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Swords of Central Genertela


M Helsdon

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5 minutes ago, M Helsdon said:

Starting to think about the next set, but am stumped by a reference to 'Orian clothing' for one Lunar Minor Class. Obviously the costume of the cult of Oria, but I have no idea what this is. Can anyone help?

The word "matronly" comes to mind.

If it's a woman (which I assume to the reference to Oria) then maybe a large, decorated apron? Hair put up in some manner, befitting an adult, married woman engaged in serious work. Might have certain ritual accoutrements which are based off practical tools: keys, distaff (hence magic wand), basket/pot, etc.

If I'm way off, pardon me.

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2 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

The word "matronly" comes to mind

For Oria??? This is the land goddess of PelOria, first Genert's wife and currently Lodril's wife and a goddess of Fertility! At least for the goddess, think: full-figured, full-breasted, nude aside from decorative necklaces.  Unlike the stuffy Dara Happans, the Lodrili are usually seen as a boisterous, lusty folk.

That noted, the Orian look probably denotes a PelOrian look. Going by the Guide's notes on Pelorian clothing (p.39): Basic dress consists of a skirt, tunic, jacket, cloak or sleeved robe, and headdress.
Commoners have few pieces of clothing, and are restricted by neighborhood or occupation. Thus the farmers in one district of Raibanth all must wear dark brown skirts, light yellow shirts and cloaks, and red hats, and the same colors are forbidden to farmers of different districts of the city.
The skirts of half-citizens cannot extend below the knee and usually must be shorter. Witnesses, officers, and headmen have hemlines that are between the knee and the calf. More types of materials are permitted, but still regulated by law.
Nobles, priests, and their wives wear long robes and skirts that drag on the floor and must be carried over ground.

Edited by jajagappa
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1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

For Oria??? This is the land goddess of PelOria, first Genert's wife and currently Lodril's wife and a goddess of Fertility! At least for the goddess, think: full-figured, full-breasted, nude aside from decorative necklaces.  Unlike the stuffy Dara Happans, the Lodrili are usually seen as a boisterous, lusty folk.

I didn't mean to imply "stuffy", by "matron", but "woman in her prime age who is a head of a household". Sorry, I am aware that the term carries negative connotations in vernacular English.

Edited by Sir_Godspeed
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16 minutes ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

I didn't mean to imply "stuffy", by "matron", but "woman in her prime age who is a head of a household".

I think what I take with "matron" is less about "stuffy" but more generally of a woman past her prime (beyond childbearing/Fertility). 

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I have been looking at the Gods Wall illustration in the Guide and am tending towards something like Assyrian/Babylonian costume. The Pelorian culture illustration might also be a source.

Thank you both for your input. May start roughing something out at the weekend.

Additional: found a place for the latest sketch, which involved manipulating the captions of other sketches and... there's room for yet another one in that chapter. Checked the other chapters, and no caption changes have any impact on white space.

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Latest.

I have a mystery: on my laptop my layout looks fine; on my desktop the pagination goes awry. Word used on both. The only difference seems to be the laptop uses metric page size, the desktop imperial...

On to roughing out the next illustrations: Lunar Schools. 

vingan forum.png

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The latest (and for now, last) sketch added to the document.

Why are these in a fan book on Gloranthan warfare? These are all potential recruits for the Minor Class regiments.

If the information used is still canonical (it is about twenty years old, in a Greg document) then this serves (again) to illustrate the variation in the cultures and traditions that make up the Lunar Empire.

In my current layout, there's virtually no empty white space.

There are a few things I regret not drawing (such as a Carmanian cataphract or a cultures map) but at 382 pages (including index) it has now reached a milestone.

schools forum.png

Edited by M Helsdon
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  • 2 weeks later...

Currently proof-reading 'stuff'.

When I finish the second pass through the first volume, may take a break and do another sketch.

Proof-reading is hard, even when you are interested in what you are reading. Past experience tells me I can cover about forty pages a day before concentration wanders.

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A teacher once told me to read sentences backwards through the paragraphs, as that makes mistakes easier to spot. If you just read it in a linear fashion, it's easier to fall into the flow of the text and miss mistakes. I've only had mixed success with the method myself, but maybe it could help you.

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4 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

Currently proof-reading 'stuff'.

When I finish the second pass through the first volume, may take a break and do another sketch.

Proof-reading is hard, even when you are interested in what you are reading. Past experience tells me I can cover about forty pages a day before concentration wanders.

When proof-reading my own "stuff" I have a devil of a time getting away from reading what I meant to write, as opposed to what I actually put down on paper (or electrons).  I usually cannot edit effectively until 3+ months after I wrote.

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C'es ne pas un .sig

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18 hours ago, Sir_Godspeed said:

A teacher once told me to read sentences backwards through the paragraphs, as that makes mistakes easier to spot. If you just read it in a linear fashion, it's easier to fall into the flow of the text and miss mistakes. I've only had mixed success with the method myself, but maybe it could help you.

