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TurnerMohan In reply to Ragnarok6664 [2013-07-20 09:04:21 +0000 UTC]

thanks, mongol armor was my main influence here

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TurnerMohan In reply to Zeonista [2013-06-19 22:14:06 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! this one was entirely hunnic/steppe warrior in inspiration, I like the idea of them dressed almost entirely in dirty brown shades, not as colorful or wealthy as the southrons, especially those of near harad (who've had some cultural overspill from the black numenoreans in umbar) but even more alien to the men of the west, and possibly more brutal; the descriptions from late antiquity of the huns under attila paint a picture of essentially subhuman monsters, which I think must have had some influence on tolkien's own somewhat controversial description of orcs as "degraded versions of the (to europeans) least lovely mongol type"

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Zeonista In reply to TurnerMohan [2013-06-19 23:57:46 +0000 UTC]

See the description of Attila and the Huns in the old chronicles for Tolkien's basis of comparison of men and orcs. A lot of artists are content to have a Hunnic or Mongol-style person and be content with that. However, Rhun in Middle-Earth would be like our Central and East Asia, or the Hykrania & Khitai of the Hyborian Age. There would be many peoples, and many cultures, who might exchange items and ideas. The Easterlings could not have had a monolithic appearance. (At least at the second look; most people of Dale, Gondor, and Rohan would not have cared to try ti distinguish them!

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TurnerMohan In reply to Zeonista [2013-06-20 00:15:36 +0000 UTC]

I've read those descriptions, and agree entirely; this is only the first of what I hope, on a long enough time scale, will turn into a large and varied portfolio of easterlings, among tolkien's other races (I had this rather grand idea of doing a victorian style compillation of middle earth illustrated plates, like Braun and Schneider's "Historic costume in pictures" chronicling the evolution of middle earth characters, races, costumery, weapons, and so on from the 1st age to the end of the 3rd) and I much prefer the more realistic approach of not just having one definitive "easterling" design, like an action figure (or like the mass produced, identical easterling costumes in the movies) but rather presenting a broad array of hunnic, mongoloid, central asian, turkomen looking warriors (the various tribes and nations in service to Sauron probably represent a much broader genetic diversity than the all-caucasoid men of the west) not, as you said, that the rohirrim or the men of dale would especially care.

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Zeonista In reply to TurnerMohan [2013-06-22 20:23:00 +0000 UTC]

Since3-4 Easterling rulers took one of the NIne RIngs, there would be vast lands under Sauron's rule, or at least where it was predominant among the realms. I suppose that was Tolkien's way of representing the autocratic rule of the East, so that might influence your choices as well when considering historic models. Then again, you could also do a picture of an Easterling guerilla NOT under the Dark Lord's sway.

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TurnerMohan In reply to AndrewDent [2013-06-02 05:04:39 +0000 UTC]

why thank you

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AndrewDent In reply to TurnerMohan [2013-06-02 05:06:38 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome

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TurnerMohan In reply to Nasa15 [2013-05-30 21:03:39 +0000 UTC]

thanks! i've always been an easterling fan myself. glad this ones workin for ya

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TurnerMohan In reply to colgatetotal97 [2013-05-30 20:58:58 +0000 UTC]

thanks

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