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It is a beatiful flag. Really neat design. The only thing that I would have notes on is that it might lean a bit too much towards the 'good' in Middle Earth. It is more a symbolic comment because the design is really good.

The Lady of Lorien, Thorin oakenshield, and Dwarven Mines

Thorin oakenshield

Luinil wrote:It is a beatiful flag. Really neat design. The only thing that I would have notes on is that it might lean a bit too much towards the 'good' in Middle Earth. It is more a symbolic comment because the design is really good.

Yes, the design is beautiful. The flag format which the website allows is too small for such a detailed image. It would not be recognisable. In that size, the current regional flag works better.

The Tolkien monogram in the middle and the symbols of the four (pars pro toto) free peoples are each surrounded, if I'm seeing it right, by Ash nazg durbatulūk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulūk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. That's enough evil, I guess. :)

Small drawback: among the four free peoples, no hobbitses. But one can't fit everything into a symbolic image.

Thorin oakenshield wrote:Yes, the design is beautiful. The flag format which the website allows is too small for such a detailed image. It would not be recognisable. In that size, the current regional flag works better.

The Tolkien monogram in the middle and the symbols of the four (pars pro toto) free peoples are each surrounded, if I'm seeing it right, by Ash nazg durbatulūk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulūk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. That's enough evil, I guess. :)

Small drawback: among the four free peoples, no hobbitses. But one can't fit everything into a symbolic image.

That is exactly what I wanted to represent, around all these free people there is always a hint of evil around them

Thorin oakenshield, Luinil, and Soramra

Dwarven Mines wrote:That is exactly what I wanted to represent, around all these free people there is always a hint of evil around them

Okay okay, I got the text but not the symbolism of the omnipresence of the suggestion shadow (or however one might put it). If that is the idea behind it....well done! Excellent craftmanship...or perhaps dwarfmanship....craftdwarfship....(I don't know what the PC term is here)

The Lady of Lorien, Thorin oakenshield, and Dwarven Mines

The Sauron wrote:I have a BETTER flag proposal

Meh, little effect on me at least, all flags need a little more dance and song.

The Lady of Lorien and Thorin oakenshield

Thorin oakenshield

I think the film version showing Sauron turned out pretty well, all things considered. It looked nicely dynamic, but didn't slide into tacky territory, which might have happened with a giant flaming eyeball. Luckily, the design teams (mostly) had good taste. The eerier, not yet so powerful version of Sauron lurking in Dol Guldur was well designed too.

Come to think of it, this is a good discussion subject:

Where do you think the film makers showed good taste in notable ways? Where do you think they danced on the edge of tackiness, or fell over it?

Two film scenes come to my mind that made me cringe a bit. One was the arrival at Caras Galadhon. Too much in the fairy lights department. It tended towards a cutesy vision of a city of elves, and Tolkien's elves are definitely not cutesy. Number two was the part in ROTK where, to inject some extra drama into the love interest story arc, Arwen joins a group headed towards the Grey Havens, but turns around when she meets a vision of her potential son. The entire outfit of the travelling group, the soft-focus, the languishing, the vision - no, no, no. Tacky.

As for the Eye of Sauron flag, if you look at our neighbour and fellow fandom region Mordor, their founder nation has an adapted version as national flag, which works well. It wouldn't work very well to adopt this as a flag for Middle Earth, as the region Mordor already exists, and it's kind of useful to be able to tell the two regions apart. On the other hand, abstract designs usually work better on flags than photographs, hence their abstract drawing eye of sauron regional flag over in Mordor. Characteristic and elegant.

Also, I have revised the opinion I expressed, that it's regrettable the hobbits didn't fit into the seal design. For some of the free peoples, it's just not in character to use seals and banners and flags. Or can you imagine hobbits representing themselves with a banner? Or ents, for example? Goldberry the river spirit? No way. They just aren't into this sort of thing. Therefore, on second thought, it's entirely fitting to have the free peoples represented pars pro toto the way they are.

