A. A sketch of a drake warrior (c. 1600) in the Heroic or Quackford Panoply. He wears what would later be called a Type IIIb mollusc-helm, made of bronze, with a bronze mail neck-guard and minimal decoration. The armoured mantle of leather and bronze across the shoulders is common among duck warriors, as a focused defence against downward blows from larger creatures. The falcata-style sword has a heavy, curved single-edged blade--commonly used in a manner that aims to cripple a man-sized foe with severe injuries to the anterior quadriceps and posterior tendons, it can sever a man's leg at the knee if of good quality and wielded with sufficient force.The shield provides the main article of defence; it is large and typically fairly heavy, being required to deflect blows of considerable moment issued from height. Its convex wooden frame is plated with a thin sheet of bronze. The shield itself is decorated with the rune and depiction of the Many-Mawed Mother: a demon who is usually considered to be a duckish version of Gorgorma, said to possess eight-hundred and eighty-eight fanged bills. He also wears a typical durulz back-banner, marked with colourful feathers. Banners provide not only a mode of identification and personal expression, but also an atavistic link to myth and (when waxed) some further control in the water.
(Originally posted on ImmoderateGloranthaQuest, 9 December 2007.)
