Baron Klatz

Yeah, I was thinking we’d jump over to Lendu but it seems the White Dwarf campaign is gonna wrap up that adventure on it’s own. So would make sense we travel elsewhere since the wild plains of Rhondal and river ways of Lendu with their Kraken Stormhost sea guardians are already contested. Ka-Rokk’s certainly made a name for himself over there. Wish we could’ve seen a Lithotauri before they went extinct. 😛

@KingBrodd Lexicanum going over goodies from the SoB tome. Like the last one it doesn’t disappoint on great lore. “Daughters of Behemat” “There are twin-headed Wolfhounds the size of cathedrals” “So things like the Nine Brothers, big enough to be seen as mountains, are way bigger” (that was in the last time that some Sons grew to mountain size to match Behemat as replacements but this is the first named ones) ”Storm Gargants and Mason-Gargants outright worship the Hammer God” ”Chamonite Gargants in armor (The Realm not the Metal)” “Thag the Thwacker, the Warping King Two-Headed Mega-Gargant of Tzeentch” “Slorbb Gargant Necromancer” “There are Lumineth in Xintil outside the Free Cities. A host of some went to go beat up what they thought was a forming alliance of Boulderhead Ogors and Gargants. It was actually a Soccer match. The Lumineth try to retreat, fail, things turn to combat. Ogors and Gargants declare victory. Aelves never speak of this incident again” “Gordrakk... wants to fight Sigmar not from instincts but out of a desire to remind him he's a warrior gods? Is Gordrakk just a long con by Gorkamorka to try to get his friend back in a confusing way?“ This is a nice call back to Tales of Forbidden power where Gordrakk wants Sigmar to be a warrior god again instead of a God-king hiding in Azyr(the Destruction faction in general feel that way as a reflection of how Gorkamorka feels) Forbidden Power: Hammer God excerpt “Aleguzzler Gargants are now looked upon with shame and disgust by the rest of their species” (cause they’re always blind drunk and influenced by Da Bad Moon) “Says that the wonders of Tor Crania are especially a marvel, because Gargants were involved in making it.” (Tor Crania is the upraised countryside in Ghyran that’s Behemat’s head) “Excelsis is no longer on fire” “Bundo Whalebiter didn't turn against Excelsis” So Whalebiter remains a stalwart(if terrifying) ally to Order. and nifty thing on Brodd’s hammer obelisk showing Behemat worship at his titanic feet.

Aye, Gallet and it’s insect tunnels & pits are perfect spider country for it. But it’s the goings on of Gnarlwoods that get the thoughts churning. Soulbound: Blackened Earth: “Here is the final bit from Blacked Earth: “From among the caravans arriving from the free cities, those from Excelsis also bring rumours of a great evil stirring in the Realm of Amber that could threaten all of the Mortal Realms. Strange and twisted creatures have begun to emerge from a stretch of wild Ghur known as the Gnarlwood; rumours say that the Astral Templars of Valourhall seek assistance in solving this mystery, but are reluctant to ask for it directly. (For more on adventures in the realm of Ghur and the city of Excelsis, see the upcoming Soulbound supplement Era of the Beast.)” Warcry: UnderWorlds: Something wicked this way comes from the Meat Forests of the Realm of Beasts. (interesting it seems benign to the Destruction factions most. The Ogors are mentioned to purposely open up the mouths of the Gnarlwoods with Butcher magic so they can feed it as they sense Gorkamorka’s ever hungry presence about.)

Oh that actually reminds me of the Silver Tower Warpriest too. In-lore he’s noted as being nearly 8-feet tall which was abnormal even for his burly tribesmen surviving in the Age of Chaos. Which is played on in the Soulbound art as you can see him standing nearly as tall as the Stormcast heroine and a bit taller than the aelven companions. So it could very well be a faith thing. Closer to your god you are the bigger you get by their Fisher King* power. *(Arthurian term as a king whose personal mind and health also affected how healthy or ruined his lands are by a magical link. Ex, if he’s sick the lands decay) This could also be spun into Soulbound and Galen was planned that tall to show it off later as a solution to his age problems for the reboot and a “side-effect”. Soulbind to higher beings and gain their physique. 🤔

Yeah, if Indomitus is anything to go by it’s gonna rock the Internet again and get sales pumping so I imagine that’s gonna be the big focus. (and hopefully this time they sort out the scalper problem like Dominion did) Hopefully we get some juicy AoS teasers, high time a new faction entered the scene. I’d like all the Gnarlwood drama to finally reveal what’s hiding in there for one. Fingers crossed for CoS reboot teaser too but I can wait. Not expecting anything big for them until 2024-2025 and the next edition to have recalibrated Freeguilders of men, aelves and duardin march out and show the true power of civilization. 🌆

