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Railtus posted:I certainly do not mind. I will still post my own comments or interpretations though. A friend of mine did his dissertation on how the Black Death contributed towards the development of plate armour. How does that work? Also, I read/heard somewhere that the Plague ended up really driving up the price of labor in Europe. True/false?
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Jan 29, 2013 06:17
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Was cat burning really a thing? If so, then what the gently caress, people of the past?
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Feb 5, 2013 07:08
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Excelsiortothemax posted:Wait, so one of the biggest threats to the Catholic Church, the Cathars, were asexual cultists that loved eating eggs, fish and veggies? I wrote an essay a couple years ago on the Cathars. Can't remember much about it, but if I dig it up do you want it? It's undergrad-level writing/research, but not terrible.
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Feb 23, 2013 05:47
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Gimme an email address or something, I re-read it and am loving shocked I got a passing grade. Here's a section about their religion. I think (hope) that I pulled this out of a draft: The Catharist faith was a heretical dualist offshoot of mainstream Christianity, likely derived from the Bogomils of the Eastern Roman Empire's Bulgarian holdings. The Cathars believed that the universe was divided into two parts. One, a pure realm of spirit, was ruled over by the gentle God of the New Testament. The physical world, they said, was a product of the Devil, a deity the equal of God but entirely evil. This hard-line dualism was an evolution from the earlier Bogomil conception of the devil, which described a Satan that was the near-equal of the Deity but doomed eventually to fail. The Bogomil belief system and its Languedoc descendant did not stem from the Manichean Heresy of Persia, but because of the similarities between Mani's early dualism and these later creeds, the orthodox Catholic Church's servants frequently described dualists, regardless of particulars, as “Manichees.” A central point of contention between the Cathars and Catholics related to the Cathar interpretations of the Old Testament, the Resurrection, and the Trinity. The credentes and perfecti saw the world as a creation of the Devil, one made as a prison for angels that Satan had tricked into following him into rebellion against God. The God of Abraham and Moses was, the Cathars said, in fact the Devil in disguise, and the ruse was not revealed until the coming of Christ, a divine messenger and servant of God, who was made, not begotten. Christ was opposed by the Devil through the Romans, and was ultimately humiliated on the cross—however he did not die but merely played dead in an attempt to fool the devil. Before Christ left the Earth, however, he gave his Apostle John an explanation of the Cathar version of cosmic truth: Human beings are the fleshly prisons of angelic beings. Only by being “baptized in the spirit” can these better angels of our nature be returned to God upon the deaths of our mortal shells. Should a soul not be baptized by the laying on of hands by an ordained perfectus, the soul would be forced to migrate into another body. Some but not all Cathar traditions believed the soul would experience a Hindu-style reincarnation, in which the angelic portion of the soul would travel to a newborn creature most appropriate to its action in the previous life; a murderer might end up in the body of a worm, while a generally-virtuous soul would find his way to a body likely to encounter the Cathar sect. The interpretation of the Passion as a public insult to God led to rather iconoclastic views among the Cathar faithful. The Cathars saw the trappings of the Catholic mass, especially the cross and the Eucharist, to be degrading symbols of the humiliation placed upon a messenger of the Deity. They further rejected what they saw as the ostentation, materialism, and worldly ambition of the Church. The Cathars arranged their own Church in a manner similar to the early Christians of Rome, before the Church became an established entity. Faithful were divided into an elect of ordained itinerants who performed duties of both minister and monk (the Perfects, or perfecti) and simple believers (the Believers, or credentes). The perfecti were charged with traveling between Cathar congregations to organize services and with proselytizing for their faith. They took vows of chastity, poverty, and of a sort of vegetarianism (the eating of fish was still allowed). The perfecti fasted so frequently that they were frequently identified by their gaunt appearance, but they were far from simple fakirs. The average perfectus appears to have been well-educated. Many could read—in the vernacular if not in Latin—and most Cathar works were published in Langue d'Oc. Cathar writers produced an apparent wealth of documents and arguments in defense of Catharism but only a few survive. Ah crap, that seems to just say what you already know. The rest of the essay is questionable in its sourcing, but it looks like I was calling the Cathars the first major nationalist revolt in Europe. Catharism had a very strong appeal in the Pays d'Oc. Grand Prize Winner fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Feb 23, 2013 |
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Feb 23, 2013 08:26
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They've resurrected it? Holy poo poo.
