KnaveOfScribes
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Posts posted by KnaveOfScribes
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“There will come a time when you will need to admit defeat. A time when you will need to accept a loss, to walk away, to cut ties. To do otherwise is to trap yourself, to leave yourself shackled and chained to the withering of your hopes and dreams. Swallow your pride, children. Swallow your pride. And. Walk. Away. “
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“What are we, but the forgotten seeds of a last desperate hope?”
Moralanith, scion of the Darkwood Court
~
“He told us that we were the best of the Darkwood, that we were clean of the Crone’s taint.”
“The Wych.”
“The Warrior.”
“The Guardian.”
“The Lover.”
“And then He told us what our task would be. And we wept.”
~
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“Leave too many loose ends and they will eventually knot themselves into a noose for your own neck.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
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“There’s blood on your lies”
“The scars open wide and there is nowhere for you to hide.”
“The hunter’s moon is shining.”
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And Lo, did an update appear from the depths of time.
Really sorry about the long silence folks, but its been a quiet couple of weeks really and I've not had too much left to do on the Court in all honesty. With only the wolf left for the actual 3k target, and the new Underworlds warband for narrative purposes, the end is very very close. And of course I'm already jumping ahead and planning my next two projects.
Back to current stuff though, and the Child Of The GodBeast is finished. Pics will come soon, but she was vey enjoyable to paint - even with the multiple thin layers of white glazing and feathering to build up texture on the smoother limbs. Was fun to push my conversion and sculpting a bit more as well. Here's a wip shot of the legs, showing how the texture and shading was being built up:
This was about halfway through the process, and she ended up looking rather lovely even if I do say so myself.
I also managed to snag the Ylthari's Guardians warband, because of course. They are lovely models so I'm not planning to convert them too much but they will be getting a few tweaks to fit them into the Court better. The first step I knew I wanted to take was replacing the horns on Skhathael - from the pics released they had struck me as just a bit oversized and looking a little unfinished compared to the rest of the intricate detail on the models. In the flesh (or wood, or plastic) they weren't as plain as I feared but still a bit big for my tastes. So off they came, and on went these:
Still some blending work to do, but already looking more like a warrior of the Court. Again, there'll be minimum tweaks to the other three as they are fantastic models, with some of the best sculpted bases I've seen, but they will be getting that Grimmdark Fairytale touch that is the hallmark of the Darkwood Court.
And that'll probably be it for my Sylvaneth. I'll be grabbing the imminent new Battletome of course, and potentially whatever new terrain piece replaces the wyldwood, but I doubt I'll be getting more units or Endless Spells. It's time to dabble in some other bits and pieces.
More soon, and thanks for your continued interest.
Knave-
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Honestly, I'd be happy with a simple change to the Wyldwood model, with no or only minor changes to the mechanics.
Something like the Gnawholes, but individual big magic trees instead, would be great - you still get all the buffs and movement shenanigans etc, but they're much easier to transport and actually place on the table.
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1 hour ago, Hoseman said:
Ylthari guardians has 1 wound so don't expect 2 wounds for revenants. I thing exactly the same as u, I dont like dryads and I would love an aggressive army with revenants and kurnoths. I feel the hero aura of reroll hits of 1 for kurnoth would be great for revenants cause if they gain the Ylthari guardians abilities they will go re-roll wound of 1 and with 3+ fight first.
For now I see kurnoth going sooo damn good. re-roll all saves if dont move, the mortal wound mechanic, 5 wounds more for almost same price as 10 revenants, more damage and now reroll hits of 1 with arch revenant...
For sylvaneth wyldwood I expect a pack of 3 trees that work on area
I totally skimmed Ylthari's rules and forgot about them - good call. To be honest, I'd still prefer +1w over potentially fighting first in some circumstances, but that's just me.
Kurnoth are definitely looking tastier, which is a good thing - people need to remember that there's more to Sylvaneth than just dropping 90 odd dryads down.
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1 minute ago, Nixon said:
Thankfully the Wyldwoods can be used as regular terrain.
