Being an avid fanboy of Sci-Fi/Fantasy in general and a huge gamer for most of my life, the concepts of armor styles, clothing, culture and the reasons behind “why” the characters wear what they wear and act the way they do are very important to me. The stories I grew up with at that time dealt with serious adult themes and moral issues that marked me for life. Movies like the Ralph Bakeshi’s Lord of the Rings Series and Wizards animated movies and even the Saturday morning cartoons I watched had solid stories to them with complete worlds. Cartoon shows like Thundarr the Barbarian, The Herculoids and the ThunderCats, the artwork of Dungeons and Dragons, reading novels like Piers Anthony’s Split Infinity and Xanth Series, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Princess of Mars Series, Jack L. Chalker’s Well World Series, Joel Rosenberg’s The Guardian of the Flame Series, Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Series are many of the formative influences that inflamed my love for the genre in my formative years. The heroes, heroines and species that were in these stories varied greatly in their physical appearance and equipment. Some were heavily armored, while others had light to no armor, but it all made sense in regards to the world/universe that they lived in and to the overall storyline.
Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to play Dungeons and Dragons. I always wanted to play the campaigns and bought them just to read the stories, but at that time finding other geeks wasn’t so easy. Whoever they were they had to be in range of my bicycle. Also my family, like many adults at that time, thought Dungeons and Dragons was “Satin’s Game”. Sounds crazy now-a-days, but it was a serious concern at the time. Dr. Demento did a great spoof mocking this insanity to break people out of their idiocy at the time. Really, they were just the previews of the modern LAN party. That’s because any “gaming party” or “LAN party” or all night “MMO bender” was always fueled with high caffeinated soda like Jolt Cola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Cola or Bawls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawls and pizza.
When I think back to that time, it’s sad to think that playing board games like Risk with total world domination was acceptable, but playing anything with a fantasy theme was considered evil. It makes you question the morality of society at that time, although in reality it was just ignorant people afraid of things they didn’t understand and weren’t interested in understanding. Although I like this graphic rendition better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Rop4Zt-S0 I’ve put the full skit down below, because it has the full skit with the “Den of Satan” intro.
Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to play Dungeons and Dragons. I always wanted to play the campaigns and bought them just to read the stories, but at that time finding other geeks wasn’t so easy. Whoever they were they had to be in range of my bicycle. Also my family, like many adults at that time, thought Dungeons and Dragons was “Satin’s Game”. Sounds crazy now-a-days, but it was a serious concern at the time. Dr. Demento did a great spoof mocking this insanity to break people out of their idiocy at the time. Really, they were just the previews of the modern LAN party. That’s because any “gaming party” or “LAN party” or all night “MMO bender” was always fueled with high caffeinated soda like Jolt Cola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolt_Cola or Bawls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawls and pizza.
When I think back to that time, it’s sad to think that playing board games like Risk with total world domination was acceptable, but playing anything with a fantasy theme was considered evil. It makes you question the morality of society at that time, although in reality it was just ignorant people afraid of things they didn’t understand and weren’t interested in understanding. Although I like this graphic rendition better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Rop4Zt-S0 I’ve put the full skit down below, because it has the full skit with the “Den of Satan” intro.
Growing up as a kid, I never thought about the female heroines in the books, cartoons and movies I watched as being weak or men being super, I never questioned the armor or lack thereof. I just loved the action, the characters and the morality of the stories. I never looked at the female characters in the “Dungeon and Dragons Cartoon” as being oversexualized weak females. Sheila and Diana were strong characters that spoke their mind and fought smartly. In “The Herculoids”, Tara was a woman to be reckoned with who didn’t shirk from a fight and was beautiful to boot. Even in “Thundarr the Barbarian” where wielding a Lightsaber came into vogue before there was ever a Star Wars, there was the main female lead named Princess Ariel who was kick ass and was highly intelligent. Lastly, at least for this blog’s list is Cheetara from the ThunderCats who was an incredible warrior and priestess who was her own woman. For me, these female characters had a major effect on me, drawing me towards strong females in my adult life. For those of you who don’t know the comics or want to reminiscent, I’ve added the trailers to the shows below.
