Greetings from the Lands of Khuresh, or should I say Thailand.
Ancient Thailand was a land of interconnected powerful fortress city states, connected by long roads to the center capital, ruled by warrior Kings who ruled not by bloodline, but by proven worth in battle. A land that prospered by waging nonstop wars against it’s neighbors for slaves to work it’s iron mines, a land that valued iron over gold, a land that honored it’s warrior priests and lords with stone statues atop towering ziggurat platforms. A land that wealth and status was determined by how tall your hat was.
Sound familiar?
It should.
Per a suggestion from our dear Admiral, I’d like to share some photos I recently took from the ancient fortress city of Khampaeng Phet in western Thailand.
It’s relatively unknown to the western world, but it was a garrison city at the center of wars that lasted centuries against the Burmese, a fortress city built of iron and stone, and the most valuable commodity was iron, copper, precious stones and slaves.
It was levelled and burnt to the ground by the Burmese after a 13 year long siege, approximately about 1357 AD.
The surviving stone and brickwork has an eerily beautiful burnt color of oxidized iron, and could easily be of interest to many of you looking to create tabletop scenery, accurate bases, CD themed artworks, etc…because everything has a look of fortress workshops and slave mines in a dark foreboding atmosphere.
Imagine these pics with skies darkened from furnaces, and you’ll get the idea.
First off, a mining pit:
Slave pits (housing) :
Burnt and charred Buddha and warrior statues, made with an inner laterite stone, and were covered in gold, copper and bronze. The Burmese set them on fire to melt off the valuable metal work during looting:
This one is of particular interest (I’m a history nerd)…see that hole in its back?
The Burmese were well aware that stone effigies of Thai warrior priests had valuable stones, diamonds and emeralds interred within the back of the statue, after melting off the gold layers, the Burmese would then gain access to the repository of treasures in its back:
The Burmese missed a few though, these extremely rare examples of jewelry were discovered in 1956 after a lightning storm broke open a statue.
The ancient Thai placed more value on rare stones and iron ingots, rather than on gold…and I’d imagine a CD would think the same, no self respecting dwarf would wear gold, stone is the soul:
And my favorite photos that I took were of the workshops, temples, toppled ziggurats and palaces…all are charred iron oxide laterite stone pillars…very CD in my opinion, I’d imagine places like this dotting the dark lands of Zharr:
The charred oxide red tones are really cool, and if one day I ever get around to painting WH bases again, I’ll use these color tones…I’ve always imagined the plains of Zharr being these darkened colors.
For those of you who appreciate ancient fortifications, here’s a few pics you might find interesting…the fortress city had 30 meter deep “moats”, extremely impressive and a sure death trap:
See those short odd stone walls? They’re anti tank traps…well, actually anti elephant.
War elephants can’t step across these:
Hopefully you’ll find some inspiration from these pics…and in true CD lore, I’ll tell you the tale of what happened to the Burmese army after the looting of the fortress city of Khampaeng Phet…when news quickly arrived that a Thai army was advancing to counterattack, the Burmese general ordered an immediate retreat. Two days later the Burmese were out flanked at the Ping River and annihilated, more than 30,000 were beheaded and set on fire upon surrender, the Burmese soldiers who were caught with looted gold bricks were then treated to the Kamphaeng Phet (CD?) “code of theft”…their hands were nailed to the bricks of gold and they were tossed into the river to drown.
And the captured Burmese general?
He was sent back to Toungoo (Burma) with a message for his King.
A message that was tattooed on his face, it read “My brother, why do you yourself not come to visit us?”
Thanks for reading, and again, I offer you greetings from the Land of Khuresh (Thailand)…come and visit us.
