Ma Mian (with Li of Gladden)

Ma Mian, translating to "Horse Face," in Chinese mythology is one of the two guardians - together with Ox Head - of the Underworld. In many stories, it is they who escort the recently deceased to the Underworld for judgement, punishment, cleansing, and finally reincarnation. 

Okay I have to say that Li may be my current favourite guest contributor as 1) she keeps using Chinese themes in her outfits (friends of mine can vouch for my intense fascination and obsession with the culture), and 2) the sheer absurdity that she makes look acceptable I find simply astonishing! I mean, she walks around with a donkey mask pretending to be a guardian of the Underworld who canonically has a horse for a face. And just look at that super weird colour scheme for an entity that escorts you to the Underworld! 

Another brilliant thing Li did was to use a horse-themed shield to reinforce the point that her outfit is meant to have a horse face and not a donkey's. It's the little things that really matter! Besides that, the spear she chose is slightly reminiscent of a trident, one of the canonical weapons born by Ox Head and Horse Face. The dedication to detail of my favourite culture is simply what makes me so excited every time Li comes up with something new!

Li suggested the Barrow-downs as the location for the photoshoot, and I recalled the time Gildomir had his pictures taken here. It really is phenomenal to see the differences and similarities between both outfits and their impact on their surrounding environment. For starters, both have a goofy side to them, using a silly head piece. On the other hand, they both represent, to many, fear and terror and death. Plus, the stark contrast in their colour scheme is intriguing as well: Gildomir's outfit featured typical Halloween colours (black, orange, & green) whereas Li's Ma Mian outfit takes inspiration from statues of Horse Face around Asia, such as shrines in Taiwan and Singapore, using much lighter and a more colourful palette, one not typically associated with terror. As always, well done, Li!

Head: Donkey Mask (white);

Shoulders: Ceremonial Shoulders of the Mighty Verse (bullroarer's green)

Chest: Lore-keeper's Robe (belegaer blue);

Feet: Ragged Leather Boots (black).

Exploiting Eadyth

So, without cheating, try to guess why I called this outfit "exploiting."

I've always wanted leg pieces in LOTRO that didn't cover the entire leg. I feel that having different lengths gives us a much more vast range of dynamic of the outfits that we make, and in this one here, I think that is achieved. Some of the only pieces that shows some leg are the two Beorning starter armour pieces, as well as the Jacket of Anorien Justice, which has a pretty bland colour palette. 

Here, however, is the Leggings of the Anorien Tree, which for some reason glitches out and shows us the undergarments skin instead. The best part about it is that it's dyeable, so it gives us an ability we would otherwise not have with simply not wearing a pants armour. Of course, due to its ability to be dyed, one might question whether it was a glitch at all or just a strange design choice. Indeed it is very weird a design choice, so to me I believe it is a glitch that just so happens to work in our favour.

The problem then becomes the question of when they'll notice this and when they'll fix it, if they choose to, because at its most basic it is an exploit of a glitch. However, I remain hopeful that they, if they do fix this, realise how more diverse outfitting could be and begin introducing skin-revealing leg pieces in the future.

Back: Sturdy Dwarf-make Quiver (bullroarer green);

Chest: Everstout (black);

Hands: Rugged Rock-Climber's Gloves (orange);

Legs: Leggings of the Anorien Tree (olive);

Feet: Ceremonial Neunial's Boots (olive).

Crimson Kin (with Jularr & Halygr of Gladden)

I'm pretty stoked to present to you two community submissions in one entry because they coordinated their outfits to match one another with a similar colour scheme. When I received the files I was so excited to post this, and at the time I'm writing this up, we are 10 months early, so you can guess how impatient I am for this to finally be published!

Here is Jularr, a Dwarven hunter, albeit a pretty heavy duty one. What I like quite a bit is that he doesn't wear a helmet, or cover his head, which shows how sure he is that he won't need it. I think it's pretty badass, and hey, it shows off his cool hairstyle too.

The intricate gold details on the shoulder guards are something that helps the outfit stand out as they contrast brilliantly with the black dyeable area. Another thing about it is that both the shoulder piece and the chest have a wing motif going, which I did not realise before, and that's pretty cool that Jularr managed to put the two together into one outfit.

Shoulders: Shoulder Guards of the Reclaimed City (black);

Chest: Lesser Blade of the West Breastplate (red);

Hands: Gloves of Might (navy);

Legs: Leggings of the Coastal Bulwark (black);

Feet: Pelennor Boots of Wrath (rust).

