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Azigarath

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Oh, yeah. Devil, demon and dragon all direct to Satan.
anyways, I recall reading the first 2 pages of this story some months ago, but it was not until about an hour ago that i decided to read from the beginning.
I liked the beginning, but got a bit uneasy about the knights being slaves. I was hoping for more violence, but the war is just a breif clash and that's it so maybe its secondary for now.
What I found a bit odd are the knights with common names. They were militiamen and are now knights? thats a bit off concerning Medieval culture but who cares.
Also, Richard the Lionhearted deployed his army so that each crossbowman was supproted by at least 1 spearman, meaning that his crossbowmen could fire without fear of cavalry.
In fact, the common mercenary of medieval europe would be a good with crossbow and spear.
also, I feel that you underestimate chainmail a bit. during the crusades, knights in chainmail were reported to have several arrows in their chests but could continue fighting.
also, one knight was struck by a lance, which made him lean back until his head nearly passed the stirrup. he just straightened himself and was relatively alright, and this was witnessed by both Franks and some Egyptians.
I dont remember which, but a Byzantine prince armoured in Frankish mail was actually struck by two lances at the same time, at the front and back, but his mail protected him enough to prevent serious damage.
Also, an army of 400 knights routed and destroyed Saladin's force of 20,000 soldiers.
as for arrows going through visors, the eyesights would have small reinforcing ridges around the opening of the sight, which could stop arrows.
chainmail can be thickened up to three times, meaning that some knights wore 3 mail shirts linked into one another, and this was enough to stop bodkin arrows.
lastly, knights would wear padded garments beneath their armour, which coushioned blows.
hm, looks like i need another post.

14-Dec-2010 05:50:56

Azigarath

Posts: 9,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

...continuing, some knights were killed and not a single mail link was broken in their armour.
reason being is because chainmail is flexible, so blunt traunma goes through it, especialy at areas of the human body with bones, like head, shin, elbow, etc.
Horses panicking and rearing depended upon the horse. horses were trained to kill people, as when theyd rear, they were trained to swipe their front hooves at people, and sometimes their hooves would have been spiked.
In Scotland, the Scots would fight horses by cutting their front shins off as the horse charged, of course they would sidestep and kill the fallen rider quickly (and of course the pike came along, which came after 9foot spears appeared).
of course you probably knew most of these things.
i'd better get back to the story before I trail off into medieval stuff.
yeah, the story shows RuneScape reflected with some crusades, so of course this is RuneScape, not medieval europe.
also, its your thread, your story, your rules, so what i think doesnt matter.
in the end keep doing what you are. you get more posts than me so its obvious that I don't need to put any suggestions, so keep up the good work, your posts last year on a story of mine dont matter now.
until next time taunter of dragons.

14-Dec-2010 05:56:56

Smok Taunter

Posts: 58,110 Emerald Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Well that was a lengthy read.
But considering the number of links in a mail suit I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few poorly made ones that slipped by due to human error. Either out of laziness or a rush. Either the two factors I think could effect the quality of the mail. From there it's just luck. And I really kind of needed to kill half of the group at the start and to disable the other two for a short period.
And slavery was a fairly common thing in much of Europe and the Middle-East. One of the ways a man could become a slave is from loosing in battle, to pay a debt, capture, and so on. In the middle-ages much of the Arabic slaves I believe were bought from the Turks. These men would be worked a bit, taught to read, write, and to fight and then enrolled into the Syrian armies. The Mameluke system was very popular and actually survived a very long time. I think it wasn't cut out until the 1800's. The same applied to the Turkish Jannisary system.
People were captured and turned to slaves or bought, then went through converting to Islam, being taught to read and write and then drafted into the army. Often times Jannisaries had excellent post-service careers which prompted a change in policy from using prisoners of war or drafted Christians to allowing anyone into the Jannisary corps. I think in the end though, that might'v spelled the end of it, or helped it along.

14-Dec-2010 19:18:39

Smok Taunter

Posts: 58,110 Emerald Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Also, funnily enough in some Slavic myth the Zmei isn't totally evil like the rest of the dragons of European myth. From what I read there's local legends of cities having guardian Zmei. Or they're neither good or evil and often times live in far away castles with treasure and women. This I think allows for a few historical characters to adopt the story they're a son of a dragon, which might'v been the case of Dracula and some other Slavic nations too close to Turkey.

14-Dec-2010 19:21:29

Azigarath

Posts: 9,271 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Sometimes Slavic mythology and history is really interesting.

you're right about chainmail at some of the links being weak. I forgot that the chainmail was for a lord and lesser nobles in the story, while the best mail was probably reserved for kings or the higher classes of nobles.
I guess there's always chance and quality regarding armour.
about slavery, I do recall reading about how a crusader was sold for the price of a single shoe after a battle.
similarly, during the first crusade, I think when the crusaders pillaged Byzantium, it all started over the price of shoes.
I think during one battle, Middle Eastern horsemen one time rode only female horses, while European crusaders rode stallions.
yeah, that's all for now, don't wanna trail off into more stuff, so hopefully this clears things up, I'll be back to read once more chapters come along.

yeah maybe, lol.
I'd better stay on-topic in the future. D:

16-Dec-2010 03:19:14 - Last edited on 16-Dec-2010 03:36:17 by Azigarath

Smok Taunter

Posts: 58,110 Emerald Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I don't think the gender of horses really matter much, or the prices of shoes and sandals in the story. Although the bit about Byzantium being sacked over foot-wear prices is rather funny. Maybe Adidas had a monopoly going in the region...

16-Dec-2010 03:25:52