Ladies of Daughter of the Lilies, by Meg Syverud

Lyra and Thistle, from Daughter of the Lilies, by Meg Syverud

“Don’t like vorking vit idiots. Need smart, dependable people who keep heads in fight. Can trust to vatch back. That someone I like vorking vit. And I like vorking vit you.”
—Orrig, orc mercenary and party leader

I pretty much instantly fell in love with Meg’s lovely fantasy/adventure webcomic, Daughter of the Lilies. It’s a smart, sometimes satiric take on the standard motley-crew of slightly dysfunctional adventurers story. I love stories and characters that play upon and play against genre archetypes and tropes with equal skill. Meg’s comic does this extremely well and maintains a strong balance of action/comedy/drama.

Daughter of the Lilies takes place in a fantasy world where magic is a part of everyday life and fantasy-adventurer tropes are legitimate job descriptions. The four lead characters are fairly well-balanced adventuring party, featuring an orc barbarian, elf archer, mostly human fighter, and a hooded mage. While the male fighter and barbarian are the heavy-hitters in the party, I appreciate that the ladies in the story are by no means weak and don’t take a back seat to the blokes. Not all writers have that kind of integrity, not mentioning any names (you know who you are).

Lyra is very much a play against the archetypical stoic, willowy elf archer in overly ornate, leaf-themed armor. In fact, she might almost be considered an elf bruiser. She’s slightly buff, sharp tongued, and often rude to those of lesser wit. She loves riling up her companions and isn’t afraid to take a swing at someone who’s annoying her. Her primary weapon is a composite short bow, but she’s an accomplished martial artist as well. Thus it’s important that her outfit be versatile for both skirmishing and close-combat.

I like that there’s no green to Lyra’s adventuring gear, taking a step away from the standard elfy archetype. Her armor is a light leather, which should offer decent protection from melee or arrow attacks, without hindering her movement and dexterity any. Her tights are light and loose for quick movement when skirmishing or brawling. That pad on her sleeve should cushion the joint when stuffing her elbow through some goblin’s nose. I like as well that her fingerless gloves offer similar padding for her knuckles in a fistfight without hindering her marksmanship. Lastly, her leather boots are light but durable for any adventure, with padding in the front for scrapping or kickboxing. Effective design, all around.

As much as I love Lyra as a character, my favorite is the title heroine, Thistle, a traveling mage. I love how her characterization plays against the standard haughty, above-it-all mage archetype. Thistle is a genuine sweetheart, honest and humble, she dislikes violence and tries to be kind—or at least polite—to everyone she meets, even people who are rude to her. At the same time, she seems reasonably learned and worldly, and is willing to stand up for her principles, even at the cost of her job.

As well as concealing her face, Thistle’s hood and mask protect her gentle head from rain and sun and weather. Though offering minimal protection, her outer vest should be durable for a forest trek or dungeon crawl. Underneath she wears a long-sleeved shirt for warmth and concealment, with the forearms wrapped to keep the sleeves from interfering with intricate spell-casting gestures. Those gloves seem a bit bulky, but should keep her hands concealed and don’t seem to interfere with her spells at all. Her pants are similarly loose for wherever her adventures take her. Though lighter than Lyra’s, I like that Thistle’s boots are padded in front for added protection.

Sartorial intelligence is one of the first things I look for in any kind of fantasy/adventure story, and I was immediately impressed with Meg’s heroines. No high heels, no bare cleavage or midriffs, no boob-shaped armor, no vital organs left unprotected. Instead we have a pair of smart, likable heroines in smart, protective, commonsense attire. Stellar designs all around, and I wish I could offer Meg a high-five in person.

Huge thanks to Meg for letting me borrow her heroines for the blog. Feel free to check out her online galleries and Tumblr as well. Thanks, as always, for reading folks! Take care and stay awesome!

Guest Writeup by Zach: Adelruna’s Cassandra Peneghast

Guest writeup by my esteemed colleague, Zachary. 

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Cassandra Pentaghast by Adelruna

I very much enjoyed the Dragon Age games, so taking a close look at fan art of a recurring character-turned-party-member holds great appeal. To prevent any spoilers or bias based on her role in the Dragon Age games, my goal here is to review this specific image.

At first glance, it is clear that Cassandra knows how to carry herself in combat. This is not some fantasy maiden who looks like she wandered into a dungeon straight from the Victoria’s Secret Angel’s Show—this woman is a warrior who means business.

How do we know this? Most obvious is her hair. Long hair gets in the way of melee combat. It gets caught in armor, it provides a handle for your foes, it gets in your eyes, it traps heat, and it traps sweat. This is our first clue that she is a front-line fighter. An archer or a scout can tie her hair back and call it good because she most likely isn’t going to end up in extended close melee combat. No, Cassandra here is a front-line fighter.