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Feb 24, 2013 08:14
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Phoenix Society? Are you guys in Phoenix? If so, then how warm is that armor? I'm kinda guessing it's 'holy poo poo' hot in there.
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Mar 17, 2013 20:29
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pulphero posted:We are in Phoenix AZ. Between takes Richard had to go in doors to let the metal of his armor cool down. In another month we will have to move in doors. Last May we had a guy pass out in just an arming coat from over heating. The counter balance is the awesome winters. Have ave you attempted any reproductions of Crusader armor? If so, is it any more breathable?
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Mar 20, 2013 07:03
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In a pike formation, would the dudes in front also be carrying big long pikes or would they be carrying spears to more controllable stabbing?
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Mar 25, 2013 07:21
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How many castles actually had secret escape tunnels and such? Were there any at all?
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Apr 7, 2013 07:15
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Holy poo poo, yeah. If someone on this thread knows, please enlighten us. All I can think of is a footwear progression from Roman sandals-->pointy shoes-->thigh boots-->Nikes.
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Apr 15, 2013 07:22
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What did Europeans write about the habits of Saracens during this period? Also, is 'saracen' an offensive term or just a label for the groups that ruled the Middle East and north Africa at the time?
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Apr 16, 2013 01:34
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Cool! But who were they? Is the term 'Saracen' equivalent to the modern "Arab" in scope?
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Apr 17, 2013 06:14
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"The restaurant that gives life to the dead"? They must do one hell of a filet.
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Apr 20, 2013 13:51
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The idea was to make it a fair fight between a woman and a man or something like that. Right?
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Apr 30, 2013 21:13
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Let's talk infrastructure! Who built and maintained the roads in medieval Europe? I get the impression that the old Roman paving was frequently torn up for building materials, but what about the roadbeds themselves--Who kept them navigable? At which point after the fall of Rome did people start maintaining and building them again, and how was that organized?
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May 29, 2013 00:42
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I hate to pull a Wiki on you, but medieval coast-dwellers probably knew what a whale was. Humans have hunted whales for a long drat time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_whaling.
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Jun 5, 2013 03:14
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Not sure, but I think they were more for taking down a guy in armor after you wrestled him to the ground than for assassination. They were thin so they could be shoved through chain mail.
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Jun 9, 2013 09:04
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I think Halloween Jack's referring to the mechanical development of plate armor, not the reasons why it developed. My spotty memory (please, please correct me) remembers something about middle-eastern or Turkic warriors (mongols, maybe?) having coats of maille with metal plates over the chest, which the Eastern Roman Empire (citation needed) adapted into their cataphract armor, expanding it in the process. As the European kingdoms expanded, they took the idea and ran with it as they developed weapons able to pierce maille. So it may have had little to do with classical Rome's lorica segmentata (citation needed).
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Jun 18, 2013 06:11
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veekie posted:Logically speaking, wouldn't it be actually simpler to come up with plate armor first? The basic components are ultimately large sheets of metal, which would seem to be fairly easy to forge, easier than mail even. Coverage would be limited of course, but the rest is basically increasing finesse with joining and working metal so that it could have enough flexibility in the right places. It would be reasonable to come up with plate armor first, and certain ancient Mediterranean cultures certainly did come up with it (maybe near/far eastern cultures had the same idea, I don't know) but that still left the issue of attaching it to the body and to itself. To get properly articulated coats of plate, you need to have the idea of the sliding bolt and to know exactly where to put it. To build a coat of maille, all you need is the knowledge of how to make the links and of how to make it into a shirt shape. The Greeks certainly had solid chest and back armor, and solid armlets and greaves and helmets, but they did not have an effective way to cover the gaps. Maille allows for full coverage at the expense of worse protection compared to solid metal, but at the time of its introduction by the Celts it was still cheaper than solid bronze armor (and solid iron plates were still a significant challenge). So as smiths figured out how to create larger iron pieces, they wove them into the then-popular maille. As time went on, armorers figured out ways to make solid plates more flexible through the use of arming doublets and work with specialized hinges. Grand Prize Winner fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 07:22
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Is it really more difficult in man-hours? It may take more expertise, but it seems like it'd take less time.
