The Brotherhood of Necros

“Akhmen-hotep, Beloved of the Gods, Priest King of Ka-Sabar and Lord of the Brittle Peaks, woke among his concubines in the hours before dawn and listened to the faint sounds of the great army that surrounded him.” For this week's Am Reading, we take a look at the Warhammer Chronicles trilogy The Rise of Nagash, by Mike Lee. I picked up this collection last year as preparatory reading for my new death-themed army. The background and lore is a huge part of the hobby for me — so much so that I often write entire novels to bring my collections to life — and a series digging into the Great Necromancer and the history of necromancy itself was a no-brainer. It should be said that I also have a long-lived interest in ancient Egypt and the Old World's geographic equivalent, Nehekhara, so the series had a lot going for it before I'd even turned the first page. What did I think? As deep dives into ancient Nehekharan culture, warfare, and religion go, the three novels in this series smash it. From the first few pages, I found myself drawn in by the setting and the details that bring it to life. The Nehekharans genuinely belief their gods fight with them on the battlefield, if only they uphold their covenant and make the ritual sacrifices necessary to invoke them: "Akhmen-hotep and the nobles of the great army gathered by the waters of the oasis, glittering in their martial finery, and offered up sacrifices to the gods. Rare incense was burned to win the favour of Phakth, the god of the sky and bringer of swift justice. Nobles cut their arms and bled upon the sands to placate great Khsar, god of the desert, and beg him to scourge the army of Khemri with his merciless touch. Young bullocks were brought stumbling up to Geheb's stone altar, and their lifeblood was poured out into shining bronze bowls that were then passed among the assembled lords. The nobles drank deep, beseeching the god to lend them his strength." And to all intents and purposes, their gods do fight with them, blessing the many priest kinds and cohorts of Ushabti bodyguard throughout the books with divine gifts befitting each god's realm of power. Having only known ushabti as animated temple constructs built by the Nehekharan's necrotects, it's fascinating (and quite inspiring) to read about the regiments of god-heroes who went on to inspire the creation of those statuary. It's small yet creative liberties like this that really bring the Nehekharan's living culture to life for me, across the first book in particular. Explored across two timelines in the books, Nagash's quest for dominance over all Nehekhara and the priest-kings' campaign against him form the driving force of the story, and I would've loved to read more about the characters we meet over the course of the series, perhaps at expense of some of the battle scenes, of which there are many. As well as the more character-driven parts of the story, I particularly enjoyed the way Lee explores the Nehekharan response to the undead, which is all the more horrifying for their beliefs in the sanctity of death and the afterlife. As a reader, I'm quite familiar with the concept of the undead as a Warhammer army and fantasy trope, but Nagash the Sorcerer offers us a glimpse of a people coming into contact with it for the very first time: "Something heavy crashed against the side of the chariot to the priest king's right [...] A terrible stink emanated from the attacker, and Akhmen-hotep smelled bitter blood and freshly ruptured bowels [...] It was one of the Usurper's tormented soldiers, clad only in a ragged, blood-stained kilt. Its chest was misshapen, having been crushed by the bronze-shod wheel of a chariot, and a spear point had torn open the warrior's cheek [...] Akhmen-hotep choked back a cry of horror. Nagash's unholy powers were far greater than he imagined. The dead rose from the bloodied earth to do his foul bidding!" My favourite thing about the book(s)?The epic trilogy offers a fascinating look at Nagash’s origins and the influences that shaped his rise to power, as well as his relationship with the vampires and all things undead. This is something that Games Workshop really seems to have run with in the Age of Sigmar setting ("All are one with the Great Necromancer") so I found it really interesting to see this theme play out here, so early into Nagash's story. The relationship between my vampire protagonist and his get, and in turn Nagash and my vampire protagonist, is central to the novel I'm currently drafting, and I gobbled up any and all inspiration I found across this series in relation to Nagash's control over the vampires and those touched by necromancy: W'soran made his way towards the king's dais. Hunched, growling figures paced him from the shadows along either side of the hall [...] Of course they served the Undying King [...] Every creature within sight of the great mountain, living or dead, likely bent its knee before Nagash's might. W'soran did so as well, falling onto his knees before the dais. Of course, my favourite character is W’soran. From the moment I learned that he featured as a PoV character in the series, I had ordered the omnibus. Lee does a wonderful job of capturing his character. As you might expect from the progenitor of a bloodline that goes on to become as reviled as the Necrarchs, some of the most affecting descriptions come not from W'soran but those of other characters observing him. (I'd love to share these here but I wouldn't want to spoil anything for you. Let's just say that long before W'soran's physical form one day degenerates into something you might recognise more immediately as a Necrarch now, there are aspects of his characterisation that inspire horror and awe even amongst his vampire lord equals.) If you have any questions about the book or you want to compare good ol' fashioned notes, drop me a message! Haven't read it yet? Order a copy, turn down the lights, and dive in...

