Order of the Swan - Emeridir of Gladden

It's been several months since Update 14 released and the wave of swan-themed outfits began. I too jumped on the bandwagon and made half a dozen, but I've had multiple creations scheduled between July and now. My automatic blog schedule has finally made its way into swan territory...hopefully this and upcoming ones still feel relevant! Besides, for the United States, Thanksgiving comes at the end of November. Instead of turkey-related outfits (Middle-earth has no turkeys, sadly), I'll have a month's worth of swan inspired ensembles.

This was an old outfit of mine. I remember stumbling across The Starry Mantle's Knight of Dol Amroth sometime in 2012 and feeling inspired to create my own interpretation of the Swan Knights. I don't exactly recall my reasons for choosing the pieces I did, except for two of them; blue and silver being the emblematic colors of Dol Amroth and wanting to portray armor typically worn by Men in an elvish style. Why an elvish style? It was rumored the Princes of Dol Amroth had elvish blood, though little of it, running through their veins. Since we've come this far both geographically and storywise, I thought I'd revive this ensemble in its originally conceived state.

It seems this year I've been posting some of my retro outfits periodically. Believe it or not, I've kept a small notebook filled with half-finished or relatively uninteresting ensembles. Back in 2012, when I was posting anywhere from two to four outfits a week over a six month period, I made this one. I don't know why this never made it to my blog. I think it looks decent. Perhaps, in retrospect, this was one of those outfits I felt didn't look all that great when I was running LOTRO on DirectX 9. I was a very picky person in those days, not bothering to post something if some pieces weren't crystal clear. Regardless, my Swan Knight is here now for all to see.

Even though I no longer have marks, medallions, or crafting materials left, I'm still turning out something once per week with a seemingly endless supply of dyes. You'd think full stacks of each dye would wear down quickly, but that's not the case! I'm actually scraping the bottoms of barrels now, trying to recreate old outfits or find new and unusual combinations of pieces. For the time being, I'll continue to poke around, exploring the landscape as it releases and scour the AH for interesting items. I'll definitely be putting more of those Nadhin pieces to use in the future...the green and purple landscape drops all share the same skin as the Dol Amroth vendors!

Anyway, there have been other wonderful swan-themed outfits posted by fellow bloggers over the years, which I will list here. This probably isn't all of them, but feel free to check these out and leave a comment!

Black Swan by Cosmetic LOTRO
Swan Lake by Cosmetic LOTRO
Swan Knight by Cosmetic LOTRO
Mithlond Border Guard by Wandering Around Arda
Alph by Wandering Around Arda
Morialque by Wandering Around Arda
The aforementioned Knight of Dol Amroth by The Starry Mantle
Swan-knight In-training by Cithryth of LOTRO Players

Anyway, I'll see you next week with another swan-themed outfit!

Head: Circlet of Men (Undyeable, Anniversary Festival gift-box reward)
Shoulders: Shoulder Pads of Resolve (White, Ox-clan Camp Minstrel class vendor)
Back: Swan-cloak (Navy, LOTRO Store or lockbox reward)
Chest: Breastplate of the Deadly Storm (Evendim blue, Ox-clan Camp Champion vendor)**
Legs: Lesser Defender of the West Leggings (Evendim blue, Ost Dunhoth Warden armor barter)
Hands: Sellsword's Gloves (Evendim blue, T6 metalsmith recipe)
Feet: Sellsword's Boots (Evendim blue, T6 metalsmith recipe)

**Any of the heavy armor class vendors uses this skin with the T1 (purple) Orthanc armor sets. If you don't have a champ, but a guard or cappy, you'll have no problem snagging this skin.