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The heavenly Kingdoms – Gòngh Par (a custom faction)


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The heavenly Kingdoms – Ta'Par 

I will split my first post into three parts:

  1. Introduction and Background

  2. Allegiance Abilities

  3. Warscrolls

Introduction:

After seeing the great work done by Melcavuk, TheR00zle and others I finally felt motivated enough to continue on my project of bringing a east-asian themed army to the mortal realms. 

This project started way back during the early days of AoS. Back then I tried to bring the old Warhammer faction of “Not-China” (Cathay) into the Age of Sigmar. I managed to get a first draft for two warscrolls (one for warrior monks and one for repeating crossbows) and even a bit of background! 
But ultimately, this didnt go anywhere as soon after I found my first AoS love in the form of steampunk dwarfs.

Now with Total War: Three Kingdoms, many great faction building blogs and this picture:

3z3BFT6.png.aec2de177940c3ec2e78573ec5b3e9f5.png

released by Games Workshop I have enough motivation and creative energy to start again.

Im still in the concept phase of this project. So everything now is still a work in progress and Im always happy to hear your thoughts, suggestions and criticism.

Background:

Now, what exactly am I talking about? Im talking about the Heavenly Kingdoms, or how they call themselves “Ta'Par”. While their merchant fleets are not an uncommon sight at major trading ports all across the realms, only few things are known about their home. 
The Kingdoms of Ta'Par are a number of independent human states that managed to survive the age of chaos at a place the most fear to tread, the edges of the mortal realms. The edges of the realms are dangerous places. Wild magic, great beasts or the terrain itself could end ones life in seconds.

The humans that will later form the Ta'Par managed to survive these harsh conditions by forcing strict rules on the entire society. The kingdoms are structured around 5 guiding principles. Or the 5 dualities. Most people try to live their life by these 5 principles as good as they can. Some devote their life to only one, trying to gain a better understanding of the world, and only a few gain true enlightenment by mastering all five.

Tapar.png.7bdebdbb78c247d7ac47365296a065be.png

(the banner of one Ta'Par Kingdom, the 5 circles representing the 5 principles and the symbol in the center (a stylized, local bird) representing the current ruler)

A Individual gifted with a great understanding and abilities to match his wisdom will soon rise to the top of the Ta'Par hierarchy. As the rule of incompetent kings is a luxury they cant afford out, at the realms edge.

Meta:

Now, putting world building aside. My original intentions behind this were to combine three concepts.

  1. A army made of specialized units that will excel at one task but fail at another (similar to the Craftworld Eldar in 40K)

  2. Chinese philosophy (Wu Xing and Feng Shui) 

  3. medieval east asian aesthetic and asian mythology

(Please keep in mind, Im not lumping China/Korea/Japan into one category because I think “they are all the same”. I know that each of these three nations has a incredible complex history but I don’t want to repeat GW mistake of making direct analogies so I can take creative liberties and don’t have to stick to real world asian history for my fantasy tabletop faction)

With this said. I came up with the following things: 

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Allegiance Abilities:

The main allegiance abilities is going to be similar to the table abilities similar to the Idoneth Deepkin, Fyreslayers and the Adeptus Mechanicus in 40K.

There will be 5 specific bonuses that can be used once per game, based on the 5 principles/dualities mentioned in the introduction. These 5 dualities are made of a virtue and a immorality. In reference to the Feng Shui, each of these 5 will have a different effect depending on which part of the board you are on. (Most of the time the virtue will affect your own territory and the immorality your opponents).

These 5 are:

  1. Fire (Vengeance/Wrath)

  2. Earth (Certainty/Apathy) 

  3. Metal (???/???)

  4. Water (Adaptability/Uncertainty)

  5. Wood (Growth/Gluttony) 

In the final version It would read something like this:

Duality of Water
Virtue: Every friendly unit wholly within your own deployment zone can retreat and charge this turn
Immorality: Every friendly unit within the enemies deployment zone can run and shoot or run and charge this turn

A player gets both effects on the same, and you can use every principle only once per game. So having the right unit at the right place is key to get the most of the Ta'Pars allegiance ability.

