Tomes of Antiquity: Polyhedron #71

Welcome to Tomes of Antiquity. This ongoing weekly series will investigate one book, module or magazine in my collection of materials at least a decade old. Without further ado, here is this week’s entry.

Polyhedron Newszine
Volume 12, Number 5
Issue #71, May 1992

Cover

Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Two was a good year. I graduated from college. Left the easy life of academic pursuits to make a living as chemist. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best choice of jobs but it was a job. Obviously enough, it was also a great year for conventions. Thirteen different conventions were listed on the paper cover page of the newszine. You read that correctly. 13 conventions between May 22nd and July 17th. How many conventions are there today? Check out the list. Do you remember any of these?

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One man, a castle and a fire breathing dragon

By all accounts, Jim Bishop is an eccentric. Many describe him as a madman. Certainly, his political leanings are to the right of conservative conservatives based off his continuous legal battles with local government. Building off a small, stone-work cabin on land purchased in the late 1950’s, Jim has constructed a castle in south-central Colorado. Other than a small amount of help from his father in the early construction, the castle was built stone by stone by his hands alone. No plans required or desired.

I first visited Bishop’s Castle in 1998 on a road trip with gaming buddies. The castle is amazing and frightening. The construction is stone, cement, and wrought iron. When I last visited it was maze that has grown over the last 12 years. While the lower portions of the structure are massive, solid chunks, the upper tiers are not for the faint of heart. Continue up as long as your will holds. The stone work gets less massive and the wrought iron stairs and bridges sway with every step.

Bishops Castle

Jim is a modern day hermit but not in the eremitic or recluse sense. He lives by his own rules. Ask him and you’ll likely experience a diatribe on the government, freedom and independence. His opinions are well documented.

Aside from his extreme viewpoints, Jim is inspirational. Building your own castle is a common dream of many role players. Actually building one is a beyond comprehension for most. Jim caught the bug and the results are open to the public. Follow his rules, enter and enjoy at no cost (donations encouraged).

I’m quite certain Jim wouldn’t have fit well in the medieval ages just as he doesn’t today. I would be hard pressed to come up with a more dynamic, oddball of society in a game context. He certainly would make for an interesting encounter in a modern day game among many other settings.

If you want to learn more about the castle and the builder, start with the references under the Wikipedia entry. I need to make another trip but my 1998 pictures are available. Do not miss his hand written signs.

Leather Kids Cuirass Nearing Completion

Another progress update. The front and the back of the 2-part cuirass are now complete. The one remaining task is adding straps for the shoulders and sides.

Front and Back Completed

The straps will utilize modern buckles to allow easy adjustment to Sir Dylan. He stopped by on Sunday to get a test fit. Both sections line up well on his frame. The neck opening could have been slightly larger but will fit nicely. The length looks nice on him. I’m glad. When looking at it on the table, the halves appeared overly long but my measurements were true.

Dylan liked the look. If he’s happy, so am I. I’ll post final build photos when I do the final test fit.

Yet Another Update on Armor for Kids

Finally got the front stitched together today. Ran into issues with that including broken thread. I’m learning as I go. Sort of on-the-job-training. It’s been fun and my fingers are not nearly as sore as they were after the back half stitching.

I believe I’ve convinced my over zealous evil half to keep the project simple. The end product is for a costume not for all out neighbourhood warfare. So instead of going nuts, I’m just going to add a small decorative feature to the front on the basic cuirass. I settled on a cross pattee.

While waiting on the dye to dry on the front, I cut out the cross. I could have stayed simpler and tooled it into the leather directly. Given I made the decision after the initial round of dye was on, that was not an option.

Sketching the Cross

Once sketched, I transferred the pattern to the leather and used a hobby knife to cut it out. Not perfect but close enough for Sir Dylan the Skinny. He won’t notice the imperfections.

Adornment Atop the Top

Once the dye has dried fully on the front, I’ll finish it off with a second coat to get a uniform color. The cross will need burnishing, dying and can then be stitched onto the base. I haven’t settled on a color for the cross yet.

I should also get a second test fitting in this weekend so I can position shoulder and side straps. Then I’ll have to cut those, burnish, dye and attach. Once I have all those techniques tested, I can try out something fancier.

I like the look thus far. Different than my original vision but still pretty cool. Unsurprisingly, I have at least two additional variants I want to try out. And now I’m a wholesale member at the leather store.

Hermitage

The word just rolls off the tongue. When I saw it the other day, I assumed the definition would be something trite like ‘place where hermits live’. We all know about assumptions. Turns out I learned something. My entire mental definition of a hermit as a general recluse only touches on the deeper historical meaning of the word. Roughly, my interpretation is partially accurate. In modern terms, my general idea is widely used if not historically accurate.