Our second clue is her stance. She is not posing or presenting her body for an audience to gawk: she is holding herself straight but not rigid. She is firmly grounded, but ready to pivot to face a foe. This is stressed by the orientation of her swords. Instead of hanging at her side, they are pivoted up to allow for a smooth, lightly drawn.

Our third clue is her swords. She has both a short sword and a long sword—possibly a bastard sword. They are on the same hip and arranged for easy draw of either, which indicated that she knows how to use both, is comfortable with both, and is comfortable enough in close combat to take that extra moment to select which will serve her purposes best. This suggests that she plans her actions, which indicated great dedication and training. She does not charge into the fray without a plan in mind.

Our final clue is less substantial, but very telling. Cassandra’s face is set but passive. There is no fear, no hate, no emotion at all. Her eyes are open fully looking intently at her audience. Now this could mean that she is an excellent poker player, or that she is just really good at hiding her emotions, but coupled with the previous points, it suggests that she is carefully judging the situation to determine how she should respond.

It may not be perfectly clear at first glance, but I would posit that she has just confronted an unexpected event—such as being viewed by random internet viewers. I draw this conclusion from two details: her expression and the orientation of her swords. She is assessing the situation and leaving her options open. Her swords are ready. Since both are ready, she has not decided which will be needed, so she has not finished her assessment. If only one sword were to drop, we would know that she had determined which weapon would suit her best when she attacked.

At least one reader will contest my view of Cassandra as a front-line fighter based on her current armor. Yes, she is in armor that is more common on archers, scouts, squires, and auxiliaries. No, her armor is not consistent with what might be worn under heavier armor—look at the studs, the elbow cap, and scalloped shoulders. However, this is exactly the sort of armor front-line fighters would wear while in camp or on the march. Knights who wore full-plate armor at all times would wear out horses and themselves. The same goes for the lack of a shield. Shields are heavy and awkward, so a fighter would not want to lug one around while relaxing in camp.

The fact that she is wearing fairly modest armor while still confident and poised when being faced with an unexpected event further bolsters my view that she is a professional warrior who is expertly trained in the art of extended, close-quarters, melee combat. She is not a fantasy or a militarized lingerie model—she is a warrior is ready to kick some serious ass.

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Huge thanks to Zach for the writeup and to Adelruna for the use of her art. Feel free to check out her art on Tumblr as well. Thanks, as always for reading, folks! Take care and stay awesome!

 

Avatar Korra, by Agent White Hawk

Avatar Korra, by Agent White Hawk

“You’re the smartest, funniest, toughest, buffest, talentedest, incrediblest girl in the world!” —Bolin

The Legend of Korra is one of very few shows where the lead character is also my favorite character. I think the moment in the series that really sold me on Korra’s character was in episode 2 of Book I, after she first watched the Fire Ferrets play their pro-bending match. When Bolin asks Korra what she thought of the match, she doesn’t give some “That’s pretty good for three people who aren’t the Avatar” or “Let me show you how a girl earth-bends” type of response. Instead she gets excited and asks Bolin to teach her some moves. In doing so, I felt she displayed a willingness to learn and a maturity I’ve rarely seen in a cartoon protagonist. I love that even though Korra is the most powerful bender in the world and a veritable demigoddess, she constantly works to improve herself in order to become a better Avatar. In an age when comedy seems to center on characters who are stubbornly or stupidly resistant to character development, it’s refreshing to see a progressive maturity in a well-written protagonist.

I discovered White Hawk’s epic Korra and Naga portrait a while back and knew that I’d have to keep it in mind for a future blog post. For those not familiar with the characters, Avatar Korra is the most powerful bender in the world, able to bend all four classical elements while all other benders are limited to earth, fire, air, or water. Naga is a polar-bear dog, and Korra’s best friend and noble steed. A Southern Water Tribe girl, Korra’s outfit in the portrait is essentially her winter fatigues with a fur-lined winter coat for traveling about her southern homelands.

Korra’s regular all-weather adventuring gear, pictured here in another stellar portrait from Agent Hawk, feels similar to the standard monk archetype. It’s light and flexible for unhindered movement in combat. I suspect Korra’s top is some kind of modified cheongsam (qipao), sleeveless to facilitate her highly acrobatic fighting style. She wears blue arm-wraps to protect her forearms when deflecting chi-blocker hand-to-hand attacks.

Tied with a belt, Korra’s fur-trimmed waist-cloak and apron make up a flexible battle-skirt, while the cloak itself provides additional padding for her bum while riding Naga. Our heroine’s pants are loose but durable for high-contact earth- or fire-bending. Lastly, her boots are light and flexible for effective footing or kicking renegade fire-benders in the teeth. All in all, it’s a smart, utilitarian adventuring outfit.

