Ok, Honestly, How do you see the Picts?

[rgrove0172]

When your reading or gaming, how do you invision the Picts? American Indians, a pseudo black culture, maybe a tatooed primitive white man? Ive heard all kinds of comparisons. Whats yours?

 

[tneva82]

When your reading or gaming, how do you invision the Picts? American Indians, a pseudo black culture, maybe a tatooed primitive white man? Ive heard all kinds of comparisons. Whats yours?

American indians. I'm just reading the pict related supplement book and everything SCREAMS indians to me.

 

[slaughterj]

American Indians with a harsh primitive streak. The various tribes of American Indians differed widely in their dispositions, and it seems that the Picts are more uniform, in a Darwinian fashion.

 

[argo]

Rent the movie Last of the Mohicans. The version starring Daniel Day Lewis made back in the 90's.

Thats what picts look like.

 

[Netherek]

13th Warrior comes to mind as well, though the method of wiping out villages would be late Hyborian Age...

 

[rgrove0172]

My main reason for asking is that Im slowly building a collection of 28mm miniatures to use in our game. I dont pretend to ever have enough minis for every occasion but its not to unrealistic to have a spattering of figs from the main cultures to supplement the pseudo chess-piece like wood carvings I use in our game for tactical situations. Id like to have a dozen or so typical pict warriors and a shaman in reserve for the eventual Borderland adventure. Im debating on what kind of miniature to get.

 

[Aelric]

I would go with American Indians

 

[Netherek]

You can also use Medo-American models if you can find them, they will at least have stone weapons and the like. Native American archers would be useful as well.

 

[Yogah of Yag]

Q: Ok, Honestly, How do you see the Picts?
A: At the end of my sword.

 

[rgrove0172]

Ok, what about the Cimmerians? Its pretty hard to find Celts/Germans who arent holding a shield of some kind. Heck most of the figures out there are wielding spears. Anyone seen any Cimmerian possibilities?

 

[Strom]

Here's a cool and informative web site dedicated to the Picts:

http://www.members.tripod.com/~Halfmoon/

In a letter to HP Lovecraft Howard wrote:

But to me 'Pict' must always refer to the small dark Mediterranean aborigines of Britain. This is not strange, since when I first read of these aborigines, they were referred to as Picts. But what is strange, is my unflagging interest in them.”

The newest issue of the Dark Horse Conan comic (#35) has Conan battling Picts - great art and story.

 

[Clovenhoof]

But to me 'Pict' must always refer to the small dark Mediterranean aborigines of Britain. This is not strange, since when I first read of these aborigines, they were referred to as Picts.

Yup. Doesn't surprise me. The Picts were various tribes that settled in Scotland in Roman times, and got their name from their tradition to wear blue tattoos. So that's more or less how I de-pict-ed the Picts.

There's a Wikipedia entry on the historical Picts as well.

Ok, what about the Cimmerians?

Now this is a bit tricky. Howard usually just copied both names and habits of historical peoples (like Khitai = Cathay = China). Cimmerians, however, don't quite follow that rule. The historical Cimmerians were an equestrian people who lived in the Caucasus around 700BC. Well, again Wikipedia has some info on that, but it appears that not much is known about this people.

 

[Krushnak]

cimmerians in the hyborian age are proto-celtic people. mainly irish seeing as crom is a real god in ireland(or used to be) and is the lord of the mound, the lord of the dead. only difference between the two versions of crom is the latter one accepts human sacrifice.

 

[rgrove0172]

What do you think of these? Granted they are carrying spears and shields but otherwise?
http://www.black-tree-design.com/btdcat.php?ctry=uk&lng=gb&rangenum=5&typenum=95&qty=0&sub=&shp=&tot=

 

[Krushnak]

i'd say pretty good, aslong as the models are shirtless and european looking and you paint them to have black hair they can pass for cimmerians. the german chiefs however look to be more nordheimir.

 

[Auggie]

The only good Pict is a dead Pict......

 

[Kargush]

I haven't read the sourcebook, so my image of the picts might be a little skewed...

Anyways: take a 5ft tall human, give him the skin color of a Native American, then give him stone age equipment, and a look that cries neanderthal. As I said to a player in my group: imagine the most apelike blacks you've ever heard of in the infamous racist jokes, give him NA skin color, and a club, and voila, a pict.

 

[Valgrim Bragisson]

Since Pictland is such a big geographical area, withe different climates, I see the Picts from different regions looking very different. In the northern and central parts, northeast woodland indians(Iraquois). Futher south, Amazonian/Mesoamerican. Along the coast, Maori or other Polynesian.

In the movie Apocalypto, the Maya from Jaguar Paw's village are a good visual referance for Picts. The raiders from the city would make good Tlazitlan.
MP

 

[Spongly]

While they play the role of "injuns" in the stories they're in, I can't say that they seem particularly stone age (armed as they are with steel tipped spears, swords and axes), or particularly native American.

I've always imagined them as slightly dark, black haired and painted with blue tattoos - pretty much as Picts from Britain were imagined by historians in Howard's day.

 

[The King]

I imagine the Pics as the guys who were dwelling in Scotland before everyone else meddled. There is an excellent sourcebook on the Picts in Pendragon RPG called Beyond the wall.

Besides it suits well with the stories about Cormac Mac Art which Howard wrote and which happenes in Arthur age.