Am presently about a quarter way through a second pass of over 500 pages... Reading fairly normally, I can just about do forty pages a day. In the past, when reviewing documents this complex have either reread chapters in a random order or in reverse order. Not certain if will do a third pass without an updated copy...

17 hours ago, g33k said:

When proof-reading my own "stuff" I have a devil of a time getting away from reading what I meant to write, as opposed to what I actually put down on paper (or electrons).  I usually cannot edit effectively until 3+ months after I wrote.

True, though this isn't my own stuff.

In proofreading my fan book found loads of sillies, but generally a few months after writing those sections, so you do need to allow your memory to reset to a degree, so that you read what's there instead of what you thought you wrote. In the case of the fan book, given that it has been written over more than two years, sometimes unintended contradictions get in. It has been complicated a little by more canonical information becoming available over time in published and unpublished sources, and requiring adjustments.

The current exercise is about as complicated as the proofreading of the Guide to Glorantha, which should provide a clue of what it is... 

Edited by M Helsdon
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  • 2 weeks later...

Cataphract's horse drawn - next the rider...

To save space, the rider will be standing beside his horse, holding the reins. Wanted to show in more detail the sort of horned saddle heavy cavalry used prior to the introduction of stirrups.

Finished the second pass through about 700 pages a few days ago. Taking time off to do some sketching.

cataphract horse forum.png

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The White-Legs regiment from New Lolon in Vanch has not been mentioned in canon, so far as I am aware, but its origins date back to a very old Greg Stafford text relating to a board game: ‘White-legs painted themselves from the waist-down before a battle.’

Subsequently they appear in army lists as ‘medium infantry’ and in a document about the Provincial Army: Provincial, tradition native, 1000 soldiers, medium shield, linen cuirass, metal helm, spear, sword, white coloured trousers into battle.

Most recently, after going missing for several years, an old annotated army list has been unearthed, in which the White-Legs are heavy infantry, equipped with a linothorax cuirass, closed helmet, large shield, long spear, kopis, fighting in close order, drilled and ‘a native regiment of Vanch from the city of New Lolon, the White-legs paint themselves from the waist-down before a battle.’ This document gives their cult as Yelmalio, which isn’t surprising because Yelmalio has been the Light Protector of Lolon since the First Age.

This regiment obviously isn’t a Templar unit, as its troops are armed and armoured as hoplites, and they are clearly of a distinct tradition.

I have assumed that a solution of white clay or powdered chalk is used to paint their skin; limewater is too corrosive to be used as body paint but might be used to lighten hair, bleach linen and wash their shields.

Their lack abdomen and leg armour might be due to a regimental geas, but painting themselves and appearing to be naked from the waist down marks them as a distinct Yelmalion sect. Whilst their undress may seem surprising, it has terrestrial equivalents, both in Greek depictions of hoplites (where heroic nudity may or may not always be an artistic convention) and in descriptions of some hoplites, especially in the archaic period. For that matter, the Galatians often fought naked, even those serving in the Ptolemaic army.

The sketch shows a White-Leg wearing a white linothorax, what I term a Sairdite closed helmet, carrying a spear (his sword is on his left hip and not visible) and a shield where the black-painted rim is a Light Rune decorated with Truth Runes.

This is probably the last sketch. The project is 'finished'.

white-legs forum.png

Edited by M Helsdon
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2 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

The White-Legs regiment from New Lolon in Vanch has not been mentioned in canon, so far as I am aware, but its origins date back to a very old Greg Stafford text relating to a board game: ‘White-legs painted themselves from the waist-down before a battle.’

Cool to turn that up!

2 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

‘a native regiment of Vanch from the city of New Lolon, the White-legs paint themselves from the waist-down before a battle.’ This document gives their cult as Yelmalio, which isn’t surprising because Yelmalio has been the Light Protector of Lolon since the First Age.

While not home to any major "Sun Dome", Yelmalion influence is strong here as this was where the Seat of Judgment was located.

2 hours ago, M Helsdon said:

Their lack abdomen and leg armour might be due to a regimental geas, but painting themselves and appearing to be naked from the waist down marks them as a distinct Yelmalion sect.

Nice addition, and differentiation.

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On 8/23/2019 at 10:23 PM, jajagappa said:

Cool to turn that up!

While not home to any major "Sun Dome", Yelmalion influence is strong here as this was where the Seat of Judgment was located.

Nice addition, and differentiation.

The other major turn up is a regiment in the Provincial Army called Saird Bowmen, with its soldiers recruited from the Sun Dome temples in Holay. Much like the phalangites they wear linothorax armor, but with long ankle-length tunics, and have a large shield. Have decided to try sketching one, though he's standing behind a wicker siege-shield.

[There's no room for the full-sized image in my layout, but a mini will illustrate the Army List entry. I am now at the stage where the text is virtually done (though I did find a typo today) and unless enough new art is generated to fill roughly two pages, there's little to no space left.]

There's a Yelornan cavalry regiment, though they don't ride unicorns.

Edited by M Helsdon
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