I’ll admit that Korra starts out brash and overconfident, but for me it wasn’t in a way that made her unlikable as a character. And while her pride and hotheadedness occasionally get her into trouble throughout the series, I deeply appreciate that incompetence never makes the list of Korra’s faults. She’s a smart, well-rounded, and ultimately complex protagonist, and one who I hope viewers of all ages connect with and find inspiration in.

Huge thanks to Agent White Hawk for letting me borrow Korra for the blog. Feel free to check out Hawk’s Tumblr as well. As always, thanks so much for reading, folks! Take care and stay awesome!

The Expensive Visitor, by Sir Tiefling

The Expensive Visitor, by Sir Tiefling

Alrighty, first post of 2016! I seriously wish I had time to offer more writeups for Sartorially Smart Heroines. I keep finding images that I bookmarked on my Tumblr or in my DeviantArt ‘favorites‘ folder with the intent of offering a future writeup that I’ve never gotten around to. I wish I could make a New Year’s resolution to explore more of these deserving heroines, but I try not to lie to my readers.

It’s been a while since last I wrote up a decent cat burglar, and stumbling back across Sir Tiefling’s slippery halfling rogue, I decided to pull this one from the pile. Her name is Tasoula the Rogue, a D&D character commission for one of Tiefling’s patrons. There was this adorable smugness that immediately drew me to her character. She looks smart and confident, having mastered the home-invasion trade and having plied her trade successfully and often.

I feel like Tas falls into the ‘shadow thief’ category, rather than the ‘breaking and entering‘ variety. Where some rogue archetypes have no qualms about murdering guards, eliminating witnesses, or setting things on fire to cover their escape, I feel like our halfling heroine prefers to slip in, steal her mark, and disappear without a trace. Though I’m sure she’s no slouch with that blade, I suspect she prefer’s violence as a last resort.

Though she’s not wearing a hood or mask in Tiefling’s portrait, we can see that Tas has a scarf or maybe turtleneck that she can pull over her face to hide her features. While I don’t think her outfit is leather armor, it definitely has leather padding (which in some universes can qualify it as ‘armor’) at her shoulders, hips, and waist for protection in light melee. Her shirt and leggings are linen or light wool—durable but loose and flexible for unhindered agility while slipping in windows or dashing across rooftops.

Tas prefers fingerless gloves for picking locks or prying window latches. For sneaking around she uses light but durable ankle-boots, perhaps with padded or felt soles to muffle her steps on stone or wooden floors. I like as well that she rolls her pant legs and straps them down to keep the fabric from rustling or snagging on anything. I get the feeling she’s done this many times and knows how to prep for domestic larceny.

Tasoula wears a backpack for carrying the tools of her burglaring trade and for stashing her ill-gotten gains. Tools may include rope and climbing harness, pry bars, lock picks, acids, smoke bombs, extra knives, saps, ether, and who knows what else. Likewise she has a small pouch strapped to her right leg for more stolen valuables. All around I find Tas to be a clever, confident, well-rounded little brigand.

Huge thanks to Sir Tiefling for the use of his handsome halfling. As always, thanks so much for reading, folks! Take care and stay awesome!

Season’s Greetings, 2015

Season’s greetings! Not much to report or discuss. Just a silly take on my Santa’s Dark Elves concept from a few years ago. Medium: colored sharpies.

Have a merry one!

Empire of Amazonia Faction Mod for Total War: Rome 2

Amazon Hoplites versus Spartan Hoplites, from the Empire of Amazonia, by Shannon

I stumbled across an interesting mod for Total War: Rome 2 from their Steam Workshops. It’s called the Empire of Amazonia, a Faction Units mod from the Daughters of Mars DLC. Apparently Shannon, the mod developer, went nuts with the DoM chipsets and designed a full-fledged Amazon faction that replaces the Pontic faction on the main campaign map. While Amazonian mods for the Total War games are hardly a new idea, I feel like Shannon’s design shows more integrity than any attempt I’ve seen in the past.

As I mentioned, the Amazon faction takes the place of Pontus in the campaign. The unit selection is impressive, with diverse light, medium, heavy, and skirmisher infantry as well as some decent heavy, medium, and ranged cavalry units. I like that instead of trying too hard to be historically accurate, Shannon went with a stylized, Greco/Roman feel for her lady warriors. The uniform blue-and-aqua coloration gives these Amazons a disciplined, highly militarized feel, offering a refreshing contrast to the doll-faced, boob-plated portrayals we often see in popular media.

Since I don’t have time or space to show every awesome unit type from Shannon’s mod, I’ll try to cover some of the more interesting ones. I’ve got kind of a mediocre graphics card, so I apologize in advance for the graphics quality in some of the screen captures.

