Gorthor21 Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 When I first saw these models I was at a total loss as to why they had horse skulls for heads and pole arms. I know a lot of folks thought they were skaven souls but a quick google search of both a horse skull and a rat skull quickly dispelled that for me. Rat skulls have more sloped mandables as well as forward facing orbits whereas horses look exactly like the heads in the models. Plus he fangs are all wrong. As an American this made no sense to me so I googled hooded horse skull and this popped up: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd After reading the article the glaivewraith stalkers began to make more sense. Apparently this is an old Christmas season tradition similar to carollers where they would dress in costumes and go door to door singing songs asking to be let in and the people would have to try and turn them away and if they failed they would have to let the guys in and feed them and give them booze. Though this seems to be a light-hearted tradition I can see how the image of a man holding a decorated horse skull on a stick under a burlap sack could be scary to children and could inspire the image we see in the glaivewraiths. If there are any English or Welsh folks on here who could offer a better understanding of this tradition or why GW chose this imagery perhaps we could understand them better. Sorry for a long winded explanation but I have just been overthinking these models today lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nevar Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 5 hours ago, Gorthor21 said: When I first saw these models I was at a total loss as to why they had horse skulls for heads and pole arms. I know a lot of folks thought they were skaven souls but a quick google search of both a horse skull and a rat skull quickly dispelled that for me. Rat skulls have more sloped mandables as well as forward facing orbits whereas horses look exactly like the heads in the models. Plus he fangs are all wrong. As an American this made no sense to me so I googled hooded horse skull and this popped up: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd After reading the article the glaivewraith stalkers began to make more sense. Apparently this is an old Christmas season tradition similar to carollers where they would dress in costumes and go door to door singing songs asking to be let in and the people would have to try and turn them away and if they failed they would have to let the guys in and feed them and give them booze. Though this seems to be a light-hearted tradition I can see how the image of a man holding a decorated horse skull on a stick under a burlap sack could be scary to children and could inspire the image we see in the glaivewraiths. If there are any English or Welsh folks on here who could offer a better understanding of this tradition or why GW chose this imagery perhaps we could understand them better. Sorry for a long winded explanation but I have just been overthinking these models today lol. They are by far my least favorite Nighthaunt model besides the old spirit hosts... The article was interesting, I was wondering why they had what appeared to be normal people arms yet a skull head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorthor21 Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 They definitely won’t see their way into my collection unless I get the starter as they are just too strange looking to be as appealing as say the Knight of Shrouds style wraiths. On the topic of strangeness why does one of the wraiths from the starter set have a bell on the end of his haft? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowki Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Interesting article indeed. I also wondered where the horse skulls came from (clearly no rat skull as you say). Other than the army could use some variation, I couldn't think of a reason that made sense so far. The article explains, I have not much doubt this what was what inspired them. For me it is also the least favorite new model, which doesn't mean I dislike them. But if not buying the starterset, I probably won't buy them either. At least not until my wallet has recovered from what I will probably do to "him" the next couple of weeks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeGrunt Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 I quite like them. It looks like GW have pulled inspiration from a few bits of old folklore. The Banshees in veils are a nod to the Lady in White folklore. On that note, if the new Banshee unit has a unit champion, I might paint her up as La Llorona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spears Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 9 hours ago, Gorthor21 said: . On the topic of strangeness why does one of the wraiths from the starter set have a bell on the end of his haft? Because all the others are blindfolded, presumably he rings the bell so they follow it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honk Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Nagash X-mas Booze Patrol ?!? Kinda like the idea... Death is not only all maudlin and serious, we‘re happy little boozers and party crashers it seems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeGrunt Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 "Harken to the tolling of funeral bells..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuneBrush Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 I think they look ace - but I also love some of the bizarre traditions we have in the UK such as the Mari Lwyd Although most seem really grim (it's a horses skull for crying out loud), if you dig back to classic version of fae/fairy folk they're not the fluffy and nice creatures that we imagine live at the end of the garden, instead they're baby eating/stealing horrors that deserve to be bound in iron and drowned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorthor21 Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 1 hour ago, RuneBrush said: I think they look ace - but I also love some of the bizarre traditions we have in the UK such as the Mari Lwyd Although most seem really grim (it's a horses skull for crying out loud), if you dig back to classic version of fae/fairy folk they're not the fluffy and nice creatures that we imagine live at the end of the garden, instead they're baby eating/stealing horrors that deserve to be bound in iron and drowned! That is terrifying! I’m glad to know that GW is reaching out for more varied materials than they did before than say with Vampire Counts for their background. These wraiths are slowly growing on me little by little like Stormcast did when they first came out. What @Spears said about the blind wraiths and the bell guy makes a lot of sense too and wouldn’t surprise me if that explains the bell altogether. It really does this forum credit that I could post a topic like this and folks actually come together to discuss the models and what they mean instead of just how they feel about them like on other forum and social media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arael_Greywings Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 2 hours ago, Honk said: Nagash X-mas Booze Patrol ?!? Kinda like the idea... Death is not only all maudlin and serious, we‘re happy little boozers and party crashers it seems Indeed we are... I always tell that to my enemies how nice and harmless we are... The most open faction of all: We take everyone and everyone comes to us anyway in the end. We have a charismatic and strong leader who is around for quite a while... But somehow no one ever believes it.... One even went so far as to say: "Manny the Mourngul ate half my Chaos Army.... You are anything but harmless mate..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neck-Romantic Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 If their rules end up being too irresistible they are definitely a unit I would have to heavily convert. I also don't like their appearance, mostly due to their extremely static poses, which is very odd considering just how amazingly dynamic many of the new NH models are, like the blind reapers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nactigal Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 There might be some more dynamic models. We may just be seeing the push to fit versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honk Posted June 8, 2018 Share Posted June 8, 2018 8 hours ago, Nactigal said: We may just be seeing the push to fit versions. Kinda scared of the direction Gdubs is going with the models. I hope push fit is not the „future“ of our minis... I like posing my skellis, even if it might be fiddely doing it for the first time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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