Orlanth's look (and other significances of visual representation)

[Sir_Godspeed]

Might as well hop on a teensy bit: I don't think there is this huge north-south divide that some people think in RW art. If you look at a comparison of Migration Era scandinavian bronze plates versus Archaic Greek reliefs versus Bronze Age Hittite reliefs, are they really that massively different? 

Certainly the proportions are different, and the clothing, etc., not denying that, but I could honestly see Heortlings or Esrolians pretty much depict their gods in any of these styles.

Given that we have Orlanthi rocking around in Minoan (ca. 2700-1400 BC) garb and Mycenaean armor (ca. 1500 BC), while you've got Westerners kicking it with armor that's based on RW references that's at least a thousand years (if not more) younger, or Indian references in Lunar iconography that are literally from the 1000s-1200s AD iirc, next to the 2000-1400 BC-styled Gods wall, I think there's room for a diversity of references. The Dragon Pass woodcarvings of Orlanth as a squat man with horned helmet and Ernalda with a big ol' apron - as well as the wonderfully colorful mosaics or painted reliefs of them as slender, wavy beings in brilliant blues and greens, with a multitude of limbs and regalia - can coexist, imho. Hell, art being so creative as it is, there are going to be times when artists look back to archaic art and want to emulate simpler styles, or take inspiration from folk styles. 

Honestly, I think it would be really cool to see the Indian-inspired elements of modern Orlanthi iconography put into (for lack of a better term) "Northern European" styles like woodcarvings (even if I assume that previous populations in continental Europe also had lots of woodcarvings, sadly wood rots). An Orlanth with a tassled loincloth and vajra sitting in the middle of knotwork clouds/winds and with big curved rams horns engraved into a wooden panel sounds dope. 

It's all good. Even the "fantasy storybook" style that's used in Dragon Pass heroquests, considering it's meant to be dreamy and otherworldly.

Anyway, that's probably too much to add too late, I think most people got what they wanted from this thread already.