Kinships vary in size and goals. Some enjoy joining a game and rushing strait to the end, but there are those who enjoy the journey more than the destination. I recently had the opportunity to interview Grimlod Gravebow the leader of the Silent Guard on Landroval server. The Silent Guard is without a doubt one of those Kinships that enjoys the journey and the company of good friends along the way. The Silent Guard has a very active leadership and is a smaller Kinship of role-players, but that gives them the advantage of knowing their members on a more personal level.

Martuk: First let me thank you for taking the time for this interview.

Grimlod Gravebow: Not at all. Thank you for interviewing me.

Martuk: Please introduce yourself and your Kinship for our readers.

Grimlod Gravebow: Well, my name is Scott, and I play as Bogo or Grimlod. LOTRO was my first MMO and I have been playing since December. The Silent Guard was formed near the end of June, but I have started about 3 or 4 kinships in Lord of the Rings. We play on the Landroval server, because we love role-playing.

Martuk: What type of Kinship are you? Role-play, raiding, family oriented, or a combination?

Grimlod Gravebow: We are a combination of role-play and family-type aspect. Most of our members are too low for raiding, but that is a possibility in the future.

Martuk:
Do you have a specific role-play theme for the Silent Guard?

Grimlod Gravebow:
Not exactly, we try to unite all the races to fight against the "shadow in the east"

Martuk:
That will certainly allow a multitude of personalities to grow.

Grimlod Gravebow:
It does make for interesting role-play

Martuk: One problem that plagues many Kinships is a lack of leadership participation. Can you tell us how the leadership is within the Silent Guard? Are they often available and active within the Kinship?

Grimlod Gravebow:
There are currently three officers. Myself, Jayna and Brandistoc. I would say that we are very active and very approachable. We are on often and are usually using the kinship chat or making silly jokes. We even stayed strong after one of the officers (my RL friend) quit LOTRO this week.

Martuk:
Great to hear you can keep things together after losing a valuable member.

Martuk:
Does your Kinship host any Kinship events for the members or that might be open to the public?

Grimlod Gravebow:
We have a kinship meeting every other Saturday. But it is encouraged for those interested in our kinship to join us. Also, every Tuesday we have Newbie Day. Which means that the higher leveled players help the lower leveled players with quests that they are having trouble with. or ones that are hard to find a fellowship for. But we are definitely looking forward to setting up a weekly public event.

Martuk:
That's great. It sounds like you have a Kinship of helpful and mature members.

Martuk:
How many people does Silent Guard currently have?

Grimlod Gravebow:
At the moment, we have 31 registered members on the site, but about 20 or so members in game. All mature players.

Martuk:
Can you tell us how a person wanting to join Silent Guard can do so and what sort of requirements you might be looking for in future members?

Grimlod Gravebow:
Well, the first step is to register on our website. (Which is http://silentguard.freehostia.com) We ask that you look over all of our information, and make sure that we are the kinship for you. Then there is an application sample on the site, that we require you to fill out. Then, if everything checks out, one of our officer's will contact you in-game and they will have a little chat with you, ask you how you play and such. In future members, we are looking for mature role-players, with respect for one another. We used to have an age restriction of 18+ but we removed it due to younger players being more mature than some of the older ones. *chuckles*

Martuk:
Sweet irony

Grimlod Gravebow:
Yeah, it happens

Martuk:
Thank you again for taking the time for this interview.

Kinships vary in size and type. There is something out there for everyone and each of our own individual play-styles have different needs. The Silent Company is great for the role-player looking for a home of mature members. I walked away from this interview knowing that the Silent Guard is a Kinship who enjoys the journey as well as the company of good friends and allies. Before we parted ways I asked Grimlod if he had anything he would like to say to the LOTRO community or his fellow members to which he replied...

Well, we just want to let the community know that we are here to help. We would love to ally with other like-minded kinships and share events and quests. We are not a kinship to fear, we are a kinship to love. So when you see one of our members in game, you can guarantee that if you say hello, they will have a good conversation with you *winks*- Grimlod

You can view thw Silent Guard Tentonhammer profile Here.

If The Silent Guard sounds like the Kinship for you visit them Here.

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