Meet the Ladies – 5

Now it seems that CurvedSteel springs into activity only when there’s partying and festivities around in the game of LOTRO – but I’ll strive to amend that.

It’s not exactly this blog’s typical “meet the ladies” post – it is a “meet THE lady”, as in – the one and only, official, in-lore, Professor-approved and acknowledged dwarven lady from royal line of Durin’s folk.

Of course, by now you can spell it out yourself: Dis, daughter of Thrain, sister of Thorin, mother of Fili and Kili.

The brave and talented owner of The Starry Mantle blog re-imagined Dis in the world of LOTRO, with what its character-creation and outfitting systems provide.  I think it a great success, both the look, the face features, the choice of beard, and the elaboration about the story of Dis within the Hobbit.

See it for yourself and, by all means, read the original post.

We Wish You A-Many Terrors…

It’s the season of Haunting (and hunting – for treasure, obviously) in the Middle-Earth, and all the trickery in the air has broken through the spell of silence which befell this journal on the 13th of September.

One of our regulars, the unruly and sharp-tongued Gweri, welcomes you in her outfit as Smaug the Magnificent – and dares you to come to the Breeland Autumn ball  at Laurelin on November,1.

[Away From Keyboard, Deep in the Mine]

Perhaps, you’ve already noticed the lack of updates recently – and I apologize for not posting this warning earlier. September is going to be very tight-scheduled for me in RL, but I hope to update the blog in the following fortnight.

Upcoming are:

- a new fashion-savvy Dwarf-Lady to meet;

- a few ideas for a Dwarven wedding, and the translation of a drabble with the interesting characterization of female Dwarves.

Stay tuned, stay curved, and good luck to your character exploration in the meantime!

Outfitting Problem. Part 1: Robes vs. Dresses

I wanted to make an experiment:  for a dwarfesse Gweri (we’ll tell her lifestory later, for now she is just our model) we made two outfits in similar style: one using a robe and one using a dress. They are both green and pale-yellow to match her eyes and beard.  I tried on different dresses, cloaks and robes to find which will suit her most among each kind.

Both dresses and robes have their drawbacks. You cannot wear a robe with a cloak because they overlap in the back, and it doesn’t look good. At the same time dresses somewhat damage the dwarf’s body type. Also, only runekeepers and minstrels can plausibly claim to wear robes in a fight – and certainly dresses are not suitable for fighting if you are into RP, unless you were ambushed at the festival or your adversary has a passion for fashion  - which, let’s be frank, most Shadow’s servants lack. Come to think of it, though, Goldberry’s sister Naruhel has a pretty dress – maybe she will be impressed by good fashion choice and will go easier on you. Anyway, it means that you’ll probably have to make a separate, ‘male’, battling outfit – but the more outfits the better =)

Meet the Ladies – 3

Our next guest-entry will make many roleplayers choke on their pints of Bombur’s Beard.

It’s as far from Krafali’s traditional female dwarf’s biography and look as it could be, but that’s what make it so interesting to me.

I’m not among those who think that there’s only one right way of roleplaying, I’m for all the diversity one can get. I love lore-abiding dwarfesses in male clothing roleplaying in Thorin’s Hall, and I love flamboyant girly dwarves with funny names roaming around Lothlorien. Because to me if it’s a thought-through character dear to the gamer’s heart – it is a roleplay. It doesn’t have to be the role JRR would approve of, but it’s a role nevertheless.

Let’s meet Kazetta’s friend, the one and only Femaili Fatale!

Krafali is back with Fashion Tips

From her autobiography we know Krafali isn’t much into fashion right now, she keeps her beard well-groomed for the sake of decency and self-respect, but looking pretty and attractive isn’t on her current agenda.

The more reason for us to have a look at her travelling clothes. I’m sorry for not naming the items she is wearing, I will do so for my own outfit posts, but this time I’m more interested in describing Krafali’s style as such.

Meet the Ladies – 2

Our second guest-entry is the lovely and fashionable Kazzetta of Elendilmir.

She has not shared her personal story (history and maybe lovestory?) with us yet, remaining as enigmatic as the next elven lady.

No wonder we can see her in Celondim talking to a dwarf who is saying: “My wife is back at Thorin’s Hall braiding her beard. I will visit her in a few days.”

Kazzetta is so breathtaking in her green dress (every redhead and redbeard should have an emerald-green dress!) and plumed hat, that I would be so jealous if I were a dock-guy’s wife! Thankfully dwarves are monogamous.