Guardian of Forgotten Lore

One important part of Tuilinels story was his transition from a Scholar and Advisor to a Defender of the Weak, in his story this takes place in the Mid second age when he leaves the land of Eregion just before the War of the Elves and Sauron, travelling to Lindon to warn the High-King Gil-galad of the Rings being crafted by Celebrimbor and his smiths. Eventually when the War began Tuilinel Crafted himself Armour and Weapons drawing on the skills gained in his youth as an apprentice to Celebrimbor. Since this concept formed in my mind I longed to create an Outfit in LOTRO to represent this, the ‘Guardian of Forgotten Lore’ was my first attempt at this and has become one of my favourite and longest lasting outfits.

I’m not exactly sure where I first saw the ‘Ancient Inlaid Breastplate’ it may have been some random player who ran past me on Landy or it could have been on a Cosmetic blog but either way I fell in love with it, there was just one small problem, Tuilinel was level 99 and wandering about central Gondor and even worse he had already done Great river in depth reaching Kindred to the Riders of Stangard, meaning he’d done almost all the quests in the region and had likely finished  ‘Banishing the Dishonoured’ so I trawled through my Quest log, but I couldn’t find it so I sped my way to the Rushgore in southern Great river to find this quest, complete it and gain my prize and so I did.

The Chest piece of this outfit is the perhaps my favourite thing about it as it’s the only Armoured Robe currently in the game and its gorgeous leaf-mail design makes it unmistakably elven. This robe along with the shoulders and gloves come from the Great river, a region with a plethora of Elvish cosmetics along with a number of interesting Rohirric designs as well making it one of my favourite hunting ground for cosmetics and I may have levelled a number of alts just to reach Great river and complete quests to get the armour rewards, please don’t judge me.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Circlet of the Night Watcher (Dol Amroth Quartermaster (Lore-master Armour), Lavender)

Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Heavy Heart (quest reward — Great River [75] ‘The Orcs attack’, Dark Purple)

Chest: Ancient Inlaid Breastplate (quest reward — Great River [74] ‘Banishing the Dishonoured’, Dark Purple)

 Hands: Gauntlets of the Hidden Paths (quest reward — Great River [70] ‘A Reasonable Request’, Dark Purple)

Feet: Lore-Keeper’s Shoes (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Dark purple)

Main hand: Staff of Keriä (Reward from the Epic Quest ‘VI, B13: Chapter 11: Narchuil Goes South)

Off hand: Defender of Gwingris (Quest Reward – Eregion [49] ‘Remaining Goods’)

Bane of the False Ring-lord

It’s time for the final instalment in my Tower of Orthanc Inspired outfits or at least what Tuilinel offers for Isengard. Here we have a Tuilinel free of the White Wizards influence an Elf of power revealed in Glory and Wrath to face down the Fallen Istari Saruman of Many Colours.

This outfit is heavily inspired by Material middle-earth’s Shimmering Song (link to page http://materialmiddleearth.blogspot.com/2017/05/shimmering-song.html). It was this outfit formed the base for a problem I had wrestled with a few weeks while designing my Rise of Isengard outfit arch for Tuilinel and that was how best to use the Shimmering cloak’s in this succession obviously it had it be part of the Finale however the Raid gear has a Dark base colour effecting all of its dyes meaning I wouldn’t be able to get a light enough palate to make the Cloak seem like an extension of the outfit not a huge draw for the eye, see while I love the shimmering cloaks too often do I see them as the highlight of a cosmetic a bold statement cloak on an otherwise dark outfit, now undeniably this can look amazing but it’s not what I wanted. So thank you Shimmering Song for showing me the wonder of pastels.

From the aforementioned outfit I took the idea of using the Robe of the Learned Stag in a lovely lavender, now before we go any further, I have a love hate relationship with this dye too often is it baby pink and not the calming Lavender I desire so I rarely find use for it or even think of it honestly so it’s nice to give it purpose here at the very least. But anyway so with a centre chest piece settled and a cloak already predetermined I began one of my favourite pass times accessorising, I wanted spiky so I got the spikiest cosmetics I could find, the finest spiky Mordor had to offer (which dyed light enough). After my Accessorising with most things spiky, it was done, my Tuilinel was ready to beat Saruman with the kin on T2. Which happened about 4 weeks later in which I hid this outfit from my companions to spring on them after Saruman’s defeat, which happened on a raid I wasn’t apart of so I proudly stood on that high rock I Galtrev awaiting their return and once the gazed upon my wondrous visage they said it was nice… I’ve come to the realisation like, Mendel, Galileo and Van Gogh before me I’m a visionary whose work will only be appreciated after my demise. Well at least I’ll look good in the Hall of Mandos.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Rune-Maker’s Hat (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Dark purple)

