Cèsar de Quart

This is nice. Painting them as if their grins are masks seems cool.

+++ It is legal in the United States and United Kingdom to record live TV for personal use. In U.S. law, recording TV programs for later viewing is protected under "Fair Use." It is legal to physically give out copies of TV recordings to other people, but it is illegal to distribute those copies through peer-to-peer file sharing on the Internet. +++ Doesn't this apply to the recasting of miniatures for personal use?

Maybe. Too early to tell, though, GW is taking a lot of steps towards something great, but the Mortal Realms have not been fully realised yet. One of the reasons I started visiting this site is because the places I used to lurk at became filled with bile towards AoS, and I wanted to see what the "other side" thought and said. Is this "the wrong site"? To each their own, yes. Maybe I have the low-key, plausible (not realistic) grimy fantasy of the Old World too ingrained in my brain.

What can I say, I'm all for them trying new things but sometimes classics are classics. GW tries things and sometimes it lands (more often than not). They absolutely got it right with the Nighthaunt, spectacular miniatures. Daughters of Khaine, very nice evolution of the Dark Elf aesthetic. The Fyreslayers could have gone without the extra Y in their name, but overall, solid designs (even if sometimes their weapons were too much to look at in terms of phisicality). The Sylvaneth looked great. Most of the new Tzeentch acolytes and Nurgle followers are amazing concepts full of character. Minis like these make me want to start a Nurgle army, just because they ooze (sorry) personality. They even did great miniatures on a... controversial concept with the fish elves... but sometimes they get a concept out that's flawed. Let's see: - Most of the new Khorne units look absolutely and irredeemably stupid, especially the Slaughterpriest and the Skullreapers. Many of them are so disproportioned that the sheer dread of their lore is lost on those enormous legs and funny helmets that don't cover the mouth (ironically adding in to the humanity of faces that should have none. Chaos warriors have always had bizarre looking helmets for a reason). I don't like either that they are usually wearing heavy armour from the waist down, but wear their chest and arms bare. Cognitive dissonance, I guess. - Some of the Ironjawz ideas had problems, mostly the armour looked like random patches of armour strapped in place willy-nilly, and usually they were modeled metal over flesh, without chainmail and cloth between at all. The Warchanter especially. Makes little sense, but this, paired with the "hit me and my armour falls down like the Iron Man 3 suit" don't make for great visual implications. I think the designers had a similar thought, because when it came time to release the Shadespire orc band, they went for a traditional Black Ork armour design instead of the new Ironjawz theme. Many of the new skirmish bands doubled down on the successful concepts and threw away what didn't work. - Hearthguard Berzerkers and most Slayer units with chain-link weapons on top of other weapons. They don't look cool, rather they look mightly impractical. - Steampunk dwarves floating on metal balls. Yeah. So, do I want new things? Yes. But sometimes people change things that worked just for the sake of change, and without a better replacement; it does feel like this is meant to replace the old skeleton-and-zombie foot soldier. And these are true-and-tried concept that GW has sculpted marvelously. As I said, plase, do release new things. After all, many of the fish elves came in handy when I wanted to create a post-EndTimes Old World Elvish floating city. I couldn't have done it without them, and I paid them money, so they're doing something right for sure. It's just that, in this particular instance, I'm no blown by the concept.

I wouldn't have minded it on "Death Jester" type of stalker troops, but on common soldiers it feels like it doesn't fit the theme. Why would Nagash make troops that smile, him being stern and serious to the point of parody, and his model of the world, one with no emotion? I'd rather like that each Mortarch could bring some of himself to the table in the form of special troops that fit his own character. A kind of "Halloween Cavalcade" of undead horrors and folktale rejects would fit the grinning bone construct better than an unemotional horde of tax collectors, honestly.

Yep, but they discontinued the plastic kit, so with the new battletome coming soon, we can expect a new plastic imperial general. The old one had a very cool horse but the porportions were so off that it could be laugable. The guy on foot had bigger boots than his head and a wasp waist that was very off-putting.

