Wednesday 11 December 2013

Dungeonscapes: Penrhyn Quarry










Mordor (Lord of the Rings)

Caves of Chaos (Keep on the Borderlands)


Penrhyn Quarry, Wales, site of one of the largest open-cast slate mines in the world open since Victorian times, when over 3000 men worked the pit, Also the site of one of the longest running labour disputes in British history, over 11 years. My first ever wargaming scenery was 2 fist-sized lumps of Penrhyn slate with felt glued to the bottom,  nicked from near the site whilst on holiday, and now lost in the mists of time.

Monday 2 December 2013

Semi-Random Pseudo-3D 2:1 Isometric 8-bit 80s Dungeon Crawl Post

Knight Lore 





Pentagram

 

 

HeroQuest


 


Fairlight







Nightshade




Now with videos and box art.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Random Doctor Who Post




Paul McGann probably my favourite Doctor for the long running audio drama series of Eighth Doctor Adventures.

I'll be honest "I'm a Doctor, but probably not the one you were expecting" gave me the shivers. One happy geek.

Monday 4 November 2013

Random Star Wars Nostalgia Post








A long time ago in a newsagents far far away...

Saturday 19 October 2013

Orcs Are Uz



Hwæt! let us celebrate Orctober with some musings on the origins of the 'orrible cratures.

 It is well known among the wise that Orc comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Orcneas from Beowulf, a single in the entire medieval corpus. which Tolkien took his inspiration from to create his malignant goblin-folk. White-power and folkish right-wing nationalists  like to claim that "orc" means foreigner in Anglo-saxon, to try to use the popularity of Tolkien to promote their racist ideology, and support the idea that Anglo-Saxons saw all outsiders as monstrous filthy scum, and that people are inevitably and historically racist. But they are wrong,  orc = foreigner has no basis in the historical record or scholarly theory. In fact the word for foreigner in Anglo-saxon is Waelisc - the origin of the word - 'welsh', and you can make of that what you will...

Orcneas is generally accepted by medievalists as being a compound word meaning Hell Corpse, which the recently departed Irish poet Seamus Heaney translated as 'phantoms' in his 2002 edition of Beowulf. I applaud Heaney for the atmosphere, the feel of the word, and the evoking of the un-dead, which Tolkien resolutely refuses to do with his abbreviated Orcs, with sound Catholic theological reasoning - there is only one person who returns from the grave, and through this miracle - the central miracle of the Christian faith - that we are all resurrected into eternal life.  In Tolkien we can see a parallel (although not an allegory) of the Harrowing of Hell - the Old English tale of Christ descending into Hell freeing the sinless pagan forefathers from Limbo is echoed in Aragons fulfilment of the duties of the Oathbreakers in the Paths of the Dead, and indeed the Halls of Mandos echoes Limbo where the pagan kings dwell. Neither Tolkiens Nazgûl nor Barrowraiths are risen from the dead, but are a denial of death, an overlong continuation of life beyind its natural bounds wrought by ring-magic, else bones animated by a remote and malignant shadow, its long hand outstretched to the tombs of ancient dead kings.


... to the tombs of kings
doom approaches. The Dead awaken;
for the hour is come for the oathbreakers;
at the Stone of Erech they shall stand again
and hear there a horn in the hills ringing.
Whose shall the horn be? Who shall call them
from the prey twilight, the forgotten people?
The heir of him to whom the oath they swore.
From the North shall he come, need shall drive him:
he shall pass the Door to the Paths of the Dead.

-Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings


To my ear, Heanys phantoms are a little too airy, too ephemeral, they carry something of mist shrouded isles and romantic 19thC celto-nationalism, of fake Druidic orders and spectral ladies in white and fireside ghost stories. It could be that I'm projecting a primitive, earthy, barbaric quality onto the supernatural beliefs of the Anglo-Saxons which is undeserved, but Hell-Corpse to me suggests something more akin to a George A. Romero Zombie than an incorporeal ghostly presence. Indeed Orc is generally agreed to stem from Orcus, a demon of the underworld who, like Hades or the norse Hel's name was also used for their domain. As well as ruling his was responsible for the punishment of oath-breakers. It is clear that Orcus was known to some OE scribes, who make apologies for the peculiar name of the Scandinavian thegn Orc of Abbotsbury for this very reason), and '-neas' literally corpse, the physical body of the deceased.