Jularr's counterpart, Halygr the champion, equips a more aggressive armour with more spikes to it, mirroring the sharpness of his blade. As he needs to engage in close combat, he protects his head with a helmet reminiscent of Dwarven design so his enemies know with whom they mess. Also worth noting is that Halygr's outfit here requires only pieces from skirmish camp barterers, so it's much easier to replicate.

Although I do love the outfit, the problem is quite obvious here: there is a lot of clipping. The armour clips through each other, the beard clips through the helm, and while I can't blame Halygr's player for putting it together, one can wonder why this is still a problem in LOTRO, especially with an outfitting fanbase that is as big as it is. Just a few days ago I saw Nathrien of Material Middle Earth tweet to the official LOTRO twitter page regarding the Harvest Festival cosmetic rewards clipping and stretching very badly. Let's hope this gets fixed soon!

Head: Ceremonial Helm of the Brazen Call (red);

Shoulders: Ceremonial Shoulders of the Gloom-bane (gold);

Chest: Ceremonial Town-saver's Jacket (crimson);

Back: Cloak of Many Worlds (gold);

Hands: Ceremonial Dragon-scale Gloves (grey);

Legs: Ceremonial Pathfinder's Leggings (red);

Feet: Ceremonial Boots of the Graven Word (gold).

Bree-town Border-guard (with Kyix of Gladden)

Very simple outfit by Kyix, going for the very simple guard or watcher look. We just got her to pose around at Bree because it helped the name fit the alliterative nature of the blog (lol), and also it looks more mannish than anything to be fair. 

You might remember a shot like this by Brina a few posts back, and I thought it would be a funny allusion to that, only this time by an actual respected member of society. 

Of all outfits, this is the one that got more than 3 pictures, and that's not a good thing because I really have nothing to say about it. To me, as well as Kyix's player, it just speaks for itself.

Like, yeah, no idea what to say...

Head: Potent Dextrous Helmet of Fate (sienna);

Shoulders: Ornate Pauldrons of the Dunland Swordsman (white); 

Chest: Lesser Steadfast Chestguard of Fate (black);

Hands: Kelkka-maker's Gauntlets (white);

Feet: Barrow-warrior's Boots (black).

Guardian of Gondor

In his last days, Gildomir gave his all protecting the lands of Gondor. Knowing his time was nearly up, he lead a small command of soldiers on a suicide mission to reclaim Pelargir against the entire corsair host, buying as much time as they could for Aragorn and his host to arrive.

I can't really say which was the main piece of the set, but if I had to make a guess as to which piece I built the outfit around, I think it was the cloak, because when it was released in game, it really struck me as Turbine hadn't made a beautiful cloak like that before as a festival reward. Inspired, I paired it with the Nadhin heavy armour chestpiece and we had our basis of the outfit.

I knew I wanted to buff his shoulders up, and I thought what better way to do that than with the fluff of something, just like the fur shoulders on Celebindil's The Master over Lore and Life outfit. However, the colour just didn't work, and I was ready to give in to using just another piece of metal when I stumbled upon this beautiful shoulderpiece in Lalia's Market. I bought it instantly, and the rest just fell into place.

The helm was one I'd been hoarding for literally years, sending from alt to alt as I deleted them off slowly, until I finally found a use for them. I think I remember them from an outfit on Lotro Fashion and I told myself I just had to use it in a future outfit - about 4-5 years down the road I finally get there! 

Gildomir clutches his trusty spear and shield, weary of the battle he has faced so far, takes a breath, before charging his final charge into the fray...

Head: Strong Westfold Battle Helmet (black);

Ceremonial Stone-reader's Shoulders (steel blue); 

Back: Reveller's Cloak of the Odogil (steel blue);

Chest: Heavy Nadhin Jacket (steel blue);

Hands: Dwarf-make Iron Gloves (white);

Feet: Lesser Cry of the West Boots (walnut brown).

Sinister Silhouettes

Sorry not sorry about the inability to see much colour in the pictures for this outfit, because this time I tried something different: an outfit based almost solely around the overall silhouette.

Calonice would be my third (I think) toon to run through Mirkwood, and though I enjoyed the story the first time, the experience got pretty old. It also didn't help that I hate the gloom of the place, and it would have been a nice break from such gloom after spending 10 levels with it in Moria. My inability to see much colour in such an environment really annoyed me for a long time, but I thought I should make the most out of it by trying this new idea. 

I looked at the trees a lot in Mirkwood trying to find any light to brighten up my day, but instead I saw sinister silhouettes towering over me, just like the dark towers of Dol Guldur. Then it hit me: what if I tried mimicking the environment with what I wore? I threw a few pieces of armour together, ones mainly with accentuated points, stuck to a very basic and darker colour scheme (you could have it completely in black or grey, or really any other dark colour you wanted), and I was very pleased with the result.

