Some weeks ago I was invited by Aegthil of Gondor to assist in the making of a video about The Ride of Eorl, a poem written by Cennwyn of Landroval. It tells the story of Eorl, who rode to the aid of Gondor when they were attacked by the Balchoth, the Easterlings. It was the beginning of a long standing mutual alliance, and for his service the Steward of Gondor gave Eorl and his people the province Calenardhon to dwell in. This land later became known as The Riddermark, or Rohan, and Eorl became its first King.
I was asked to design the costumes for the main characters and help out with costume advice for the many extras that would appear in the video. But before I tell you a bit more about the backstage process in the dressing room, please click the image below to watch this most epic video!

~ Click image to watch The Ride of Eorl video ~

It’s not so easy to assemble an outfit when you don’t know what pieces the players have access to, but even though people had to make changes because of their personal wardrobe, most outfits came together nicely. The challenge is to find something that most people can acquire yet at the same time make it look out of the ordinary. The focus for the Eorlingas outfits was natural and rugged using browns and greens. The outfit instructions for Gondor were white and blue and I think the Easterlings got the best parts to play because their outfits had to be exotic and extremely colourful.

There are two heroes in this story. Eorl the Young, Lord of the Éothéod and Cirion, Ruling Steward of Gondor. I gave Eorl a rugged, hairy horseman outfit, and except for a slightly different chest piece, the outfit was used entirely!

Cirion had to look rather noble, yet battle ready, and I really wanted to use the White Tree of Gondor theme in his outfit somehow.

I think Beorbrand did an amazing job appearing as Cirion except that… he didn’t trim his beard. I guess that was just too much to ask for…

All the extra’s got some outfit advice as well. The ladies of Gondor obviously in blues…

The most fun outfitting endeavor was on behalf of the Easterlings, and truly they all look amazing in the video!

Thank you Aegthil for inviting me to do this project, it was great fun! Thank you Dannigan for being an awesome Eorl, and Beorbrand for a wonderful Cirion and the rest of the Lonely Mountain Band for your amazing effort to put your costumes together. You all made it look epic!

My minstrel reached level 85 last week and is pretty much set up in Rohan to do daylies, warbands and… well that’s all for now I suppose. I’m trying hard to find new looks but there isn’t a lot of variety in the new Rohan armour. On top of that, many of the crafted chest pieces have deformation issues. For example the medium crafted Eastemnet chest piece that she is wearing here makes her legs look like she’s suffering from anorexia. Besides the legs being deformed, they aren’t placed straight onto her feet either, which becomes very obvious when she wears shoes as her feet literally stand next to her legs. All this causes clipping issues when wearing boots. This chest piece isn’t the only one with problems. When wearing the heavy crafted Eastemnet chest piece on a man, his chest will have deep recesses. The light Robe of Eomer, crafted level 85, gives my female elf a huge inflated breast and super thin arms. In other words, these crafted pieces are potentially hazardous to your character’s health!
The warsteed halter and caparison bear the emblem of the Entwash region which is a large harp, making items with this emblem very popular with Minstrels.

As far as the warsteed appearance customization options go, I’ve pretty much given up on hope that Turbine will listen to their customers and make the steed colors more accessible. I have accepted the fact that the appearance system was never intended to resemble anything like our current outfit system, and is probably better viewed as a “design your own steed for money” system, where you create an appearance for your steed and stick with that. This means that once you finished designing your tailor made steed and purchased the necessary colors, you are back to square one where, just like in the old world, you design your outfit to match your steed. Unlike what I had expected it to be, a system where the warsteed appearance can be customized to fit my outfits. Call me dumb for having had those expectations.
For this steed I’m using the default grey hide color and for its horse tack I’m using one of the free item colors. There are 6 item colors for free: Indigo, Rust, Orange, Forest Green, Rose and Yellow. All are colors that you’re not likely to have purchased with TP, but I guess Turbine wanted to throw us a bone. So for my steed I picked Forest Green, to match the Minstrel accessory that has an undyeable green section in it.
Given that these steed colors are so expensive, I decided to buy no more than two color packs for each of my characters. If the packs would have been cheaper I would have spent double or triple the total amount that I’m spending now, but I don’t want to feel like I’m being ripped off while playing my favorite game and at the same time I don’t want to exclude myself completely from the warsteed color options. I’m fine with the prices for accessories and hide-patterns, as I see those additions as optional, while I consider reasonable access to all color options as being mandatory to a successful and enjoyable outfitting system.