Aside from it's infernal greek connotations, the word orc itself also appears in Beowulf, and it simply means cup. If we take that more mundane meaning, and apply it to the '-neas' which we know means 'corpse', we may read Orcneas not as Hell-Corpse but as Cup-Corpse, which in the tradition of Anglosaxon kennings might indicate either someone very drunk - literally Dead-Drunk in modern parlance, or as a darkly humorous way of expressing drowned i.e. one who has died by drinking too much - perhaps even those lost at sea not given a proper burial, and so return who plague the living. 

Northlanders 23 / Massimo Carnevale
love that painting - these are my Orcneas.

This is entirely my own speculation. It has no basis in medieval scholarship, and while I think it reasonable, it is altogether unlikely, seeing the number of Oxfordian undergraduate students that have studied Beowulf, as far as I know none has seen fit to propose a similar formulation. Yet the satirist in me warms to the idea of conflating zombified water-filled bloated corpses and the hordes of dead-eyed pale-flesh-exposed binge-drinking youth that rise up to wreak wrack, ruin and violence to every English town and city for two out of every seven days, like Grendels illegitimate offspring wreaking revenge in Hrothgars mead-hall over and over again.

In Beowulf Elves, Giants and Orcneas are listed as 'Children of Cain' and it's hard to conceive of a walking corpse as having a particular genetic ancestry that defines its nature, although the concept of the Mark of Cain - the curse placed on Cain for killing his bother - marks him as one who cannot be killed, but nonetheless wanders the earth. Yet no, Tolkien removed the idea of Orcs being undead, so they (re)entered our popular culture in a new guise, irredeemably evil, ugly warriors.

Riders of the Boar


But no where in Beowulf, or Tolkien does an Orc ride a giant boar, sober, drunk, alive, dead or otherwise. Wolves, wargs, yes, Boars, no. The especial relationship between Orc and porcine mount cannot be found in the good professors work, and doesn't appear in the early canon of Dungeons & Dragons - certainly not OD&D or the 1e Monster Manual (although it does appears in the mid-80s Battlesystem). So where does it come from?

The answer, as it is for the origin of so many things that regularly appear in Warhammer, is Runequest...


Mongoose Runequest Tusker (2006)

While the image above is quite recent, it's specific object goes back 30 years, to the mythical dawn of time, to 1976 in fact.

THE TUSK RIDERS are the remnants of the first human civilization, who were corrupted by breeding with trolls and eventually destroyed by the Dragonewts. Some managed to escape into the mountains, where they lived among their troll friends, consorting in evil and corrupt practices. Their steeds were great battle-pigs. some as big as a buffalo. adapted to crossing forests and hills without trouble.
Greg Stafford - White Bear and Red Moon - 1976

White Bear Red Moon Tusker Counter | via


TUSK RIDERS (HALF TROLLS)
The actual origin. of the tusk riders ere unclear. That they have human ancestry is obvious, but the mark of the trolls upon them as well. Their Cult of the Bloody Tusk demands blood drinking and further abominations.

TUSKERS
Gigantic boars, ridden by tusk riders only. These beasts are fierce and ill-tempered, but love their masters beyond all comprehension.

Steve Perrin - Runequest - 1978

Unfortunately early Runequest doesn't provide much visual reference for the Tusk Raiders or their tusk mounts.



In White Dwarf 12 (1979), the second ever advert for Citadel Miniatures lists Half Orc on Tusker. Runequest Tusk Riders being Half Trolls, riding beasts named Tuskers the title would be very familiar to say the least to followers of the Runequest game.

 
Half Orc / Red Orc on Giant Tusker (1979)

Remembering in those days, ordering miniatures without having seen photographs of them was normal. The miniature itself doesn't appear at all boar-like, more like a strange Dewback from Starwars, or a crossbreed of a Dark Crystal Mystic, a Zoat and Albrecht Durers Rhinocerous, but nontheless the name Tusker, and the half-breed monster who rides him would have been familiar concepts to Runequest fans. And  Then 4 months later (White Dwarf 14) the same miniature is listed as Red Orc on Tusker. This transformation or innovation of Red Orcs was to last into 1st Edition Warhammer but no further.

