File:Sadeas bridges.jpg

Summary[edit]

Interior illustration from The Way of Kings leatherbounds, depicting Sadeas's bridges and their operation.

This shows how the bridges Sadeas' uses work. It looks like a technical blueprint, except for the rather dramatic interpretation of a bridge run at the bottom. The annotations on this drawing are done in women's script rather than English. In the top left of the drawing we have a faceless bridgeman drawn from the front and back. He's wearing sandals, short pants that go down to his knees and are tied with a rope, and a sleeveless vest with heavy padding on his shoulders. He has impressive calves. We also so the bridge four glyph here, resembling an arrow-shape with a circle in the tip piercing a lightning-bolt like line. There's also Sadeas' glyph: five vertical lines that start parallel at the bottom but then curve towards the center line at the top. It looks roughly like a tower, or perhaps a claw reaching upwards. Next we get several technical drawings of a bridge from different angles, as well as drawings of bridgemen carrying the structure. The bridges are more complicated structures then the flat boards I personally pictured. They look more like ramps. Shaped like flat trapeziums. There is a broad base at the bottom, the shorter deck at the top, and short ramps at the front and back connecting to the two. So anyone going over goes up a bit, then down again. It's in the space between the top and bottom that the bridgemans' heads go when they run. The bottom isn't solid wood, it looks more like the rafters under a roof. Planks stick horizontally out of the side of the bridge at regular intervals. These are used to shove the bridge forward when it has been put down. There is a small diagram explaining how a bridge run works in five steps. 1: a straight run to the edge of the chasm 2: put the bridge down 3: push the bridge across 4: bridge is now fully across 5: bridgeman run back towards the rest of the army for cover. Finally, the third bottom of the page has a large, dramatic but not very detailed drawing of a bridge run. On the left is a formation of Alethi soldiers. They wear Roman-style armour: conical helmets with straight nose protectors, shoulder armour made out of several pieces of metal, metal breastplates, heavy skirts that go to below the knee, and sandals. Their breastplates are hard to see because they are all carrying large rectangular shields with Sadeas' glyph on them, forming a solid shield wall. They all have long spears. In the middle of the scene the bridgeman have their bridge halfway across the chasm. They and the bridge are peppered with arrows from the Parshendi on the other side of the chasm. The bridgeman at the back are still pushing but the ones at the front have all been shot and are draped over the bridge and the handles. One is plummeting onto the chasm. Several are running away from the bridge only to be felled by arrows. It's very dramatic. On the other side of the chasm the Parshendi are armed with short recurve bows. They have quivers slung along their hips. and are not standing in any sort of formation. Their helmets are simple skullcaps with long, wild hair coming from beneath. At the very bottom of the page is the glyph of the ardent who made this drawing. The centre of the glyph is an arrow shape similar to the bridge 4 one, but it has a circle at the base and two lines at the top, curving away from the arrow's point. It looks a bit like a mountain piercing the clouds.

Transcription[edit]

Glyphs

Top: Sadeas gesheh (Sadeas's bridges)^[1][2]

Bottom: Sigil of Ardent Benabe/Beneba (spelling unclear)^[3]

Bridge Dimensions

deck width: 8 [feet]

depth: 2.5 [feet]

overall width: 16 [feet]

length: 30 [feet]

Women's script

"All measurements estimated."

"Order of operation." [numbered 1 through 5]

"Effective but expensive."

"Dramatic recreation is described."