As it turns out, hermit has a significant religious tie. Most particularly, hermits were an early form of monks living in solitude. The Wikipedia entry on hermits is a fascinating read. In particular, the introduction does a fine job of redefining the word for me.

A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.

In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament (i.e., the forty years wandering in the desert[1] that was meant to bring about a change of heart).

In the Christian tradition the eremitic life[2] is an early form of monastic living that preceded the monastic life in the cenobium. The Rule of St Benedict (ch. 1) lists hermits among four kinds of monks. In addition to hermits that are members of religious orders, modern Catholic Church law (canon 603) recognizes also consecrated hermits under the direction of their diocesan bishop as members of the Consecrated Life.

Upon stumbling over this knowledge, I realised the hermit angle could be used in many different contexts with an RPG session. I’ve used them in the past but generally in a simplistic wise old guy living in the woods fashion. I’ve never utilized a religious context. The tie seems obvious now. Recluses of a religious bent are obvious choices for nature based gods.

My discovery did not end at the religious discovery. Turns out hermitages were not just found in remote areas. Nay, there were hermits amongst the townsmen of the Middle Ages. Once again, from the Wikipedia entry on hermitage, I found hooks usable in city or town settings.

A hermitage is a type of monastery. Typically it has a room, or at least a dedicated space, for religious devotion, very basic sleeping quarters and a domestic range, suitable for the ascetic way of living of the inhabitant. Depending on the work of the hermit, premises such as a studio, workshop or chapel may be attached or sited in close proximity.

Traditionally hermitages have been located in caves and huts, often in the desert or woods, sometimes abutting monastery buildings of a cenobitic community when there was an exchange of labour and provisions. In medieval times they may have been endowed by the Lord or Lady of a manor in return for prayers for their family, or in city dwellings, e.g. inside the city gate as remuneration for services rendered as a gate keeper. In modern times they are to be found even in large cities and high-rise blocks of flats, depending of the hermit’s means.

So many plot ideas rolling about in my head now. So easy to introduce in nearly any setting or campaign. Hermits are going to get a mental and play overhaul in my campaigns in the future.

I love it when a stereotype gets thrashed by random discovery.

Rear Half of a Kid’s Cuirass

Rear Half of the Cuirass

Just a minor update on the Armor for Kids project. The photo depicts the rear half of the cuirass after dying and stitching of the basted edges. The completely untouched front half is underneath the rear just waiting for me to get busy. Even without the add-ons or a final finish, I like the look.

The project has taught me a number of lessons. My novice skills are getting tested. I’ll detail the struggles when I have more time.

Update:

This just in, the marketing department of the office supply houses never considered this as a target market. It looks pretty funny.

Front Seam Basting

Armor for Kids Update

Cutting Down to Size

I know better. I really do. Never get fancy with a project of this scale. If I were a married man, I’d be reminded. Left to my own devices, I tend to wander off the path usually led by some mental question like “How hard could it be?”. Obvious to everyone other than me, the answer is pretty difficult. Not impossible but there are so many different techniques I wanted to try, I went a bit crazy.

After chopping the bulk leather down to size, it took some effort to flatten it out before I could lay down the armor template. Just wet the armor and work it opposing the rolled pattern by hand. The leather is 4-5 oz. Pretty light and easy to work with. At least it feels light but my fingers would argue otherwise. More on that later.

Templates Sketched

The pattern transfer was pretty easy. I basically just layed out my template tank top and sketched the outline onto the rough side of the leather. If you are experienced at pattern transfer, one of the most common mistakes mentioned is not allowing extra material along all the edges. Measure twice, cut once and all that general advice. I thought I was but it was insufficient. It would have been fine if I were not apt to change plans in mid-stream. Rule #2. Don’t change plans. Keep it simple stupid (from here forward, you can just exchange stupid with Mark).

Templates Pinned

The rough-cut patterns looked pretty good. Cutting and measuring is pretty straightforward. Accommodating a mental design change is not. Most of the designs I have seen for sale are pretty basic. Just a simple front and back with leather strapping to attach at the sides and at the top across the shoulders. Not me. Oh heck no. Let’s fold the edges for comfort and hand stitch.

Front Rough Cut

I haven’t done much hand stitching. Nor did I plan for it in the design. I should have paused but I did not. The muse in the back of my head kept saying to do something different and cool. Ahh muse, you have no idea how my fingers feel. If you want to fold the leather and glue it for stitching, binder clips work pretty well. I own a lot of them now.

Welt Gluing

Due to the minimal amount of extra material I had at my disposal, the folds were very narrow. Insufficient for good bonding to make stitching easy. I probably should have made a different pattern to work with but I am a stubborn sort.

Stitching Take #1

My fingers are sore from the effort but I do like the look. I added hours to the project by taking this route but I can always backtrack to something less complicated. I may have to rethink the additions I was pondering beyond hand stitching. My stitching is getting more consistent but still is not impressive.