Between all of these different Sci-Fi and Fantasy influences, I have a twisted perspective on armor styles to a certain extent. D&D basic was my first influence on fantasy art. David C. Sutherland III’s artwork was flashy and cool with fit characters, but it wasn’t the overtly sexualized artwork that you see in modern day MMO’s. I especially loved the iconic character artwork for Morgan Ironwolf. Where did you think Startüm Ironwolf got his last name from? Here are some of the links to the artwork from that time, although basic there is a certain flare to the images:
Between all of these different Sci-Fi and Fantasy influences, I have a twisted perspective on armor styles to a certain extent. D&D basic was my first influence on fantasy art. David C. Sutherland III’s artwork was flashy and cool with fit characters, but it wasn’t the overtly sexualized artwork that you see in modern day MMO’s. I especially loved the iconic character artwork for Morgan Ironwolf. Where did you think Startüm Ironwolf got his last name from? Here are some of the links to the artwork from that time, although basic there is a certain flare to the images:
and most especially iconic Morgan Ironwolf
ElfQuest was an especially a favorite animation cartoon for me. The story of how Elves combined their lives with wolves to become a new species to survive a savage world explained the Elves clothing style and barbarian. Like any fan I loved the relationship that the Elves shared with their wild wolf companions.
This story concept was used in different ways. I loved how in the Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quest book “Return to Brookmere” the story used giant weasels in the story line. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/878980.Return_to_Brookmere I never forgot the story even as I got older. I actually even re-read the story to get a feel for how Return to Brookmere flowed to an extent.
In many ways the Wild Elves of Irlendria are flavored with many of these traits. The link Argus and Enelya share, the culture of the Wild Elf tribe that was influenced by all of these things, but with my own twist. When I was first developing the clothing and style I found a picture that in many ways exemplified my visual conception of the Wild Elves within my story here:
In many ways the Wild Elves of Irlendria are flavored with many of these traits. The link Argus and Enelya share, the culture of the Wild Elf tribe that was influenced by all of these things, but with my own twist. When I was first developing the clothing and style I found a picture that in many ways exemplified my visual conception of the Wild Elves within my story here:
The recent love/hate relationship modern gamers have with the over-feminization of female characters is new to the genre to a certain extent. I’m not saying that female armor was not oversexualized prior to this, but I think female armor has moved to a level of overt sexual appeal that was before not common to the genre in general and one that I am of two minds about. On the one hand, I have played with many female gamers and know they love to have their character look “HOT” and like sexy armor to a point. Usually until the armor between male and female characters begin to look something like this.
While visually pleasing to the eye for many of us guys, I can understand the negative feedback that questions the total impracticality of the armor. To a point, having physically fit female characters makes total sense, so that part of the character design doesn’t bother me. I mean, if you’re adventuring and fighting all of the time, you’re going to be physically fit and muscle mass is reasonably different between the sexes. I think my biggest complaint with the MMO’s move in the direction of skimpy armor for their female characters is the lack of reasoning for its existence within the game’s universe. What is the reason that a female player’s skimpy armor is just as effective as a male player’s total body covering armor? It normally doesn’t make any sense. This lack of following the MMO’s universe’s rules is what I think is so upsetting to a lot of players. Well, besides the fact that the game designers are dressing their female avatars like willowy stripers. I enjoyed Gnoggin’s video discussion on this issue.
Here are some of my favorite spoofs on this negative skimpy armor themes.
When I was creating my universe this whole concept of armor and reasoning was something that I had to sit down and contemplate. On one side, I wanted some of my characters to be sexy and skimpily clad, while other characters I wanted to be fully armored. What would be the reasoning for this? What would make sense to have this in my storyline? After a lot of thought, I addressed this on three different levels.
The first was designing my sorcerers/sorceresses and wizards to pull their magic power in through their skin. The more exposed skin they had, the faster they could draw in their magic power to store their mana pool. Another point on power intake rule is that it differs for Paladins and Clerics due to the fact that their power is derived from a “holy” nature. This gave me an excellent reasoning and a beautiful opening to have fun with some of my special characters within the story.
