Silver Whispers

It's a shame that cosmetics bartered with Figments of Splendor don't see much use, at least from what I've observed. I have a handful of them myself from over the years, generally bartering for them as the seasonal vendors change or from the elusive Curator, who only appears at specific times of the year. Honestly, I think the Curator should be available year-round that way good cosmetics don't go to waste. It would encourage players to convert excess motes and embers into figments for bartering, versus holding onto them and wasting them when currency caps are reached. However, that's my humble opinion. SSG has been petitioned in the past, but to no avail. I can remain hopeful that it may change someday, but I won't hold my breath.

Stone-cleaver

 

In honor of purchasing Gundabad, my first impulse was creating another dwarven outfit. Two cosmetic bundles came with the Ultimate tier, the Fateful Gundabad set and the Gundabad Reclaimer set. I didn't particularly like the Reclaimer one, given how bulky and plain it was. Neither did it dye very well. However, the Fateful set offered far more flexibility. Largely a grey colored set, dyes affected the  dwarven patterns etched across the midsection of the chestplate and the central cloth tasset of the leggings. 

I've always been curious as to why, as of Update 23, Where Dragons Dwell, dwarven clothing became characterized by a stylized celtic block pattern. It made it easier to coordinate what other pieces I'd mix with the Fateful set. I drew, mainly, from the Ironfold crafting tier and Grey Mountains reputation vendors.

Nightshade

Many of my readers have noticed over the years how bright, colorful, and cheerful my outfits have been. I've always liked bold and brilliant purples, blues, greens, and reds. In fact, that's become a defining characteristic of Material Middle-earth. Unfortunately, that hasn't sat well with a multitude of readers. I've been getting messages complimenting me on what content is shared, but also requesting more natural and adventure-worthy outfits. I've also gotten a few rude messages that I will not repeat here. One went as far as to say I've made "outfits worthy of a carnival or circus." Of course, there have been other more modest reactions between those examples. And then there's the general pattern of comments on the official LOTRO forums' outfit thread.

I greatly appreciate my followers, both old and new. I always have and I always will. I've taken my incoming messages seriously, even if I've never gotten a response to my reply (and I have my suspicions about that...*coughjunkmailcough*). And I've also taken feedback and other criticisms to heart as well.

Sword and Sorcery

I hope everybody's been enjoying LOTRO's Fall Festival this year. I've been a bit of a busybody myself between daily attempts at getting the Painted Skeleton Steed from the Haunted Burrow's not-so-secret chest, touching up future outfits, and preparing for tomorrow's server fashion show on Gladden, Frights of Fancy. In a way, I was glad the past week has been like this. It's given me time to focus on everything LOTRO and clearing my "Countdown to Minas Morgul" checklist. I can't wait to see what gear skins we're getting! I've imagined there will be plenty of spooky-looking ones! And speaking of something spooky...

Iron Garrison Miner

It's been a long time since I've entertained role playing on this blog. I used to write stories--short blurbs may be more accurate--for my characters that matched the outfit and images contained within a given entry. It's been years, probably five or six, since I last did that. I almost wrote a brief story, but I decided to let the images themselves tell the tale of an often exhausted dwarven miner, hard at work, deep within the darkness of Moria.

Simple Fashion - Hauberks, Part 2

The Simple Fashion series has returned this week with three classic hauberks. It's been years since I've seen these used in LOTRO. And it's been years since I've used these as well. Actually, I don't think I've ever used the Hauberk of Rhûn before. That particular cosmetic has collected dust since I purchased it back in 2012, not knowing what to do with it. I bought it with the intention of using it someday, but I'd never have expected it would take six years for that to happen!

Anyway, I've decided to keep this week's blog entry short and sweet. Enjoy the outfits below!

Silver Dawn

This outfit brought me back to 2011, when my Lore-master was capped at level 65. I had forgotten that this character once wore this. If it weren't for an old, low-quality picture found on my external hard drive, it would have never occurred to revive and update this set. With the new dyes and addition of cosmetic weapons, I was able to make it look more complete. This was one of my LM's first cosmetic sets. One that I had taken quite seriously, as I had to be a hardcore raider back then just for the weekly 1-in-12 chance at the elf-stone needed for the robe. Nowadays, DN can be soloed on some classes. Duoed on most, due to mechanics in the final fight.

Tribal

With the release of Mordor on Wednesday, Aug 2, I considered uploading some of the combat outfits I would be taking through the Morannon. However, a lack of time for taking and editing screenshots combined with heavy questing and exploration prevented me from doing that. As much as I wanted to show my newest creations, I decided to keep my scheduled outfits as they were. As a result, my Beorning has taken the spotlight with another tribal-themed outfit.

