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How to become a daemon prince? - cult of Slaanesh in Hysh (update: Dark elf lord)


elfhead

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So I've started this plog on Warseer and it has really been a fun project for me. Warseer is down, again, so I went looking for another forum and ended up here. It seems this is a more positive forum and I'm happy to share my progress here. This plog revolves around Thalion, an elven prince in Ulthuan controlling a large pleasure cult. Thalion aspires to become a daemon prince in order to survive the Rhana Dandra (or end times, as humans refer to it) and save a piece of the old world both he and his patron god love. As Thalion's army grows I will figure out what it is Thalion has to do to reach his goal and eventually end up in the Age of Sigmar...

This story allows me for me to explore the old world a little more before leaving it behind. The plog will involve lots of conversions and pieces of fluff to evolve the story. Here we go:

 

"Ever since the time of Aenerion cults of pleasure have existed within elf society. Though seemingly immune to the other three gods of chaos, the dark prince Slaanesh fanned the aesthetic inclinations of the Asur, which resulted in the first formations of the cult of pleasure within Ulthuan. The influence of Slaanesh bored deep into the roots of society, pushing the selfish and artistic nature of elves to extremes. Even though the power of Slaanesh lies not within war and battle, it was the lord of pleasure who birthed the schism in society that led to what the Asur refer to as the sundering. To this day thousands of elves secretly worship the dark prince. 

The cults of pleasure still thrive both within Naggaroth and Ulthuan. But where the Druchii cults focus on the sensual and sadistic elements of elven nature, the cults of Ulthuan focus more on the emotive responses to artistic, philosophic and culinary excesses. The cult of Ulthuan is considered even more secretive than the Naggarothi cults, as the excessive behaviour of elves stands out more in the structured culture of the Asur. The Cult of Ulthuan is controlled by six magi, of which Thalion is considered the most influential.

The power of chaos gods does not corrupt the elves like it does humans. It is unknown for elves to suffer mutation but other more beneficial effects can occur. Though easily over two centuries old, Thalion looks like a young elf merely 300 years of age. His youthful appearance combined with his deep insights and military cunning has earned him a powerful position in many a courtroom. The perfect position to grow his influence and extend his grip on Ulthuan in the name of his dark prince."

 

 

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Thalion

Edited by elfhead
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Good to see you on here as well buddy - this was one of the few threads on Warseer I was keeping an eye on and didn't get a chance to comment before it went down. Love the storyline and idea behind it, and Thalion is a fine, fine piece of conversion and painting work. That golden armour is gorgeous.

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Here are some more pictures to get this plog up to speed. I've been working on Thalion's warband for some time (although work and live makes progress slow). The warband consists of elves, daemons and human followers of Slaanesh. 

Thalion is somewhat skilled as a mage and can summon daemonettes. I've got some of the old Diaz sculpts and grouped them in two units of 6. I'm trying to form units in groups of six or a multiple of six, as it is Slaanesh' sacred number.

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daemonettes with converted banner.

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Devoted of slaanesh led by a priest. The banner is based on a banner from a piece of artwork from the 6th ed. hordes of chaos book. The priest was made with high elf and wood elf parts.

 

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@JackDaw: thanks for the compliment, nice to see you take an interest in m work. Your house of chains plog was very inspirational. 

@Darth Alec: nice to see you here, I noticed you pretty much left warseer. I don't intend on playing the game. But nice to see it's possible to play with such a fluffy list and even gain bonuses. I love that AoS makes something like that possible. I've always loved playing fluff heavy lists, but those weren't normally very competitive.

@Ademo the priest is consist of the legs from the high elf archers, a body from wildriders and the head is from the eternal guard. the horns are from the wildrider banner top. the rest is green stuff (extra robes, slaanesh symbol, heart)

I've been looking a lot at the crazy kitbashes that people make for inq28 and blanchitsu. It got me excited to work on some cultists as part of Thalions growing force.  And they are really fun to paint. Especially the large areas of skin and the dirty robes.

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dDnZP7fl.jpg

 

 

Edited by elfhead
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  • 2 weeks later...

@Ademo I love flipping 40k models to use them in AoS, there are so many great 40k models.

I've painted more cultists. I'm waiting on an order for two more models to finish the unit. I'll be adding a human magic user and the human magus (cult leader). This is what the unit look likes so far.

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in the meantime I've started another fun project, Thalion's honour guard. The honour guard will consist out of princes from different realsm of Ulthuan, each with a distinctive look. inspired by the work of Hagen on Warseer (he also has a personal blog, but he hasn't updated for a while) I used the phoenix guard kit as a base for the princes, using bits and green stuff to create different looks for the princes of Eataine, Ellyrion, Caledor, Avelorn, Chrace and Cothique. I'm not sure of I'll make 4 more princes for the other kingdoms.  

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Princess from Avelorn and prince of Eataine (from the city of Lothern)

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prince from Ellyrion, the kingdom known for it's horses.

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lords from Chrace (whit axe and white lion cloak) Cothique (a seafaring kingdom, with sea dragon cloak) and Caledor (kingdom of dragons)

 

 

 

Edited by elfhead
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You could have a lot of fun with a campaign involving the elven princes where they acquire 'gifts' over time - they give me the vibe of the lotr game where you have a band of heroes going through narrative missions - they ooze flavour.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

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Those cultists are gorgeous man, absolutely lovely. Looking forward to seeing more of them. The collection of Princes is a really cool idea too, nice little touch adding to the fluff of your warband. The conversions are looking pretty sweet too, the Chracian chap is my favourite so far.

