First Empress soldier designs: Barbarian Mercenary Auxiliaries

Barbarian Mercenary Designs

Tall, bearded, and powerfully built, the raiders bore shields and weapons of war that morning. Spears were most common, though some carried axes, broadswords, or javelins. The younger raiders bore simple round shields, smaller than those carried by the Tollesian hoplites. The more experienced warriors preferred taller, oval shields, gripped behind the boss rather than strapped to the arm. Some wore shirts, though others went bare-chested. They wore blue and black war-paint and the veterans bore garish, angular tattoos to display their accomplishments in battle. Chief Getorix wore a brigandine of leather and bronze, while a couple other nobleman warriors wore leather armor.  —Excerpted from First Empress

Barbarian auxiliary designs. Female and male versions. Feedback is always welcome.

Barbarian mercenary auxiliaries for Queen Viarra’s army. In effort to supplement her forces, her majesty is by no means ashamed to hire mercenaries from Gannic tribes allied to her hegemony. (Vi’s mother was a Gannic princess, after all). Though these auxiliaries’ equipment and martial training is generally inferior to that of Tollesian soldiers, the Gan are renown for their natural ferocity and prowess and are far more at home in the hills and woodlands than most hoplites.

Not as organized as Tollesian armies, Gannic war bands tend to be fairly hodgepodge, consisting of seemingly random groupings of archers, skirmishers, spear or sword infantry, and/or light cavalry centered around a war chief and his warrior-elite. Most warriors go unarmored, with bronze or brigandine armor worn mainly by Gannic nobility who can afford the expense. Their weapon- and armor-making skills are generally inferior to the Tollesian techniques, as are their mining and smelting techniques. Thus bronze weapons are more common than iron, and arrowheads of bone or obsidian are still fairly common among their hunters and archers.

I based the Gannic tribes from the Vedrian highlands most closely on my research on the ancient Gauls. I’d intended to draw concept sketches for just the Tollesian soldiers, but I may go ahead and draw some of the barbarian warriors as well, to illustrate their diversity as well.

First Empress soldier designs: Medium Hoplites

Medium Hoplite Designs

“We learned right off that our regular hoplite spears are much too long for forested combat. The eight- to ten-foot reach gives us a massive advantage against warriors in the field, but in the woods all they do is get tangled in the branches and foliage. Our regular hoplite shields have proved less effective than we’d like as well. The three-foot diameter is useful in phalanx because it offers cover for the man next to you, but when the only thing next to you is a tree, that width becomes an encumbrance. To offset these problems, we’ve begun training and equipping part of our infantry with shorter spears and taller, narrower, oblong shields when scrumming in the woods.”
—General Ware, excerpted from First Empress

Medium hoplite designs for First Empress. Female and Male armors. As always, any feedback is most appreciated.

In effort to combat the barbarian tribes in the forests and highlands to the north of their hegemony, Queen Viarra’s generals have altered the standard hoplite gear and training for select medium infantry soldiers. Rather than heavy bronze, these hoplites wear a composite linen cuirass covered in stamped bronze scales for improved deflection. Spears are shorter as well, as the long hoplite spears are cumbersome in wooded areas. Lastly, they’ve exchanged their circular shields for an oblong shield that grips behind the boss, rather than strapping to the arm, for better range of movement while defending. Though not as steadfast in open field as a traditional hoplite, the medium hoplites are more flexible and can adjust better to broken or cluttered terrain.

For over a hundred years, the reality of the Hegemony of Andivel’s stalemate with the raiding Gannic tribes (based on the ancient Celts) has been that the barbarians can’t best the hoplite phalanxes in open field, but are able to successfully repel the Tollesian expeditions into the forested lowlands and highlands. Upon usurping the Hegemony of Andivel, Queen Viarra hopes to offset this stalemate by adjusting and reevaluating her soldiers’ gear and tactics to better counter the barbarians’ guerrilla tactics.