The second part to the rules within my universe was the incorporation of rune tattoos into the skin that can be used for protection. This “powered tattoo option” gives me a lot of flexibility for my magic welders to show more skin for their magical absorption, while still having an option to protect themselves in battle to a point. Albeit, this protection is not as effective as fully armored warriors with powered runes inscribed into their armor, still the main important thing for me was to follow the rules of my universe and have the skimpy armor worn for a reason.
The third level I address this difference in armor was culturally. My Centaurs are similar to American Plains Indians/preverbal barbarians. While they use armor to a point, culturally they are not inclined to use much armor in general. This also includes clothing. The Centaurs in my universe are not concerned with nudity. The items they wear are for carrying weapons and equipment and not for modesties sake. On the other hand, the Minotaurs within my storyline wear heavy armor for protection and clothing, because it’s socially expected within their society. Having this “reasoning” was extremely important for me in creating my universe and the various races within the world of Irlendria.
Anyway, just to give everyone and update on my progress. The editing is coming along great for Destiny. I haven’t gone back over the story until now, which was something I purposely intended to do. This is because the longer it’s been since I’ve read the story, the easier it is for me to evaluate my writing and find my errors. While I like Flight’s storyline, now-a-days when I go back over my writing I now find areas that I’m not happy with even though I love the storyline itself. I see where I could have done better. This is something I want to try to clean up once I’ve passed on my editing corrections to my friends who are helping to clean up the book, before I publish Destiny. The cool thing is I’m not seeing this now that I’m going back over the words for Destiny. Instead I keep thinking to myself, “Damn this is good!”
Like I said earlier, I have a lot of stuff I wanted to put out and talk about, but just didn’t have time. I did have to take an evening away from editing to get the post out, but this whole discussion over the universe and characters styles and clothing was pretty fun for me to talk about. For now that’s my update, I hope everyone has a great weekend.
The first was designing my sorcerers/sorceresses and wizards to pull their magic power in through their skin. The more exposed skin they had, the faster they could draw in their magic power to store their mana pool. Another point on power intake rule is that it differs for Paladins and Clerics due to the fact that their power is derived from a “holy” nature. This gave me an excellent reasoning and a beautiful opening to have fun with some of my special characters within the story.
The second part to the rules within my universe was the incorporation of rune tattoos into the skin that can be used for protection. This “powered tattoo option” gives me a lot of flexibility for my magic welders to show more skin for their magical absorption, while still having an option to protect themselves in battle to a point. Albeit, this protection is not as effective as fully armored warriors with powered runes inscribed into their armor, still the main important thing for me was to follow the rules of my universe and have the skimpy armor worn for a reason.
The third level I address this difference in armor was culturally. My Centaurs are similar to American Plains Indians/preverbal barbarians. While they use armor to a point, culturally they are not inclined to use much armor in general. This also includes clothing. The Centaurs in my universe are not concerned with nudity. The items they wear are for carrying weapons and equipment and not for modesties sake. On the other hand, the Minotaurs within my storyline wear heavy armor for protection and clothing, because it’s socially expected within their society. Having this “reasoning” was extremely important for me in creating my universe and the various races within the world of Irlendria.
Anyway, just to give everyone and update on my progress. The editing is coming along great for Destiny. I haven’t gone back over the story until now, which was something I purposely intended to do. This is because the longer it’s been since I’ve read the story, the easier it is for me to evaluate my writing and find my errors. While I like Flight’s storyline, now-a-days when I go back over my writing I now find areas that I’m not happy with even though I love the storyline itself. I see where I could have done better. This is something I want to try to clean up once I’ve passed on my editing corrections to my friends who are helping to clean up the book, before I publish Destiny. The cool thing is I’m not seeing this now that I’m going back over the words for Destiny. Instead I keep thinking to myself, “Damn this is good!”
Like I said earlier, I have a lot of stuff I wanted to put out and talk about, but just didn’t have time. I did have to take an evening away from editing to get the post out, but this whole discussion over the universe and characters styles and clothing was pretty fun for me to talk about. For now that’s my update, I hope everyone has a great weekend.
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