Personally Im glad to see them go.
Hear hear. Be good to send the end of Sylvaneth being seen as one-dimensional wood-spammers and that being the only "right" way to play them.
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I'm impressed with the direction they seem to be going with the Arch-Revenant - I've been crying out for a low-mid points cost combat hero that's not Durthu for ages, for those of us who don't enjoy going the multiple-tarpit Dryad/Wych/Wood/Ancient route and want be a little more aggressive with the Sylvaneth. Hopefully the basic revenants themselves will get some kind of tweak to make them a decent option, even if its something as simple as 2 wounds.
The fact that the Arch-Revenants attacks and rules seem to be a perfect fit for my own Man-Stag conversion is just the cherry on the wooden cake.
And regarding Wyldwoods, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see the old model replaced with a single big tree, in the style of the Feculent Gnarlmaw or Herdstone. Easier to transport, easier to physically play around, and of course easier for GW to make money on (which we cant really begrudge them for, as they are at the end of the day, a business.) - and for everyone who already has a bunch of the old woods (which lets face it, aren't great models), just think about the awesome forest themed gaming tables you can do for narrative games (yes they exist still) as well as for interesting and different looking matched play games.
Old and replaced doesn't mean obsolete and useless.
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Afternoon folks, and time for a quick update while I feverishly try and resist the urge to spoil Avengers Endgame for myself before seeing it tomorrow.
@Ravinsild - Ah that's great to hear that you're all inspired and enthused to try your own narrative take on the Deepkin man, it always means a lot to know my stuff has given someone the same fever. Cant wait to se what you come up with. In terms of the glowing skulls, its really simple - I painted the entire sockets completely white, and a small rim around the sockets white as well, then washed it with a couple of thin coats of blue ink. Once that was dry, I went back with a very thin glaze of white over the blue to wash it out a bit. Hope that helps.
So, there's been a small amount of progress on the wolf, basically just getting the undercoats, zenithal highlight and basic shading in place, as seen here:
Still a lot to do obviously, building the colour up to a very very light grey and then glazing etc. But I'm looking forward to painting her. I'm also looking forward to getting hold of Ylthari's Guardians soon as well, as they will be the final piece for this project. There's a couple of tweaks I'd like to make, but finding the right pieces is proving difficult.
More to come soon,
Knave-
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“Pity the children, for they live with our legacies. Pity them, for the weight they must bear.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“It is no small thing, to truly kill something. Ending a life is easy, but to truly kill something, you must go further. Kill its memory, kill its inheritance. Find every root and branch of its family and burn them. Salt the very earth that it walked upon. Only when you have left no trace that it ever existed, have you truly killed something.”
Attributed to Kwan-Xi, warrior philosopher of the Jade City of Shyish.
~
The ruins lay tumbled throughout the skeletal dead trees like a giants toys, thrown aside and discarded by their owner. Weathered granite and dusty marble, choked with twisted ivy and broken roots, statues whose features were lost to the uncaring passage of time; they all lay abandoned in this forgotten corner of the Darkwood.
Ilaranim repressed a shiver – even for the cold and eternally dying forest of the Darkwood, this pace was devoid of the song, the pulse of life that all treekin felt. It was a cold, dead space, a void that lay empty of everything. Everything, except that which the King’s Reeve, Blessed Loclaranam, had brought her here to see. He stood with her now, in the shadows of twisted boughs and gently falling drifts of snow, his huge bulk smoking with puissance and the musk of animals. His presence made her sap run hotter, a heat that bloomed throughout with the whispered promise of so much, if only she would join her song to the Hunt and run.
“I do not understand, Great One. What gifts can be found here?”
“Patience little sister. Our guest is… shy.”
“Guest? I see no one, feel nothing –“ Ilaranim froze as a deep rumbling growl spread through the frozen air. It was a predators warning, and more than that, more than a simple beasts call. It filled the ruins like thunder, was something you felt in your soul as much as heard with your ears. It was the promise of fear, of hot breath on the back of your neck, and sharp teeth in your flesh.