The oval shields and shorter spears are Tollesian versions of the Gannic shield and spear types. Her majesty and her generals’ strategy is to combine barbarian forestry tactics with Tollesian martial training, military discipline, and superior weapons and armor.

Gwenn, by Ben Wooten

Gwenn, by Ben Wootten

“We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.”
—Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song”

There’s a lot to love with this handsome ranger from Ben Wootten, but the carved-eagle crossbow design really stood out to me. I have to admit that I love seeing crossbows in character art. I love seeing crossbows, short bows, slings, javelins, tomahawks, or any other deviation from the longbows-are-the-only-ranged-weapon-that-matters mentality in fantasy art and storytelling. Different types of ranged weapons have different uses and advantages in combat, and I have a lot of respect for storytellers and artists who care enough to do the research to understand these differences.

I tagged Gwenn as ranger here, based on her huntress attire and posture, but one of the things I love about her design is that it’s universally Nordic. While I like the concept of an Alpine ranger, I can see our heroine as any number of classes. Ranger or barbarian are the obvious options, but I could also see her as an Alpine fighter or knight-errant from a northern earldom. In fact, her look would be entirely appropriate for a cleric or paladin of one of the northern gods, out tracking an injured frost-drake or a band of snow-goblins with a wounded captive. Or perhaps she’s a scout for a party of northern raiders, having just dispatched an advance guard for a soon-to-be-missing trade caravan. The story ideas are pretty much limitless.

Well-dressed for the mountainous climate and terrain, Gwenn sports a fur cloak for protection against the biting winter breeze—its deflection against arrows merely a bonus. Her thick, hide jacket similarly protects from the cold and should provide reasonable protection in melee. Her leather shoulder- and elbow-pads offer decent protection from disabling blows to those joints. Similarly, our huntress wears thick, stuffed leather boots to protect from incapacitating cuts to her legs and provide cushioning when kneeling to steady her crossbow. Under those boots she wears thick hide leggings, with additional fur wraps over her boots to further protect those extremities from the snow’s arctic bite. Lastly, our Nord’s thick gloves should keep her fingers warm with minimal interference to her aim.

Gwenn’s weapons of choice make me wonder if she’s hunting something with a thick hide or someone with decent armor. Crossbows and axes both have excellent armor penetration, and thus I get the feeling whatever she’s after isn’t likely to go down from a single, well-placed bolt.

Huge thanks to Ben for letting me borrow Gwenn for the blog. Feel free to check out his online galleries as well. Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast. Thanks so much for reading, folks! As always, take care and stay awesome!

First Empress soldier designs: Marines

Marine Designs

“Attack! We’re under attack!” one of the pirates shrieked. Sleepy-headed corsairs jerked awake, scrambling in confusion as Doric and his marines bailed off the sides of the ship and charged up the beach. Their thirty-six hoplites against the pirates’ seventy-odd thugs would have been a rough but winnable fight under normal circumstances. Drowsy and disoriented, the pirates stood no chance.
—Excerpted from First Empress

Queen Viarra’s marines, for First Empress. Female and male gear. Any feedback is most welcome!

‘Marine’ is something of a blanket term for shipboard soldiers. These are generally selected for sailing experience and ability to swim, on top of being strong fighters. As soldiers-turned-sailors, marines tend to be a bit more rugged than the average soldier. As members of the ship’s crew, they’re likely to be required to help sail the ship or even take turns at the oars. Combat-related duties may include skirmishing with pirates, boarding and capturing enemy ships, small-scale beach storming, raiding enemy settlements, or guarding important passengers/cargo. Marines may also be assigned as boarding crews for city-states’ privateers. As such, their individual gear varies more than does that of land soldiers.

The whole range of Tollesain armors can be found among marines, though leather is most common for being easier to swim in than bronze and less susceptible to sea weather than linen. Generally, marines only wear their armor in combat situations. Though some city-states employ archers for shipboard skirmishing, bows’ susceptibility to saltwater makes javelins or slings preferable. Shield size varies from hand-held to hoplite-sized. Arms may include short spears, boat hooks, boarding axes, short swords, broadswords, daggers, or harpes.

