Verdant

 

It's been a cold, bitter winter this year and I've been yearning for warmer weather. And every year, the season has felt like it's getting progressively longer. Even the trees felt like they've taken forever to bloom. To scratch that itch, I decided to make something green, something floral. In the end, this outfit, at it's core, became a delightful and eclectic mishmash of Spring Festival and Midsummer Festival pieces. 

Frozen Elegance

 

Once again, the art department at Standing Stone Games delivered an impressive and equally beautiful collection of new Yule Festival cosmetics with a wintry gala theme. They've definitely captured the essence of winter in a elegant, yet cozy way. Gloredh, thankfully, over at Wandering Around Arda has provided the community with wonderful screenshots of the new items. The Yule Festival runs through January 5th, 2021 and there is plenty of time for earning the require barter tokens. 

The Gala-worthy Dress, featured here, was the most breathtaking piece. Not only does it have a gorgeous snowflake pattern and copper-toned holly leaves, it dyes brightly and is a sight to behold in any color! The other item that caught my attention was the Cloak of Flurries. It doesn't dye, but the delicate curtain of iridescent snowflakes more than compensates for that shortcoming. There aren't many iridescent skins in the game, most of them gated behind raids like Orthanc, Draigoch, and Anvil and the ever elusive Curator NPC, so don't miss this chance for a shiny reward!

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...

Ancient Master

My absolute favorite staff has always been the Staff of Storied Past. Although recently introduced through the LOTRO Store, this staff has been in the game's coding for years. Originally, it was called the Lore-master's Staff of the First Age (level 58). In my decade of playing LOTRO, I've never seen this staff drop. Nor have I seen any other First Age weaponry from level 53-58 drop. It's still a mystery, but I've never known the reason why these beautiful weapons weren't introduced into the loot pools. Luckily, the developers at SSG introduced some of those skins to the LOTRO Store as limited time items, appearing for approximately one week every couple of months. I purchased this staff on its initial release day.

Finally, I had the chance to make an outfit revolving around it. It was an interesting approach too!

Feathered Fury

Approximately two weeks ago, LOTRO Family of Twitter hosted another delightful themed screenshot contest. This particular one revolved around cosmetic pets--not to be confused with Lore-master combat pets--earned from various festivals, deeds, and side quests. Luckily, I had a screenshot on hand that fit the criteria and submitted it, which you can either see here or before the outfit breakdown below. I've always loved the various vistas in LOTRO, taking screenshots at every opportunity. Although most of my landscape screenshots are just that, I've occasionally used my character and an emote to enhance the atmosphere. In this case, it included a raven earned from the Anniversary Festivals's Tome of the Raven, which was a royal pain to position properly.

Tempered and Sagacious

Material Middle-earth returns this week with another PvMP-centric appearance. Unlike December's Garrison Commander outfit, this one can be acquired, in full, without entering the Moors, but requires mithril coins to purchase. Normally, I don't post outfits that rely so heavily on real money (or ungodly luck from Hobbit Presents), but this something I love sporting on my Lore-master. And it feeds my shameless and often unsatiated love for the color purple.

Legion of Thrang - Gúlaran Fell-summoner

I've loved how the rewards from the Armory of Thrang boxes have forced me to get creative with my latest outfits. They've been a welcome addition to my repertoire of cosmetics, considering how much my creativity has lessened in recent months. I doubt I'll make something for each of the selectable weapons, as they've been a tad expensive. I've only collected four of them--out of a possible thirteen--and that alone set me back a whopping 3600 Ashes of Enchantment. I picked the short sword, staff, bow, and the two-handed axe. At this point, three of them have been featured. The axe will soon make an appearance, I promise.

Back to the outfit at hand, before I find myself getting distracted again!

Scaled Spellweaver

Getting away from dark landscapes and fiery outfits for a short time, I've decided to post an outfit my low level Lore-master uses. It's not often I've focused on the Draigoch armor skins--I usually use gloves and boots to accessorize--but I discovered that my main Lore-master and my Warden still have their sets sitting in storage. Just that tiny bit of nostalgia, and the fact that my kin has been running Draigoch lately, was enough to motivate me. Other than that, and the fact I'm trying different gear combinations, there's really no story to this outfit.

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.

Indomitable Spirit

This year's 10th Anniversary Festival and subsequent Scavenger Hunt has produced some amazing rewards this year. My biggest concern this year was the distinct lack of quests that reward Anniversary tokens, especially if you didn't devote approximately ten hours to spamming the intermediate option for the Thorin's Hall Beer Brawl. And the lack of the Inn League and Ale Association token vendors made everything feel ten time more expensive than it needed to be. The anniversary festival had some amazing rewards, but, if you're like me, you don't have a ton of time to grind for rewards. Of everything offered, I set my sights upon the Unflagging Dragon cosmetic set, which is the focus of this outfit.

Autumn Attire

It's certainly been some time since my last entry. I've been playing LOTRO quite a bit lately, taking time to work on my characters' gear and catching up on both the new zones and completing the epic story. I found myself falling farther and farther behind my friends and kinmates the more time I spent getting cosmetically creative. Believe it or not, most of my characters have been muddling through with the old statted level 95 gear since Western Gondor was released. I found myself unable to do group content at 105. I obstinately resisted the essence gear from its initial release until Update 19, which was a major mistake. I've come to realize that the essence grind is real. Same goes for stocking scrolls of empowerment. It's a much larger commitment than any level cap gear grind I've ever put myself through and the amount of time I've had to dedicate has been astonishing.