Uch-lûth Skirmisher

I've been wanting to take pictures of my Beorning's outfits for a very long time. Before I could do that, I made myself a promise first. That promise was to get her to Dunland. This outfit, even though it was assembled mid-2016, I had a particular place in mind to model it. That would be Barnavon in Carreglyn, however she was thirty levels too low at the time. I've put in a significant amount of work with my Beorning since my return and it's been wonderful experiencing landscape content and exploring locations I seldom have reason to visit.

Tempered Pathfinder

Every now and then, I like to take a break from making those fancy, overly detailed, and sometimes complicated outfits. Much of LOTRO's gear is covered in large emblems, swirls, leaves, golden trims and accents, and intricate patterns. There is nothing more aggravating for me that having to coordinate racial motifs or making sure that high decorative skins can refer to each other. This week, I'll be sharing an outfit on the simpler side, one with armor skins that have a simple design and dye almost entirely one color. If anything, I used the studs on these pieces as a unifying motif.

Ithilien Savant

This past month, I've been slowly taking a second character through Eastern Gondor and collecting the cosmetics I missed on my first pass, due to a lack of inventory space. Luckily, the skin used by the Robe of the Five Rivers (along with most Eastern Gondor quest gear) can be obtained from multiple quests. I may be behind the times, as other players have already featured this robe, which can be found here and here, but I wanted to give it my own spin and pair it with an old, hard to acquire staff--Forvengwath's Despair and create a unique appearance. It's not often I use purple in my outfits, as it can be a highly saturated color, but matching the staff made it necessary. I wouldn't have expected sienna and purple to go together so well either! At least this served as a nice break from the green-themed outfits I've published lately.

Whispers of Forodwaith

The Forochel Epic quest reward, the Breastplate of Voima, has finally seen some use. Would you believe it's been sitting in Nathrien's vault since early 2011? I've held on to this for so long because it's a unique skin from the Shadows of Angmar. It probably would have continued to collect dust had I not found it's counterpart leggings, Golubadanir, while deeding in Angmar. I honestly wasn't sure what I could create with the set, but I gave it my best.

Twilight Bladebearer

It pleases me to be able to play LOTRO, as intended, once more. Whatever was done in the past week or two server-side has corrected my issues with the game. Lag is gone, as well as the large ping and loss values, and the characters that were parked in housing instances were finally freed from their virtual confinement. I'll finally be able to sit down and create more blog-worthy outfits again!

In the meantime, I've only had one character free to roam around Middle-earth. Seeing how little I could actually do, I started making my way through Central and Eastern Gondor for the first time. What I didn't expect was the inclusion of the Dawnless Day, a time in which Sauron used smoke and fumes from Mordor to conceal the sun from most of Rohan and Gondor. Although this particular event lasts only five days in lore, LOTRO has made it seem dreadfully permanent. Even though I've only gotten to Bâr Húrin, I can't take much more of the atmosphere. It's difficult to spend so much time in a gloomy area when most LOTRO's landscape consists of clear, cheerful skies and lush vegetation. (I often rush through Angmar and Mirkwood for similar reasons.) In light of that, I was compelled to make a colorful outfit before I return to the doom and gloom of Eastern Gondor.

Revisiting the Early Days of MME

As promised in late November, I've gone back in time to 2012, taken old outfits from this blog, and reposted them here in bigger, brighter pictures with much improved graphical quality. It was difficult to choose from over fifty outfits, but I narrowed that list down to eight. With each picture, I've included the name of the outfit (most sound soooo corny!) and a link back to the original post for the dyes and skins. I almost changed some of the pieces, but decided to leave them as is.

Normally I post new outfits on Saturday, but I thought this would be a refreshing change of pace.

You might be wondering what was my reasoning for doing this? Here's my first reason. I never had the followers in 2012 that I have nowadays. When Material Middle-earth was in its infancy, I was lucky to get a hundred views a month. Nowadays, it nets at least several thousand. By not establishing myself on Facebook until late 2013 and Twitter in 2014, many LOTRO players didn't have the chance to see my early work as it was posted. I am hoping, today, that you'll join me on a sentimental journey and see where it all began. And for the second reason, this week's entry allowed me to exhaust whatever marks, medallions, and dyes remained simply by recreating these.

Also, don't forget that next Saturday I'll be posting my farewell entry with a new outfit! Before then, I'll be honoring one last outfit concept from a follower. If all goes well, that ensemble will appear here on Wednesday morning.

The War-forged Defender

To Match a Steed...Three Times!

