in the marathon. People will be watching these videos, no worries. : )
[4:35 PM]Sandalf13: No mention of trench warfare in either, I believe...not enough time to build such things.
[4:35 PM]Varda: I pulled up the video and started getting fed a lot of LotR stuff, hah.
[4:36 PM]Sandalf13: The first few days of WWI included some cavalry strikes by both sides, but that very shortly settled in to trench warfacr; a result of changing military technology over the last couple of decades.
[4:37 PM]Sandalf13: The artillery got so much better (more deadly) that cavalry strikes became a romantic thing of the past.
[4:38 PM]Treebeard: Yep. According to the movies, horses and automatic machine gun fire were not very romantic...more of a slaughter really
[4:40 PM]Sandalf13: Ironically, the last two wars that involved real cavalry action were the U.S. Civil War and the SPanish-American war. Even the Boer war settled into a trench-like stalemate after a while. Even in the Civil War, armies (especially the Union Army) began to develop trench warfare.
[4:40 PM]Treebeard: Swordsmanship was more appropriate to the LOTRO era, spears, arrows and such, including horsemanship and fighting horses as "tanks".
[4:41 PM]Arien Valar: even though at Bigger cities and sieges big war machines were used
[4:41 PM]Arien Valar: say Minas tirith
[4:43 PM]Treebeard: LOTR series included the animals of the forest as spies in birds and wargs and bears and changlings... it's like it was fanciful.
[4:43 PM]Varda: Giving two reports here very quickly, just jump past to the continued Tolkien chat:
[4:43 PM]Varda: LotRO:
Peregrin branch:
Glamdring branch:
Meriadoc branch:
Angmar branch:
Mordor branch:
[4:43 PM]Varda: StarCraft 2:
[4:43 PM]Varda: Eowyn, Fangorn, Faramir, Varda
[4:43 PM]Varda: Ok, done. Back to your previously scheduled war. : )
[4:44 PM]Sandalf13: I think it is a tribute to Tolkien's flexibility and imagination that he was able to get out of his own wartime groove and write battle scenes that depicted an entirely different kind of warfare.
[4:45 PM]Treebeard: I agree
[4:45 PM]Sandalf13: It was the tank that did in trench warface, just as today, drones may be doing in tank warfare.
[4:45 PM]Sandalf13: At least in the Ukraine.
[4:48 PM]Varda: Make a stab at some Tolkien comparisons?
[4:48 PM]Varda: Drones and crebain?
[4:48 PM]Varda: Tanks and Oliphaunts?
[4:49 PM]Sandalf13: Never thought of that! Great thinking, Varda!
[4:49 PM]Treebeard: Eagles were amazing allies of Gandalf and thereby the Fellowship of the Ring.
[4:50 PM]Sandalf13: I would compare the Eagles with fighter aircraft and bombers...
[4:51 PM]Arien Valar: Eagles more reconnaissance planes i d say
[4:51 PM]Treebeard: The were flying, fighting, thinking biomachines.
[4:53 PM]Treebeard: Weren't there tunnel digging Orms used by the Orcs in the Battle of Five armies on the side of the Orcs?
[4:53 PM]Sandalf13: In the Silmarillion, the great Eagles were more than happy to take on Morgoth's flying dragons...sort of an air battle, if there ever was one in the LoTR....and then Earendil showed up in his sky-ship and slew Ancalagon the Black...
[4:54 PM]Sandalf13: The end-point of the War of Wrath.
[4:54 PM]Treebeard: Yay for our side 🙂
[4:55 PM]Sandalf13: Indeed.
[5:00 PM]Treebeard: I think the fear of the dead was used time and again throughout Tolkiens stories to add tension and foreboding in the adventures.
[5:02 PM]Treebeard: Fear of failure and lust for power and great rewards to motivate the various groups in conflicts. Strife was well depicted.
[5:03 PM]Sandalf13: I must away for some early-arriving guests...perhaps our last 80 degree day this summer. BBQing on my new grill...bison burgers. Hope all goes well. I will try to keep up in the char! Namarie!
[5:03 PM]Varda: We have reached the hour
[5:04 PM]Varda: After-meeting!
[5:04 PM]Varda: The Anniversary Marathon chat continues!
[5:04 PM]Varda: Add in your topic anytime! Comment away!
[5:06 PM]Treebeard: Thanks, all. Namarie! Have fun gaming.
[5:07 PM]Arien Valar: Namarie!
[5:08 PM]Arien Valar: i have to go now as well for now anyway . maybe i ll meet some of you during the week and if you need help in game , Sandalf give me a holler on discord 🙂
[5:10 PM]Varda: Namarie!
[5:11 PM]Varda: Help can just be that it's nice to have company in-game.
