Whitefang
-
Posts
743 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
31
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Store
Downloads
Blogs
Events
Posts posted by Whitefang
-
-
1 hour ago, CommissarRotke said:
will the Dawnbringers include non-humans
Well it always includes, you can easily see this point in fyreslayer, idoneth or any other non-human battletomes.
-
1
-
1
-
-
4 minutes ago, EntMan said:
This sounds pretty promising for non humie cities folk.
Well yeah but it's not a faction.
-
2 hours ago, Jetlife said:
Order of Azyr could be a sub faction of Dawnbringers easily. The question is, are Dawnbringers purely humans or will they mix other races in.
Also, Dawnbringers vs Oathbreakers has a nice ring to it…. Just saying. 😉
Dawnbringer Crusade is more like a pan-order war effort rather than a single faction, lorewise, I mean.
-
6
-
2
-
2
-
-
On 6/17/2022 at 2:11 AM, JReynolds said:
I'd love to claim credit, but the design studio had the same idea, as did Guymer and most of the other authors. It was only a few people in BL that held onto the idea of them as space marines, at least until just after AoS 2.0 launched.
Don't know how you think about this information
But please know in the newest sylvaneth battletome there are lots of reference of your works on Ghyran culture, from Ghyranite Knight Order to cultist community of "old stag", almost everything got mentioned.
-
3
-
1
-
-
6 minutes ago, JReynolds said:
And BL is attempting to pull back from the 'toy-commercial' aspect some with Warhammer Crime/Horror - though I have my own issues with how they're approaching those.
Yeah, I always found the Horror series an enigma, apart from certain works like the Dark Harvest written by you, most Warhammer series seem to be neither proper horror nor memorable good work.
Do you think this phenomenon is caused by restrictions applied by BL doctrine?
-
1
-
-
On 6/10/2022 at 4:26 PM, JReynolds said:
Well, yeah. That's the point of tie-in fiction. It's to market the intellectual property in question to potential customers who might not otherwise see it. It's the equivalent of Larry Hama's seminal run on GI Joe for Marvel Comics back in ye olden days - GI Joe was a fantastic comic, with well-developed characters and plotlines that deftly treaded the line between realistic and fantastic. It was also a glorified commercial, where Hama was expected to write-in whatever new toy was coming out that month. And sometimes, he erred on the side of the commercial, because that's the job.
It's the same with BL. Sometimes the authors have more freedom to play with concepts than others. Sometimes an author just feels like playing it safe, because at the end of the day these books aren't written for art's sake - they're a paycheque, written to a 2-3 month deadline. The editors want Stormcast fighting Nighthaunts? Easy-peasy, assemble a three-act story that introduces our characters, sets up the stakes and climaxes in a brawl in a hidden tomb. Fire and forget, move onto the next thing.
Now, that's not to imply that this is the case in general or even most of the time. But there's always an element of pragmatism to any tie-in project. You have to balance the needs of the story against the needs of the product, and chances are, your employers/clients/etc. will always prefer that you err on the side of the product.
tldr; you, an author, are given a box and told to write a story about the box and everything in it - but you can't go outside the box. So you have to do what you can, with what you're given, in the time allowed. Some authors will get a bigger box than others; some get a smaller box. Some just get the packing peanuts that came with the box. But the job is always the same - make the most out of what you're given, and try and move some merchandise in the process.
Out of curiosity, did the "(relatively) hard work got ignored but easy work went popular" kind of strange thing happen to you throughout your time writing for BL?
-
1
-
-
36 minutes ago, Baron Klatz said:
Mortal Realms Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia for a evolving setting never ends well
-
1
-
1
-
-
14 minutes ago, Sonnenspeer said:
GW themselves anounced it
See here:
At the end of the cured city part they say
upcoming expansions – which will bring even more trouble to Ulfenkarn later in the year.
But it doesn't mention new models, does it?
-
4
-
1
-
5
-
-
55 minutes ago, JReynolds said:
I argued that it showed the insidiousness of Chaos and Nurgle in particular - that even a chivalric 'good' society could be corrupted into something vile, but still functional as a society (rather than devolving into roving bands of nomadic cannibals, f'r instance).