Amazonian Younglings
Every Amazon has to start somewhere. The younglings are warriors in training, relegated to skirmish roles until they prove themselves. Armed with a sling, shield, and short sword, they harry the enemy with sling stones, whittling their numbers down for the heavier units. Most effective against unarmored foes, our trainees can still effectively suppress their enemy’s heavy troops when deployed properly. Though they wield their swords and shields with gusto, their lack of armor makes them extremely vulnerable to enemy melee units.

Sacrificing armor for quickness, the younglings wear simple tunics offering little protection against enemy swords and arrows. Their running sandals allow our girls to dash in and out of skirmish range quickly and safely or escape a legionary charge in the nick of time. I like as well that they keep their hair tied back and out of the way during the thick of combat.

Amazonian Archers
I loved that the Amazons in this mod deploy heavy archer units over some wimpy, unarmored Greek toxotai.  These aren’t peasant girls who’ve picked up their mothers’ hunting bows and marched off to combat. No, these are veteran archers who’ve proven themselves in battle and have confirmed kills against Scythian horse-tribes or invaders from the Seleucid Empire.

Our archers wear plumeless Corinthian helmets to keep their faces pretty and their skulls intact. Their leather brigandines are hardened to deflect enemy arrows or spearheads, offering a degree of safety even in melee. They wear light but durable boots for quick travel over any terrain, even while exchanging arrows with Armenian archers. Their bows are composite recurves for solid armor penetration against even enemy cataphracts. Not pictured here, our archers also carry spears for after their arrows have run out. Instead of standing around or fleeing when they run out of arrows, these archers have the option of raising their spears and charging the enemy lines, handling themselves quite well in melee.

Amazonian Shield-Women
The shield-women surprised me even more than the archers’ melee prowess. A medium infantry unit, the shields carry slings as well as their shields and broadswords. I was startled, in fact, when my infantry line started exchanging missiles with the Spartan skirmishers in one of the battles. While they didn’t hold the line as well as some of the heavier infantry units, the ranged option presented some unexpected battlefield tactics.

Interestingly, the archers, shield-women, and basic hoplites all have the same armor in this mod. I love the uniformity this presents aesthetically, once again suggesting a militarized society with an organized and efficient war-machine. Like the archers, our infantrywomen’s helms and armor should keep them well-protected in light or medium melee. Their slings should offer decent armor penetration, while their broadswords are designed for splitting or removing heads. Those round hoplite shields provide excellent protection against most attacks, and are great for smashing in the faces of uppity Spartans.

Amazonian Cavalry
Though the cavalry is probably the least diverse element of the Amazonian military, I was still pretty impressed with their designs. The one shown here is their heaviest cavalry, designed to smash into Roman flanks or ride down their archer auxiliaries. The weapon types and the horses’ bronze headdresses are reminiscent of the Macedonian shock cavalry, thus I suspect that our Amazons use similar cavalry tactics (as did most of Asia Minor at the time).

According to Greek legend, the Ancient Scythians were supposed to be descended from an escaped Amazon tribe. Thus it seems thematically appropriate to me that their cavalry soldiers wear a Scythian-style scale armor. Though lighter than chainmail, the scales offer similar flexibility and superior arrow-deflection. Our cavalrywomen’s helms are Corinthian, like the shield-women’s, and they wear bronze greaves and padded wrappings to protect their legs from infantry swords.

Daughters of Hades
The Daughters of Hades are the veteran-elite soldiers of the Amazonian army. With mounted and unmounted versions, the Daughters have the best training, the heaviest armor, and can go round for round against the Spartan elite or the Praetorian guard. One seriously badass group of ladies.

Our heroines’ helms look like some cross between a Corinthian helm and a kettle helm, with feathers and a plume. Their torsos are well-protected by heavy scale armor for deflection and padded arming tunics for absorption. Similarly, their legs are protected by bronze greaves and padded leg wraps. The bronze lion emblems should offer additional deflection from blows to hour heroines’ hearts. Like the lighter infantry, they carry broadswords and hoplite shields for dishing out or taking the heaviest of frontline melee.

In addition to these units, the Amazon Empire has access to heavier archers, sword and spear militia, light infantry wearing wolf pelts, pike phalanxes, war chariots, horse archers, shipboard marines, and even huntresses with trained war dogs. Their unit selection is extensive and well-rounded, if a bit overpowered for multiplayer combat. On the whole I’m extremely impressed with Shannon’s efforts and applaud her integrity and creativity in this mod.

I’ve taken tons of screen caps, so I’m happy to discuss other units in a future writeup, if anyone is interested. I went ahead and posted additional group pics on my Tumblr, as well. Huge thanks to Shannon for the use of her mod for the blog. Total War: Rome 2 is property of Sega and the Creative Assembly. Thanks for reading, folks! Take care and stay awesome!

