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Silent People Speculation


Grim Beasties

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Alright I've been meaning to make this thread for a while now but now seems the best time as to not clog up the rumor thread.

In this thread I would like to discuss what we know about the Silent People based off the existing facts and information we have about them. So here's everything I could find related to them, please enjoy.

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First off, I would like to say thanks for seeing a topic in the rumors thread start to gather momentum and taking it to it's own thread. 👍.

Second, and pertaing to the subject of this topic I can't add to any solid info that you havent already posted. I can only give my Hope's towards these potentially new players for team destro at this time. So here goes....

I am very interested in an isectoid AoS faction and hope they are just that and not humans or humanoids that just wear bug army. I would love something more akin to the Thri-Kreen, a mantis humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. 

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And perhaps those Ur-Grubs are their mounts?

Also there is nothing saying  they HAVE to follow Gorkamorka. They have all the freedom they want to start a brand new faction or race. 

Either way, this fella is excited. 

Edited by Vasshpit
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I'd really caution people not to get their hopes up for these guys.

IMO they've always just been a fun bit of flavour for Underworlds. During Shadespire and Nightvault there were loads of cards talking about the Katophranes (and we even got to see them in action in the Shadespire novel), and it's not like we got an army of those.

Stuff like this just gives a bit of easy texture to the Underworlds setting, and helps justify where all the ancient artifacts come from. I'd bet money that it's not any kind of hint at any future army or releases. 

And to be honest, I don't think they're even supposed to be an insectoid race - the impression I get is that they were humanoids who worshipped insect-like gods (e.g. the Ur-Grub) and wore insect-like masks.

(But feel free to rub this post in my face if 2021 turns out to be the Year of the Beetle :P) 

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1 hour ago, robinlvalentine said:

I'd really caution people not to get their hopes up for these guys.

IMO they've always just been a fun bit of flavour for Underworlds. During Shadespire and Nightvault there were loads of cards talking about the Katophranes (and we even got to see them in action in the Shadespire novel), and it's not like we got an army of those.

Stuff like this just gives a bit of easy texture to the Underworlds setting, and helps justify where all the ancient artifacts come from. I'd bet money that it's not any kind of hint at any future army or releases. 

This is true however I will say this, even if it is just background lore to make the setting more interesting it's still lot's of fun to discuss the mystery. Even though I doubt they will become an army any time soon, I would still like both the Silent People and the Katophranes to get model representation because I personally think they would be interesting designs and ad to whatever GA they became a part of. 

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I was initially entirely disinterested in the notion of a fantasy bug race as that feels more like a sci-fi type deal. Then I played Hollowknight:
 

It was so charming and the fantasy elements were so unique. The idea of peoples (pluralized as there are more than humans in the mortal realms) with bug carapace masks, dead bugs or just a new bug civilization all appeal to me now quite deeply.

 

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I'd love the addition of a insect race in AoS (ideally for destruction), I just hope they're not too similar to Tyranids. Basically I'd prefer they don't have a hivemind like element, I'd rather they be individuals with a actual culture. 

Who knows maybe plot advancements might result in Beastgrave awakening and as a result the silent people are let loose upon the realms.

Will it happen? Who knows, but I love that AoS allows for the creative space that its a possibility.

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7 hours ago, Cronotekk said:

Maybe they will be the tyranids of AoS but with more of an "old gods" elements played to them. Swarms of insect cultists worshiping a primordial god of the mortal realms who seeks to destroy all the new gods that now rule his domain.

Im not sure why but I did get a distinct Lovecraftian/ Yellow King vibe from the underworld references. A insect like cult army similar to Genesteslers would be really neat in AoS. 

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Primitive race of humanoid deep dwellers.

Banished, twisted, barely surviving.

Hatred of surface dwellers.

Narrative based on pre-banishment relations, wars and grudges?

A God's failed experiment?

Wearing and wielding insect parts (mandible masks, carapace shields and armour, scythe/fang weapons).

Insect cavalry and behemoths.

Poison, acid, disease, webbing, summoning attacks/magic.

Room for a dreaded ambull crossover?

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Edited by ZaelART
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15 hours ago, robinlvalentine said:

And to be honest, I don't think they're even supposed to be an insectoid race - the impression I get is that they were humanoids who worshipped insect-like gods (e.g. the Ur-Grub) and wore insect-like masks.

I'd like that even better than a straight-up insect race, to be honest. In my opinion, AoS already has a problem with having too many armies that are more natural desasters than factions with their own agendas. And it's one of the big problems for Tyranids in 40k as well: They can't get narrative attention because they don't really want anything, they just happen to more interesting factions.

But I think a humanoid race with the design elements already mentioned in this thread would be pretty rad. Stone age civilization, worship of old insect gods, weird face masks, probably room for insectile behemoths... I could get into that.

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I'm into the idea of a insect-orientated human society, especially if they end up in destruction. I that GA needs some humans, else it risks feeling like it's drawn along species lines instead of the more interesting ideological definition. 

Destruction rejects both GA Order and Death's notions of civilisation, but is also opposed to Chaos' aspirations of dominion. They're similar to Order in the sense that their main goals are survive and flourish, it's just that their notion of flourishing tends to be at odds with the aelves, humans and duardin that want laws and stability. 

However, the current lore sometimes falls into the trap of downplaying this coherent shared interest in favour of making Destruction the 'worships Gorkamorka' category. IMO, making Silent People insect-aligned humans that aren't in thrall to Gorkamorka would go a long way towards improving GA Destruction. 

