Caedus
-
Posts
873 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Caedus
-
-
Hello everybody, we're continuing with the next, chilly, chapter. Leaving the safety of Tom and Goldberry's house, our Hobbit-friends travel through ancient burial grounds called: the Barrow-downs.
Like Tom told us in the last chapter, the Barrow-downs were the resting places of the Kings and Queens that lived there long ago, but were vanquished by the evil of Angmar. That same evil summoned evil spirits to haunt those crypts and rattle the bones that still lie there, clattered with gold and silver.
Of course the hobbits start out with high spirits. Gradually however, they are lost in the fog. Frodo gets seperated and ends up in a burial mound with an evil Wight. Then, as things seem to go very badly, he remembers the song that Tom taught him and calls for the Master. Tom comes to their rescue and banishes the old Wight. He then accompanies them to the relative safety of Bree.
-
I believe that Tolkien explained something of ol' Tom in one of his letters? I'm sorry that I can't refer to a specific one, but I at least wanted to point it out.
This chapter seems really mysterious to me. It has depth if you know what I mean. On the surface things seem clear, but underneath are secrets to be found.
Tom says he was there before the Dark Lord come out of the Outside. That means he was in Arda first. So either he is one quick Vala or he is part of the world altogether. I like to place my bet on that last one. Somehow, I relate Tom and Goldberry to some elemental forces, connected with the world, like Earth and Water, or Summer and Spring. There is much room for debate here though.
One more thing about Frodo's dream: he dreams of '...tower but not made by hands.' --> Wasn't Orthanc build by ancient Gondorians? It must have been Orthanc, because he dreamt of Gandalf. Maybe I'm plain wrong, but I want to know sure.
-
That would be a shame indeed. And might I be so bold to hope that succesion and 'rich genealogies' may have a impact on diplomacy...? Just a quick idea, ready to be ignored, but also ready to plant the seeds of inspiration.
-
hm...when it's done
nah. we're thinking of getting a webbie of our own but we haven't gotten around to it yet. If anybody of you feel you've got what it takes send us some examples of pages you've done.
I've been thinking of offering my webskills. If you can't find a pro (I won't call myself one), then I could do it. I've a portfolio of websites here: http://members.lycos.nl/caedus_c/portfolio.php. It's in Dutch but you can click the pictures
. I've done some things in HTML, others in PHP and some sites with Phpnuke. Depending on what you want with the TLA site, I think I can handle it.I wonder when all the sections will be up to date... I'm beginning to hate that picture of a Dwarf villager.I can still remember when that pic was posted here on the site. It was in the days that I was just watching here, but wasn't posting. Don't remember who did it btw. It was posted together with the Dwarf Male/Female pic if I recall correctly.
-
David (Curufinwe), it seems I still should've done the reading on Tuesday, because I haven't been able to do it now
. But I will update tomorrow on Sunday.[EDIT]
It's been Monday now and I still haven't been able to work on it. I've a lawsuit (don't worry, nothing serious) tomorrow that I want to win (or at least lose, when I've done all I can) and Tolkien had to wait. I'm reallly sorry about this. When it's over I can do some reading for the group again.
On the bright side, I've passed the exam I was posting about earlier on (see above) and I've passed my first year at university
! So that's a good thing.If some one else things he can do the job quicker then by all means, go for it! You don't have to wait because of me.
-
Ok, I'll leave it MSN then and I'll try to check reguraly.
-
On the main TLA webpage there is a link with the following text:
"For the latest information, be sure to visit the forums!"
But when I try the link it has the old url and the page gets swamped with WFG logos. It might scare potential fans away before they even have been on the forum!
-
I was talking about the design document not the whole game! And an estimate doesn't have to be so precise
! -
Bah, even his letters. Oh well. I'm not online very often on msn, so if you can tell me what time and date fits you? If you have time of course, with your family member in the hospital. It doesn't matter to me if it takes a couple of weeks (or longer) so don't stress because of me.
-
No problem! Take your time and I'm sure I can speak for everyone here if I say that your family is more important than this reading group. Good luck and I wish you strength!
And if you want, I can post it tomorrow?
-
programmers make the world move and function
artists make the world look
designers make the world come alive
althou excel isn't really a must, there's a free alternative in OpenOffice.
www.openoffice.org. I've stopped using MsOffice at home and moved to OpenOffie.
Thanks dathui, that was just the program I was looking for :-)!
-
Neither do I, so that may explain why I am so ignorant about female Orcs.
-
Even saying that you are making huge progress in design is news! And it keeps the boards alive...
Can you give any estimate (perhaps in %) about how far the design document is finished? Would be nice.
-
The Orcs, well, let's just say they don't feel love as much.
I would rather say we simply don't know that. At least I don't know it, as I have never seen a description of the relation between male and female Orcs. In fact, I never have read anything on female Orcs at all!
