Darkoath?

[Mr. White]

So...who exactly are the Warqueen and Chieftain? 

Do they belong to a larger faction? Are they chaos? If so, why aren't they simply Bloodbound style Khorne followers? Why a similar looking aesthetic?

They look great...and I've painted the Chieftain as a hero for my starter set Khorne models. I'll probably do the same with the Warqueen.

Is there information on them I've missed somewhere?

[Praecautus]

The chieftains warscroll says slaves to darkness so assume war queen is the same. She certainly looks like a chaos style model.

I hope this is the start of a slaves update, although chaos has had a lot of love in recent times; death and destruction need it too

[HorticulusTGA]

1 hour ago, Mr. White said:

So...who exactly are the Warqueen and Chieftain? 

Do they belong to a larger faction? Are they chaos? If so, why aren't they simply Bloodbound style Khorne followers? Why a similar looking aesthetic?

They look great...and I've painted the Chieftain as a hero for my starter set Khorne models. I'll probably do the same with the Warqueen.

Is there information on them I've missed somewhere?

It's interesting. The wording suggest that "Darkoath" is a faction, of which we have seen a "boss" and a "big boss".

If there is a Chieftain (who belongs to the Slaves To Darkness), and the Warqueen is a general, they should have an army to lead.

The background, both recent (Blightwar) and old (the AOS rulebook) mentions that during the Age of Myth and Chaos, the Realms were manly inhabited by tribes of human barbarians. 

Lady Atia said last year on her blog* that there was a concept of a "barbarian" faction at the start of AOS.

Now, IMO, they should be Order-aligned, because, as you said, Chaos already have many "corrupted" barbarians, mainly Khorne Bloodboud, Slaves To Darkness, etc.

Also, this picture was posted on War Of Sigmar* : it's from the AOS rulebook, Blood Warriors fighting savage yet uncorrupted looking barbarians.

[FRoper]

thinking about it, they have very similer asthestic to the marurder horsemen. so hopefully this will lead to an update of the whole line of marurder models.

[Uveron]

57 minutes ago, HorticulusTGA said:

Now, IMO, they should be Order-aligned, because, as you said, Chaos already have many "corrupted" barbarians, mainly Khorne Bloodboud, Slaves To Darkness, etc.

The trick would to allow them to exist on both sides! Have Chaos Aligned and Order Aligned ones. But then Chaos Aligned one already exist with Marauders.  

[Sance]

I like the Darkoath esthetic a lot, but man the old marauders models arent really good ... It would be weird having on the table those 2 superb minis and then a bunch of hairless monkeys

[Arkiham]

I get the feeling that slaves to darkness will be split up.

The lighter more skirmish units, chariots, marauders , marauder cav etc will be called "darkoath" basically norsca

The more elite ones, knights, chaos warriors etc will goto everchosen, god speific stuff is already removed.

This gives archaon his army, and gives him his irregulars, the pool upon which to feed his army reinforcements once they prove themselves good enough 

[Uveron]

5 minutes ago, Arkiham said:

I get the feeling that slaves to darkness will be split up.

I was thinking that as well, but then they gave them allegiance ability's.  

So I guess what we will get is a mix of crazy chaos options. 

God Dedicated Armies; Armies following a Hero (SoD & Scaven Master Clan); Tribes Men (Darkoath, and Scaven Clans). 

Units from one block can show up in the others. 

Its very Chaotic! 

[Frozenbeast]

1 hour ago, HorticulusTGA said:

It's interesting. The wording suggest that "Darkoath" is a faction, of which we have seen a "boss" and a "big boss".

If there is a Chieftain (who belongs to the Slaves To Darkness), and the Warqueen is a general, they should have an army to lead.

The background, both recent (Blightwar) and old (the AOS rulebook) mentions that during the Age of Myth and Chaos, the Realms were manly inhabited by tribes of human barbarians. 

Lady Atia said last year on her blog* that there was a concept of a "barbarian" faction at the start of AOS.

Now, IMO, they should be Order-aligned, because, as you said, Chaos already have many "corrupted" barbarians, mainly Khorne Bloodboud, Slaves To Darkness, etc.

