Rank Insignia and Uniforms Thread

Jared never mentions the boomerang, oddly enough. I wouldn't be surprised if some Aururian cultures use it for something, though in a military context I'd expect it to be limited to tribal auxiliaries and the like--I'm not sure how popular it'll be in more advanced civilizations with access to bronze or iron.

Could be kept around as a sporting method of hunting.
 
Jared never mentions the boomerang, oddly enough. I wouldn't be surprised if some Aururian cultures use it for something, though in a military context I'd expect it to be limited to tribal auxiliaries and the like--I'm not sure how popular it'll be in more advanced civilizations with access to bronze or iron.

An artisticaly carved and painted boomerang with bronze end-pieces could make for a nice piece of regalia as the king's symbol of being the nation's provider.
 

Krall

Banned
would the boomerang play any role even ceremonial ?
Jared never mentions the boomerang, oddly enough. I wouldn't be surprised if some Aururian cultures use it for something, though in a military context I'd expect it to be limited to tribal auxiliaries and the like--I'm not sure how popular it'll be in more advanced civilizations with access to bronze or iron.

A metal boomerang with a sharp edge might make for an effective thrown weapon. The Azande of central Africa used a bladed throwing weapon called a kpinga, which was apparently only produced under the specific patronage of the powerful Avongara clan and was distributed to professional soldiers only in times of war. They looked something like this:

Kpinga.jpg


Considering that, it's entirely possible that a metal boomerang-like weapon could be used in Australian Aboriginal warfare, even by soldiers from a powerful military clan rather than auxilliaries and allies.
 
Considering that, it's entirely possible that a metal boomerang-like weapon could be used in Australian Aboriginal warfare, even by soldiers from a powerful military clan rather than auxilliaries and allies.

Interesting. It seems like one of the non-returning varieties might be a better bet.

Anyway, today's addition: inhabitants of the Cider Island! (Tasmania.) From left to right, we have a Tjunini, a Kurnawal, and one of the native Palawa, with his red ochre hairdo and longbow of Tasmanian myrtle.

CiderIsland.png
 
Interesting. It seems like one of the non-returning varieties might be a better bet.

Anyway, today's addition: inhabitants of the Cider Island! (Tasmania.) From left to right, we have a Tjunini, a Kurnawal, and one of the native Palawa, with his red ochre hairdo and longbow of Tasmanian myrtle.

Yeah, they're known as 'throwsticks' apparently. Used for hunting. I know years and years ago I had a book of throwing weapons that showed a very long (at least 4 feet) slightly curved boomerang that was used in warfare. I can't remember if it was in southern Africa, south America, or Australia.
 
Interesting. It seems like one of the non-returning varieties might be a better bet.

Anyway, today's addition: inhabitants of the Cider Island! (Tasmania.) From left to right, we have a Tjunini, a Kurnawal, and one of the native Palawa, with his red ochre hairdo and longbow of Tasmanian myrtle.

While looking around for the war boomerang, I found some images of wooden swords used by kooris and notices that they are curved:

DSCI0181a_big.jpg


all of them come from the sydney region so I don't know if the shape was widespread but maybe the Eoras at least use metal swords with this general shape instead of straight ones ?
 
While looking around for the war boomerang, I found some images of wooden swords used by kooris and notices that they are curved:

all of them come from the sydney region so I don't know if the shape was widespread but maybe the Eoras at least use metal swords with this general shape instead of straight ones ?

Definitely a possibility, though the Sydney area is not a major power in Lands of Red and Gold as far as I can tell--just a patchwork of Gunnagalic city-states.

Anyway, this will probably be my one contribution for today: a soldier of the Atjuntja. These guys get more of an in-depth description than most: conical iron helmet, knee-length iron scale armor attached to a garment going down to mid-calf, armed with axe and sword and carrying a large oval wooden shield. Atjunta are heavily bearded, but I figure a variety of beard styles might be present--this guy has his tied up in a sort of bundle, possibly to keep it from getting in the way, or catching on the scales. The item around his torso is an additional layer of leather armor that goes on over the scale; there are straps at the back to allow him to sling his axe while on the march. The obverse of the shield is not visible, but is probably painted with some sort of design common to the unit. An officer would be wearing a gold torque, and possibly a tunic of deeper blue or purple.

Atjuntja.png
 
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Here's the next in the sequence, a Junditmara briyuna of the pre-Yadji era. He's wearing a traditional possum-skin cloak over a light chestpiece of bronze scale armor and an odd sort of tunic--it's split down the thigh; the back part is left to hang down behind while the front part is bifurcated, drawn up between the legs, wrapped around, and tied at the back of the thighs. (It's an odd-looking garment, but people do seem to keep finding odd ways to drape themselves in cloth...) A bronze blade is tucked in the sash at his waist as he examines a sprig of pink heath, musing on the ephemerality of the blossoms and the persistence of a briyuna's oath to his otjima.

