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Old September 12th, 2008, 05:59 PM
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Default Re: New nation : Shangri La, Hidden City of the Secret Masters

The sprites look great, Nounours. As far as proper weaponry for EA, I would say the Phurba is your dagger of choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phurba

It would obviously work well as a magical weapon.

The Kukri, on the other hand, I think you're right about it being better for MA. It could show up in EA in some form-it may have been brought by the Alexandrian Greeks (in the form of the Falcata/Kopis)-but you can also argue that it showed up as late as the 16th century, with the Turks (Yataghan).

Here's a nice set of images, mostly of the Kukri, but with tarwars and katars, and some other interesting swords/knives, also:

http://www.himalayan-imports.com/faq/Historical.htm

Here's some modern images, which includes a Nepalese axe and some other tools. The company, Himalayan Imports, does pretty good quality stuff, and most of it authentic, from what I've been able to find out. And they're very good about giving you some background/history on what they make-they have some nice walkthroughs on their kukri-making, for instance.

http://www.himalayan-imports.com/one-time-knives.html

Here's an extensive discussion about ancient Tibetan soldiers/warriors, and their equipment and practices. I haven't read the whole thing, but there's some interesting speculation and documentation, including:
"Certainly some Tibetan armies, by the 9th century, seem to have been composed entirely of cavalry. Beckwith (in “The Tibetans in the Ordos and North China: Considerations on the Role of the Tibetan Empire in World History” in Christopher Beckwith (ed.), Silver on Lapis: Tibetan Literary Culture and History, Tibet Society, Bloomington, Indiana, 1987), mentions an army of 50,000 cavalry sent to attack the Uighurs in the Ordos in 809, along with other long-distance campaigns into Mongolia that would probably entail all-cavalry armies. Shakabpa (Shakabpa, Tsepan W D, Tibet: A Political History, Yale University Press, 1967) recounts the surrender of an Indian king to a Tibetan expedition: seeing long columns of Tibetan cavalry making their way into his country, he assumed that so many cavalry must be followed by an even greater number of infantry and elephants, and so surrendered at once against such overwhelming odds – but in fact, the cavalry were all there were!

***Other sources mention infantry, but they appear to be conventional infantry marching on foot; for example, a Tibetan chronicle describes an army of the Imperial period on the march, with cavalry in the van, archers and "dagger-armed soothsayers" in the centre, and mailed spearmen marching last***

(Thomas, F W, “Tibetan Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. VI: The Tibetan Army”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society April 1933 and July 1933). I have only ever seen the dismounting idea mentioned in the Tongdian quote."

That last bit seems like something right out of Dominions3, with "dagger-armed soothsayers" (aka mages) accompanying the army

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/ind...st=15&start=15

Here's an article by the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/ar...gn/13armo.html

It includes a video, but the video wouldn't play on my computer.

And last (but not least) here's an extensive website on Tibet and Nepal-focused museum collections:

http://www.himalayanart.org/links/in...?categoryid=21

Here's a picture of a Phurba:
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Last edited by HoneyBadger; September 12th, 2008 at 06:09 PM..
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