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Carrack

In “The Fortuitous Meeting”, the Spaniard-turned-native Piraju tells Gerard, “I was a sailor on the Spanish carrack Madre de Dios, which shipwrecked here in All Saints’ Bay in 1535.”

The carrack (“nau” in Portuguese) was one of the most important ships during the Age of Discovery. It had three or four masts, and used a combination of square-rigged and lateen-rigged sails.

Vasco de Gama’s Nau São Gabriel

(Source: http://museu.marinha.pt)

Much larger larger than its predecessors, the caravel and round caravel, the carrack displaced up to 600 tons. This allowed it to carry more weight, making it suitable for longer exploration voyages, for trade, and for war.

Both the carrack and caravel were used by explorers like Cabral, de Gama, Magellan, and Columbus.

Replica of Christopher Columbus’s Carrack Santa Maria, 1904

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Santa Maria at anchor, Andries van Eertvelt

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The carrack was succeeded by the galleon, a ship with up to two times the displacement. However, the carrack continued to be used into the seventeenth century.

For a technical discussion of the carrack, Rick Spilman recently wrote an excellent article entitled Spec Tech: Designing a Ship for a Fantasy Novel.

Replica of Pedro Cabral’s flagship

(Photo by Christopher Kastensmidt)

Governors of Colonial Brazil

In “The Fortuitous Meeting”, Gerard is called before Governor Almeida to face charges of “vagrancy and practicing the Protestant religion”.

The governors were the highest authorities in Colonial Brazil, appointed by the King of Portugal himself (or, during the unification, the king of Spain). The governor was the king’s official representative in the massive colony.

The position originated when King Dom João III appointed Tomé de Sousa first Governor of Brazil and sent him to establish the capital city of Salvador.

Tomé de Souza

Three positions were created just below the governor: the “ouvidor-mor” (head of justice), “capitão-mor” (head of defense), and “provedor-mor” (head of the treasury). At the regional level, city councils were established which could communicate with the governor or directly to the king.

Over the years, the position of Governor evolved to that of General Governor and eventually to Viceroy, as both Brazil and its importance to Portugal expanded.

Except for two short periods where the colony was spilt into two different territories with two different governors (north and south), the governor and government resided in Salvador. In 1763, near the end of the Colonial period, the capital was transferred to Rio de Janeiro. In 1808, when Prince John (later John VI) left Portugal to live in Brazil, the position was discontinued.

Sacy-Perey

Sacy-Perey was a slave child on the first “black ship” to ever visit Brazil. However, he was treacherously murdered, and powerful magic brought him back in his current form: a one-legged imp with magical powers.

Sacy loves three things more than anything else: tobacco, puzzles, and tormenting travelers in the Brazilian wilderness–particularly Gerard van Oost and Oludara! He can hop on his one leg faster than most people can run, and can even “hop” through space, teleporting from one place to another at will–a power which allows him to drop in on our duo much more often than they’d like. He isn’t an official member of The Elephant and Macaw Banner, but don’t tell him that!

Sacy-Perey (originally “Saci-Pererê”) is undoubtedly the most famous character in Brazilian folklore, and is sometimes used as a symbol of the country itself. In The Elephant and Macaw Banner series, the myth of Sacy lives on, but with new dimensions to his history, powers, and personality.

Gerard and Oludara know the source of Sacy’s power, but if you want to know as well, you’ll need to read “The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara”. And for those who enjoyed the imp’s antics in the first story, don’t worry; you haven’t seen the last of Sacy-Perey!

(Illustration by Paulo Ítalo)

Making of – Arrival in Salvador Painting – Part 2

This post continues Making of – Arrival in Salvador Painting – Part 1.

Once we’d agreed on the rough details of the composition, Leonardo began by collecting some references and creating a mood board:

Leonardo then modeled the scene in 3D. This allowed him to get a good feel for both lighting and perspective of the scene and provide a vehicle to discuss them with me.

3D Perspective Tests

Amora offered some different options of perspective, but from the start I wanted Salvador to be tall and dominant in the background.

You can see that even in these early tests, the church appears as an important element. This was also one of my requests. The ship and the church, two important symbolic elements of Gerard’s arrival in Brazil, would each dominate one end of the painting. The church, in fact, is intended to be the church mentioned in the first line of “The Fortuitous Meeting”.

(Side note: I even considered placing a small splotch of red over the cross (those who have read the story will understand the reference), but in the end I thought it would have just been lost. For a high-res version, perhaps it might be worth it going back and adding that in.)

The next steps went quickly. Amora began with a speed painting to get all the elements and basic colors in the right places.

Speed Painting

A second and third pass added in more color and lighting detail:

Then he performed extensive detail work to arrive at the final result:

Arrival in Salvador – Final Image

But Amora didn’t stop there. He went on to create several variations of the painting, some of which appear in the artwork section of this site.

I hope you enjoyed this making of as much as I did writing it. More on the world of The Elephant and Macaw Banner coming soon!

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