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@Shadowspite I was planning on converting the wracks for a long time now. There wasn't that much typical 40k stuff on them, except for the backs which i had to sculpt completely from green stuff. I am also looking forward to painting the princes:)

@AdemoIf I still played the game it would be great to play a campaign with Thalion and his princes collecting rare items and pieces of art. I'm currently thinking about what Thalion's endgame will be in the old world. It will probably incorporate the cultural legacy of Aethis the Poet, one of the Phoenix kings.

@JackDaw Glad you like my work. I love doing conversions. the Chracian was actually the first of the princes I did. sculpting the fur was a lot of fun.

@M'ygnal_Wyrm_Blessed thanks! and welcome to the forum.

 

Allthough I'm happy with the six princes for this army, I'm considering building 4 more princes to represent every realm of Ulthuan. I'm still missing Nagarythe (the shadowlands), tiranoc, Yvresse and Saphery.  I'm thinking about creating a mage or loremaster for Saphery. the other realms are e bit harder though. Tiranoc is known for it's chariots, but I'm not sure how to represent this in a single prince. Yvresse doesn't have a special unit so is also pretty hard. Nagarythe only has shadow warriors and I can't fluffwise explain a shadowwarrior to join a pleasure cult. maybe I can represent this realm with a Dark elf prince. any ideas?

 

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For Nagarythe, definitely go for a Dark Elf prince. I had an exiled Elyrian noble in the High House of Chains and it's a great way to add something a bit different but still related.  Using a Black Guard body as the base would be a great visual echo of the Phoenix Guard you've used for the rest to.  

Edited by JackDaw
Wrong province
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Yvresse is known for mist and fog, rocky shores, seagulls and the Shifting Isles. It's basically Ulthuan's version of Cornwall or the Outer Hebrides. That means wreckers. So for a thematic prince, I'd go for a guy in a long grey cloak or stormcoat, with a big lantern that he uses to lure souls astray to be plundered by Slaanesh. Probably he's a mage, but a dedicated illusionist (formerly one of the cadre who maintain the enchantments upon the Shifting Isles) rather than a more generalist loremaster. And perhaps he has a pet seagull who is really a daemonic familiar that devours the soul-scraps left behind by the lantern.

Tiranoc is Atlantis caught halfway through its destruction. A prince of Tiranoc might be a little like a Druchii corsair or beastmaster, a specialist in capturing and training the great beasts of the deep ocean when they stray onto his broken lands. A sea dragon cloak, a whip and some sort of Kharibdyss-like 'pet' would all seem like possible modeling options. Also, perhaps his armour is stained and corroded as though it has lain sunken beneath the waves for millennia. Maybe the prince himself has the pallid, bloated appearance of a drowned corpse, with seaweed in his hair. Was he dragged back to the living world by the Great Sea-Serpent Loesh (who was an aspect of Slaanesh back in 4th-5th edition days)?

And for Nagarythe, how about an ex-priestess of Khaine? Not a witch elf, who are what Morathi and Hellebron corrupted the Druchii cult of Khaine into, but an Asur of Nagarythe who followed the religion of her ancestors in secret until she found Slaanesh. Pre-Sundering, the priestesses of Khaine were known as the tulluch (AFAIK, the term hasn't been used by GW since 3rd edition, but it was canon once), and were much more like Celtic warrior-prophetesses than the half-naked berserker chicks of later ages. Long mail coat, staff and sacrificial knife, tattoos, maybe some pet ravens. She might even be a spellcaster, since the Khainite hatred of sorcerery came much later (in 6th edition) and was exclusive to the Druchii version of the cult anyway.

Edited by Shadowspite
added Tiranoc and Nagarythe suggestions
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  • 4 weeks later...

I've primed the six princes ready for painting, but I'm currently busy with my converted slaughterpriest. I've decided that a prince from nagarythe and saphery will find their place in the army of Thalion, but not as his honour guard. I'm planning on introducing them as more important characters. But keeping them in line with the look of the 6 princes I have so far.

anyway, I thought it would be nice to show you something different I finished before I started this plog on this site. It is one of my biggest projects to date, a keeper of secrets! I always liked the idea of a bull headed, four limbed daemon. But the official model was very much out of proportion. After a lot of repositioning, buffing out the skinny legs, slapping the weapon and sculpting a new face the keeper looks a lot more like how I wantend him/her to look. 

I'd love to hear what you think of the finished model.

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And a work in progress:

IDF7Csq.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

After working on my entry for the slaughterpriest contest (watch it here, please vote here), I found some time to finish my human cultists. I got two more 40k models (old, metal ones) which seemed perfect to lead the human part of this cult. I wanted the magus, who simple goes by the title 'the marquis'  to look fancy, so I painted a freehand pattern on his coat. He's also one of the few cultists without a mask covering his face and the only one without dirt stained clothes.

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It's surprising how well those two 40k models fit in with no conversion work at all. Makes me want a closer look at that Fleet Officer model as well, the freehand is superb. That model would have worked so well as a pompous Empire general back in 8th.

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