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Swords of Central Genertela


M Helsdon

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4 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I wonder how the sable riders avoid getting poked by their mounts' horns if they rear their heads.

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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1 hour ago, M Helsdon said:

He's a Black Horse of Ethilrist's Black Horse Troop.

[Using description in latest RQ Bestiary.]

Entirely congruent with the illustration in the Sourcebook, p209, if you're looking for further 'source' material :) I recognised it immediately!

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38 minutes ago, Oracle said:

As it should be ... 😉

Why can't demonic flesh eating horses from the underworld look cute and cuddly?😉

Little Shop of Horrors meets Mister Ed: "Feed me, Wilbur!"

Edited by Atgxtg
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Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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11 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

Rider next...

Regarding Sables - I suspect either the riders put corks or similar on the tips or trim them...

black horse FB.png

Very nice. There are numerous manifestations of Darkness ór Hell that might be added to individualize the "horses", and possibly wafts of Darkness emanating from them and alternating between other features and more horse-like ones.

I wonder whether you have taken the "fight like cats with bite and claw" a bit too literal with the feet. Cats' feet are part of the "spring" mechanism that is the entire feline body, 

The text says they have fierce claws like a cat instead of hoves. Making them cat-pawed is perhaps a bit too cute.

I wouldn't have them walk on the soles behind the claws like cats do. but rather sort of "knuckle" on the claws, leaving three-clawed knuckle imprints with two claws more mobile and not used to push the beast from the ground but to hook and rake opponents. Given their role as mounts, I don't think that diokos horses use the "rake victim with back claws while rolling on the ground" style much if at all. Pouncing a prey is somewhat hard with those stilt legs that makes them horse-like in appearance, too.

Do these horses wear their eternal snarl, showing the entirety of their impressive fangs with their double-scissor-like dentition that may cause wounds similar to a raptor's beak, or do they have retractable lips that allow them to cover some of it under normal conditions?

 

We know that these horses are carnivorous, and I guess that humanoids or similar ground-dwelling primates would be part of their natural prey, along with herd beasts like sheep. Not sure about how they would hunt larger herd beasts like cattle or bigger antelopes. Their attacks would probably still resemble those of rearing stallions, but with sharp raking claws rather than just blunt hooves, and the claws on the hind legs usable only on downed prey/foes. Diokos demons don't trample, they tear up.

They probably hunt in packs, using coordinated chases to isolate prey, take it down, then tear it up in a spectacular and grisly way, not bothering to kill the prey when they tear out flesh and juicy innards. The remains of their feasts aren't tidy at all, and probably provide a good meal for whichever scavengers go after the carrion, but only when the black horses are safely away.

Being underworld creatures, they probably feast on the fear and pain of their prey almost as much as on the bodily substance.

 When they have riders, the riders get to use lances and possibly missile weapons to increase the reach of the demon, and otherwise protect the neck, back and flanks of the team with hand weapons and shields as used by western mounted forces.

On the battlefield, they may reduce their feeding frenzy to taking coup, a nice mouthful of enemy flesh (whether mount or humanoid) en passant, mutilating whichever downed meat there is with their claws. Getting them to act as disciplined cavalry force is a proof of the extraordinary leadership abilities Ethilrist possesses, but having learned the efficiency of these, the diokos demons have adopted them, battling with their more bestial instincts on an individual base.

Telling how it is excessive verbis

 

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13 hours ago, Joerg said:

I wonder whether you have taken the "fight like cats with bite and claw" a bit too literal with the feet. Cats' feet are part of the "spring" mechanism that is the entire feline body, 

The text says they have fierce claws like a cat instead of hoves. Making them cat-pawed is perhaps a bit too cute.

I wouldn't have them walk on the soles behind the claws like cats do. but rather sort of "knuckle" on the claws, leaving three-clawed knuckle imprints with two claws more mobile and not used to push the beast from the ground but to hook and rake opponents. Given their role as mounts, I don't think that diokos horses use the "rake victim with back claws while rolling on the ground" style much if at all. Pouncing a prey is somewhat hard with those stilt legs that makes them horse-like in appearance, too.

The main 'design' thought was that lions and horses are, in Glorantha, I believe, Solar animals, and that if a horse were to become a carnivore it would develop some leonine attributes. The alternative, which I tried, was that the Black Horses in Hell 'devolved' towards their hippogriff ancestor, but eagle's feet didn't look very good on an animal that cannot fly.

The image has been 'liked' by Jeff and Steve Perrin made a positive comment, so if this were entirely wrong, I'd have expected those gentlemen to correct me. Whilst the original is pen-and-ink, I could have changed the feet.

[In addition to the illustrations in the Guide and Sourcebook, another design inspiration was Charles Stross' short novel Equoid which features

 

carnivorous 'unicorns'.

 

13 hours ago, Joerg said:

Do these horses wear their eternal snarl, showing the entirety of their impressive fangs with their double-scissor-like dentition that may cause wounds similar to a raptor's beak, or do they have retractable lips that allow them to cover some of it under normal conditions?

I don't know.

Why don't you get closer to their enclosure? Don't mind the barrier... Just don't get too close...

[Screams, chomping sounds.]

Oh dear, call Health & Safety. We've had another accident.

 

 

Edited by M Helsdon
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8 hours ago, Oracle said:

You're a mean guy ... 😎

The odd thing is that the (original) film and TV series were from the same time, yet the two styles/genres clash greatly. So it easy to visualize what the two would would be like if combined, and yet oh so wrong. 

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Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Horse and rider. Not quite finished - generated to check relative sizes and position. Black Horses are larger than ordinary horses... Size comparison check as well.

[This is an image size reduced version so a bit fuzzy.]

Hmm. Think I need to angle the girth strap forwards.

 

size comparison.png

Edited by M Helsdon
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On 1/18/2019 at 9:32 PM, M Helsdon said:

Regarding Sables - I suspect either the riders put corks or similar on the tips or trim them...

 

Makes sense. That being said, I suspect a RW culture would probably remove the horns entirely, as many cattle breeders have, as they don't really contribute much. Then again, they might've kept them if, say, removing the horns disrupted the mating process or something. In Glorantha, I suspect the rationale for keeping them would just be "that's how it's always been", followed by "something something myths".

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Just a quick sidenote - is it true what I've heard that most of the Black Horse Troop riders end up as food/victims of their own infernal horse after a while? I think I remember reading that somewhere, as a sort of "terrible price" for being a rider or something. Might be fan material.

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Today, I have a mystery.

Over the last two days, have drawn two sketches; one mostly worked (below, though it requires a little more digital modification) and the other did not, and will have to be redrawn. Both used this crosshatching technique using a 0.05mm pen, both on the same paper, but when scanned one looks mostly okay, and the other is an awful mess.

[With the one below, I messed up the shield and had to redraw it, and then mate it digitally; I find drawing an aspis shield very tricky even using French Curves...]

Standfast centurion annotated.png

Edited by M Helsdon
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Not many more to do...

Chapter

Number of sketches

Additional sketches

required

Introduction

0

0

Fundamentals of Warfare

4

1-2

Arms and Armor

10

1-2

Regional Warfare

20

1

The Battlefield

16

0

Transport and Mobility

0

0

Fortifications and Siege Warfare

1

0

Arcane Warfare  

3

0

Gods of War

0

0

Armies of Central Genertela

0

0

Hero Wars Army Lists

49 miniatures

 

Appendices

0

0

The question will then be - do I continue? Many units in the Army List not yet illustrated, but information about many is slim to none...

thirty smaller3.png

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