Madeira Darling

Thracian-Peltast Xena. She’s using a Sica, javelins, and pelte shield, and wears Thracian garb.

In take two, Xena combines archaic-classical Greek , and Thracian equipment. She still has the lightweight wicker-and-goatskin pelte, but adds greaves and a slightly more Grecian Kopis sword.

In this take, Xena is equipped as a Greek Hoplite from the murky boundary of the Archaic and Classical periods.

Alternatively, Xena can use a Linothorax- a layered linen armour with bronze inserts and alot of style.

In this version, Xena hails from the 12th c BC, and uses Mycenaean arms and armour. It has a certain Barbarian je n’ais se quoi.

Gabrielle takes a level of badass with the Amazons; luckily for me, Scythian amazon get-up is extremely distinctive and fun to draw. A bow, lasso, and short Akinakes make her contrast well with Xena.

For funsies: historically accurate Xena. I heard that there’s a remake of Xena: Warrior Princess in the wind, and thought that it’s a shame that the show never really dug into the aesthetics of the ancient world, because Antiquity looked dope as hell. I’m pretty sure we’ll get standard Hollywood fantasy aesthetics again, which bums me out, but at least I can draw Xena however I want.

Her fictional biography gives me several possible directions (I will not go into the show’s extended bizarro chronology, you can’t make me); she’s a contemporary of Herakles, placing her at around 1100 BC, in the Mycenaean era. This gave me a style of hair and makeup I frankly couldn’t let go of; it makes her look like a terrifying Onna-Bugeisha. It’s just too good!
However, she’s also meant to be a citizen of Amphipolis, an Athenian colony in Thracia from around the 500′s BC, placing her in early Classical Antiquity. In the first couple of pictures, Xena is either a Thracian barbarian exposed to Greek culture, or a Greek frontierswoman familiar with the ways of the Thracians. This does give her a distinctive throwing weapon to be good with, and some unique sword forms. She could be a higher class Thracian with access to bronze armour, or have simply “acquired” some over time.

Perhaps, instead, I could commit hard to early Classical Antiquity; here, I’ve made her an angry wall of bronze decked out with gorgon heads to symbolise her role as a terrifying, living Fury. Alternatively, a Linothorax (layered linen armour) with pteruges, gives nods to her costume in the show, and looks surprisingly good with the right patterning and notional colours.

Exploring the Mycenaean era of Troy and Heracles gives extensive, if cruder, bronze armour, and some very barbarian-y helmets and flourishes. The Type ci swords are gorgeous, duckbill axes are a lot of fun, but we do have immense shields that heavily obscure our showpiece character. On the other hand, perhaps Xena is especially qualified to actually wield the huge, double-bitted Labrys axe of ancient Minos in battle *unsubtle wink/nudge combo*.

In the show, Gabrielle takes a level of badass with the Amazons; real amazons were likely Scythians, and Scythian culture has given us a magnificent wealth of highly distinctive grave goods, textiles, jewellery, and so on. She’s using a Scythian composite bow (although probably at a lower poundage than an Amazon born to saddle and bow), a lasso, a short Akinakes sword, and a Sagaris axe. (As a former farm girl, she should at least have had good muscle memory with wood axes for her Amazonian trainers to work from.) Next to the hulking, ferocious, armoured tank of Xena, this trickier and more evasive warrior makes for a fun contrast in appearance and style.

Tell me which design/elements you want to see as a part of the final full piece!

Look at what my kickass spouse drew!