Silvered Feather

 

After nearly eleven years of playing LOTRO, there are still many cosmetics I haven't collected. Most of them, unfortunately, are from raids like Throne of Dread Terror, Amdan Dammul, and Remmorchant or faction rewards that require high reputation. And then there are some that I've had my eye on for years, like the Faramir-themed sets. Back in January, I collected my final Morgul Crest from a Roving Threat in the North Downs, later spending all twenty on the Robe of Faramir's Faithful. Thanks to the wonderful Gracelenrose and Narufind of Gladden and their weekly RT and Scourge runs, collecting this robe was possible. I wish these crests had a better drop rate from RTs. because those Faramir sets are gorgeous! The only other way to earn these crests is by trading Ithil-coins earned from Throne of Dread Terror, which is rarely run nowadays.

(Just a quick and shameless plug: if you are on Gladden, Grace and Nar scout a scheduled set of RTs or Scourges every Tuesday and publicly share the coords on the RT Discord server. Every Saturday night at 7 PM EST is the live RT/Scourge group, which is pre-scouted. These are scheduled in advance and will either fall into one of three categories: Eriador, Gondor and The Wastes, or Scourges and the Nine. If you'd like in on these groups, watch for advertisements or PM Gracelenrose for the server info.)

Penchant for Plum

I loved Minas Morgul. Definitely one of my favorite expansions to have graced LOTRO these past twelve years. Between Mordor Besieged and the Morgul Vale, the story was amazing and the landscape design phenomenal. However, the Vale itself was one of the darkest regions added to the game. My Rune-keeper, known for wearing dark or earthen-toned clothing, was blending into the landscape. It was difficult to play while traveling through light underbrush or while moving against the ethereal glow of the citadel's high stone walls. Sometimes, I didn't know where I was unless I was flinging lightning in some unsuspecting warg's face or roasting spiders in the web-covered Taurlingol. To fix the problem, I took some unusual measures and dived into my dwindling supply of shire plum, which I'll have to replenish next Spring.

Dreadweaver's Bane - A LOTRO Fan Fiction

Greetings, readers of Material Middle-earth! I wanted to try something different today. Rather than talk about the outfit itself, I've decided to share a story inspired by both my appearance and the location. One Mirkwood quest in particular, A Dangerous Lair, was a major influence in this literary experiment. And I also pulled some tidbits from others for atmosphere. It may not exactly be LOTR-appropriate, but it feels right for LOTRO.

I'm about ten years out of practice with story writing and I know it's not perfect, but I hope it's enjoyable!

     Lanael looked above her, rubbing her eyes, and fixed her gaze upon the ceiling. She heard the skittering and scratching as something moved across the roof. There were moments when she was unable to pinpoint the exact source, the sounds nearly drowning out the crackling coming from the hearth. At least one foul creature had climbed upon the Haunted Inn's roof and for what purpose, she had no idea.
     "The woods are rife with poisonous spiders," spoke the tall, grey-clad Malledhrim Sentry pacing around the Haunted Inn's common room. "At night, they are especially active, lurking in the darkness of the trees. Sometimes, they crawl along the rooftop, hoping to catch the guards unaware. They are a threat, truly, to our efforts here."
     "So that's what that is. Have you located their nest?" she asked boldly, before yawning. The wooden chair she'd tried sleeping in hadn't been very comfortable. It was unbalanced and wobbled every time she'd shift positions.
     "The Dreadweaver's Lair is to the southwest, a short distance past the road leading to Ost Galadh."
     "Why haven't you destroyed the nest?" Lanael crankily pressed, irritated by the lack of sleep. "Surely, the small host you've gathered here can remove that threat."
     The sentry stopped pacing, growing quiet. He looked around, noticing a party of adventurers conversing over a small meal in the adjacent room. He slowly approached the inquisitive elf, the tension rising in his lowered voice, his fist clenched. "We are not as well off as it seems. Our numbers have grown smaller. Elves and orcs alike have been taken by the spiders plaguing us from the south. Scouts that have been sent north to Dannenglor haven't returned. Shades and other foul beings attack from Audaghaim, across the eastern bridge. There is no one to spare to destroy the nest."
     Lanael paused, finding it difficult to speak. The sting of his words had caught her off guard. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize..." she whispered as she looked down, unable to look in his eyes.
     He guided her to a wooden bench across from the roaring hearth and sat down beside her. "My apologizes. It wasn't my intent to speak so harshly. You didn't know. You were never meant to come here. One of our scouts saw you bound for Ost Galadh as the sun was setting and guided you here for your own safety. The woods are especially dangerous after dusk, as you have just learned."
     As they sat there silently and stared at the slowly diminishing flames, the scratching sounds overhead faded. The crackling of the fire and soft, indistinguishable voices from the adjoining room filled the inn once more. Slowly realizing the relative silence, they sighed collectively.
    "If you'll excuse me, I must check on my injured companions in the cellar. Another was poisoned by a spider the night before last," said the sentry as he rose from the bench. He began to walk away, stopped mid stride, and he turned around briefly. "And, if I may be so bold, I'd suggest getting some rest, now that the inn is quiet once more. You'll need to be alert when you travel in the morning. Sleep well."
 