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Warscrolls:

Magic:

The 5 principles are also an important part of the factions magic abilities. 
The Ta'Par will have two kinds of magic users: A Scholar and a Grand Master. A Scholar will have access to 5 spells. Each scholar has to choose which of these 5 to take before the game starts and he can only ever try to cast this one (similar to the 8 spell lores of a human battle mage). All while a Grandmaster has access to all five at the same time. 
They will not get their own lore of magic as all spells are already baked into these two units. This gives players strong magic for the cost of less flexibility mid-game as all the wizards are rather focused on one task.

Command Abilities:

I want to make use of the new Command Point system introduced in the new edition. 
In reference to great historic tacticians like Cao Cao, a Ta'Par armies warlord will gain following ability: 

Master Tactician: Wheneveryou spend a command point to activate a command ability with this unit, you can chose one HEROwithin 6” to immediately activate another command ability for free. If this model already has this ability increase the number of models you can activate by one. (Note: this cant trigger another free command ability)

Summary:

To give a quick summary of the strenghts and weaknesses of a Ta'Par army

Strengths:

  • strong units

  • heroes can provide great synergy

Weaknesses:

  • difficult to play (units only excel at one task/one-trick ponies)

  • reliance on vulnerable heroes (army will crumble when important models are removed)

So, thats it for the introduction of this project. Thank you to everyone who made it this far. I hope this covers the basics of what I am trying to do. I hope to hear your thoughts and I will update soon with a few unit warscrolls.

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Looks interesting, I'll preface this with the fact I dont know anything about asian or eastern history, mythology, lore etc and my only knowledge of Cathay is that it was an old world region :P

 

That said so far its looking good, by the mention of ships I assume theyre sea faring as opposed to sky ships? 

For the command ability listed is it a command trait choice, an ability conferred to every hero, a specific command ability on one scroll etc? It looks interesting but without knowing how prolific the new command point boosting abilities are in the new edition we'll see how that settles out.

Are these designed to work alongside freeguild/within order or are they for another grand alliance

Also what realm would you say they have an affinity for?

 

Obviously alot of questions but just things to think of.

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8 hours ago, Melcavuk said:

Looks interesting, I'll preface this with the fact I dont know anything about asian or eastern history, mythology, lore etc and my only knowledge of Cathay is that it was an old world region :P

 

That said so far its looking good, by the mention of ships I assume theyre sea faring as opposed to sky ships? 

For the command ability listed is it a command trait choice, an ability conferred to every hero, a specific command ability on one scroll etc? It looks interesting but without knowing how prolific the new command point boosting abilities are in the new edition we'll see how that settles out.

Are these designed to work alongside freeguild/within order or are they for another grand alliance

Also what realm would you say they have an affinity for?

 

Obviously alot of questions but just things to think of.

Frist of all: Thank you so much for commenting. As I said before your Suneaters project is a great inspiration! 

Now the questions: 

1. Both. In my story the merchants have to make use of various kinds of transportation as the every changing landscapes at the realms edge forces them to be highly adaptable. The official GW picture shows a fleet of sky ships but they are more a mean to an end than a lifestyle like the Kharadron Overlords and their sky vessels.

2. Yeah, I could have worded that differently.  The Ability "Master Tactician" is part of the allegiance abilities and is granted to your armies warlord. In most cases this will be the only way to get this ability. But I also plan for one very expensive generic Hero and one special character that already have this ability and now can be boosted to granting it to 2 or even 3 heroes within 6" of them. 

3. I want them to stand on their own but having them be part of the Grand Alliance Order would be the best fit. They are neither Death, Destruction or Chaos. 

4. I regards to what realm they prefer: They live in every realm (besides Azyr). The outer most territories are all equally terrible, no matter which realm. 
But the biggest of the known Kingdoms is the Kingdom of Haweon in the realm of metal, Chamon. The people here were the first to adapt the 5 principles even before they started their exile at realms end, as the realm of metal has always been a place of uncertainty and changes.

 

Again, thank you for your feedback and questions! I hope to upload the first few warscrolls later today.

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As promised, here are some of the first warscrolls. 

