Real-world Inspirations

[mfbrandi]

This translation of the apotheosis of Pompey in Lucan’s Civil War (9.1-8):

——————————————————————
But his soul did not lie dead
in Egyptian embers.
Nor did meager ash
fetter his mighty shade:
he soared from the bone-fire,
leaving behind half-charred limbs and
demeaning pyre both:
he seeks the dome of the Thunderer
Where black sky
is pinned to star-laden poles, in the space
that spreads
between Earth and the looping moon, there
halfway to godhood dwell souls
uncorrupted by life, fitted
by fiery Virtue to bear
ether’s lowest limits:
later, drawn up as Spirit
they join eternal spheres.
Never do those coffined in gold
or interred with incense
enter there!

— Jane Wilson Joyce
——————————————————————

[pachristian]

I just had the pleasure of discovering Dan Davis's History videos on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@DanDavisHistory

I can't speak for his novels, but his neolithic and Bronze Age videos are highly recommended!

[mfbrandi]

Moon Hymn

I will give you one glimpse
a glimpse of the moon's grievance
whose appearance is all pocks and points
that look like frost-glints

I will wave my hand to her
in her first quarter
when the whole world is against her
shadowy exposure of her centre

o the moon loves to wander
I will go clockwise and stare
when she is huge when she is half elsewhere
half naked, in struggle with the air

and growing rounder and rounder
a pert peering creature
I love her sidling and awkward
when she's not quite circular

o criminal and ingrown
skinned animal o moon
carrying inside yourself your own
death's head, your dark one

why do you chop yourself away
piece by piece, to that final trace
of an outline of ice
on a cupful of space?

— Alice Oswald, from Woods etc. (Faber)

[Cassius]

This article about Empires of the Steppes: The Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilisation by Kenneth W Har : could be a source of inspiration for Pent horsemen and other ones.

Already seen on this forum : the beautiful and inspiring drawings of the French historian Jean-Claude Golvin.

 

A Mohawk couple by Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall (probably from The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival -- source). 

Who can they be in Glorantha ?

[Qizilbashwoman]

2 hours ago, Cassius said:

Already seen on this forum : the beautiful and inspiring drawings of the French historian Jean-Claude Golvin.

A Mohawk couple by Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall (probably from The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival -- source). 

Who can they be in Glorantha ?

The Ordeal of the Longhouse is a good choice if you are interested, because it's about what life was like for the Longhouse peoples. An alternative is a deep-dive into the prehistory of the longhouse societies of Northeast America/Canada, The Voice of the Dawn

My primary inspiration for the Kerofinela Orlanthi comes from this and works about non-urban premodern Armenian societies such as described for the Hemshin, who were described by Europeans as "gloomy Homerian Cimmerians"; a decent work is The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey. The Hemshin are also a longhouse people.

Photo: Hemshin residence

Edited August 10, 2023 by Qizilbashwoman

[Darius West]

On 3/27/2023 at 4:24 AM, Bill the barbarian said:

Militant Buddhism?

No, Jains practice increasingly extreme pacifism and extreme veganism.  As your ascetic practice develops you make a point of taking fewer and fewer lives.  Eventually you go naked but for a large broom that sweeps your way clear of small bugs and eat nothing but fruit that falls from trees lest you do the tree violence by picking the fruit.  You achieve enlightenment by dying at exactly the same moment you lose all desire to live.

Not so much Militant Buddhism as Chalana Arroy's "don't kill anything" taken to its logical extreme.

[Bill the barbarian]

12 hours ago, Darius West said:

Not so much Militant Buddhism as Chalana Arroy's "don't kill anything" taken to its logical extreme.

Oh sure, go and ruin a perfectly good joke with logic!!!
damn Lhankor Myan!
😝

[Darius West]

On 8/15/2023 at 2:07 AM, Bill the barbarian said:

Oh sure, go and ruin a perfectly good joke with logic!!!
damn Lhankor Myan!
😝

Nothing personal, its just I have actually made a study of militant Buddhism.

[Qizilbashwoman]

 

On 8/14/2023 at 12:04 AM, Darius West said:

No, Jains practice increasingly extreme pacifism and extreme veganism.  As your ascetic practice develops you make a point of taking fewer and fewer lives.  Eventually you go naked but for a large broom that sweeps your way clear of small bugs and eat nothing but fruit that falls from trees lest you do the tree violence by picking the fruit.  You achieve enlightenment by dying at exactly the same moment you lose all desire to live.

Not so much Militant Buddhism as Chalana Arroy's "don't kill anything" taken to its logical extreme.

one of my favorite books is Framing the Jina, which is about the role of images in Jainism: why worship images of the tirthankaras, who can't help you? What are the arguments for iconoclasm? What are the images like, how is gender portrayed if at all?

[svensson]

A model by B. Werner of the North Palace of the citadel of Masada.

 

[svensson]

The Ruins of Persepolis, by Tachar

[Qizilbashwoman]

monastery of saint catherine, the sinai, egypt, which has the oldest continuously-operating library in the world. it was build by 565 CE.

[Eagle Talon]

On 9/6/2023 at 8:36 PM, svensson said:

A model by B. Werner of the North Palace of the citadel of Masada.

