July 2014 Challenge: The Hurnic Horde

[Chashio]

It is very pleasing to look at.

[Diamond]

Holy Year 1648. The Khadovai Steppe.

Karl Medovodai's year was shaping up to be a lousy one. On Yearsbirth Day, his daughter Olga had run off with the blacksmith's apprentice. Karl had found them in an abandoned drover's hut four leagues to the south of the village, professing their undying love for each other. After beating the lad silly and dragging Olga home, the week had ended with a visit to the village by the boyar's tax man, who brought news that was not unexpected, but far from welcome.

February brought two late winter storms that took the shingles off his roof, the chickens from his yard, and the topsoil from his fields.

April brought a minor bout of plague to the villages and towns of the Northern Marches, and Karl's wife was laid up for weeks, leaving a sullen Olga to do all the cooking and washing by herself.

May brought a pestilence that ravaged the newly-planted fields of the local farmers; insects devoured whole crops before moving south like a living carpet.

Now it was June. The planting, such as it was, was complete, and Karl could take a bit of a break. Although truth be told, a break for a farmer was really no break at all. There were fences to be mended, roofs to re-shingle, calves to deliver, and a hundred other tasks. It was life on the steppe. It was the only life Karl Medovodai knew. On this particular day in early June, he was in his north field, pulling a calf out of the small sinkhole it had fallen into, when he heard the sound of thunder on the northern horizon.

...Not thunder. Hoofbeats. The horsemen were endless, thousands upon thousands of them. And Karl's year was about to get a whole lot worse...

### Latest WIP ###

[xpian]

Awesome. I was picturing semi-transparent red arrows for the invasion from the beginning, and here they are. Note: the paragraph of text is easier on the eyes if it's in upper/lower standard case. I realize that font may not have lower case characters, but perhaps there is a similar one that does have them...something like Bernhard Modern? The capitals are pretty close: Bernhard Modern BT Font : pickafont.com

[Diamond]

Yeah, hopefully this font is a little clearer to read without looking too different from the main text...

I put in a wallpaper background that I think looks pretty awesome (found here). I had to chop out the empty space because the file was just too darn big. I may have to host the finished map on another site; the only other option would be to post it here at a very poor resolution. Even chopped down like this, it's right at the upper limit of what the site can host.

### Winner ###

[- Max -]

NOt a big fan of the wallpaper that is very strong. As for limit size, I think you can easily go down in size, this would still be clearly legible at 30-50% size.

[Chashio]

Well then... I guess it's just bad luck if you live in the Northern Marches. The wallpaper is a bit overpowering. The rest is superb.

[jkat718]

Dammit, Karl! This is why we can't have nice things. Like shingles. Or chickens.

[xpian]

I like the new paragraph font. I agree with the chorus that the wallpaper is *way* to flashy at its current contrast/saturation level. It's pretty, and if you back the whole border off towards the shadow or the washed-out side of things you can still use it whilst keeping the focus where it belongs: on the beautiful map in the middle.

[Diamond]

The masses have spoken.

[Meshon]

Well, the border reminds me of the really bold illustrations in a book of Russian fairytales when I was small, so I really don't mind it! I am also really enjoying how the story is progressing. I feel like a farmer on the outskirts of Gelnova listening anxiously as news slowly arrives of the unstoppable horde...

cheers,
Meshon