Both of these units are Battleline in a Ta'Par army and represent the core of an army from the Heavenly Kingdoms. 

fire-breather.jpg.1604e98dc5499b2e1a66eea17614c419.jpg

Fire Breather are basic militiaman equipped with simple muskets. Their strength comes from their training. Each member of the Fire breather has been trained in taking out the fearsome monsters that stalk the edges of the realms. 
On the tabletop, they will struggle against hordes of basic infantry, as they have a low volume of shoots and only average to-hit stats. But their extra rend will be helpful in taking down armored infantry and monsters. 

shredders.jpg.9e547ebbec9ae39f506835ae5a0ea4cc.jpg

The second basic Ta'Par unit are the shredders. Shredders are equipped with repeater crossbows (which where actually used in ancient china since the 4th century B.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow ). These crossbows are ideal to deal with lightly armored hordes but will struggle against units with a better armor save or when they find themselves in close combat. 

 

I also added another bit of background.

1464260775_BannerTaPar.png.32711f244c53eb3ffe0023a96b09d6ec.png

(a selection of banners from different Ta'Par Kingdoms (from left to right): Kingdom of Haweon from Chamon; Kingdom of Qi'Yo'Tai from Hysh and the Kingdom of U-Khaman from Ghyran)

Armies of Ta'Par

The 5 guiding principles of the Ta'Par are present in every aspect of society. The army is no exception to this rule, here these principles are mirrored by 5 distinct groups.

Earth:  The militias formed by the citizen of the kingdoms, they form the reliable core of every Ta'Par army.

Fire: The warriors of the fire cast have dedicated their whole life to the art of war and are masters in their chosen field of killing.

Water: The strategists and tacticians form the officer corps that wields neither sword nor bow, but entire armies as weapons.

Metal: In a region where the winds of magic flows as strong and wild as they do on the edges of the realms every army needs a wizards who can force the winds to work to their advantage. 

Wood: Where others learn how to field a weapon, the warrior monks of Ta'Par have turned their own body into a weapon. 

Even though these groups seem like they differ wildly in prestige and importance, all of them are equally respected. As a skilled men can either rise to the top or fall to the deepest depths, only depending on the strength of his character not his profession. 

Rulers of the heavenly kingdoms:

The people of the Ta'Par believe that the righteous and good will be blessed by divine favor while the immoral and weak will be quickly punished. 
This leads to a society where rulers and dynasties will be quickly replaced should the people think their current ruler has lost divine favor and a better candidate presents himself. 
These transitions of power tend to be quick and without much resistance afterwards as the people are quick to see the new ruler as legitimate once he improves the lives of his people. 

For example the current ruler of the Kingdom of Haweon: Han is the third ruler of the "Lesser Hi", the dynasty that replaced the previous "Greater Hi". Which itself has been the 8th dynasty to rule the Kingdom of Haweon since its foundation 700 years prior. 

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Looks interesting, the range trait on that first unit may need revising as its currently listed at one inch. By the looks of it they’re more elite handgunners in function?

the second unit looks to level 31 shots out of a ten man unit, the closest comparison would be something like reavers in terms of range and shot count which may put them near 180-200 for a ten man unit. Which wouldn’t be unreasonable but may struggle on taking a punch

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4 minutes ago, Melcavuk said:

Looks interesting, the range trait on that first unit may need revising as its currently listed at one inch. By the looks of it they’re more elite handgunners in function?

the second unit looks to level 31 shots out of a ten man unit, the closest comparison would be something like reavers in terms of range and shot count which may put them near 180-200 for a ten man unit. Which wouldn’t be unreasonable but may struggle on taking a punch

Yeah, I must have accidentally reset the range on the muskets. They are supposed to be 20" as well. 
They are definitely similar to Handgunners but where Handgunners can easily go up to 2+/2+, Fire Breather stay at a 4+/3+. They can stand on their own but will quickly die when outmaneuvered as they dont have anything to protect themselves like the "Stand and shoot" ability of the Handgunners or the regiments mechanic of the Free People.

Yes! I was balancing them against the Swifthawk Reavers when I made this unit. But I would put them more towards 140-160 points. Reavers cost 140 points in the next handbook but they are quicker (more movement, another run move before or after shooting) and stronger in close combat, while having the same armor and the same numbers of wounds in total (10x1/2x5). 

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Just now, S133arcanite said:

Like the direction this is going, my only worry is that it is very similar to the T'au.

 

Almost the same caste-names, similar language, T'au also have an oriental influence etc.

