M Helsdon

Latest. Can't get the shading on the shield arm right, so will have another go this evening when I work on the skin tones again.

Here's the entire Cataphract chapter - one of the very short chapters - tracing the development of Western heavy cavalry through about 15 centuries. Roughly half are 'historical', the rest modern. I hope tomorrow to start on the last four 'scheduled' sketches, and after that see how many more are needed to banish the Great White Space.

Another filler. A Medallion of the Sigil of Zzabur This symbol and its variants are one of the most common found in Glorantha, spread by the Middle Sea Empire in the Second Age. It is said that Zzabur initially used this sign as his personal insignia, but later released it to be used first by the zzaburi and later the other castes. The number five is important in Malkioni numerology, and the sigil is a five-pointed star or pentacle inside a circle. Each point of the star is associated with one of the Elements, and the center is often occupied by the Law or Man Rune. The number five also signifies the Man Rune, and various systems connect this Rune with the five senses, the four limbs and head, stages of consciousness, modes of experience, and Elemental origins. The circle signifies the number zero, also important in Malkioni numerology, and the Cosmic Egg which contained all potential within itself. Arrows connecting the points of the stars trace the cosmological progression of the Elements: Darkness, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, whilst their progression around the circle trace their Elemental superiority. Many people carry small medallions depicting the Sigil, often with their own name or symbol inscribed in the center, though copies bearing the Man Rune are popular. In Seshnela these will be made of the metal now associated with their caste, so horali will bear pendants made of molded bronze. This example was excavated at the site of Segurane III.

My artwork is, of course, not canonical, but uses illustrations in canonical sources as a starting point. For the West, as Sir Godspeed notes, I tend towards the various Persian Empires, from the Achaemenids to the Sassanids, the Bactrians and Indo-Greeks as a starting point, though for some details I use the Near East. The West certainly has 'knights', but that term describes a cavalryman, and more specifically a noble cavalryman. There's evidence that the Persian 'knights' had their own version of chivalry and heraldry, and a tradition of noble youths being trained within the retinue of a 'knight' but the details are very sparse, and of course these weren't the familiar medieval European chivalry and heraldry... However, wherever you have similar social and martial societies, there are going to be similarities. But: my assessment isn't canonical.

More swords (fillers). Not much free time for sketching today.

It is because of attraction. Obviously an expression of Uleria.

Working on the Armies & Enemies sequel, the draft continues to grow, as more sketches and more text is added. 164 pages (sans index), 120K words. It may seem odd in a book about warfare, but have found it necessary to delve into the cultures, religions, and histories. Although I didn't originally like Seshnela and its fundamentalist Rokari, I now find them interesting, and the tangled tapestry of Ralios, and especially Safelster fascinating. Loskalm, in Fronela is obviously an idealistic utopia in the process of unraveling, and I suspect the reason why Zzabur wanted to sink it... Even the appendix, originally half a page on Western sorcery has grown into a (short) chapter. BUT: The one thing I really wish I had more information about is the Western Script. As always in Glorantha, you can't fully 'get' the culture unless you know something of the religions, and for the West, the written script is fundamental. I have four more sketches 'scheduled', which means I always planned to do them. Then I have to work through and identify where there are too many pages of unbroken text (setting a limit at roughly four) and then which chapters have more than a quarter page of white space at the end, requiring more art. One benefit of the 'style' used in Armies & Enemies and this companion volume is that it uses the artifice of being written centuries or millennia later, so it can debate with itself, offer information and say the source is dubious, and, of course not pretend to be canonical.

Latest. I may alter some of the shading. The horse was sketched before the recent arthritic flareup... This 'completes' the History of Cataphracts chapter...

Latest. May need more work on contrast. And another sword.

It's a Daron; I may be drawing them too large, but am assuming war horses will be towards the upper range in size and strength.

Latest. Added: horse without rider - I knew some of the 'blanket' would be hidden, but drew it anyway - supposed to show a scene from Jonat's Saga.

To understand the Bright Empire, you have to know something of the Feldichi, and the ruins and mechanisms they left behind, mysterious, wondrous magical devices, which became the basis of the Bright Empire. Of course in the Third Age no one knows much about the Feldichi, but it is likely their devices cursed both them and ultimately those who used their knowledge. One of their devices, from which Nysalor was born, was the Pseudocosmic Egg - and its name should serve as a warning of what it really was...

Actual swords for the Swords of Central Genertela thread...

The thing to focus on is that the majority inhabitants of Glorantha would know far less about their world than we do, if we've read the Glorantha Sourcebook, glanced through the Guide, or real one of the rulebooks. So, as has been said, you can either start in one small corner, and gradually work outwards - literally staying in a clan's lands first, or, the other approach is to have player characters who are themselves new to wherever they are, even of another culture and trying to fit in, so they don't need to know very much as first (though this means that you have to simplify the family history). Outlanders might be refugee hunter/gatherers, Wolf Pirates who want to stay on land (and the Wolf Pirates at this time aren't just from Ygg's Islands, but Westerners, perhaps even Orlanthi from Fronela, for example, and the latter would have some gods in common with the people in Dragon Pass, but not quite of the same culture). If you use outlanders, you don't have to worry too much about getting them exactly right; no one in your campaign is likely to go back and visit their homes, and their homeland is unlikely to be heavily developed for some time. It can be, though you have to choose how to do it. However, if you want to start small, best to avoid high level sword and sorcery, but something more like Conan's early career, where he's an outlander, but not yet a war leader.

