Hey everyone! In honor of "The Hobbit" which will be coming out this Friday, here's some more work that I did last year for Fantasy Flight Games.

This is once again from their "Lord of the Rings The Card Game" and specifically their "The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill" expansion. These two characters are Fili and Kili.

As you can tell, I've painted a lot of dwarves for them lol! By the way, if you're interested in the game here's a link:[link]

Minimalistic book cover/film poster for The Hobbit.

Smaug art is by J.R.R. Tolkien. Rest is by me. Texture is from [link]

A Game of Thrones LCG_The Stormlands
©FFG

Read this book and no longer will you be refered to as a bastard, peice of shit, terrible person, asshole, kunt, mother fucker, or any other names commony assoiciated with being a bad person.
---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------->>
Well, i made this because it seems that in our world today, somethings such as being a decent human being, not like a superior fantastic humanitarian, but something as simple a being decent is so hard for some people to comprehend. Though this isnt a real book I pray that most of you wouldnt need to read it anyhow. If you do, then talk to me, Ill instruct you personally. Hope the lot of you can appreciate this. Have a good one y'all!

Alatar - One of the original three Wizards selected by the Valar for the journey from Valinor to Middle-earth (the other two being Curumo and Olórin - Saruman and Gandalf). When these three had been chosen, Yavanna selected Aiwendil (later called Radagast) to join them, and Alatar selected his friend Pallando to travel with him into the Outer Lands.

Alatar and Pallando arrived in Middle-earth dressed in sea-blue. For this reason, they were together given the name Ithryn Luin, the Blue Wizards. With Saruman, they journeyed into the far east of Middle-earth, but while Saruman returned to the west, Alatar and Pallando did not. Of their fate, we know almost nothing2.

Pallando - A Maia of the people of Oromë and a friend to Alatar, Pallando was selected by the Valar as the last of the five beings to be sent eastward across the Great Sea to become Wizards. Alatar and Pallando were together known as the Ithryn Luin, the Blue Wizards. They wandered far from the northwestern shores of Middle-earth, exploring the distant eastern lands. Their fate is never told, but it seems that, like Saruman, they fell into darkness, and Tolkien hints that they were responsible for the founding of strange cults in distant lands.


Questions of Canon

It should be noted that all our information about the Blue Wizards come from sources of doubtful canonicity. Indeed, the name Alatar only appears on a page of notes quoted by Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales. Other (similarly rough) sources name 'Alatar' and his companion as Morinehtar and Rómestámo, and suggest that they arrived in Middle-earth long before the other Wizards, as early as the Second Age. In summary, the question of the two Wizards left unnamed in The Lord of the Rings doesn't seem to be one that Tolkien came close to resolving in any detail.


Notes

1. The name Alatar can be interpreted (somewhat awkwardly) as 'after-comer'. If this is correct, it may be a reference to his being selected as the second Wizard, after Curumo (Saruman). It might equally have been given to him after his arrival in Middle-earth (he was said to have arrived after Saruman), but Tolkien specifically states that neither Alatar nor Pallando had a name in the known regions of Middle-earth - in this case, Alatar must be viewed not so much as a name, but rather as a simple description.

Alternatively, Alatar's name might be connected to the Quenya alata, 'radiance'. If that's the case, it would have been his name in the West, rather than in Middle-earth, where we would expect him to have received a name in the Sindarin tongue.

If we assume that the Pallan- element in his name is related to the common palan-, meaning 'far' or 'distant', then Pallando can be interpreted as either 'Far(-travelling) One' or (much less likely) 'He who comes from afar'.


2. Tolkien tells us 'What success [Alatar and Pallando] had I do not know; but I fear they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were the founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.' (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No. 211).

playing with looks with the Game of Thrones game.

game by:
Silmarillion by: JRR Tolkien
pic by: me

A scene from Hamlet, if you have read it (and more importantly understood what you read) then I hope you know which scene this is. If you do know which scene it is tell me which one you think it is? (I'm keen to know if I succeeded in my design)

Although on that note I know I failed at incorporating a background (as we were supposed to think of the image as a whole in our design but I failed in that regard so I took my poor attempt at a background out in shame xD)

Fun fact, Hamlet was based in Scandinavia more specifically Denmark

Note: I will probably rework this design some more after I get some critique from my classmates so expect to see changes

Last of all is set the name of Melkor, He who arises in Might. But that name he forfeited; and the Noldor, who among the Elves suffered most from his malice, will not utter it, and they name him Morgoth, the Dark Enemy of the World. Great might was given to him by Ilúvatar, and he was coëval with Manwë. In the powers and knowledge of all the other Valar he had part, but he turned them to evil purposes, and squandered his strength in violence and tyranny.

...Among those of his servants that have names the greatest was that spirit whom the Eldar called Sauron, or Gorthaur the Cruel. In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aulë, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people. In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part, and was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself. But in after years he rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void...

playing with looks with the Game of Thrones game.

game by:
Silmarillion by: JRR Tolkien
pic by me

just playing with looks on the Game of Thrones game.

The Queens of the Valar (Valier)

l-r: Vana, Este, Yavanna, Varda, Nienna, Vaire and Nessa

game by:
Silmrillion by: JRR Tolkien
pic by me

When maybe a thousand years had passed, and the first shadow had fallen on Greenwood the Great, the Istari or Wizards appeared in Middle-earth. It was afterwards said that they came out of the far West and were messengers sent to contest the power of Sauron, and to unite all those who had the will to resist him; but they were forbidden to match his power with power, or to seek to dominate Elves or Men by force and fear.
They came therefore in the shape of Men, though they were never young and aged only slowly, and they had many powers of mind and hand. They revealed their true names to few,' but used such names as were given to them. The two highest of this order (of whom it is said there were five) were called by the Eldar Curunír, 'the Man of Skill', and Mithrandir, 'the Grey Pilgrim', but by Men in the North Saruman and Gandalf. Curunír journeyed often into the East, but dwelt at last in Isengard. Mithrandir was closest in friendship with the Eldar, and wandered mostly in the West and never made for himself any lasting abode.
(LOTR Appendix B)

Chief among them were those whom the Elves called Mithrandir and Curunír, but Men in the North named Gandalf and Saruman. Of these Curunír was the eldest and came first, and after him came Mithrandir and Radagast, and others of the Istari who went into the east of Middle-earth, and do not come into these tales. Radagast was the friend of all beasts and birds; but Curunír went most among Men, and he was subtle in speech and skilled in all the devices of smith-craft. Mithrandir was closest in counsel with Elrond and the Elves. He wandered far in the North and West and made never in any land any lasting abode; but Curunír journeyed into the East, and when he returned he dwelt at Orthanc in the Ring of Isengard, which the Númenóreans made in the days of their power.
(Silmarillion: Of the Rings of Power)


'What success [Alatar and Pallando] had I do not know; but I fear they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were the founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.' (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, No. 211).

playing with looks with the Game of Thrones game.

l-r: Alatar, Olorin (Gandalf), Curumo (Saruman), Aiwendil (Radagast) and Pallando

game by:
Silmarillion by: JRR Tolkien
pic by: me

Book cover design for polish edition of 'Skellig' (polish: 'Skrzydlak') by David Almond.

More at [link]