• Welcome to MCME!

    Minecraft Middle Earth is a Minecraft community that recreates the world described by JRR Tolkien and his writings. Everyone can participate in organized events in which we collaborate to create major landmarks, terrain, caves, castles, towns, farms and more.

    To get started, visit The New Player Guide

    Joining the server

    Joining the server can be done straight away, but you will have to pass the New Player Quiz. Use the The New Player Guide to get acquainted with our community.

    IP: build.mcmiddleearth.com

~ The MCME Times ~ [06/27/2021]

Texturing Tuesday!
But on a Sunday!
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Editor's Note by Mapthor
Welp, it’s time for another Editor’s Note. I’m currently on vacation so I thought Shen would give me a week off but I guess not. Anyways, onto the news. The cats out of the bag and the Summer Events have officially been announced! We got one hell of a line this year and let me tell ya, Mini Middle-Earth is gonna be a banger. Granted we only have 10% of it done, it’s gonna be a banger. In the meantime, get lost in the new textures put out by Toti and Company and I’ll see you all in the next one.

Happy Sailing,
Mapthor

~ Project Progress ~

Anorien - Lead: @draonic_slayer | In Progress
Report by draonic_slayer

Progress has been smooth in the Pelennor. More of the older builds have been removed and the terrain underneath it has been smoothed by a team of Commoners. The houses of the village outside of Minas Tirith has slowly moved towards completion with more of the houses having interiors added. Additionally, Rudo had some fun with Eriol’s World Edit meaning a part of the completed area had to be fixed :p. For the main body of Anorien the terrain colouring concept is done, so there should be a loads of plots to be handed out.

SPOILER_2021-06-21_13.33.54.png

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Cair Andros – Lead: @Andrewpioneer | In Progress
Report by ooitsbirdo

Ladies, we have it, we bloody have it!!! The CA update is out giving us a new range of blocks to use for all our Gondor projects and even more. Work has started to update concepts to implement the new textures for the great hall and setting out the style for other areas. Mattlego is also hard at work finishing off the terrain after having to changing the shape of the island to shoe horn it into the Anduin river. Additional we need more trees, if you are a player who likes making trees, hit up myself or Andrew for some jobs.

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Lond Daer – Lead: @mattlego | In Progress
Report by _Luk

Work has continued with a small meeting involving the Builder team. Furthermorem we are getting ready to continue planning Old Town and hopefully start building there in the near future.

2021-06-27_16.01.25.png


Moria – Lead: @DoctorDaom | In Progress
Report by Mershy

Main progress over the last couple weeks has been in Movie Cave where Badger is almost at the finish line. The block mix is finally done and is safe to enter without crashing. The dam area has been started as well as additional tunnels dotted around and a nice storage hall towards the back. Additionally, Effie has started work back in the river tunnel and Daom and I need to merge brains and make some ideas.

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~ General Announcements ~

Texture Update!
Report by TotiGonzales

On the 23rd of June we saw the release of the long awaited Cair Andros, aka Rohan I, aka Human RP update. This update not only brings new blocks for building in the Cair Andros and the Pelennor Fields area, but also introduces the first set of Rohan Revamp textures while updating a whole bunch of old textures. Belfalas as well as other parts of Gondor have received a face lift with new, more realistic sandstone textures, variations and adjustments to wool, beds and a few other decoration textures. While this was a big step towards finishing off our work in the Gondor RP, there are still many decorations blocks to be touched up, swapped or even new ones to be added. This final update will come at a later stage and will introduce many new interior possibilities. At the same time we also saw the merge of the Eriador and Gondor RPs into the new Human RP. This was a big step towards bringing more of the updated textures to the older areas while also improving the traveling experience across the map. More work needs to be done to ensure that these older parts of the map are looking right after the merge. But in the mean time, there are lots of exciting textures to get to. I know I'm always saying this but with the upcoming projects and the charity stream in November there are a lot of developments to get excited about, so there has never been a better time to jump into texturing! We've had a few workshops in the past month which Mershy is currently editing together into a few short tutorials, so make sure to keep an eye out for that. In the mean time, Mershy, I, and a bunch of other members of our team will be more than happy to walk you through the beginning phase of texturing. Just shoot us a DM!