“I will tell you of the Jheck, little sister, and of their godling. I will tell you of the great she-wolf they worshipped, and of how she and all her pups were hunted and killed by the hands of the Crone.”
Amongst the ruins, Ilaranim caught a flash of silvery-white fur. It moved like smoke, difficult to follow and impossible to grasp.
“I will tell you of the single pup, the runt of the she-wolf godlings litter, that they wounded and thought dead, and of the mistake that the Huntsman of the Crone has made.”
And in the cold, moonlit air, it stepped into view. A great white wolf, impossibly large, its lupine form wavering like fog in the frozen night. It stood, painfully lean, agony carved into the snarl that twisted its lips around its maw. Crimson blood fell from a gaping wound where one eye used to sit, the other gold-rimmed eye burning with a pain and anger that was more than animal in nature. The primal, divine growl filled the cold air still, an almost physical force that Ilaranim could feel pressing against her.
“This is our gift. The Child of the God-beast, wounded and raging, and but a fraction of the power of its dead kin. But more than enough. More than enough to tear the rotted heartwood from this Grove.”
~
“Bright is the moon, high in starlight. Chill is the air, cold as steel tonight.”
“We shift, call of the wild. Fear in your eyes, it's later than you realized.”
“So seek the wolf and not the man.”
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“Every gift becomes a two-edged sword. Even those given freely will create a debt that needs to be repaid.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
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“A man, ragged in every way.”
“Arms, armour, raiment and form; broken all.”
“A tattered wing, a shattered mind.”
“Madness surrounds him as thickly as his flocks of feathered brothers.”
“This broken thing, this Knight of Feathers. Our surest ally.”
~
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Thanks gents, much appreciated.
@Fairbanks - I haven't done any updated group shots for a while, other than a few pre-game army shots on my Instagram. Once the last two characters are done, I'm planning to get a whole bunch of army and group pics done. In terms of custom rules, not really. Everything has been designed to be easily recognisable as something in the actual Sylvaneth Battletome with the exception of the Man-Stag really. I did play around with creating a custom warscroll for him, but for regular Matched Play games, he's usually run as a Lord-Castellant ally.
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“No man ever truly knows another. Lies fall easier from the tongue than truths, and a man’s thoughts are his own secrets. A common goal, a common interest. A common enemy. This is most you can hope for from other people in your life.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“Cruelty breeds consequences. The good will kill you quick, and kill you clean. The cruel will torture and maim, and leave loose ends behind them as they do so. Crippled and forgotten you may be, but dead you are not. And the dead cannot have their revenge.”
Attributed to Kwan-Xi, warrior philosopher of the Jade City of Shyish.
~
The Grey Marches was a place where the lost and forgotten came to rest as they were cast aside by the twists and vagaries of their lives. No one would truly chose to live here, only those who clung to the tattered echoes and shreds of whoever they used to be. No, only the lost and forgotten found themselves here.
And the mad, mused Moralanith as he regarded the ragged and skeletal figure perched atop the ruins that tumbled across the barren plateau like a giant’s discarded toys. The mad could be found here too.
The wind whispered around them, probing with chill fingers and tugging at what may have been rags or ragged feathers that wrapped around Moralanith’s solitary audience. He sighed, called up to the seemingly-uncaring figure above once again.
“This isn’t Court business. I’m not here on behalf of my King. You know who sent me.”
The emaciated figure cocked its hooded head, a gesture oddly bird-like in movement, and something like a harsh laugh coughed out into the wind.
“He said you would stand with us. That you had your reasons to stand with us.”
That harsh, cawing laugh again. Like a raven had found madness and a sense of humour all at once. Suddenly uneasy, Moralanith looked around. Birds had begun to appear all around, perched on shelves of rock and spurs of broken pillars, on rubble and tumbled masonry. Corvids mainly; crows, ravens, smaller jackdaws and rooks, white-splashed magpyrs, like scraps of shadow someone had carelessly tossed around. But bigger raptors stood among them, golden eyes gleaming; shrikes, nightwings, even a sole vulcatrix, at once regal and sinister. They were silent, eerily so, their countless shining eyes fixed on Moralanith.
