A Minstrel’s Journey, Part II: Days in the Cottage of Lost Play

After leaving Gweth Valacirca there was an interval where we didn’t do a lot of music in game. We were looking for a new home and I decided to try out an Elven RP kinship for a time, but it wasn’t a very good environment for music. However, during this time I was actively blogging on MyLOTRO about my adventures with the abc system. My efforts were recognized when I became a featured blogger as well as a featured player and earned the forum title Musical Scribe of the Ages, which I still treasure. It was wonderfully validating to see people respond positively to my postings and to even be recognized by Turbine. I miss those days when MyLOTRO was a viable blogging platform and a wonderful blogging community grew around it.

Time presses on and eventually some of our friends from Gweth Valacirca (Dyjia, Sanjali, and Hildibjorn) left that kinship as well and begged us to start a kinship of our own where we could all play together again. (They did not play Elven characters and so were unable to join the Elf RP kinship I was in.) After a lot of thinking and a lot of discussing the five of us founded Mar Vanwa Tyalieva, which I named after the Cottage of Lost Play from The Book of Lost Tales. Our goal was to be a knship that emphasized relationships and being a positive force in the community and, of course, music.

The Nutcracker Suite Concert

Mar Vanwa Tyalieva formed right at the end of November 2009 so our first act as a musical kinship was to hold a Christmas holiday event in mid December called Wassailing in the Shire. Inspired by English wassailing traditions, we started with a blessing for the Appledore’s apple orchard in The Shire then went wassailing through The Shire at Bag End, along Bagshot Row, through Hobbiton and Bywater until we ended at the Methel Stage where we performed my own transcription of the Nutcracker Suite. It was easily the most ambitious music I had tried to convert to abc form yet and took a lot of work. Let me tell you, I was thoroughly sick of the Waltz of the Flowers by the time I was done. During this time I made the acquaintance of a prominent LOTRO musician, Makalaure, one of the founders of the Eriador Music Society who had recently transferred to Landroval. He helped us with the testing and performing of the Nutcracker Suite.

Our first event was very well attended and a huge success. One of the things I discovered during the course of it was that I’m pretty good at planning and organizing events, but I’m not the best host. When I saw all of those people gathered there waiting for me to get the event going, I froze up. Fortunately, I was saved by my husband whose character Arachas shared the hosting responsibilities with me and turned out to be really good at it. Later on, when we started doing weekly concerts in Bree on Saturday nights he began to use his human Lore-Master character, Ingolemo, as our MC and became quite famous (or infamous?) for his jokes, lyrics, and general band leader skills. He was no small part of our success as a band.

The Gates of Summer

Our band grew and we put on successful shows and events such as our “The Road Goes Ever On and On” concert where we played music that we felt corresponded to the mood and atmosphere of the various LOTRO regions. In February we put on an event called “Hearts and Tarts” for Valentines day where we invited people to our kinhall and played lots of popular love songs. In the spring I began to delve into bringing certain Elven holidays from the more obscure parts of Tolkien’s legendarium to life in game. First was Nost na Lothion, a spring flower festival, which was also held at our kinhall and featured music, riddle games, dancing and fireworks. Then I brought The Gates of Summer, the Elven summer soltice celebration, to game in a sunrise event featuring music corresponding to the movement of the rising sun and a telling of the Tale of the Sun and Moon.

These events, along with our regular Saturday night concerts put us on the map as a musical kinship. Over the next couple of years the kinship had its ups and downs, many more events and concerts, and lots of wonderful people. But at the same time my own real life was also becoming more complicated and busy. Eventually, being the leader of a kinship became too big a responsibility and Mar Vanwa Tyalieva lapsed into inactivity. While it is sad to think of our cottage empty and voiceless, I still take pleasure in the many wonderful memories I have because of what we did as a kinship.

Next, Part III: After MVT