Back: Cloak of the Golden Oak, forest green dye (skirmish camp, cosmetic)
Chest: Eastemnet Skirmish Armour, forest green dye (T8 crafted level 80, medium armour)
Hands: Fingerless Gloves, forest green dye (Yule festival, helping the poor quest reward)
Feet: Reclaimed Nobleman’s Shoes, forest green dye (Great River quest reward, light armour)

Warsteed
Halter: Light Halter of the Entwash – forest green
Caparison: Light Caparison of the Entwash – forest green
Legs: Light Leggings of the Entwash – forest green
Saddle: Minstrel’s Saddle
Accessory: Minstrel’s Gear
No additional color customizations

Last month my blog joined in on the Charity Auctions organized by Casual Stroll to Mordor for the Fellowship Walk for Child’s Play. There were two auctions to bid on, both offering a cosmetic make-over for your character according to your wishes. Two auctions with two winners who were extremely generous in their donation and I’m very happy to offer my time in return to design something beautiful for them!
The first make-over I finished is for Tuiliel of Landroval, an elf huntress. She gave me a couple of inspirations to work with, one of which is her title “Lady of Streams”, which she described as follows:

From the lily-laden ponds of Frogmorton to the purple waterfalls of Evendim at sunset, to the banks of the Anduin strewn with golden leaves, Tuiliel embodies the spirit of the water: turning from gentle, to playful, to fierce at a moment’s notice, and never able to settle. She feels most at home in a quiet wood with a bubbling stream, in her heart always a river-daughter. This outfit is in keeping with her title Lady of Streams.

This inspiration led to two outfits, one with a dress, suitable for more formal occasions and one for a true elf lady huntress. You will find the huntress outfit in my next post. The main ingredient of both outfits are the water colours, combining blues, greens and purple hues in swirls and wave patterns.

Head: Simbelmynë Circlet, Evendim blue dye (Spring Festival cosmetic)
Chest: Long-sleeved Elven Dress, Evendim blue dye (Rivendell kindred reputation barter)
Shoulders: Noriel’s Folly, sea blue dye (Great River quest reward)
Back: Drape of Evendim, Evendim blue dye (skirmish camp cosmetic)
Hair: Hairstyle option 19

This is the second outfit I made for Tuiliel of Landroval, Lady of Streams. Just like the dress outfit, it centers around blues and greens, swirls and wave patterns and earthy colours. The most important part of these two outfits is the shoulder piece, Noriel’s Folly, which I think is awesome for female elf huntresses. As far as I know there is currently only one way to obtain it in game, as this piece is no longer available in the Ettenmoors. Tuiliel is level 70 and has yet to enter the Great River area. Since Riders of Rohan this area has been lowered to start at level 70, which offers a great alternative to levelling in gloomy Isengard. The leggings used are also a reward from the Great River area, but a bit further into the quest lines all the way into the Brownlands. These pieces have become quite precious now that the Ettenmoors pieces have been removed from the barters.

Tuiliel was very happy happy with these two outfits and has access to all the pieces, so she didn’t really want anything changed. I was very happy with them myself as I think these two outfits really fit her title well. This was my first attempt ever at making an outfit for someone else, based on their own idea and desires, and it turned out rather well!

Head: Simbelmynë Circlet, navy dye (Spring Festival cosmetic)
Chest: Elven Hunter’s Armour, sienna dye (crafted Tier 4, medium)
Shoulders: Noriel’s Folly, navy dye (Great River quest reward)
Legs: Earthen Leggings, turquoise dye (Great River quest reward)
Hands: Golden Host Gloves, navy dye (crafted Tier 6, Mirkwood medium)
Feet: Golden Host Boots, navy dye (crafted Tier 6, Mirkwood medium)
Back: Elegant Elven Quiver, sienna dye (festival box cosmetic)
Hair: Hairstyle option 19

The Rohan expansion so far has been everything I hoped for, except for the most important part: the armour appearances. Rohan has only two-and-a-half new armour appearances per weight: 1) the quest reward and barter gear, which is a rework of old world model armour designs and thus counts for half only, 2) the level 80 crafted armour and 3) the level 85 crafted armour.  I really like some of the crafted armour pieces but because of the deformation bugs, many pieces cannot be used. I just got my champion through the first Rohan quests and I wanted to use the level 80 crafted heavy chest piece for an outfit, but it has such terrible deformations on the chest (looks like somebody punched him really hard on his ribs) that I cannot use it as it is. In stead I had to come up with something a bit more old worldly.