The thin figure moved finally, leaving its perch and descending in a series of hopping jumps that looked as much uncontrolled as they did elegant. It landed in a cloud of dry dust from the plateau on bent, backward-jointed and skeletally thin legs that ended in a raptors talons. Scraps of weather-beaten, faded cloth fell away from cracked and stained armour, huge grey-black feathers tumbling around it. That hooded head twitched again, a hint of a thin slash of a mouth showing in the shadows.
“Man-Stag said did he? Reasons have I? Ha!” the voice was harsh, cracked and broken with disuse and madness. The figure twitched again, and from over its shoulder rose a single great wing, dark-feathered and ragged. In thin arms it cradled a notched and battered greatsword, as a mother would a child.
“Everqueen’s tears,” breathed Moralanith. “It’s true. What they say she did to you. It’s…”
“Ha! What she took, yes. What she gave, yes.” The ill-fated Knight of Feathers took a jerking step forward, the way a bird would walk. “Tell your Man-Stag, tell him. I’ll stand.”
He began to laugh his cracked, cawing, harsh saw of a laugh, and every one of his silent avian audience suddenly burst into flight like a feathered explosion, blooming into the sky like ink dropped into water. Amidst the thunder of countless wings beating, and the raucous cawing and screeching of the birds that seemed to echo the Knight of Feathers own maddening laughter, Moralanith could hear him still, screaming to the feathered sky.
“I’ll stand! I’ll die, but I’ll stand! Ha!”
~
A knight once held a blade to the Baba Yaga and demanded the Knowing of birds.
She gave him the Knowing, and the form and the feathers too.
And a single wing, so that he would ever have the Knowing, but never the life of the birds.
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Hey folks, hope you're all dandy. Proper update to come, but a few replies first.
@Ove - I have to admit, I have no idea what "Sundsvall brann ner" means (a swift Google says it means 'Sundsvall burned down'?), but thank you
@Arnied3 - All good things come to an end at some point mate. And I'd rather go out at a good high rather than carry on reusing ideas and units, if that makes sense. There's still a good couple of fun things to come before the end though.
@Rungi - Ah thanks very much man, that's really kind of you to say. It's great to hear that you've gotten a load of inspiration, that's the best thing to hear as a hobbyist. In regards to creating your own narrative, all I can say is go for it, and don't be afraid to kill your darlings.
@TheR00zle - Cheers buddy, much appreciated. And great to hear you're working on something new - any questions or advice you're after in terms of conversion stuff, feel free to give me a shout.
Proper update to come in a short while, one of the last few characters for the Court.
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Hello everyone, and apologies from myself for the lack of updates and replies over the last few weeks - it's been a busy old couple of weeks and with the Court nearing completion, some smaller tests for potential new projects have taken up some time.
@Captain James Hook - ha, I'm glad I changed the head too, even if snipping off the fully painted and varnished original was nerve-wracking. And thank you man, I'm ridiculously happy with him too.@kenshin620 - Thank you man
@BangDoll - Cheers dude. I can see where you get that Del Toro feel - a lot of the inspiration for the Court came from Mignola's near-perfect Hellboy comics, which Del Toro of course did a couple of films with. It's all linked.
@elfhead - Ha, I never even thought about that until you mentioned it - it's been so long since I saw those episodes. You're right though, there's a definite vibe, must have been in the back of my head all the time. And thanks for the kind words - I'm so happy with how he turned out, and he's up there with the Man-Stag and Mother Aldwynter in terms of being my favourites and hitting exactly what I wanted this project to be about.
In terms of updates then, there's not a huge amount to show - with the King-In-Horns done, there's only two more units left to complete to get the Court to the 3k target. I will be grabbing the Nightvault warband when its finally released, but that'll be more of a narrative addition rather than a gaming addition. Those last two units then, are a final Branchwych, and a counts-as Spirit Of Durthu. Of course, not being one to keep things simple, I'm not just going to be using the standard models. Oh no sir.