Shoulders: Fine Camail of the Expeditions Vanguard (Allegiance Vendor in the various Allegiance Halls, White)

Chest: Robe of the Learned Stag (Lavender)

Gloves: Dextrous Gages of the Expeditions Vanguard (Allegiance Vendor in the various Allegiance Halls, White)

Feet: Shoes of the Learned Stag (Violet)

The Chest and feet Gear pieces come from the LM Dunland gear set and so in Lew of giving the Quests they are attainable from here’s a link to the LOTRO wiki page detailing the different Dunland sets and where the items with those skins can be found, https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Dunland_Armor_Sets

Main hand: Amdirolf (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp)

Off hand: Shatterbone (Rare drop from Gruglok in Urugarth)

The Lord of Conspiracy

Now while I don’t often make festival outfits, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever made an outfit specifically for a festival in LOTRO ever. And yet here one is… let me tell you why, quite simply the Mask and Cloak of the Autumn Wanderer inspired me unlike any festival cosmetic ever has. This maybe because they look like an updated version of the older Raven Festival Mask and Cloak of the Raven which were the Centre pieces for my very first Cosmetic outfit about two years ago and so in a way ‘The Lord of Conspiracy’ pay homage to not only my first days of LOTRO but also my first forays into it’s Cosmetic system.

One thing I do for each of my LOTRO mains (Tuilinel, Yaaraen, and Niereil) is create a unique background of each of them detailing their place in the legendarium of Tolkien. Tuilinel is the Spymaster of Imladris, a councillor to Elrond and his chief Archivist, but his spies are not Elves, Men or Dwarves, instead he commands Folks of Sparrows to watch Rivendell’s borders and those that walk therein. In Fact in my previous post ‘The Spymaster of Imladris you may notice Glamorel (meaning Echo) in some of screen shots, and while my Tui is wholly on the side of the free peoples what would have happen to him had he been captured and forced to the Dark lords biding, with his talent turned to evil and his Sparrows replaced with Ravens and Crebain… perhaps instead of collecting truths he would spread lies.

This outfit began out my want to wear the Cloak of the Autumn Wanderer as part of one of my new Grey mountain’s inspired outfits, but I couldn’t get it to look right and I’ve put that project on hold for now, instead I thought why not make and Evil Tuilinel outfit for Halloween, you see I’m not one of those people you go as a pirate or a vampire or a goat for Halloween I go as a pirates parrot or as a vampire priest who kills other vamps or a goat. I put my own spin on Halloween so why not put a new spin on my Tui in the spirit of the season.

Having set on the Cloak and Mask of the Autumn Wanderer as the centre pieces of this endeavour I moved on the Chest piece I wanted something simple which wouldn’t take away from the Cloak or the Mask something which complimented them without competing with them I first tried a number of different robes but none felt ‘right’ so I moved on to chest and leggings combos, I tried a number of more rustic looking Chest pieces with fur or feathers however none gave that spooky corrupted elf feeling so I dipped into my knowledge of Elven Style cosmetics and went to my wardrobe which is full to bursting with elf stuff and things and pulled out a few of the old Barad Guldur Mirkwood raid pieces which once dyed black gave me my desired effect. Now the shoulders were another matter entirely I tried all the options in my Wardrobe and none of them worked so I went to my vault and then to the Skirmish camp and then to Harndirion but nothing was right either it didn’t dye black enough or it was too distracting and took the focus away from the Mask, so I went to the one place I always forget I store stuff, to my House where in the Chest I can find all the Dunland sets in their entirety along with a number of other random pieces which have moved out of my wardrobe where I found this simple should piece which not only lacked distracting details but also covered some of those on the chest piece which really made the outfit feel oppressive and tainted as if even Tui’s elven nature was being shrouded in darkness.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Mask of the Autumn Wanderer (Harvest festival vendor, Twilight Purple)

Shoulders: Hill-man's Cracked Leather Shoulder-guards (reward form the Quest 'Inspire Hope', Black)
Back: Cloak of the Autumn Wanderer (Harvest festival vendor, Twilight Purple)

Chest: Jacket of the Shadow-walker (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Black)
Gloves: Gauntlets of the Hidden Paths (reward from the Quest 'A Reasonable Request', Black)
Leggings: Trousers of the Hopeful Melody (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Black)

Feet: Lore-keeper's Shoes (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Black)

Main hand: Lantern ( Farmer's Faire vendor)

Off hand: Mestari-vimma (Tier 5, Weaponsmith, requires Forchel rep at kindred to purchase recipe)

Challenger of the White Wizard

 Here we have a continuation of my raid inspired outfit series with this the ‘Challenger of the White Wizard’ a direct successor to last weeks ‘Tutor of Stags’ marking the second stage of Tuilinel’s Rise of Isengard outfit arch.

