Beautiful beyond description, mighty, mysterious, secret, enchanting, surreal. Places of power. These terms and others could be used to describe the greatest cities that existed throughout the history of Middle Earth.<\/p>\n
Beautiful, but hidden and secretive were the city\/kingdoms of the Noldor. Grand and magnificent was the Dwarf kingdom\/city of Khazad-dum and other Dwarf cities. Mighty was Minas Tirith, tower-city of Gondor for the descendents of Numenor. Terrifying was the Orc\/Nazgul tower-city of Minas Morgul.<\/p>\n
What defines their greatness? Is it their beauty and secretiveness, might and long-lasting strength, or was it in those who ruled them? Which ones flourished and why, and which ones fell the quickest? <\/p>\n
Come join us this weekend in #thehalloffire as we discuss Middle Earth’s Greatest Cities.<\/p>\n
===
Important notice for next weekend:<\/p>\n
Attention all seekers of wisdom, learned debaters and all around obsessed Ringers (in other words, Hall of Fire participants) – Hall of Fire will not meet on the weekend of August 7 and 8, due to the fact that almost all of the moderators will be at BarliBash! <\/p>\n
We will be right back the following week with the usually array of insightful comments, witty suppositions and just plain fun. <\/p>\n
However, starting that week (August 15) the Sunday Hall of Fire session will meet at a new time, 2:00 PM EST. (One hour later than current time) The HoF staff is looking forward to a great new season of interesting discussions and lots of laughs, so make sure to be there! <\/p>\n
===
Upcoming topics:
August 7-8 — Hall of Fire takes a break!
August 14-15 — The Hobbit: Chapter 11: On the Doorstep<\/p>\n
===
Place:
#thehalloffire on theonering.net IRC server. Need instructions? Go here: http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/barlimans\/instructions.html<\/p>\n
===
Chat Times:<\/p>\n
Saturday Chat:
5:30pm ET (17:30)
[also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 9:30am Sunday (07:30) AET]<\/p>\n
Sunday Chat:
7:00 pm (19:00) CET
[also 1:00pm (13:00) ET and 5:00am (03:00) Monday morning AET]<\/p>\n
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
AET = Australian East Coast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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