Junditmara.png
 
A "death warrior" from the early period of Yadji expansion. The earliest death warriors are described as wearing a plain red tunic and carrying simple weapons like axes and maces.

YadjiDW1.png
 
Armada Marine Corps uniforms.

I assume they got called that due to the naval tradition matained by the air armada ? "Airborne Corps" would make more sense in my own opinion.

Edit: Or maybe some made-up name/acronym like "GRIFENS" (GRound Implanted/Flight ENabled Soldiers). Bad one I know but gives you an idea.
 
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I assume they got called that due to the naval tradition matained by the air armada ? "Airborne Corps" would make more sense in my own opinion.

Yeah, they're basically airborne troops, but I decided to go with a nomenclature inspired by the RAF's mixing in of naval ranks and that sort of thing.
 
Right, last entry for my Lands of Red and Gold series. This one has the complete set, including three not previously posted...

loragcostumepage.png
 
continuing on my earlier post to try and find alternates to medals, I started thinking about certain related awards like the aiguilletes (for units awards) and collars (for meritorious orders). One thing that occured to me is that you might get awards for specific groups or situations that must, by law, *not* be military type medals. A possibility is that the government might decide to give greater prestige to the military and prevent civilians from looking too much like them. In australia, for example, you have a fair few civilian organisations that wear military-type uniform (like the State Emergency Services, St.John Ambulance, Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, etc....) so what if their medals (which despite looking spiffy are often just long service medals) were easily dicernable from "the real deal" ?

A design I thought could still look "medaly" is inspired by the sceal you get on some grants and certificates as well "first prize" rosette thingies you get at some pageants. The reason for the biffurcated ribbons underneath at an angle is so they don't look like upside down millitary medals from a distance. Below are example with the medals on the left the original ones (ambulance service & medal of valour) in OTL and the right ones what they might look like ATL.

EDIT: Note to self: write "left" & "right" on my sleeves so I don't forget.

civilian-medal2.jpg
 
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continuing on my earlier post to try and find alternates to medals, I started thinking about certain related awards like the aiguilletes (for units awards) and collars (for meritorious orders). One thing that occured to me is that you might get awards for specific groups or situations that must, by law, *not* be military type medals. A possibility is that the government might decide to give greater prestige to the military and prevent civilians from looking too much like them. In australia, for example, you have a fair few civilian organisations that wear military-type uniform (like the State Emergency Services, St.John Ambulance, Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, etc....) so what if their medals (which despite looking spiffy are often just long service medals) were easily dicernable from "the real deal" ?

A design I thought could still look "medaly" is inspired by the sceal you get on some grants and certificates as well "first prize" rosette thingies you get at some pageants. The reason for the biffurcated ribbons underneath at an angle is so they don't look like upside down millitary medals from a distance. Below are example with the medals on the right the original ones (ambulance service & medal of valour) in OTL and the left ones what they might look like ATL.
That's actually a really interesting idea.
 
AFAIK, in OTL, the boomerang was only typical for the tribes living in the Murray river valley. It was used as a toy or a tool for the hunting of waterfowl (usualy ducks).

When I read about them (can't remember where) it mentioned it being used to hunt birds like Emu for its ability to break their necks effectively.
 
I guess it could work if its facial tattoos or arm ones if the army wear uniforms that have short or no sleeves. There might even be a certain leeway in the actual rendition of the image if for example a given award is shown by an abstract design (3 wavy lines) or objects (crossed riffle and sword).

Probably the government would pass some sort of law to prevent people from displaying tattoos they are not entitled to.
The problem with tattoos is that you are asking people to make a permanent body modification (Or disfigurement depending on their opinion). That might work in the Maori Kingdom of Aotearoa where tattoos are culturally normative but in the Judeo-Islamic Republic of Levantistan it's going to be a -big- issue.

How about embroidery? It's like the tattoos but you can still take it off at the end of the day. Private Jones starts out in a straight black uniform and by the time it's Sgt. Major Jones it looks something like this (See attachment). Not that it would have to be flowers and such. That's just the first sufficiently illustrative open content image I found.
I myself am surprised at how much one can do with GIMP. I used to think it was just handy for maps, but it can really handle just about anything. Don't think I'll ever go back to using MSPaint.
Yeah, GIMP is a cool program. It's a PITB to learn but once you got it and it's quirks figured out (Like drawing a circle being a 6 step process) you can do just about any raster image work you could want.

Kazakh_rug_chain_stitch_embroidery.jpg
 
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