Guest inspiration: Lúthien Tinúviel by Noniell

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Noniell said about her outfit: "I wanted to capture the image of Lútien Tinúviel herself and the glory of Beleriand. I decided to use sea blue dyes and it turned out to be a great idea, because it matches perfectly to the Steed of Minas Ithil. I hope you can see the mirrored starlight and the grace of the Valar on her face! :)"

Noniell sent this outfit to me in May, almost 4 months ago, but as you all probably now, I'm totally unreliable in my posting schedule. However, even after such long time, I still remember how lovely impression this outfit left in me when I first saw it, and I decided to publish it as the first guest submission after my blogging break.

I love the sea blue, white and silver details all combined and perfectly matching the beautiful horse. This simple outfit consists of just three pieces, but they all "click together" as they were really made to be worn by Lúthien riding her beautiful horse (probably gifted by Beren). All Noniell's screenshots bring up the feeling of serenity to me, and I'm grateful for that :)

Please let us know what do you think about the outfit in comments, or simly rate below the post's title :)

Chest: Long-sleeved Elven Dress, sea blue dye (Rivendell reputation barter, requires Kindred status)
Head: Winged Circlet, sea blue dye (Skirmish cosmetic barter)
Back: Cloak of the Windsinger, sea blue dye (Store)


Mount: Steed of Minas Ithil

Song for the willow

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{[["☆","★"]]}

For over two thousand years, a woman of noble origin has been coming to lake Nenuial every year in early summer. She has always been dressed in bright noble colours of the times long gone, bearing crown of old men nobility. As she reached Men Erain, the Way of Kings, she started a fire under an old willow and sang to it, from sunset 'till sunrise. With the first beams of sunlight in the morning she left, occasionally followed by curious treasure hunters, but always disappearing until the next year.

Passing from mother to daughter, this tradition has been kept since the fall of Arnor in T.A. 861. Annúminas was once pride of Arnor, where the noblest of the nobility resided, ruled and bore children. King Eärendur's sons divided the Kingdom, not being able to settle their arguments aside, despite weeping and pleas of their sisters. Although they stayed away from politics and wars of their father and brothers, Eärendur's daughters valued their ancestry very deeply. They managed to prevent Annúminas from being deserted and forgotten until present.

"The city has never been abandoned," Amarilwen said to a curious treasure hunter, whom she was telling this story by a fire in Tinnudir. "For more than two thousand years, my mother, grandmother and generations before them came to sing to the old city and the willows, which too never abandoned Annúminas. We have been watching thieves, grave robbers and enemies invading our long lost home, never surrendering hope that we will once return. And we will, I know that." Amarilwen finished, looking into the fire and then over the water to the Great City's ruins, and a smile settled on her face.

The Steed of the Bright Days looks like it was made to run along the shores of lake Nenuial and roam the ruins of Annúminas. Its brightly coloured blanket shines with colours typical for Annúminas armour. These sets, even after years since they were top armour available, still remain some of most beautiful clothing available in LOTRO.

In this outfit, I wanted to match both the beautiful blanket and the chocolate brown horse itself - I love rich browns and they ground and balance the bunt scheme of the blanket very nicely. I combined pieces from light and medium Annúminas sets with one of the simplest elven shirts, which shares the shade of green with Annu pieces. Bright Anniversary cloak and Circlet of Men as sign of nobility completed the outfit, and I think this is going to be Amarilwen's signature outfit from now on :)

Please let me know what do you think about the outfit in comments, or simly rate below the post's title :)

Chest: Elven Cloth Jacket, sea blue dye (Rivendell light armoursmith)
Legs: Ceremonial Nenuial’s Leggings, sea blue dye (Skirmish cosmetics barter) 
Head: Circlet of Men, default dye (Anniversary gift-box reward)
Shoulders: Ceremonial Nenuial’s Shoulders, sea blue dye (Skirmish cosmetics barter)
Hands: Ceremonial Nenuial’s Gauntlets, sea blue dye (Skirmish cosmetics barter)
Feet: Ceremonial Boots of the Seven Stars, yellow dye (Skirmish cosmetics barter)
Back: Cloak of the Shining Star, sea blue dye (Anniversary barter reward)

Mount: Steed of the Bright Days (Store exclusive)

Emotes:
./mountrearup
./lookaround

Revel among Arnorian ruins

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Recently everybody's been talking about a gorgeous lady who had visited the Rangers encamped in Tinnudír. She came just before dusk and seemed to be in a hurry at first - it was clear that dark thoughts burdened her mind. While they were talking, a local treasure hunter heard fragments of her speech like "shadow", "threat to the King", "our support", as well as part of Calenglad's answer: "We stand ready."