Also, this picture was posted on War Of Sigmar* : it's from the AOS rulebook, Blood Warriors fighting savage yet uncorrupted looking barbarians.

 

They might want to introduce the very first Sigmar warband, after all when he arrived to the Old World he was pictured as a barbarian king with a big Warhammer.

[BrownDog]

The Darkoath Chieftain got a very good fleshing out in the novel 'Labyrinth of the Lost', which was release alongside the Warhammer Quest Silver Tower board game. From it's description is simply tribes that worship the main chaos gods (or possibly lesser ones) in exchange for power, as they feel pretty betrayed by Sigmar and his lot for abandoning them. They're pretty much a unaligned chaos army with a cool aesthetic, with their name literally referring to what they've done, taken dark oaths of loyalty to the corrupting powers.

 

I'd recommend reading the novel, it's short, cheap and really fun in my opinion.

[HorticulusTGA]

Your idea Arkiham and Uveron is really interesting. 

GW could replace the Slaves To Darkness army (old Warrior Of Chaos) by a larger Everchosen faction (Archaon & Cie. + Chaos Warshrine, Chariot, etc). and by a "lighter", less corrupted one, i.e. the Darkoath faction. (And yes it would indeed fit the World-that-was distinction of Norsca & Chaos Wastes).

But it means that when the "Children Of Nurgle" and Hosts Of Slaanesh get fully fleshed-out (in 1-2 years I guess), the Slaves To Darkness army would  cease to exist per se.

But I maintain - IMO the Darkoath Faction should be Order (or at least like Uveron said, either open to the Order or Chaos keywords) - it would fit not only the AoS background, and as Frozenbeast said : Sigmar is also a barbarian god, leading tribes both in the Old world and in the Mortal realms...  

[HorticulusTGA]

4 minutes ago, BrownDog said:

The Darkoath Chieftain got a very good fleshing out in the novel 'Labyrinth of the Lost', which was release alongside the Warhammer Quest Silver Tower board game. From it's description is simply tribes that worship the main chaos gods (or possibly lesser ones) in exchange for power, as they feel pretty betrayed by Sigmar and his lot for abandoning them. They're pretty much a unaligned chaos army with a cool aesthetic, with their name literally referring to what they've done, taken dark oaths of loyalty to the corrupting powers.

The novel is pretty good indeed !

And that would be cool if, as said above, the Darkoath faction knew a Order/Chaos keywords distribution mechanism (Lightoath then uh ?), to represent the Chieftain (and his tribe's)'s fluff.

[Kaleb Daark]

Hmmm.... forgeworld release the remastered Darkoath war mammoth  just in time to the release of their mortal foes, the brettoni faction, grittier, darker realm, more of a narnia mashup than the Ivanhoe knights.

 

ok... I'm back in reality now!

[Arkiham]

2 hours ago, Uveron said:

I was thinking that as well, but then they gave them allegiance ability's.  

Not strictly binding, by the time they get around to it , it could be 2019/2020

[Uveron]

11 minutes ago, Arkiham said:

Not strictly binding, by the time they get around to it , it could be 2019/2020

That's far future. 

I dont put much stock in any plans that are more than 1.5 years out. 

[HorticulusTGA]

1 hour ago, Uveron said:

That's far future. 

I dont put much stock in any plans that are more than 1.5 years out. 

Yes, but if GW "disband" (or simply split) the Slaves to darkness army (i.e. the army becomes "useless"), it will only be after they update all other Chaos Mortal forces, i.e. Everchosen, Darkoath (if it becomes a proper faction in 2018), Children Of Nurgle and Hosts Of Slaanesh... So it would surely be around 2020...

[Arkiham]

2 hours ago, Uveron said:

That's far future. 

Indeed

1 hour ago, HorticulusTGA said:

Yes, but if GW "disband" (or simply split) the Slaves to darkness army (i.e. the army becomes "useless"), it will only be after they update all other Chaos Mortal forces, i.e. Everchosen, Darkoath (if it becomes a proper faction in 2018), Children Of Nurgle and Hosts Of Slaanesh... So it would surely be around 2020...