The Rise of Isengard expansion brought with it some of the best cosmetic in the game and the raid sets certainly don’t disappoint yeh they don’t have the diversity that previous raids gave, and mark the beginning of the Unique Light, Medium, Heavy, armours set rather than Class unique sets of DN but by no means do the Orthanc sets leave me wanting. Their Aesthetic perfectly personifies the oppressive atmosphere that The Tower of Orthanc raid impresses on the Player, making one fell as though your Character is slowly falling under the Spells of Saruman and yet never losing that uniquely Free Peoples feeling LOTRO is so good at instilling into our Characters. 

For this outfit I was determined to use pieces of the Orthanc gear sets for this outfit, however one slight problem I encounter was/is the fact I only have Lore-masters at 75 or above so  only had access to the LM gear which lead to me wearing only the LM gear for Shoulders, Chest and Feet, however the outfit felt unfinished without a head piece which is honestly a rare thing for me, I’m not a he fan of Head encasing cosmetics on my elves well at least on Tui I’m in no ways adverse to wearing  a delicate tiara or glimmering crown which conveniently hold his long flowing hair out of his face in the heat of battle but for whatever reason my go to crowns and Tiaras didn’t do it for this outfit.

But like it often does inspiration struck me at a inopportune time, while waiting for a kinnie to Log on to do some Tier 2 Dargnákh Unleashed in search of Iúlin the Tact Mit necklace (https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Item%3AI%C3%BAlin) and helping another kinnie with their own Cosmetic Conundrum which just so happened to be finding a head piece I was trolling through my Wardrobe and mind for something to suit them when suddenly I stumbled across the DN Warden helm which I had long considered pretty but temperamental when it came to Dye cover, some colours were fine the purples were not so… I forgot it existed; however in black let’s just say it really came into its own. So fast forward the Server swapping for dyes then to my unused Warden then back to brandy with my Shared Storage in tow where my Kinnies both now online had ‘patiently’ waited to be graced by my masterpiece greeted me with a “that’s nice, open the instance now” I guess they didn’t appreciate my excellent choice of head gear.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Helm of the Lady’s Favour (Warden class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Black)

Shoulders: The Beast-Master's Shoulder Pads (Exchanged for marks by Angwun at the Ox-clan Merchant Camp, Twilight Purple)

Chest: The Ancient Master's Robe (Exchanged for marks by Angwun at the Ox-clan Merchant Camp, Twilight Purple)

Feet: The Ancient Master's Shoes (Exchanged for marks by Angwun at the Ox-clan Merchant Camp, Default)

Main hand: Lv Staff of the Third age (Melded for at a Relic master using Shards)

Off hand: Star Mace (drops in a boss chest in The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu)

Harbinger of Peace

The Rune-keeper class has always intrigued me, not necessarily because of the Lore implications but more down to its gameplay. Yes as someone who’s a lover of the Lore and the stories of Tolkien, going as far to ensure that all my Character names are in the Correct form of Elvish meaning something important to each Character even to the extent that I’ve named my Healing Rune-stone ‘to sooth’, I could talk you into a Wall about how inappropriate/Lore-Breaking/Just wrong the Class is when linked to the Lore but personally I don’t mind, instead the unique approach to DPS and Healing of the RK provides an interesting mechanic that I had to try out.

Yaaraen meaning ‘Ancient one’ is a high elf born of a Vanyarin Mother and a Telerin Father during the Years of the trees.  Being of Two kindred’s she often found herself divided between the expectations one or the other, it wasn’t until she found her gifts of healing that she truly found a place, she learned healing in the gardens of Lorien under the Valar Estë. This Harbinger of Peace is my take on what she would have worn while tending her patients.

