Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I play Lord of the Rings Online, my main character at the moment is a level 60 Elf Hunter. This is a screenshot from inside a building outside what is left of the city of Annuminas. The game people have taken a "few" liberties with the story for the sake of game content. But anyway note the banner with stars behind my character. 7 rays with the bottom one extended. . . I kinda like this one.

hey cool.... i play lord of the rings online as well. ( stress relief and it's way fun .

I would be playing if I have the extra few bucks every month. I played the trial and it was pretty good. I have been playing guildwars since its free.

Ohhhh, how I miss LOTR Online...I wish I could afford to play it, but money's been tight lately. In my opinion LOTRO is better than WOW. To me the 7 pointed stars look a little funky, so I'd probably stick with the 6 pointed ones.

The idea of having a longer point going downwards is kinda neat, but I think doing it on a 7-pointer makes it look like a flower, and less like a star. I'd prefer a straight-up six pointer, personally.

I have a friend back home who is a graphic artist that I'm seeing this weekend. I'm going to ask him to draw up some preliminary designs on his computer and send them to me. I'll post them here and we can discuss them, make some alterations to any designs we like, etc. I'd love to do a mass order of stars for everyone here on the forum that someone could hold onto the spares for, so as we gain more members they can reimburse the holder for a star and get their own, etc. I'd be willing to place the order myself and ship them around to you all, once we find a design and someone that could make them for a reasonable price.

sounds great.

I still like the star over the oak leaf

I've used both stars on different items. I have a shield I used the 6 pointed star on, and for my Ranger badge I used a 7 pointed star, called the fairy star. It is important, though, to remember that in Tolkien's rules of heraldry, a 5 pointed star is reserved exclusively for the Royal House, and imo this is why the Professor described the Rangers wearing a multi-pointed star, to distinguish it from the 5 pointed star that would have been the emblem of the King. I believe that the flag of Arnor was adorned with a single 5 pointed star as well. If we had to go with a choice, I think that the 6 pointed star would be simpler to duplicate. I like the star over the oak leaf as well, and would like to see that in some form. The flag of our house, Lapatte Unque (hare hollow), combines the old flag of Arnor with the White Tree, the 7 pointed star we use for our group, and a hare, which is the symbol for our House. We have alot of rabbits I will post pics as soon as I can, they are on the card but not on the computer

Personally, I like the 8 point star, I grew up seeing this design on quilts, carved into rifle stocks and even embroidered on the breast of a homemade shirt my great grandmother made as well as on yule ornaments ad infintum..

The Star itself is a very old Germanic symbol of Troth, steadfastness, fidelity and moral as well as physical direction "to get you there and back...with honor". It even gets a mention in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem for the Tyr Rune, incidentally a victory rune: "Tyr is a star that holds troth well with athelings". Known commonly as the hunters star or less commonly as the Jerusalem star, the North star and by a handful:Tyrs star, a powerful symbol among both pre christian and christian folk of Germanic descent as it is to this day...And it may well trace its origins to the aettrings seen on early Scandinavian rock carvings.

So it's kind-of a toss up between a six-pointed and an eight pointed star. If we could settle on a design (again, I'll have a bunch of samples by monday~ish) then I'd just post a poll to see if more of us like six or eight points, and then find a maker! As for the oak leaf background, that's something more easily added than removed, so I'm going to suggest we just leave it out and you can make that addition yourself if you wish.

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Well met all,

First of all, please forgive me for not introducing myself before posting. I've been lurking in the shadows on the boards for some time now and have been meaning to write an intro but time always seems to be an issue with me. I've missed several discussions I wanted to join in on due to the fact that I had not written an intro so I decided to just forego formalities and post first. I'll try to write a proper introduction very soon however.

As far as the brooch discussion goes, I'd like to share with you my design. As you'll (hopefully) see in my intro (when written), I've been a "practicing" ranger for some time now....long before I discovered this wonderful website (though I must admit there's not much rangering to be had in S. Florida). I crafted a heraldic device to compliment the persona I created for my ranger role. As a ranger of less than full blood from the long lost kingdom of Cardolan, I drew an eight-pointed star of argent (white) on a sable (black) field to resemble that of the chieftains of the north and their kin, but with enough difference to reflect a slightly different culture and background. To further accentuate this trait, the bottom, or southernmost ray of the star, is elongated to pay homage to the old kingdom of Cardolan. I've included a few photos below to illustrate a few different iterations of the idea/theme (a picture truly being worth a thousand words).



Close up view.



Star on Shield




Star on Banner

Here is another image of the star on a journal I made to take into the wilds. The southernmost ray is even more elongated, and it is this design that I am most happy with at the moment. However, I'm not sure how comfortable such a design would be if made into a brooch with such a long edge.



Star on Journal



The symbol, which I call the Argent Star, has seen quite a bit of use. I've used it for my personal heraldry in the SCA, as part of my ranger persona, as symbols in various creative writing attempts, and also for the heraldry of the Kinship I created for LotRO -- the Waywatchers of Cardolan (saw a few posts about the game earlier).


Anyhow, I just thought I'd share another take on the brooch discussion and finally contribute to this great community. It's comforting to know there are others out there that attempt to reenact the ranger lifestyle and theme as created and described by Professor Tolkien.

Safe travels,

Blackwarden

Well met Blackwarden! Thanks for your input. We will be looking forward to seeing a proper into, but PLEASE don't let that stop you from posting in the meantime. We gladly welcome someone else with rangering experience on board. Time is truly an issue. I never seem to be able to get into the woods and practice what I am learning in theory here.

Thanks for the pics and the input. That is a nice design.

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Commenting....commenting...I likes it! Love the idea of changing colors to denote regions, or perhaps different units. Great job, Gareth, and Blackwarden, hail and welcome and I like your design as well. Love your imagery and your Dunedain background. You need to post much more. I am glad to be among such company where I don't feel like I am the only one who thinks of Dunedain stars or worries about Orc raids...

All of theese stars look wonderfull indeed. any one of them would make a fine pattern for a
dunedain broach. now just the picking and then the crafting parts scare me
i am no good at jewlry crafting. lol