M Helsdon

There's a black galley in The Eleven Lights.

And the average SIZ is? [If the unicorn is supposed to be larger than a standard horse, I can simply put the components together with a less reduced in size unicorn...] Any sword or long dagger is on her right hip. Her war belt is supporting the quiver, the pouch and her other weapon.

In the copy of the Bestiary I have... Unicorn: SIZ 2D6+18 Average 26 [Even if the 2D6+18 is in error, the average is still smaller than an average standard horse and I determined the size by comparing it with drawings of Seredae.] Maybe it's been updated. I haven't had a notification that the PDF has been changed... Afraid this image is only 2D.

Finished (deliberating if the unicorn is large enough, but they are smaller than horses).

Yet very early outlines for a Glorantha wargame did. Yet Yelmalio has the Kuschile horse archery association, as does Elmal. Yelmalio was also associated with the Sun Dome chariot regiment destroyed in the Dragonkill. Being unable to access that game, unsure how canonical it is.

Arthritis still a pain (feel like one of the undead for much of the day, having upped the painkillers) but still working... Progress so far, from rough to latest (not yet finished). Need to finish the shading and then join up with the unicorn. Realised that as unicorns are smaller than horses, her other foot might show, so prepared for this.

Much of that is perhaps due to most of the available information on Yelmalio being filtered through the Praxian Sun Dome, whose horses have been extinct for centuries due to the hostility of the Animal Nomads. Even so, Yelmalio has retained geases related to horses. In the Guide, in Saird, Yelmalio seems to have a relationship with Redaylda and her husband Hyalor at Mirin's Cross.

Probably due to geography and the start-point at the Dawn. The Pelorian basin is very large, and whilst the four major river systems provide a means of transport, there were a variety of different and isolated populations at the Dawn. In the God Time, whilst there was a central Solar civilization, it wasn't the sole culture, and it fragmented during and after the Gods War, leaving survivors scattered across a wide area, and some of those survivors were very distinct from one another. Add in migrations into the basin before and during Time, and the succession of imperial powers, it results in a fragmented cultural map. The Lunar Empire, with its slogan 'We are all Us' attempts to unify and impose a high level of syncretism between these divergent strains to create a new Pelorian culture.

Thank you. Unfortunately completion will take a while as my arthritis has flared up again.

Unicorn reprise.

Slavery in Glorantha definitely exists, and is of economic importance to the city of Slavewall, and to the Lunar Empire. After considerable thought, given that slave-taking and other plundering is mentioned in the book, I decided it should be (relatively tamely) depicted - it isn't nice, it isn't condoned, but if you adventure in a Bronze Age world then there's going to be some culture shock, and instead of the usual fantasy art clichés about pretty slaves, it seemed wise to show that it is a nasty ugly business dealing in human misery for profit. The Slavewall Regiment is also described as being known for its slave-taking. The young woman, is, by what is left of her garb and jewelry, probably a wealthy Sartarite, and the picture should be a reason for all red-blooded Orlanthi (male and female) to hate the regiment... Unfortunately, on my laptop, the balance/colour saturation looks okay, but on my desktop with its better screen, it doesn't; I intend reworking the picture tomorrow. Afraid I'm not good enough at sketching to depict a non-human expression. Thank you. The canonical description shared with me mentions the veil - in combat they only show their faces to those they give a mercy killing. I believe this may turn up as a miniature... It does, and perhaps they were? The face is derived from a Renaissance painting, and whilst 'odd' I liked it. The mane is intended to be erect, a bit like a zebra's mane, but the experimentation doesn't work, for the reason noted above. Carefully read the RQ Bestiary description and that in the RQ Companion before starting the sketch. If there's time to rework the picture, will share it tomorrow. May redraw the face...

And the one 'finished' today.

Part of the next sketch. Had a drawing by Da Vinci and a painting by a Renaissance artist I can't identify in front of me when sketching this. It is in part a counterpart to the earlier demon 'black horse'. A bit experimental - attempting to draw a white creature without outlining it in black. Tomorrow will start on his rider. Mane requires more work... The previous drawing was intended to shock - it isn't PC, but then war isn't. It was 'part of life' in the Bronze and Iron Age that women and children would be seized as slaves; this is also recorded in the Iliad, where the Trojan women are simply part of the loot (and the tablets recovered from Mycenae record the slave women working in the manufactories by nationality). In Classical Greece, it was normal behavior when a town or city was captured to enslave the women; the men were often killed outright or sent to the mines (and the latter would have short brutal lives ahead of them). The Hittites and Assyrians often deported populations, but didn't kill them outright, instead settling them on land to make it more productive, and ensured their usefulness by moving them into unfamiliar territory (the Assyrians only turned really nasty when a subject people/city reneged on their earlier oaths). The Assyrians also had the policy of inducting defeated enemy soldiers into their army as auxiliaries, not killing them all as the Greeks often did. In Glorantha, the multinational nature of the Lunar Army demonstrates a similar policy.

No, that would be the maximum size of such a sword. The measurements were of terrestrial broadswords.

"Broadswords"? If you mean a sword with a blade between 75cm and 90cm, then yes. There were long-leafed Bronze Age swords of that length, and certainly in the Iron Age, though most were less than 80cm. The Mindelheim sword, which was probably a high status cavalry weapon, had a blade (including tang) of about 83cm. It's an example of a long-leafed sword. A while ago, with input from Jeff, I attempted to classify swords.... These are all derived from real-world swords.