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Jun 18, 2013 07:33
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Did Viking raids die down or intensify as the Little Ice Age began? Were they driven by desperation or just good ol' greed?
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Jun 27, 2013 23:51
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:With the added bonus of these killing machines are now incredibly loyal to you since with you they have everything, without you they have jack poo poo. Until they (or their descendants, usually their descendants) realize that now that you've given them the village they don't need anything else from you.
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Jun 28, 2013 01:02
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Just to be clear we're not talking about the whole Divine Right of Kings, right? Because that's a deal later. I think. Ah gently caress it, too long since I've studied. Are there any verifiable sources for the Arthurian legends? I don't mean a factual Arthur. But the myths Malory put together in Le Morte D'Arthur had some basis in regional folktales, right? Like... Saxon stories, Welsh stories, and French stories all kind of combined, right? Has anyone managed to track these earlier myths or are they lost because they weren't written?
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Jun 28, 2013 07:05
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I can't speak to proper academia, but a lot of mass market stuff has been de-emphasizing the blood in the gladiatorial games, going to so far as to liken it to professional wrestling where occasionally someone gets stabbed. These are "History" (  ) channel documentaries, though, so take them with a grain of salt. Rome/Ancient world thread had some discussion on the subject a while back, maybe around pages 20-30.
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Jun 29, 2013 08:17
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I could kind of imagine something like that in a tourney, one of the later ones where they weren't trying to injure one another. I've heard that a lot of tourneys had 'every man for himself' bouts but can't be sure it's correct.
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Aug 1, 2013 07:49
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Wikipedia, wonderful primary source that it is ( ) indicates that tourneys were originally free-for-alls just like you said.Wikipedia done posted:During the Middle Ages, tournaments often contained a mêlée consisting of knights fighting one another on foot or while mounted, either divided into two sides or fighting as a free-for-all. The object was to capture opposing knights so that they could be ransomed, and this could be a very profitable business for such skilled knights as William Marshal. There was a tournament ground covering several square miles in northern France to which knights came from all over Europe to prove themselves in quite real combat. This was, in fact, the original form of tournaments and the most popular between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—jousting being a later development, and one that did not completely displace the mêlée until many more centuries had passed. The original mêlée was engaged with normal weapons and fought with as much danger as a normal battle. Rules slowly tempered the danger, but at all times the mêlée was more dangerous than the joust.
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Aug 2, 2013 03:02
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Fun fact: the Holy Roman Empire was in fact an empire, holy, AND Roman. Discuss. This just showed up in my Facebook feed. First history troll I ever saw.
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Aug 15, 2013 06:59
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Beeez posted:Thanks to those who have responded so far. So did shield walls involve very little dexterity in handling one's weapons? I watched the aforementioned Vikings battle scene and it seemed like the ones using swords in the shield wall were kind of just flailing their swords around. I know spears were the most common weapon for foot soldiers in a lot of time frames, but some of the stuff I've read mentions soldiers really cutting men up with a sword or dagger in a shield wall. I also don't quite understand how a shield wall with more columns was helpful, if it really was two sides pushing against each other with shields then how did anyone who wasn't in the first row manage to hit anything with any kind of accuracy or contribute much besides putting more force on the backs of the men in the front of a shield wall? I have some theories based on what I read and have seen so far but I'm trying to be sure. Could it have been that simple extra force from behind? I get the impression that shieldwall clashes were kind of like when linemen crash into each other; the goal is to push the other guys back and break up their formation. If they had spears, the second (and third?) ranks might have been able to reach into the melee too.