This must have reassured the mysterious lady, because a smile suddenly appeared on her face. She stayed with the Rangers until the late watches, contemplating with goblets of wine and dancing. Then she set off for a journey, heading further to the east of Eriador. As she was riding away on the Men Erain (Road of the Kings), the local people could have seen more horse riders joining her. "Who are these people?", they asked. It may take long before they find out the answer.

This is third of Rhûnen ladies we've met in the Middle-earth, bringing mysterious news to the warriors of Eriador. So far they've visited Elves of Falathorn, Lossoth of Forochel and Rangers of Tinnudír. Based on the news we have learned so far they arrived to Ered Luin harbour and are journeying further east into the Eriador. Are there more of them? If so, where will we meet them next time?

It's funny how differently some outfit designs develop. It might seem I wanted to create a matching outfit for the Anniversary steed here, but it's not true. I was tidying up my outfit pieces and ran into Elf-queen's Dress, which is one of not-too-many dresses I really like. I've also recently bartered the beautiful Moria helm and found out it looks beautiful in pastel colours, such as sea blue. I built the outfit around these two pieces and it wasn't until I started taking screenshots for the blog when I realized it matches the Anniversary horse. I'm quite happy how it turned out, because I never really used the horse and didn't have any matching outfit for it (as I didn't like the matching Anniversary cosmetics very much).

Do you like the outfit? Please let me know in the comments! :)

Chest: Elf-queen's Dress, white dye (Store)
Head: Hat of the Stone-student, sea blue dye (Moria level 60 lore-master purple set; shares appearance with minstrel's and rune-keeper's Moria pieces)
Shoulders: Gwir-palvais, sea blue dye (Drop from Isengard instance cluster)
Back: Cloak of the Ibis, sea blue dye (Store)

Wish: Matching outfit for the Steed of the Rune-keeper

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{[["☆","★"]]}

I was very honoured when Ketani, a Casual Stroll to Mordor's contributor asked me for an advice with outfitting. I know that she is a person with very good fashion taste herself (one of her Yule outfits also placed high in our Yule Outfit Contest 2011). She won a Steed of the Rune-keeper for her lovely elven lady Prolixity. Although she usually has outfits which match her mounts very well, this time she was struggling to find the right combination. She sent me her temporary horse-matching outfit, where she went for complimentary white (which can never spoil anything :).

This was already a decent outfit in my opinion, but Ketani was far from satisfied with coordination of the outfit with the horse. She also sent me a few pictures of other horse-matching outfits she wore, and I realized they were really much more superior to this one. She was also looking for the outfit to be usable in battle situations (not only while showing off the pretty mount :) and wanted the back of the outfit to be interesting. Well, character's back is what we generally see the most ingame :) However, cloak wouldn't work because of heavy luggage the horse is carrying. Ketani also mentioned she's not looking for an exact match to the mount's colour scheme, because that would be most probably impossible, so we were considering complimentary shades most of the time. I sent her first two designs:

    

I used the Sage's Pack because it was fitting for a rune-keeper, interesting and not "too long" as a cloak would be. With the robe, I was hoping to reach a complimentary shade to the horse, but as I don't have this steed myself, I could compare only to screenshots. Ketani tried these two out and unfortunately, the colours were quite far from matching. However, Ketani liked the idea of using a robe and found the wonderful Great Hoary Aurochs Robe:

We discussed the colour scheme a bit in e-mails and Ketani mentioned she is willing to try out any colour except for yellow and turquoise. Despite avoiding turquoise, she mentioned she likes sea blue. As she mentioned it, it clicked to me, tried this dye on the robe and thought it really worked well! So I sent Ket a modification of her design and also different robe stylized in a similar way (but this was more colourful and striking):

    

Ketani tried the third design (aurochs robe in sea blue) and found out the colours worked really well with the horse! From this design, she changed bracers I used for fingerless gloves and the final version of the outfit was born :)

This outfit consists of:
Chest: Great Hoary Aurochs Robe, sea blue dye (T5 crafted)
Head: (Lesser) Arrow of the West Helmet, umber dye (Ost Dunhoth hunter level 65 set)
Shoulders: Fated Westfold Campaign Shoulders Pads, umber dye (T7 crafted)
Hands: Fingerless Gloves, umber dye (Yule festival)
Feet: Strong Westfold Battle Boots, sea blue dye (T7 crafted)
Back: Sage's Pack, white dye (Store)

Ketani also built a version of this outfit to wear in town when she feels like wearing a cloak. In this modification, it becomes a beautiful feminine winter outfit.

In this version, Ket used circlet Hat of the Ancient Tongue (part of Mirkwood rune-keeper set), Warm Winter Cloak (Yule festival reward) and dyed the items purple.