I would have wanted this to have a more Egyptian aesthetic, and I hate their noses and stupid grin, but the Mortarch is a very good model, so there's that. And the paint job can do a lot to change the feel of these guys. For instance, the first thing I'd do is change the obsidian to verdigris. I know the obsidian purplish is a complimentary of bone, but I'm having a hard time imagining what kind of material is that. Bone andthe washed green-blue of the verdigris can look great, and we already know bone and bronze go well together, it contrasts in intensity with the paleness of the bone, and along with an accent color like burgundy, turquoise or regal blue, it can look neat. Like so: New Ossiarch.bmp If you swap the heads with Tomb Guard, it can look neat.

The Mortarch is a very nice model. I've always liked it when special characters have some other pose than just "screaming to the enemy" or "pointing at the enemy with the sword". He exudes command, he does look like a strategist reviewing troop logistics reports and battle plans. In my opinion, some armies with buff commanders, more than smash commanders, need to take a hint from this. I'm looking at the hopefully new Freeguild general.

My thoughts exactly. They had their own Asian feel, but the rest of the army doesn't follow through. I have to say, I'm not wild about them, but then again, I wasn't with the fish elves either. The army book will be an interesting read, though.

Let me clarify: moving away from "just skeletons, big or small" was a change, and maybe a good one. They toyed with it with the Necrosphinxes and other constructs for the Tomb Kings, but I've seen the "bone-construct" trope before, and I just don't find the morghasts all that impressive. The concept may have been a winner (the Mortarch's mounts, for instance, look great, gracile but strong, with their thin, sharp bone and filled with spectral skulls, very good idea) but in this case, the execution was uninspired. Regardless, I'm noticing that the guys from the Bone Tithe trailer seem to be not only vaguely Asian, but also... alive? They do look like they have skin and muscle, and the mortarch clearly has a face under the mask. I don't think they'll be living people (it'd be too nuanced for main GW line; you can see living Shyishian in a novel or as Chaos worshippers in Warcry, but having Shyishian humans worshopping Nagash but not being necessarily sadists or bad guys is too complex a concept for the frontline, I think. I'd like to be wrong), but maybe we'll essentially get an army of Cathay terracotta soldiers. Who knows?

I had no idea, I imagined they were monopose, since that's the way GW seems to be going towards these days. Thanks for the information!

I guess you're right, at the end of the day, aside from objective problems in proportion and sculpt balance, the main problem is totally subjective: the choice of having units that are half dinosaur half ogre made of bone. I'd rather have something like this. It has the weird (multiple arms, mysterous shape covered by robes, a halo) and the recognisable (the materials are still understandable, the cloth, the bone, etc). The hat looks cool as well, and the mini is balanced in a simple way. The halo may be a tad too much, but I like the idea. And this Tithe of Bones looks like it resembles this general idea. It maywell be what I was looking for.