Calling it a night now — it's my first full week back at work tomorrow after the Christmas hols (booo) — but I wanted to leave you with a first look at my Necrarch-themed Blood Knights:

"With a gesture, my wailing attendants dissipate, revealing a slew of previously unheard sounds: the scrape of leather on stone, the flutter of robes caught in the wind and a quiet scratching, which could as readily belong to claws scrabbling at rock or the dutiful drag of nibs across parchment. Their aroma betrays them; turning from the bruised skyline, I watch while the brotherhood assembles around me, crawling like the great bats of the Blood Wastes into the tower’s belfry..." Dark Awakening, Ch. 1 Blood Knights don’t immediately marry with the Necrarch theme but they’re a mainstay Soulblight unit, so a little conversion work was in order to breathe (un)life into these classic Vampire Counts (and a stray Tomb Kings) sculpts. For my first Sunday Spotlight, here’s a group shot of the Acolytes Five. Gifted the Soulblight Curse by a son of the Ancient One, even these lowly get are but extensions of his implacable will. Be it battle, reconnaissance, sermon or ritual, they enact his commandments unfailingly, for he is all things to them: Master, Teacher, High Priest, Father, and who are they to disappoint him, after all he has done for them, after all he promises to do? Keep your eyes peeled (!) for individual spotlights over the coming weeks.

To paraphrase the Count himself, "Welcome to my thread. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!" (I'd make a 'Nosferatu' quip but Orlok's not too big on dialogue...) As a new year breaks over Shyish, the Ancient One stirs in his tomb. For decades, his spirit has walked the Realm of Death's many underworlds, his physical remains sustained by a diet of dark magic. Unfettered from his cadaver, he has travelled far in his hunger for knowledge and secrets. Most souls are all too eager to share their stories. Others are doomed to repeat their final moments or strongest memories; the Ancient One need only watch. Even the dead want to be heard. Now his tower stirs again. Fell bats flock to the upmost turrets, crawling like lizards to rest in the rafters. Those humans and the other base creatures held in the laboratories huddle deeper in the shadows. Deep beneath even the duardins' old tunnels, rows of iron maidens rattle once more with madness and the crunch of mandibles. Acolytes long sequestered in their private quarters feel the Winds shift and look up with red eyes and trembling hands, helpless against their Master's will. While his carcass has withered in its casket, that will has grown fat on the words of the dead. Eyes glittering with the patience of one who cannot die, he has walked from the trackless forests of Necros to the howling deserts of Nulahmia seeking answers and learned much about the Mortal Realms in the process. Back in possession of his remains, he pushes aside the lid of his sarcophagus and emerges to record that knowledge, the secrets of the dead captured in crimson that he might reread them, refer back to them, draw pleasure from them all over again in his quest to understand them. For only in understanding them does he make them his own. And they will be his. The Ancient One is still waking, but as he does so, I'll share pictures of (and stories about) the finished things that crawl through the tower and make those tunnels their home. If you're interested in WIP stuff, you can find that in the Laboratory, in the Painting and Modelling forum. For things like inspiration and book reviews, I've also started a blog. Finally, if you're into Instagram, you can follow me at @brotherhoodofnecros. I hope this has captured your interest — I can't get enough of this crazy community. Thanks for following!

Made a little progress on the second bat's wings this evening. It also inspired me to write up a quick story, 'One More Step'.

You hear it then: a tapping, the patter of fleshless fingertips between the stalactites. Overhead, blackness, impenetrable except for that sound and something else, almost inaudible, a keening pitch. Scree scatters before your boots, the darkness a precipice over which you dangle, every step your last. One more. Up ahead, a glimmer of light. One more. The entrance is in sight. One more. They are waiting for you, outside, unpacking the camp by torchlight and the glare of the Silver Moons. One more —Wait. Silence descends over you like a fresh darkness. What of the tapping? Nothing, just that whine, needling into your ears, growing higher, cutting sharper. The dead wolf’s bite didn’t wound so deep. Your bark echoes around you. The blackness swallows it utterly, then spits it back in a scrabble of scratches and the flutter of wing beats. I imagine a mainsail filling over and over with competing winds, impossibly vast in the shadows. Run run run —My every footfall kicks pebbles and stones, glottal pops marking my flight. One more step. A smell washes over me, a rotting tide. One more step. The entrance looms before me, my exit now, and I make out the silhouettes of my comrades, moving about camp. Is that their laughter I hear, or have I gone mad? One more step —

Hey James, welcome to the forum. I'm also new but it seems great here so far, much busier than some of the other forums I've joined. Have fun!