And now, a final view of the outfit on the beautiful, yet unmatchable horse :))

Please let us know what do you think of the result! :)

Guest: Vindrayeth of Snowbourn

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{[["☆","★"]]}

This is a submission I actually asked for when I saw Vindrayeth hanging out in Shire one day. Just one glance at him immediately caught my attention - this outfit is so cheerful, unique and mysterious at the same time. Magical place like Peaceful Glade just underlines the atmosphere, as well as matching goat :)

Chest: Ceremonial Mammutti Armour, sea blue dye (T5 crafted)
Legs: Clanweave Leggings, sea blue dye (Dunland quest)
Head: Makeshift Ranger Mask, sea blue dye (Skirmish cosmetic barter)
Shoulders: Far Arrow's Shoulders, sea blue dye (Hunter Mirkwood level 65 purple set)
Hands: Far Arrow's Gauntlets, sea blue dye (Hunter Mirkwood level 65 purple set)
Feet: Far Arrow's Boots, sea blue dye (Hunter Mirkwood level 65 purple set)
Back: Cloak of Shadow and Flame, sea blue dye (Quest: Quest: Vol. II, Book 6, Chapter 8: New Devilry - rare drop from last boss; ceremonial version in Store)

Sexy pirate

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Ahoy mates! I hope ye be all help'n th' shipwrecked mariner at Brandywine river, cause th' fella be really unseaworthily worried bout his cargo lost in storm. He hopes t' set off today, so hurry aloft an' assist him if ye wanna look as allur'n as me!

Note: Today is the last day of The Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariner event, don't miss your chance to get some really funny cosmetics!

Chest: Fancy Waistcoat, black dye (anniversary gift-box; also available in store)
Head: Mariner's Hat, default dye (quest: The Tale of the Shipwrecked Mariners - starts near the Brandywine bridge)
Back: Stowed Threadbare Cloak, sea blue dye (skirmish barter for Inn of the Forsaken mark)

Sunshine stroller

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{[["☆","★"]]}

I've wanted a cute shiny yellow outfit for my minstrel, Brewbelly, for a long time. After trying many chest & legs pieces I realized that beauty lies in simplicity, when I tried out the basic shirt & pants outfit from Bree vendor. It's very easily acquirable, shines beautifully in yellow and in combination with elven cloak even makes an elegant garb.

 
Chest: Fine Shirt and Pants, yellow dye (Outfitter vendor in Bree)
Back: Cloak of the Galadhrim, sea blue dye (Quest: Vol. II, Book 7, Chapter 9: The Worries of Lord Celeborn)

Hobbit superstar

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{[["☆","★"]]}

This is the kind of hobbit every decent lass would fall in love with. He is well-mannered, romantic, can sing beautifully, knows many interesting stories and what is the most important, prepares wonderful second breakfast! This Michel Delving's superstar is a real womanizer and I've heard even Berylla Goodchild, a jewelcrafter renowned for her beauty all around the Shire, has a weakness for him. Fathers, lock your hobbit daughters, Wasabito is coming!

Chest: Frostbluff Robe of Thanks, sea blue dye (Winter festival) 
Head: Chopley's Hat, umber dye (Quest: A Curious Number of Bears)
Shoulders: Rock-Climber's Shoulder Guards, sea blue dye (T6 crafted)
Hands: Extravagant Festival Gloves, black dye (Winter Festival) 
Back: Golden Tree Summer Cloak, ered luin blue dye (Summer festival)

Her Eminence Lore-Mistress

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Ladriell served as a model for my first submission based on readers' wish. Fellow lore-master Loki commented on her first outfit asking for a more noble outfit for a lore-master. Ladriell is only level 15, so I can't access endgame lore-master robes, which mostly look very classy. Therefore I couldn't resist using recently popular Silken Robe of Golden Splendor - almost everyone wears one, but I've never seen it crimson dyed. This outfit reminds me of medieval cardinals very much, so it might be more suitable for bishop classes in other games. I'd be very grateful for your opinions in comments.

Chest: Silken Robe of Golden Splendor, crimson dye (Anniversary Event 2011)
Head: Turquoise Summer Circlet, default dye (Summer Festival)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Sun-Lands, sea blue dye (world drop)
Feet: Boots of the Sun-Lands, sea blue dye (world drop)
Back: Cloak of the Shining Star, crimson dye (Anniversary Event 2011)

A Light in the Dark

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{[["☆","★"]]}

Are you in danger? Are you in desperate need of morale, music and/or beer? Minstrel Brewbelly, A Light in the Dark, at your service!

Chest: Survivor's Robe, purple dye (Quest: Vol. II, Book 1, Chapter 8: Before the Doors of Durin)
Shoulders: Elven Cloth Shoulder Pads of Might, purple dye (world drop)
Hands: Extravagant Festival Gloves, purple dye (Winter Festival)
Back: Scholar's Cloak, purple dye (T4 crafted)