Of Stars and Signs

Don't worry. Unlike my last outfit post, which somewhat introduces this outfit, I'm not going to drop another massive wall of text. Last thing I need, or anyone else for that matter, is to become a broken record and recount the lengthy and painstaking origin of this outfit. (If you missed it, you can find that tale here.) Needless to say, I was excited to add half the pieces here to my collection once I finally got my hands on them! Next on my list is the Faramir's Faithful set, but that requires one hundred and twenty Morgul Crests to collect. In my two years of killing warbands, I only have nine or ten of them! (Maybe I can start convincing kinnies to do T2C Osgiliath or Pelennor?)

I'm starting to get off topic, so it's back to the outfit at hand!

Beacon of Calmindon

The name of this outfit is borrowed from Calmindon, the great First Age lighthouse sitting in the Númenórean Bay of Rómenna. I may not be the best at recalling the lore from the Unfinished Tales or The Silmarillion, but I believe it was erected as a warning not to defy the Ban of the Valar. For the Númenóreans, it meant they could never sail so far west that their own lands would disappear from view, for attempting to see or visit the Undying Lands was forbidden. This lighthouse, along with Númenór, was sunk into the sea towards the end of the Second Age by Eru Ilúvatar, when the Númenóreans corrupted by Sauron and Melkor challenged the ban and tried to forcibly reclaim the immortality they felt they were denied. Only the Faithful, a very small group of Númenóreans loyal to the Valar, were allowed to escape destruction and found the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor some years later.

I think that's enough of a history lesson for now. Hopefully, I interpreted the lore correctly.

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

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.

Swan Keeper - Lanael of Gladden

I've always had a fascination with such a lore-rich and beautiful landscape--this time with Dol Amroth. You see, Lothlórien was the last area to leave me feeling truly enamored. The towns in Rohan and Dunland never inspired me. Even though they were well designed, they were missing that special spark, that spark that moved me to create an outfit the moment I entered one. When I had my initial encounter with this city during beta, it was love at first sight. I stopped questing immediately to locate both the skirmish camp and bank. Testing the content was supposed to be paramount, but I was already neck-deep in my wardrobe before I remembered that tiny fact.

Simple Fashion - Dress Ideas

It's been about a month since my first "Simple Fashion" installment. This week, I'm bringing you some ideas for various dresses obtained in the game. Last time I checked, there around 40 dresses in LOTRO, most of which are long-sleeved, short-sleeved, or sleeveless versions of the same dress. If you discount the alternate variations, you're looking at, maybe, sixteen distinct dress skins between in-game rewards and the LOTRO Store. Honestly, it would be nice to have more in the game, even if it means you see them casually worn or used in RP settings.

Just like last time, no big stories or multiple screenies of one outfit...only three outfit ideas focusing on dresses. And for clarity's sake, I turned off the bloom effect in each of the pictures.

Head: Urdol-helm (Indigo, Isengard instance cluster reward)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Mighty Verse (Indigo, Moria Minstrel trainer barter item or Lalia's Market)
Chest: Elf-queen's Dress (Indigo, LOTRO Store or Spring Festival random gift-box reward)

Aurora Maiden - Lanael of Gladden

I think in this latest stretch of my cosmetic compilations, you'll be treated to some outfits I never quite felt finished until recently. I started playing LOTRO in 2010, just after it went free to play. Not quite sure what I was doing at that point of the game, I bought a couple of cosmetics from the store in addition to the Lone-lands and North Downs quest packs. I used one of those store items here, the Cloak of the Northern Lights, and this was only time it's been used in any of my outfits successfully. It still hasn't felt quite right anywhere else because of the rainbow of colors and the limited dyeability. Even so, I love to just look at it in the dressing room window!

Memories of Edhelion - Aldebaraan of Gladden

After the Elven tutorial to LOTRO, you'll find yourself standing before the gates of a razed and abandoned Edhelion. This area has seen relatively few changes over the years and is rarely visited once the main game begins. In the early days of LOTRO, you eventually revisited this refuge as you made your way to Skorgrim's Tomb, northeast of Edhelion. Update 2, I believe, changed the format of the intro and rearranged some locations. The tomb was moved, and a few NPCs were added to the town during the intro. Once the new intro was completed, there was never reason to return and this area became nothing but a distant memory...

