Sheridanne Kelley on Role Play

INTRODUCTION

For our introduction, I want to remind everyone that we are a Tolkien Tribute Role Play Land.  That means we try to use the resources we have to create something that JRR Tolkien would be proud to be part of.  Contrary to popular belief, I do not channel Tolkien, but I have a strong opinion on how things should be.

We are a stage play unlike any other in this strange world of Second Life and one that I have had many wonderful people, creative thinkers and creators help raise up from a bunch of square prims.  Yet real people “animate” those who wander into our lands and those who linger to become part of the fellowship here.  Our roles and appearances can be tightly defined as are those of the Valar and some of the characters.

Some are not so easy to define and then create.  Today we will focus primarily on the Noldor Elves, but surely we will take time with those represented here to share ideas about their appearance.

One question that comes up often is why do I have to change just to wander around.  The answer is that we ARE a stage play and, if you are a Guide, you’ve figured out a few answers that work to why we do not want to disrupt the smooth flow of our production.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

I want to start by asking YOU what Noldor Elves or just Elves look like?

Some Answers Included:

• Losa – generally tall, fair skinned, and black hair
• Vailelir: And pointy ears
• Vanwen: Tolkien never mentioned pointy
• Anairë: green or grey eyes
• Oaklie: male and females all sharing a beauty about them

TOLKIEN QUOTATIONS ABOUT APPEARANCE

Provided by Aulë from The Silmarillion:

“The Elves were a far more beautiful race than Men, and generally taller. Among them, those who had gone to Valinor were the fairest and had the greatest skill of body.

“Quendian (Elvish) ears were more pointed and leaf-shaped than Human. However, practical considerations, including a number of occasions
where Men were mistaken for Elves (most notably Túrin Turambar), suggest that the points must have been subtle. Also note the similarity between the words for “leaf” (lassë, las) and “ears” (lasu, lhaw)

“Elven hair colour is quite varied and complex. In general, the Vanyar were golden-haired, and the other Elves (including Noldor, Sindar, and Avari) had dark or even black hair, although some of the Teleri had silver hair.

“This is not the full picture, however: Finarfin, the youngest son of Finwë, and his descendants (such as Galadriel) had golden hair on account of Finwë’s second wife, Indis of the Vanyar.

“Idril, the daughter of Turgon, had golden hair inherited from her mother, Elenwë of the Vanyar. Even the sons of Fëanor, the eldest Noldorin prince, were not all dark-haired: Maedhros and the twins Amrod and Amras had auburn hair, from their grandfather Mahtan. Fëanor’s son Celegorm had blond hair, thus his epithet the Fair in contrast to his brother, Caranthir the Dark.

“Elven eyes tend to be grey, but not universally. The Noldor, though, yes, are the greyeyed almost without exception. Though he was half-Noldorin, Maeglin is said to have dark eyes (possibly from his father Eöl, who was not of the Noldor)

• Matth: Did all Noldor have really black Hair ?
• Vanwen: *looks at Nerdanel
• Vailelir: I doubth ttat…
• Vanwen: no

ABUNDANT RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING

We have resources that we can use to KNOW what our appearance should be.

• We have the Sheriwood Welcome Documents in here are some general descriptions.   I’m sure many have not actually read through the many pages before they begin to roam, but we have tried to make it easy and yet very informative.  All the leaders have opportunities to make comments on the Welcome Documents and a lot of time is spent creating them for everyone.
• We have The Silmarillion, and the first seven chapters we happily give as a gift to those who are interested and we thank Ranger Vanwen for providing this for everyone
• We have the Web to do searches on
• Many wonderful resources in our library (and lots of work has been being done in the library lately, thanks to Aule, Feanor, Eruanna and Narwien and lately Earwen has also been a great help.)
• We have some wonderful full time players here who are so wonderful with helping each other
• And the spirit of this land is just that…that we will help one another with our questions

We also have visual images of experts who have researched this topic in a professional way that most of us would not know about for The Lord of the Rings (LOTR).  However, what is different with the LOTR, in relation to The Silmarillion?

Answers included:

• Feanor: it is the Third Age
• Oaklie: there humans in it
• Feanor: and many other races
• Anairë: Humans are not yet awoken
• Losa: and halflings
• Vanwen:  corruption is more far spread

If WE are living in the First Age, there are some “genetic” differences actually.  You are the first generation actually, well right now we have three
generation of this clan.  We have the High King Finwe and his three sons and now we have one youngster and that is Maedhros.  This is the golden time…when it says the Elves were beautiful, they were yet to be marred by life for instance.