I have received an update today (the size of the book and being in Word makes it a challenge) and work is ongoing. Hopefully it will be available some time this summer.

DriveThruRPG are selling several Jonstown Compendium titles with 25% off. Including: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/296535/The-Armies-and-Enemies-of-Dragon-Pass?src=hottest_filtered

8-) Yes, I'd seen your reconstruction (turned up in a search on Persian armor some time ago); my suspicion is that it is a variant of the neck protectors used by various steppe/Persian cavalry of different varieties. Despite there being a few descriptions and reliefs depicting Persian armor, I suspect that many griva-pan were similar. I am tending to use ancient Persian/Bactrian armor as a reference for Seshnela.

One thing to bear in mind that there is probably a large troll realm out on the ice, of which the Blue Moon plateau is a mere outlier.

Whilst Mongoose have a deserved reputation for a general lack of proofreading, when I tried to read their (grits teeth) Elfs volume, the weird spelling made the book almost unreadable, even though it was well written.

Latest. On the whole, War Society regiments aren't as well equipped as the 'knights', so this cataphract has vambraces and greaves instead of the 'hooped' arm and leg armor.

Hmm, I seem to have used knee-protectors only once and that sketch is in Armies and Enemies. More recently - a rider with half articulated armor (sadly hidden behind the leg protectors in the final picture), three-quarter articulated armor worn by a Castle Coast noble, and 'full' articulated hoops.

So far as I know (and I haven't got my books here), finds of actual ancient cataphract armor are very rare, and we have more examples of the horse armor than that of the rider. Most reliefs and graffiti from the actual period is very difficult to interpret. Like an awful lot about the ancient world, where we think we know a great deal as a result of modern illustrations, the opposite is true, and there's very little in the way of finds that provide definitive information. Here's the Balustrade Relief of the temple of Athena Polias Nikephoros at Pergamum, which shows arm manica, and two Sassanid depictions. About the best sources we have.

Thank you - my reading suggests there were several styles of segmented articulated arm and leg armor - some almost fully enclosing the arm and leg, some only partially, towards the front or only where the limb would be exposed. In the photographs of the reconstruction, the maker has had to get around the problem that the segmented armor was inherently 'stiff', limiting movement in the arms and legs, by splitting it into upper and lower leg bands, with a separate piece protecting the knee. Whilst the form shown permits greater movement (and I think I've drawn something similar in one sketch) it was also much more vulnerable - a greater chance of the wearer being hamstrung behind the knee, or a blade slipping in under the knee protector and, well, it would not be pretty... In drawing cataphracts I believe I have used three or four different styles. The maker of the reconstruction has probably had to compromise in order to have a reasonable range of movement. In Men of the West, in different chapters: The armor worn by the rider is usually a form of scale or lamellar armor sufficiently flexible to give the rider and mount a good degree of motion in using a lance or kontos, but strong enough to survive the shock of a charge into an enemy formation. -------------------------- Horsemen may wear a bronze or cuir boilli short scale hauberk or a two piece bronze breastplate, a skirt of scale armor, with their arms and legs covered in bronze plates, either as hooped articulated manica or as hooped splints, or leather covered with fine scale reaching to the wrists or ankles with the heaviest entirely covering the hands and feet, with the neck protected with a gorget of riveted plates. Some may adopt very fine scale-covered gauntlets (of dwarven manufacture) and greaves. Those of great wealth may own fabulously expensive chainmail made by the dwarves. One drawback of the articulated armor is that whilst it provides a high degree of protection, it is also fairly inflexible. This matters little for the legs, used to grip and guide the horse, but the manica worn on the arms restricts movement to such a degree that whilst the wearer can hold and use a lance or kontos, they will be clumsy and slow when using a sword or mace.

Safelstran Fortress Barge The fortress barges are exceptionally large, consisting of at least two broad beamed hulls lashed securely together to form a stable platform[1], with the deck railings removed and a joint plank deck added. This is raised above the rowing benches to leave space for the oarsmen and to give room for them to row. Each of the wide hulls carries as many as ninety oarsmen, up to forty-five a side. The design is similar to the large cargo barges used on the lake; those rely more on their sail than their rowers, unless a cargo must be rapidly transported. A multi-story square or rectangular siege tower or turret shaped like a truncated pyramid is then erected, each story smaller than the one below. This has a timber frame, sometimes wooden walls, often clad in thick hide either kept wet or treated with sorcery to prevent it being set afire, or thin bronze plates, with the weight kept to a minimum so that the tower can be tall enough to assault defenses, by ramps dropped down on the battlements, and to permit missiles and magic to be cast into the interior of the fortification. Portholes permit crossbows and long spears to be deployed from inside. The towers are usually mounted in the center of the barge, meaning that if boarding ramps are fitted, they are arrayed at the sides so that the vessel must come alongside a wall to deploy them. The hinged gangways have hooks at the end to latch onto the defenses and hold the barge firm, as the fighters disembark. The ramps are kept up when making the approach, acting as doors behind which the troops waiting to immediately sally forth shelter. [1] Some of the battle-barges of the Middle Sea Empire were also dual- or triple-hulled; it is unknown if the smaller Safelstran fortress barges were inspired by these, or are a separate development. ------------------ Spent the day cutting hedges... so this isn't exactly detailed.

It's possible, given that New Malkonwal may not have been very far away before it vanished.