[6:09 PM]Elwing: Aiya all
[6:10 PM]Varda: Aiya Elwing! Welcome to Discord. 🙂
[8:07 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya Elwing! A little late, I know, but Aiya!
[8:58 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya, reading up.
[9:00 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Happy birthday to Sauron!
[9:11 PM]Varda: Thanks, Phar : )
[9:38 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Birds as airplanes and drones, hm? Makes me think of the Iron Beak in the game Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Spammable birds from the undead/fire Taros kingdom that act as bombers, throwing stones or what might even be eggs on enemy troops.
[9:40 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So just imagine crebain throwing explosive eggs down on you 😄
[September 28, 2026
[7:58 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Personal gaming report:
[8:00 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For (non)flashgaming this week, instead of a badge that came up, I'll give you a more recent game that got highlighted on the kongregate discord.
[8:01 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Scorching Light is an action platformer where you have to avoid the light as you make your way across levels, blending in with the environment to not be seen.
[8:02 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: There is a horror element to it, but it's not jumpscares or gory, especially with the pixelated nature of the game, so no need to worry about that.
[8:03 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Infinite attempts on each level as well, so take your time! Not that difficult.
[8:05 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So enjoy!
[8:15 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming:
[8:17 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone:
[Level 111 on the reward track now (like Bilbo's birthday!) and getting some gold, nearing the amount needed for a new skin.
[8:20 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Black Market event is continuing, with me continuing to max out the currency every day, and it's paying off. Got the most expensive item, signature legendary Taelan Fordring, and a Broxigar hero skin with card back. Broxigar as a demon hunter skin was a bit of a surprise, but I suppose he was most famous for axing Sargeras in the toe 10000 years ago, so it counts!
[8:21 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also got enough to buy 2 of the offered card packs for the upcoming expansion, which means only 2 remain before the market's empty. Looks like there's 8 days remaining to get the currency, so there's still time!
[8:25 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Brawl is A Peek to the Past, where you have to make a deck using only common and rare quality cards from the basic and classic sets only. It makes for unspectacular decks, but focusing on direct damage with the hunter is generally successful enough.
[8:28 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Warcraft Rumble:
[No new collection level, but did get one more mini to legendary, the Stonehoof Tauren. 82 minis to go!
[8:28 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also got a free legendary core from the molten raid, so that's another 4000 gold saved.
[8:28 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Other than that, the grind continues! Including the pvp reward track which is now almost complete, getting some good tomes and cores there.
[8:28 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:
[8:30 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: More raiding! Shortcut on normal and progression on heroic difficulty, gave me three tier pieces, completing the 4-piece setbonus. Feeling more powerful already!
[8:31 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Weekly quests is arena skirmish, which is a bit annoying this time around, though I am trying to get better at crowd control etc. Though I am getting my wins in slowly.
[8:33 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also more brewfest! Been sending in my dark iron dwarf, who I consider my brewfest specialty alt, to participate in the hourly cooking events. Though for the transmog pieces, it's better to do one a day for a guarenteed piece from the 2 new set recolors, red and purple.
[8:33 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: That's going well, and I got the red brewfest beret I was after, though it doesn't really work as well on the alt I wanted for as I'd hoped. Maybe some day they'll make one that keeps the hair!
[8:34 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And finally, thanks to milestones for the brewfest tokens earned along the way, I got the trading post maxed for september!
[8:35 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Not just the usual vendor with month-specific stuff this month, but also recurring appearances from the past, and I ended up splurging about 2400 trading tender on everything.
[8:37 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I've mostly been collecting hats, flower crowns, caps etc, and caught a few I hadn't in the past; but also a new pet, Gummi (basically a living gummy worm), a free Crested Ember Leafmimic mount, and the Swift Zhevra and Copper Resonating Crystal as mounts from the past.
[8:37 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: As well as some other unique appearances from the past that spoke to me this time around.
[8:37 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: There were a couple of wristwatches which might look nice on my mechagnome, for example.
[8:38 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Oh, and almost forgot, got a fourth mount as well through the arena skirmishes, as I hit honor level 150! That gave me the Prestigious Royal Courser, another recolor in the pvp horse series. Gotta catch em all 😄
[8:40 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the week!
[8:40 AM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie 🙂
[9:12 PM]Varda: Thank you, Phar. 🙂
[9:12 PM]Varda: And a fun thing to report:
[9:13 PM]Varda: Eonwe has a new story for us!
[9:13 PM]Varda: "Narn I Auros - Served Cold" by Eonwe-(Valar). "Avandur's goal is in sight. Can he avenge his father, or will his target evade justice once again?"
[9:13 PM]Varda: Thank you, Eonwe. 🙂