I really like the illustration of the bone mortarch and his guys, I dig the callbacks to Tomb Kings silouhettes and trinkets. I'd be very disappointed if, at the end of the day, we get Morghast-like ingracile mountains of bone, which I disliked so much that almost topped the Stormcasts as the thing I despise the most, aesthetically speaking, from AoS. The most ridiculous thing about the morghasts is the way they're supposed to hover over the ground on fumes and wisps of smoke. Just look at them buffoons: I don't like their hulkiness or their blades, their dinosaur legs, their faces, but all of that doesn't kill the miniature. These are just uninspired, WoW-like designs. What kills them are the poses, the proportion, the lack of balance and the fact that they were made to ridiculously hover with such disproportionally small wings. The one in the front has his legs at an awkwardly unbalanced position, both looking forwards, counteracting the general impression of speed and flight it wants to present, and you may say "well, sir, it's because he's landing!", then the wings are not positioned in a way that gives off that impression, neither are the arms. Also, they're giant husks of bone and... obsidian? If you want to give the impression that they can fly, either make it look supernatural, like with Nagash (so no wings), or give them wings that look like they can work supporting their weight. GW has some truly masterful sculptors who well those passions read, but whoever did this was having a hard day. "But hey, the wings are just cosmetic, they don't really fly on them. Look at all the holes, nothing can fly like this!". True, but our brain recognises shape and function, looks for analogues and then assigns similar properties, so we see "bug with wings", and our brain says "ok, where have I seen this before?". And we get to the conclusion: "these wings are too small for such a big guy". Rationally, it doesn't make sense, but art doesn't appeal to our rational brains. That's why the Parthenon's columns are slighly fat, to counter the optical illusion of having too many vertical lines parallel to each other. That's why Michelangeo's david's hands and head are bigger than they should be, so that your brain, used to seeing people at your eyeline, doesn't counter for the distance (it's a 3m tall statue!) and you end up imagining weird proportions. Even the End Times artists saw the mini and said "nope, this ain't gonna work": This works better. Bigger wings, slimmer, recognisable armour material... Maybe not everyone sees this the same way, but my art studies make me prone to dislike sculpts such as these. At the end of the day, I'm the one who's all the worse for it. A simple solution is this: Not perfect, but it's lost a big part of the awkwardness. Now the "oh god I'm slipping" pose turns into dynamic movement, whcih works oddly well (I woner if the mini wasn't designed initially this way and later some suits decided to have it flying). If I had to buy the kit, I'd do this AND remove the wings. But if I ever need morghasts, I'll make some of my own instead. A jack'o'lantern guy, a scarecrow, a tomb king styled bone giant, a sphynx...

I'd like to think that, but someone said somewhere that it was the Purple Sun of Shyish eclipsing whatever sun there is. And that sure looks like the Purple Sun.

Really? So Phil Kelly's explanation has been retconned?

You're looking at it the wrong way. The first iteration of a Stormcast retains the memories and identity of who they were before. Then, when they start dying (if they do, remember that they don't need to die all the time) they start losing a part (A PART) of their identity. I don't know how many reforgings it takes to become a Sigmar zombie, maybe 7, maybe 10, maybe 9, the sacred Norse number, but it's probably a long long time, and it takes a lot of recklessness from Sigmar's part. "Our warriors never truly die" is an alien concept to us, difficult to relate to. The dispassionate way they approach something we think of as epic. The detachment from life's delights (after all, if you never die, why wouldn't you become a hedonist like the Eldar or the Dark and High Elves, each in their own way?)... Chaos warriors are given gifts and become superhuman, and that defines our antagonists (and even they have to pay a price). So, thematically, there should be an opposite to them representing our side. Again, kill the reforging and I'm fine, we've got fantasy Marines (which is ok). But with the reforging on, there has to be a way to make "death" a big deal, and memory loss is a good way to deal with it. You may not like that your warriors lose part of their memories and sense of self when they die, but hey man, my guys die when they die.

I agree, and that's why I prefer to stick with my unremarkable little people, the normal humans who are the opposite of a Chaos warrior. Thematically, it feels adequate, and it is also relatable. The Stormcasts are too much like Chaos Warriors of Order, like revenant Marines with increasing levels of amnesia or detachment. I liked the whole thing in which the ones who had died the most times were basically automatons. I like that they have to recreate identities for themselves. There is a finality in that, an interesting cost to dying, worse than death sometimes. But if SIgmar finds a way around this... well, the world of AoS will be less interesting.

Honestly, if the Realms were globes, many problems would be solved just like that. The concept of "the furthest from the center, the wilder the magic" is cool, but it creates more problems than opportunities for good narrative. If you want the "saturated magic places are weird", then just have geomantic networks where intersections of the Winds have wild consequences. My thoughts exactly. That would be good to know. Azyr is supposed to be "the Heavens" for all the Realms, rather than a sepparate sphere, so we've got that covered. It's not overthinking, it's just that the setting is underthought and not very consistent for now. Sigendil might be their North Star, and that's fine, but it still makes little sense physically speaking. These videos:

So, north, south, east, west? It makes little sense, considering people in our world used directions based on the Earth being round and the sun moving every day from East to West, and in the Realms, the sun is sometimes described as erratic (like in Ghur) or being Hyish (we don't know how it moves), and the Realms themselves are mostly described as flat. Rimwards, Centerwise and then whatever direction seems to be following the sun sounds like the right call. Some places like Shyish are described as having more than one sun, while others like Ulgu are always in a penumbral shade of dusk (or maybe darkness; I assume Ulgu feels like a very hazy Iceland during midnight sun). Thank you all for your responses! I see that GW still has a lot of ground to cover when it comes to fleshing out their setting.

