MattTheLegoman

Gundabad

(But I haven't finished off the impassibility  )

C₂H₅OH Ethanol is what we are talking about. It has a deadly ethereal smell to it. It is volatile, flammable, and colourless. Outside of your body it is antiseptic. Inside it is a psychoactive drug and a neurotoxin. Also it is an Adenosinergic, antagonist to the mind, and an enzyme inhibitor.
Its better uses are in thermometers, as a solvent and a fuel. It is produced through either through hydration of ethylene or fermenting sugars with yeast.

Medical
Psychoactive drugs have an aggressive action on the GABA receptors of the brain. The GABA receptors inhibit violent behaviour; ethanol stops them and makes a person’s behaviour increasingly violent.
It is metabolizes as an energy.
Science 2012
Benefits, yes, they are induced by the same amount of dosage as the correct amount of whitetail spider venom can be used to treat cancer.
James Cook University, Norelle Daly
South American Pit Viper venom treats high blood pressure better than ethanol. Drinking water is a sure way of lowering your blood pressure. – see Reduce social anxiety
John R. Vane
Cancer
Low ethanol consumption
Stimulant to brain and then it acts in reverse. It is a biphasic drug. And a toxin.
Cancer of mouth, oesophagus, pharynx, larynx, breast, colorectal, liver, lung, stomach
(curry can combat liver diseases from alcohol, New Scientist 2003)
Increases recurrence of past cancers
Malignant tumours on skin
Poor coordination, memory loss, cognitive impairment and blurred vision
Medium ethanol consumption
Cancer of gallbladder, endometrial, ovarian, prostate, intestine
Vomiting, coma
High intake
Causes intoxication and death though respiratory failure
Reduces risk
Lymphoma and kidney cancer
I did not include low risks or cases where ethanol combined with other toxins cause cancer
New Scientist, Article, Glossary: Drugs and Alcohol, 2006
Brain
Does not kill brain cells, only damages their branches, which is irreparable.
Also irreversibly dilates how much calcium gets into the brain, which disrupts normal brain functions.
Ethanol reacts with the fatty acids in the brain and slows down the brain. You will be thinking at a very slow rate, and it takes a while for the brain to repair itself and never fully heals. However the good news is that you need to be intoxicated for this to happen. Full intoxication leads to the brain stopping altogether.
Ethanol has many other permanent effects, but these take a longer time to develop. These are disturbances in sleep patterns, personality changes and mood disorders including depression or sever anxiety. See Helps insomnia, Improve sociability
Science 2009
Reduction in dementia was only shown to occur when they made two categories for dementia, normal dementia which is deterioration due to advanced age and alcohol dementia. Ethanol will slow down the advanced age dementia but it is the only cause for alcohol dementia.
Science 2011
Arthritis
Mice have are immune to most types of Arthritis to begin with. Mice were given a type of collagen to ensure arthritis. 100% mice drinking water got it, 60% of mice drinking 10% ethanol in their drinking water got it. We know in humans that ethanol depresses the immune system.
New Scientist 2006
Heart
Small part of population, less than a hundredth of a percent (I did not have time to figure out how to make that stat useful), the 396 people were chosen for the chance that they might have this gene, only 2-3 people had it.
Study showed that the enzyme reduces ethanol’s ways of destroying the heart. The enzyme metabolises ethanol slowly.
New Scientist 2000
Body Mass
Weight loss reduces desire for alcohol.
The fact that alcohol converts into sugars for energy might have started this myth. It does inhibit all other forms of metabolism, and increases the desire in your brain for food.
Other Drinks
Caffeine, loose skin and joints, and makes it easier to damage blood vessels.
Sarah Kerrigan, forensic toxicologist
Babies
The deleterious effects of ethanol on the developing human brain (in babies) are poorly understood.
However we do know that
During a period of six months of gestation to several years after birth, ethanol exposure can delete millions of neurons from the developing brain. This can explain the reduced brain mass and neurobehavioral disturbances associated with human foetal alcohol syndrome.
Social
Oh I am sure we are not talking about at-risk, alcohol abuse and dependence
Abuse costs 11,000 social, 4,500 suffering
If you think you do not abuse alcohol then you are only part of a quarter of the drinkers
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing
This is only because it slows down brain functions
Reduce social anxiety – Causes hypertension, when the blood enters the bloodstream (which it is quick at doing) it interferes with the transport of oxygen and nutrients, forcing the heart to pump quicker. Hypertension increases overreacting and stress which you are powerless against its rising.
Improve sociability – this is due to loss of inhabitations, no mental focus, clumsiness, slurred speech and slow reflexes. Causes mild euphoria, happiness and gives you energy. Sure, you have the ability to jump off buildings and survive; of course the only way you would be jumping off buildings like superman is after consuming ethanol.
Helps insomnia – causes strokes, memory loss – due to the fact that it decays your brain. Do you not recall that I stated earlier.
Sex - Ethanol increases feelings of Sexual Deprivation; Ethanol will act as its own reward
Science March, She Said No, Pass Me a Beer
Friendship – A good friend accepts you, is trustworthy, attentive and adaptable, fun, unique, interesting, honest and supportive. Ethanol gives none of those and rather gives you a speedy death. It increases aggression, decreases inhabitation, increases health problems, and decreases attentiveness, decreasing your ability to have safe fun, and the only part where you can be interesting and supportive is on a psychoactive level, as ethanol is a psychoactive drug.
Go ahead, tell them about the all the good things that ethanol can bring.

