Death and destruction expansion

[Kyriakin]

On 2/21/2017 at 7:22 PM, CDM said:

So if we were to expand the current factions how would that go? death rattle, soulblight etc? Someone in another thread rightly said that death is a grand alliance and maybe we should think big on the variety of their sub factions. 

Personally I think death rattle is an easy place to start and would love to see more units with the morghast aesthetic. Soulblight and nighthaunt seem difficult to add to though.

IMHO, first priority is to tidy up the keyword/faction mess (e.g. skeleton/deathrattle, soulblight/vampire, nighthaunt/malignant, etc.).

[Mortarch]

On 17/2/2017 at 1:04 PM, CoffeeGrunt said:

This is my main lore issue with Death as it stands. I dislike the fact that it's a pet faction for Nagash, it doesn't fit IMO. Personally I'd like to see a return of Settra to challenge Nagash right now as he is weakened by the resurgence of Order and the theft of souls.

As far as a mortal Death faction, I think that could culturally be a really cool idea. Imagine a society where death is merely a rite of passage, that allows a person to transcend mortality and become spiritkind, where they can walk next to their descendents and guide them in times of need.

In battle, you could have flagellants who are promised spiritdom when they die, and thus when they die they spawn, say, Spirit Hosts or something. You could have Heroes possessed by the spirits of heroes past, or counsellors who whisper in the ear of their mortal allies, spirit mages who see through rock and metal to spy enemy positions and aid their mortal descendents.

The core theme could be reincarnation. You kill Mortals, they become Spiritkind. Flesh it out a bit more, give it a compelling visual style, and it could be a very cool take on Death.

 

You could certainly build on this to work through the very human fear of not wanting to give up your free will. For example it could be a thing that a general tries to "exert his will" over possessing spirits and could gain benefits or fail and have his move halved or take a wound or something. High priest out for his own power and recognises that in death he will lose all of his.

I really like the idea of the benefits of possession here - you could bring in a hero character that could select a trait based on the nature of the possessing spirit - in a similar way that Battle mages will select their lore. They could have the wisdom of an ancient general allowing double move or the surity of a master archer giving +1 to hit. Allowing you to tailor your faction to what ever theme you wanted. Could even randomise it - after all you don't know who you're getting possessed by.

There could be berzerkers which are powered by the battle rage of the spirits when they died in battle - giving them rending strikes and a heavy wound roll. No save roll but two wounds sort of thing.

The Mage you mention could work in a similar manner to the Tzeentch Changling - or rather than a model, why not secretly select a non hero model?

 

 

[CDM]

Maybe that's where a schism could take place, resurrectionists very reanimators! A cultural difference, nothing to split the alliance up but maybe a place where more antagonists could step in with different goals and methods of death and what that means.

I'm not so clued up on what nagash is about and what his goals are and what he wants the realms to look like but maybe others could see a beauty of sorts in a lifeless world