15 replies to this topic

[dathui]

NaurwenT has done it again

"(...)There Maedhros in time was healed; for the fire of life was hot within him, and his strength was of the ancient world, such as those possessed who were nurtured in Valinor. His body recovered from his torment and became hale, but the shadow of his pain was in his heart; and he lived to wield his sword with left hand more deadly than his right had been."

"(...)Maedhros did deeds of surpassing valour, and the Orcs fled before his face; for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within, and he was as one that returns from the dead.")



Click for full sized version

[Tathar]

WoW= Wonderfully o'wsome Work

[Aryndil]

Holy @#$%... Sorry to stoop to the lowest pits of vocabular rhetoric, but.. holy @#$%...

[NaurwenT]

Thanks

[Historicity]

Excellent NaurwenT! Love the blue cape with the gold decorative piece at the bottom of it.

[NaurwenT]

Thanks

[Beren IV]

Lammelar! Nice! I always imagined that the Elves would like lammelar.

Question: does the "light armor" signify that there are going to be multiple versions of the Noldorin heroes wearing different outfits (and presumably with different statistics)?

By the way, I and everybody I know wears gloves when swordfighting. The jolt transferred into your hand when your sword hits something can cause blisters pretty quickly. I can imagine that the Noldorin "magic" might make their swords not do this, but...


Anyhow, nice artwork. What made you pick the colors you did?

[NaurwenT]

Yes, lamellar I have always imagined it was a good starting point for elvish armour, although I do not "see" the whole of the Noldorin armies wearing it

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Question: does the "light armor" signify that there are going to be multiple versions of the Noldorin heroes wearing different outfits (and presumably with different statistics)

I simply don't know. I called it "light armour" as opposed to "full armour", that is what the character would wear into battle. Don't know yet how these concepts will be incorporated in the game, sorry, but what you mention could be a possibility

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By the way, I and everybody I know wears gloves when swordfighting. The jolt transferred into your hand when your sword hits something can cause blisters pretty quickly. I can imagine that the Noldorin "magic" might make their swords not do this, but...

Yes, I know that. I too have some training with blades. However, the use of gloves for sword fighting was not standard, although it is now for practicing purposes. So, nope, no Noldorin "magic" accountable for this:D

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What made you pick the colors you did?

I see deep reds and coppers as signature colours for Maedhros.
Thanks for your comments

[TheCobra1]

Dude! That's awsome! *drools over sword*

[NaurwenT]

Thanks, glad you like it
However, the sword is just a concept. I like the look of it, I even have a name for it and all, but I need to sit down and design specific swords for the main characters.

[TheCobra1]

Пожалуйста. What did you use to draw that?

[NaurwenT]

Good old pencils & paper for sketching.
Photoshop CS2, Painter IX and Wacom Graphire 3 for painting.

[Beren IV]

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I have always imagined it was a good starting point for elvish armour, although I do not "see" the whole of the Noldorin armies wearing it

I really like lammelar - protection against piercing attacks similar to plate, depending on the angle, but much better at resisting impact weapons. It's really useful for cavalry, although less so than for infantry.

Now, for Elvish armies in general, I typically envision them wearing little or no armor at all, the reason being is that they mostly wage guerilla warfare in which their main protection is in stealth. They just don't have the reproductive ability to replace large numbers of lost fighters that they would necessarily have in a pitched battle.

Of course, what I am describing is probably a very Sindarin, or even Avarin, style of warfare. The Noldor we know did use armies, and armor, and all that. How they managed that is the reason for my population demographics thread that got brought up recently. But if they had to fight pitched battles, lammelar is what I see them wearing.

[NaurwenT]

I agree about the Avari and their guerrilla warfare. And yes, it also applies to the Sindar in some way, although IIRC, Tolkien mentions the hosts of Doriath with their hauberks shining like the scales of fishes, their axes, etc... To me, that sounds as organized as the hosts of the Noldor, even if the Sindar fought this way occasionally.

[NaurwenT]

Ok, I found the quotes I was referring to:
"Now Thingol had in Menegroth deep armouries filled with great wealth of weapons: metal wrought like fishes' mail an shining like water in the moon; swords and axes, shields an helms, wrought by Telchar himself or by his master Gamil Zirak the old, or by elven-wrights more skilful still. For some things he had received in gift that came out of Valinor and were wrought by Fëanor in his mastery, than whom no craftsman was greater in all the days of the world. Yet Thingol handled the Helm of Hador as though his hoard were scanty, and he spoke courteous words, saying: "Proud were the head that bore this helm, which the sires of Húrin bore."
(UT - Ch. 2 - "Narn i Hîn Húrin")

"At this time therefore the Sindar were well-armed, and they drove off an creatures of evil, and had peace again; but Thingol's armouries were stored with axes and with spears and swords, and tall helms, and long coats of bright mail; for the hauberks of the Dwarves were so fashioned that they rusted not but shone ever as if they were new-burnished. And that proved well for Thingol in the time that was to come."
(The Silmarillion - Ch. 10 - "Of the Sindar")

The way I interpret them, the Sindar were more organized than the Avari, better-prepared, and for a time fought in way similar to that of the Noldor

[Beren IV]

In my opinion, even the Noldor relied heavily on guerilla warfare, although they did fight in armies when they had to, which I think the Sindar (wisely) did more sparingly.


I generally imagine Elven battle tactics as being similar in nature and strategy to the tactics of the Colonials during the American Revolution: the British armies were continually harassed by swarms of militiamen (and probably the occasional woman), and this effected to disrupt their supply, cut down their morale, wittle down their forces, and ultimately divide them into smaller groups. There was also a continental army under the command of George Washington, and it was an army, fair and simple, but they mainly got into open battles with the Brits after the latter had already been compromised in some way by these militiamen, since Washington was prettymuch always outclassed in some serious way if the Brits hadn't been hampred aforetime.

Elvish armies in ME are almost always like that, I get the impression: they are severely outnumbered most of the time and even when they aren't, they can't win a war of attrition because the enemy can replace their entire host more easily than the Elves can replace a single company. They use guerilla tactics and various kinds of "magic" to give themselves an advantage before they fight their pitched battles, but they come to fight openly when the opposition gets to be such that they can face it on an even field. The difference between the styles of the Noldor, Sindar, and Avari, then, is that the Noldor will fight a pitched battle more readily than the others, and the Avari less readily, and the Sindar somewhere in-between, but they all will under the right circumstance. Apparently, a Sindar-type strategy seems to be the most effective at least against Morgoth; they're the Elven subrace that does the best against pretty well everybody when combat comes. Well, except for the Vanyar, I suppose, but they had enough magic with them to submerge a continent.

Incidentally, you posted a while back on the role of the nissi in the game and in Elvish conflicts in general. I generally feel that the armies that fight the pitched battles are almost all male, but that the skirmishers that swing the tide can easily be as much as half and half.