My inspiration behind this outfit actually came from another Blog ‘The Starry mantle’ and their outfit entitled ‘Gwend Nestadren’ (link to the page https://starrymantle.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/gwend-nestadren/) This was the first time I’d seen the Hat of the Concerned Elf and I had to have it, the long veil hiding the hair from view the ornate forehead piece and the fact it dyes oh so well, I had to be mine, unluckily for me my main had long since passed the Great river and my nearest lv was mid 40s but as someone who’s not afraid to give themselves a migraine in search of a pretty outfit so level said mid 40s hunter (Niereil) who hadn’t been touch in about 9 months and yes it was hard but In the end I got my Hat of the Concerned Elf, along with a collection of other rare elven cosmetic from the region that will undoubtedly crop up here time to time.

Originally I wore The Starry mantle’s Gwend Nestadren only in Bullroarer green but the shoulder piece they close didn’t look as good in the paler pastel colour so I simply didn’t use a shoulder piece for a time but soon I noticed I wasn’t wearing this outfit as often as my others and when I did I often swapped out quickly. It lacked something, I’ve always seen Yaaraen as the head of the healers within the Golden wood and without shoulders the outfit felt too simple like a uniform which any Elven healer would wear. It needed shoulders, simple, clean yet flashy shoulders, almost like an Epaulette, The Autumn Leafmail shoulders gave me this desired effect and allowed my Vision to become a reality.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Hat of the Concerned Elf (quest reward — Great River [75] Disturbances in Thinglad, Bullroarer Green)

Shoulders: Autumn Leafmail Shoulders (Fall Festival, Bullroarer Green)

Chest: Long-sleeved Lórien Tunic and Pants (bartered — Cerin Amroth barterer/Galadhrim reputation, Bullroarer Green)

Main hand: Lv100 Rune-keeper’s rune stone

Off hand: Rune-keeper’s Rune-bag (Reward from the Epic Quest ‘VI1, B1: Chapter 14: Khazad-dum At Last!)

Tutor of Stags

I’m an officer for a progression raiding kin on Brandywine called ‘Play it again’ who aim to recreate the original raiding experience available at each level cap, we do this by only using gear which would have been available at the time of raid release. Currently both my LM Tuilinel and my RK Yaaraen are members of the raid groups so as someone who loves a good cosmetic challenge I create 3 outfits for each character for each raid/area we stop in. now as you can imagine this experience has led to a stockpile of Raid inspired Cosmetics so I suppose it’s time I shared some of them.

Here we have the first of my raid inspired outfits which will be a series on this blog for the foreseeable future. This particular outfit isn’t my best in fact I personally consider it one of my ‘Lazy’ outfits but despite that it does showcase some of the amazing cosmetics which drop in Dunland, every item used in this outfit except the crown are from Dunland quests in fact you can get the some cosmetic skin from multiple quest rewards in Dunland, and even a few drop as teal gear from the Rise of Isengard instance cluster.

The Aim behind this outfit was to make use of the Dunland Quest gear in order to make a simple outfit which wouldn’t look a miss doing the earlier Rise of Isengard quests or within Draigoch. I did toy with some of the Draigoch gear pieces but they didn’t feel right on my LM who I try to keep out of heavy looking armours in favour for more elegant cloth robes. One added bonus of using this robe was that its super close to the Isengard raid set which I use as a centre piece for another outfit which will be a part of this series. I personally really like outfits which flow into one another, which feel like upgrades or more advanced versions of the same concept. This idea is one I try to capture on all my characters but especially for my Raiding Characters.

For this cosmetic I was determined to use Lavender dye, as despite it being one of the purple dyes available to me Purple themed LM I hadn’t really ever used it for a chest piece, but I found that Lavender all over made the outfit seem very well blagh, and a lot of the detail was lost in the sea of slightly faded purple-pink so on a whim I decided to dye all the other pieces, heads shoulder etc Violet and see how it turned out, personally I think it turned out pretty well.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Lesser Circlet of Dunnauth (Barterable at Harndirion, Violet)

Shoulders: Shoulderpads of the Learned Stag (Violet)

Chest: Robe of the Learned Stag (Lavender)

Hands: Leather Bracers of the Learned Stag (Violet)

Feet: Shoes of the Learned Stag (Violet)

These Gear pieces come from the LM Dunland gear sets and so in Lew of giving the Quests they are attainable from here’s a link to the LOTRO wiki page detailing the different Dunland sets and where the items with those skins can be found, https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Dunland_Armor_Sets

Main hand: Doronolf (Quest reward, Queen-mother)

Off hand: Precise Warriors sword (Weaponsmith T6, crit success)

Chronicler to the Wise

One way I often construct an outfit is by selecting a piece/pieces from a raid set, as the raids of LOTRO,  particularly the earlier raids have unique gear sets for each class. One such raid which to this day happens to have some of the most beautiful gear pieces in the game is Dar Narbugud. And it just so happens perhaps my all-time favourite cosmetic comes from this raid and lucky for me it belongs to the Loremaster set. This particular outfit highlights my beloved Robe of the lady’s Wisdom.