What a based take, kudos to your insistence.
And I think they are really double standard
Considering the fact many Bretonia fans felt mocked by how ghouls were described as delusional nobles and knights in the setting.
-
1 hour ago, Ogregut said:
Exactly, its not like every week in July, August and September will be HH.
We have Skaven and Sylvaneth in July.
Still have the new warcry set, more Underworlds and 4 more battletomes in addition to Slave to darkness coming this side of Christmas (my guess is an army box before Xmas and full release in January).
I'll be very suprised if that's all we get for the AoS side of things this year.
Don't forget csm, squats, ig and even world eaters on the release schedule, though, all of them are going to be big.
-
3
-
3
-
1
-
-
25 minutes ago, JReynolds said:
With AoS, I was often able to do things and apologize later (see: arch-lector is a woman, order of the fly, everything to do with Gardus, et al.),
Wait, do you really need to apologize for your work with Order of the Fly and Gardus? I would be really angry at BL/GW to know that, since they are the very thing attracted me to this setting and I still consider them as the top-knot among everything wrote for AOS.
25 minutes ago, JReynolds said:What initially attracted me to AoS was the relative blank canvas the lore provided. I wanted to carve out my own bit of the setting and keep adding to it, rather like Dan has with his Sabbat Worlds Crusade. I figured if three or four of us writers could do that, and reference each other's characters and locations, we could quickly build up some basic texture for the setting - something it badly needed.
Yeah I can totally see that, back in the day, the interactions between your books and those of Robbie and David are the most interesting and joyful bits of the whole IP for me. Every cool boy has a dream to build their own world with their own heroes and villains, who can say not?
Overall it's nice to have you sharing these experience with us, definitely hope you had a better time writing stories for Legend of Five Rings and Zombicide series!
-
4
-
-
2 hours ago, JReynolds said:
It's been two years or so since I last did any work for BL/GW, I figure I'm safe to participate in this topic - which I really want to do, as it's near and dear to my heart, and at least partially responsible for me no longer writing for the company. So, a brief and by no means complete (or unbiased) history lesson which may answer some questions - or at least provide context for the many and largely valid complaints in this thread.
AoS' spotty inception is, IMO, due to two major factors - the first being inter-studio miscommunication. Initially, Black Library was going to be solely in charge of the setting background and the ongoing narrative - the chosen authors would handle breathing life into their part of the setting (Aqshy, Ghyran, Chamon) and build up a living world for the game to revolve around - the setting would then evolve and change with each edition as major events occurred.
This mandate lasted exactly - oh, two weeks? It was then decided that BL would instead be responsible for writing to the approved studio narrative, i.e. if it ain't got a model and we ain't mentioned it in a campaign book, it don't exist. Why the change? No idea. Like as not, someone realized putting a bunch of freelancers in charge of that sort of thing wasn't conducive to miniature sales, which - fair enough.
The problem was, there was a distinct lack of worldbuilding in said approved material and this didn't change for a long time. And there was no worldbuilding because - well. Rumor has it that the people in charge thought that it wasn't necessary. I suspect it was more a case of the initial project being rushed and fairly bare bones in order to make a deadline and then no one having the time or wherewithal to add to it.
This is largely the reason the Realmgate Wars series is the way it is - the writers were given a brief and had to stick to it ('This is the story of a battle. Write about the battle. Make the new models look cool'). No unapproved additions to the lore, no unnecessary worldbuilding, no texture, stick to what you're given (or not given, as was the case often enough), straight down the line. Even if what you're given is wrong/out of date/no longer part of that quarter's release schedule.
This segues into the second factor: no one knew what AoS 1.0 was about. Were Stormcast just space marines in fantasy cosplay or something else? Were the realms habitable? Was Sigmar still Sigmar? We genuinely didn't know what this thing was supposed to be, so we wrote what we were told to write and nothing more. And the studio didn't know what it was supposed to be because they hadn't had time to properly think about it.
When BL broke away from Publications and became its own beast again, things improved - briefly. But, by that time, it had been decided that the lore was to stay in the hands of the studio and if the studio hadn't gotten around to filling in some blanks, well...tough cookies. Avoid it. Don't write about it. See the early vagueness regarding Freeguilds, money, etc. So, basically same mess, different day.
