Hobbit Day is the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Both Bilbo and Frodo were said to be born on September 22, but of different years. Tolkien fans around the world celebrate Hobbit Day in some form or another, and the internet is buzzing with Hobbit activity. You can follow the online celebrations brought to you by Middle-earth Network with lots of readings, live streams and information. Yesterday was an important marker as it was the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit. A special 75th Anniversary edition has been published for this occasion. The second trailer of the upcoming The Hobbit movie was released this week, which is awesome to watch as it is, but on The Hobbit website you can even create your own version of the trailer! My favourite blog to keep up with all Hobbit news is Heirs of Durin (ok it’s really about dwarves, but hey, they were in that book too so we’re stuck with them). If you enjoy LARP and parody, don’t miss the Hobbit Day episode from The Troubadoors. Lotro has us celebrating along by offering a double bonus point and double XP weekend all at once, and if that wasn’t enough the Treasure Hunt event and the Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariner are still active. My little blog is joining in the fun of online festivities with a Hobbit outfit! Yeah, big surprise there, I know.

For those of you who don’t follow my tweets or haven’t heard from other sources yet: the Lotro Community Team has kindly opened a forum dedicated to Outfits and Cosmetics! The long standing and ever popular thread “Show us your Favorite Cosmetic Outfit” has finally found a fixed home as it has been stickied on top. I will be visiting the forum regularly and hope to find lots of inspiring ideas and outfits there, as well as help players that have questions.

Happy Hobbit Day!

Head: Mariner’s Hat and Eye-patch, red dye (Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariner event, cosmetic)
Chest: Tunic of Harmony, crimson dye (Vol.II Book 7 quest reward, light armour or Lotro store cosmetic)
Hands: Durn-durnvol, black dye (boe drop from Isengard instances, light)
Shoulders: Noriel’s Folly, black dye (Great River quest reward, light)
Legs: (Ceremonial) Silver-voice Leggings, black dye (Helegrod raid minstrel armour or cosmetic)
Back: Treasure Hunter’s Satchel, crimson dye (Treasure Hunt reward, cosmetic)

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 fellow blogster Devonna from Lotro Stylist has put together A Cosmetic Guide To The RoI Quest Rewards on her blog. If you have any characters that still need to go through Dunland and Isengard, this guide could help you pick your rewards more efficiently.
Rise of Isengard has a completely lineair quest system, so you are forced to do the quests in a certain order, and cannot go back later to do a quest that you missed. With this guide you can plan your cosmetic awards ahead of time!

All praise to Devonna for investing her time and effort to create this fantastic guide!

Filed under: Latest news, Other

It took me a while but I did start a Beorning! To be honest I am not looking foward to level up yet another character, so my guess is that she will remain in the lower levels, but I was curious enough about this new class to start playing. More importantly, I was very curious about their appearance, both male and female, and their wardrobe.
The Beorning has a race of man appearance, with some modifications. There are different hairstyles that are not available to other races, different eye colors and of course the facial paint. Hair and facial paint designs and colors can be changed again at the barber if needed, but just like with other races the eye color stays. I chose a very light green for my Beorning which looks quite savage or at least very foreign.

After the starter instance (which is terribly short), you end up with two different sets of Beorning armor. These sets are the only typical Beorning sets that I have found in terms of unique appearance. So if you ever start a Beorning, keep these sets in your inventory.
I just love the bare legs with the tunic, or should I say bear legs? The bare legs will carry over to other races as well, so you can use this tunic through the wardrobe and have your hobbit with bare legs! The top bracers carry over as well. Unfortunately the two sets have been mixed up, so if you want this particular shoulder appearance for a hobbit, you need to use the shoulders from the first set and vice versa. This is a bug and may be fixed in the future.

Shoulders: Grimbeorn’s Shoulders, sienna dye (Beorning starter instance reward)
Chest: Langhár’s Tunic and Waistcoat, sienna dye (Beorning starter instance reward)
Hands: Snow-dusted Travelling Gloves, sienna dye (Yule Festival reward)
Feet: Snow-beast Boots, sienna dye (Yule Festival reward)