So, here's the start of the final Branchwych; possibly the Knight of Feathers, possibly Brother-to-Ravens, possibly something else entirely...
It's something I've wanted to do for a while and by the time he's finished will add a nice extra Blanchitsu touch to the Court, while still fitting the overall Grimdark Fairy-tale vibe of the project. I have a head in mind already, and then its just a case of adding some more details and some cracking to his ancient and battered armour and sword.
And in regards to the Spirit Of Durthu, we have this:
Yes, it's a big wolf. Yes, it's a big wolf based on the easy-to-build Dracoline. Yes, I did have a certain Dark Souls boss in mind and yes I did scale down from my original plan to base the conversion on a Terrorgheist, because I'm not entirely crazy and I know my limits. The stage shown above is after the initial removal of all the saddle and tack, and the majority of the Dracoline features, with the missing bulk and musculature added back in with greenstuff.
I have made a start on sculpting the fur back on, with the one side completed so far looking like this:
Really happy with the progress so far - I still need to do the fur on the other side of the model, and then go back and carve in a lot of wounds once it's all cured. I know gaming-wise it wont be the same size as an actual Durthu, but hey ho - I'm unlikely to be playing anyone who actually has a problem with that.
That's all for now, but I will try and update more frequently over the next few weeks as things come to a close. And of course, I'll be kicking off a couple of smaller AoS and 40k projects soon, with Stormcast and Primaris in mind (I know, super original, right?). And if you fancy seeing more random pics and some shots of a game I had recently against a Daughters of Khaine army, please come find me on Instagram: Knave_Of_Scribes.
Cheers again folks,Knave
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“A lord becomes a beggar. A god becomes a fairytale. A name once whispered in awe now lies forgotten by all. Tell me, o King, what is left for you?”
Mother Aldwynter
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The King sits upon his shattered throne and broods, and curses, and weeps. By turn’s melancholic, choleric, febrile, and caustic in his bitterness, he has not known peace for longer than he remembers. Indeed, memory itself is a fickle ally for this King. He remembers little of what came before, and what he does remember is fragmented and contradictory.
It is this more than anything that pains him. Were he to forget everything, to know only his current station, would his madness pass? Would he be one again with the Eversong, instead of a dissonant and faint note? Would his rage still burn cold and fierce?
But in knowing these fragments, in knowing that some are true, that some are false and that none can be trusted – it is this uncertainty that fuels his bitterness and rage and misery.
It is one thing to remember glories past, and mourn their passing. It is quite another to not even know if the glories that you remember are even yours, or if they are simply things that you have stolen to give yourself some borrowed shine. If you cannot tell whether you are a great man fallen low, or a thief clutching at stolen treasures and living a lie, how then can you know peace?
The King remembers a spear, and horns, and a great forest that outlived the world entire. He bears horns still, in spirit and in heavy obsidian that bursts from his aging bark. The spear has become a scythe, the eternal forest a cold and barren prison at the edges of dreams. Was he ever truly a King? Was his Queen ever so wrathful and beautiful and real?
Or is he simply a broken and shattered thing, cast aside and forgotten, clutching to echoes of past glory that are not even his?
Uncertainty. Rage. Malice. Madness. Misery. A crown that he may have stolen, or may have saved. A throne he may not have earned or that may be the only thing keeping his grove alive. A life that he at once abhors and hates, but clings to with such ferocity and pride. He will never set down his crown, but will rail and spit against it for all his life.
Like the Darkwood itself, the King-In-Horns endures.
~
“A broken throne for a broken King.”
“Regal and ragged both, dying and blossoming at once.”
“Dreaded and lauded, forgotten and exiled to the cold ends of the worlds.”
“Our King. Our curse. Our hope.”
~
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I do love the setting you've come up with and I for one can't wait to see what other ideas you've got for the various kingdoms and domains that make up your setting.
Also, as mentioned elsewhere, your Ironjawz are looking glorious. Glorious.
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Afternoon chaps - thanks for all your comments about the King-In-Horns, very much appreciated.