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1 hour ago, Klamm said:

However, the current lore sometimes falls into the trap of downplaying this coherent shared interest in favour of making Destruction the 'worships Gorkamorka' category. IMO, making Silent People insect-aligned humans that aren't in thrall to Gorkamorka would go a long way towards improving GA Destruction. 

But at the same time, the joke with gorkamorka is no one agree what gorkamorka is. That's the difference with Order and Death where the Pantheon is extremely well defined. sons of Behemath believes it is a pair of giant feet stomping, Gloomspite, the bad moon...

Making a destruction faction that worship a random deity, but doesn't call it Gorkamorka is removing the snarky thing circling Destruction and just make it the Alliance of armies that didn't fit in the other three categories.

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12 minutes ago, ian0delond said:

Making a destruction faction that worship a random deity, but doesn't call it Gorkamorka is removing the snarky thing circling Destruction and just make it the Alliance of armies that didn't fit in the other three categories.

I don't really agree with that. Maybe it's just that I don't know enough about AoS lore, but to me, the big difference between Destruction and Order is not about their associated gods, but about the idea that Destruction factions are not civilization builders. Or at least not city builders. They all seem to be nomadic to some degree, or in the case of Gloomspite seem to live in some weird, semi-mythical underworld. I feel Destruction factions are most defined by their primitivism (at least at the moment) and rejection of any authority not based on personal strength.

While they are happy to destroy the works of civilization, they are not malevolent in the way Chaos factions are. There are enough examples of Destruction mercenaries working with the forces of civilization, too, when it suits them. You can imagine Orruk bodyguards, Ogor traders and Gitz just being more or less harmless pests. You can't really think about Skaven or other Chaos factions this way. Well, maybe Beasts of Chaos, but they seem kind of under-explored anyway.

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I mean how you are presenting Destruction is already about not fitting in the other categories.

Age of Sigmar is defined by the gods, it is in the name. The culture and gods are reflections of each other.

Destruction have an extremely mythical understanding of the Mortal Realms with contradictory tales, a mythology where you get the idea, but doesn't make sense if you use it as a History of the Mortal Realms (like for the Sons of Behemats, undead don't have meat because Behemat eat all the flesh in Shyish in an eating competition against Gorkamorka). Gorkamorka isn't a complicated god, he doesn't have a big goal, you go gorkamorka for the ride. Thats why when talking about destruction it ends with explaining why they are neither chaos nor order (not Death is obvious, yet they both share the monotheist part). 

Adding gods is removing gorkamorka as the thread that link the Destruction. Gorkamorka is loosely defined so loosely linked cultures can be attached together. So loosely that Gloomspite gits believe gorkamorka is the bad moon, and some of them believe the bad moon is an egg of the Spider God waiting to hatch. It is so loose you can add a Ur ghur god, but it can still be equivalent to gorkamorka for the silent people.

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4 minutes ago, ian0delond said:

But at the same time, the joke with gorkamorka is no one agree what gorkamorka is. That's the difference with Order and Death where the Pantheon is extremely well defined. sons of Behemath believes it is a pair of giant feet stomping, Gloomspite, the bad moon...

Making a destruction faction that worship a random deity, but doesn't call it Gorkamorka is removing the snarky thing circling Destruction and just make it the Alliance of armies that didn't fit in the other three categories.

I agree the joke that Gorkamorka is extremely vague and can be basically whatever people want him to be is fun, but disagree that Destruction lacks an identity apart from that. 

I stand by the fact that there's a shared ideological and material interest, just like the other 3 GAs do. Destruction is sort of the opposite of Death (though they aren't narratively framed in opposition like chaos and order are). Death, like order, is concerned with civilisation building and law. It's just that this crosses beyond the "I just want to grill" version of civilisation that many order factions want into a megalomaniacal ambition for everything to be subsumed under Nagash's law, and ultimately dead.

Destruction's factions reject both of these tenants. They're ideologically (or materially in the case of BCR) prevented from establishing civilisation. They are disorganised and lawless. This is kind of similar to GA Chaos, which in most cases rejects the establishment of stable civilisation (you have an exception here and there, like Carngrad in the Varanspire), but then chaos mirrors Death in having a clear goal of dominion in mind, albeit split across several different gods. 

Now, I would agree that in rejecting both law and the goal of dominion, Destruction is the vaguest of the 4 confederations of interest. This kind of mirrors order, since the end goal of its factions is survival and flourishing but each one has a different vision of what that means. For some, like the Khainites, this ends up turning into something like Chaos' ambitions of domination. 

In any case, I'd say Destruction has an ideological identity that can be understood in contrast to the other three GAs and without mentioning Gorkamorka. It's also a good way of seeing why Destruction factions are ill-suited to being the driving force behind the narrative, better suited to being catalysts or supporting players. In seeking survival/flourishing over dominion and being disorganized instead of lawful, they kind of choose the less active option twice.

Order has a disunified end goal but are strongly aligned in terms of preserving civilisation and being opposed to chaos. Chaos is the opposite, they have several coherent end goals in an alliance of convenience, while their short term objectives are varied and individualistic. Death is probably best suited toward antagonism, having a single clear end goal and unified organisation. That's kind of why I doubt we'll sea Destruction get the Death treatment in AoS3. To put it simply:

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I like the idea of minor races that never see the tabletop, it adds depth to the world. I’d say that the remnants of the silent people now would be tiny pockets of their culture, more interested in hiding from the much more powerful major races than risking their complete destruction. 
 

We never saw the fish men that lived near Naggaroth, the Hobgoblin khanate, or the various races of the Far East in the Old World either. 
 

Having said that, they’d be fun to see in Beastgrave or even Warcry. 

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