Well, fan-fiction of the highest regard is there.

If anybody asks me for a story about the Fourth Age I will tell them about The New Shadow and also this.

It needs a good looking map, but you've good the camera down to a fine art. Also - when did Golem get buff?

Well as Jeremy Clarkson would say. How hard could it be.

What with Dancing Lawn and Glasswater Cove

Continuing on with How to improve your own maps.
Here are some examples of points of interest from Cair Paravel. Ideally you would have points of interest central on your map.
Silly - I wonder who decided to organise those leaves?

Random Fact of Nature - It is well known that the tallest object will get hit by lightning during a storm. I often find massive trees while walking in the bush in Australia. They are from an age past and are giants, or at least were, they are now grey and leafless.

Personal - I had a picnic here once, really. And we swung off the log into the cold pool below.
Always in my maps I have somewhere I connect to, and can recall. For example, when I was asked to make the terrain of City of the Dead better I made it so it reminded me of caving in Eneabba.




Finally, and this is to do with places based on real life or movies or artworks, get it as close to the original as allowed.
This type of Point of Interest wasn't possible for Cair Paravel, sorry.

But I hope this helps.

His face, it looks a bit 'queer', ha ha ha ha (reminds me of a friend). The clothing is fabulous!

P.S. Its that smile...

I have made some high rez Minas Ithil banners too that I should put up. I use Inkscape, which is easier to make vectors with.

These I think are the female icons however? Male would be a lozengle shape (square diamond). But I cannot remember what shape an Elvish house would have.

These are pretty good. Thanks for sharing.

It reminds me of the Dragon from Sleeping Beauty (don't critisize me for watching it ).
I really like it though

Maleficent is recognised as one of the best looking dragons ever.

So I have completed Barad-dur, the Tower of Darkness. Thisgreat tower was Sauron’s main stronghold of the 3rd Age. After the siege ofDol-Guldur by the White Council to stop the Necromancer’s gathering of evil, hefled and dwelt in the semi-constructed Barad-dur. By the time of the War of theRing, Barad-dur was completed.

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I will be taking a small break at mapping, will be painting some miniatures (Fountain Guard of Minas Ithil and Earnur, it's not like I ever stop designing).

Mount Gundabad will be next (its not a fortress map however, you can't actually enter Mount Gundabad).