A nice heavy armour outfit is always problematic for me. There aren’t really any full plate pieces in the game, which is a shame. Most of it is half plate with chain mail or even leather. Heavy leggings are the hardest part. I like the heavy Rift leggings but they all have an undyeable sienna detail on front and back and that just irritates the hell out of me. I have this manic need to match colours and details on every outfit, and having to either match or ignore the sienna gets old quickly. The Ost Dunhoth gear is a bit more flexible in that regard, but still has a lot of chain mail and very little plate. So for this outfit I had to find a compromise again. I keep wondering if we’ll ever see full plate gear. Maybe when we march to Gondor?

Head: Tarchar, white dye (barter in Ost Galadh, heavy armour)
Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Galadhrim, white dye (crafted Tier 6 Lothlórien, heavy armour, also available as skirmish cosmetic)
Chest: Ríanham, gold dye (Vol.I Bk8 reward, heavy armour, appearance also available as world drop)
Hands: Gauntlets of the Galadhrim, white dye (crafted Tier 6 Lothlórien, heavy armour, also available as skirmish cosmetic)
Legs: Lesser Defender of the West Leggings, white dye (barter in Ost Dunhoth, warden set, medallions of the north-men can be soloed)
Feet: Berserker’s Boots, white dye (trainer in Ost Galadh, champion only)
Back: Festive Azure Cloak, white dye (5th Anniversary veteran gift cosmetic)

With today’s post, I am starting a very personal journey on my blog, presenting a series of outfits in a format that is both dear and significant to me: the Tarot. Many of you may be familiar with what the Tarot is, some of you may not, but without turning this blog post into a Tarot lesson, I will try to give you a very brief introduction.

The Tarot is a deck of 78 cards, featuring different symbolic pictures. A standard deck consists of 22 trump cards (the Major Arcana) and 56 pip cards (the Minor Arcana). The symbolism and art on the cards represent primal patterns and experiences that occur in each human life. While each card has a general symbolic meaning, a significant portion of the interpretation of tarot cards is dependent on the reader. The most well-known and “grandfather” of Tarot decks is the Rider-Waite Tarot. The art and symbolism on this deck provide the basis for the design of most modern Tarot decks.

Many Tarot decks are designed around a theme, integrating the Rider-Waite symbolism into a new overarching motif, such as fairies, art or even cats. There are hundreds of different Tarot deck designs, and it comes as no surprise that the rich world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth has also been used as an inspiration for a Tarot deck. As far as I am aware, there are two Tarot decks based on Tolkien’s work: The Lord of the Rings Tarot and the Hobbit Tarot. While I am personally not very fond of the first one, the Hobbit Tarot is actually quite lovely. The art-work is well done and in general the Hobbit theme weaves well into the original default meaning of the Tarot cards. It is this deck that inspired me to create a virtual deck of my own based on LOTRO. I have no idea how many cards I will end up doing and I will probably not follow any particular order, except for my first card, The Fool.

The Fool is the very first card of the Tarot. It is numbered 0. The Fool, and the number 0, represent the unwritten page, the step into the unknown, innocence and youthful excitement. It is who we are when we are children, full of wonderment and eagerness to take the step into adulthood, without the slightest notion of the inevitable pitfalls that will follow. All options are still open. We can go anywhere we like. The card also represents a warning though, because the Fool is nearing a cliff and may fall off if he doesn’t watch his step. The Fool in the Hobbit Tarot is represented by Bilbo, leaving behind his familiar hobbit hole to take the step into the unknown and journey with the dwarves to the Lonely Mountain.

“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.”
~Bilbo Baggins – Lord of the Rings~

With my virtual LOTRO Tarot Series I do not aim to represent any of Tolkien’s characters, nor parts of his stories necessarily, but rather use the game environment and outfit system to create an image that I think captures the symbolism, colors and meaning of that particular Tarot card. So here’s my first Tarot card: The Fool.

