Thread: Along the Paths of Middle-earth

Another in the lengthy series of beautiful and unique doors the devs created for the Moria expansion. These are the inside of the entry doors to the Library of Tham Mirdain in Eregion.

Sorry about the hiatus. Had to visit our Moms and they only have an old Mac on dial-up. Couldn't see the graphics or links I needed to post stuff while we were gone.

Anyway, here is one of a Caras Galadhon warden.

An Ancient Evil Snarling Overseer in the Foundations of Stone.

Another view of The Waterworks that I liked.

Killing Logon, one of the tougher bosses in Eregion.

Screenshots of the level 58 Heroic Noble's heavy armor helm. I stripped my dwarf down to his skivvies for these.

Just think, if we left all the cave claws in Thorin's Gate, Trollshaws and Ram Duath alone for a while, they'd all turn into this pretty guy. In the Great Delving.

Axe statuary in Zelem-melek. Who says LOTRO doesn't have gigantic weapons? (For an indication of scale, see the figure to the right of the left most axe.)

The entrance foyer of Filikul in The Waterworks. Unless you're ready, don't go all the way in. The thing inside specializes in shelling out hard knocks to intruders. Once could almost call this dungeon The Shell of Hard Knocks. Well, if you don't know what is in there, that's all the hints I'm going to give today.

And, this is what's inside. "Heere turtle ... turtle ... turtle ..." Remember the turtles in Malenhad, around the pools there? This is their big brother. He was not happy to see me.

The purpose of this thread started out as one for recruiting good casual players to Aphadrim uin Calad. A secondary purpose was to encourage those that were wondering if they should buy the Mines of Moria expansion.

Those purposes stay the same, although another purpose has evolved: to let folks who are casual players see many of the sights in Moria and Lothlorien that they might not see otherwise. And, today is no different.

I really hope every player who wants to join a kinship finds one comfortable to their needs and playstyles. AuC isn't for everyone, but it's a good kinship.

Today's screenshot is of the Way of the Smiths looking towards the Silvertine entrance, leading to the Heart of Fire. It's a bit dim, as befits the subject I guess, but if you enlargen it, you'll be able to see better.

Dwarven horns in the Great Hall of Durin. I bet these babies made the mountains shudder.

And yet another set of beautiful dwarven doors. This pair is in the Redhorn Lodes.

From the name, you might expect that forges in The Flaming Deeps would be roaring along. But, in Hadad-mezer of the Flaming Deeps, most of the forges are cold. This is one such.

Several flets in Caras Galadhon at night.

Most of the Merrevail in Durin's Way are not bad looking bat women. But, when you get a bit deeper, they do really get terrible looking. Among other aspects, this Elder Morvul-Defiler looks a bit the worse for wear, almost like its defiling has back-fired at times. In Tith-madhul, Durin's Way.

Nice screenshots.

Thanks, Mafia.

I thought an additional screenshot of an Elder Morvul was worth it to see the detail on the legs and feet, and especially the wings.

This is the Champion Level 60 undyed Axe-handler's heavy armor. It is NOT the radiance armor. Don't have that yet.

Here is a view of something most players either haven't seen or, if they've been by there, haven't really looked at.

Most of us with level 50 characters are pretty familiar with the western entrance to Moria, of the Doors of Durin by the Black Pool where we have our first encounter with the Watcher with our first Legendary weapon.

But this picture is of the opposite end, the eastern entry to Moria, the Dimrill Gate. It leads out of Khazad-dum to Azanulbizar, or to the elves - Nanduhirion, and Men - the Dimrill Dale, and provides the first view of the sky in quite a while, although we aren't free of the orcs of Moria at all.

An Orc Sapper at Uruk-gashan in Nanduhirion.

One thing you'll spend some time doing in Moria is trying to pit one orc faction against another so they weaken each other and the dwarves won't have as tough a battle to supress each faction.

This is a picture of an orc trap made by dwarves at The Orc Watch to help accomplish what I stated in the first paragraph. It spins when activated. I guess orcs are dumb enough to fall for a curious spinning object. heh

Where the Nimrodel River flows out of the Misty Mountains there is a waterfall. Just below the waterfall is a small island with this statue of the elf-maiden Nimrodel.

