Howard Fielding’s Tekumel Club produces some beautiful figures of the Legion of the Lord of Red Devastation. I finished painting 30 troopers plus assorted officers, musicians, etc. Howard recently supplemented the original sculpts with another beautiful “Warrior Priest of Fire” figure that I don’t have (yet).

References to the Legion of the Lord of Red Devastation, Lord Vimúhla, 18th Imperial Medium Infantry are scattered liberally through the Tékumel canon. Armies of Tékumel Volume I: Tsolyánu describes the legion simply as “Fanatics sworn to fight to the death. A good priestly legion with much experience.” In a 1976 article by Barker in Dragon #4, The Battle of the Temple of Chánis: 2020 A.S., a Tsolyáni soldier describes the legion charging: “… there was a sound like a great stone falling upon the earth, and then a fierce clashing, clattering, and clanging.” Deeds of the Ever-Glorious traces the roots of the legion to a “Legion of the Lord of Flame” in the time of the Dragon Warriors. Unfortunately, over the course of its history the legion backed several losing contenders to the throne and it was wiped out a few times. More recently, at least since the war of 2020 A.S. with Mu’ugalavya, it has been in Imperial favor.

As usual, Howard’s figures capture the original art perfectly. The above image is from The Armies of Tekumel: Tsolyanu.

I had imagined the legion in deep red capes and I have seen them attractively painted that way. However, research shows the question of coloring is more complicated. The painting guide Miniatures from M.A.R. Barker’s World of Tékumel says the troopers’ capes are “usually white or light blue with red, black, or dark blue striping horizontally or vertically” and their shields are blue and silver with red trim and black glyphs. However, the painting guide at the end of the Armies of Tékumel Volume I indicates the legion wears red cloaks with gold trim and that the shields are flame colored with blue glyphs and gold trim. In any case, both sources agree that helmets and armor are blue and tunics are white.

The source material is also a good reminder that Tekumeláni legions do not wear identical uniforms. Though the Yan Koryáni legions are most famous for their assortment of different armor and clothing, the Tsolyáni also show variation. Thus, the miniatures guide says that the armor of the Legion of the Lord of Red Devastation has “gold or silver” trim, that mail half sleeves have “gold or blue” banding, and that capes not only are “white or light blue” (or maybe red) with varied stripes, but “often” have “central embroidered ornament[s].” In the end, I painted four figure (= one cohort) groups with varied trim, stripes, and decoration. I made the troopers’ capes white or light blue but the officers wear a nice scarlet.

I do not think I have to explain the above glyphs to most visitors to this site, but for the benefit of the random drop-in I’ll note that the second-from-left cape bears the Engsvanyáli ideograph for “Vimúhla” (h/t to Mike Lung for this idea) and the glyph on the rightmost cape is the Classical Tsolyani determinative for “fire.”

I imagined a back story for these two. The warrior figure is a local land-owner who served in the legion forty years ago. He’s lost some height, his old body can barely fill the uniform and he can’t hold the sword for long. Despite his risible appearance, as a veteran of the legion he generally receives proper respect and gratitude — especially for the butchered hméllu he delivers to the encampment. The Vimúhla priest, another old timer with vestments roughly 40 years out of date, gets a little less respect since he is clearly cadging a few hlash selling cheap amulets and blessings. (I think Petalheads get my small joke here, but for the uninitiated I’ll explain these are old figures made long ago by Ral Partha — the crest on the priest was actually painted over four decades ago when I was in high school.)

(Image clipped from a Ral Partha advertisement in a 1976 issue of the Dragon.)

The source material does not mention checked tunics. However, I found this image of an Incan war tunic:

Barker’s inspirations were so eclectic that I am not sure he had something like this in mind when conceiving the Legion of the Lord of Red Devastation, but it seemed appropriate.

I failed in one idea. I have this megamendung batik from the village of Trusmi outside Cirebon. This could be a design on the red capes of the officers and I invented a back story for the bluish clouds. After a few practice tries, though, it was clear that recreating this detailed design on a 28mm figure was way beyond my ability. I may ask someone else to try …

Anyway, another great Tekumel Club offering and one more step on the journey to accumulating enough painted figures to game a real Qádardàlikoi.