Wednesday, November 21, 2012
So Christmas...
So I'm not really sure what my plans will be for Christmas break, aside from the fact that I will be spending at least part of it in Tennessee with my parents. Depending on how we are traveling we might be able to stop in Raleigh, or we could split the difference and meet at Phil's place (assuming this is alright with him), since it is more of a middle ground between Cookeville and Raleigh. If we decide to meet at Phil's, it will probably have to be sometime after Christmas but before he would have to go back to work. Having said all of this, I am taking orders for Cuneiform Commanders. Just let me know what general you want in clay form. The first versions I translated into Ugaritic, a West Semitic language used around the 14th cent BCE in northern Syria. These next ones I will translate into the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, which was used ca. 2000-1500 BCE. So let me know what you want, although commanders with less text will probably be easier space-wise. But I'll make it work regardless.
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Hi all, I would like you all to sign this petition requesting that Tommy eat a stick of deodorant. If we can get at least 100 comments, Tomm... -
Its spring and babies are in the air! Hi all, I would like you all to sign this petition requesting that Justin and Veronica Tommy ... -
http://www.fiona-rae.com/paintings/2007-11/as-i-run-and-run-happiness-comes-closer/
It would be awesome if you could swing by Raleigh or meet up at my place. Either way it would be great to see you and Veronica.
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome that you all are doing Cuneiform Commanders again. I'd like Maelstrom Wanderer and hopefully it should not be complicated if you leave off the reminder text. It awesome having a card that almost no other magic player would be able to read and I'm looking forward to some badass art, although it is unfortunate that goats will probably not factor into the art with Maelstrom Wanderer like they did with Kiki-jiki.
I second that. It'd be great to get the gang back together again at whichever location. For my card I think kamahl Fist of Krosa would make a cool card as its my best edh commander. Just like Gaddock, Kamahl has a cool staff so my edh cards would both kind of have a wise green guy with staff theme.
ReplyDeleteI've done the art research for both Maelstrom Wanderer and Kamahl and am pretty happy with what I found. No goats...unless you want some added to the background. Interestingly I found some goat-fish hybrid creatures (http://www.oocities.org/mandaeans/birth5b.html although the website itself looks a little silly, the pictures are cool). I also started translating the text into Akkadian..., trying when possible to stay faithful to Old Babylonian vocabulary. I think Maelstrom wonderer won't be a problem as long as I don't include the reminder text (and if I can find a word in Akkadian that could mean "elemental" that doesn't also mean "spirit," "demon," "lamassu" etc). As for Kamahl, I think I'll end up having to shorten some of the text, like not including "It's still a land." We'll see how it goes though.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, I'm excited! Goat fish creatures are interesting. I guess they have catfish and dogfish, so that was the next logical step, kinda like how God invented Screamo after inventing Emo.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Maelstrom Wanderer associates with many goats. Goats just don't hang around the Maelstrom very often. They are too busy discussing Purist in the coffeeshops of Cairo.
Also, I say if Tommy doesn't respond, you should threaten to do Willow Faerie for his card.
I would like a Balduvian Shaman plus with the reminder text and all. Just kidding, I'm thinking Korlash, Heir to Backblade would look pretty good in cuneform. If that's too wordy, then I think Konda would look awesome in cuneform as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm free wheelin like Bob Dylan, so I would be in favor of meeting up in either Raleigh or the degaba system. There's only two caveats:
1)We need to pack sufficient sandwiches. I cannot stress this enough. During our failed expedition to the Arctic circle, Joey eschewed sandwiches for Mint Mojito Orbitz gum. It was a minty near death experience that I would rather not repeat.
2)I leave in early January (like on the 3rd or so, so we would have to work around that.
Korlash should work just fine, if I don't write in the reminder text for Grandeur. In fact, if space is an issue, I may leave Grandeur off entirely, since it is a completely irrelevant ability in commander. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind: there is no o vowel in akkadian only a, i, e, u, so Korlash will be Kurlash. Krosa will be Krusa. Akkadian is mostly a syllabic language that is not fond of consonant clusters (usually CV/VC combinations), so to write Kurlash would look like Ku-ur-la-aš. To do blackblade would be something like: be-la-ak-be-la-de. I can get around some of this by using Logograms (a sign that stand for an entire word), but that doesn't help with names. I did a test run on Maelstrom wanderer last night and I was able to fit all the text on no problem, but that's not a name it is more of a description. To do Kamahl, Fist of Krosa would be something like Ka-ma-ah-lu, ŠU Ke-ru-sa. I can tell you that it will be hard to fit that on the space I've got, so here are my options, which you can all weigh in on: 1) I learn to write really really small. The negative is that you lose out on being able to clearly see the cuneiform, which I think makes the whole thing cool, even if you can't read it; 2) abbreviate the name, so Kamahl of Krosa/Korlash the Heir (or maybe Korlash Heir of the weapon...since those two words probably have logograms); 3) Oversized generals, closer to the oversized ones WOTC has made. The problem: they won't fit with the other cuneiform commanders I've made, they could be a bit awkward to handle a clay object of that size. My inclination is toward option #2, but I'd be interested in hearing your opinions. If you all agree on an option, I'll be glad to do it.
ReplyDeleteAnother option I forgot to mention, because I think it is the worst of all, is to shrink the illustration space to make room for more text. Given Veronica's kick ass art, I don't think this is a good option.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Jan 3rd noted. We'll work around it.
I think I agree with you. I like #2 the best. I'm not super picky but it would be cool if the cards were similar to the old ones. Either way I'm looking forward to seeing the cuneiform goodness.
ReplyDeleteOh and Thommy, Big Macs technically are sandwiches. Big Macs and Gatorade with Orbits Gum for dessert is what smart people eat.