This particular outfit needed to be elven, really elven, like obnoxiously elven because in a way that’s my Tuilinel unapologetically immortal with a good dose of elven superiority and just enough Responsibility to protect the weak (the polite ones at least). And once I got my elven robe of elf-ness I needed to accessorise in any way possible to make it exactly the right amount of too much.

Now I won’t bore you with a detailed timeline of the events from where I first saw the robe of the lady’s Wisdom but let’s just say it was love at first sight and it took far too long for our first date together. And what a messy date it was, originally I wore this robe with nothing but boots but those were my messy teenage days where my cosmetic ability had yet to fully mature and I didn’t even realise how round it made my elf’s shoulders. It wasn’t till about six-months later when I thought the look at the other Dar Narbugud sets which is where I found these miraculously dramatic Shoulder pads and as I’m sure you come to learn I love dramatic shoulder pads. Now insert montage of me grinding DN on my cap lv Loremaster, till finally it was solo able and I was drowning in elf stones it was then I finally got round to making a champion and mithrilling him straight to Lorien from the intro, to finally gain the best most dramatic shoulders I have yet to lay my hands upon. And was it worth it… hopefully.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Circlet of the Night Watcher (Dol Amroth Quartermaster (Lore-master Armour), Lavender)

Shoulders: Shoulders of the Lady’s Power (Champion class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Dark Purple)

Chest: Robe of the Lady’s Wisdom (Loremaster class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Dark Purple)

Hands: Gloves of the Lady’s Wisdom (Loremaster class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Dark Purple)

Feet: Boots of the Lady’s Power (Champion class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Dark Purple)

Main hand: Ulfied’s Staff (Reward from the Quest ‘Impure Knowledge’)

Off hand: Fimreg’s Dirk (Reward from the Quest ‘Further Upstream’)

The Handmaiden of Galadriel

Here’s another example of simplicity making something beautiful. In this case I wanted a dress for my Rune-keeper something befitting a handmaiden of Galadriel, one of her trusted advisers who would fit in at any council in the Golden wood.

I’ll be honest I’m extremely proud of this particular Cosmetic, not because of how it turned out exactly but the fact it turned out this good despite the week long torment I endured during it’s development. Without a doubt I will forever remember the long nights of it not being enough, not good enough for a slot, not unique enough, not enough… I’m sure many of you may have cosmetics which gave you this particular feeling and this ‘The Handmaiden of Galadriel’ was mine.

It all started with a dress, and as I’m sure many brides have felt it needed to be a perfect dress (cue the montage of bridezillas screaming at sales assistants). I tried the Exquisite Elven Dress which I adore but sadly wasn’t enough, next came the Elven queens dress which didn’t dye as I wanted it to and had to abdicate, then after many trials and tribulations I gave up… yup I gave up but for some god forsaken reason I couldn’t get this idea out of my head. It was a fateful day in the Court of Celeborn where I was handing in my Mordor dailies while simultaneously checking out the cosmetic competition I mean the cosmetic prowess of my fellows on Landroval, yup that’s what I was doing yup, anyway… I happened to see a beautiful elf maid in a dress I had considered hideous completely hideous and yet having just spent a week doing Dar Narbugud for its wonderful cosmetic sets which are unique for each class, and had seen the wonder of the Guardian shoulders which to my tired and tormented mind seemed perfect for my hideous dress.

You see I’m a huge fan of the idea that all things hideous can be beautiful when looked at from a new angle, and so I married that hideous dress with my boss guardian shoulders and this was born but it wasn’t enough her arms looked too long without gloves but normal gloves looked weird so began my next trail which ended later that night when I was in Dunland doing a different outfit for my Lore-master and after some gold dye they looked perfect on her smack on a trusty festival crown and boom you got an outfit and all it took was a week of headaches and my brain at 3am.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Simbelmynë Circlet (Spring festival, Gold)

Shoulders: Shoulders of the Lady’s Defence (Hunter class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Bullroarer Green)

Chest: Lasgalen Spring Dress (Spring festival, Bullroarer Green)

Hands: Leather Bracers of the Learned Stag (Quest reward, Passage into Dunland, Gold)

Main hand: Lv100 Rune-keeper’s rune stone

Off hand: Rune-keeper’s Rune-bag (Reward from the Epic Quest ‘VI1, B1: Chapter 14: Khazad-dum At Last!)