Noldoria

Thorin oakenshield wrote:I think the film version showing Sauron turned out pretty well, all things considered. It looked nicely dynamic, but didn't slide into tacky territory, which might have happened with a giant flaming eyeball. Luckily, the design teams (mostly) had good taste. The eerier, not yet so powerful version of Sauron lurking in Dol Guldur was well designed too.

Come to think of it, this is a good discussion subject:

Where do you think the film makers showed good taste in notable ways? Where do you think they danced on the edge of tackiness, or fell over it?

Two film scenes come to my mind that made me cringe a bit. One was the arrival at Caras Galadhon. Too much in the fairy lights department. It tended towards a cutesy vision of a city of elves, and Tolkien's elves are definitely not cutesy. Number two was the part in ROTK where, to inject some extra drama into the love interest story arc, Arwen joins a group headed towards the Grey Havens, but turns around when she meets a vision of her potential son. The entire outfit of the travelling group, the soft-focus, the languishing, the vision - no, no, no. Tacky.

As for the Eye of Sauron flag, if you look at our neighbour and fellow fandom region Mordor, their founder nation has an adapted version as national flag, which works well. It wouldn't work very well to adopt this as a flag for Middle Earth, as the region Mordor already exists, and it's kind of useful to be able to tell the two regions apart. On the other hand, abstract designs usually work better on flags than photographs, hence their abstract drawing eye of sauron regional flag over in Mordor. Characteristic and elegant.

Also, I have revised the opinion I expressed, that it's regrettable the hobbits didn't fit into the seal design. For some of the free peoples, it's just not in character to use seals and banners and flags. Or can you imagine hobbits representing themselves with a banner? Or ents, for example? Goldberry the river spirit? No way. They just aren't into this sort of thing. Therefore, on second thought, it's entirely fitting to have the free peoples represented pars pro toto the way they are.

Personally, I really liked the arrival at Caras Galadhon scene. It was as if, as it seemed to me, one was stepping back to the first age. As for the other scene you mention, meh, it seemed unnecessary to me, but not problematic.

Thorin oakenshield wrote:Or can you imagine hobbits representing themselves with a banner?

I'm sure that hobbits had some banners when they tried to invade Moria, it was just too dark to see it.

Noldoria wrote:On a completely unrelated note, Lady Eowyn, do you recall how imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Well, look at this nation: The Lady Eowyn

The two nations are separated by a definite article, but The Lady Eowyn, with a population of over 27.7 billion, significantly predates Lady eowyn which has a population of over 13.3 billion. It appears that the former is twice as as old as the latter. So who imitated whom?

The Lady of Lorien wrote:The two nations are separated by a definite article, but The Lady Eowyn, with a population of over 27.7 billion, significantly predates Lady eowyn which has a population of over 13.3 billion. It appears that the former is twice as as old as the latter. So who imitated whom?

I was trying to be generous.

One Eowyn is created in 2007, the other in 2013, man 2007... at that time i didn't even know internet exist.

By the way, it seems i can't delete sent telegrams, is this bug or intentional? I don't seem to understand it, is it premium(pay) feature?

Thorin oakenshield

Saruman the white wrote:By the way, it seems i can't delete sent telegrams, is this bug or intentional? I don't seem to understand it, is it premium(pay) feature?

I think it's intentional. If someone sends a rule-breaking telegram, there's a record, even if the recipient happens to delete it.

A Balrog wrote:I'm sure that hobbits had some banners when they tried to invade Moria, it was just too dark to see it.

Alternate History Middle Earth!

This was shortly after Nimrodel got miffed and flooded all of Lórien, causing its inhabitants to invent fletts.

Saruman the white wrote:One Eowyn is created in 2007, the other in 2013, man 2007... at that time i didn't even know internet exist.

Oh yeah, my creation date is somewhere around the beginning of 2005. Gulp. I was such a newbie both to the game and to life. Made so many friends here. Been lurking for the past 8 years or so. The amazing people that still carry the torch in Middle Earth make me feel so proud to be part of this community. So I'm a lot more older now, but still a newb!