And I thought Sigmar would protect me from them and their guns :P 

But yes, I think I see what you mean. The name Qi'Yo'Tai kinda looks like it could be a sept. 
The 3 names from my last post where inspired by different east asian cultures. Haweon is inspired by Korean, Qi'Yo'Tai by Japanese (but written differently) and U-Khaman by the mongols. 

I will probably change Qi'Yo'Tai. I like the other two but this one stands out… 

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160 would be the safer of your two choices, primary concern is that reavers rarely want to be in combat they’re ranged skirmishers, the combat is sort of a sideways buff. Being over double the shots at what both are geared to (shooting) is why I went so heavy on their pointing. The other units I looked at were Namarati Reavers and Stormcast Judicators (crossbow) the former are 140 for very similar statline but only get 3 shots at 9 inches instead of 20

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12 hours ago, Melcavuk said:

160 would be the safer of your two choices, primary concern is that reavers rarely want to be in combat they’re ranged skirmishers, the combat is sort of a sideways buff. Being over double the shots at what both are geared to (shooting) is why I went so heavy on their pointing. The other units I looked at were Namarati Reavers and Stormcast Judicators (crossbow) the former are 140 for very similar statline but only get 3 shots at 9 inches instead of 20

Ah! Now I see the problem. We where talking about two different Reavers :D 

I meant the Swifthawk Agents Reavers on horses. They get 2 4+/4+/-/1 attacks plus 1 when not in close combat. 

But either way, 160 points looks like the safe choice here. 

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Looking through your elemental boosts and the descriptions of the factions the "Duality of Water" written that allows retreat/charge and run/charge might serve fire better (hot tempered, rush to the battle etc). The description of Water as master tacticians and generals rather than warriors might be better served with a deployment shenanigans benefit (outflanking some units, or getting to redeploy after the deployment is finished etc) 

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15 hours ago, Melcavuk said:

Looking through your elemental boosts and the descriptions of the factions the "Duality of Water" written that allows retreat/charge and run/charge might serve fire better (hot tempered, rush to the battle etc). The description of Water as master tacticians and generals rather than warriors might be better served with a deployment shenanigans benefit (outflanking some units, or getting to redeploy after the deployment is finished etc) 

True. When I wrote this rule I focused more on the movement aspect of it. But the ability to run/retreat and charge sounds more like fire.
Movements shenanigans for water is a great idea! 

Duality of Water:
Choose one HERO unit wholly within your deployment zone and HERO unit one wholly within your enemies deployment zone, that are 9" or more away from any enemy unit and switch their places. 

(this is inspired by the mirror dance spell of the Daughters of Khaine. The DoK one is a spell that needs to be caste but the chosen units can be closer to different units and the spell can potentially be cast multiple times per game, while this ability is one-use-only)

Duality of Fire:
Virtue: Every friendly unit wholly within your own deployment zone can retreat and charge this turn
Immorality: Every friendly unit within the enemies deployment zone can run and shoot or run and charge this turn

(this is the former duality of water) 

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For the Duality of Water it may cause... friction without some kind of ability to resist, I dont know the DoK spell but in being a spell especially in the new edition it means an opponent has a chance (dispell) and gets to roll a dice. If it is unlimited range, no resistance etc it could quite easily be used to utterly destroy an enemy general in your first turn every game (form gunline, instaswitch the enemy general to infront of gunline, shoot everything, charge everything). If there is a casting roll, prayer roll, some kind of criteria your opponent could think of as random it might go down better, but currently it boils down to a guarantee an enemy hero is going to face all your shooting turn one (or enough until dead)

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9 hours ago, MrZakalwe said:

What do you intend to base the models on? 

At first I thought about converting GW minitures like ogors (into Onis) but then I found the Dragon Empire Line from Titan Forge. They combine fantasy china and japan, just like im trying to do when designing the rules/background.

I will order some minitures from them next month and see how they look. Depending on their scale I will look into some historic minitures to add as low level core units.