For comparison, I will add the images of three real Tarot cards to each post in this series. The original Rider-Waite card, and two cards from a deck of my own choice. For this card I chose Bilbo from the Hobbit deck of course, and in addition I chose The Fool from the Robin Wood deck.

December has started which to me is the beginning of the Winter season and lots of wintery outfits! I am really looking forward to this month which is always special as we approach Yule tide. One of the things to look forward to is the Yule Festival that will start at the end of December. This festival is now available for testing on Bullroarer. The way it is going to be set up this year worries me greatly. There will be some very large “end” rewards like War-steed cosmetics and a special Yule portrait for your character, however these bigger rewards, including the regular festival horse, will be gated behind new deeds. The top tier of these deeds will require 200 daily quests completed. The fact that these quests are dailies, means that if you miss a few days, or  even a whole week, (because you spend time with your family during the holiday season!), you won’t be able to complete the deed and miss out on those end rewards. The solution? Buy reset tokens in the Lotro store and complete more daily quests at once!
This is very sad news to me, and once more I feel disappointed about the choices Turbine is making regarding the festivals, the grinds and the lotro store. Festivals used to be a fun break from it all, something easy and enjoyable to hop into and do at your own pace in your own time. Of course you can still participate that way, but that kind of casual approach will likely lock you out of the bigger rewards, which will be available to hard-core grinders only. On top of that, any accumulated gold tokens will be wiped after the festival, so next festival you will have to start all over again.
This is how it currently stands on Bullroarer. I really hope and pray that we’ll see something more casual player friendly when the festival goes live.

Update 9 will bring plenty of new stuff, even though it’s not entirely as promised since not all instances will be released at once. The positive cosmetic news is that we’ll see the Barad Guldur raid scaled up to 85 which provides new cosmetic options. The original level 65 armour pieces will now be available for medallions and marks at the skirmish camp and there will be some new level 85 pieces with a redesigned look. If you’re interested in previews you can check out either Material Middle-earth or Estel Fashion (french).
I for one am really looking forward to obtaining some long desired pieces!

Chest: Eastemnet Battle Armour, sea blue dye (T8 crafted heavy armour)
Hands: Mammutti Gloves, umber dye (T6 crafted Lossoth heavy armour, can also be crafted as a cosmetic)
Feet: Mammutti Boots,umber dye (T6 crafted Lossoth heavy armour, can also be crafted as a cosmetic)
Back: Bearskin Winter Cloak, sea blue dye (old Yule Festival cosmetic, currently store exclusive, only available during festivals)

Here is a preview of the Yule Festival Cosmetics 2012 available from the barter in Frostbluff. Please take notice that there are also bound-to-account cosmetics dropping from a Sack of Presents (reward from the first Yule daily). Previews from those random cosmetics are being added to the bottom of this post.

 
Wintry Yule Robe – 40 festival tokens

 
Wintry Yule Cloak – 40 festival tokens

 
Wintry Yule Backpack – 50 festival tokens + 1 gold token + Tier 2

 
Wintry Yule Hat – 50 festival tokens + 1 gold token + Tier 2

 
Yule Tree Cloak – 50 festival tokens + 1 gold token + Tier 2

 
Festive Yule Mug – main/offhand – 30 festival tokens    Festive Wine Skin – main/offhand – 30 festival tokens

 
Bunch of Holly – main/offhand – 30 festival tokens     Yule Sparkler – main/offhand – 50 festival tokens

 
Horned Snow-beast Cloak – 70 festival tokens + 1 gold token + Tier 3

 
Horned Snow-beast Boots – 70 festival tokens + 1 gold token + Tier 3

The More The Merrier deed:
20 quests = Tier 1, +40 quests = Tier 2, + 60 quests = Tier 3
Tier 3 is a total of 120 daily quests completed.

Exchange rate: 100 festival tokens = 1 gold token

 
 
Spiral-horned Snow-beast Cloak – reward from Sack of Presents (daily) (bound to account)

 
Wintry Yule Cap – reward from Sack of Presents (daily) (bound to account)

As you may know, for Update 9 I have assembled some outfits for the mannequins that stand near the armour smiths and outfit vendors in various locations. Currently two of my outfits are on display. When you click on these mannequins you will be taken directly to the store to purchase the outfit as a bundled item.
Unfortunately assembling these outfits was restricted to items that were already available in the store as single items. As you can imagine this restriction is very frustrating, since the best outfits are usually a blend of cosmetics and gear pieces and the best pieces are not in the store inventory.