Maris and Morrigan, by Yama Ocre

Maris and Morrigan, by Yama Ocre

“Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall
Like the seashore clings to the sea
Like you’ll never get rid of your shadow
You’ll never get rid of me”
—Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, “My Shadow and Me”

As well as being a sucker for ladies in armor, I’ve long been a sucker for ladies in snappy hats. So those of you who know my preferences and biases will understand why I found Yama’s wizard/fighter duo so irresistible. Commissioned by a patron, Maris and Morrigan make for a sharply-dressed pair of adventuresses. I like the archetype reversal here: where so often we see the tall, knightly human or elf fighter-character with the quirky halfling or gnome wizard/bard/sorcerer sidekick, instead we have a gorgeous lady wizard with an elegant, knightly halfling partner-in-crime.

I don’t know these ladies’ backgrounds, but it’s interesting to speculate over the characters and their partnership. I don’t get any kind of hero/sidekick vibe from them—there’s a level of equality there that I’ve rarely found in human/halfling relations. Both ladies look competent and good-humored, like they’ve adventured often together and have a healthy respect for the other’s abilities. I can easily imagine them as that pair who know exactly what the other is going to do at any given time during a fight and can coordinate their efforts without ever speaking. Whether they’re an odd-couple, a dynamic duo, partners-in-crime, or even girlfriends, I like the strong, sisterly bond represented between them.

Maris’s outfit looks more thematically fitting for a bard or swashbuckler, but is hardly inappropriate for a flamboyant wizard or sorceress. The cocked hat is very important: as well as looking dapper, it protects her head from rain and sun. Her primary protection is a leather coat, harnessed at the waist for deflection should our lovely spell-caster find herself in melee or target of an opportunistic goblin archer.

Lovely Maris’s fancy paisley shirt is light and loose for unhindered movement around the battlefield. Those gloves are fingerless to protect her hands without interrupting her intricate spell-casting gestures. Maris’s tights are loose for running or dungeon crawling. Her boots, meanwhile, are knee high for lower-leg protection and effective combat footing.

Morrigan’s armor looks both badass and adorable on her tiny, halfling frame. The armor itself is a partial-plate: metal plates strapped over a flexible leather backing. Morr’s cuirass is a stylized breastplate for deflecting and absorbing blows to the torso, with spaulders to absorb disabling blows to the shoulders. Her arms are protected from severing blows by her leather arming coat and steel vambraces. Her gauntlets are hinged over leather gloves for optimal finger protection without obstructing the grip on her bastard sword.

As a halfling, Morrigan probably requires a lot of dexterity in melee, and thus it makes sense to rely on her flexible arming coat for tummy protection, rather than a rigid abdominal plate. A waist-plate and tassets protect our heroine’s waist and hips from spearheads or maces, though she relies on leather or woolen pants for her upper legs. The armored knee-pads, greaves, and boots seem odd to me, given the unlikelihood the average orc has a decent angle of attack on Morr’s legs. That and the pointed toes make me wonder if the boots are designed for riding instead, where her legs would actually be somewhat vulnerable. (How epic would that be? This smart, scrappy little halfling fighter saddled up on the back of some wolf or riding dog?)

And now I want to print out a character sheet and roll up a halfling Weapons-Master who specializes bastard swords.

It’s also important to remember than anytime a character or a character’s best friend is a wizard, there’s a very good chance that they’ll have access to magic items. Maybe Maris’s hat is merely snappy, or maybe it’s enchanted to improve her spell-resistance. Maybe that broach is merely a family heirloom, or maybe it casts a Haste spell three times per day. Similarly, Morr’s breastplate might be everyday terrestrial steel, or it might be magically protected from fire attacks. Those earrings might be mere keepsakes, or they might offer a bonus to our heroine’s dexterity. Anything goes in magic and adventuring.

Huge thanks to Yama for the use of his ladies for the blog. And apologies to anyone who now has “Me and My Shadow” stuck in their head. Thanks, as always, for reading, folks. Take care and stay awesome!

Chun Li, by Tim Löchner

Chun Li, by Tim Löchner

Okay, NaNoWriMo done for another year. Back to business as usual!

I guess it would have been summer of ’91 or ’92, I was at a Pizza Hut with my brothers and some cousins, watching the arcade machines while our parents ordered pizza (none of us thought to bring quarters). A game called Street Fighter II was running on auto-play, and I remember watching this little Chinese girl kicking the crap out of some big sumo-wrestler dude. We all thought this was pretty cool to watch, and we rooted for this cutie every time she came on screen. While I probably didn’t think anything of it at the time, I don’t recall that I’d ever seen a female playable character in an arcade game before.