Become a Donor
Keeping MCME running is not free, every month we have to pay $265 to keep up all our work. Donations help us keep doing what we love and providing you with amazing builds to look at. Donations are not required but greatly accepted, if you want to help us in our feat of rebuilding Middle Earth in Minecraft you can donate here.
Viewing Donation Drive: Community Costs
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~ Rank Updates ~
Report by givet10

Sadly there are no new promotions this fortnight, hopefully we have some next time. Keep building and helping!


~ Interviews ~

Interview with @HoverKing

Question 1. What country are you from?
I live on the edge of a small, comfortable valley about midway between Tharsis Montes and Olympus Mons, in the Ulysses Fossae region, Tharsis quadrangle, Mars.

Question 2. Who is your celebrity crush and why?
Does one need a reason for having a crush? That being said, I can’t say I recall any particular Celeb Crush myself… I suppose Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element was rather… memorable XD. Call me a weeb, or a weirdo, or simply a misanthrope, but I always found cartoons much more appealing in general.

Question 3. If you could be any race from Middle-earth, which one and why?
Now there’s a tricky question! It’s a close competition between Elves and Dwarves.

Elves are a noble folk, fair and tall and ever youthful… Who wouldn’t want to be an Elf, in some way or another? The immortality bit is questionable though - many people would definitely jump forward and claim that that is the best thing ever, though I don’t really think so myself; I don’t know if I could remain sane after spending too many more centuries around here. Also appealing are the Elven tongues, which I greatly admire already.

Dwarves, on the other hand, are a hardy, stubborn folk, and an incredibly talented one. Rather than immortality they have longevity, and without much ageing until the very end - a Dwarf remains the same for roughly 200 years before they rapidly age and die - and I think that is nicer overall. And, of course, one must never ignore the glory and splendour of a Dwarf clad in full-plate armour and wielding impossibly heavy weapons! However, living underground is kind of a deal breaker…

So ultimately I will take the cheat way out of this question (and a few people around here might even appreciate the reference): I would be an Elf that is also an honorary Dwarf.

Question 4. Can you do a backflip?
Of course! Just lemme call the infirmary real quick. Now watch this:

HoverKing………. ɓuᴉꓘɹǝʌoH !!!

Question 5. Favourite thing to cook and eat?
Anything that wasn’t made by a military cook is probably good food XD

Favourite food though? Hmmmmm… I can’t really settle on just one thing. It’s more of a seasonal thing, you know? In winter nothing beats a nice Goulash soup (no, I am not Hungarian), save perhaps for my mum’s lasagna (no, I am not Italian). Spring usually calls for grandma’s Khachapuri (no, I am not Georgian), and I can never say no to some nice Gnocchi with cream and mushrooms. But now we are about to enter summer - and that calls for my mum’s amazing cheesecake, and raspberries.

Now cooking… Shame on me, I suppose. I don’t really cook myself at all T_T

Just give me the raspberries and no one gets hurt!

Question 6. Cold lights or warm lights?
Definitely warm. Cold light makes me feel like I’m in a bunker…

Somewhat unrelated, but it kinda reminded me of that one time that my father bought new fluorescent strips for the kitchen. He thought they were both regular white fluorescents… Well, the first turned out to be green. The second turned out to be red… Surprisingly though the two of them combined made for a rather pleasant warm result, so we kept them as they were. Fair warning though - such a combination is fine when you’re sober. When you’re not… well, a bit trippy, shall we say?

Question 7. What is the most interesting bit of lore and why?
Oh my, you are just asking for a nerdy answer, aren’t you? Alright then.

My favourite bit of Tolkien lore is a rather obscure one that few people would ever even notice, since it has to do with Sindarin grammar: the reason why Gandalf could not immediately figure out the riddle of the Doors of Durin. “Speak, friend, and enter”, was Gandalf’s translation of the Elvish words pedo mellon a minno, and therein lies his mistake. Sindarin employs a wide range of consonant mutations, oftentimes with grammatical significance; the most common of these mutations is lenition, or “softening”. It typically occurs after particles ending in a vowel when such a particle immediately precedes a word and is closely associated with it; a primary example being that of a noun that appears as the object of a verb.

“Speak” pedo being the verb, the noun “friend” mellon thus seems to be the object of the clause, and as such should be lenited to mhellon (pronounced vellon) - and yet it isn’t. It appears that Gandalf, seeing that there is no lenition, understood the word "friend" to not be the object of the verb, but rather a vocative - "Speak, o friend!"