Thorin oakenshield, Dwarven Mines, Soramra, and Saruman the white

Thorin oakenshield

Don't undersell yourself, Tatarica, you've been doing much more than lurking. For example organising roleplays.

To a certain degree, Alternate history in Tolkien's universe is already built in. Probably the bane of Christopher Tolkien digging through all those early drafts.

Tatarica, Beorning people, and Dwarven Mines

Had a look what Christopher Tolkien is up to these days. Here's a charming video of Mr Christopher and Mrs Baillie Tolkien at an event at the Abbaye de Thoronet (Le Thoronet Abbey, Provence) - they live in France. The tapestries are recreations of some of J.R.R. Tolkien's own illustrations.

https://youtu.be/rQmh_Sfq88Y

Transcript from the English subtitles of Christopher Tolkien's short speech at Le Thoronet. The old gentleman tells an episode from his childhood.

I should explain that my father used to work very very late at night, for his painting and writing. And I, when I was very very young, very very very young, at night, I used to worry about my father, in that way: was he still alive? One night, when the whole house was silent, I went downstairs to find my father, and there he was. I was so relieved that, poor little idiot, I started to cry, and one of the tears, one tear, but a substantial one, fell on the painting. Imagine that! But my father wasn't angry at all. What he did was he got his small paintbrush, and he rubbed out every trace of the tear. And he had to change the leaves in the tree a little bit. Because the tear had fallen on the beautiful tree in the foreground. The title of the painting is Rivendell. And in this house, Frodo said the words that are fundamental in The Lord of the Rings. He said: 'I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.'

The tapestry artists are from Aubusson, Creuse. The tapestries are not at Le Thoronet any more, you can currently see them at the National Library of France (BnF), as part of the Tolkien, Journey to Middle-Earth exhibition until 16. February 2020, in Paris.

https://www.bnf.fr/en/agenda/tolkien-journey-middle-earth

https://www.bnf.fr/fr/agenda/tolkien-voyage-en-terre-du-milieu

https://www.cite-tapisserie.fr/fr/actualites/aubusson-tisse-tolkien-%C3%A0-la-bnf

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/arts-expos/aubusson-tisse-tolkien-quot-larrivee-de-bilbo-au-village-des-elfesquot-premiere-tapisserie-devoilee_3282479.html

Hi everyone, visiting Middle Earth from my very quiet home of Philosophy 115. I have admired JRRT and his works for many, many years, so glad to see he has a home in Nation States.

Lady eowyn and Dwarven Mines

Noldoria wrote:I decided to grab the region activity feed from the time range of ZDay and compile some statistics. If anyone wants to know how they did - like how many cure-strikes you launched, the total population you cured, median, std dev, whatever - let me know and I'll send it to you.

Sure, it would be fun to look at. If I have some time next year, I'm up for participating for a while again.

The day to day business of running the region remains of course in the hands of those who have their WA membership here to help protect this region. I appreciate it, and I appreciate your dispatch Dwarven Mines, just can't cut my WA membership in two.

Fighting zombies is an amusing once-a-year effort. Who else wants to be in an anti-zombie committee? We could already prepare a strategic dispatch together, from the lessons learned here and in other regions.

Red Star of the West wrote:Hi everyone, visiting Middle Earth from my very quiet home of Philosophy 115. I have admired JRRT and his works for many, many years, so glad to see he has a home in Nation States.

Welcome. You have a very nice region in Philosophy 115.

Lady eowyn wrote:Sure, it would be fun to look at. If I have some time next year, I'm up for participating for a while again.

The day to day business of running the region remains of course in the hands of those who have their WA membership here to help protect this region. I appreciate it, and I appreciate your dispatch Dwarven Mines, just can't cut my WA membership in two.

Fighting zombies is an amusing once-a-year effort. Who else wants to be in an anti-zombie committee? We could already prepare a strategic dispatch together, from the lessons learned here and in other regions.