Queen Viarra’s recent increase in ship production to combat the local pirate threats has increased the need for shipboard soldiers. Captain Vola’s daughter, Banlia, serves as a marine aboard the bireme Gorgon’s Gaze.

First Empress soldier designs: Hoplites

Hoplite Designs

It was the first time Zahnia had seen Tollesian hoplites up close—they were scary. Though not particularly tall, they were thick and muscular with plumed bronze helmets, bronze or linen torso armor, tall spears, and swords strapped to their hips. Their shields were big and round with bronze or leather faces and pictures of monsters painted on them. They had dark eyes with swarthy, olive skin and dark, curly hair and beards.
—Excerpted from First Empress

Hoplite kit and armor for First Empress. Female and male armor designs. Any feedback is welcome!

For hundreds of years, hoplites have served as the mainline infantry for the Tollesian city-states. In open field, hoplites fight in a phalanx—basically a nigh-unbreakable wall of shields and spears. Though phalanxes are virtually ineffective on broken or cluttered terrain, they’re virtually unstoppable in the open and can only be countered with another phalanx. All hoplites are geared with spears, shields, helms, and armor if they can afford it. Linen cuirasses have recently become the most common form of hoplite armor, but leather and bronze are also in high demand.

Though they tend to wear sandals while marching, most hoplites fight barefoot for better traction while in phalanx. Hoplite spears have a bronze spike on the butt end, for use as a weapon if their spear breaks or for dispatching wounded enemies at their feet as the phalanx advances. An effective stabbing sword, the xiphos is the most common hoplite sidearm in densely packed formations, though the kopis is also common.

Hoplites are generally recruited from the yeoman class or higher—people whose farms and homes are most at risk during an invasion and who thus have most to fight for. Queen Viarra prefers to fight on the phalanx when on campaign with her armies. (That’s supposed to be a scary cyclops face on the dude’s shield, by the way. Not sure if you can tell.)

First Empress soldier designs: Light Skirmishers

Light Skirmisher Designs

Bevren discovered that he was learning a lot about the effectiveness of slings and stones in combat. As slings were cheap to make but time-consuming to master, the captain’s instructors at the officer’s academy had dismissed them as a primitive weapon used by backwater nations. The bullets from the slings were about as big around as a cat’s eye and sculpted as close to perfectly spherical as possible. The tiny stones were punching holes in shields and armor better than any projectiles he’d ever seen.
—Excerpted from First Empress

Light skirmishers for First Empress: slings and javelins. Female slinger and male javelin skirmisher. Any feedback is welcome!

Light skirmishers are generally recruited from the lowest parts of society, generally peasants and former slaves. Slings are made from hemp or leather, and a competent slinger can fling a cat’s-eye-sized bullet at shield-crunching speeds. Javelin skirmishers generally carry 3-6 heavy javelins for wounding infantry or suppressing cavalry. These light skirmish units have generally lacked armor and in some armies consider themselves lucky if they have shields or sidearms. Side arms may include daggers, simple short swords, hatchets, or even clubs.

Javelins are pretty much universal in Tollesian, Venarri, Gannic, and most other armies across the Vestic and Tornis Seas—more common than bows and slings put together. Slings are more common among Tollesian islanders than on the mainland. Both can be found aboard light, skirmishing warships in most Tollesian and Venarri navies.

Though Queen Viarra has pushed to equip all of her soldiers with at least a leather brigandine or cuirass, some of the light ranged units remain unarmored.

First Empress soldier designs: Cavalry

Cavalry Soldier Designs

Cavalryman Atten spurred his horse out from the tree line at Captain Vola’s trumpeted signal. He followed his captain as they and the forty-six other heavy and medium horsemen charged toward the formation of enemy skirmishers. The skirmishers turned and ran as they saw the oncoming horsemen. You’ll just die tired, Atten told his foes silently as his unit thundered toward the battlefield.
—Excerpted from First Empress

Cavalry kit for First Empress. Horsemen and -women trained and equipped by Captain Vola, Queen Viarra’s cavalry commander. Female and male designs. Any feedback is always welcome.

