M Helsdon

The benefits are: cheaper, lighter, and more comfortable in hot or cold conditions. Just redrew one of my sketches...

Today's rework. [Since this was posted minor modifications made to the sarissa. Did deliberate showing the whole thing, but it would make the sketch at least twice as tall, and the picture sits below a text box.]

Thank you. Latest reworking.

Latest redrawn. Not perfect, but a little better; delayed by an arthritic nodule on my hand and other things... New/Old

Whilst the Praxian tribes and their herds migrate due to food supply and tribal dominance, the Pentans, who have a much more severe climate, will have to migrate, because herds of horses, cattle, goat, sheep have different tolerances to heavy snow.

Extracts from The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass [non-canonical]. There's more. Flax grows in a wide range of environments and climates, so long as there is adequate water. Its fibers are woven to make linen which is used to make clothes, tents, sails, and armor. The fibers of the flax plant are obtained by separating out the components of the stem, to remove the outer casing and the inner wooden core by immersing the stems in water, drying and then working them with hammers to break them up. The bundles of usable fibers are removed and combed over a spiked board, then spun into thread using a spindle. Finally, the threads are woven into linen on a frame. Spinning and weaving are laborious and time-consuming processes. The resulting linen is tan, khaki or brown in color. It can be bleached to become light grey or white by rubbing it with natron or potash, washed, beaten and then placed to bleach in the sun. As linen is resistant to dyeing, the outer layer of linen armor is often personalized with a colored trim, embroidery, or painted designs. Dyed and painted colors tend to wash or flake off; a richly decorated piece is either new or belongs to a wealthy individual able to afford its maintenance. Linen armor often consists of laminated layers of linen, using glue derived from animal hide with small quantities of vinegar and salt added to inhibit mold. The pieces are saturated with the glue and one piece is placed on top of the other, and left to dry; the process being repeated to add successive layers. Between ten and twenty layers, depending on thickness, can be laminated together to a maximum total thickness of 15mm. Only the outermost layer need be bleached. Linen linothorax armor is made to a basic design, with the fit modified by adjusting the side ties and how the shoulder-flaps are attached at the front. Unlike metal corselets, a linothorax can be easily altered to fit the wearer over time, or to be worn by someone else of only approximately the same size. Linen does not stretch or deform when wet, whether from rain, immersion in water, or the wearer’s sweat – the fibers also become stronger, but will degrade over time. The glue, however, is more vulnerable, being soluble in water. this can be ameliorated if the layers are sewn together, or if beeswax is lightly applied as a waterproofing agent. Quilted: wool or cotton crammed between two layers of linen sewn together provides some protection from blunt trauma but little from penetrating attacks. A thick padding of unspun cotton is more effective. A quilting pattern serves to compress the surface area, bunching the fibers of the stuffing into a denser mass. Linothorax: torso armor composed of layers of linen fabric or leather laminated or sewn together, often over a leather or felt cloth. Some corselets include a thin layer of metal for additional protection around the waist or chest, or are reinforced by a sheet of scale. The torso piece is laced together on the left-hand side; this is the weakest point but will be protected by the wearer’s shield. This armor is resistant to broad-headed arrows and slashing weapons, and can provide better protection than a bronze cuirass. It is also easier to repair than metal, as dented and deformed linen can be easily pushed back, when similar damage to metal armor requires a smith and their forge. Shorter linothorax armor is worn by riders, relying upon pteruges to protect the abdomen and groin, but even a full-length piece permits the wearer a wide range of movement. ------------------------------ I found Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax by Gregory S. Aldrete, Scott M. Bartell and Alicia Aldrete very informative. Their reconstructions and tests included finding how many layers were practical. I know that there's some controversy over their assumptions, but their methods are workable. There's also debate about whether the armor identified as linothorax is really a spolas, but there's also a debate over whether spolas was actually armor. Given that all examples of ancient linothorax will have long rotted away, it is something we will never know, unless a new text describing the manufacture of linothorax is found, and the ancients tended not to write about 'what everyone knows'. Cotton was virtually unknown in the ancient Near East, but was used to make fairly effective armor in Mesoamerica. In Glorantha, of course, it seems likely that it grows and is used in Peloria.

I've always suspected that, like the Jolanti, they are dwarven stone constructs, and some went feral.