However, the good news is that this restriction will be removed and I have been invited to assemble another batch of outfits, this time with access to anything in the game, with the exception of the current end game gear designs! This opens up a wide array of options that may have actual potential to become popular cosmetic bundles in the store. So the next step is that I will be assembling a new batch of outfits, which include items that are currently not available in the store, or even available as cosmetics at all. The time frame is currently too short to run a full contest for this purpose and include everyone’s designs, but hopefully I will be able to do that in the future. In the meantime I would still like to integrate your input and ideas as much as possible before I start working on this round.

If you would like to give your suggestions in this poll, or in the comment section of this post, I will do my very best to come up with some outfits that we as players would actually be proud to wear.

You may select a maximum of 3 preferences.

My second card in the Tarot Series is not the Magician (as would be the logical order of the deck), but the Hermit. I am not trying to create every single card out of the Tarot, as with 78 cards total that would be most certainly too much to accomplish on this blog, nor am I sticking to any particular order. In stead I am picking out cards that stand out to me or that I feel can be emulated within the Lotro game environment.

The Hermit stands for retreat, contemplation, solitude, reflection, wisdom, isolation and… well, a whole range of other meanings in that context. The wonderful but for beginning Tarot readers sometimes overwhelming issue with the Tarot is that all cards have multiple meanings. Most books or lists on the internet will give you a general meaning for a card, but its ultimate significance is influenced by its position in a spread and the intuitive interpretation of the Tarot reader. And even that is not the whole story of Tarot interpretation as symbolic correspondences, timing, the question of the querent, and many other things all subtly influence the exact meaning of a card. However, the basic meaning of The Hermit card refers to a period of reflection or retreat, necessary to “see the light”.

There are several stories, events and people in the Lord of the Rings that reflect the archetype of The Hermit. An archetype is not a person, though it can be expressed through a person or personality. An archetype is rather a pattern of human behavior, a general pattern of circumstances or a classic series of events.

A good example of the Hermit archetype expressed through a classic series of events is Gandalf’s period of silence and solitude after fighting the Balrog in Moria, where he basically “fights his own demons” in the darkness and passes through the doors of death. As a result he needs to retreat from all involvement in Middle-earth before he can be “born again” into the light. Gandalf is always enigmatic, and keeps his thoughts to himself, so he expresses the Hermit archetype through his personality as well. Other well known “Hermits” in Middle-earth are Tom Bombadil and Radagast and even Bilbo Baggins’ retreat to Rivendell can be regarded as a Hermit pattern.

It was not so easy getting my own Hermit to pose for this Tarot card, but I believe the image still reflects the Hermit well. With my virtual LOTRO Tarot Series I do not aim to represent any of Tolkien’s characters, nor parts of his stories necessarily, but rather use the game environment and outfit system to create an image that I think captures the symbolism, colors and meaning of that particular Tarot card.

For comparison, I added the images of three real Tarot cards. These Hermits are from the Radiant Waite Tarot, the Wildwood Tarot (which renamed the card The Hooded Man) and the Sharman-Caselli Tarot.

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Mae govannen fellow travellers of Middle-earth!

Lately my blog activity has slowed down to only a few posts this year. I am still playing Lotro, but not as actively as I used to, since I started a new business this year that takes up a lot of my time. Spending energy on real life activities always diminishes game time, and as a result the time I used to spend on outfitting and this blog is currently non-existent.

Most of you will have found their way to Lalia’s market by now. This little shop is a cosmetic lover’s dream come true, and should keep your wardrobes stocked for a good while. Lalia and Hymne have been good friends ever since she was rescued from that horrible prince in the Barrows. Lalia gave Hymne a cute little cloak at the time, and Hymne has been helping her to dress the mannequins in her new store. You can find many of the mannequin outfits showcased on this blog!

I am still very much looking forward to any future Festivals and I will do my best to keep documenting the cosmetics that appear there, but new outfits will only be posted occasionally.

Happy outfitting and thank you for continuing to follow this blog!