Nevertheless, I think the LOTR does give us experts’ views on some things that still hold true for the Noldor. Especially when it comes to costume.  In particular they are modest there is only one character in LOTR that does not dress fully.  Who is that?

Yes, Smeagol or Gollum.

The experts that prepared for filming the LOTR showed Elves as a modest people.  There are no pole dancers, no silks and no skin showing in the Elves.  We also have paintings from John Howe and Ted Naismith.

Who is one of the key Elf lord in the LOTR journey to destroy the Ring, the one we see the most of in the film? (Meaning he appears the most , not that he is undressed.)  Yes, it would be the archer called Legolas.

Can you tell from his appearance is Legolas a Noldor?  He appears Vanyar or Teleri but we are reminded that the Vanyar did not leave Valimar once they arrived there, so when we look at Tolkien’s works, we can also see that by the time history had developed into that Age there were some differences.  Legolas was tall, his skin was pure and milky white, he had white or silver hair, his features were delicate.

In reality (thank you Aule), Legolas was a prince of the Silvan line of Elves, part of the Teleri clan who did NOT make the Great March to Aman.

• Vanwen:  Are the elves in the third age still that defined?

Actually I think it is the other way around Vanwen.  I believe they have “somewhat deteriorated” with injury and hardship by the time LOTR is in play, so if Legolas is that beautiful at that time, think how much MORE beautiful the Elves must be in the First Age

You realise my appearance and the appearance of the Valar is in admiration of the first children Iluvatar created.

• Vanwen:  I meant defined as Noldor and Teleri.

Each of the clans of the Elves were established around the family heads, such as the Noldor Finwe and were defined/created from the very  beginning.  Many generations of interbreeding by the time of the LOTR would have occurred.

Some visitor was recently in the Forest and told Feanor he looked like a female.  In a way this is perfect…Feanor has worked diligently on his creation and it IS beautiful and the clothing that is worn, the long flowing skirts and cloaks does sort of seem non specific sometimes.  Vailelir mistook Cucuawe for a female.  So This would be common.

• Vanwen:  Was Galadriel a Noldor?

Does anyone remember who the parents of Galadriel were?  Galadriel’s parents were Finarfin (whose father was Finwe, the first Noldor and Indis who was Vanyar) and Eärwen (who was Teleri).  So she had quite a heritage!

• Anairë: No wonder Galadriel was special.. smiles

VISUAL IMAGE OF OUR CHARACTERS

So let’s talk about how we create our characters here.

In the homework giver there were many notecards for you.  One of them was prepared by Feanor, and on this card are many references of places where you can find various parts of your costume.

For homework after this class you are to create your most perfect Noldor or Noldor friend look and create a Sheriwood Quick Chance Folder.  In it you will place the proper items, including:

• AO
• Shape
• Skin, etc.

There are many notecards to read pertaining to this that will help you afterward confirm your own creation and also will help you help others with their creations when they are new in the lands.

We will have to have a special class on characters other than Noldor but for now we have to focus on just the Noldor.  But everyone will have opportunities to share what “does fit” with visitors when they ask.

Lets talk about each of the items listed.

THE AO OR HOW YOU STAND & MOVE

Thinking about what we know about the Noldor and Elves in general think about each of these parts of your appearance, what kind of an AO
would the Noldor or Elves in general have?

NOTE:  An AO is an animation override and it smoothes your walk and other standing poses to be more attractive than the generic one that you have as part of your SL package.

Answers included:

• Aulë: the keyword for all Elves motion is “Graceful”
• Losa:  for women, demure, almost shy in appearance
• Eärwen: An elegant and modest one, not that of a sex bomb
• Feanor: one you like and that suits your character
• Vanwen: *lifts an eyebrow,  “Shy?”
• Feanor: I don’t know, there will be shy women of course but others would need a diffenrent one.
• Eärwen: Non macho
• Losa: stately, regal
• Feanor: no boxer ao
• Eärwen: Nobel
• Vailelir: tall, straight, normal moves
• Absolutely…graceful, the males and females !!

Wonderful!  No silly “in-your-face,  sexy back ends wiggling in your face” AOs.  They will be graceful and not abrupt.  When we are in THIS stage play, we choose an AO and our movements that reflect what we “see” as according to the references.

SHAPE

Now what of shape?  Shape would be tall, elegant, slim, graceful looking.

• Ar-Feiniel: how tall are we supposed to be?

Elves were tall, taller than the race of men.  I believe the Valar are the tallest, in that they could be.  I think height is somewhat personal.  For fighters, by the way, the best ones are shorter than “normal” muscular but not bulky.