@DeathCat147 - haha, insert reply made elsewhere ;)
Also, painting news! Well, not news as such but more of an update - a few hours work the other night and all of a sudden the throne part is looking like this:
Only a few small details on the branches to do and the snow to add to the base and its all done, leaving only the King himself to paint. I'll probably do another quick "build and paint" post at some point about him as there's a few little touches I'm pretty proud of in terms of visual story-telling and all that jazz. But there's not much left to do there at all.
Hopefully the bits I ordered for my Durthu stand-in will arrive soon, as well as the Nightvault warband becoming available and I'll be able to get the last few things done. Then it'll be time for a little break doing some Inq28 and Blackstone Fortress while deciding on the next AoS project. Its still going to be something chunky and armoured, I'm just not sure what flavour yet.
More soon folks,
Knave-
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“Heavy is the head that wears the crown. That being said, why not take the damned thing off? We create our own shackles, our own chains, and then we rail and curse against them. Oft times, our madness or despair or shame is entirely caused by our own obsessions and a fundamental inability to just let things go...”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“Do you think She even remembers that She once had a husband? Do you think that She would care? Ask yourself this; what truly caused your exile?”
Mother Aldwynter
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“I wear this crown of thorns”
“Upon my liars brow.”
“Full of broken thoughts”
“I can not repair.”
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You already know I love all of this, you beautiful hobby person you, but have some more kudos because ****** you deserve it.
Especially for those Ironjawz. My word.
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Afternoon folks, and as always thanks for your continued interest in this project.
@Orsino - Thanks very much man, great to hear you're enjoying the background as much as everything else.@Kirjava13 - Cheers buddy, much appreciated
@DeathCat147 - Hahaha, de ja vu
But thanks as always mate, means a lot coming from yourself.
So, we are getting pretty close to the end of the Darkwood Court project - or at least the end for now. With the revamp of the FEC battletome, I have no doubts that something similar will happen with the Sylvaneth at some point, which will be a nice time to go back and look at adding some things. In the mean time though, I do still have to come up with a Durthu counts-as, potentially another Branchwych, and get the King-In-Horns done.
Speaking of which, I have completed his throne, and here is how it looks at the moment:
I'm very very glad that I was convinced to go for Kurdoss over the Yncarne as the base for the King. Only a couple of little tweaks left to do on the King himself and then it'll be ready for proper pics and painting. That will all be coming very soon.
Also, ****** hell yes I will be picking up that Nightvault Sylvaneth warband because sweet Jesus they are gorgeous. And will fit the narrative of the Court very nicely.
Also also, if you fancy a look at something a little different, please take a gander at mine and others Instagrams for the #grimdarkcards challenge - it's an awesome little collaborative Blanchitsu project with some fantastic entries so far. My own 10 of Chaos was a madness-inducing feathery, leafy nightmare for a short while but is looking rather decent before painting. I also think I'm fairly set on Maggotkin next, because 40k leaves me feeling meh for the most part. Nurgle with a twist though.
More to come soon,
Knave-
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“It is said he hung from the tree for nine days and nine nights, and in that time he learnt the greatest truth of all – knowledge comes from suffering.”
Fragment of common folk tale from the Hrafn Weald of Ghyran.~
“Are you, are you, coming to the tree”
“Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.”
“Strange things did happen here, but no stranger would it be”
“If we met at midnight”
“By the hanging tree.”
~
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“We know what happens when we die. We know which afterlife, which corner of Shyish we are intended for. We know that one of several Gods will claim our souls and we know that death is not the end, that we can be reborn, reforged, stolen, reused. Where then, is the sting of death? Why fear it, when it is clearly not the end.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“She claims sole dominion over her Realm, but She forgets that She was not the only mother to a Kingdom.”
Mother Aldwynter
~The Crone-touched drifted between the dark trunks of the dead trees of the Darkwood, eerily silent and serene in spite of their twisted and cracked bodies. Hunched and gnarled, trailing ragged curtains of spirit-form, they moved through the sprawling expanse of the forest in silent echo of the fully living treekin that they had once been. Try as he might, Moralanith could see nothing in them of the kin that they used to be – no ghosts of memories, no faint whisperings of song. The Crone may claim that all she did was heal those who could be saved, but Hers was a bitter medicine indeed and Moralanith would not have wished it upon any of his kin.
