The skull of Sartis, or simply skulls, are a type of war vehicle used by the minigunman army in their missions of conquest. They were late introduced in the army, mostly developed to engage the growing creator menace. They share traits of both the behemoth type of war vehicle and the cannon type. Due to its relative newness there are no known versions of the skulls of Sartis besides the mainstream one.
Appearance[]
The skull of Sartis shape is clearly based in that of an human skull, with some slight modifications in order to adapt it to warfare purposes. Thus, it resembles a skull looking up, with a traversal cut a few inches before the beginning of the jaw. The traversal cut, which corresponds to the bottom of the vehicle lies over the typical minigunman-substance that sustains and gives movement to the machine.
The "mouth" of the skull rests with both rows of teeth closed. Although, the lower one can be retracted to inside the bony chin, acting as a hatchet to the inside of the vehicle. It is operated by a minigunman lying inside the "chin". From the opened row of teeth a red stair descends to the very floor of the machine.
Inside it, a couple of meters further, another red stair ascends, this time reaching the nest of the machine-gunner a minigunman in charge of the heavy machine-gun that fires from the "nose" of the skull.
Going even further inside the vehicle, another meter aproximately, another stair ascends leading to the empty sockets of the skull. From these sockets, the skulls can fire their main weaponry: the fists of Sartis, iron fists projectiles attached to a spear that detaches in mid-air, resulting in a deadly explosion when they land. There is one for each socket, and a couple more inside the vehicle as backup ammo. One minigunman is in charge of this weapon, being the gunner. He is accompanied in his job by another minigunman with the task of loader.
Finally, at the end of the skull, where the cranium should be, the commander minigunman stands looking through green tainted glass. He is in charge of both maneuvering the vehicle as providing the vital force for its functioning. Although it seemingly looks "backwards" he is constantly receiving visual information of his back by the other minigunmans, allowing the vehicle to travel in both directions effortless.
In theory, the skulls are amphibious, although they are not much used as such.
Use[]
The skulls of Sartis were developed to engage the growing menace of the creators, that instead of the humans or other species that minigunmans were used to fight, had bigger weaponry and in some cases war machines as mighty as the minigunmans. So they needed an armored vehicle capable of engaging these monsters (although not directly) and pack some serious damage in the creator's lines. That way, the skulls were born with their special ammunition that allowed great amounts of chaos.
They were mostly used by the southern minigunman to engage the armies coming from the creator's ruined city. They had moderate to high success.
Inspiration[]
Besides the obvious reference, the skulls of Sartis were based in the M901 ITV armored vehicle, with their fists of Sartis being equivalents to the TOW real-life missiles.
A view of a Tartarian Gate (bottom-left) in Age of Mythology
Although they weren't exactly based upon them, their general shape of a skull with a traversal cut resembles the Tartarian Gate unit showed in the Age of Mythology videogame.