The Children of N’Kari, a Hedonites of Slaanesh army blog by Zlatan.

[Zlatan]

I’ve recently started a Hedonites of Slaanesh army, and now that I’ve painted the first few models I’ve decided to start an army blog.

 

I’ll update this post regularly with more model pics as I go, and eventually I hope to add some army lists and battle reports once I start using them on the table. Some of you may have seen some of these already on a thread I started looking for colour scheme advice, and thanks to anyone who gave feedback on that thread. I think I’m going to stick with this scheme now. 

 

I have a long commute and to pass the time this morning I decided to come up with a full back-story for my force (or more accurately, expand on the pre-existing fluff for N’Kari from the old WHFB source materials). The full version is below, but the tldr version is this:

 

They are a Pretenders force hailing from the Realm of Shadow, and follow N’Kari - an ancient keeper of secrets with beef against the Aelven gods Malerion, Tyrion and Teclis which goes back to the forgotten days of the World that Was. Now that Slaanesh is missing she has hatched a dastardly plan to enact her revenge on the Aelven gods and ascend to full chaos godhood. (Full story below for those with time to kill).

 

Here are the model pics of the army so far: 

 

 

 

 

Full Back-story:

 

In the World that Was, N’Kari was amongst the greatest of Slaanesh’s greater daemons. During the first Great Chaos Incursion, when the polar warp gates of the Old Ones collapsed in a catastrophe which threatened to engulf the whole world in madness, it was N’Kari who led the Slaaneshi daemons in the invasion of the Elven realm of Ulthuan. 

 

Ulthuan was on the verge of complete collapse, but in the final battle for the Blighted Isle at the centre of Ulthuan’s central sea, N’Kari was defeated by Aenarion the Defender, the first and greatest Phoenix King of the Elves. Her essence was banished back to the realm of Chaos, where it would slowly coalesce once more. So great was the power of Aenarion’s blade, the legendary Sword of Khaine, that it took many thousands of years for N’Kari to slowly regain consciousness and begin to gather her power once more. Over that time N’Kari suffered in humiliation and impotence, and her thirst for revenge against the Elves, and especially the descendants of Aenarion, grew into an all-consuming obsession. 

 

N’Kari finally got her chance when Malekith, son of Aenarion, the immortal Witch King of Naggaroth and ruler of the Dark Elves, performed a great ritual to summon a greater daemon of Slaanesh, in a bid to use its power to enact his own revenge upon the High Elves of Ulthuan, who had refused to acknowledge Malekith as the rightful heir to the realm after Aenarion’s death thousands of years before. 

 

After the first Great Chaos Incursion, the Elves had created a magical vortex at the centre of Ulthuan to draw the chaotic winds of magic which flooded from the collapsed polar warp gates towards the Blighted Isle, and drain it from the world. 

Malekith intended to bind a greater daemon to his will and use its innate connection with the winds of Chaotic magic to allow his armies to move undetected and instantaneously between the great Menhirs scattered throughout the land which channeled the magic towards the vortex. His plan was successful at first, and the Dark Elves came the closest they ever had to victory over their hated High Elf cousins. However, Malekith has underestimated N’Kari’s strength, and she was eventually able to overcome his spells of binding and operate independently. Malekith’s forces were stranded in a foreign land where they were hunted down and defeated piecemeal. 

 

N’Kari took this opportunity to finally enact her revenge on the Elves. N’Kari’s single-minded obsession empowered Slaanesh greatly, and he rewarded her with some small degree of the favour she had enjoyed in the early days of the World that Was. Slaanesh granted N’Kari the ability to sense and seek out the souls of descendants of the line of Aenarion, so that she could slake her lust for revenge and empower him further through her feelings of elation and bloodlust. 

N’Kari stealthily moved throughout Ulthuan, hunting these unfortunate elves one by one and murdering them in the most humiliating and painful ways imaginable. N’Kari almost succeeded in her revenge, but Slaanesh, ever capricious, secretly granted just enough of his own power to the last two surviving scions of Aenarion on Ulthuan, the young twins Tyrion and Teclis, for them to defeat her and banish her back to the realm of Chaos. Slaanesh revelled in N’Kari’s feelings of frustration and rejoiced.

 

Years later, during the climactic events of the End Times which resulted in the destruction of the World that Was, N’Kari was granted another chance to complete her quest. She led the daemonic invasion of Ulthuan once more, only to be defeated yet again by Teclis’s sorcery. 

 

Despite N’Kari’s failure, the forces of Chaos were ultimately triumphant; the World that Was was utterly destroyed, and in its wake the Mortal Realms were created. N’Kari again spent long aeons regathering her strength in the Realm of Chaos. 

During the Age of Chaos, when she was finally strong enough to make her presence felt in the Mortal Realms, she led Slaanesh’s daemonic forces in an orgy of blood and conquest throughout the realms. Still the sworn nemesis of all Aelvenkind, N’Kari was dismayed to discover that the Aelves of the Mortal Realms were painfully rare during this era, as Slaanesh had consumed almost all the Aelven souls in existence during the destruction of the World that Was. Despite this, the last three descendants of Aenarion: the Witch King Malekith, and the twins Tyrion and Teclis, had not only survived the End Times, but had been reborn as deities and manifestations of Shadow and Light. Malekith was reborn as Malerion, the god of the Realm of Ulgu, and Tyrion and Teclis had become the twin deities of the Realm of Hysh. 