Interesting: my fan book doesn't cover Kralorela, but if there's ever a second volume covering the East (and maybe the West) will have to remember that. As I understand it, Western Gloranthan swords are more like those of the Warring States Period than any European model. Looking through the sources I gathered when considering an Eastern expansion, one says that the laminated swords employed bronze with a high tin content for the edges and bronze with lower tin content for the spine to give a sharper more flexible sword. They were made by using two molds - first a smaller one for the core, and then when cool this was placed in a larger mold with room for the edges, probably supported/embedded in wax and the higher tin content bronze poured in. Not entirely sure how they ensured the metals bonded. Whilst I can claim to know a little bit about Near Eastern/European warfare of the Bronze/Iron Age (but by no means expert) my knowledge of Chinese warfare is considerably less. Yesterday, a friend shared a Chinese animation with me depicting different periods of warfare, and I was astonished to see cavalry armed with long-hafted dagger-axes. Agreed, instead for bronze, annealing can be used to harden a blade, but beyond a certain point it can weaken it, so it is reliant upon the skill and judgement of the smith as quenching it to cool it quickly can be disastrous. The edges, as I understand it, are sometimes very carefully 'forged' (as in heated and smoothed) to make them thinner after removing flash, and then cold hammered, with the final step being carefully grinding and polishing using disk or rod-shaped stones, using charcoal dust and clay paste. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/science-update/nuclear-physics-unveils-secrets-bronze-age-sword The manufacture of bronze and iron swords get roughly a quarter, and a half a page in the 'book', with three different methods of making an iron sword described (one guaranteed to make a poor but relatively cheap blade that will eventually either bend or snap).

Wait for the surviving Humakti who placed their Gifts on it to come looking for you. And if you kill them, you lose their Gifts.

Unless you know how the analogues were handled, you can't really start to think about in-world magic, and then you are pretty much limited to hand waving about rituals and sorcery. I haven't looked into terrestrial alchemy (long after the Bronze or Iron Age periods of interest) and it's more a late Classical fantasy, and remain unconvinced by the 'Baghdad/Parthian batteries' - no ancient electroplated objects have ever been found, and the objects claimed to be electroplated have been found to be the result of mundane fire/wash-gilding using mercury.

Not the same, but in many cases, close analogues. Smiths in Glorantha appear to use recognizable tools, so bronze working is probably almost identical; iron is more problematic, but the rarity of blacksmiths compared with redsmiths suggests it requires more complex techniques (and different rituals of course). I believe that Jeff has said that making bronze from copper and tin is not uncommon, and it replicates the union of Earth and Sky. Brass, of course, is the mixing of sullied Sky with Earth, as in Lodril and his offspring embedding themselves into the body of Earth. Gloranthan Brass and Bronze otherwise appear to be virtually the same.

Latest. The earlier one used one of Kalin's illustrations as a cheat.

A cast iron sword would be very brittle, unless you have access to technological processes unavailable in the Iron Age. Iron was certainly cast, and the oldest cast iron objects date back to around the 5th century BC, but weapons were made using wrought iron. The highly quality steel you seem to be referring to might be known to the dwarves, but I strongly suspect that no humans in Glorantha have the knowledge or technological/magical infrastructure to handle it. My interest is purely fixed in Bronze and Iron Age technologies and capabilities - not hi-tech. That's very common - the same error occurs in Game of Thrones and the director admits it isn't realistic, but was used because it looks 'good'. Making a usable iron sword takes time and effort, and whilst the process can be very cinematic, many directors don't have the patience. If I recall correctly, it was one of the few good things in the most recent Conan movie.

Ingrew is mentioned in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, and still canonical, so far as I am aware.

Iron needs to be heated to different temperatures to be suitable for particular uses. I'm sure that's in Weyland the Smith. Bronze does not. The manufacture of bronze and iron swords is very different; you could make an iron sword in the same way as a bronze sword, but I wouldn't bet your life on it in combat. Very likely. However, there's a significant technological gap between a basic fairly short spear blade and a sword sufficiently resilient to be used in combat for any length of time.

Most Lunar, Pelandan and Dara Happan heavy infantry regiments fight in phalanxes, albeit more like the Macedonian than the Classical Greek in that they are divided into 'companies' and are not a civilian militia (though only Sun Dome Templars fight as phalangites); Provincial regiments fight either as phalanxes or shield walls. I suspect that those carrying kopis swords only use them either when their primary weapon is broken, perhaps when their formation is broken when fighting becomes a general free-for-all, and perhaps when engaged in activities when their primary weapons aren't suitable. And even then, if 'kopis' is listed as their secondary weapon, I'd hazard that most also carry a long dagger, not only as the original multitool, but to be used in the press of a phalanx or shield wall when they main weapon is broken or lost. Roman warfare post their use of equivalents of phalanxes or shield-walls doesn't seem to map very well onto Gloranthan warfare, with the possible exception of Humakti heavy infantry who are equipped with a throwing spear and sword. But even then, they aren't in cohorts or triplex acies. In Apple Lane and Return to Apple Lane, Piku the smith can work iron (and other metals). The trick, I believe, is to use real world information in such a way that it augments rather than destroys the 'sense of wonder'. For example, real world iron changes color at different temperatures significantly more than, say, bronze. If this is true in Glorantha, instead of being a matter of chemistry and physics, it's an indicator that iron is an artificial metal manufactured through dwarven alchemy...