I’ll admit that I know pretty much squat about the in-game lore for the Street Fighter series. I might be able to name most of the twelve characters from Street Fighter II, and I think I played it, Street Fighter II: Turbo, and maybe one or two of the Street Fighter versus Marvel-related games. I’ve seen bits of the 1994 Street Fighter movie and don’t really desire to see more. I’ve never watched The Legend of Chun Li, nor have I read the comics or other material for the franchise. So admittedly, my knowledge of her background is patchy.

What I do know about Chun Li is that she’s a woman on a mission. In SF2, her primary goal was avenging her father’s death at the hands of generic 90’s villain M Bison. Her ending where she avenges her father and decides to go back to being a normal girl again is the only ending I ever saw for the game (I was at the neighbors and he had to beat a few of the fights for me). A quick Wikipedia search was a bit more informative, showing that she was also an agent for Interpol throughout the series. I like that she’s a character with a strong sense of justice and a desire to protect the innocent.

Though her outfit varies from game to game, Chun Li’s primary garment in Tim’s depiction is a qipao or cheongsam, a traditional early 20th century Chinese dress. Though sports modified for a freer range of movement, I worry that the flappy dress parts might be a hindrance in high-speed, high-impact fighting. The sleeves are short and loose for unhindered arm movements and quick punches. Her abdominal wrap helps keep her dress in place during a street fight and likely provides additional padding against knocks to the belly.

For arm protection, she wears spiked bracelets for brutal stiff-arm attacks and for punishing her opponents when she blocks their attacks. For pants she wears simple tights that don’t hinder her overall flexibility. She wears white leather combat boots to protect her feet and for high kicks to the head. But perhaps the most iconic part of her outfit is the “ox-horn” hairdo with ribbons and silk brocades to keep her hair out of the way during a rumble. If I were to make one suggestion about her outfit, I’d recommend a sports bra for balance and comfort to accommodate her high-speed, acrobatic fighting style.

From what I understand, her fighting style varies from game to game, but is intended as a highly acrobatic mixed martial arts, adapting fighting styles from all over the world. From kempo and judo to hard-hitting TaeKwonDo to the more dance-like capoeria, her style offers a multinational butt-whooping that should keep her opponents guessing as to what she’ll do next.

I’ve heard several people point this out, but one of the most impressive aspects of Chun Li’s character is that she’s one of the first non-damsel-in-distress lady characters in video games. She’s technically the first fighting-game heroine, and she came at a time when video games were first becoming a mainstay in home entertainment. She got people’s attention and immediately joined Samus Aran, the Princess of Moonbrooke, the White Mage, Link, and Ms Pac-Man on what at the time was a tragically short list of strong, interesting video-game heroines.

Huge thanks to Tim for his terrific portrait of our heroine. Feel free to check out his work on ArtStation and Facebook as well. Character property of Capcom. Thanks as always for reading, folks! Take care and stay awesome!

NaNoWriMo, post 4

Hey, so final post for NaNoWriMo. Fell way short of the 50,000-word goal, but got a lot of groundwork laid down for the story, so I’m calling it a partial victory. It’ll be back to my regular updates this weekend.

As my character Captain Vola is based somewhat on the ancient Sarmatians, I thought it best to have her bring a number of Sarmatian-style cavalry tactics to the Tollesian army. One of those tactics was to train cavalry to function in multiple combat roles, depending on the situation. Thus Vola’s cavalry squadrons are trained to charge or skirmish, depending on the army’s needs in a battle or campaign. All of her horsemen and women are accomplished lancers, flankers, javelineers, and horse-archers. Their armor is mainly bronze-scale with bracers, greaves, and open-faced helms. Depending on their role, Vola’s cavalry pack a kopis, cavalry bow and quivers, and either a spear or set of javelins. Each rider carries two shields, a large, hoplite shield for melee and a smaller forearm shield that doesn’t impede their bowmanship.

Keep in mind as well that line-breaking cavalry charges like those performed by lance-toting knights or Byzantine cataphracts are not possible given the assumed Iron-Age technology level because the stirrup hasn’t been invented yet. With nothing to brace their feet against, a rider is more likely to be dismounted by a high-impact charge than slay their opponent. Thus while I’ve written flanking charges and cavalry-vs-cavalry melees, there won’t be any Gawain-style last-ditch, formation-shattering cavalry charges. The following excerpts come from First Empress’s final, climactic battle scene against the encroaching barbarian horde. Having specifically targeted and devastated the barbarian cavalry camps over the course of the campaign, Vola’s squadrons have whittled down the barbarian cavalry to just a few hundred horse remaining to counter her thousand elite riders.

As before, these scenes are still very much in the rough-draft phase, so any feedback is welcome. Thanks for reading, folks!