But in truth, as we all know, “mellon” is the password in and of itself, and so the scribe (Celebrimbor, that is) intentionally omitted the lenition so as to not change the pronunciation of the password. The true translation should thus read "Speak 'mellon' and enter". And so we have a little linguistic quirk that confused the wise wizard, who was not in fact a native speaker of the language… I should note - this whole thing was very much intentional on Tolkien’s part: older versions of the drawing of the Doors of Durin indeed contain mhellon instead.

Question 8. Why is Arch so amazing?
Because he is a Guide, duh… That makes me amazing too, doesn’t it?

Question 9. What question would you want to ask someone?
I would like to ask HoverKing where is he from? Oh, wait….


Interviewer: Archimdes…again. If you have a good guess on where Hover is from, put your answers in the comment section below.


~ Winners of “The Week” ~

Would you believe that this is the 21st time that I (Ginger) have judged the Media Winners? I can't believe I've done it so many times already... And I definitely can't believe that you guys still manage to come out with cool and unique shots like there's no tomorrow! For example, take a look at some of the shots I've gathered here.

MEDIA Winners:
Honorable Mention: Having been told to get a few shots of this village by myself, Itai certainly delivered with this shot. This shot has very clean shadows and nice lighting and composition. The bright leaves on the left are slightly distracting, though.

AndrewVillage.png



Honorable Mention: Here we have an Andrast shot from Givet. The fog is a nice touch, it reminds me of a visit to central Kentucky. You'd see fog up in the hills and in the valleys late and early in the day. It's a unique angle and the composition's nice, as is the lighting. Things feel a bit smeared, but beyond that I do quite like this shot.

Mountain.png


Honorable Mention: It's fairly rare that we get Lothlorien shots, let alone good ones. Using the Ominous shaders I recently smuggled into the server, Enenal managed to get a very fanciful shot of Lothlorien's beautiful trees. A shame the lights are all blank, but that's easy to look past. There's no fix for it in the shader, anyway (to my knowledge). A close second for Media Winner.(edited)

Lothlorien_OMNS.png



Honorable Mention: Using his favorite shader in his favorite region, it's no surprise that Bohemian_Beetle managed to get a very cool shot of these trees with very interesting blurring. Very nice lighting and composition. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much blur work so well in a shot like this.

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Honorable Mention: According to totally-canon lore, Middle-earth is home to many varieties of strange creatures, including this thing, the nightmare wasp. Our brave photographer, Enenal, managed to get close enough to snap this colorized shot of the beast wrecking havoc on a build. Analysts now believe the armored figure to be the (now devoured) Duke of Wellington.

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Honorable Mention: Itai would probably make some very nice cinematics if he was in our Video Team. This shot has very little visible sunlight, but the beautiful contrast between what little indirect light there is and the shadows is what really sets the tone and atmosphere of this shot. Very nice composition, very cinematic feel.

AndrewHall2.png



Honorable Mention: Enenal almost copied Itai's shot of this house, but he decided to go the square aspect ratio route and include the street in the shot. It works nicely as well, even the sky the appears edited in works very well. My only complaint is that the blurred roof on the left seems slightly distracting.

Andrewstuff3_square.png



Honorable Mention: Smailholm rarely gets its picture taken, so you can imagine its sheer joy when Givet warped to it with his camera ready. Perhaps the blur is a bit overdone on the left, but the lighting is excellent, the tone acceptable, and the composition very nice. The fog-like stuff on the right adds to the atmosphere, strangely.

Givet_Kappa_Village_Thingy.png



Media Winner: An almost render-like shot from Bohemian_Beetle. Everything looks very clean, the shadows, the blur, everything! The composition's excellent as well. it's quite satisfying to look at. Simple, yet extremely effective. Well done, Beetle!

2021-06-22_10.23.19.png


THEME-BUILD Winners
A lot of Designers participated in these two weeks and they made amazing things, but even then, some Adventurers made cooler things than them!





~ Lore of the Week ~
The Aratar, part I

The greatest of the Ainur were the Valar, but even among them there were some that were greater than the others - the Aratar ("High Ones"). Originally 9, Melkor was removed from their number and now only 8 remain: Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Aulë, Mandos, Nienna and Oromë. "Though Manwë is their King and holds their allegiance under Eru, in majesty they are peers, surpassing beyond compare all others, whether of the Valar and the Maiar, or of any other order that Ilúvatar has sent into Eä." (The Silmarillion, "Valaquenta").