SKIN

Skin would be?

Answers included:

• Feanor: fair
• Eärwen: Rather light
• Vailelir: tan…to white a bit?

Fair, no St Tropez tan or Drow.  That does not mean you have to be very pale.  Eärwen’s skin is lovely and quite fair for an example…not necessarily perfect for everyone, but lovely.

EARS

Ears are what colour again?  Purple?  Red?  Pink!!  Ears would be the same colour as your skin.

Creating your own ears.  Many of our “shapes” give us the option to modify parts of our bodies.  One part you may be able to modify is your ears.  This way you can create the most realistic looking ears you can have as an Elf and save money.

Does everyone know how you can create your own ears?

• You take off your hair
• Ideally stand on a pose stand
• go into edit appearance
• select ears
• and look at all the power you have to change things
• be careful though, to read the parchment that Aule has kindly provided us about saving your appearance
• be sure if you are just fooling around that you save the look you currently are happy with as (“Current Appearance (I always date these to help me remember the last one I liked) or whatever you wish to call it and then as you create a new one and you like it, save it in a way you can find it in the future.
• if you need help with this contact any of the leaders

EYES

What colour eyes again?  Yes, green or grey or in some cases blue depending on heritage.

CLOTHING

What about the clothing Elves wear?

We have one of Naismith’s paintings in particular that indicates the Elves favoured white and their clothing was a bit formless sometimes. And as Valier remarked, white symbolises or represents purity.

Again, if you look at the representation of costumes within the Lord of the Rings, you will see that the characters (except Gollum/Sméagol
were modest in their dress.  So nothing cut down to here or slit up to there and no midriffs or open shirts or topless for either sex and no silks.

SHOES

Shoes are not track shoes or runners, they are not spiky black boots either.

Comments Included:

• Eärwen:  What I think does not fit high heels, sorry to, say so
• Ar-Feiniel how about spikey white boots?
• Eärwen: I cannot imagine Galadriel walking on heels, neither Arwen
• Ar-Feiniel removes spikey boots
• Feanor: no as they lived in the forest this would be most uncomfortable, Earwen

We must always remember that we must live within the limits of Second Life though.  Some of you wear various types of footwear.  Men have it a
bit easier as they are typically not tempted to wear stiletto.  For females there are flat shoes, sandals or boots that are not stilettos.

Vailelir:  Earwen is wearing nice shoes :3

I have found a nice gray coloured boot at Husky that I wear often, called Deckmaster.

• Eärwen: They are hard to find indeed
• Ar-Feiniel: (that’s because SL only sells heels)
• Eärwen: But I preferred creating simple one s myself than wearing unsuitable ones
• Feanor: You might want to check out Caverna Obscura or Vigo’s for some flat shoes suitable for Elven

It is always good if anyone finds something really perfect that they let the leaders know so we can add these to our resource list.

• Losa:  Surprisingly I have found a place that might work, look in maternity stores, have found several low heels there, think about it, someone pregnant will surely not wear heels
• Anairë: Sounds like a Noldor should start a shoe shop in the village!

Again, Feanor has gathered a wonderful list of resources for us to use and explore and perhaps this is as Ar-Feiniel mentioned a market niche one of the clever Noldor could fill.   But always remember that Elves were individuals they were not cookies cut from the same cookie cutter.

• Oaklie: ((I got a LM of a good shop that might have useful things for elves))

WEAPONS & ACCESSORIES

Weapons and accessories make each of you individual and special  but again the Elves would not be caught wearing eight gold chains and big diamond rings blinging away on seven of their fingers.  Even though the Noldor, in particular, had more gems and precious metals than anyone could imagine they were modest and humble.  (Well most of them were…/me looks to Feanor.)

• Ar-Feiniel: how about on their ears?

Earrings?  I would imagine the Elf maids might wear earrings occasionally.  It would be individual taste.

HOMEWORK

Let’s get to your homework now.  Has everyone gotten a copy of the homework assignment now because I want us to work on this now before we leave today.  How many of you here know how to create a “Replace Outfit” folder ?

Aulë has passed out and excellent reference notecard for that.

• Eärwen: Well, in viewer  2
• Feanor: V2 is quite easy with putting outfits together
• Losa: (( I don’t normally use replace outfit because it takes off huds))

That is one of the dangers, Losa, but let’s continue and find a way to deal with this.

Aulë: the way to DO it, though it to DO it for real.  You CAN include the huds in the outfit…and all your attachments, but I’ll tell you one trick… make a folder called “Utilities (worn)”… and drag all your favourite huds and things into it then, when you change outfits…. you then click the “Utilities  (Worn” folder and select add, and all your huds and things appear.  If you simple drag that “utilities” folder to yourself,  you become  rather undressed.

