Re: The Ilsamiren Wars
More detail for Woad Warrior then!
I recently wrote these up for our concept artists, so any out of place comments I make are really addressed to them.
Armour and weapons
In Order of Necessity
The Ilsamiri
The Armour of the Ilsamiri is largely of plate and mail construction. Mail alone is worn when plate cannot be afforded. Leather is substituted for both when necessary, but the mountains in the north provide great reserves of ore for the making of metal armour.
Their helmets are either of a single piece of beaten steel or are made in sections and riveted together. All Ilsamir troops are armoured to some extent.
The armour of foot-soldiers ranges from a mainly leather composition with metal vambraces, greaves and pauldrons and steel-reinforced leather helmets to complete suits of mail and plate. Certain soldiers wear combinations of the two styles, as some forms of fighting favour greater protection for the chest than for the limbs.
Their shields are usually tall, covering from neck to knee in most cases, and are shaped simply but elegantly. They are usually decorated simply among the citizen levies and more and more complexly as the social standing of the company rises: for example, a conscript’s shield is painted grey and may bear a simplified symbol of their city while a knight’s shield will be painted much more vibrantly, showing mythical scenes or a complex coat-of-arms. Shields are usually made of hard-wood, covered with leather and rimmed with steel. Precious metals, particularly silver, may be inlaid into the shield’s design in recognition of brave service on a particular soldier’s part. Likewise, silver is used to highlight subtle detail in the armour of the most prestigious warriors.
The Ilsamiri favour some colours over others for the decoration of their shields. These are, in order of commonality: Dark Blue, Grey, Silver, very Dark Green and violet. Other colours are seen, but of these red is the least common.
Ilsamir swords are usually long and somewhat narrow bladed. They are usually excellently made and break rarely. Their guards come in all shapes, and the shapes of their own letters are sometimes used, though some are obviously more suitable than others, to show the city of origin of the sword or the fighter. Swords of lineage usually bear a short history within the fuller of their blades – usually to the effect of “Galuir wrought me in 562” and the like. They favour one-handed swords, to allow the use of a shield, but the Darineth Guardsmen are famed for their use of two-handed blades.
The Ilsamiri favour long blades over axes, though halberdiers are seen in Ilsamir armies. The Ilsamiri do not like heavy weapons, so maces and the like are rarely seen except among the unusually strong. Their spears have long blades and often have guards just below their heads to stop enemies from dodging round them. Pikes are used, but shorter spears – perhaps eight-feet or so – are more popular. Ilsamir knights usually carry a lance as a charge-weapon, the heads of which are wide and long.
Ilsamir bows are long and of dark wood. Their arrows are fletched with grey and white feathers, often from gulls.
Each Ilsamir city has its own crest and coat-of-arms which is placed in circular badges on the helmets and shields of its soldiers.
As a final point, here is a description of the armour of a Darineth Guardsman from the Story of Udeval:
The Morchanin‘…its guards armed with their famed two-handed swords, their hilts shaped after an Ilsamiren letter: D, for Darineth, for that was the name of the city they defended. They wore the same symbol upon their helmets, set into a round field of misty-grey. Their armour was of steel plates, etched with silver in places, picking out subtle designs. They also wore a sash of deep blue cloth about their waists from which they hung their scabbards.’
NOT A FULL FACTION!
The Morchanin wear armour only when going to large-scale battle and this is usually blackened and concealed beneath their black garments to add to their legend among their enemies.
They usually cover their faces, though it is also common to see them simply blackened with charcoal.
Their blades are usually curved and single edged and all metal is blackened. They use no two-handed weapons.
Their main ranged weapon is the blow-pipe. These are of perhaps three-feet in length from end to end. They are of wood, reinforced with steel bands so they can be used as a parrying weapon when necessary. They use darts, poisoned to varying degrees depending on the situation, which have a long barb upon one side. The venom of the cheiris is favoured. They occasionally go mounted into battle.
The Mekathenain
The Mekathenain favour no one metal over others, except brass, but the make of their armour is uniform. It is of a lamellar construction, usually using silk thread.
The amount and fineness of the lamellar used varies depending on the social status of the soldier. Their helmets are usually of a single piece of beaten metal and are uniformly of a flat-toped, open-faced construction.
They carry curved, single-handed swords, much like scimitars but they usually have a pole-arm as a primary weapon. These pole-arms range in size considerably from long spears (8-10 feet) to strange, axe like weapons with four-foot hafts and half-foot blades.
Their bows are recurved and often made of several layers of glued wood. Their arrows are very important to them and battlefields are often picked clean of all wood thanks to the shortage of trees in their homeland. Their arrows are spiral fletched with two white feathers and one brown feather. Each archer is always given a single arrow fletched in the same way as a nobleman’s. Noble’s arrows are usually fletched with two white feathers and one purple feather.
The javelin is another popular weapon, but wood, being scarce, is reserved for the noble classes. Hollow tubes of metal are used in their place.
The Mekathenain have no horses traditionally, but their conquests in the west bring them many horses as time goes on. On these horses they mount their famed Hunters, arming them with javelins, nets and swords. They also mount their heavy spearmen as lancers.
Beneath their armour the Mekathenain wear silk in many different colours. The most favoured colours for trim are blues, purples and greens while white and sandy colours are used for the main areas of cloth. Purple dye is most expensive and most prized. The designs used range from the simple and abstract to the complex and realistic, but most centre on the shape of water drops and on rivers and rain clouds over lush terrain.
The Mekathenain do not use shields, though sometimes their archers carry shields which they can prop up in front of their line.
