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ardashir — Ardashir Ref Sheet
Published: 2012-11-08 16:16:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 1023; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 5
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Description
Done for me a long time ago by , this is a basic reference sheet for 'old' Ardashir, but it's still one of the best guides to how he looks. I do like that he seems a little more haggard and rough here as compared to 's version; I never saw him as being a very well-groomed wolf. I still ove the detail work EL did on his shield, helmet, and the tabard he's got on over that mail and laminate armor. The work on his eye (originally Ardashir was supposed to be part fox, which gave him slit pupils) is also great.Thanks again, !
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Comments: 19
More the result of my attempting to describe circa 6th century AD Iranian armor to the artist. I suppose you can call it as much Central Asian as anything else; for a long time I've seen Ardashir as having as much to do with Central Asian Iranian nomads like the Sarmatians as the more settled Persians.
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Besides EL doing such a great job on the character design, the armor is pretty on par for the warrior tribes of the Steppes and Southwestern Asia.
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Thanks for the praise. And yes, EL did an amazing job on this. I think I may have included some Osprey art references to help.
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Ospreys. Interesting. That I'd like to take a look at.
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They can be found at www.ospreypublishing.com, as well as at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and whatnot. As history their books are a bit thin but the illustrations are often gorgeous.
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I think you have told me about them in the past. The Celts weren't much for any kind of body armor (my concentration), but they sure created some beautiful and deadly swords and daggers.
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Well, according to the Osprey book covering the Galloglasses (Scots mercenaries in 13th-16th century Ireland), they certainly wore some fine knee-length mail coats; and the professional Scottish soldiers shown in 'Scottish Renaissance Armies 1513-1550' usually wore the half-plate common to the Continent, which they often got through serving as mercenaries in France (or Russia, or Poland...).
But the average fighter, the typical Irish kern or Scottish cateran doesn't seem to have had much beyond a small shield and a pot helmet.
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My guess is that the lack of armor was to help I guess with speed. They also I seem to remember that Celtic warriors painted themselves in blue to really put the fear of the gods into the enemy.
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My guess is that the lack of armor was to help I guess with speed.
That and they couldn't afford it! When they were able to get their hands on armor they usually happily used it.
Though the mostly-unarmored Almugavars from Spain would fearlessly attack armored knights and kill them.
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Armor is nice to have but it must be the equivalent to wearing an automobile on your back.
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Better you should wear armor than a casket.
And actually, from everything I've read (including some from people who've worn modern reconstructions intended to mimic the originals), mail is lighter than plate, but far more encumbering because it hangs from the shoulders. A good suit of plate averaged 60-70 pounds, but it was shaped to fit the owner and the weight was evenly distributed. People have done splits in those suits. And the people in them were usually trained to the weight from a very early age.
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I still can't imagine shuffling around in 60 to 70 pounds of high-grade steel. It reminds me of the time I tried on a fursuit. It was like wearing a wet shag carpet.
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I think they were made more from iron than steel; it had something to do with it being less brittle. But yeah, that was definitely something you have to train years for.
And when did you wear a fursuit, and which one was it?
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That explains why many knights went through that long apprentice-journeyman experience before actually hitting the battlefield. I think I am most impressed with how those soldiers used their broadswords.
I tried on a fursuit about four or five years ago. It was a wolf suit that belonged to someone else. It turned me off to ever wanting one.
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I've read about how in the Life of Boucicault, he being a late 14th century knight and commander, Boucicault spent a few hours every day practicing with sword and axe, and performing calisthenics in full plate.
And yeah, borrowed fursuits can be difficult, given that they were made for someone else with different measurements. But at least you got to wear one once.
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That had to be quite an intense exercise program.
I don't think I could ever wear a fursuit even if it was fitted for me. They seem way too uncomfortable, and I'm just way too non-Furry for my own good.
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Well, given just how much physical effort was involved in melee, no surprise.
Apparently long battles would have short and unintended 'rest breaks' where everyone fighting just had to stop to catch their breath. Of course, if your guys could keep fighting for just one minute longer right then, well...
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It was all about catching that one advantage.
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