Cheers, TMS! Gnarly is just the vibe I was going for! Thanks for the encouragement. I'm looking forward to sharing more of my collection with the community here, as I get around to painting it. Aiming to work more on the remaining two bats this weekend... 🦇

This sounds awesome! I've just discovered it but I'd love to get involved. For January, I pledge to paint up two more Fell Bats (bringing the swarm to three) and... a converted Coven Throne. (Both for my Necrarch-themed Soulblight.) Where's the contract, and how much blood do you need? I sign in blood, right? Here's the first of the bats...

I love reading. I love horror. I love Warhammer. You can imagine my face when I 'calmly unwrapped' a present on Christmas morning and found this beauty staring back at me. Black Library's new Warhammer Horror line caught my eye from the very first newsletter, but Maledictions was my first chance to check it out up close. (You should see the size of my TBR pile — now that's horror.) More than anything else, I was intrigued to find out how BL was positioning these stories, in terms of distinguishing them from the hundreds of other, often horrifying, tales set across their various universes. Horror comes in so many flavours already — which of those were BL identifying with, and were they frightening? Interestingly, they went right ahead and called this out in the first sentence of the blurb: Horror is no stranger to the dark worlds of Warhammer. Its very fabric is infested with the arcane, the abnormal and the downright terrifying. From the cold vastness of the 41st millennium to the creeping evil at large in the Mortal Realms, this anthology of short stories explores the sinister side of Warhammer in a way like never before. Psychological torment, visceral horrors, harrowing accounts of the supernatural and the nightmares buried within, this collection brings together a grim host of tales to chill the very blood... With everything from 'psychological torment' and 'visceral horrors' to the 'supernatural' mentioned, I was fully expecting a Quality Street approach the styles and flavours of horror contained within. (Shotgun the purple hazelnut.) Boxing Day was the perfect opportunity to stick the kettle on and sink my teeth into the book. (Anything but more turkey...) What did I think? I wasn't disappointed. The collection opened with a strong entry in 'Nepenthe' by Cassandra Khaw, and my eyes lit up when I read the words 'space hulk' beside one another — a real Ghost of Christmas Past, reminding me of what must have been one of my first impressions of Warhammer as a small child (a time when I saw Genestealers as nothing more than purple space aliens — ignorance is bliss!) True to its word, horror comes in all kinds of varieties, with the distinguishing take (for me) being the emphasis on the character and emotion of more relatable protagonists over the God-level special characters and epic battles we often see in BL's traditional lines. We're looking out at the world through the eyes of widows in small fishing towns and sewer guards lost in the dark, even a young dryad, witnessing the horror of battle for the first time. There are twists aplenty, serving to bring the reader back to the true horrors being explored across the stories, and an attention to the darker side of realms, races, and settings that are perhaps overshadowed by Chaos and Death in the mainstream narrative. "I smashed the collection in a couple of days. Between Christmas dinners, bottles of rum, and an excruciating game of family Monopoly, that says everything it needs to about how much I enjoyed Maledictions." My favourite story? The one that's really stuck in my head is 'A Darksome Place' by BL legend Josh Reynolds. I won't spoil it for you but it ticked a lot of boxes for me — the atmosphere, the mystery, the revelation (which wasn't over-explained, preserving much of the strangeness and wonder while giving just enough away to produce that 'aha!' moment), and some beautifully descriptive writing meant this one planted some firm roots in my mind. If you have any questions about the book or you want to compare good ol' fashioned notes, drop me a message! Haven't read it yet? Order a copy, turn down the lights, and dive in...

What a fantastic project. I love the thought that has clearly gone into it and the story behind it. I really relate to what you're saying about finding a theme that goes deeper than 'Ghur Sylvaneth' to defiance, independence, and primal hungry forests. Anyone who's wandered an old wood can relate to some feeling of that! Your conversion really evokes that — I can't wait to see more.

Hey! This will be a Soulblight army themed around my favourite bloodline from the-world-that-was, reimagined for Age of Sigmar — the Necrarchs. I'm obsessed with this bloodline — I think they're so characterful, I love that they wear their heart on their sleeve (often literally...) in terms of actually looking like the undead monsters they are, and I can really relate to the desire to squirrel themselves away in tall towers away from civilisation and read/study/sleep! (If you're interested, you can read some of the fiction and lore I'm writing about them over on my blog.) I'm aiming for a 2,500 point collection, to begin with. The cornerstone of the army will be the vampires themselves, represented by a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon, a couple of Coven Thrones and a Vampire Lord (Winged Horror). Supporting them will be their retinues, whether those are the risen dead, their many experiments or their own dark acolytes. This is a brand new project for #newyearnewarmy and I can't wait to get stuck in! My focus for 2020 is on: Completing the army! I'm trying to set a monthly target to keep the pace going. (The 'Tales of Instahammer' group on Instagram will hopefully keep me on the straight and narrow!) Painting to a better quality. I was into this amazing hobby for much of my childhood/adolescence but have only recently come back to it in the past year or so and want to 'brush up' on my painting skills (groan...) Posting more WIPs as well as finished models. One noticeable difference from the hobby now compared to back then is the incredible online community that's sprung up around it! I'm really looking forward to sharing my progress on here, as well as over at Instagram. I haven’t painted anything yet (save one Fell Bat) but here is my WIP general – the Ancient One – and the first Blood-Fat Bat: Will try and get a few more pics up over the weekend! T