Manwë Súlimo

Of all the Ainur, Manwë was dearest to Eru, and thus he was appointed as his chiefest agent in Ëa - the Elder King, ruler of the Valar. He was known as Súlimo, the "Lord of the Breath of Arda", and he lived in Ilmarin ("Mansion of High Airs") atop Taniquetil, the highest mountain in the world. Manwë and Melkor were brothers in Eru's thought, and Melkor alone exceeded Manwë in might; but he did not exceed him in authority. All the airs of Arda - winds and clouds and breezes from the heights to the depths - were part of Manwë's domain; birds, too, he loved, and they often acted as his agents and did his bidding.

"Lo, Manwë Súlimo clad in sapphires, ruler of the airs and wind, is held lord of Gods and Elves and Men, and the greatest bulwark against the evil of Melko." (The Book of Lost Tales: Part I, "The Music of the Ainur").

Varda Elentári

Manwë's partner and the Queen of the Valar, Varda was the creator of light, and of all the Valar the Elves revered her the most. They gave her many names, the foremost of which were: Elentári (or Elbereth in Sindarin) meaning "Star-Queen", and Tintallë (or Gilthoniel in Sindarin) meaning "Star-kindler"; indeed she was most notable for creating the stars and setting them in heaven. "'In this age [...] the Firstborn shall come in the darkness, and shall look first upon the stars. Great light shall be for their waning. To Varda ever shall they call at need.'" (The Silmarillion, "Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor").

Ulmo

The "Lord of Waters", Ulmo did not like to walk upon land, and seldom did so. He dwelt alone in the depths of the ocean, and rarely stayed in one place for long. His might was next to that of Manwë and the two of them were close friends, though they did not see each other very often. Ulmo cared deeply for the Children of Ilúvatar - both Elves and Men - and never abandoned them; but if the Children ever beheld him they were filled with dread, "for the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land, with dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green." (The Silmarillion, "Valaquenta").

Yavanna

Known as Kementári, "Queen of the Earth", Yavanna was the Giver of Fruits. She loved all things that grow in the earth: "from the trees like towers in forests long ago to the moss upon stones or the small and secret things in the mould" (ibid.); animals, too, were part of her domain. Trees she favoured more than anything else, and indeed it was her song that had created the Two Trees of Valinor. It was through Yavanna's desire to protect the trees and forests from the Dwarves and the Children of Ilúvatar (since, unlike animals, the trees could not defend themselves) that the race of the Ents was created.


~ Question of the Week ~

This Week's Question:
Who were the "Yavannildi"?

Question:
Which character, aside from King Turgon, is known to have died on Mid-year’s Day?

Correct Answer: Last time Johny got the right answer.
Rose Cotton - Sam's wife - died on Mid-year's Day in FoA 61.

Presented by: HoverKing


~ More Media ~

You know us, we love sharing our progress and Twitter is the perfect place. Give us a good follow and always have something to look forward to on your daily scroll. Just to spice it up, comment your favorite parts of our builds at MinecraftMiddleEarth (@MCMiddleEarth) | Twitter. You won't be disappointed!

Sometimes you just want to enjoy some quality pictures, we got you covered. Head on over to our Facebook account, try following us there too Minecraft Middle-Earth

It doesn't matter if you just woke up or after a busy day at work; scrolling through Instagram and seeing a cool project you have worked on, or just amazing graphics from your favorite server on your favorite game- MCME's Instagram is the right place to be. Check it out at mcmiddleearth on Instagram, or this perfectly good link to take you straight there.

But of course, the most important and obviously most used social network is of course Planet Minecraft! Be sure to give us a diamond there. It costs nothing! Minecraft Middle Earth Minecraft Server



~ Closing Statement ~

No time off for you mapthor, because you never told me you were on vacation! Anyway, sorry for the late post, this Edition of the Times was particularly grueling to publish- I think I actually lost some hair trying to put it all together. I'm going to cry myself to sleep tonight.

Thanks and hope you enjoyed,
Shen

Excellent work, Times Team!


Quote from Mr. H
“Knowing it in your head doesn’t mean much if you don’t act on it.”

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The Official MCME Times
mcmiddleearth.com​
 
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