Gnolls are hyena headed beastmen in AD&Ds 1977 monster manual, but seem to have transformed into bulbous-headded goblin creatures by the Perry Bros. over at Citadel when the Fantasy Tribe Gnolls were first released in 1980. One is reminded of the early Ral Partha / Citadel Bugbears that resemble gangly, big-eared Gollum like creatures rather than the giant hairy goblin creatures of D&D. A strange trend of naming something the same as a creature in a game-system but making the model look nothing like its description.

Fantasy Tribes Gnoll on Giant Boar (1980)

Andrew May points to Don Greers 1981 magnum-opus Down in the Dungeon (via Monsterbrains), which contains this curious image.


These orcs seem influenced somewhat by the Hildebrandt Bros, although the addition of a presumably female orc in plate armour is an interesting addition. Nontheless, Down in the Dungeon seems to take most of its inspiration from D&D, so perhaps there is an earlier D&D reference to boar riding orcs being drawn from here.

Lisa Free, Runequest Borderlands (1982)

The drawing by Lisa Free in the Borderlands campaign pack published by Chaosium in April 1982. The image was also reprinted in Dicing With Dragons - Introduction to Roleplaying Games by Ian Livingstone  published in the UK 1982. 

In 1980 Games Workshop was granted the rights to publish a UK edition of Runequest II, and it wasn't before long that Citadel secured the license to produce official Runequest miniatures, and produced an actual, official Tusker in the Runequest Boxed Set 3:  Trolls, which appears listed in the Citadel 1982 yellow catalogue. The close proximity of dates between the publication of Borderlands. Dicing With Dragons and the Citadel Runequest Boxed Sets does make me wonder if the copies of Borderlands art had been shipped over to the UK prior to publication as concept art for Citadel to use, and wound up being selected by Ian, or some other order of events.

Preslotta Citadel Tusker by  Little Odo (1982)

And guess what? Games Workshop are still making Runequest Tuskers today, although slightly less naturalistically proportioned...

Orc Boyz or Green orcs on Tuskers or Tusk Riders


Although if you like to mix up your traditional Runequest imagery with your traditional AD&D stylings, there's always these porcine fellas from Otherworld, aka Bloodstone Pass vs. Dragon Pass.

Otherworld Orcs on Warboars


Finally a big shout-out, or should that be a massive Waaaaaaagh? to Erny for instigating this Orctober

Tuesday 24 September 2013

McDeath and the Miners Strike 1984-85

McDeath | John Blanche

The Miners Strike was a  long running industrial dispute that took place in the Mining communities of Britain 1984-86), seeing the effective end of the Coal Mining industry in the UK. McDeath is a Fantasy wargame scenario for Warhammer, written by Richard "Hal" Halliwell and released in March 1986. I do like soundtracks to blog-posts, and if you want something to listen to, Which Side Are You On – Miners Strike Album (1985). Or seeing as the Industrial Archive website is down, alternatively "Panic" by the Smiths (1986) might suffice, but Billy Bragg doing "Which Side are You On?"
is possibly nearer the mark.

Apologies in advance for any offence or inaccuracies, all opinions and corrections are more than welcome in the comments.
Arthur Scargil - Leader of the National Union of Mineworkers
Arka Zargul - Miners Leader


Arka Zargul isn't a straight homophone like most Warhammer puns (Eeza Ugezod for example) a slight shift in phonemes, but nontheless it's clear enough pun on Arthur Scargil, the leader of the NUM. Perhaps coincidentally Zar Gul is a name  in Urdu meaning Shining; Brilliant, whether this is a reference to Scargils leadership qualities or the silver in the Dungal mines is anyones guess. A look at the Banner (Tony Ackland?)...

Arka Zargul's Dwarf Miners

'I Ho! I Ho! Go Slow' obviously a reference to 'Hi-Ho hi-Ho it's of to work we go' of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but with 'off to work' replaced by "go slow" - a reference to a form of industrial action commonly used as a protest prior to calling out a full strike. In a "Go Slow" workers purposefully reduce output in order to economically damage the bosses until their conditions (such as pay) were met. And of course, Arka leads a force of seven dwarves.

The dwarves diminutive nature, their association with Snow White and that dwarf miners are 'the good guys' in Tolkien and fairytales in general (although not Norse myth) generally makes them sympathetic characters. They are also a people oppressed by a foreign overlord, their wealth stolen from them, and almost forced into slavery by the villain of the piece, Een McWrecker...
 