[Side note: one reason that there were a lot of Stormcast stories early on is because we knew how the Stormcast worked. It was safe to pitch a Stormcast story. Everything else was a bit hodgepodge - you had to go to the studio to get the down-low and, often as not, the studio's answer was the email equivalent of a shrug and a polite suggestion to write about something else. Everything was in flux; how things (factions, places, etc.) worked changed month-to-month at times.]
As a freelancer, it was frustrating even at the best of times. Sometimes you could get away with inventing things; sometimes not. Sometimes you make the Arch-Lector of the Church of Sigmar a woman and get yelled at over the phone. Safest just to avoid adding to the IP in any fashion.
AoS 2.0 was a big improvement, mind. But it was also a big shift from the setting's previous tone and theme. 1.0 was post-apocalyptic Jack Kirby fantasy, but that wasn't popular, so it shifted to 2.0 and a grimdark Moorcockian flavour to try and recapture some of the WHFB base, but apparently that didn't work either so I guess they're trying something different now. They've tried to keep the original idea of an evolving narrative, but they also want a static setting and, well, you can't really have it both ways. So that leads to the lore bouncing all over the place as it tries to find its feet.
All of this is why - at least in regards to the BL end - the AoS lore was and still is spotty and somewhat schizophrenic, at least in my opinion. The studio is still playing catch up on the lore and while Cubicle 7 is giving it the old college try, the background is still two or three editions behind where it should be in terms of development.
tldr; AoS lacks a strong theme because no one is really sure what the setting is supposed to feel like yet. The lore wants to be simultaneously ever-evolving and static, which is...difficult to accomplish, at best. So it feels ephemeral and ill thought out, rather than cosmic and weighty.
Excellent briefing mister! And it's good to see you here again!
May I ask if you feel the same way when writing for 40k？ Or is it better because that setting is more established and seasoned?
-
On 6/3/2022 at 10:31 PM, CommissarRotke said:
If it's got a model for tabletop, they aren't dying.
Hahah no
Don’t be too confident about that.
-
1
-
2
-
-
23 hours ago, W1tchhunter said:
Isn't Arkhan fully dead now? As well as the other mortarchs mounts.
Nah, Nagash could just resurrect him after he fixes himself
Undead mounts are also revivable
-
1
-
-
2 minutes ago, Ragest said:
I have two problems with the setting.
First of all, the rule of "nothing happens"
Spoilers from all broken realms and new battletome of dok (is there a command to hide spoilers?)
Stuff that happens in books leads nowhere.
Morathi takes a city from sce? Then they are friends. Dok and Idk hunt Lumineths? Friends again. Idk takes back their lantern? Nothing happens. Morathi makes a deal with Katakros? Nothing happens. Belakor annoys sce? Nothing happens. Chamon (I think was Chamon in br3) goes kaboom? Nothing happens. Slaneesh gets almost freed? Nothing happens. Skragott has some issues with Tzeentch? Nothing happens. Malerion? Hahaha, dude. Morathi has some heresy in her files? You know the answer.
The setting looks like it's moving, but is not and is so frustrating.
The other one is the lack of interesting NEW AOS characters. Everything is around gods, and I love Teclis, Morathi or Malerion, but I need some Malus, Settra or Vlads.
TBF during 2.0 the whole setting was actually moving, you could feel every step of escalating story by each tome and expansion
Until BR4 we suddenly got a literally who centauroid god who led the story to nowhere.
-
11
-
1
-
-
37 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:
All of what you want does actually happen in AOS books...
Stormcast worship gods/deities that are not Sigmar and he's fine with it. They have inter-host rivalries because some Stormhosts view mortals badly (among other things). They disagree with Sigmar and don't get killed or exiled for it. They can visit their mortal families (if still alive) and are told to record what memories they remember. They have the full range of human emotions if they haven't been reforged too many times.
Please read beyond "posterboys are Sigmarines." You do not need a fantasy HH to have internal conflict or make Stormcast interesting.