But this, it would be so low down on the priority list, there's many more important story progresses first 

[Moonlightwolf]

Slaves to Darkness fits in with the dark oath name, they have taken dark oaths to obtain power and now they are intentionally or not slaves to that darkness. I think they'll keep the slaves faction name but move it more toward a barbarian/norsca faction, probably with updated marauders and a new look for warriors. I can't imagine knights or warriors being moved to Everchosen, seems to me that that faction is reserved for elites like the Varanguard though I can definitely see chosen being phased out in favour of an elite everchosen foot unit.

[Davariel]

GW is going to get all my money if they release updated marauder models. I've been mulling how to make the current ones look good for a while now for a possible Viking themed Order army... and it just doesn't seem worth the effort

I don't really see Darkoath replacing Slaves to Darkness, though. The slaves have already been kind of sidelined with the rise of god specific armies - rather than replacing Slaves to Darkness, I think the new stuff would just slot into to the current range and give it a more concrete identity of its own.

[bsharitt]

13 hours ago, HorticulusTGA said:

Now, IMO, they should be Order-aligned, because, as you said, Chaos already have many "corrupted" barbarians, mainly Khorne Bloodboud, Slaves To Darkness, etc.

Order? Nah, but I would love to see a Destruction aligned faction of human barbarians.

[Uveron]

1 hour ago, Davariel said:

GW is going to get all my money if they release updated marauder models. I've been mulling how to make the current ones look good for a while now for a possible Viking themed Order army... and it just doesn't seem worth the effort

Mixing in parts from Catachan kits, Flagellants and  Freeguild Guard. (And Free company if you can find them) 

[HorticulusTGA]

5 hours ago, bsharitt said:

Order? Nah, but I would love to see a Destruction aligned faction of human barbarians.

Well, destruction would be fine (and if the Warqueen isn't Order she should be at least Destruction, not Chaos : she looks like she comes directly out of Ghur's wilds !)

But you know, the whole AoS fluff turns arounds proud tribes of Sigmar-worhshipping human barbarians. Before the Stormcast Eternals, those humans tribes were Order's main army. They were defeated during the Age Of Chaos, so Sigmar had to create a new, more powerful army. But most of them survived the 5 centuries when the Gates Of Azyr were closed (the worst part of the Age of Chaos), and it's in order to save and reunite them that Sigmar had launched his war in the Mortal realms.

[Arkiham]

7 hours ago, Davariel said:

GW is going to get all my money if they release updated marauder models. I've been mulling how to make the current ones look good for a while now for a possible Viking themed Order army... and it just doesn't seem worth the effort

I don't really see Darkoath replacing Slaves to Darkness, though. The slaves have already been kind of sidelined with the rise of god specific armies - rather than replacing Slaves to Darkness, I think the new stuff would just slot into to the current range and give it a more concrete identity of its own.

Use acolytes & bloodreavers with some equipment from all 3. Expect that would look rather good 

[Uveron]

5 hours ago, HorticulusTGA said:

But you know, the whole AoS fluff turns arounds proud tribes of Sigmar-worhshipping human barbarians. Before the Stormcast Eternals, those humans tribes were Order's main army. They were defeated during the Age Of Chaos, so Sigmar had to create a new, more powerful army. But most of them survived the 5 centuries when the Gates Of Azyr were closed (the worst part of the Age of Chaos), and it's in order to save and reunite them that Sigmar had launched his war in the Mortal realms.

Yes, but how would a large human barbarian army be different from the Free Peoples army?  it doesn't take much work to make Free Guild Gard into a barbarian unit. 

[Kaleb Daark]

No gun powder. They have very different flavours,  the barbarian army might have the berserkers, the mammoths, wolves, tamed or forced monsterous  beasts.  The horsemen and marauder hordes, raider longships that could possibly  travel across realms like Wulfric's seafang.

the free people aren't as feral or wild, they live in fortified cities, have science on their side and gunpowder weapons.