Head: Helm of the Gentle Nudge (crimson);

Shoulders: Shoulders of the Deathstorm (crimson);

Back: Cloak of the Unwelcome Guest (black);

Chest: Jacket of the Shadow-walker (crimson);

Hands: Gauntlets of the Indomitable Protector (crimson);

Legs: Spellweaver's Leggings (red);

Feet: The Huntsman's Boots (black).

The Master over Lore and Life

I made this outfit a very long time ago, as Celebindil was of one my first characters made. Some of the pieces are different from before to make the overall look more brutal. 

With Celedindil, I wanted a rather different approach to the term "Lore-master." I was looking through the Auction House and found an amazing breath-taking head piece which really interested me. Needless to say I bought it on the spot. Then I started picking out outfit pieces from all over the Auction House. To me, this really looked like a Lore-master gone berserk. Back then, I was desperate to finish the outfit and bought almost any piece that fit the colours well enough, as you can see from the boots especially. But I still liked it enough to keep it until this day. It's almost like a relic from my past in LOTRO. 

When I had characters like Eadyth and Isenbran up at the upper quarter of levels (75-100), I was thinking of deleting Celebindil and making a new Lore-master, but thinking back on the many hours I've spent repeating Attack At Dawn for weeks just to level him up to level 50 to begin Moria (as that was the only other expansion/quest pack I bought). I told myself that if I could survive that long on him, then he couldn't be bad enough to delete. So I let him stay.

Of course, I got him through Moria, and Enedwaith and Dunland after that. He didn't seem too bad a character to play, but I started dying a lot quicker and more frequently than before. I was so put off by this that I thought of deleting him once again, but then I tried switching to yellow line, pushing my pets to do all my dirty work for me. It worked out for some time, until I missed being able to destroy a whole crowd of enemies at once with Ring of Fire.

Back to red line I switched, and it was then that I realised how poetically perfect this outfit was. This light armoured character has been through a lot of change and potential defeat, but after a lot of change he comes out stronger than ever, and all this is reflected in the new armour he wears today. Much more metal and plate compared to before, and definitely some stronger boots, as well as much more powerful weapons.

After all this, I thought it was only appropriate to call him the Master over Lore and Life, as he ultimately defied me, his creator, when I wanted to kill him off. After all, would you not think him to be Death himself if you saw this demonic being riding toward you casting spells of inferno and storms left and right?

Head: High Officer's Helm (grey);

Shoulders: Vibrant Campaign Pauldrons of the Rider (walnut brown);

Back: Supple Scholary Cloak of the Wold (umber);

Chest: Combative Eastement War Armour (sienna);

Hands: Superb Campaigners Gloves (black);

Feet: Vibrant Westfold War Boots (black).

Jack-o'-lantern Jester

Happy Halloween guys! You're only seeing this because I made this outfit almost right after Halloween, if memory serves. So here it is, almost one year later!

Here, we see the Jack-o'-lantern Jester awakening in his humble slumber-chmber, a comfortable little tomb sized perfectly for him, adorned with cryptic symbols and the countless cobwebs made by his favourite pet spawn of Ungoliant. He wakes, seeking to out-scare the numerous wights and barrow-spirits who share his lodgings.

With his housemates in the backkground of the picture, Gildomir the Jack-o'-lantern giggles as he knows full well how they absolutely abhor having their picture taken. This clown of a creepy quality owns a jest so nonchalant that he wears a smile painted on his pumpkin-helmet face to battle. Thankfully, dread reduces in-combat morale regeneration and fear makes enemies flee in the opposite direction. Ask the Nazgûl - they're pros at it!

Yes, folks - your eyes do not deceive you. He is levitating. While dancing. Very specifically to scare any foolish enough to venture into the barrows (that includes me, the photographer!). But I must say, his choice in cloak is stunning as it gloves with the flame. Perhaps that's why it's called Flames of the Deep...

I honestly think I made this outfit as a joke, because of the many joke-masks in LOTRO, and since Isenbran wore a chicken head for nearly 50 levels. But as I continued to find pieces, I thought it turned out pretty well, considering I spent only about 20 minutes coming up with the outfit (again, if memory serves). The combinations were natural and the colour scheme was simple: green and orange, the colours of Halloween. To me, at least.

Head: Pumpkin Festival Mask (dark green);

Shoulder: Ceremonial Shoulder Guards of the Porbad (grey);

Back: Flames of the Deep (dark green);

Chest: Nelegham (orange);

Hands: Resiliant Eastemnet Battle Gauntlets (rust);

Legs: Greater Valorous Leggins of Penetration (black);

Feet: Threadbare Boots of the Dunland Healer (grey).