And yet more and more, the Crone’s nursing was called upon by the King-In-Horns, and more of the true-kin bore her touch. The new wych, who called herself the Harvest Maiden, bore the mark of the Crone proudly, gloried in it. Worrying that one who was tasked with the tending of the grove and its true-kin would willingly embrace such a thing. Even the insane Spites of the Kings inner circle were not immune, as many of their number disappearing into the crooked cottage as did those of Moralanith’s fellow Guardians. They would not admit it, but the mad had just as much to lose from the attentions of Mother Aldwynter as did the sane.
Even crippled and wounded as she was, as old and weak as she appeared to be, the Crone was still a danger, a cancerous worm at the heart of the Darkwood. Aye, she may claim to be something more, to once be something greater than she currently was, but this was nothing but the arrogance of the fleshborn and their insistence in their own self-importance. She was nothing but a bitter old and twisted witch, and dangerous enough at that. The more her touch spread throughout the Darkwood, the harder it would be to cut her rot out from the heartwood.
The time would come soon to move against her, to remove the blight. He trusted in the Reeve, even if the grove’s Elders and his own king were blinded by their age and madness. Mother Aldwynter’s time would come, and the Darkwood was nothing if not patient. It would endure, as it always had.~
“Bring me your wounded, your broken and twisted.”
“Give me your tired, your weary, your dying, yearning to be free.”
“Ragged they will come, and ragged they will fall,”
“And I will tend them and keep them, and raise them into something more.”
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“Artists and craftsmen will tell you that the act of creation is as close to that of childbirth as it is possible to come. These people, by and large, are fools. Rare is the painting or chair that is created amidst blood, screaming and curses.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“Her touch spreads ever more throughout the Darkwood. We see her children everywhere now, serpentine and fell. She is a canker, a rot. An ancient worm at the breast of our heartwood.”
Moralinith of the Darkwood Court
~
Mother Aldwynter sat and brooded. Hunched beneath her crooked staff, wrapped in shadows and rotting cloth, she sat and gnawed the gristle of her thoughts. The Court still resisted. This realm still resisted. Raest and his Crows had hunted well, had dealt with almost every little broken or forgotten godling that had found a place to hide, but still some still lived. And Mother Aldwynter would not share this fragmented realm with any other. Old she may be, and weak she may be, and a pale echo of what she once was, but she was still herself. Iron-toothed and iron-boned, as ancient and cold as winter itself. And she would be whole once more.
But first she must deal with the Court. Their shattered King was easy enough, his madness and spite towards the Everqueen was child's play to manipulate, even if he himself was no longer sure why he hated her or what had led to his exile. And her touch was spreading further and further throughout the treekin themselves, as insidious as the King’s own madness. No, the resistance did not lay there. She knew where to find it, knew where her axe must fall. A champion, a herald and a grove of Elders. All must fall so that the sisters could be together and become one again.
Mother Aldwynter sat and brooded, her thoughts as tangled and twisting as an insane spider’s web. A web that stretched across these Grey Marches and trapped all within it, whether they knew it or not. Her children gathered around her, serpentine bodies gliding through snow and around trunks of dead wood. Her priest stood behind her and whispered to her of gates and portals, of gatherings of the living and the dead, and of the passages they took between the Realms.
She sat, and brooded, and planned, and listened, and felt the life trickle oh-so-slowly from her bloody and empty socket. And then she smiled a crooked iron-toothed smile, and told her children where they must go and what they must do, and even her dead priest began to feel a little fear.
~
"If to create is godly, and birth is creation – am I not a god?”
"If to be worshipped is godly, and my children love me – am I not a god?”
“If to smite is godly, and my children protect me – am I not a god?”
“If to rule is godly, and I will rule this realm – will I not be a god?”
