tribehybrid

the great ones

Summer’s finest moments

Emancipated duels. Photo by Pavel Kurmilev

Baroness Lubinska who presided over the famous duel between Princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Kielmannsegg in 1892, insisted that the duelists remove their clothing above their waists to avoid infection in the event that a sword pushed clothing into the wound it caused. Being a doctor, the baroness had seen many instances of septic infection in soldiers for this very reason throughout her years of medical training.

(via Quick Pickled Jalapenos Recipe [ flavor ideas] 🌶 MasalaHerb.com)

Update: Sauron is not afraid of hobbits. He was unaware that hobbits existed up until very recently.  he literally did not have time to be afraid of them, they went from a 0 to 100 threat level in twenty seconds. There he was, minding his own business worrying about the usual Elves and Men when suddenly these kids are on his lawn and now he’s dead, like just; 

What did— who– 

did I just get one-shotted by an infant how is this occurring 

Honestly I have to love this whole thought process that the Fellowship must have cultivated in Sauron, like…

“These children have found the Ring! But they’re taking it to the elves, of course. I will simply have to catch them on the way.”

“Well, the elves are still not to be trifled with, it seems. It looks as though they have a group of intrepid heroes, how cute! Wait, who’s leading them? Aw, hell.”

“OKAY! Olorin’s out of the way, and now I can finally kill them all and reclaim the- OH DAMMIT, IT’S IN LOTHLORIEN.”

“Well, okay. They’ve taken it onward. Curunir says one of the halflings is still carrying the ring, so he’s going to capture them and we’ll see how this develops. Thankfully Olorin’s still out of the picture and their little group just shattered into pieces, so that’s one less thing to worry about.”

“Aaaaaand Curunir shat the bed. Excellent. Trees, who would have thought? Okay, so we’re back to plan A: conquer Gondor, because if the Ring’s going to be anywhere, it’ll be there.”

“Wait, who’s on the– Isildur’s WHAT? Ohhhh. Ohohoho. Oh now everything makes sense. Isildur’s Heir is back, and he’s here being all prideful again. That’s fine. Really. I’ll just crush him and his kingdom, and then nobody can stop me!”

“WHAT? FUCKING WHAT? THEY SENT HIM BACK? Ugh, alright, alright, I’m cool, I’m fine. He’s still got that stupid wizard costume on, and I’m still stronger than he ever was. It’s not like he can come toe to toe with me, even if he does have an army behind him. This’ll be fine.”

“They’re… actually marching on the Black Gate? Sweet lord, I didn’t think they’d actually do it! This is perfect, everyone’s right here! Olorin, the human princeling, most of the remaining fighting forces of Men, all I have to do is kill them now and– Wait. Someone just put on the Ring. Someone just– That’s a halfling. They’re inside the mouNTAIN OH GOD NAZGUL GO GO G–”

…aaaaaand curtain.

you can laugh but that is literally what happened

This is the single best brief summary I have ever seen of the entire point of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Art of the Dragonlance Saga reveals much of the design work that went into not only the illustrations, but the world, the characters and the stories. It is a little hard for me to imagine Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley, Keith Parkinson and more doing production work on the scale that Dragonlance must have demanded. There are hundreds of sketches and paintings here. The work that went into designing plausible lances for dragon-back combat is particularly impressive. I’ve picked some faves.

My favorite is “The Last Spell of Fistandantilus,” by Keith Parkinson (I slightly favor Parkinson over other artists of this period). There’s such drama here and Fistandantilus is a picture perfect evil mage. Bonuses for Raistlin’s candelabra staff, the rope pillar from Sinbad and the tiny Tardis on the shelf by the skull.

Elmore’s painting of my favorite character, the slain Sturm Brightblade, is an appropriate mix of sadness and steel. It galls me a bit to realize that Sturm exists and dies largely to propel Laurana’s story forward. On the other, it is nice to see a guy get fridged for a gal for once.

Lord Soth’s Charge is a two-page spread, so I consoled myself with Clyde Caldwell’s “The Hands of Doom.” I still don’t know how I feel about Kitiara. On one hand, the books seem to punish her for embracing masculine pursuits (power, promiscuity). On the other, she’s an out of control jerk. I find I don’t have much sympathy for her here, but Soth looks particularly badass.

I’ve always thought “Dragons of Faith,” depicting the Perechon’s encounter with the Blood Sea maelstrom, was a great mood piece. Recent conversation with my pal @SSDillonTattoo has made me doubt what is going on with the bone structure in the dragon’s wings. My current theory: not a dragon at all, but a tinker gnome air ship.

Finally, I’ve a fondness for Jeff Easley’s “The Epic Quest” less because of Dragonlance and more because the portion featuring Sturm was re-used to front module X10 – Red Arrow, Black Shield.

THERES AN ART BOOK????

Untitled | furstset

Dreamy morning | Mario Visser