Editor's Note by Mapthor
Alright, this is my third week doing the editor’s note so I’m gonna change it up a bit. This time, I’m going to tell you a story. “There once was a tiger-striped cat. This cat died a million deaths, revived & lived a million lives, and he was owned by various people who he really didn't care for. The cat wasn't afraid to die. Then one day the cat became a stray cat which meant he was free. He met a white female cat & the two of them spent their days together happily. Well, years passed & the white cat grew weak & died of old age. The tiger-striped cat cried a million times, & then he died too. Except this time, he didn't come back to life.” It’s a nice story when you look at it, but I hate it. I’ve always hated cats. There’s a message in that story if you look close enough at it, but that’s your choice if you wanna do that. Well, it’s time to get back to helping out new players.

Happy Sailing!
-Mapthor


Anorien - Lead: @Oberanio | In Progress
Report by Soarz

Oberanio, mith, and luk are upgrading quarries while xmine has been redoing some streams. They also have started to finish andrews castle.


Featuring: Soarz9


Belfalas - Lead: @Darki | In Progress
Report by Soarz

Raffyyy and Mithrilled have been working hard on the fields of Belfalas. Crop have been planted, trees have been pasted and jobs have taken place. Now the sunny fields are pretty much all Finished, which enables everyone to make even more complete pictures and screenshots of Belfalas





Moria: Fellowship's path – Lead: @DoctorDaom | In progress
Report by Monster_Duck

Moria is steadily progressing. The great cavern that is located on the fellowship’s path has seen a fair bit of work in the last two weeks. Jobs ran by Barteldvn added stalagmites in areas.A new connector concept has been developed by Maski which took him a lot of hard work. Mershy and Daom have given some artists and artist applicants small plots to work on in freebuild. These will be placed in The Great Mines. Other than that, Daom has been glued to the Moria planning and has moved caves for a better placement. Lastly Mershy has spent some time looking at the Moria hall and cave list that is on the forums to update projects and to reassign areas when applicable.




Osgiliath – Lead: @ooitsbirdo | In progress
Report by Monster_Duck

Progress in Osgiliath has progressed somewhat slowly as Birdo returns to work, but there is still some building to report. FoolhardyFish is reforming section one and assigning plots to various builders aspiring and otherwise.





Become a Donor
Keeping MCME running is not free, every month we have to pay $235 to keep up all our work. Donations help us keep doing what we love and providing you with amazing builds to look at. Donations are not required but greatly accepted, if you want to help us in our feat of rebuilding Middle Earth in Minecraft you can donate here.

Viewing Donation Drive: Community Costs

Our Donors

• Mediodox
• ShockwaveSteve

#MCMEdoesnotrunitself

#NEWS
Eriador pack:
The first snapshot of the pack has been released and tested on the dev server. There was some stuff that needed fixing so another snapshot will be released soon.





Report by Monster_Duck


Mershy_: Congratulations to Mershy who has progressed all the way to Designer. His hard work is finally starting to pay off!
Promotion





Interview with @Smaug

Question 1. What was your first time on the server like?
I don't remember my first time on the server very well. Discord didn't exist then and I lost my chat logs so I can't go back and read them. However, I do remember the new player quiz, which I took several attempts on because you had to push buttons on the correct answer. I think it took me two guesses to find out who the server owner was. Finally I was teleported to the main world and into Bag End where I started to explore the server. According to the MCME Timeline, the Lothlorien Vegetation upgrade was finished on the same day that I joined (23rd August 2015) and Pelargir was completed the next day. I really wanted to help out in jobs and my parents wouldn't let me use TeamSpeak, so after three weeks I downloaded it so I can join them. My first job was with Eriol and we were building a road next to Linhir. I told him that I had downloaded TeamSpeak but it wasn't working so he tried to help me get it working and I still lied to him. He eventually explained the job to me through chat. Sorry Eriol for wasting your time, but thank you for helping because I would probably not be here now if you weren't nice to me.
Question 2. What is your favourite part of being an admin/Head Moderator?
The best part about being a Vala & Head Moderator is being able to make decisions that will influence the server. Some of these decisions are difficult to make and it could turn out quite bad if they are not implemented well enough. The first topic that I discussed as Vala was the removal of Assistant and introduction of Manager. We spent a very long time writing out a list of names for the rank and then took a long time to choose a name, in the end we chose Manager. I also get to know stuff before the rest of the staff and community do, which is quite nice.

Question 3. What is the weirdest thing you have seen or hear on MCME?
I have seen many weird things on MCME. I looked through my screenshots to see what some of the best ones were, but there are too many to choose from. Therefore here are a selection of screenshots of weird moments.
Question 4. What has changed the most over your time on the server?
Nic's ranks and Dol Amroth. But seriously the thing that has probably changed the most since I joined is the building style. When I joined there were no custom blocks and there were not as many vanilla blocks as there are now. All houses had walls that were 2 blocks wide rather than the flat walls we have now. See Aldburg or Pelargir as examples of the buildings then.

Question 5. Do you like Pineapples on pizza, if so why?
I like pizza and I don't like pineapples. Pineapple Pizza is disgusting. If you disagree with this then please talk to @Tyranastrasz the Italian

Question 6. Are you a fan of diagonal builds?
No, all diagonals are bad and they should not be built on the server.

Question 7. Is there anything you would like to say to your fans out there on MCME?
I don't know, what do you normally say to fans? If any of my fans wants to find out more about what I have said in this interview then please talk to me. I love to tell stories about what I've done on MCME.

Interviewer: Soarz





This week we have another round of amazing builds and Media posts. We only choose from the best every time, so hard work does pay off. Sometimes it can get competitive and that is what will win a place here. Please give a warm welcome to this Times, winners of this week.

MEDIA Winners:
(http://imgur.com/HlHL89k)
Congratulations to Maski for winning the fortnight’s selection again! Rendering huge areas takes a long time, but taking hundreds of individual screenshots for a smooth GIF as well.
A thank you to all the other people who took screenshots too. I’ll make sure to post some on the social media accounts.

(http://imgur.com/a/CMP9KCm)

THEME-BUILD Winners
There were so many great theme builds this week! Everyone did an amazing job! But… there was one build that stood out from the rest… just enough to get theme build of the fortnight! The winning theme build goes to (drum roll please!) Jonatanknalle & Fish!
Take a look at the winning theme build and other honorable mentions!


(http://imgur.com/a/2jlCQps)
Of the Children of Yavanna:

The Ents, and their wives, were sentient, humanoid beings created at the request of Yavanna to protect the trees from other creatures, particularly Dwarves, and thus were called "Shepherds of the Trees".
The Ents were the most ancient living creatures surviving in Middle-earth in the Third Age.The Ents are a free people of their own kind, very similar in origin to the Dwarves. In fact, "when Yavanna discovered the mercy of Eru to Aule in the matter of the Dwarves, she besought Eru (through Manwe) asking him to give life" to the Ents, so that "the Ents were either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took the likeness of trees owing to their inborn love of trees".
Ents are the Shepherds of the Trees, as far as they were desired by Yavanna to protect the forests from Orcs, Dwarves and other perils. The males were devoted to Oromë while the Entwives to Yavanna.They were created around the same time as the Elves. The Eldar loved to talk to everything and had tales of teaching the trees to talk. They gave them the desire to speak and taught them Elvish. Treebeard said the Elves "curing the Ents of their dumbness" was a great gift that could not be forgotten.
Before even Morgoth returned to the North the first Ents were not as wise or strong as in later times. They developed a language, Entish, which was much simpler back then, and had very small knowledge of other languages.
As Elrond said "Time was once when a squirrel could carry a nut from tree to tree from Rivendell to the Great Sea...". Nearly all of Eriador was one huge forest and part of the Entish domain. Some Ents passed into East Beleriand and perhaps Tasarinan. An Ent-host showed up near Dolmed and helped Beren against the Dwarves of Nogrod who sacked Doriath and slew King Thingol; the Dwarves were driven to the shadow woods of Ered Lindon and no-one managed to exit.
There used to be Entwives, but during the First or the Second Age they started to move farther away from the Ents because they liked to plant and control small things like vegetables, grass and flowers while the male Ents tended the larger trees of the great forest. The Entwives passed the Anduin and went to the region that would later become the Brown Lands. After Morgoth was overthrown, their gardens blossomed and they taught Men agriculture who honored them. Tolkien later stated in one of his letters, that he would think that the Entwives' disappearance was due to their gardens' destruction by the hand of Sauron during the war of the last alliance. He went on to say that he thinks that the entwives were destroyed along with their gardens.
But a time came in the Second Age when these immense forests were cut by the Númenóreans or destroyed in the calamitous War of the Elves and Sauron during the 17th century of that Age. The shrinking of the forest solidified their separation from the Entwives. The Fangorn Forest was just the Eastern End of that immense forest, and one of its small remnants. The gardens of the Entwives were destroyed by Sauron, and they disappeared. The Ents looked for them in vain and it is sung by the Ents that one day they will find each other but there is very scarce hope that they survived.
In the Third Age, the Fangorn Forest was apparently the only place Ents still inhabited, although the Ent-like Huorns may still have survived elsewhere, as in the Old Forest. The Ents grew old without hope of having Entings without the Entwives. Some grew 'treeish' and ceased moving or speaking. Halfast Gamgee reportedly encountered a "Tree-man" near the Shire, these “tree men” are likely Huorns.
About T.A. 2950 Saruman's armies began harassing the few remaining Ents and cutting down large numbers of their trees. During the War of the Ring the Ents—usually a very patient, deliberate people—were spurred by Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took. They convened an Entmoot, a meeting of the Ents at Derndingle.



After lengthy deliberation (though from the perspective of the Ents, this was very quick action), they marched on Saruman's fortress at Isengard: the last march of the Ents. They were led by Treebeard, the oldest Ent, and accompanied by the Hobbits Merry and Pippin. They destroyed Isengard in an all-out assault and trapped Saruman in the tower of Orthanc.

They flooded Nan Curunír and transformed it into a forested area which they called Treegarth of Orthanc. Following the reunification of Arnor and Gondor, Treegarth became a part of the Reunited Kingdom and King Elessar declared it an Entish realm, granting the Ents complete self-governance.
The Ents remained in Fangorn where they probably dwindled in the following Ages, but Galadriel wished to Treebeard that they would meet again in Tasarinan, when Beleriand is lifted again from the waves, in Spring.




This Week's Question:
Why was Quenya banned in Middle earth? And whom was responsible for its ban?


The winner this week is Nexus3_!

Presented by: Arothir_Alamareo




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Sometimes you just want to enjoy some quality pictures, we got you covered. Head on over to our Facebook account, try following us there too Minecraft Middle-Earth

But of course, the most important and obviously most used social network is of course Planet Minecraft! Be sure to give us a diamond there. It costs nothing! Minecraft Middle Earth Minecraft Server



Artist
Ahh yes. We all know the question. “How can I build?", As well as the responses “You can try a theme build” and “You can take part in jobs." The other answer is “Apply for Artist”, and the last option is by far the most exciting. Being able to build in your favorite places all the time. Sounds awesome. We can never have enough Artists, and with a wide range of current projects, there’s plenty for you to do!
Are you inspired to join MCME’s main build rank? You can apply for Artist/ today on the forums! The Managers, Designers and current Artists will work with you and help you on your journey.

Guide
Or perhaps, you’re not a builder. Well. That’s not a problem! Becoming A guide is obviously the better option anyway. As a Guide, you’re the forefront of MCME, and there’s no greater feeling than when someone says your tour was awesome. You don’t actually have to be a lore nerd either, you’ll pick up on lots really quickly.
When you join the Guides, you’ll be giving tours, running mini-games and testing players in lore quizzes, or if you prefer less “on the spot” stuff, Guidebooks are obviously your zen, or helping to tell MCME about MCME by writing up articles in the times. You’ll also plan help plan events such as The Summer Events and The Anniversary Events. We hope you join us soon, because us Guides really would love some more of us. What’re you waiting for?
Just click Guide and apply today!