The Spymaster of Imladris

One thing you’ll likely notice as I continue to post my cosmetic outfits is that I’m a fan of simplicity, to me its best not to overthink an outfit if something works go for it, don’t look back and if you think it’s good, it’s great. This outfit which I’ve fondly named ‘The Spymaster of Imladris’ is an excellent example of this in action.

I find it fitting that the first outfit I’m sharing is for my main Tuilinel, and this particular outfit was one of my first outfits. This outfit was born of my own need to create a casual elven robe for day to day activities, not for battle but for book-keeping, I wanted something which said upper class elf-lord who’s blending in and definitely not spying on the local population, this was the result.

I started with the chest piece, which is oftentimes the best/easiest place to start, it’s often the centre piece of an outfit and like in this case covers the majority of the character. I sent for too long trying to find a suitable cosmetic before settling for the Lore-Keeper’s Robe. This robe is undoubtedly elven, yet not flashy like some others it also dyes extremely well making perfect for my needs.

Surprisingly it was the shoulders which gave me the most trouble with this outfit, however despite the struggle I’m so happy with the result, these shoulders are simple enough to compliment the rode but also ornate enough to elevate the outfit giving it the upper class feel I wanted. Also the fact the shade of gold on the shoulders matches perfectly the shade found on the robes sleeves a happy accident which cemented their place as one of my favourite shoulder pieces.

The pieces used in this outfit are listed below along with where you can find them.

Head: Circlet of the Night Watcher (Dol Amroth Quartermaster (Lore-master Armour), Lavender)

Shoulders: Shoulders of the Lady’s Discernment (Hunter class trader in Caras Galadhon, DN gear, Default)

Chest: Lore-Keeper’s Robe (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Dark purple)

Feet: Lore-Keeper’s Shoes (Classic Vendor at the Skirmish camp, Dark purple)

Main hand: Staff of Keriä (Reward from the Epic Quest ‘VI, B13: Chapter 11: Narchuil Goes South)

Off hand: Warrior’s Edge (Elves of Rivendell Ally rep item)

A rather short introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Bumble I’m a 20 something year old Irishman, who’s studying Biology at university however I moonlight as a Cosmetic Connoisseur. In any game I play I always strive to find the best outfit (to fit my taste) that I can because as any civilised person knows if you don’t look good doing it what’s the point of stopping an evil overlord.

One game in which I’ve found that allows me to indulge these urges is Lord of the Rings Online. In fact one could say I’ve a special passion (read obsession) with LOTROs cosmetic system, simply put I love it and while it’s not perfect I believe it is far better than many believe. LOTRO has many, many excellent cosmetic options for all aesthetics and tastes, now while much of the early game quest/loot drops are hideous from Moria onward the gear available really takes a turn for the beautiful.

I personally favour elven characters and so many (almost all) of my cosmetics aim to capture the ‘Elven’ whether that of the elves of my beloved Imladris or those of the corrupted Greenwood. But I have been known to create non-elven outfits particularly to suit zones like Rohan or Moria, but expect a subtle elven flare to it all.

In this blog I plan to share my cosmetic creations with you all in hopes that they inspire you to create your own. I’ve been inspired to do so by many within the LOTRO cosmetic community including ‘Material Middle-earth’, ‘Cosmetic LOTRO’ and ‘Starry Mantle’. Links to which you can find on the side bar.

Now for some info on what types of cosmetics you can expect here, the outfits I post are ones I use/have used on one of my main characters which I play in LOTRO. One of the weird I do with my Characters is that I assign them Colours which differentiate them from each other while also keeping them uniform, because of this there will be a lot of outfits here which are the same/similar colours but that doesn’t mean you can’t edit them to be whatever colour you prefer should you wish to use them yourselves.

Here is a list of my characters their race, classes and the colours assigned to them, the characters named below exist on both the Landroval and Brandywine servers feel free to mail/message me there if you want to get in contact.

Tuilinel                    (Male Elven Lore master, Purple)

Yaaraen                    (Female High Elf Rune-keeper, Green)

Niereil                      (Female Elven Hunter, Red)