I imagine with CoS reboot they’ll introduce Soulbound as an official mechanic(it’s already showing up in novels like “Monsters” & battletomes like the Sylvaneth one) and have Galen become part of that to get over his aging issues. Probably will be used as a handwave on all the important human characters(models) to justify why they’re around in the passing eras and why they can lorefully fend off the increasing amounts of gods, god-beasts & elementals by being ageless enhanced humans. Go full Vermintide on why small bands of mixed heroes are now able to canonically fight entire armies of monsters and daemons now. (We seriously need a Soultide/Gravetide game. Makes so much more sense than Wfb where a scratch infection is fatal) Certainly works for me. People now are born from the realms where every blade of grass and rock is composed of magic that crystallized into solid forms, that magic is controlled by the gods of those realms and reflect their rises & falls of power so too would their worshippers rise & fall(wane & swell) with their gods power. Fittingly we see their greatest devout champions able to meet eachother face to face now as 8 to 9 feet tall warriors. Stormcasts, Vampires, Ironjawz/Kruleboyz, Chaos Chosen. Lastly, fan-made Bestiary for Soulbound with a lot of work put into it:

Lady D from Resident Evil 8 was so prominent for this generation that her super tall vampire influence went back in time affected the designers years earlier. But yeah, I just put it down to Vampires living in the Realm of Death and having infinite Shyish energy to draw on that swells their forms. The main vampire Mortarchs were brought back from Nagash’s rib bones & Vyrkos were born from a Realm of Death God-beast so they all have an inherent connection to Shyish itself and it’s growing power. Possibly could be the explanation for the Ven Densts & Jelsen if as God-King Devoted their time in Azyr enhanced them as well to better do Sigmar’s will(before Jelsen jumped ship anyway as ex-Order of Azyr. Kinda like proto-Stormcasts)

The hope is they get a Warcry refresh. Fingers crossed for Gorkamorka’s miracles! 🤞

My joy at seeing more Everwinter freeze effects instead of just generating damage. ❄️ There’s so much more flavor they can put in for freeze effects like that. If Beastclaws were still on their own so they didn’t have to balance it with Gutbusters I’d do something similar to the NightHaunt with the effect building up around them: Ex: staying 1 turn in a BCR Everwinter aura causes you to hit last. staying 2 turns causes -1 Hit as you freeze up. Staying 3 turns causes you to lose -2 Rend as your weapons turn brittle and break.* *(that’s from the old Realmscapes Chamon rules in the chance you fought in their frigid sub-realms: Brittle Isles: This region is so cold that weapons may shatter when they strike a target’s armour, making well-protected opponents much more difficult to harm. Ignore the Rend characteristic of all weapons for the duration of the battle. )

Also not completely humorless(besides the Chamon ones being so lazy even a Waaagh can barely make them put up a run) as Kruleboyz love to gamble and make deals while Hobgrots are seedy merchants. “You swindle and deal among the realms’ unsavoury societies, until it’s time to grab your slitta-knife and line up in formation.” “Most Hobgrots are more merchants than warriors, but no one who follows Gorkamorka can avoid the fight forever. When an Orruk clobbers a group of Hobgrots into submission, roaring that they’re joining the Waaagh! and they’re going to like it, the Hobgrots quickly form ranked lines. The profits of their trading prove useful here, for every Hobgrot goes to battle with a slitta-knife, as well as Duardin-sourced ‘bangstikks’ which poison and ignite their foes. “ “Hobgrot Slittaz never forget a debt, and they call in favours to gain the upperhand amongst more brutal creatures. Many in the realms dread the smirking grin of a Hobgrot as they whisper “You Owe Me…”

I give Kruleboyz points because they feel like the 40k danger of Orks being sneaky and highly intelligent instead of just “charge and bash” warriors. They excel at magic, manipulation(both on how they use eachother under Kragnos and other races like making deals with Nurgle worshippers so they can experiment on the diseases to make better toxins), guerilla warfare and the ones in Chamon are straight-up Ork Meks building automated fortresses and reverse engineering Cogforts. And they do prove a deadly threat to all as they transform entire countrysides into toxic swamps by said magic or poisoning leylines that only they can “safely” live in. They work well as the evil & crafty Morruks to the Ironjawz’ more Order-aligned and head-on Gorruks. While Bonesplitterz are in the mad middle worshipping both parts(and indeed their new tome does show Kruleboyz becoming Bonesplitterz is a thing so any Orruk can be pulled into their insane vortex of Waaagh zealotry)

(Story ends with him and his army dying but standing their ground against the golden demigods as Ildrid Stormsworn walks up to his body) ”A brave mortal warrior. Truly he- (puts on blue sunglasses) -Held the line.” 😎 ⚡️ Sadly we’ll have to wait until the Audio version drops for the important background music to that.