Steel requires carbon... If the carbon content is too low or too high, then the resulting material is unsuitable for sword making. This is why from very early on, smiths used pattern welding to obtain an 'average' that wasn't too high or too high - and even then the sword might prove unsuitable. Thank you for this admission. Sadly, there are times when digging too far into Glorantha often results in destroying it, much as that adventurer Schliemann severely damaged the site of Troy digging right through the level he wanted, and in the process made an enormous trench wrecking the archaeology of the site for all time.

In the real world, kopis swords were very popular 'chopping' swords and Xenophon recommends them for use from horseback. For infantry, the straight xiphos was more popular, based upon depictions on pottery etc. and a short thrusting weapon would be more versatile and useful in a phalanx if your spear had broken. As for '300' - arrrghhhh! Awful movie. I know. There are Legions in Glorantha, but they aren't Roman legions with their formations. I suspect that many Lunar units (but not all) carry kopis due to the mythological/ideological requirement for a curved blade. Haven't been able to work out exactly how they fight with them in close order combat. Here's my analysis of central Genertelan swords...

Carbon isn't an impurity. Given the relatively few Roman swords that survived into the archaeological record, and the lack of marks to indicate where they were forged, it isn't possible to make such sweeping generalizations. Many Roman (and Etruscan, Greek etc.) swords were of relatively high quality, but that's due to how the swords were manufactured (such as pattern welding). The TEB can work iron (blacksmithing is a very rare skill in Glorantha) but I am not aware that they could ever manufacture iron.

Latest redrawing - ten more I'd like to do of which two I must do...

And sadly mostly irrelevant for the real world production of Iron Age swords, where techniques were used to overcome the imprecise quality of steel incorporated into iron swords because there was no way even a highly skilled smith could determine accurately the chemical composition of their iron as they forged it. Iron in Glorantha is either obtained by trade with the dwarves or in locations where Iron Dwarves or iron constructs died in great numbers, and the latter can be mined but invariably is finite, with the mine being exhausted. The Steel Sword Legion dates back to Second Age Fronela. The regiment entered Lunar service after the defeat of the Carmanian Empire. The falcata is almost identical to varieties of kopis - even the name of the falcata is a 'modern' 19th century invention. They share very similar characteristics, and it is unknown if they are the outcome of parallel 'evolution' in the western and eastern Mediterranean at around the same time, or were introduced from one to the other. In Glorantha, the kopis was introduced to Peloria by the Pentan nomads, and is now one of the most popular sword types there. The khopesh is certainly present as well, as a variety of the Lunar 'sickle' swords, some of which look like sickles and some don't.

My (probably non-canonical) assumption is that steel is highly refined (and attuned) iron, subject to secret processes involving heating the iron using charcoal as part of the rituals. We are told that 'Iron has supernatural properties even when left unenchanted. When enchanted, iron weapons are tempered into steel.' [Sources: Elder Secrets and a preview of the RQ:G GM's Book.] However, for the Steel Sword Legion's swords to be so special they must be particularly high quality steel so the dwarves can manufacture steel far superior to that of human blacksmiths. Certainly other humans have steel, but it simply isn't as good - otherwise the Legion could replace lost swords. [There might be a magical reason why new swords can't be recruited into the Legion - perhaps their swords also remain effective so long as every member of the Temple of the Steel Sword carries an original sword.] Historically, terrestrial iron and steel weapons were of very great variability - the worst iron swords weren't as good as a bronze sword - but very early on methods of creating steel, or at least creating a partially steel sword were known, or at least achieved, often using pattern welding. This required laborious and skilled processes, and probably contributed to the mystique of the smith. As to when it was invented - I can only assume at around the time iron was created. Humans have never obtained the full secrets of the dwarven smiths. I also have suspicions about the source of the charcoal dwarves use...

According to the sources, this is what makes them very special: They are armed with steel weapons made by the dwarves of Nida; their swords are irreplaceable, so the regiment has been shrinking over time as individual weapons are lost. It now numbers approximately eight hundred legionaries. Dwarven iron/steel weapons are far superior to anything human blacksmiths can make.

Latest sketch redone. From left to right: new; version three months ago (figure too stocky, shield too Roman); version six months ago. Slowly working towards where I was thirty years ago (some examples).

Latest redrawing - some modifications required. Greaves need more shading; shield not right. Sometimes things aren't apparent until the sketch is scanned... Reworked version added.