The Southern Kingdom
The warriors of the Southern Kingdom fight almost exclusively defensive battles and so favour heavy armour.
They wear full suits of plate and carry tall rectangular shields with which they build walls of steel on the battlefield. They like to use long pikes and shorter than normal swords. Their symbology centres on ships, stars, and the sun and moon. Their armour is similar to that of the Ilsamiri, but should also be individual.
The Western Kingdom
The warriors of the Western Kingdom predominantly wear leather armour, but nobles wear more metal. They use images of the sun and sheafs of wheat and the like on their shields and tunics.
They prefer axes to swords as they require less metal, but they do use swords occasionally. They also use long spears. There shields can be of any shape, but they are usually not made to cover the whole body. They do not use round shields.
They prefer browns and greens, though reds and gold are sometimes seen.
Any plate-armour they wear is usually from the Ilsamiri – who frequently give them armour as a gift.
The Northern Kingdom
Their warriors wear steel armour, but it is simpler than that of the Ilsamiri. They favour curved swords. They use dark reds, whites and dark greens. The concept for the Ethed Knight is a good indication of what their more elaborate armour looks like.
They often wear fur lined cloaks. There is a picture at the forums of a group of Russian knights, there should be one who has a red cloak topped with fur, that's the sort of thing.
The Ocean Tribes
Warriors of the ocean tribes use no metal, as they do not have the technology to fashion the necessary ores. They use bones, teeth, obsidian (a form of black volcanic glass) and green-stone in place of metal in weapons. In armour they use strips of wood, woven much like wicker, and also plates of wood. They carve this wood intricately for their nobles. Many of their warriors go without any garment on their chests and wear skirts of wood and grass. They wear intricate masks as well. All their armour is carved and adorned with feathers, though the kind and amount of carving and feathers varies with the social standing of the wearer.
Their shields are round and usually have a shape of cloth or an arrangement of feathers hanging down below them.
Their weapons are largely of a club or axe-like design, often edged with the materials spoken of above. They also use spears, javelins and bows, as well as slings. Their bows are short.
They use few bright colours, but they use a dark varnish for their armour to make it more durable and less easy to spot in the dense jungles and forests of their islands.
The Seaborne
Seaborne armour is simple and relies heavily on leather, often this is made from the skins of sharks. They use metal sparingly, but know little of how to care for it. For this reason much of their armour is somewhat rusty. All their armour is sectional in nature, using only small plates.
Their swords are usually curved and simple, and usually quite short. They often carry flat round shields. They prefer clubs to blades, but these are often spiked or studded.
Architecture
These are presented in the order they will be needed for the Oblivion Story
The Morchanin
The Morchanin build simply in wood, even their great Council Chambers are built of wood, though they are carved with scenes of history. Their dwellings are simple, usually of one level. They have dirt roads.
The Ilsamiri
Ilsamir architecture favours grey stone and marble. Their houses have tiled rooves. They make detailed carvings in this vein along walls of important structures, such as the four Towers:
Their roads are paved and straight, much like Roman roads. And the walls around Darineth are high and have battlements. They do not have towers around their outer walls. The four Towers are described thus, and this is a good way to imagine a lot of their architecture:‘The entire courtyard was walled about with grey stone, but it was lightly and delicately carven and momentarily the eye would be deceived into thinking that the trees and grass, and the flowers and fruits went on further than they actually did, into a misty forest, reachable, but totally unreal.’
Don’t look at Roman architecture too much.‘He continued east towards the palace doors, pausing only momentarily to gaze skywards towards the palace tower and to the north and south to its sisters, the tower of the Weaver’s temple and the tower of the Dividing Sea. Further west, beyond the palace tower, was the tower of the Haven, Prethan Darinethas. All were carved after the manner of the courtyard walls, but their stones were finer: stronger, but more translucent. From the ground to their very peaks they were carved to varying depths, to allow the light of the sun entrance to them, but more importantly to allow the wind to whistle and sing through them on its way.’
The Southern Kingdom
Similar to that of the Ilsamiri, but more solid. Their walls do have towers. They use darker stone. We’ll also need a number of designs for ships.
The Western Kingdom
Look at traditional Russian wood-carving for inspiration here. They use almost exclusively wood. They build walls of wood too. They also build barges to travel on the Glemir Darinethas. Thatched rooves.
The Ocean Tribes
They use wood and stone. Look at Maori architecture and try to find a happy medium between it and central-American architecture (that of the Maya and Aztecs). They’ll need canoes, too.
The Mekathenain
Look at middle-eastern stuff for these guys, but try to make it a little off kilter, not too much like any one style. They favour smooth shapes and stone. We’ll need some ruined looking designs to, which will be seen in the deserts of the eastern continent – though these are really not a priority at this stage. Try to design things we can re-use in the 3d programs, so don’t design too much really specific stuff. The Mekathenain civilisation will be seen at the start of one of the stories, but after that it really isn’t seen much again. It still needs to be done though. They also use tents when establishing new towns, so we can use a number of different tent patterns as the starting stages of settlements. We’ll also need some other, temporary looking structures. They’ll also need ships of an interesting design.
The Seaborne
Do anything you like here really. Nothing too complex, lots of shack-like structures, very run-down and almost destitute looking, perhaps some more complex structures for important places, like the Council Hall. Their ships should have figure-heads like that of the ship at the end of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, much like on the faction icon.
The Northern Kingdom
Like the Ilsamiri, but more solid again. They use whatever stone is available to them. Their architecture should be quite religious looking, perhaps reminiscent of early churches built by the Vikings?
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