"All mothers are gods to their children, and I have many children.”
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Afternoon folks, apologies for the delayed update and replies, but thanks very much for your comments
@elfhead - thanks man, much appreciated. Took a lot of inspiration from the background you did for your Slaaneshi Elf project, so thanks for that as well.
@Arnied3 - ha thanks man, side projects are a bit of a problem for me haha. Stupid magpie brain.
Update time on the project then, as we head into the last few things for the Court. First up, paint-in-progress and work-in-progress on the last two units. Both Crone-touched, another unit of Hunters and another unit of Spites. The Hunters are very close to complete, with only details and the bases left to finish. The Spites are at the first assembly stage and still need a lot of detail added, a lot of gap filling and a lot of texture added. They should be reasonably quick to finish off though. I apologise in advance for the pics, Imgur is having issues at the moment with advanced editing, so they are rather basic.
Still pleased with how the Crone-touched stuff has turned out overall, think it really adds something to the look of the project and saved me from going mad doing the same few units over and over again. Come on GW, how hard would it be to add a few units to the Sylvaneth book for variety?
And then I also started work on this, because why concentrate on one thing at a time? I've mentioned before that I will be having a Drycha counts-as in the Court, to run as my mad King. I was initially thinking about using the Yncarne as the base for him, as its a gorgeous model, but the more I looked at it the more I realised that it was quite Eldary, and not as easy to tweak into a Sylvaneth thing as I first thought without huge amounts of work that would take away from the overall look of the model. My next port of call was another very different model, but one that is just as ace in different ways, and one that fit the established look of the Court already. Bonus points, he was already a mad King of sorts. C'est la;
Obviously this is super rough mock-up at the moment, just to make sure the idea works. Which it does. Hurrah. Once the branches are repositioned and the throne in place, there'll be a lot of work to do to blend the throne into the tree and add all kinds of woody details and roots and so on. Hail to the King.
That's all for now folks, more to come once the Hunters are done and more progress has been made on the King. I also need to start gearing up for the madness that will be my Durthu, as well as wait eagerly for the Underworlds Sylvaneth warband, and potentially start planning something altogether more armoured and lightning-like.
Cheers,
Knave-
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But thanks as always mate, means a lot coming from yourself.
The Darkwood Court
in Painting and Modelling
Posted
What ho chaps, how are things?
Well, its been an interesting old week for us Sylvaneth players, what with some enterprising chap managing to get his hands on a ibook version of the new tome early and spreading its guts all across FB etc. The wails and lamentations of those players to whom Change is a filthy word have been gloriously amusing to behold. From what I've seen of the changes, they are all good - we are no longer a one-trick pony and the reliance on dryad tarpits and obnoxious spamming of wyldwoods is a thing of the past. We have actual viable list alternatives now, and a new wood that isn't a pain to play over. What's not to love about that?
Anyway, enough of my views on the entitled state of some WAAC-players online, lets talk about the Court. In all honesty, not a lot is changing. My 3k list is broadly the same after the points changes, with perhaps a couple of Endless Spells added (most likely the Soulsnare Shackles and the Glade Wyrm as I have models I can use for those), and the Man-Stag and Knight of Feathers will be used as Arch-Revenants because that fits their look. I might have to grab a couple of the new woods, but that's about it really. As a narrative project first and foremost, the Darkwood Court was always going to have a set ending, and there are other things I want to move on to.
All this really means is that Ylthari's Guardians are still the last thing to be done for the Court, and the painting is progressing somewhat slowly. Some of that is due to really life being busy over the last few weeks, and some due to the models themselves - they are gorgeous, but I seem to be finding them a whole new level of fiddly to paint compared to previous units. Maybe a bit of rust when it comes to painting revenants, maybe just a bit of fatigue on Sylvaneth, who knows. Here's a current WiP pic:
That's pretty much it from me today - I've got these chaps and an Ixion Hale to paint, a Stormcast Skirmish band to sort out and a Primaris project to plan. And a decision to make between Beasts, Gitz and IronJawz....
All the best,
Knave