For the first instalment of 'WIP Wednesday', meet The Ancient One, the Everliving, the Wicked, Spider King and High Priest of The Brotherhood of Necros. Mad, knowledge-hungry, this vampire lord whiles away the centuries in deep trances, communing with the spirits to decipher their secrets and better understand them. On waking, he records his findings in writing and, more recently, on canvas, creating beautiful paintings from the blood and memories of the dead. Every acolyte of The Brotherhood owes their lineage to him, at once powerful vampires in their own right and slaves to the Ancient One and his will.The Ancient One is a work-in-progress Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon. I’ve used the OOP Tomb Kings Hierophant as a base, bringing that ghastly expression, a stitched cloak, ancient collar and several painful-looking utensils to the sculpt. But mostly that expression. He just needed a little tongue... Still to do: I'm keen to add a coterie of spirits and other creations flying around him, evidencing his horrifying aura, his mastery of the dark arts and power of all things dead. For this, I intend to use the skull-faced wisps of death magic from the Coven Throne kit, which will give the effect I want without overcrowding the mini or overpowering the vampire himself. There's also his dragon to complete, but that's a post for another day... Instagram: @brotherhoodofnecros More about me: Joining the ranks Read the previous post: Test-Mini: A Blood-Fat Bat

This is a test model for my new Necrarch-themed Soulblight army. It is the first of three Fell Bats known across the Brotherhood as Blood-Fat Bats. I love the classic Fell Bat models but I wanted to try and create a more ghoulish, Frankenstein's Monster look to my flock. To achieve this, I've borrowed elements from the Crypt Ghoul kit with the Chaos Beasts Warcry kit (the Chaos Furies and the Raptors) to create a bat that, to my mind, has more of a mangy, mishmash appearance, as though it has been sewn together by the Brotherhood in their laboratories, if not bred by them in the dark caves beneath the tower... I have assembled two more of these and will field them as a unit of three. Check out the Blood-Fat Bat in the Gallery. Instagram: @brotherhoodofnecros Read the previous post: Joining the ranks

Hey! I’m Tom and for 2020 I’ve decided to revisit one of my favourite Fantasy factions, the much-reviled Necrarchs. This is my second year back in the hobby after a hiatus of almost a decade. I was introduced to the game at a young age (cheers, Dad!) and have followed it ever since. I’ve always had a soft spot for W’soran’s acolytes. They’re characterful, they wear their heart on their sleeve (often literally) for the way in which they actually look like the undead monsters they are, and I can really relate to the desire to squirrel myself away in a tall tower far from civilisation to read/study/sleep... "The Necrarchs are the most learned of Vampires, more skilled at sorcery than with the blade. These skills have come at a price, however. The appearance of the Necrarchs has grown so hideous and unnatural that an ordinary man cannot bear to look upon them, and many run screaming at the sight. When their great library was burned to the ground by fearful mortals, many Necrarchs remained to burn with it, so strong was their devotion to knowledge." I collect strongly themed, heavily converted armies that inspire me to write. This project has itself been inspired by the grotesque yet haunting artwork of Melkhior the Ancient, shared below. If I can capture a sliver of that horror across my collection and in my writing, I’ll be a happy man! Thanks for following — feel free to message or comment and say hi! Instagram: @brotherhoodofnecros More about me: Hello from Oxfordshire, UK! My first test mini: A Blood-Fat Bat

Hey there! My name's Tom and I'm a long-time lurker finally joining the ranks. I thought it would be nice to introduce myself and hopefully say hi to a few of you on here! (I'm based in Oxfordshire, in the UK, if anyone knows the area.) My dad was the reason I first got into Warhammer. I couldn’t have been much older than five or six when I painted my first figures with him and the habit’s stuck. One of the things I’ve always loved most about the game is its rich lore. I started writing my own stories to bring my characters to life and put into words the games I used to play against my dad. I remember the first piece I wrote — a short story inspired by a game between my Vampire Counts and his Dark Elves. (It still lives in a shoebox under my bed, where it will never see the light of day again...) Anyway, it's a new year and I've decided to revisit one of my first Warhammer loves — the Necrarchs, reimagined for Age of Sigmar (Soulblight). If you're interested, please check out my first test mini in the Gallery. Thanks for reading! T