Everything with a skull and long fingernails I put down to Flesh-Eater Court Warband. The royal banquet must be set! 🍖

Well this may not be our year for models but the Mortal Realms be eating well this year on literature. 📖 🥂 Very nice to see it’s a set-up between Azyrites & Aqshyians. Despite how much the Azyrites have reconquered large portions of Aqshy they’re still very opposite people in their values(even color schemes of red vs blue like how Azyrites import the natural blue glowing stones from their realm to build their noble quarters with in Aqshy) and ways of life. Aqshyians are even divided on how they see Stormcasts as being born in the Realm of Fire makes you naturally want to burn bright but die out fast like a flame which the immortal Stormcasts are anathema to and unfortunately makes them a perfect target for Khorne to corrupt with that mindset of great glory before being snuffed out. 🔥 Only further stirring troubles between the natives of Heaven and the people of the flame lands.

I saw that yesterday but been too busy posting the Real Rough riders on my discords instead. That aside, the Hexbane Cavalier looks ace. the baggage actually matches up with how much stuff the Ven Densts are packing since the new Militarum aesthetic is they got lots of equipment to show they’re working deep in enemy territory on any planet at a moment’s notice. Hopefully Dawners get the same treatment with lots of bags and backpacks to show they’re traveling across the mega-continents of the Realms and having to supply, camp and fight in all kinds of hostile & eldritch locations far from the Innerlands. Wouldn’t mind the duardin’s wagon-pulling Dobkine in that vein for the Ironweld units artillery. ”Dobkine are a variety of bovine that are covered in chitinous armor. The duardin of Clan Halgrimm use then as beasts of burden, pulling large carts and wagons laden with war gear and supplies, as well as their field artillery. They are squat, bovid creatures with chitinous armor and long antennae.“

Wingboyz would make sense if today’s rumor engine is for them. That could be a tail to allow them to actually control themselves and land “safely” compared to Doom divers whose whole thing was to be launched in a general direction while high on shrooms and break their neck impaling someone. Could justify why they and the mushroom mad Gloomspite are seperate if the Grotbags are relatively more sober and sane. Squig zeppelins sound exactly what kitbashers have been hoping for. It may take 10 or 20 years but one day… we’ll have these boys facing down Deepkin whales and Leviadons in the Aether high above.

Definitely do. Just how it sets up a sub-realm of floating continent “planets” via exploding turtle god-beast sucking up all the oceans into a void is worth it for how AoS does such a great job at world building these bizarre realmscapes. On rumor notes I wonder if this unsolved rumor engine could help Grotbags case any.

On the otherhand if Grotbags happened first then it’d be easier to add coalitions & ally to Gloomspite afterwards. So that’s a possibility why they’d get held of a little longer for more advertising the big new faction and tome(IF they happen of course) Yeah, Order- Kharadron Death- NightHaunt Chaos- Tzeentch Destruction’s the only Alliance missing a mainly all flying force.

I’ll always fight for seperate Tome releases. More of the faction gets fleshed out and individual culture selves into, can’t rely on older units to fill it out so they get more units and versatility to stand on their own than soup balance allows and better still they can help buff up the Gloomspite through coalitions. Destruction and Death need the new standalone factions filling out their alliances too.(and yes all for Silent People, the bone armored Nagashites riding skeleton dragons supported by death-fire crossbows weapon teams with skeleton held paviaes, possible void entities enslaved by Nagash, Aetar eagle people & Realm animal people in general for Destruction to match Kragnos and a list that goes on and on for all of AoS’ potential)

It was added right when the Lumineth teasers hit the scene in early 2020. But yeah, I hit the thumbs up on every article and even go to private mode to do it again just in case. 😅 Also it’s on all the old articles too. Probably some interns confused why all the Forbidden Power & Malign Portents articles now having thumbs up pressed on them too since I auto-push on every past AoS article I revisit for info. Anyway I’m hoping Grotbag Scuttlers too if the rumor engine’s not Seraphon since those look like airship parts. “Grotbag Scuttlers are Grots who vanished up to mountainside and then to the sky during the divergence of the Grot tribes. The Grotbag Scuttlers have armadas of airships and fought alongside the Gloomspite Gitz during the invasion of Barak-Khazzar.“ The recent Arkanaut’s Oath novel mentioned them too so they’re keeping the rivalry with battling over the skies. Hopefully a box set for both sides is in the works for a new aether wars. 🤞 ✈️ Though that Necromunda wing is a good shout. Could be that.

