HOME | DD
ardashir — Ardashir by Dustmeat
Published: 2012-11-08 16:08:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 1102; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 7
Redirect to original
Description
Drawn for me quite some time ago by , this is among the first pictures of my wolf-guy Ardashir that I still have. This is the first version of him, back when he was solely a heroic fantasy character, set in a sort of pre-Islamic Persia and Central Asia. He was/is a asvaran armored cavalryman, er, wolf, and the armor he's got on is a mix of mail reinforced by laminated armor along the arms and legs. And the horse is his warhorse Rakush, probably one of the very few friends the young wolf has at that time in his life. This might even be before he got that hand-shaped scar burned into his chest by Viraska the Kayanian sorcerer. I did write some stories involving this guy but the ideas ultimately petered out. Still, I try something with him now and then.So this is the original Ardashir. Later on I kinda developed a second version of him, one that is more foolish and who does things like get stuck inside femmesuits or try romancing the wrong woman (think cartoon and slapstick romantic complications). Much of the later art of him also got rather steamier, as seen here where Ardashir meets an old friend who got into TV acting and they, ahem, renew their friendship: fav.me/d5j5y85
If you're reading this , I still love this art.
Related content
Comments: 24
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Beautiful rendering of the horse. Is it one of those hearty Steppe breeds?
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
At the time I just thought of it as a warhorse. Now after quite a bit more research I can say that it's a Nisayan (or the equivalent), the first 'heavy warhorse' breed that ever existed, from Eastern Iran/Western Central Asia. And yeah, Dustmeat always did some great horses.
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
She does do great horses. She's very adept at the anatomy. Those heavy Central Asian war horses had somewhat short legs and stocky builds. They are fast and great for firing arrows from the saddle.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That she is, and while Central Asian war horses or ponies are as you describe, I should add that much like the armored Persian cavalry I drew inspiration from, Ardashir himself never was a very good horse archer. When he fired from horseback the horse would be standing still.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I watched this show on TV a while back with Mongolian archers, and these guys were firing arrows from horseback while in motion, hitting probably in the 85 to 90 percentile.
Of course, striking foot soldiers from horseback with sword or spear is just as terrifying.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
According to what I've read about real-life use of archery on the battlefield, accuracy* was typically less important* than rate of fire and the ability to maintain it for prolonged periods of time. Accuracy was more important when it came to hunting, as you would likely only get one good shot. Which is much the same reason why so many US Army marksmen typically came from the Mountain South. If the first shot missed, there wouldn't be any point in a second.
And massed cavalry charges were terrifying. But if an infantry unit maintained a solid front and didn't break they couldn't do very much damage. That is, until they developed mobile field artillery (or just had some good archers): the infantry would close ranks to defend against the heavy cavalry, the missile troops would open up on them, and then either the infantry attacked the missile troops swiftly, or they got cut to pieces.
* -- After all, they were usually shooting at large masses of troops. It'd be hard to miss.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Calvary troops worked, but they definitely did have limitations. Just ask Gen. Custer.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The best troops in the world are useless when incompetently or carelessly lead.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Exactly. The troops that made it to the history books were the best led (Caesar, Claudius, Gehngis Khan, Atilla, Alaric, Charlemagne, Napoleon, the like). Although some made it to the history books for their failure.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The worst-lead ones usually made it in just in time to have their eulogies written.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Like I said, just check out the grave markers at Little Big Horn and Gettysburg (Pickett's Charge) to prove that example.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I saw the Gettysburg battlefield a few months ago with Heavy and Ken Pick. When you see just what the terrain at the site of Pickett's Charge is like (down one steep, long rocky slope and then up another one with little to no real cover from Union artillery and rifle fire the entire way), you get an idea of just how desperate Lee must have been by that point to even consider it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
There was an Unsolved History special on The Military Channel about this same subject.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ah, I don't get The Military Channel. Do they actually stick to military subjects, or are they all over the place like the History Channel?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
They are pretty on par with the subjects. Even when they go a little off-topic like with JFK, they focus on the firearms aspect.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Good to hear, maybe I will subscribe at that.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Give it a try. They don't get much into past warfare, but if you like the modern battle gear, it's your kind of network. Me, I love the warbirds.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well, I'm mostly about 'pike and shot' and earlier periods of warfare, but I'll see if I can get a look at it. Thanks!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm more of the school of "how much artillery can you rain down on an army before they turn tail and run."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Didn't even old tank-loving George S. Patton basically say that the artillery won the land battles of WW2?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I think so. It was armored mobility that did the trick.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I do remember reading that the Germans HATED to face the Americans, because, "Ten minutes after you see them, every piece of enemy artillery within five miles is shooting at you."
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Not to mention if weather was cooperating, they were getting peppered by strafing fighters.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0