As you journey throughout Lothlorien, the tragic story of Amroth and Nimrodel is more fully told. In Book 1 The Fellowship of the Ring, Legolas sings a song of Amroth and Nimrodel:

An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.

Click the link for the whole song.

Goat Rider!

I still struggle with the idea of ridable goats in the game, but ... well, there's a certain twisted appropriateness about a dwarf riding a goat in Breetown.

For over 900 years of the Second Age, the land of Eregion prospered under the Noldor and other elves. This land shows this elven influence and heritage even to this day, late in the Third Age.

Elanor means sun-star. Sam Gamgee first saw this flower in Lothlorien and subsequently named his first daughter after it.

Zahof, a boss in Durin's Way.

Near Cerin Amroth in Lothlorien at gloaming time.

Was gone for 2 days for grandson's birthday. One year old. Gosh, I seem to be getting older. bah! Still young at heart, ... sometimes, when I'm not too tired.

This is a screenshot of the outside wall and moat of Caras Galadhon in Lothlorien, which is to the left in this shot. The wall itself is made of greenery, kind of like Buckland has. No water in the moat bottom though.

When Legolas and Gimli, and your character of course, go for a walk in the forest of Lothlorien, they encounter a band of orcs that has slipped in. Needless to say, Gimli and Legolas are ready to dispatch them, with your help of course.

Here, Gimli's eyes and nose, and Legolas' eyes, think they see some orcs in the area round about.

Niphredil, another flower you'll pick that grows amongst the mellryn trees of Lothlorien.

A second screenshot near Cerin Amroth in Lothlorien at gloaming time. Not sure why I like the look of these times. I think partly it has to do with how beautiful many of the vistas are in the landscapes of Middle Earth the artists at Turbine give us to enjoy.

As most of you who've been following this thread know, I found that the artists at Turbine had been spending a lot of their creativity and talent on the dwarven doors in Moria; elven doors in Eregion, too, but not as many.

It seems that they've continued to apply this talent, not with doors, but with posts, lamps, obelisks, covered bridge roof legs and the like in Lothlorien and Caras Galadhon. Today is a pair of screenshots of bridge abutment lamps, one in daylight and one at night.

The daylight lamp is very fine work. I like it. If you make it larger, say as desktop wallpaper, you can see the scroll work much better.

I've done a bit of thinking, and ... it hurts! Oh, no, that's not what I wanted to say.

I've done a bit of thinking and I think I'm going to expand this thread to anywhere in LOTRO's Middle Earth. There are so many places that are so cool that I think this would be worthwhile. I won't stop posting pics from the Mines of Moria expansion, though.

For today, Gimli meets Celeborn and Galadriel in Caras Galadhon.

Light posts near the entry to Caras Galadhon, with a close-up detail shot.

Talking to the leader of the dwarf expedition into Khazad-dum, Bosi, on the left, is one of the earliest stops on your way to entering Moria.

Guess who!?


[For those that really don't know the lore, it's the ancient evil balrog Durin's Bane. Originally one of Morgoth's servants, it survived the destruction of Angband at the end of the First Age and was reawoken by dwarves of Durin VI in the Third.]

These may be my first non-MoM screenshots in this thread, but I did warn you I was going to do this a couple of posts ago.

I thought you might like to see what I think is a good paladin set of heavy armor. There isn't a class of paladins in this game, so an elf guardian with the right attitude and armor can suffice, for me.

This is a set of Mirrored Elven Knights heavy armor. Mirrored Knight's was the best crafted heavy armor in the game prior to the MoM expansion. It is dyed white as I like it for a paladin-style look.



These next two shots are of details. First the chest piece and shoulder guards close up. Then, a Fine Radiant cloak, dyed white. In the case of dying the cloak, the white dye mostly slightly fades the intense dark color on the cloak. I think it was the best crafted cloak in the game prior to MoM:

This IS a Mines of Moria item, a heavy armor helm called Survivor of the Watcher, which you can get as a part of the quest chain to get inside Khazad-dum.

Why is he not wearing the companion helm from the Mirrored Elven Knight's set from yesterday's post? Because, imo, it's seriously ugly. Besides this one has better stats overall, is much better looking, and stylistically goes with the set better than the "correct" one.

A light post in Caras Galadhon, followed by a close-up for the detail.