Never explored enough imho
Especially after Josh ended the contract with BL
-
8
-
1
-
-
4 hours ago, KingBrodd said:
Hints from @Whitefang in regards to their getting a Battletome and the Critters being a part of a new Gargant it.
GW is confusing with BTs as DOK didnt need one so soon after yet got one.
Im hoping that the Maneaters are going to become a multi part kit!! I wouldnt be suprised to see them as a Warcry Warband.
More likely to have a <you>
-
15
-
3
-
10
-
-
GW really needs to do something about leak at this rate...
-
2
-
2
-
11
-
-
10 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:
But then the question becomes why tell us this is supposed to be designs we've never seen before, if it's just going to be a WFB Empire throwback?
The Empire is light years better than the Imperium, but it is still quite far from how COS has been established in terms of inter-species cooperation too.
Because it's not just gonna be "WFB Empire" after all?
I mean, obviously there are many design cues shared between WFB empire and the human parts of the COS, for reason in-lore (Their major god is basically the same person with same taste but older) and out-lore (most human models of COS are from WFB), it's not strange to find some lineages and similarities in the seed of this redesign.
But does that mean this seed will grow into the same tree of WFB Empire? I don't think so. AOS as setting provides totally new and different soil, water and fertilizer, even the seed is completely same to WFB Empire, it will grow into a new tree we have never seen before. And there are no two seeds completely same to each other.
Let's use this example again, imaging high elves compared to lumineth but this time WFB empire to new COS.
-
4
-
-
55 minutes ago, zilberfrid said:
I fully expect the Dawnbringer crusade to be awful in lore with some very nice models, and the rest of Cities to be culled in AoS 4. Not obviously, but neglected and then silently just discontinued.
Retiring old models doesn't mean their lore and concepts will also be abandoned, they are more likely to be changed, updated or reimaged, and that will be a long process, maybe even 5+ years till we see the final result. Lately Squats have just proven this. Losing their models doesn't mean these humans, aelves and duardins are purged or massacred in the background
And yes I do think some WFB legacy models will be retired, but we will likely get something new and unique in their stead.
It's like exchanging High Elves for Lumineth.
BTW, if you read the lore of DBS, it's not really like the crusade and colonization in the OTL, this is because AOS as a fantasy setting, is completely different from our earth, the crushing force of Chaos, Destruction and Death exist there.
Of course, since this is warhammer, DBS has its awfulness： millions of poor and desperate people are simply sent to die or to face more horrible endings in the twisted hellscape.
-
2
-
2
-
-
17 minutes ago, zilberfrid said:
It might be their (from the article) macabre dedication to the god king. It might be the artwork (devoid of non-human Cities denizens). It might be that 40k was referenced in the article. It might be that they'd be the humans that worship a god-empero...god-king in golden armour.
This is just WFB Empire.
Empire is like a light year away from 40k Imperium, linking Empire to Imperium is like comparing a dog to a sabretooth.
Maybe we can talk about the risk of COS falling into 40K imperium when they can legally kill anyone who isn't a human sigmarite.
-
5
-
-
I don't understand why people think the redesign will make COS into Imperium.
Imperium is its own thing for 40k, a special product bred by that horrible setting filled with grimdarkness
It is never a thing for WFB or AOS
The redesign, at its worst, will make COS similar to human nations of the old world, whose major population are poor, conservative and fanatic, sometimes maybe even foolish, but they are never fascists or human supremacists.
-
11
-
5
-
-
9 minutes ago, Garrac said:
I suppose the leaks were wrong on that
The time hasn't come, the stars haven't aligned
-
9
-
2
-
4
-
2
-
-
Eternus is a powered-up Varanguard by Belakor, basically his spymaster & legion master & Stormcast eternal
Chaos legionaries are smaller chaos warriors, belong belakor.
Centaurion is basically a centaur, commander of legionaires.
Horns of Hashut is the herald of Hashut, but don’t look like as dwarf
Theridon are basically a squad of ogorid, like bullgors.
-
18
-
2
-
The Rumour Thread
in Age of Sigmar Discussions
Posted
I really have no idea lol. I just want to casually join the discussion.