So, what or who is Lothruin, anyway? Let's take a look.

What is Lothruin?
Lothruin is a Quenya (that's the language of the elves in Middle Earth,) word that means Red-flame Flower.

Who is Lothruin?
Lothruin is the internet nickname of Melissa Rotert

How did Melissa Rotert get to be Lothruin?
Well, this one is a little trickier. You see, back in the "old days" of the internet, before the world wide web, there were text-based online role-playing games called MUSH's and MUD's. In order to participate, one had to create a character, give it a name and description, etc. One such MUSH was called Elendil and was set in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth. As a younger girl, Melissa often enjoyed playing these games, geek that she was. The character she created for the Elendil MUSH was a red-headed elf, and she decided to browse the Quenya-English dictionary appendix in one of her Tolkien novels for a suitable name. Lothruin is what she came up with. Ever since that time, Melissa has used the name at nearly every online account for which she's ever registered.

But why has Lothruin stuck with her?
Well, initially it was for one very simple reason: No one had ever chosen the name before her. There were no numbers after her name to identify her out of the hundreds of other users. She never had to go back and choose a new name because someone had already chosen the one she wanted. It was very easy. But then, once she becamse Lothruin at Yahoo, she realized that probably no one ever WOULD chose Lothruin except her. It's a rare thing on the world wide web to have a personality so very much all to one's self, and Melissa rather liked it. She's been Lothruin ever since, and a quick search on google will show almost exclusively pages associated with something she's written.

Lothruin.com appears to be only a portal to other websites designed by or about Melissa. Why bother?
Grabbing up Lothruin.com was only the most recent step in ensuring her online presence would remain intact. Not only that, but she really enjoyed the idea of having a "Lothruin family of websites". While Lothruin.com is primarily a portal to other websites Melissa is involved with, it gives her a centralized location for information just like what you're reading here. And, she really liked the idea of a "Lothruin family of websites". Did I mention the family of websites part? Ooh, it just sounds so nifty!