Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog! Obviously the greatest thing about Dragonmount is the opportunity to be a member of such an incredible community of Wheel of Time enthusiasts. Everyone here loves Robert Jordan's books, stories, characters, and world--be they new readers just starting out in the journey of following the adventures of Rand, Perrin, Mat and others, or long time readers who might be on their second or third re-read or more who can theorize and debate minute details of the plot. Every so often, a member of the community here comes up with something that is really special, be that an idea or thought which sparks a truly interesting debate, or a contribution to the ever growing collection of resources which can be found across the internet for following and understanding the epic scale world which Jordan created. In recent weeks, that happened here on Dragonmount in our Wheel of Time Discussion section. Dragonmount member Dakaran created a topic on character mapping the various people a reader of the series meets along the way. As he explains in his opening post: And here is the character map Dakaran created, and boy is it impressive! (Click here to see the full scale image) Let's hope he continues adding to it all the way to the end of the series and it becomes a real hit resource on the web. Personally, I think he is on to something with this. That's all for now! Have fun! Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog! Remember a while back I posted an article about where you could buy a heron marked blade online? Well, just recently, one was brought to my attention which takes my breath away! Here is the link. It was custom made to specification by Brendan Olszowy and advertised on his website, called Fable Blades. Brendan doesn't replicate these; every item he makes is custom. That sword though, is, I think, by far the nicest take on a heron marked katana I've seen. Possibly one of the nicest swords I have seen, full stop. It's just exquisite. The website has a large gallery of his other work, including several weapons from The Lord of the Rings and other fiction, as well as some historical swords and weapons. It's well worth perusing and if you have the cash, then this guy can do some serious work. That's all for now! Have fun! Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog! You may or may not be aware that one of my major hobbies is board gaming. I believe I have previously written articles on a couple of my favorite board games. I would like to interject here and say that there is an excellent website where you can get information on a huge variety of games, including detailed ratings which tell you how the game plays so that you can decide if it likely something you would enjoy before you buy! It is called Board Game Geek. Let me reiterate that when I speak of board games, I don’t mean Monopoly and the like. No, no, no. The beauty of real board gaming is that there is a whole world of games out there, different types of game, be they deep strategy or hilariously fun. And many of them have a variety of themes, settings or inspiration. I would like to suggest a few games for you to look into. There is an excellent board game based on A Game of Thrones, of the same name. It is based on a system you may recognize--if you are into older strategy games--called Diplomacy. What is great about it is that it is a strategy game which does not involve dice! So it is almost totally down to you how you fare in-game. It also does a really excellent job of capturing the feel of George R R Martin’s epic series of political intrigue and the character of the world of Westeros. It is produced by a company called Fantasy Flight Games who are an excellent producer of board games--in fact, they are my favorite and are hugely popular. I have never bought a game by them which I did not thoroughly enjoy. Here is a link to the Board Game Geek page for this game. There is also a Wheel of Time Collectible Card Game (CCG) produced by a company called Precedence Publishing. I don’t particularly have experience with their games and am not a fan of CCG’s (not that they are bad; they are hugely popular) so I can’t vouch for it but considering this is a Wheel of Time fan site I thought it best to include it here! Here’s the Board Game Geek page. If you like gaming, why not try one of these out? I’ll bring other games to your attention in the future. If you haven’t really tried these kinds of board games before, why not give one a go? What do you have to lose?! That's all for now! Have fun! Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog! As I sit here writing this, I am watching the World Cup semi-final but I thought I would take a few moments to introduce you to an area of our wonderful website here at Dragonmount which you may not yet have explored and which may prove to be of use and a lot of fun. Have you noticed the lovely pictures that everyone has at the end of their posts on our forums? These are known as signatures, and are one of the main ways that we can stamp a little bit of individuality on our posts as well as advertise part of our personality, a position we hold on Dragonmount, or a group we are part of. There are a couple of ways to get one of these signatures (or more than one), and one of them is the feature of Dragonmount I want to highlight--our signature requests board. Here, you can request talented and skilled individuals to make a signature to your specifications, or you can choose some that they have already made, and ask permission to wear them. Before you do so, make sure you read the pinned threads on how you should proceed. Hopefully someone will respond quickly and make you a lovely shiny signature to wear with pride! The same pinned threads explain exactly how you can add them to your posts. There's also the signature playground, where you can look at ones already made and ask if you may use them. There are a lot of nice ones there and if the creator is feeling kind, they may even tweak and modify them for you. Otherwise, many people like to make them themselves with artwork they find online. This is fun and satisfying and it's fairly easy to learn how to make simple ones; and who knows, you may find you have a talent for it and become one of our dedicated signature makers as well. One of the best programs to use (in my opinion at least) is Adobe Photoshop. If that is out of your budget, however, never fear! For years I have used a free version called GIMP (Generic Image Manipulation Program) to make mine. If you have any familiarity with Photoshop then you will find that GIMP works almost exactly the same. Make sure you look at the same pinned threads in the signature board as they also have the rules and guidelines for signatures if you're going to dabble in making them yourself! I hope you find the solution to all your signature wearing needs, express yourselves, and make our boards that bit more colorful! That's all for now! Have fun! Until next time, friends!

Hello, friends! The Wheel has turned all the way around to Thursday again, which means two things: the weekend is not too far away, and it's time for our Rotating Features blog! If, like me, you are a lover of sports, then I hope you are enjoying what is proving to be a very exciting and unpredictable FIFA World Cup this year! It has been great; we have seen the defending champions go out in the group stages--as well as England, but I expected no less--and we have also seen teams like Belgium and Colombia progress well. Personally I'm supporting Colombia now. It's been an exciting one too because with the quarter finals and semi finals and the final still to go, there have already been more goals than the entire 2010 World Cup! Whether World Cup fever has you or not, there is certainly no escaping it. Perhaps that is what inspired Spanish designer Nerea Palacios, who is possibly not enjoying the World Cup as much as I am, but who must also be a Game of Thrones lover to design football (or soccer, depending where you are from) kits for the various houses of Westeros! It doesn't get any better than this! I can satiate my nerdy side and normal side all at once! Without further ado, here they are! Personally, I like Baratheon and the Nights Watch. Could possibly go for Targaryen. I would absolutely love for these to be made so I could buy them and wear them when I play, which is usually twice a week! Of course this all begs the question--who would win the Westeros Cup? And who would make the team of each house? Drop a comment below, or discuss with your friends over a nice beer! That's all for now! Have fun! Until next time, friends!