...unless you were an avid Inn League daily completionist. : )

Kheledûl Contessa - Lanael of Gladden

Originally, I had planned out the nine outfits that would lead to the retirement of Material Middle-earth. With the recent change in plans, I've been able to sneak several additional ones into my posting schedule. The one you see here this week is one of them. : )

The outfits featured here have been rather extravagant the past couple of months. I've been asking myself if it's absolutely necessary to fill every available cosmetic slot when I make something. Looking back at the past few posts, I've pretty much used every space. I've tried to follow the adage less is more, but it doesn't always work. Based on experience, filling spaces for the sake of filling spaces has resulted in fashion overkill. This week, I've opted to keep this one simple and let the beauty of this Long-sleeved Dwarf-make Dress speak for itself. If anything, Brosh's Cloak was included because it matched the stylings and coloration of the dress so well.

Midnight Rune-scriber - Lanael of Gladden

The extinct "Their Weapons Shall Not Harm Us" skill animation. It was removed with Helm's Deep.

Black has been a dye color I often avoid for three reasons; it's not easy to make, it's expensive to purchase via the auction house, and it's a very common color. But, when it works, it works! I was in the mood to make something Elvish-looking, especially after using the Exquisite Elven Dress in a recent outfit. Plus, anything primarily white has always looked wonderful at night. Black enhances the soft and somewhat glowing effects of the moonlight. (This was also an outfit designed for the Halloween season, but its publication was delayed!)

Forest-friend - Lanael of Gladden

Green has always been my favorite color for my Rune-keeper, Lanael. Looks like I've discovered another character that heavily associates with a specific color, very much in the way shades of purple agree with my Captain. It's probably the personality I've envisioned for each specific character that leads me to dress them in certain fabrics and styles. That could very well be why I've stopped working on particular outfits. Even though it can look great, I can't envision that particular one wearing it in Middle-earth. But, that's what alts are for! I originally modeled this outfit on my Warden in navy blue.

Gift of Foresight - Lanael of Gladden

Author's Note: It's not often that I encounter someone who gets excited over a very specific cosmetic. I recently resumed using a long forgotten Twitter account, and happened to post that I snagged a particular piece of gear. It wasn't long before I received a tweet saying "For now I can only dream of getting it :D I can't wait to see your outfit :)" I was going to have this automatically published sometime in early January due to scheduling reasons, but I decided to squeeze this in early. Lorinell, this is for you!

After two arduous years of raiding and running retro content, I finally managed to get my hands on the chest piece elf-stone from the Mistress of Pestilence in Dâr Narbugud. Although the elf-stones are bound to account, this is a Rune-keeper exclusive item--the Robe of the Lady's Foresight. You'll have to drag a level 60 Rune-keeper to Caras Galadhon to barter for it. Similar to obtaining the class-specific teal armor from the Moria instance cluster, you won't be able to talk to a class vendor in the Twenty-first Hall unless you are that class. It's sad when a restriction like this exists...so many great cosmetic pieces either go unnoticed or unused.

A Return from a Lengthy Holiday

My, it's been a long time since I updated here. I had taken a break from LOTRO and all things LOTRO related, but I wasn't expecting it to be so long! It's been four months since my last blog post. It's been two months since I stopped playing. In a nutshell, I just got tired and aggravated with the game, not liking the direction the developers were taking this MMO. Also, with the way my non-gaming life had overwhelmed me, I had to temporarily stop the cosmetic blogging. Anyway, I'm back but not to the extent I used to be before December. Hopefully, I'll have some new outfits ready to go in the next week or two! To those of you who periodically check this blog, if there's anybody left at all (I hope!), thanks for being patient!

As an unusual bonus, here are several screenshots unused in any of my outfitting posts. Whenever I make an outfit, I take at least two dozen photos at a given time at a location...but only four of them make it to the final stages of a blog post. You might recognize some of the outfits below...but I can guarantee you that some of these haven't made it to this blog yet! Oh, the things you find archived from a different time and a different computer...

Winter Series - A Light Dusting

Barad Guldur Armor Sets - New and Old

Courtesy of Bullroarer, I have screenshots of the new level 85 Barad Guldur armor sets available at your local skirmish camp. I found it surprising that the new end-game gear is available without any special prerequisites, such as Dark Emblems from the actual raid. They'll be sitting here alongside the 65 6-piece sets at the Classic skirmish vendor. Make sure to click each picture for an enlarged version.  With the number of pictures here, I didn't want to make this post too long. Two sections here -- the 85 and 65 armor.

Level 85 Sets

(Heavy, Medium, Light from left to right)

The latest BG armor doesn't quite feature new skins. In fact, only the coloration appears to be different. If you notice closely, provided you are already familiar with the 65 BG armor, each set is a mish-mash of the original pieces from its respective classes. A helmet from one set here, leggings from another, and so on. The heavy set is for Champ, Guards, and Cappies. The medium set is for Hunters, Wardens, and Burglars. The light set is for Minstrels, Lore-masters, and Rune-keepers. Each class does have its own statted gear though! As for the dyable portions of this armor, only the silver-grey areas can be recolored.

Each piece costs 1554 Marks and 538 Medallions

   

Nature's Solitude - Lanael of Gladden

Infiltrator of Angmar - Lanael of Gladden