N’Kari burned with a desire to exact revenge against the one who had imprisoned her, and those who had defeated her twice before, but she lacked the strength and power to assault such godly beings directly, and Slaanesh delighted in frustrating N’Kari further by sending her on missions of conquest in the realms furthest from these gods’ spheres of influence. 

 

Whenever Slaanesh’s attention was turned elsewhere, however, N’Kari took every opportunity to observe Malerion, Tyrion, and Teclis, and attempt to find a weakness in their godly protection which could perhaps be exploited. It was during this period of close clandestine surveillance that N’Kari discovered  the gods’ plan to trap Slaanesh in a sorcerous prison, and to draw the Aelven souls he had consumed during the destruction of the World that Was out of him, to recreate their lost race. 

 

N’Kari could have gained great favour had she decided to warn Slaanesh of the gods’ plan, but aeons of mistreatment and torment by her master had led to a deep resentment, and N’Kari hatched a more elegant plan which would finally allow her to exact her revenge, and increase her power and influence to godly levels. N’Kari kept the Aelven gods’ secret, Slaanesh was imprisoned in a hidden realm and the Aelven race was slowly reintroduced in force to the Mortal Realms.

In Slaanesh’s absence, N’Kari was free to pursue her own agenda, and she gathered towards her a host of devoted followers. Those who followed her proclaimed her ‘Ur-Slaanesh’, the reincarnation of their lost god. N’Kari brought her followers to the Realm of Ulgu, where Malerion and the demi-goddess Morathi had begun to repopulate the realm with Aelvenkind. 

Whilst Tyrion and Teclis were making similar efforts in the Realm of Hysh, N’Kari still feared the twin gods more than any other beings, except perhaps Slaanesh himself. She decided to begin her plot in the Shadowlands of Ulgu, where the nature of the realm would allow her to operate with some degree of secrecy while she gathered strength. 

 

Since Slaanesh’s disappearance, N’Kari has conducted a guerrilla-war against the Aelves of Ulgu, right under the noses of Malerion and Morathi. With each Aelven soul she consumes, she becomes more and more powerful, and closer to her ambition of challenging and defeating hated Malerion. She believes that if she can defeat him and absorb his god-essence, she can gain the full power of the Realm of Shadow, and use this to challenge the twin gods of the Realm of Light. If she can realise her ambition, not only will her revenge against the line of Aenarion finally be slaked, but she will also ascend to full godhood and replace Slaanesh as the Chaos god of excess and depravity. 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Zlatan

[Fluxlord]

Impressive, most impressive!

[5kaven5lave]

Top work, love that dark skin tone. 

[Zlatan]

First 10 Daemonettes finished. Just another 40 to go... 

[Zlatan]

Newest addition - The contorted epitome:

 

[Hannibal]

Great work! May I ask what colour that skin tone is?

[Zlatan]

11 hours ago, Hannibal said:

Great work! May I ask what colour that skin tone is?

 

Thanks very much! 

Here’s the recipe for the skin:

(this is over a chaos black spray undercoat)

- Dryad Bark all over

 - Druchii Violet Wash all over 

- Dryad Bark again all over, except the recesses

- Mix Gorthor Brown and Dryad Bark (30:70 ratio), and apply over muscles on raised areas.

- Mix Gorthor Brown and Dryad Bark (50:50), again apply to raised areas but only on the very tops of the muscles and the most prominent areas (e.g knees, shoulders, tops of heads), leaving some of the previous mix showing. Think about where the light would hit if shining from above - e.g if a daemonette has a bent leg with a calf muscle facing towards the sky, use this mix on the calf muscle. 

- Apply a final thin line highlight of Gorthor Brown around the very edges (e.g brow-line, along the bridge of the nose, ankle bones etc.).

- if the contrast is too high, blend it out with a final glaze of 50:50 Druchii Violet and Lahmian Medium. 

- Use a final spot-highlight of Cadian Fleshtone very sparingly on any really sharp or prominant edges, or any nipples. 

For the characters I probably included a couple more stages with different ratios of Gorthor Brown and Dryad Bark in the middle. Just play it by ear. 

Here’s a close-up so you can see how much of each highlight layer I’ve used: 

[Zlatan]

It’s been a while. Here’s the latest addition. 

[Popisdead]

Looks great!  It could be in the Painting and modelling thread though?  maybe?

 

I love N'Kari and wished GW hadn't missed the chance for the character who proved pivotal in the Old World lore.

[Kyriakin]

Given your very high standard of painting, you should re-do the three most central circles in the mirror.

They look like I did them, which is not a good thing.

I think companies like Tamiya do pens for drawing lines on mechs, (etc.). I guess they would have a white or light blue version.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Kyriakin

[Hannibal]

What a nice work. It looks amazing!