100% I still remember people on this very forum saying though they had other alliances they would fight for Order to help build and expand the setting. Cheers to all you that made the glory of the Grey Water Fastness possible! 🍻 In recent news today Cubicle7 has a Halloween event supplement for an Ulfenkarn appetizer. 🎃 “Vossheim’s Holdouts works perfectly as a stand-alone adventure, a break from your regular Soulbound game, or as a prequel to future adventures in Ulfenkarn: City at the Edge of Death. The 30 page PDF includes: A brief introduction to the city of Ulfenkarn. Tips and tricks for running the ‘Grim and Perilous’ campaign framework. A detailed Manor house location brimming with character and dark secrets. The Vossheim’s Holdouts action and horror filled Adventure. 5 pre-generated ‘Grim and Perilous’ characters fit for a night of horror in Ulfenkarn.” Apparently also featured a Wanderer Aelf who joined the local garrison in hopes of funding an education at medical school. Really love how Soulbound characterizes the aelves like this as just people making a living in the cities. Lastly, Warhammer has developer insight on designing the Blackened Earth campaign: https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-soulbound/blackened-earth-released and there’s still one archetype left to reveal for Era of the Beast supplement. On discord they hinted it’s a witch Hunter associated job. Since Ulfenkarn is the Vampire Hunter then Ghur will likely see a Spell Hunter like the Ven Densts with runic weapons to take down Endless Spells, Daemons and Elementals.

Nah, that grenade lance can work for a number of kitbashes. Ghurian/Ghyranian scout- explosive fruit grenade they spear through first. Ironweld cavalry with experimental shaped-charge explosives. Aqshy cavalry with incendiary bomb while they and their firey horse wear runic flame-resistant materials. Shyishian/Azyrite Penitant cavalry hoping the explosive finale sees their souls reforged and join the ranks of the Anvils of Heldenhammer. 👍

One nice thing is if you go Ghurian Freeguild rider you don’t even have to remove the lance grenade. In the Kragnos novel the Ghur reclaimed troops used explosive fruit grenades. Just paint it up like a fruit(pineapple easy) and you can go Donkey King 64 on the enemy. It’s both less crazy(not a full shrapnel explosive) And more crazy(naturally growing explosive) at the same time.

At this rate they should just port all the 40k stuff over to freeguild with some fantasy human & Aelf sprues added for the riders. ad-mech mecha riders to Ironwelders. Necromunda bug riders to Ghyranite cavalry Attilan Roughriders to Ghurian scouts

Some new White Dwarf lore as the Rhondal campaign travels south into Lendu and Orruks seem keen to besiege the Everquake City: > “BRINNOCK > On the surface, Brinnock is a Sigmarite strongpoint much like any other, yet its foundations run deep. In chambers submerged far below the surface, Sigmarite explorers discovered an ancient hexagonal chamber with some bizarre apparatus at its heart. Even the learned mages of the Collegiate Arcane could translate few of the runes lining the walls, gleaning only that its makers founded the place during a long-forgotten war with the worshippers of Nodh Kur in Gallet. Further investigation revealed the purpose of the chamber's mechanisms. Through arcane artifice, it could craft rock, metal and bone together into armour far more efficiently than any traditional forge and enchant it so that it was light enough for a human to wear. The Ghurish magic inherent to this process renders it volatile, especially in the Era of the Beast. Even so, a cabal of warded and sanctioned acolytes of the Collegiate Arcane labour beneath Brinnock's streets, working to produce specialist armour for the crusades.” Possibly just lore fluff but that does sound like some crazy beast-powered armor you’d see out of the Monster Hunter series with fused metal, rock & bone too heavy under normal circumstances. Or the armors hewn from rock stuff out of Soulsborne. Edit: (though lighter bulky armor could explain the battle axe concept since it had a skull in it as fused bone and the gauntlets were pretty large. I thought City Ogor but magic beast armor would work.) And more a fun post, someone did the female Hexbane witch hunter to her natural 18th century conclusion: