DRAGONMOUNT

TarValon.Net just announced that they have begun taking applications for the 2012 Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship!  This annual scholarship awards $500 to an undergraduate student at an accredited college or university.  This opportunity is open to all Wheel of Time fans, so you do not have to be a member of TarValon.Net or attend school in the USA to enter.   More information can be found in their site announcement and on the application form.  Applications are due July 6, 2012 and a recipient will be chosen by August 3, 2012.  Good luck!

Warning: This post contains significant spoilers up through and including Towers of Midnight.     We all remember the moment we discovered Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. I started reading the series in seventh grade, after I stumbled across a copy of From the Two Rivers: Part One of The Eye of the World in the young adult section of Barnes & Noble. I picked it up on a whim because I liked the cover art, which just goes to show that some things never change.   Still, just about everything else has changed since then. I'm married and in grad school. That old book is still on my shelf, but the pages have turned yellow and it smells like my version of heaven. And whether you started reading the series a year ago or in 1990, I'm willing to bet you've changed since then too.   The greatest thing is that the characters have changed right along with us. By the end of the thirteenth book, the three ta'veren are virtually unrecognizable as the country boys Moiraine convinced to run away from home. In hindsight, Egwene's characterization of the three in the prologue of From the Two Rivers ("Ravens") is brimming with sad irony:   "I'd like to be a king," Rand was saying. "That's what I'd like to be." He flourished his arm and made an awkward bow, laughing to show that he was joking. A good thing, too. Egwene grimaced. A king! … "A king of sheep!" Mat hooted. He was smaller than the others, always bouncing on his toes. One glance at his face, and you knew he was looking for mischief. He always looked for mischief. And usually found it. "Rand al'Thor, King of the Sheep." … "It's better than saying you want to run off and never have to work," Rand said mildly. He never seemed to get angry. Not that she'd seen, anyway. "How could you live without working, Mat?" … "I'll rescue an Aes Sedai, and she'll reward me," Mat shot back. "Anyway, I don't go around looking for work when there's more than work enough without looking." He grinned and poked Perrin's shoulder.   Perrin rubbed his nose, abashed. "Sometimes you have to be sensible, Mat," he said slowly. "Sometimes you have to think ahead." Perrin always talked slowly, when he talked at all. And he moved carefully, as if he was afraid he might break something.   Let's see how far the boys have come. The art on the left is from my copy of From the Two Rivers (illustrations by Sally Wern Comport and Wizards of the Coast, Inc.). On the right (scroll! -->) are recent fan interpretations of the characters.     Rand al'Thor: From shepherd to Dragon Reborn (and, as an afterthought, King of Illian). Not quite as mild-mannered as he used to be. Art on the right by Astriex.         Mat Cauthon: From the son of a horse trader to the Prince of the Ravens, commander of the Shen an Calhar, and sounder of the Horn of Valere. At this point, he may have saved one too many Aes Sedai for his own good. Art on the right by Swedish artist G-a-t-i-n-h-a.         Perrin Aybara: From blacksmith's apprentice to Wolfbrother and Steward of the Two Rivers. Art on the right by Bulgarian artist Lims-Kraghma.  

I hope Memorial Day has been going smoothly for everyone so far.  Things are a little quieter around here than usual because of the holiday, but we still have plenty for you to do.   First up, our General Wheel of Time Discussion forum residents have posed an interesting question.  If you could be any character from the Wheel of Time or any character from another book series, who would you be?   Do you know if your favorite television shows are returning in the fall?  If not, take a look at the list of 2012 tv show renewals and cancellations in our TV Show & Sports Discussion forum.   If you're familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest (or if you just like listening to Europeans belting out the occasional silly, strange, or sugary song), come discuss the contest in the Band of the Red Hand Social Group.  If you don't know what Eurovision is, it's sort of like American Idol, but with Europeans instead of Americans and the songs themselves being voted on instead of the singers.  Some well-known artists and groups, including Celine Dion and ABBA, were launched into the international spotlight after their songs won Eurovision.    The Ogier Social Group has started a series of monthly history topics.  May's topic is ancient coins.  It's amazing what you can learn about a civilization from one small coin.   It's been awhile since I've seen a role play set in the Threefold Land, so I was excited to stumble upon one today.    Rhuidean trips are quite intriguing, and this one is no exception.  Check out Would Have Never...   JordanCon has recently announced next year's Guests of Honor.  The author Guest of Honor will be Seanan McGuire.  The artist Guest of Honor will be Michael Whelan.  Go here for more information on these eminent guests.  

Our friends at Ta'veren Tees have unveiled a creative new campaign and a new Mat shirt!  Check out this awesome press release:

Two weeks back, I featured a handful of less-than-dignified yet irresistibly adorable artistic reimaginings of the slimy, sightless fiends known as Myrddraal. Sadly, it appears my desire to first invent and then snuggle with the entire collectible set of the Dark One's Army stuffed animals is something of an idiosyncrasy. In honor of your requests for fairer treatment of these petrifying creatures, I've decided to give the Halfmen a second chance.   Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lurks are back by popular demand!       1. Myrddraal by Josh Hass:   To the best of my knowledge, this is the only Wheel of Time art Josh Hass has ever created. Maybe if we show him lots of love in the comments we can convince him to make more. I love how he puts us in the position of the fallen soldier.       2. Fade by Jeremy Saliba:   Jeremy Saliba is one of a handful of licensed Wheel of Time artists. He's contributed cover art to the comic book adaptations of The Eye of the World and also sells prints separately. In fact, if you want this bloodstained monster hanging from your bedroom walls, you can purchase a print here.       3. Myrddraal by solitarium:   I've featured solitarium before and I'd bet a Tar Valon mark against Mat that I'll do it again. I love this stylistic representation, though I do think a darker crimson background would have a creepier effect. Then again, maybe I just need to adjust the color balance on my Mac.       4. The Host by Ashley Luttrell (PollyUranus):   For some reason, photomanipulations rarely impress me. When they do, PollyUranus often turns out to be the artist. My fascination with this one crept up slowly. Something about the sickly-colored landscape and the Fade's confident march really freaks me out. I wasn't initially sure how I felt about the pumpkins, but after you stare at it a while, they just seem to belong there.

Inspired by last week's Fan Art Friday article, I've decided to reintroduce a feature. Before, I showed you where you could buy Wheel of Time clothing articles, but now, I shall bring you their fashions and you can let that lead you wherever you wish. Today, I'll be having a look at the fashion of the Borderland nations.   If you want to have a field trip as an Arafellin, don't forget your bells! In the books, we're told that bells play a key part in Arafellin fashion sense. They are worn in the hair, on the clothing, or on boot tops. In regards to their actual clothing, not much is said, but since we could compare the Third Age to the time before the Industrial Revolution, I guess one could see their clothing following that general pattern. All we know is that they wear boots with their tops turned down that reach to the thigh, and that the men wear their hair in two braids, with one braid over each ear.   Have you ever needed an excuse to wear one of those sheer veils behind which you can seductively bat your eyelashes? Well, then let your inner Kandori out! The style of dress for women is brightly colored dresses that are clinched under the breasts. There is embroidery along the belt under the breasts, the cuffs, and the hem. In contrast to the color of the noblewomen in Kandor, the noblemen wear very dull colors with chains and earrings as their accessories. Their one definite feature are their forked beards, so if you want to pull off their look, you need one of those.   Kandori woman   Now, we've heard all sorts of things about the Saldaean farm girls, so perhaps your next sexy costume will be one of those? Let's have a look at what you would need. We are not actually told anything about what they wear, as far as I know, but we are aware of the dress of the nobles. Noblewomen in Saldaea wear high-necked dresses with narrow skirts and wide sleeves. Perhaps we can assume that in an effort to rebel against those quite uptight noble fashions, the farm girls wore more revealing clothing. There is little worse than working and getting hot because of your clothing. If you're wanting your man to wear a matching outfit, all you need do is put him into a short coat and baggy trousers, and have him clean shaven or let him grow one of those dreadful handlebar mustaches.   Saldaean woman   Our last nation I'm going to be looking at is Shienar. There's quite a bit more to these people than their warriors' topknots! The men wear tight breeches and shirts that are wide, but with narrow cuffs and high-collared coats. An image that immediately pops into my mind is that guy from Pride and Prejudice, whatever his name was. The women also have a belted dress, like the Kandori, but their dress is belted at the waist with the chest area often having embroidery of flowers on it. A favored design is to have slashes of colors in the skirts.   Shienaran woman   I think if you were to look at the descriptions and compare them to the fashions found in various historical periods, you might just be able to find the sources of inspiration.

This is the 111th episode of The 4th Age Podcast, in which we continue our read-through of Towers of Midnight with Chapters 8-12. Your hosts for this episode are Andrew, Virginia, and Spencer. Chapter 8 – The Seven-Striped Lass Chapter 9 – Blood in the Air Chapter 10 – After the Taint Chapter 11 – An Unexpected Letter Chapter 12 – An Empty Ink Bottle Warning: SPOILER ALERT! (This episode, like most of our talks, is chock full of spoilers if you haven’t read Towers of Midnight yet!) Be sure to check out Dragonmount.com for forums, comments, and all the latest news in the Wheel of Time world. ATTENTION! THERE ARE NOTHING BUT TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT SPOILERS in this podcast! Also, spoilers on ALL the other books are VERY likely! If you haven’t read all the way through the Wheel of Time, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS of all the previous books! There may be spoilers of other book series, TV series, and movies as well, too, or anything ELSE we can think of in the known and unknown universe. We will try to give warning. We can make no guarantees, however. Hosts: Andrew, Virginia, and Spencer. Editor for this episode: Richard F. Download this Episode now Notes and Addendum: Contact us about the podcast anytime at podcast@dragonmount.com. If you don’t hear from one of us in a day or two, please try again. Normally one or more of us will respond immediately, but if the RW is being difficult, sometimes we do miss things. A HUGE thanks to all our editors, past and present, from all of us here at Dragonmount! We couldn’t make this happen without your help and technical expertise. We are usually in need of editing help, so please, contact Andrew or Virginia at podcast@dragonmount.com if you are interested in volunteering. We aren’t formally holding auditions for podcast co-hosts at this time, but if you are really up on the Wheel of Time and related trivia (or if you just plain know more than we do, LOL), and you love to geek out discussing it, send us an email and a sample mp3 and we’ll give it a listen. In anticipation of future needs, we would like to be prepared, so meet us on the virtual Field of Merrilor and we’ll see what transpires! Music by: Josh Needleman. His website is at www.joshneedleman.net and he has the music available to hear on his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/joshneedleman. Its title is Floodgate. Thanks, Josh! Download this Episode now

Orbit Books, which produces Robert Jordan's books in the United Kingdom, Australia, and other locations, released their cover for A Memory of Light. Click here, or on the image shown for a larger version.  In addition to the cover, Orbit released the text that will appear on the hardcover jacket: And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again, that the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and the green things failed, and hope died.’ From Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon. In the Field of Merrilor the rulers of the nations gather to join behind Rand al’Thor, or to stop him from his plan to break the seals on the Dark One’s prison – which may be a sign of his madness, or the last hope of humankind. Egwene, the Amyrlin Seat, leans toward the former. In Andor, the Trollocs seize Caemlyn. In the wolf dream, Perrin Aybara battles Slayer. Approaching Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon plans to visit his wife Tuon, now Fortuona, Empress of the Seanchan. All humanity is in peril – and the outcome will be decided in Shayol Ghul itself. The Wheel is turning, and the Age is coming to its end. The Last Battle will determine the fate of the world.. For twenty years The Wheel of Time has enthralled more than forty million readers in over thirty-two languages. A MEMORY OF LIGHT brings this majestic fantasy creation to its richly satisfying conclusion.  Working from notes and partials left by Robert Jordan when he died in 2007, and consulting with Jordan’s widow, who edited all of Jordan’s books, established fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson has recreated the vision Jordan left behind. A Memory of Light will be published on January 8, 2013 in hardcover and audiobook. The eBook will be published on April 9. Links and other info: Read the opening portion of the AMOL prologue. AMOL info page. Discuss A Memory of Light on our forums. Please consider pre-ordering the book through one of our international Amazon affiliates, and help support our website.    

It's time for another weekly roundup!  Let's see what's going on in our forums. I think it's safe to say that Wheel of Time references can seem very strange to the uninitiated.  Despite this, it's often hard to turn off the part of our brains that thinks about things in a Wheel of Time context.  Embarrassing hijinks may ensue as a result.  What embarrassing things have you done as a result of this series?  Drop by the General Wheel of Time Discussion forum and let us know. Diablo 3 was recently released, so for all you gamers out there who want someone to obsess with when you aren't playing the game, we have just the thread for you in our Movies and Games Discussion forum.  Do you like the game, or does it fail to meet your expectations?    The Aiel Social Group recently released the Spring Edition of their newsletter, The Dedicated Spear.  It's chock full of cool features and information. The Kin Social Group is doing a post card swap for May.  It's still not too late to participate, so hurry on down so you can participate in one of their most popular exchanges. Yet another Social Group has put up a recent newsletter for your enjoyment.  Check out the Wolfkin Social Group's May edition of PawPrints! I've always enjoyed reading role plays of the Accepted test Arches.  The latest one I've seen, A Trip Inside Herself, is well-written and entertaining.  Take a look at it if you're looking for a good read. Until next time, everyone!

This week, I had the privilege of interviewing Matt Nicholson of Dim Horizon Studio. Matt and his wife Nicole are the driving force behind this ingenious photography studio, which hooked up with some incredible cosplayers for JordanCon this year in order to bring The Wheel of TIme to life in the backwoods of the Southeastern U.S.   The full gallery for the promotional photo shoot can be found here.   Perrin, modeled by John F. Strangeway (and Odin!)       Q: You were the photographer on the JordanCon shoot, right?   A: That I was! Dim Horizon Studio was contacted months prior to JordanCon 2012 with the idea to host a large photo shoot with a collection of local talent specifically for the JordanCon 2012 art show and convention promotion.     Q: Do you do all the photography for Dim Horizon Studio?   A: Dim Horizon Studio began in 2002 as a creative outlet for me and throughout the years has grown into a husband-wife duo set on tackling our clients’ photography needs with our creative style & vision. We do bring in additional talent from time to time, but primarily it's myself (Matthew Nicholson & Nicole Nicholson).     Q: Have you been a photographer your whole life?   A: I’ve been involved in a myriad of creative pursuits my entire life. From mineral specimen hunting to a dabble in video game design, I’ve done a little bit of everything but settled on photography in 2002 as it enabled me to capture as well as express the world as I see it.     Q: When did you know you wanted to pursue it as a career?   A: In roughly 2008, I incorporated Dim Horizon Studio, as the demands for my services started to branch out from servicing a close circle of friends to quite a wide audience. It was a big choice at the time, as it inspired me to truly take my work to the next level and transition from more of a hobbyist mentality to a true profession.     A Maiden of the Spear, modeled by Paige Gardner Smith       Q: What inspired you to focus on cosplay?   A: We truly focus on creatively addressing the needs of our clients. This lends us to be closely involved in the cosplay / prop production community as their skills enable us to tell rich stories while focusing on their talents in costume design & construction. While there are quite a few companies that may specialize in a more documentation-oriented photography, we aim to take it all to the next level and do more than just capture a good costume--we want to communicate a strong story as well.     Q: How did you get involved with JordanCon?   A: We’ve had the pleasure of working with quite a few of the individuals intimately related to JordanCon. Dim Horizon Studio as a whole bases its business model around supporting locals (specifically in the southeastern USA) as well as supporting our growing network of clients. In the end, one of our clients (Cliff Tunnell) suggested diving into hosting a large shoot for JordanCon and we couldn’t pass the opportunity up!   Rand, modeled by Paul Bielaczyc. The coat had sleeves at the beginning of the shoot!       Q: Are you a big fan of The Wheel of Time?   A: Comically, I’ve never actually read any of the Wheel of Time books but it’s certainly now on my MUST READ list. As a photographer in this community, I get challenged often to try to portray a clients’ character that I may have had no exposure to. We always try to do a little research beforehand and, while it does help, there is always some level of my own personal style or take integrated into the session based upon what I do (or in some cases don’t) know.     Q: Did the models make their own costumes?   A: Yes, each of the models made their own costumes. We had quite a bit of talent on set that day, and here’s a laundry list of where you might find them. · Cliff Tunnell – Talented Gentleman behind Steampunk Ash · James Atkins – Actor/Costumer/Family Man (IMDb profile) · Paul Bielaczyc – Creative Mind behind Aradani Studios · John F. Strangeway – Media Dept. Head at Penny Dreadful Productions · Odin – Dog of the Day!     Q: How did you (the studio and the models) find each other?   A: We find most of our models through our network of professionals and/or messages through our Facebook page or our contact page. For other projects, we occasionally make announcements through our Facebook page on where to access our casting calls. We also use networking sites such as Model Mayhem to specifically target a look or concept. For this specific project, we’ve worked quite a bit with all of the talent previously, with the exception of Paul. We do have quite a bit of plans for collaboration in the future with him, though!     Q: Are they affiliated with the studio?   A: Only as our client. They each have all sorts of talent to offer the community, and if you have any questions you should definitely reach out to each of them in turn!   Mats, modeled by James Atkins (left) and Cliff Tunnell (right). I guess you can never have too many!     By a serendipitious twist of fate, Tor.com just featured Dim Horizon Studio on Wednesday. Check out their article here for more photos from the shoot!