Wanting her cavalry to perform multiple roles on the battlefield, Captain Vola chose bronze-scale armor as a compromise in protection versus flexibility. All of her riders are trained for flanking with spears or sidearms and for skirmishing with bows or javelins. Typically recruited from the yeomanry or aristocracy, cavalry soldiers are generally able to afford slightly better quality gear than skirmishers or light infantry. A longer kopis is the most popular sidearm among Tollesian cavalry, but broadswords and hand-axes are also common.

Traditionally, Tollesian armies have made minimal use of cavalry, mainly deploying them to scatter bands of archers, flank loosely spaced infantry formations, or skirmish with other cavalry. Upon usurping the Hegemony of Andivel, Queen Viarra tasked Captain Vola with training and deploying the hegemonic cavalry for faster-response times against invading barbarians from the Vedrian highlands. Rather than divide her cavalry up into heavy, light, and skirmisher types, Vola trains her riders to fulfill any of these roles, depending on the situation. Horse-archers, meanwhile, have been virtually unheard of in Tollesian armies. Given the poor armor-penetration of Tollesian short-bows, horse-archers are fairly useless against armored hoplites. Queen Viarra instead has them trained to hunt barbarian raiders plaguing the local farmland and trade routes.

As writer, I feel it’s crucial to note that the stirrup hasn’t been invented in First Empress’s assumed Iron-Age time period—with nothing to brace against, a rider is more likely to be unhorsed than kill her opponent in a high-impact collision with an infantry formation. Thus mass-charge cavalry tactics made famous by Byzantine cataphracts and medieval knights are not yet feasible in my novel’s world.

First Empress soldier designs: Officers

Officer Designs

“Manpower, wealth, resources, and an excellent officer staff all in the hands of one of the most brilliant monarchs who ever reigned; I think it’s best we stay on Queen Viarra’s good side.” —Emperor Orvandius, excerpted from First Empress

More equipment designs for First Empress. Officers in her majesty’s army.  Female and male designs, though equipment varies from soldier to soldier. Again, any thoughts on the designs are most welcome.

Typically nobles, Queen Viarra’s officers can usually afford better arms and armor than the lay soldier. Muscled bronze cuirasses are most common as well as plumed bronze helms of various styles and bronze greaves and vambraces. Officers wear cloaks to denote their commissioned status. Though archer captains tend to carry bows and cavalry captains gear up identically to the other horsemen, the generals and infantry captains carry exclusively swords and shields.

It’s worth noting that Tollesian foot officers never carry spears or javelins. Having nothing to lean on prevents the officer from taking a relaxed posture, as soldiers tend to relax when they see their officer relax. A relaxed soldier is a soldier off his guard. Though this seems like an innocuous detail, battles have been lost because some hoplite captain was leaning on his spear.

Upon usurping the Hegemony of Andivel, Queen Viarra divides her territory up into four military districts, each overseen by one of her generals. General Etan sees to the defense of the western district, General Valan oversees the central city-states, General Ware defends the eastern district, while General Derron protects the seaways and her majesty’s island holdings.

First Empress soldier designs: Archers

Archer Designs

An arrow sliced past the attackers’ shield wall, embedding itself in Varic’s left eye as they stormed up the beach. The general’s head jerked back, dead almost instantly. Varic’s body toppled into the sand. General Willot grimaced despite his rage. Considering how small the slits in those helmets were, some archer was either insanely skilled or insanely lucky.
—Excerpted from First Empress

Hi folks! So, I’m working on equipment designs for the soldiers in my novel, First Empress. Starting with the archers. Female and male design featured above, though equipment varies from soldier to soldier. Any thoughts on the designs are most welcome.