If shortened, it becomes a short sword with a long hilt... I suspect that training with a longer spear won't easily give you familiarity with a cut-down spear with a foot-long blade - weight, balance etc. will be very different. Most Orlanthi (at least Sartarite/Heortlander) swords are leaf-shaped (very similar I'm told to Urnfield/La Tène/Halstatt swords, to which the xiphos is probably related). Western swords tend to be more straight (similar to Warring States Chinese swords, I'm told).

An iklwa tends to have a two-foot long shaft, in addition to the foot-long blade, and so whilst ideal as a thrusting spear in a phalanx if the primary spear/pike is broken/lost, it's not going to be an easy item for a Yelmalion phalangite to carry and deploy in the press of a pike phalanx. They'd either have to carry it suspended on their back, so not easy to access, or from a belt, and then it becomes a trip hazard, much like a sword (which isn't a short sword or dagger). Historically, hoplites and phalangites seem to have carried either a small kopis or xiphos, as a practical secondary. The xiphos was a leaf-shaped short sword, and so, in Gloranthan terms, a common Orlanthi design, which most Yelmalions in Prax and Dragon Pass will be familiar with. > the front rank dropped thier pikes and draw Iklwas they could probably destroy an opposing Phalanx. If they were opposing another phalanx armed with pikes they'd not close with the enemy; if the opposing phalanx were armed with one-handed long spears, they might have an advantage, but then again, with a reduced reach, probably not.

These are the basis of the design of the towers Sartar and his descendants built.

Illustrating one of the uglier sides of Bronze/Iron Age warfare... This one illustrates a section about plunder and loot. [Sanitized version]

Working on the current sketch. Starting to plan the next... But: Does anyone have any canonical information about these regiments please? Hell Sisters - wear skins and furs. Blessed Daughters - female archers. Flowers of Death – mixed unit? Moon Arrow – all female light cavalry? Wing Temple Yalamese Bell Temple Green Bows - mixed male/female Sairdite archers? I have 'some' information about some of these, expanded with assumptions. For example: Bell Temple Type Heavy Cavalry Armor Bronze breastplate, helmet Weapons Long spear, broadsword, round shield Morale Regular 4 Patron Deity Redaylda Notes Supported by the Bell Temple. Magic Factor Medium 5 Missile Factor 0 Melee Factor 5 The city of Filichet on the shores of Lake Invaress is famed for its Great Earth Temple known as the Bell Temple. The temple was built in the late Second Age around 1041, at the site where the sacred Golden Stallion ended his progess. There, the priestesses built a temple to Redaylda Holaya, the Red Woman, which they claimed as their own and to which they brought the Helmet of Perides[1], later claimed by Hwarin Dalthippa. The tunics and helmet decorations of the regiment are green. The regiment was at the Battle of Dangerford in 1625. [1] A fragmentary text suggests this was the First Age Vanchite King Periades, who fought in the Battle of Night and Day. Latest figure in the small versions. Illustration figure has a different right arm...

It does. We (and the imaginary Gloranthans) see the gods through the lens of mythology, and just as Xenophanes viewed that the Greeks portrayed their gods with human characteristics, because the Greeks are human, there's likely to be a very great deal of projection by Gloranthans, when their gods are imagined to have human characteristics. Instead, different cultures and cults latch onto a particular view of a deity, but like the blind men trying to describe an elephant by touch, they are only perceiving a limited and truncated version of the deity. Greg once said, I believe, that there aren't as many gods in Glorantha as people assume, and I suspect its because the gods, like the nature of God Time are beyond the understanding of mortals. The God Learners manipulated myths, but because they were working from invalid assumptions, eventually their attempt to order and control reality sprang back and... no more God Learners. The EWF were similarly working from an incomplete apprehension of draconic forces, and eventually they all died. The Lunars seem to be doing something similar, recreating a new goddess from incomplete fragments of old ones, and the first indication that their project was having unintended consequences was when their construct returned, tainted with Chaos - it won't end well...

Props for the next one.

The Lunar Army List indicates which use kopis swords, and there are four or five listed as using sickle-swords (varieties of moonswords, khopesh etc.), but I believe it would be a mistake to assume a uniformity of arms and armor beyond basic definitions. In the ancient period, what an individual carried as their secondary weapon, depended more upon choice than any uniformity or regimentation. You have to get to the late Republican Romans before there's a uniformity of equipment (and we have texts where soldiers are reported as moaning that their helmet or armor doesn't fit (some workshops seem to have manufactured them to small, medium and large templates), and the Roman Army isn't a good fit for any Gloranthan force). In Glorantha, in this period, I suspect the only units that are uniform in arms and armor probably consist of Iron Dwarves. So in a given regiment, you might find numerous types of kopis, of different weights and curves, and even where the kopis is the 'standard' some will carry other types of sword instead - even straight swords (a short straight sword is very practical for close-in fighting in a phalanx when your spear has broken, and there isn't room to swing a sword), or a sickle-sword, in a non Lunar regiment where the officers are initiates or more of Yanafal Tarnils and will probably carry a curved sword of some description. [Spent the evening roughing out the next one, which will be a bit complicated and so may take a week to complete. Illustrating the initial section about plunder. Two figures: one happily displaying his loot. It will be a bit grim: taken note of the earlier comment about war being nasty, brutish and inhumane.]

And the pretty much finished article beside the rough sketch.

-ling/-ing: It's Old English - follower of. Very common in Glorantha (Heortling etc.) probably dating to Greg's fascination with the Angles and Saxons.