-
Some news would be very welcome here. What's the status on designing? Any problems that seem insurmountable? New interviews? I just checked the last Civilisation Showcase and was shocked to see it has been almost a year ago! It still lies fresh in my memory as a moment of joy to see new stuff.
-
Sounds really good to me!
-
I believe a random scenario takes place in either the First, Second or Third Age but doesn't necessarily span that whole age. It would propably translate to a short period. I guess you can have wonders and artifacts in a random scenario. How you envision quests to be in such a scenario is not clear to me, maybe you can elaborate on that? And about High Arts: where is their equivalent in the works of Tolkien? It doesn't feel to me, like it is part of it.
-
Why would Eru be good? He doesn't promise a paradise or something similar to anyone. He is all, and because of that he can't be good or evil because no one can judge him.
I view him more as an artist, an artist who creates something and awaits what direction it will take without directly interfering (if possible).
What Melkor did wrong was making his own art (music), art that interfered with the art of Eru. Melkor believed he could create beautiful things himself, but he could not. I think Eru will show him the greater scheme of things and that he will let Melkor understand what he wanted and couldn't.
And don't forget: Melkor is the offspring of Eru's thought and as such he is part of Eru as are his actions somehow.
-
I think that this battles creates more questions about Tolkien's mythology than it does answers, for example; supposedly the battle will take place when the world is old and if we consider Arda and our world the same, then it makes one wonder about what kind of weapons the battle would be fought with. Would men and elves be fighting with guns and tanks?!
It's not difficult to re-introduce swords: justimagine a few a-bombs having fallen and we will be mostly back to the stone age. Not that I think it is what Tolkien envisioned.
@Erik: I don't think Tolkien wrote that part to be so symbolic at all. Surely, if Melkor was able to destroy the Two Trees he would surely be able to destroy the Sun and Moon. In fact he tried it once, but failed. If he somehow gets enough strength to come back, he would surely try to physically attack the Maiar of those objects and if he did, I wouldn't view it with much optimism.
And yes, Tolkien was a catholic, but that doesn't automatically means he rewrote the Revelations of the New Testament in a different form. It could've influenced him in an indirect way of course, but I believe he largely followed his own creativeness.
The analogy with Ragnarok is fuller in my opinion.
-
Nice! A very spooky pic. I wonder, did they enter that white dot in the middle later or is it really a star or something?
-
There will be female villagers. Just check out the noldorin concept art.
It's not true that only a couple of women followed their men on the crusades. If we speak just about the second crusade for instance, there were a lot of women, doing nothing. But this is an exception. In campaigns, women did follow men, but then they weren't their wives, but cooks and such.
You're talking about crusades, but those are a very special kind of campaigning. It wasn't to war your neighbour and gain some land: it was to wage a holy war in a far away country and many soldiers weren't thinking of going back, but were thinking of gaining a small piece of land for their own. It's only logical then that they took their wife with them.
The only comparable situation in Arda would be the campaign of Feänor and his family, against Melkor. When they sailed from paradise to Middle-Earth. And indeed: their women went with them on that campaign (Galadriel anyone?). I frankly can't imagine women fighting along side their husbands on The Last Alliance (not talking about exceptions, but in general).
-
I believe (based on screen-shots I saw from the 0 A.D. game) that the scenario-builder will be a GUI (Graphical User Interface).
However, I've als been told that the game will be very easy to MOD, so I think that if a designer really wants to do some special things, he can do it.
And if no GUI to date has been able to do those mathematical operations, it doesn't mean TLA won't have it ;-)!
-
A scenario can have two different forms (as far as I know):
1. It's a scenario hand-made by a designer. That means the scenario can have any goals and can take place at any (span of) time and location.
2. It's a random scenario. That means the game-engine generated it, with the player propably selecting some options, like how much water/forests/hills/etc. should be on it.
-
The crown of the hat is the middle bit. I wouldn't take that as a crown such as a king would wear.
Ah, you mean the middle part of a high hat, that makes the hat 'high'?
Curufinwe, could you post that letter, or are those letters copyrighted too? I'm very interested in it
!
[LotR] - Chapter 08 - 'Fog on the Barrow-downs'
in TLA Community Reading Group
Posted
I find it fascinating how powerful the With-King must be (or have been) to summon such spirits to inhabit once sacred places. Did he learn all that from Sauron, or is he perhaps a skilled researcher on his own? Still, he wasn't able to totally ban the ghosts of Men, because Merry touches their memories. Speculation perhaps, but interesting speculation nonetheless
.
Master Tom banishes the Wight. What does that say about the strength of the spell of the Witch-King? Was it a weak trick, or is Bombadil that powerful? Maybe Tom is able to make things like they should be (like sending a dead spirit to the Void)?
Does someone else notices the parallel between the hobbits getting lost in the Forest and in the Barrow-downs? It almost seems like their is a similair power like Old Man Willow enchanting the hobbits in the Downs. Or is it just the general evil of the place?
I also want to offer my apologies for posting this so late (again!). It seems Morgoth is working against from beyond the borders of the world. But I won't falter
!