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Excerpt 4

Poor stupid fuckers, Vola smirked without pity as her thousand cavalry charged the ill-trained Vedrian horse-warriors on their scrubby ponies. The past weeks, her skirmish cavalry had whittled the horse-warriors down enough that they had barely six hundred assorted horse to counter her bands of badass, mounted motherfuckers.

Vola shrieked one of her people’s battle cries as she led her squadron of lancers straight for the enemy. Her archer and javelin cavalry broke to each side of the enemy horse. Holding her spear in an overhand grip, Vola thrust it through the chest of the first horse-warrior she encountered. The fucker shrieked as the spear took him from his mount.

Drawing her long kopis, she let her armor deflect an enemy javelin, thrown at short range. Smirking, Vola rode the thrower down, lopping his arm off as her horse passed his. Her shield deflected an across-body spear attack. She struck out with her shield as she passed the enemy spearman, slamming him from his horse to be trampled by horsemen on both sides.

Her cavalry skirmishers continued to punish the enemy flanks while her lancers shattered the center of the enemy formation. Wheeling right to the east of the battlefield, her cavalry regrouped out the other side of the Vedrian formation.

Vola cackled aloud as she surveyed the damage her ballsy bastards had inflicted on the enemy horse. Barely a hundred Vedrian cavalry remained mounted, with fewer than thirty casualties among the Tollesian horse. The remaining horse attempted to flee, wheeling to their left and searching for an avenue of escape.

“Let’s wipe ‘em out, lads!” she ordered her squadron, spurring to intercept their retreat. Last thing they needed was for the hairy shits to grow their balls back and try to cause trouble later.

* * *

A few dozen riderless horses were all that was left of the Vedrian cavalry. Undertrained and underequipped, the barbarian riders had been no match for the elite Tollesian cavalry.
Some war chief in the rear echelons of the Vedrian horde apparently had his act together enough to defend the rearguard, however. As Vola’s cavalry regrouped, about two hundred Gannic spear-warriors formed two ranks of spears and shields to discourage cavalry charges to the rear. Behind them, bow-warriors and javelin-warriors readied their projectiles, daring the horsemen to come into range.

Vola chuckled at their prudent but amateurish efforts. If her boys were one-trick pony-riders like these Vedrian horse-warriors, their defense might have worked. Sheathing her kopis, Vola slung her larger shield across her back and strapped on her archer’s shield. Her lancers and javelin cavalry did the same, drawing their cavalry bows from their sheaths.

“Circle up!” she ordered her riders. “Let’s see how well the motherfuckers can hit moving targets!”

Riding in a wide, constantly right-turning oval, her cavalry readied their bows for action. After a couple of circuits, they expanded their oval to bring the charge within bow range. Drawing three arrows from her quiver, Vola held two in her bow hand and notched the third as her horse passed inside arrow range.

Accelerating into an arc parallel to the Vedrian spear-formation, Vola loosed three arrows into the Vedrian spear-wall or into the unshielded archers and skirmishers behind the wall. Arrow one wounded a javelin-warrior, arrow two thudded into an enemy shield, and arrow three took a spear-warrior in the shoulder. To conserve her horse’s stamina, Vola slowed to a trot once the arc hat taken her back out of enemy missile range.

Vola smirked at the clear uncertainty in the postures of the Gannic spear-line. Having no familiarity with horse-archer tactics, the poor dumb bastards had no idea how to counter her circle. A band of even light cavalry to ride in and disrupt the rotation might have done the trick, but with no horse left, their only real option was to increase the number of arrows and javelins and hope that the concentrated missile attacks might drive off the pesky horse-archers.

After a couple more circuits and a slowly dwindling rear-guard, it was clear that the barbarians hadn’t figured this out.

NaNoWriMo, post 3

The next selection features my favorite character to write: Captain Vola, cavalry commander for Queen Viarra’s forces. Vola is a Verleki, a horse-riding barbarian from the east. I based her people somewhat loosely on the Scythians, Sarmations, and other Ancient- and Classical-era, horse-riding tribes from north of the Black Sea, with a bit of Mongol, Hun, and maybe even a little Apache thrown in. In Vola’s native culture, both men and women ride in battle and are required to kill a foe in battle and present the head as proof before they’re allowed to marry. In her 2os, Vola was captured by a rival tribe and sold as a slave, eventually ending up bought by General Derron of Kel Fimmaril. Derron recognized her horsemanship immediately and offered her freedom in exchange for teaching her skills to his cavalry soldiers. Now in her 50s, Vola serves as Queen Viarra’s mistress of horse, training, expanding, and integrating her hegemony’s cavalry soldiers.

Vola is my favorite character to write because she’s the character I have the least control over. I rarely start one of her scenes with a clear idea of how she’ll handle a given situation. She’s just this incredibly tough old broad who intimidates pretty much everyone she meets. She’s leather-skinned, tattooed, scarred, wiry, and battle-hardened. But the fun part is that she’s actually quite intelligent and introspective, knowing her bitchy, barbarian reputation causes others to underestimate just how much she picks up on.