~Hymne

Here is a preview of the Spring Festival Cosmetics 2013 available from the Quartermaster at the Festival Grounds.

Lissuin Robe – 18 Spring Leaves  (Honey, does this robe make me look fat…?)

Lissuin Dress – 18 Spring Leaves

Lissuin Cloak – 15 Spring Leaves

Lissuin Hooded Cloak – 15 Spring Leaves

The Starry Mantle and Cosmetic Lotro have joined forces once again to present you with a new and fun contest! This time, the challenge is to dress up your hero (or heroine) as the local villain, and get him or her taken into custody! We need you to take screenshots of all those pesky scoundrels, riff raff, drunks, rapscallions and general disturbers of the peace and turn those pictures into genuine mugshots. In addition you may choose to add a short description or a story of the crime committed, in order to compete in the crime story category of this contest.

First Prize: 1500 Turbine Points
Second Prize: 1000 Turbine Points
Third Prize: 500 Turbine Points

Crime Story Prize:
In-game title “The Sociable” + account wide Cremello Steed

Yzgrim rather resented his arrest as the town guards dragged him out of The Prancing Pony after breaking wind while a wedding celebration was in full swing.

A mugshot is a combination of a front and profile picture, taken from suspects when they are arrested. To create an original, funny and witty mugshot you can make use of emotes or character motions. Make sure you dress accordingly and don’t forget to use hats, hairstyles, handheld items and even facial features for maximum effect.
Good luck, have fun and don’t forget to check out The Starry Mantle for additional inspiration!

Despite numerous warnings, the Bounders caught Mayrose once again carrying off mail and letters that were definitely not addressed to her.

How to enter the contest

Mugshot
To enter the mugshot-contest you must take TWO waist-up screenshots of your villain: one front picture and one profile picture. You may cut and/or crop your screenshots as needed, just keep them as large as possible and use the highest resolution available. If you have sufficient image editing skills, you can proceed to blend these two screenshots into one image and present us with a genuine “mugshot” (just like you see in the examples of this post; suggested size for a finished mugshot is 800×600). If you don’t have enough image editing experience do not worry! We will make sure your images will be edited into a proper “mugshot”. You may enter the contest with a maximum of three different mugshots, but each entry must be in a separate email. You must send your entries to outfitblogs(AT)gmail.com with the subject line “mugshot contest” before June 28th 2013, midnight Eastern Standard Time.
Please include the following information with your entry:

• name of the character in the screenshot
• server the character resides on.

Crime story
To enter the crime story-contest you must first enter the mugshot-contest. Write up a short story or description of the crime that the villain in the mugshot has been accused of and include it with your mugshot entry. The story may not exceed 200 words.

Prizes
Four prizes will be awarded:
- Mugshot First Prize: 1500 Turbine Points
- Mugshot Second Prize: 1000 Turbine Points
- Mugshot Third Prize: 500 Turbine Points
- Crime Story Prize: code for in-game title “The Sociable” + code for account wide “Cremello Mount”.
All prizes courtesy of Turbine.
IMPORTANT: It is possible to win a prize in the Mugshot contest + the Crime Story Prize. These prizes are NOT mutually exclusive! However, it is also possible to win the Crime Story contest, without winning a prize in the Mugshot contest.

Criteria
The criteria used to judge your “mugshot” entries are:
- Appearance of the villain (hair, face, hat, outfit, handheld items, etc.)
- Expression of the villain (emotes, motions, pose)
- Atmosphere of the screenshot (location, background, lighting)
- Overall impression (very subjective and at the discretion of the outfit blogs)
The criteria used to judge your “crime story” entries are:
- Originality of the crime involved
- Quality of the story

The Mugshot Contest has inspired many players to come up with fun and original screenshots and crime stories. Of course everybody deserves to win, but we had to make a selection from the entries and pick the finalists, so the winners are:

1st Prize – 1500 Turbine Points
Runcible of Snowbourn
Runcible Spooner has had his knuckles rapped for a Boardinghouse Reach violation and dishing up dessert with a non-regulation spoon.

* * *

2nd Prize – 1000 Turbine Points
Margeylane of Brandywine

Margey was held on counts of “Criminal Culinary Craft” and “Potash Pudding”.