Welcome. You have a very nice region in Philosophy 115.

I like the idea of an "anti-zombie committee", I fully support that, but I would like to know what the inhabitants think...

Lady eowyn

Lady eowyn wrote:Sure, it would be fun to look at. If I have some time next year, I'm up for participating for a while again.

The day to day business of running the region remains of course in the hands of those who have their WA membership here to help protect this region. I appreciate it, and I appreciate your dispatch Dwarven Mines, just can't cut my WA membership in two.

Fighting zombies is an amusing once-a-year effort. Who else wants to be in an anti-zombie committee? We could already prepare a strategic dispatch together, from the lessons learned here and in other regions.

Welcome. You have a very nice region in Philosophy 115.

You say "anti-zombie committee" - I hear Anti-Zombie White Council :)

Lady eowyn and Dwarven Mines

Noldoria wrote:I decided to grab the region activity feed from the time range of ZDay and compile some statistics. If anyone wants to know how they did - like how many cure-strikes you launched, the total population you cured, median, std dev, whatever - let me know and I'll send it to you.

Hey, don't go accusing any of us of developing STDs..

Lady eowyn and Dwarven Mines

The short speech by Christopher Tolkien is touching. He's over 90 years old now. At this age, sometimes childhood memories can appear all the more clearly.

Dwarven Mines wrote:I like the idea of an "anti-zombie committee", I fully support that, but I would like to know what the inhabitants think...

Glad you like it. If we decide to plan ahead to do it, and you're around for the occasion next year, hopefully you can do the influence-cost free lockdown again. I don't think we'd have a chance, if zombie-exporting nations came in and joined the throng. The current poll is open to all nations in the world. A few may need to be discounted, if everyone and their distant Brandybuck cousin drops in.

Noldoria, it fits the anti-necromancer theme.

No danger. I'm sure Bombadil is faithful to Lady Goldberry.

Beorning people and Dwarven Mines

Lady eowyn wrote:The short speech by Christopher Tolkien is touching. He's over 90 years old now. At this age, sometimes childhood memories can appear all the more clearly.

Glad you like it. If we decide to plan ahead to do it, and you're around for the occasion next year, hopefully you can do the influence-cost free lockdown again. I don't think we'd have a chance, if zombie-exporting nations came in and joined the throng. The current poll is open to all nations in the world. A few may need to be discounted, if everyone and their distant Brandybuck cousin drops in.

Noldoria, it fits the anti-necromancer theme.

No danger. I'm sure Bombadil is faithful to Lady Goldberry.

Yeah, I did not realize, for many years now I have not generated a poll so ... The ballot box is open once again!

Lady eowyn

Lady eowyn wrote:I should explain that my father used to work very very late at night, for his painting and writing. And I, when I was very very young, very very very young, at night, I used to worry about my father, in that way: was he still alive? One night, when the whole house was silent, I went downstairs to find my father, and there he was. I was so relieved that, poor little idiot, I started to cry, and one of the tears, one tear, but a substantial one, fell on the painting. Imagine that! But my father wasn't angry at all. What he did was he got his small paintbrush, and he rubbed out every trace of the tear. And he had to change the leaves in the tree a little bit. Because the tear had fallen on the beautiful tree in the foreground. The title of the painting is Rivendell. And in this house, Frodo said the words that are fundamental in The Lord of the Rings. He said: 'I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.'

Wow. That story shook me.

I wonder what it's like to grow up the child of someone who looms so large as J.R.R. Tolkien? And considering how much of Christopher Tolkien's own life has been spent preserving and carrying on his father's memory and legacy...I imagine it's a rather unique life.

Lady eowyn, Dwarven Mines, and Soramra

Dwarf wrote:Wow. That story shook me.

I wonder what it's like to grow up the child of someone who looms so large as J.R.R. Tolkien? And considering how much of Christopher Tolkien's own life has been spent preserving and carrying on his father's memory and legacy...I imagine it's a rather unique life.

Agreed. That story was pretty touching to me.

Lady eowyn

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