 

That place looks perfect for a Dara Happan religious center. The top would be reserved for rituals to Yelm and other sky gods taking place at the mid-day's sun. 

[svensson]

An unknown artist's rendition of the Sumerian city of Uruk at it's height.

Second is a photo of the palace ruins.

 

[Revilo Divad Of Dyoll]

13 hours ago, svensson said:

An unknown artist's rendition of the Sumerian city of Uruk at it's height.

Second is a photo of the palace ruins.

"I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

[g33k]

It's not big on close-in details, but there's IMHO a great "broad perspective" available here:

https://tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl/index.html
 

[mfbrandi]

The Black Desert and hunting gazelle with “kites” — here or see open-access PDF below.

life in the black desert.pdf

[Ynneadwraith]

More aulos playing (catchy little tune as well). Aristophanes' The Frogs.

Also the absolute goldmine that is A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry (or ACOUP for short). Military Historian focussed on the Roman period running through all sorts of things relating to the ancient world, misconceptions about how we think about it, how it's presented in present day media, and a real focus on things like the daily lives of regular people in these times. He earnt his internet chops by being 'The Orc Logistics Guy' in his set of articles looking at Tolkien's treatment of the sieges of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith.

I can recommend:

The series on Practical Polytheism (for obvious reasons).

The Firemen Mirage series for cultural perceptions of the whole 'hard times create strong men, soft times create weak men' mess. Also has some great insights into what non-state warfare looked (and looks) like.

The Siege of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith series for insight into how series worked, and also a whole lot of insight into how armies moved around and some of the constraints placed on them. Also a good look at the critical importance of morale. There's a logistics series as well, which goes into more detail too.

The Dothraki Horde series for insights into how steppe nomadic cultures actually worked, and why the Dothraki are a catastrophic representation of them.

The How to Polis series for an understanding of how Greek city states actually function. There's another series on the Romans too, for a look at how the Roman model differed (and why it was so much more successful).

The Sparta series for how Sparta differed as a city state (and why the ways it differed made it truly awful).

There's absolutely loads more too. Things like looking into how different weapons and armour combinations actually worked in practice, and some good ones about different methods of creating armies. Absolute goldmine.

[Nozbat]

Excellent call @Ynneadwraith .. an interesting blog of a lot of mostly classical history. He also is keen on one of my favourite military historians, John Keegan.. so extra points for that

[Ynneadwraith]

On 1/5/2024 at 11:33 PM, Nozbat said:

Excellent call @Ynneadwraith .. an interesting blog of a lot of mostly classical history. He also is keen on one of my favourite military historians, John Keegan.. so extra points for that

Yeah it really is very good.

Some more neat things I've found while wandering around the web.

Ancient Tales of Chukotka is a neat compilation of lots of folklore from north-eastern Siberia, including quite a good description of who the Chukchi are as well. I feel like it would be good inspiration not just for a lot of the 'Big Myths' that Glorantha majors on, but also for a lot of the 'little myths' that should probably exist all over the place. Things like stories of regular folk outwitting murderous witches, or just having spiritual events happen to them. I like to think of them in a Gloranthan context as a thousand little 'mini Hero Cults' as someone from a cultural group doe something especially impressive and has their story retold until it becomes part of a clan's mythology.

Also generally, with most of the written action in Glorantha occurring in relatively temperate climes, there's a real itch to scratch for 'Gloranthan-Siberian' peoples living near and on Valind's glacier.

They also have some super-neat armour concepts:

[soltakss]

On 1/8/2024 at 2:54 PM, Ynneadwraith said:

Ancient Tales of Chukotka is a neat compilation of lots of folklore from north-eastern Siberia, including quite a good description of who the Chukchi are as well.

Thanks, I have downloaded this and it looks great.

[SMM]

This is on display in the Asia Gallery in the British Museum. Apologies for the reflections.

 

[Sir_Godspeed]

On 1/8/2024 at 3:54 PM, Ynneadwraith said:

Yeah it really is very good.

Some more neat things I've found while wandering around the web.

Ancient Tales of Chukotka is a neat compilation of lots of folklore from north-eastern Siberia, including quite a good description of who the Chukchi are as well. I feel like it would be good inspiration not just for a lot of the 'Big Myths' that Glorantha majors on, but also for a lot of the 'little myths' that should probably exist all over the place. Things like stories of regular folk outwitting murderous witches, or just having spiritual events happen to them. I like to think of them in a Gloranthan context as a thousand little 'mini Hero Cults' as someone from a cultural group doe something especially impressive and has their story retold until it becomes part of a clan's mythology.

Also generally, with most of the written action in Glorantha occurring in relatively temperate climes, there's a real itch to scratch for 'Gloranthan-Siberian' peoples living near and on Valind's glacier.

They also have some super-neat armour concepts:

This is great fodder for my entirely counter-canonical North Pentan Storm Muskox people.

[Ynneadwraith]

On 3/30/2024 at 1:05 PM, Sir_Godspeed said:

This is great fodder for my entirely counter-canonical North Pentan Storm Muskox people.

Glad it came in handy! 🙂 they're really neat little folklore tales