May i suggest that making and growing are in fact two different methods of
achieving the same ends. Not merely from a philisophical or religious point
of view, but from a hands-on, Real-Gloranthan, outlook. That is, with the
proper skills, anything that can be achieved through growing can be achieved
through making, and vise versa. The Mostali are the ultimate Makers and the
Aldyrami are the ultimate Growers. (and Humans are Users). Thus Mostali food
is processed and the Aldyrami tools, weapons and armour are grown. I imagine
that Aldyrami Copper armour is of a lamellar style of over-lapping copper
leaves grafted to one another rather than a solid breastplate or greaves.
The entire suit is alive. Possibly anything that involves the growth of the
sacred rune metal:copper would be used in a live state. The Elf Bow is
unique in that it is also a POW storage device. The _string_ of the bow is
merely part of the plant.
BTW, i liked Claude's recent post...perhaps that concept of Elf Bowmen is to
Tolkienesque?
Grafting and War Trees
Someone mentioned (i sorry i can't find the post...it comes from being born under a Disorder Moon) that Aldyrami are fond of grafting branches,etc onto hapless captives. Then there was the Hellwood Elves practice of grafting heads onto trees. My question is...does the Create War Tree spell actually involve the grafting of Tree parts onto sentient captives which are then transformed (by the spell) into the Warrior of Wood?
Aldyrami or Elf
I agree with Martin that the term Elf should be avouided because of the Tolkien connection. The race needs to be made (!) more inhuman. After all, Aldryrami are cannibal savages...
which brings me to my thought....
The Uz and Mostali cultures have always been covered in far greater detail than the Aldyrami. The Trolls have had the greatest attention (they always take more for themselves...basic ZZ philosophy). The Mostali culture was presented (packaged) in a single issue of DW, after due processing, of course. The Aldyrami, on the other hand, have always been largely ignored...a tid-bit here, another there, etc. What i am trying to say is that the Aldyrami culture has been _grown_ and continues to _grow_ in recognition of their Nature! or is this just so much Pooh?
More Good Books
The following two books are published by WRG, The Wargames Research Group, and are primarily aimed at Ancients gamers to help them understand their period. The first is
Armies of the Ancient Near East 3000BC to 539BC
It is 208 pages, with 210 illustrations and 9 maps. It details the
organisation, tactic, dress and equipment for all the major and minor
powers. ie. Eygpt, Assyria, Nubia, Sumer, the Sea-peoples, etc. Very, very
good...really gives you an idea what RW bronze age cultures were like. I
imagine that the Dara Happans were like the Assyrian empire (Chariots are
perfect Yelm), with previous cultures resembling Ur and Sumer.
Some Tid-bits...
Early horse-riders continued to used the "donkey seat" where you rode on the
seat rather than the withers (apparently asses had too narrow withers, so
the seat was more comfortable and secure).
Stirrups are not in use till MUCH later.
>From the histories:
Shortly afterwards, the Persian army commanded by Ugbaru (Gobryas) marched into Babylon itself. According to Herodotus, the course of the Euphrates had been diverted to allow them to pass through the walls along the river bed.
Neat idea.
The Second book is
Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars 359BC to 146BC
Similar size and content...gives ideas for current Lunar Empire. How the West fits in i don't know. Joerg's article in Codex 3 helped me to reconcile the West with Dragon Pass except i believe the Byzantines are still too far advanced for use as a reference...the Seleucid companions/cataphract (2nd c. BC) might a better reference. Western armour will have to step backwards a couple of centuries (unless it is Dwarf made). The crossbows are Dwarf Tech for sure.
Howard
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