As most of you know, the car I like to call "Inspiration" has been running on fumes for several weeks. It has been a struggle just to make an outfit, let alone log into LOTRO. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fill in the final Saturday of January with an original outfit. At the beginning of the month, I casually mentioned on Twitter that I had been running out of ideas. One follower, @AraeElimraen, wondered if I'd take a request. I love taking suggestions for concepts as well as a specific piece or two. It gives me a chance to see old skins in from a different perspective or forces me to find new or unusual combinations. Here's what had been proposed:

• Use specific gear--namely the Golden Host Coat of Haleness and/or the Wood-wanderer's Cloak
• Make an outfit befitting of a Mirkwood soldier, loosely based on Thranduil's armored appearance in Battle of the Five Armies
• Make something that matches/compliments the Blue Roan Steed.

The first two ideas ended up going nowhere. Whatever I did create felt, at best, rushed and lacking completion. However, the idea to match this steed intrigued me...especially since I don't own it. It was removed from the Spring Festival token vendors before I started playing LOTRO and I refused to drop 70 mithril coins for one this year when it returned. I had to search for an image, several in fact, that way I knew what I was working with. For those of you who haven't seen it, here's a picture:

Image courtesy of  Wandering Around Arda

It's a dangerous assortment of colors--smokey grey, black, a silvery white, and a dark teal--and they would definitely present a challenge. I wasn't sure of what characters my Twitter follower had either, as this post is mostly for her. It took some time, but I came up with three ideas to suit different styles of clothing, race, gender, and character class while trying to match the steed itself, the caparison, or both.

Idhrellach - Lanael of Gladden

From time to time, I like to set some guidelines for a particular outfit--something completely elvish, perhaps dwarven, or even make something entirely in leather. This time, I decided to ignore all new skins released between Rise of Isengard and the current expansion, Helm's Deep. I hadn't started posting my outfits until June 2012, about seven months after RoI had been released. Even though it had taken me a while make it to level 75, I hadn't anticipated cosmetic blogging would be in my future and I sold or discarded most of my gear. I thought it'd be fun to play the "what if?" game, wind the clock back to when Helegrod and Dol Guldur were the end-game content, and see what I could create.

Harvestmath Series - Soothsayer

I have to start this post by saying that in no way, shape, or form, has the art department at Turbine come close to the level of design and form-fitting gear that Rise of Isengard provided to the community. No bodies were distorted while wearing that expansion exclusive gear. No arms or legs clipped through clothing while moving. Shoulders did not float above the model. There were three distinct sets for each armor class obtained as quest rewards. Never has an expansion made a character's appearance so individualized within its own content. When I ran my alts through Dunland and Isengard, I made sure to collect whatever I hadn't on previous runs. Did you know that Massive Black was the company to create a majority of the RoI expansion concept art?

Advance Scout - Satella of Gladden

Despite having Dunland cosmetics for over nearly years, I didn't start exploring the outfitting possibilities until recent months. Since May 2014, I've been relentlessly using them in my creations. If only I had done that back in late 2011. Not going to lie here, but there are days where I feel cosmetically behind the times! Sure, I've used a piece here and there (or one pair of bracers shamelessly) but I ignored too many landscape rewards in of lieu hard-earned raiding gear from Dar Narbugud, Barad Guldur, and Orthanc. Funny how I've begun to appreciate the very pieces that have virtually fallen off the radar. All of my characters that I've actively played are well past Dunland, falling somewhere between the Westemnet and Western Gondor, which makes whatever I've collected from the Isengard expansion more valuable.

Elven Mettle - Faewynn of Gladden

When I make an outfit, I do my best to confine myself either to the lore of books or the lore of LOTRO (I do make the distinction) and avoid the films. I've never been a big fan of Jackson's interpretation and constant lore-breaking, but sometimes images, no matter how brief, get burned into my mind. Two images from The Two Towers during the Helm's Deep scenes became the inspiration for this elven battle outfit (the one here and then the other) reminiscent of the Mirkwood days.

Steel Waylayer - Cirilyn of Gladden

Steel blue, LOTRO's most recent dye color, has been creating mixed feelings with the playerbase since Update 13. Some think it's too dark or too black, some think it's too close to navy, and some think it's too steely to be considered blue. Personally, I've liked it. I've liked it so much that I dragged myself though the terrible U13 grind for the dye and nothing else. To me, it's been a color of depth and expertise, of seriousness and stability. Depending on how dark it dyes, I've even affiliated it with aggressiveness. I've even surprised myself with how often I'll associate emotions with color and then incorporate those feelings into my outfits. That's exactly what I did. I built a combat outfit, which has been a rarity here at Material Middle-earth.