 

9 hours ago, Melcavuk said:

For the Duality of Water it may cause... friction without some kind of ability to resist, I dont know the DoK spell but in being a spell especially in the new edition it means an opponent has a chance (dispell) and gets to roll a dice. If it is unlimited range, no resistance etc it could quite easily be used to utterly destroy an enemy general in your first turn every game (form gunline, instaswitch the enemy general to infront of gunline, shoot everything, charge everything). If there is a casting roll, prayer roll, some kind of criteria your opponent could think of as random it might go down better, but currently it boils down to a guarantee an enemy hero is going to face all your shooting turn one (or enough until dead)

I really need to proof read my stuff some more. (Im sorry, english isnt my first language) 

Ofcourse I missed the second "friendly" in the ability text. You can switch places of *friendly* heroes. Cant choose a enemy hero when the chosen unit needs to be more than 9" away from enemy units. 

Yeah, that ones on me. You are right ofcourse. Switching enemy heroes without counterplay would be broken.

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I just found the first warscroll I did back when I first started this project:
58caeaf772c9a_2017_02.27ChuKoNupng.png.570b80d1e81c55074cf3e9906672514a.png

Please excuse the look. I made this before the fantastic warscroll generator tool was released. 

As you can see, this is the predecessor of the current shredders. Also, they were a chaos faction back then :D. Back in the world-that-was Cathay had some small scale tzeentch worship that was accepted by the government. I took this little piece of information and run with it. 

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I absolutely love fantasy china/asia (well it is my roots after all!), even to this day I'm surprised how little has shown up in western media (outside of MMO expansions like wow or guild wars, I think Jade Empire is the only western released video game that features Chinese inspired setting).

 

Quite like to see where this goes. Plus Cathay calls back to when GW actually cared about people having super customized and creative armies and displaying them proudly in white dwarf.

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UPDATE

Sorry for the lack of updates. The last few days were quite stressful for me, and I fear it won't get better until next month… But thats neither here nor there. 

I found a few pictures of the Titan Forge - Dragon Empire models in comparison to other historic models and GW miniatures: 

They look like they would fit quite well into the mortal realms. Adding other more historic miniatures shouldn't be a problem either. Which makes me quite happy as this will allow me to cheaply expand my force :D 

With this cleared up I placed my order at Titan Forge. I ordered a unit of their Blademasters, a hero called Senin Hi and two of their Oni. 

Why I chose these three plays into the new background Im working on.

1526442798_GongBarAlliagnment.png.5befc4c74b92127af0ea9d29c320c0e9.png

I mentioned before the 5 elements of the heavenly kingdoms and the concepts of virtues and immoralities. But these two are also connected and form a spectrum. 

Most people will live their whole live somewhere in the middle between these two extremes. But some will dedicate themselves to one principle and try to reach a higher level of understanding. Seeker blessed with a strong character and a sharp mind may indeed ascend to the next level. But where is light, there is also darkness and some other may fell victim to their own weakness. 

To make this more concrete. Water stands for cunning strategists and generals. The best of them may even rise to the very top and establish themselves as rightful kings that will bring prosperity to their lands and go on to found their own dynasty. All while the weak may turn to tyranny and cruelty when clinging to power. 

The scholars and mages of Metal may either master all five elements and become teachers of the next generation or maybe they become too confident in their abilities and lose power of the unpredictable winds of magic they tried to tame and instead become mindless elementals. 

One of the most difficult paths is the way of Wood. These students dont want to master the winds of magic, nor the art of war but to achieve total control of the mind over the body. With enough training and discipline followers of this path may be able to make their skin harder than any armor, their fists may become faster than every fire weapon. The strongest may even develop the skill to kill someone with just one finger. 
But this path isn't without its dangers. In the battle between the mind and the body one may easily lose oneself in the inner beast. These poor souls will turn into giant grotesques known as ONIS. Now more beast than man.
But the truly blessed may escape this dark fate and instead become holy beings collectively known as Killin. A Killin may take many different forms, ranging from dog like creatures with the mane of a lion to giant flying snakes, not too different from the dragons of the Aelfs. 

------------

I also made a few name changes. I finally managed to get my hands on the new AoS core book and was kinda saddened to find out that GW provided just enough background to the Ba'Taar. So I decided to cut this tie to the cannon background. 

Their name will still translate to Heavenly Kingdoms but in their own language they are now called Gòngh Par. I will also use this opportunity to change the warscroll keywords to HEAVENLY KINGDOMS to bring them more in line with the other official warscrolls. 

 

Thats all for this update. I will be back soon with warscrolls for the next three units and hopefully with the first painted miniature. 

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