Five Top Five: Things I have researched for the Argetallam Saga

Medieval/Ancient World military tactics

This is one of my favorite subjects ever. Military history enthralls me for some reason, as does Medieval /Ancient history, so putting the two together makes for conveniently educational and enjoyable research. Studying historical battles to get an idea of how they played out and how one would progress has been very interesting and proved to be excellent inspiration.

Medieval social structure

There was actually quite a bit more to medieval social structure than most people think. I read into a little bit of it for ideas on how to set up Brevian society, but in the end composed something that was more a hodge-podge of historical and my own imagination.

Natural predators of camels

This was for a scene that was ultimately deleted from The Secrets of the Vanmars. In it, Janir and Karile hijacked a camel to escape. The animal was then scared off by wild animals that night, leaving them without a lift in the desert. It turned out that camels have no natural predators in the setting I had drawn up and that was just one of many reasons that scene was deleted.

“Fire” vs. “Loose”

I have learned that the term “fire” in reference to the discharge of weapons only came into use after the advent of firearms. Before then, bowmen were ordered to “loose” or “release.” So now whenever I hear “fire” used in context of arrows, I (to quote Dr. Sheldon Cooper) “want to rip off my face and tear it into tiny little pieces and do it again and again until I have a big pile of face-confetti.”

Medieval horse classifications

This is among some of the more interesting research I have done. As stated many times before, I love horses and so naturally I used writing as an excuse to read more about them. In the medieval era, there were different classifications of horses just like there are now. For example, a “destrier” was a large heavy-set warhorse used for carrying a knight into battle, but for day to day traveling and riding, the lighter “palfreys” were ridden. Though I don’t recall if I was able to squeeze in those tidbits, I think they are immensely fascinating.