The following scene takes place when Queen Viarra’s army is on the march north to deal with the renegade Vedrian chieftain Vedon. While often boring, one of the cavalry’s most important duties is guarding the foraging parties as they search for extra food for the army. While babysitting a foraging party, an Anache scout arrives, warning of an approaching party of Vedrian raiders…

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Excerpt 3

An Anache came running up the creek bed moments later. “Raiding party!” he shouted, pointing back the way he came. “We’ve got a dozen Anache keeping them busy, but they’ve got at least fifty warriors.”

“Gather what you’ve got and get your asses back to camp,” Vola ordered the foragers. “Skirmishers, screen the fodder boys, make sure there’s no other ambushes on the way. Cavalry, with me! Where away?” she asked the Anache.

“Follow the creek bed until you hear the sounds of battle,” the wraith instructed, pointing the way he’d come.

Vola spurred her horse up the dry creek, hearing her squad thundering behind her. Fifty warriors were probably more than her eighteen cavalry could take, but one of Vola’s favorite aspects of woodland warfare was the knowledge that the raiders had no way of knowing how few Tollesian horse were actually attacking them.

A minute or so later, her squad spotted an Anache hauling a wounded comrade over his shoulder.

“How’s the party going?” Vola asked, slowing to a fast trot as they approached.

“One dead, one wounded so far,” the wraith shouted back as she passed, patting his unconscious comrade. “Nora’s giving them one hell of a scrap, but we’re losing ground fast!”

“Let’s save m’girl, lads!” Vola bellowed to her squad, picking up speed again.

She heard the sounds of shouting moments later. Ahead she could see two, no, three Anache exchanging javelins with a band of hairy, shirtless fuckers with javelins, spears, and shields.

Vola belted out one of her people’s battle cries, spooking the shit out of the Vedrian raiders as she charged up. Drawing three arrows, Vola held the two in her bow hand as she aimed and fired on the first raider. The arrow took him in the chest, to the right of his heart, making him stagger back. Arrows whistled past her as other members of her squadron fanned out amid the trees and loosed on the unarmored raiders. Alerted to the presence of Tollesian horsemen, the Gan raised their hide- and wooden shields. Most of the arrows hit shield, but several managed to catch arm, leg, or shoulder.

Loosing her remaining arrows in quick succession, Vola hit shield with her first and eyeball with her second. The eyeball hit fell backward, screaming.

Sheathing her bow, she drew her kopis and charged full-tilt into the first wave of raiders. In field warfare, charging even unarmored spearmen would have been suicidal, as they’d simply form up and brace their spears. Here in the forest, there was no way to set up in formation, or even a respectable mob.

Screeching another Verleki cry, Vola charged her dappled mount into a dumbass who apparently thought his shield would somehow suppress her charge. The impact slammed the warrior aside, and Vola thought she might have heard his arm breaking. At the same time, she slashed her kopis into the shoulder of another warrior, severing his arm or close to it.

Around her and throughout the nearby trees she could hear barbarians shouting in alarm in their thuggish Gannic language. Her horse-boys were tough motherfuckers, those she’d imported from Kel Fimmaril and the local northern Tollesians—mainly from Chyllar. She’d spent much of the past month and a half drilling them in the forest, making sure they and their horses were skilled at maneuvering on cluttered terrain and using the trees and deadfalls to their advantage.

Their prowess showed through as the pants-wearing barbarian sheep-fuckers fell back before their onslaught. As trained, the cavalrymen hooted and hollered as they charged into or loosed arrows upon the disorganized Vedrians. The extra noise contributed to the barbarians’ confusion, apparently convincing most of them that there were far more Tollesian riders than present. Panicking, the warriors turned and fled, a few of them stopping to gather up wounded allies.

Slowing her mount, Vola sheathed her kopis and drew her bow, firing two arrows into retreating backs before the pack had fled out of range.

“Let ‘em run, lads!” she ordered her squad. Around her and scattered through the nearby woods, her squadron disengaged, letting the cowards flee. “How’s m’girl Nora?” she asked, looking around.

“I’m here, thank you, Captain,” Nora assured her, helping one of her squaddies support a wounded teammate. Nora had a bloody nose and a gash in her left leg, but seemed whole.

“I see that,” Vola laughed. Tough girl. “How’s your squad?”

“Five wounded, one dead,” Nora reported. “The Gan were being pretty cautious, I don’t think they knew how few of us there were,” she admitted.

“Get our wounded on horses,” Vola ordered, pointing to two of their downed Anache. “Then search for any prisoners you can find. Make captives any who can walk on their own, kill any who can’t.”