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Bob Greenwade wrote on Fri, Sep 22, 2023 02:44 PM UTC:

I'm away for Rose City Comic Con this weekend, so my ability to post my Piece of the Day will be rather limited. (Not that some of you wouldn't welcome its absence, I'm sure...) So rather than my usual two-piece weekend, I'm posting a full QRBM set.

QRBM stands for Queen, Rook, Bishop, and Mann (because the King is royal), and refers to combining each of those four pieces with the same oblique leaper. So, here we go with the Wildebeest Set:

67. Indlovukazi. 68. Sangoma.  69. Umbusi. and 70. Mkuu. Since the wildebeest (ala gnu) is native to southern Africa, I thought that a southern African language would be a good choice to go with, in the same way that I'd used Swahili for the Zebra QBRM. When Aurelian Florea mentioned the Sangoma, I checked and found it as a Zulu name, and I knew that Zulu would be the language to go for.

I therefore have Aurelian to thank for this group.

The Indlovukazi is a dead-on translation from "Queen." The word takes a little practice for an English-speaker to pronounce, but it's worth it; the word is (in my opinion) as beautiful as the personage to which it refers. (QNC)

On the piece design, I think I need to raise the collar a bit to make it more visible, but otherwise it fits.

The Sangoma is named for a traditional Zulu healer, in keeping with Bishop compounds being religious leaders (such as the Archbishop and Caliph). (BNC)

The piece is based on photos I was able to find of actual, modern-day sangomas, with tightly braided hair, crossed sashes, and in a couple of cases a distinctive headpiece. I need to fix the shoulders of the sashes on this piece, but otherwise I'm pretty satisfied.

Umbusi is, quite directly, the Zulu word for 'governor." I take a cue from the Chancellor, and name Rook compounds for top government officials. (RNC)

The piece shows the formal cylindrical hat and chest drape worn by government officials in parts of southern Africa. The latter does need a bit of work, but it's getting there.

Finally, for the Mkuu... while the Mann is basically a Commoner, for the Camel compound, István Paulovits called this a General in 1890, and for my version I translated this to Janaaral (the English loanword to Arabic). Thus, when I can, the Mann compounds are named General, and only if that fails do I go with Commoner. Therefore, the Mkuu is named for a Zulu war leader. (KNC)

The piece features the headband, triangular fur-shouldered shoulder drape, and distinctive shield of a Zulu warrior.

I'd promise to soon feature more QBRM groups in the future, but I'm having a little trouble naming the Mann figures for the Okapi (Lingala) and Bison (Russian), and a lot of trouble finding any good translations for the whole Buffalo set (probably Lakota or some other mid-North American language). There may be others, too; the Giraffe, Antelope, Impala, and Aurochs all have potential, and I have a Tibetan group set aside for my (2,5) Bharal.

My apologies for taking up such a large chunk of Comments; I hope these pieces inspire some creativity in y'all (or, conceivably, a desire to include one or more of them in your variants).


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