What are LOTRO Deeds?

When I play RPGs, I am the most helpful person around. An NPC wants me to find his lost pig (seriously, there is a lost pig quest in LOTRO), then I am their man. No job too small, no reward too inconsequential. That said, often these types of quests are often what you at a low level while you are waiting to be able to actually fight someone or something worthwhile. The LOTRO Deeds circumvent this by giving an overarching purpose to these quests. When you undertake a quest to help out people in an area, like The Shire, you can find that you discover a new Deed. Normally completing a Deed will involve visiting a number of places in LOTRO, or killing a certain number of enemies (Wolf Slayer, for example), or by completing a certain number of quests that help people out. By completing these quests you get a plus to your Compassion "Trait", a Virtue Trait, which has a tangible benefit to your character.You can have multiple LOTRO Deeds ongoing at the same time and there are masses of possible deeds in each area, so they also serve to adding a purpose to some mindless grinding. You're not just killing slugs, you're aiming for that all important Slug Squisher title.You can open the Deed Log by clicking on any of the ongoing Deeds icons on the right of the screen, or by clicking on the Deed log icon fourth from the left at the bottom of the screen. There is no keyboard shortcut for some reason.