Now that I feel comfortable where I am in terms of character progression, I thought I should post a little something. In fact, since it's been so long, I have THREE autumn-themed outfits to present. Hopefully, I'll be back with more before the winter holiday season!

And I have a ton of outfits on my Beorning to post too! But that's if I ever find time to get out of Moria and get her to level 65. I have specific places in mind for screenshots...and I won't settle for anything less!

In the meantime, here are three autumn-inspired creations!

Head: Ceremonial Circlet of the Graven Word (Bullroarer's green, cosmetic skirmish camp vendor -- Light Rift set)
Shoulders: Ceremonial Shoulders of the Seven Stars (Sunset orange, cosmetic skirmish camp vendor -- Light Annuminas set)
Back: Pack of the Yield (Sunset orange, Farmer's Faire barter reward)
Chest: Tunic and Trousers of the New Bloom (Sunset orange, Spring Festival barter reward)
Hands: Pelennor Bracers of Wrath (Sunset orange, Vol 4 Epic quest reward)**
Feet: Ceremonial Nenuial's Boots (Walnut brown, cosmetic skirmish camp vendor -- Medium Annuminas set)

**Shares skin with any of the medium gloves from the Eastemnet Armor Quartermatser found in Rohan

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.

Bundled Expeditionary

Thankfully, having drafted several blog entries is a blessing in disguise. LOTRO's move to the new data center on Monday, January 11th, has made it near impossible for me to play the game. I've experienced, along with friends, long stretches of lag, with latency as high as 1200 ms and loss reaching an upwards of 15% nearly every night this week. Until something gets done, particularly the hotfix Frelorn casually mentioned on the forums late Monday night, I won't be able to play. I'll stop in and try again sometime next week, when I have my next chance to play. If anything good came of this week, it was being able to snag the new Yule Festival cosmetics before my client crashed.

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

Into the Blue - Andalost of Gladden

This is the second week in a row that I've encountered a lack of inspiration while browsing the vast catalog of cosmetics filling my wardrobe and the vaults of multiple characters. There was no particular idea behind this outfit. It was a random convergence of gold-trimmed and light armored pieces that unexpectedly matched. I didn't bother to check how it appears on other races, as I think most of us LOTRO fashionistas know how notorious shoulders are regarding shape, size, clipping, and placement between the races. I'd imagine this works well for elves and men, as well as the Minstrel, Lore-master, and the Rune-keeper classes. It has almost a mystical element to it.

Perhaps I should have renamed this outfit "Out of the Blue"...

Northern Lights - Faewynn of Gladden

This week's cold weather outfit was inspired by a bit of lore and a casual nighttime stroll through Forochel for some Lossoth recipes. Did you know that Forochel (or properly known as the Ice Bay of Forochel) is only the southernmost fragment of the land once known as Forodwaith? This region was once the great frozen expanse north of the Iron Mountains in the First Age. The land itself was unnaturally frigid, due to its closeness to the Gap of Ilmen, where the moon disappeared as it traveled around the world, the Helcaraxë, the icy waste connecting Aman and Middle-earth, and the evil cold generated by Melkor himself. At the end of the First Age, the War of Wrath occurred (the final battle between the Valar and Melkor) and the world shattered. Beleriand sunk into the sea along with most of the Iron Mountains and Forodwaith. However, Melkor's cold lingered well after the war.

Sometimes it's nice to learn about the history of a region!

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?

Simple Fashion - Hauberks

This is the latest in my Simple Fashion series and last installment under this theme, at least for a while. I've covered all the basic and purely cosmetic categories at this point--tunics, dresses, robes, and now hauberks--and will continue posting my usual outfits as we move into the autumn and winter seasons. I was hoping to make a Summer Series since I was unable to make one last year, but this theme required too much time. Simple as it seems (no pun intended), designing minimalist outfits takes just as much effort, if not more than my usual creations. Regardless, being able to provide multiple ideas in a single blog entry feels like a significant accomplishment to me!

I've also been heavily scaling back my time with gaming and blogging rounds. I don't know if I'm feeling burned out, bored, or reaching a point where games retain less and less interest with each passing week. Luckily, it won't be affecting my posting schedule, not for a while anyway. Next week starts my annual Harvestmath Series, which is dedicated to seasonal outfits for this time of year!

And without further ado, here are your ideas for three of the lesser used hauberks in LOTRO.

Shoulders: Ceremonial Shoulders of the Brazen Call (Turquoise, skirm camp cosmetics vendor, Heavy Moria Armor)
Body: Dwarf-make Hauberk (Turquoise, Thorin's Hall outfitter)
Hands: Stonefists (Umber, world drop)
Feet: Boots of Durin's Guard (Turquoise, Guardian class vendor in Twenty-first Hall)**

**Skin also available from the Guardian vendor for Medallions of Lothlorien at Echad Andestel. You can cross-class barter for these, unlike the vendor in Twenty-first Hall.

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.

Midnight Magic - Andalost of Gladden

At first glance, you may think this outfit is black. In fact, the main dye use here is steel blue. Because this robe has a darker base, steel blue actually transforms into an alluring midnight blue. (Finding a background that didn't make it appear a true black wasn't easy.) Once U13 went live, I started experimenting with the new dye color despite not having it yet. I figured that I'd make a couple of outfits ahead of time, that way I could start displaying them once I had the recipe. This is one of those preemptive creations. I have a couple more on the way, each working with lighter shades of steel blue.