If you create a “replace outfit” folder you can forget very important parts of your character.   One way I do this is to create a new folder called “WORN”.  Then type the word “WORN” into the search category.  For the most part this will bring up all that you are wearing and you can see what you can copy and paste or have to drag and drop into the folder for your Quick Chance to a Noldor replace outfit folder.

I love Aule’s idea about all the huds and extra things we have on our person, so will give that a go once I have some time.

• Sámowe has also suggested that you can past links into your folder as a link, not a copy.

Feanor thinks the wardrobe function of V2 is better in this as it only copies links into folders so even no copy items can be used as often as you need them

To have a QUICK change to Noldor file in your inventory is your homework assignment for this week.

• Anairë: oh and if you drag a folder on that has just hair be careful… you end up naked quickly – very embarrassing when you choose the wrong folder.

A good point, Anaire!

• Saronwe has a good suggestion to ask a designer store here make clothing and appropriate footwear for the Noldor.

Lets start this homework assignment as a group please.

• open your inventories please…
•  put your cursor on My Inventory
• and select new folder
• then label this folder in all upper case letters
• “SHERIWOOD QUICK CHANGE FOLDER”
• now you can begin to fill this folder with the bare necessities of your character as a Noldor
• this is so important when you are out dancing or exploring somewhere else
• if you are needed back here to help someone you can simply replace your outfit

I have given you the outline of this class today and at the end of it is a list.  If you follow this list and be sure you at least have your

• AO
• Shape
• Skin
• Eyes
• Ears
• Clothing (will have many pieces typically)
• Shoes
• Spellfire 1.8 meter
• Weapons and any accessories (like jewellery)

Always try to appear here as Noldor.  For this stage play this is what we want to continue to encourage.  Those who are leaders may appear as anything if there is a griefing emergency, but that is fine and how it will always be.

CLOSING

You will want to explore the many resources that have been provided for you in this class.  It is always good to take a friend with you if you are looking for some of these things, too.  Makes it more fun!  There are many wonderful free items out there that can also help you.  Anaire used to
have a lovely resource of free items too.

• Anairë:  Yes, I have some free clothes and hair..but mainly for women.
• Feanor: sometimes you get a free outfit as a group gift

QUESTIONS

• Eärwen: Do you think it wrong an elf lady to have naked arms in the summer?
• Answer:  I think many of the gowns seem to have bare arms.  Do you mean completely bare?
• Losa: I love sleeveless, especially in the summer
• Eärwen: For a lady this can be very elegant without being vulgar.
• Feanor: like a ballgown.. some are sleeveless and they look elegant
• Ar-Feiniel: do we need to wear more white?
• Anairë: I cannot  imagine elves worrying about being sleeveless
• Feanor: and I cannot imagine elves worrying about colour either
• Feanor: you just wear what you like
• Vailelir: If all would wear white, it would look like a sect

I think everyone here is doing such a lovely job with their costumes.  It seems from some of the paintings that some interpreted the writings to imagine the Noldor did favour white.  Why might that be?

• Vailelir: Because White represents Purity
• Eärwen: In the LOTR Elves were wearing different colours

Noldor are imagined to favour white.  It looks elegant and perhaps also represents the purity and the unspoiled Two Trees, First Age we inhabit.  It does look quite lovely to see all the white, as it does look like there is creativity here, yet that creativity is focused not on fussing around with clothing all the time, but in other ways.

• Anairë: But if we were questing in rugged terrain we would likely wear sleeves to protect us
• Aulë: well, considering the Noldor’s renowned crafting skill, they’d wear anything they’d like.
• Feanor: You can favor a special colour and yet not everything in your wardrobe has to be that colour.
• Losa: I have a gown of Arwen’s that is navy blue with red highlights
• Feanor:  I would not favour white for a battle or for combat

This is wisdom talking about what is appropriate for what task.  when fighting why would you not find white or red a good colour to wear?

• Vailelir: You stand out too much
• Feanor: White would be ruined fast
• Vailelir: And easy to be spoted
• Anairë: I would think practical clothes for doing things.. as they have lots of time to make things comfortable
• Feanor: well, at least people know where to find the leader if he wears red
• Vailelir: If you wear red instead….you can fake death more easily

We have Healers uniforms that are white with a red sash to indicate they are protected

We covered a lot of topics today and it was wonderful to have your participation.  Remember the best gift you can give to a new member of the Fellowship is your support and here is just one way you can help.  Thank you.