* * *

3rd Prize – 500 Turbine Points
Dhelin of Estel

Dhelin the Barber was banned and his beard and hair cut short in consequence of a lack of barbering skills.

* * *

Crime Story Prize – “The Sociable” ingame title & Cremello Steed
Thego of Firefoot

Thego was trying to impress the ladies, as he often did. This time his eye had been caught by Rosemary, a hobbit-lass working at the Prancing Pony. “Every woman likes cats”, Thego thought, and so he scouted around Bree, looking for one. He came across a house full of cats, and sneakily carried one off. “She has so many, she won’t notice if I take one,” he thought. Little did he know it was the cat lady’s favorite, Horatio, that he had stolen. It was only after sitting in jail for two days that he found out Rosemary was allergic to cats.

* * *

Many thanks to all who participated in the contest , thank you Starry from The Starry Mantle for co-hosting the contest with me and a thank you to Turbine who kindly provided us with the prizes.

Filed under: Contests, Other

Freyjuska from Lotro Fashion is in the process of making a series of video guides about outfitting. Her first video is about the armour preview feature in Lotro.
She is planning to make more videos and is asking for feedback on her blog. She will be posting the videos to her YouTube channel. Check them out!

Freyjuska from Lotro Fashion has published her second video guide in a series: Using cosmetic slots. Check it out!

I’ve updated my guide about cosmetics and outfitting, and split it up into different subsections.
The “How to …” guide will now explain various aspects of outfitting in written text, and uses a drop down menu from the main blog bar.
It’s just a small update, but I think it makes things a little clearer and easier to find.

I wish everyone a wonderful, healthy and prosperous new year! I am looking forward to all the good things in life, one of which is playing Lotro. I hope the new year will bring us lots to look forward to in Middle Earth.
My goals for Lotro in the next year are: getting my lore-master to 75!
And of course I hope to continue to make many more outfits as well.

Happy 2012!

~Hymne

I find it hard to believe but today is the 1st Anniversary of my blog! A good moment to look back on my first year of creating outfits for my characters in the Lord of the Rings Online.

When I started getting seriously interested in the possibilities of outfitting, the Wardrobe function had just been introduced by Turbine a few months prior. Even though the Wardrobe was more restricted than it is today, it opened up a whole new world of playing around with my characters. Looking for outfits and information on the internet, I stumbled upon Devonna’s blog Lotro Stylist, and decided that blogging about outfits would be a great way for myself to express my creativity in this area. Rather than posting guest outfits on her blog, I started my own. One thing led to the next and before I knew it I found myself creating new outfits all the time.

I’d like to look back through my archives and highlight some personal favorites of the past 12 months, sharing some comments and insights as I progressed through this outfitting adventure.

A P R I L   2 0 1 1

This early outfit attracted the attention of Goldenstar from Casual Stroll to Mordor, who is also an avid cosmetics fan, and she shared a link to this post on Twitter. This link brought a huge amount of traffic to this blog which hasn’t stopped since. Thank you Goldenstar for putting my blog in the spotlight!

M A Y   2 0 1 1

My main character Hymne was to be the prominent dress-up girl for this blog, so I made her picture my blog’s icon, wearing a rare piece of medium armour that I am still very fond of and she still wears in one of her outfit slots.

J U N E   2 0 1 1

I had worked hard to accumulate all the Annuminas set pieces (light, medium) and they are still among my most treasured outfit pieces. Back then you could only acquire them through running the actual Annuminas instances; nowadays they can be bartered with regular medallions. In the days before Rise of Isengard, these shoulders and boots were popular choices for ranger-type outfits.

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After months of grinding the Volume I Epic repeatable instances through the reflection pools, I finally accumulated enough Marks of Triumph to purchase the Helegrod robe for my minstrel. This was truly a personal achievement as it took a lot of time. Nowadays all Helegrod armour can be purchased as cosmetics with regular medallions; definitely a much easier route!
In July the outfibloggers Devonna of Lotro Stylist, Freyjuska of Lotro Fashion and Kiarane of CSTM were invited for a roundtable discussion about cosmetics and outfits at Casual Stroll to Mordor. This was great fun!