Een McWrecker - McDeaths Lieutenant


Ian McGregor Head of the National Coal Board

A pun on Ian McGregor, the Head of the National Coal Board - Een McWrecker - is intalled at Dungal Hill by McDeath to control the mine, much as Ian McGregor was installed by Thatcher to run the National Coal Board and shut down the mining industry.  McWrecker promptly steals the dwarves gold, casing the dwarves go on strike refusing to work for him. At the battle of Dungal Hill he leads 40 Orcs. His banner is one of oppression:




Stunties shall be slaves, while we rule I could be wrong but it does seem to have echoes of  Rule, Britannia! rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves. British nationalism, a strange thing in todays atmosphere of devolution, but the word-soup is similar enough.

The portrayal of Een is entirely unsympathetic, with his halfling man-servant Raybees ready and waiting to stab him in the back at the first opportunity. Even the naming pun, McWrecker positions the character as ner-do-well, a wrecker. Orcs are symbols of evil aggression, from Tolkien and beyond, they are filthy disgusting creatures, that the AD&D Orcs are Pig-headed makes them all the more castable as a vision of an oppressive law and order.

Dungal Hill - the Field of Battle


There is a place, Dungoil Hill in Scotland which was the site of a silver mine. I'm not aware of it being part of the Miners Strike, as the vein was apparently mined out some 184 years previously, still the name is a pun. Also this seems to be very, very, obscure. Silver mines in Scotland seems odd enough, but digging out this sort of nugget of information in the pre Internet 1980s would have needed a lot of spadework, or an foreknowledge and background reading in such archaeological  geological matters.

The Battle of Dungal Hill pitches Arka Zarguls Dwarf Miners against Een McWreckers Orc Army. It's not a not a straight forward historical staging of a specific conflict in the Miners strike such as the Battle of Orgreave (Battle of Orcgrave methinks) but rather an expession of the ideological conflict.  Police and Government are cast as evil oppressors, orcs and wicked magicians, whilst the miners are the stalwart dwarves.

For a historical reenactment (if it's good enough for Turner Prize Winning Artists on Channel 4 it's good enough for wargamers) Offensive Miniatures produce police in riot gear and rioters, although their dress-code is perhaps a little more more Battle of the Beanfield, eco-protest or Occupy than mid-80s South Yorkshire, which I assume was all flat-caps, whippets, bubbleperms, denim jackets and mullets, and the police are in riot gear - some standard uniform coppers wouldn't go amiss. 

But why not? Why didn't Games Workshop just repackage the miners strike straight out? Why disguise the conflict as anything than what it was, which is a complex contemporary socio-political, thing which to this day still causes division. Perhaps it's just too political, offensive, even today historical and modern wargaming make some people uncomfortable. Certainly Citadels self-image was  that of a fantasy games company and riding the wave of the D&D boom was their raison d'être.

Fantasy as satire allows us to cut a straight moral line without the complexity of real life, the scenario gives the Miners an uncontestable moral high-ground, the Dwarfs are clearly in the right and oppressed by the evil McWrecker. The messy ideological conflict of the Socialism vs. Capitalism, Middle Class vs. Working Class, Shopkeepers vs. Manual Laborers, the viability of long term socio-economic reliance on fossil-fuels, all these difficult aspects can be put aside in favour of a "simple" battle of Orcs vs. Dwarves, Good vs. Evil. Yet in doing so perhaps Hal shows us his own sympathies,  many in Nottingham would have been aware the plight of other miners in other towns, as well as their own.

The distancing of Fantasy may also mitigate the emotional connotations of the real events. These events were recent, people had been killed, lives had been ruined. The game deals not with the individuals, but with ideas and figureheads. In the literary genre we can think of Swift or even Pratchett where the social and political moires of the day are projected in fantasy.

But on July 19th 1984, Thatcher (the great Empress Margaritha - a rather toothless, throwaway and uncritical pun) made her infamous speech demonising the Miners as "The Enemy Within" - a phrase used by McGregor as the title of his 1986 book on the conflict  and then late 1987, Games Workshop turned it's own obsidian warpstone mirror of Warhammer away from the world of picket lines and Militant tendency, to a world of Cold War paranoia, of insidious influence, conspiracy theory and corruption.