• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Military Fantasy blog

Aldarion

Archmage
I started a blog for military fantasy, as that is the genre I am interested in. Name is, amazingly, Military Fantasy.

Blog Page
Facebook Page

Currently published articles

Infantry Weapons
Medieval Weapons and Body Type (a.k.a. "Why archers are not weak")

Naval Warfare
War at Sea - Galley vs Sailling Ship
War at Sea - Northern Cog

Fortifications
Minas Tirith and Constantinople - Defences Overview

Strategy
Denethoring the Lannisters

Military Worldbuilding
Problem of Guns in Medieval Fantasy

General Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding Programs

Fantasy Analysis
Military Capacity of Iron Islands
Military Organization of Gondor
Aegon Targaryen as Ruler
Navy in Middle Earth
Worldbuilding Problems - Westeros
Western and Eastern Dragons - Similarities and Differences
 

Aldarion

Archmage
I read it with interest. I myself didn't remember just how organized Sauron's armies were.

They were extremely organized. But that is largely in the background - while Tolkien has built up incredibly realistic and detailed systems of military organization, warfare is not the focus of the books, so one has to look for clues, a lot of which would be hidden to a casual reader (or a reader without significant knowledge of ancient and medieval military organization, even).
 

Yora

Maester
It's often downplayed in adaptations, but in the Lord of the Rings, progress is evil and modernity is destroying the good old days that never were. Sauron and Saruman are all about industrialization. Orcs are not primitive, actually the opposite.
 

Aldarion

Archmage
It's often downplayed in adaptations, but in the Lord of the Rings, progress is evil and modernity is destroying the good old days that never were. Sauron and Saruman are all about industrialization. Orcs are not primitive, actually the opposite.

Indeed. And you can even see that in military organization: while military of Gondor is based around Byzantine themata and Anglo-Saxon fryd, military of Mordor is both organized, behaves and even talks much more like a modern-day military than anything else - albeit a First World War military, obviously, as that is what JRRT had experience with.
 
Top