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Of all the horse outfits that I created, this one still stands out to me. For some reason everything came together here, especially the shoulders and the harness on the horse’s neck.
As my experience with taking screenshots progressed I learned to tweak my settings for better pictures, and started using more than just three pictures per blogpost of front, back and close up.
This post became the most popular outfit of the first year, received the most page views and the highest rating.

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September was a month filled with anticipation for the launch of Rise of Isengard. I was one of the lucky players to acquire a Beta key so I was able to do some previews of things to come. When RoI finally launched I felt like walking around in cosmetic heaven. The armour designs were so much more polished and realistic than anything we had before. I cannot imagine my wardrobe without these fantastic pieces anymore!

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In the weeks before launch of RoI I finally finished my World Renowned deed. The new RoI pieces were a great complement to the Eriador horse and I was eager to ride around Dunland and explore all the new areas.
I also started to use larger pictures on my blog and focus more on the screenshots themselves rather than just the outfit. Not merely creating beautiful outfits, but creating beautiful screenshots as well became more and more my focus.

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In November I was given five PAX mount codes by Turbine to distribute among the readers of my blog. I decided to host a PAX outfit contest for this purpose. It was my first experience with an outfit contest and I learned a lot from it. What I realized most of all is that we all have different ways of appreciating an outfit. To some, only the latest and greatest raiding armour makes the best outfit, to others, a tunic obtained from a reputation grind is the way to go and then there are those like me, who think that origin doesn’t matter, but how you combine and work with the pieces and colours is what makes a great outfit.

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December was a very busy month in many ways. I started out changing the layout of my blog, providing more space for even more pictures and better functionality. As we were approaching the Yule Festival most of my outfits represented a winter theme.
I decided it would be a great idea to do a Yule Outfit contest, but didn’t really want to do a contest all by myself again, so I asked my fellow bloggers Devonna and Freyjuska to join in. We hosted a very succesful outfit contest with many wonderful entries, and even Turbine sponsored us with some prizes!

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At the start of 2012 I took a slight step back from outfitting, focussing more on playing the game itself and levelling my alts. I don’t produce as many outfits as I used to anymore, as this way it remains a fun hobby rather than an addictive obsession!

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In February Turbine invited the outfit bloggers to be the judges for the Fashionista’s Choice Award of the Fashion Week Contest. Devonna, Frey and myself got another chance to join forces and we were honoured to be part of the panel of judges. As Turbine did the pre-selection for this contest, our job wasn’t nearly as hard as it was for the Yule Contest. Nevertheless we had a great time.

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A year later (and wiser!) I suddenly find my efforts at creating beautiful screenshots and outfits rewarded with an actual prize in a contest myself! Being the winning entry for the Wearin’ the Green category of the Bullroarer Took Screenshot Contest was a delightful surprise. Obviously, I must be doing something right!

S T A T I S T I C S
Since launch, this blog was visited 493,588 times. Most visitors come from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, but the rest of Europe, South America and Asia are well represented too.
I have made 255 posts over the past year and those posts received a total of 1,427 comments from people who were so kind to share their opinion with me! I love all those comments and I want to thank each one of you who took the time to write one. On top of that I regularly receive personal comments by email that are highly appreciated.
My most viewed posts are the preview posts and updates, but the most popular outfit this year is Guarding the Free Peoples both in number of page views as well as rating.

T H E   F U T U R E
When I started this blog I had no clue what I was getting into. I had no idea it would last this long and become such an integral part of my enjoyment of playing Lotro. It has been a wonderful experience and a relaxed learning curve for me. I have made some hits and some terrible misses, I have created outfits that I’m still very much in love with and some that I don’t ever want to see again!
I am still full of inspiration as there are so many different armour and cosmetic pieces in the game and so many different ways to combine them, that I still have plenty to aspire to and grind for. Even today after knowing all that I know about drops and pieces, I still occasionally stumble upon a unique item, hidden away as a reward at the end of a long forgotten quest line.
I hope to continue this blog for as long as I’m still enjoying it. I’m looking forward to all the festivals that are coming up and to this fall, when the new expansion Riders of Rohan will be released. There is still plenty of stuff to look forward to!
Thank you all who have been reading and following my blog and thank you Turbine for creating and maintaining this wonderful game with such a unique cosmetic system!

Special mention for Aegthil’s incredible new outfit. I’ve never seen anything more inspiring!
Please visit Aegthil’s Cosmetic Lotro!