Queen Viarra tries to make sure her archers have at least a simple cuirass of leather armor, though those who can afford their own armor prefer the linen cuirass. Non-melee fighters, archers prefer brimmed hats over a helmet. Most archers provide their own bows, but arrows are generally provided by the military. Tollesian bows have fairly mediocre armor penetration, thus mass-fire tactics are necessary during field archery. Shields and sidearms are optional.

At best, archers are merely a supplementary component in most Tollesian armies. Their bows’ sub-par armor penetration makes them fairly useless against hoplites, and most generals deploy archers to whittle down lighter infantry or suppress enemy archers and skirmishers.

Additional notes:
Her majesty’s archer commander is Captain Kellor, who later goes on to co-design an early version of the crossbow. In her first battle, Queen Viarra leads a company of archers against the invaders from Andivel. When on campaign beside her majesty, Handmaid Elissa prefers to fight beside the archers.

Reconnaissance Squad, by Kasia

Reconnaissance Squad, by Kasia

“If the enemy leaves his door open, you must rush in.” —Sun Tzu

Yikes! I apparently forgot to post a writeup for last weekend. Terribly sorry about that, folks. I’d say “to make up for it,” but I was planning to do it anyway: I’ve been working on concept designs for Queen Viarra’s soldiers in my novel First Empress. I’ve decided to post my designs here and on my Tumblr, as well as explanation for the designs. I’ll be posting those over the course of the coming week for anyone interested in checking them out. Anyway, on to the knights!

I like the overall look of Kasia’s lady knight here. As my regular readers know, I have kind of a weakness for Gothic plate armor. Most examples we see of Gothic armor tend to be of the overly ornate variety, with sculpting and gilded embellishments. While ornateness doesn’t necessarily take away from the protectiveness of the piece, I appreciate Kasia’s use of a sturdy, combat-ready full-plate, always ready for field combat or a forest trek.

Heavy and exhausting to hike in over broken terrain, full-plate seems unusual for a member of a scouting party. Her armor is more suited for a cavalrywoman whose legs would be vulnerable to infantry axes or a heavy infantrywoman who needs to maintain a solid stance to hold the line against her opponents. I suspect our lady knight is the officer in charge of the recon party. She leads a band of rangers who spread out over an area to scout the terrain or screen for enemy pickets and ambushes. Likely our knight sets up a command tent or small encampment nearby, dispatching her scouts to patrol the roadways or investigate potential hotspots for enemy activity.

Combat ready, our lady’s armor has clearly seen a bit of weather and travel (the missing rivet on her cuirass is an effective touch). Though inflexible, our heroine’s cuirass will keep her vitals protected from just about any blow her adversaries can deliver. Those spaulders offer excellent deflection and absorption against disabling blows to her shoulders. Elbow plating and steel vambraces offer similar protection to her lower arms. Underneath she wears a wool or linen arming jacket for additional padding and improved armor maintenance.

I found the chainmail protecting our heroine’s hips to be an interesting alternative to the segmented tassets found on most late-era armors. To me this reinforces this being a field armor, with the chain being less protective than plated tassets, but cheaper and easier to maintain. The heavy plating protecting our heroine’s legs is also unusual for a scout, hindering her movements over rugged terrain.

In Kasia’s image here, I suspect the scouts have appraised our heroine of an interesting or unusual discovery and she’s chosen to investigate in person. Her lack of head protection—helm, hat, or hood—suggests to me that she’s not far from camp and doesn’t figure on being in the woods long. She had her gauntlets off in order to update her logs or write a notation on one of her maps, when one of the pathfinders reported in, “my lady, Akins managed to drop an orc patrol, you might want to see what we’ve found.” Drawing her longsword but not belting on her scabbard, our heroine slips from the camp to investigate.

Huge thanks to Kasia for the use of her scoutmaster for the blog. Please take time to check out her galleries on Tumblr as well. As always, thanks so much for reading, folks! Take care and stay awesome!