A View of Sétnakh?

Photo credits: A photo of Varanasi (Benaras) by Liday Kiran

From National Geographic

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/10/india-highway/belt-text

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/02/nomads/lancaster-text

I found this image while researching the Lohars, nomadic smiths of India. I had read about them in a National Geographic book published in the late seventies, and a quick search pulled up more recent articles online. The Lohars are the basis for "the Clan of the Third Eye Blue" a similarly nomadic clan in my Tékumel campaign. The name is borrowed from Greg Stafford's Glorantha, as fans of his world will recognize. I have no doubt that he was similarly inspired by the Lohar. 

Anyway, I thought the view was a good impression of what the small town of Sétnakh might look like with the Ranánga river in full flood.

A couple of us have been trying to develop a "formula" for describing clans. I've posted my description of the Clan of the Third Eye Blue here.

How Many Figures?

How Many Figures?

With Tékumel gaming the tradition has been to use a ratio of 1:100 when translating a battle for the tabletop. With the maximum Tsolyáni legion size fixed at 8000 men, this yields 80 figures on the tabletop. This seems manageable, and I think the thought is that any lower figure ratio would make for units that were just too large to be manageable (let alone affordable.)

The thing is that Tsolyánu is a big place and the odds are that elements are going to be detached for garrision duty or to other sectors. In addition, the paper strength is 20 cohorts @ 400 men per cohort giving the total strength of 8000 men (and aridáni.) This does not take into account casualties and those missing due to illness or injury or desertion.

In the published battle reports the numbers of troops available for the battles is much lower. In fact, the Professor doesn't even refer to cohorts, but rather "blocks" of 500, 1000, 1500 or 2000 men. I'm assuming these numbers are approximate; and so they should be - no one is going to know exactly how many men are at a given battle. It's almost always going to be an approximation.

Granted there could be really large battles fought where the full legion, or a large part of it, were present but these are going to be the exception, not the rule in my opinion. My thinking was at first to use a 1:100 ratio but now I am thinking that small to medium sized battles are going to be more likely. Battles where any particular legion typically has 500 to 2000 troops available.

With this in mind, I want a figure ratio that makes a nice looking unit of the tabletop. At 1:40 scale, one could field a cohort or two of skirmishers in 12-figure skirmish groups. A 2000-strong detachment from the Legion of Ever-Present Glory would be 50 figures. That could be an on-table formation some 12 figures wide by 4 deep with assorted officers, standards and musicians included. On 20mm bases that would be a unit about 240mm wide by 80mm deep (about 9.5" x 3".) A proper phalanx! :-) IIRC, that would be the size fielded at the Battle of Ry (or Rü.) 

Another Warrior-Priestess of Karakán...

This time an upcoming figure from Hasslefree Miniatures, sculpted by Kev White.

It's almost perfect! The helmet has a hawk or eagle motif, as does the shield...

Kev's figures are not the over-sized, "heroic" figures that some manufacturers make, and I'm pretty confident that this figure will scale nicely with ours.

As I said, it isn't perfect, however.

Myself, I will be swapping out the sword for something more appropriate for Tékumel and lopping off the scabbard for either another weapon or a bow case and quiver combination which I just happen to have castings for. :-)

I'm going to smooth out the creases in the trews and give her bare legs and maybe gussy up the boots a little to make them a little more exotic looking. I'm not sure if the figure has bare arms - she might be intended to be wearing a long-sleeved tunic. If so, I'll alter that with paint and a bit of filing or perhaps add some short sleeves with greenstuff.

The figure isn't available yet so I'm just going by what I can tell from the pictures, but if that works I'd consider providing a conversion kit (ie. bow case, etc) to Tekumel Club members who wanted to do their own conversion.

Arena Update...

I didn't spot this at first, but one of the later posts to the arena thread on the Lead Adventure Forum mentioned that Playmobil had re-released their large Arena playset. And so they have! You can find it here...

Not sure if they ship to Canada or not. Often these big US companies do not. :-(

A Hirilákte Arena For Your Very Own?

Read this thread, to find out how to transform this...

into this...

Simply Superb! :-)

Be careful though, if hunting on eBay, it seems to have been re-released as a smaller, partial set...

Warrior-Priestess of Karakán?

This new figure released by Dark Sword Miniatures is sculpted by Patrick Keith.

I think that with very few modifications she would make a very nice warrior-priestess of Karakán, one of the five Lords of Stability, and styled the "Lord of War, the Master of Heroes, and the Ultimate Warrior on the Final Day."

The most glaring change is the scabbard, but that could be carved away and fixed with putty. The sword could be swapped out or perhaps carved and puttied a bit to make it a bit more exotic looking. 

K is for Khíl

The Khíl is the stereotypical Yán Koryáni helmet. The Yán Koryáni wear other helmet styles of course, but this is the style most associated with Tsolyánu's foes to the North. It is a close-fitting pointed skullcap with a short, pointed visor,  round ear-pieces, and a mail aventail. A.row of fluted plates around its rim are its most distinctive feature. The basic form of the helmet varies considerably: the shape of the visor or ear-pieces changes; the height of the fluted plates and even their placement can be different on individual helmets; the aventail might be of chlén hide scales rather than mail. Sometimes the plates are roofed over with a flat cover; on others there is a central crest or the helmet point is taller and features a long plume of a variety of colours depending upon the wearer's city of origin.

The above illustration is by Kathy Marschall and is from the cover of a solo game-book by the late MAR Barker, entitled "Adventures on Tékumel, Part 2, Volume 1: Coming of Age on Tékumel." It depicts Yán Koryáni soldiers fighting with two Tsolyáni from the the Legion of the Searing Flame (stage right) and one from the Legion of the Lord of Red Devastation. I am not certain of the Yán Koryáni unit but I believe that they are from the Rüllá Gurék. I think the scene depicts street fighting just prior to the fall of Sunráya, which is one of the many threads of the book.

If you are at all interested in Tékumel then I highly recommend you hunt down these books. Part 1 is a thin booklet that deals with character creation, but Part 2 consists of three volumes which provide a wealth of detail and atmosphere about Tsolyáni society and places beyond its borders. I only wish there were more volumes!