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Aug 19, 2013 23:18
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the JJ posted:... how? Like, I'll whack you in the shins with this if you ding my bumper? Like you end up using one while you do community service. In California, they call 'em 'hula hoes'.
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Aug 25, 2013 04:36
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I can't speak with any authority, but I'm under the impression that modern fencing originates from street-fighting tactics used during the Italian renaissance--how to fight with a good sword, no armor, and a cloak wrapped around your arm or a dagger for parrying with the off-hand. As the centuries wore on, fencing became focused more on dueling than on self-defense, so began to favor longer and lighter swords, some of which weren't sharpened along the blade. The idea was to skewer your opponent before he skewered you. I think tactics related to these rapiers were the French and Spanish schools. ARMA-style fighting-in-armor martial arts died out in the west as melee weapons gave way to the musket and wasn't really revived as a martial art until the... late 80s or so? I think they get a lot of their information from continental fechtbucher from c. 1400 to 1600AD/CE.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:54
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By 'german' fencing, do you mean Academic Fencing? Because that's a style where you stand stock-still and let the other guy whack you in the face with a sword so you get a neat scar. No, really.
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Sep 10, 2013 04:49
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Railtus posted:When I write fight scenes I worry that too much of the technical aspects risks losing the pace of the scene. On that note, thanks for the feedback! It gives me an idea of how to combine the detail with pace and I will certainly try it out when next writing combat. Write fight scenes? Do you do that professionally? It seems like you could, if there's a market for it. edit: Someone at my school is starting a fencing club. Which style (foil, epee, saber) is closest to useful for recronstructivist martial arts? I know that any form's gonna be pretty far removed. vvv: fair 'nuff. It's good exercise at least, right? Grand Prize Winner fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Sep 14, 2013 |
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Sep 13, 2013 23:39
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What cultural traits are common to the regions that fielded a lot a of slingers? It won't surprise me if I'm wrong on this, but didn't archers tended to come from groups that either hunted or did a lot of sport shooting? So what advantages did the sling have over the bow aside from price?
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Sep 25, 2013 05:38
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Railtus posted:That he does not mention the Chinese characters is somewhat strange, although it could be explained by him working through translators and therefore never having a reason to look at Chinese writing. Have you heard anyone argue that Marco Polo was illiterate? I remember hearing an argument that he was dictating his stories--if he couldn't read then he wouldn't have much reason to look at Chinese writings. I like to imagine that he actually made the trip but yeah, the evidence for it isn't too strong.
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Sep 30, 2013 21:37
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InspectorBloor posted:There's areas in the city where dumping your potty out of the window is prohibited or limited to certain daytimes, public cesspits that need to be covered at night or sidewalks around them that needed to kept free of ice, so that nobody walking home after a visit to the inn drowns This is it. This is where government infringements on our freedom started. Resist the Obama conspiracy--pour your poo poo directly onto the street! e: Are there any sources on marginal areas during the middle ages? Places like Scotland or Estonia or Finland, areas that had hostile environments with relatively few resources where the major (and more literate) powers didn't have much influence? Ireland was a minor state with a shitton of monasteries--how much of the monks' writings survive? I'm talking about secular, day-to-day stuff rather than religious tracts. Grand Prize Winner fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Nov 15, 2013 |
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Nov 15, 2013 10:01
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While we're on the topic, can anybody recommend (A)good and (B)cheap translations of primary sources from the middle ages? Any year, any place, any subject.
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Dec 15, 2013 06:38
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Does it grind y'all's gears when a layperson responds to that with "Oh, you mean the Renaissance?"
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Jul 22, 2014 16:01
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Wait, is dry-firing a bow or crossbow bad? I just kinda pictured the string going TWANNNG.
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Feb 11, 2015 19:04
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So what happens if you shoot consistently underweight allows/quarrels? Do the same things happen, only slower?
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Feb 11, 2015 19:28
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What's up with the arrow at the bottom? The one with the big, blunt head.
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Feb 14, 2015 04:43
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