Hi everyone. As I've been writing fluff for the Age of Sigmar, I've found myself in a bit of a problem: the way maps are presented (usually azimuthal projections with some sort of pole at the center), there seems to be no true north or south or east or west. Not that they even make sense, considering the way the sun (usually the shine of Hyish, if I'm not mistaken, unless that bit by Phil Kelly has been retconned in some novel) doesn't even necessarily travel the sky, and that some Realms are flat earths, while some are not... it's a bit of a mess. Now, I've got no problem making up my own deliciously complex cardinal system, but what I want to know is: has this been explored in any way in the novels, or maybe some WD story I have missed? How do people in the Mortal Realms tell direction, measure latitude and logitude and generally say things like "The next big town is one week away, northwest of here"? Some examples of what I was talking about: Shyish: Aqshy: Chamon (admittedly, this looks like a zenithal projection, but it may be just that the islands form this spiral form and the Realm itself is... not a flat earth. Honestly, Chamon feels like a perfect concept for a Realm made up of multiple spheres orbiting each other like atomic marbles depending on the stability of the elements they're mostly made from... ) I don't know of any other complete maps out there. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sounds rights. I do wonder, though, if the name appeared at the same time, who made it up first, or where did they get it from?

It's clearly because of copyright, otherwise they wouldn't have changed his name. If Nagash was called Anubis they'd probably have changed his name, just like they changed the very iconic Malekith into Malerion to avoid problems with Marvel (probably). As far as I know, Malekith is not an adaptation of any myth an purely a Marvel invention. Of course there's Horus in 40k, but given that in 40k everyone has names reminiscent (if not outright taken) from our world... they probably let that slide. Doesn't it seem like everyone escaped the death of the Old World? We've got already a big number of people who managed to escape being consumed, eaten or obliterated by either a Chaos god, Archaon, or the End of the World itself. Gods who should be dead are "alive", mortals who should have died have been rescued (or at least their soul has)... it's starting to feel like GW doesn't have a lot of ideas for new charismatic characters.

Would be cool it Nagash had a multiple personality problem, too many death gods inside of him, too many times he's come back from the brink of oblivion. It would also be nice if this was revealed in a smooth, narrative way. As for the pyramid and candles, I think it's more likely something Hyish related. The Realm of Light also likes pyramids.

That'd be neat. To have a huuman warband for Warcry for every realm, or something of the sort. I doubt we'll ever see it, but I'd buy them just so I can have them. You'd be able to explore a different take on the wandering tribes of Ghur, on the druids of Ghyran, on the alchemists and golems of Chamon, the Egyptian themed secret societies of Hyish, a wandering fire circus in Aqshy, House Delaque in Ulgu... If they could have each Necromunda clan look distinct, I'm sure they could make it so with the non-Chaos human warbands. Enough Stormcasts, please. As for more high-fantasy aesthetics (meaning, generally speaking, more of an Arthurian-Lord of the Rings-DnD version of High Middle Ages, with the chainmail, the early plate, the longsword, the tabard... There's tons of games and settings like this. Tons. Let's keep what made the Empire original and give the flagship Free Cities their Renaissance flair. Some people may not like it, but well, these people do not have 3500 points in magnificent, feathered and foppish Imperial miniatures.

Wouldn't it be nice if GW people left bread crumbs deep and locked behind reinterpretation, like some GRR Martin novel? That'd be cool. Too bad it's probably going to be someone new, or Helsnicht. While the writers at Black Library sometimes come up with genuinely original or interesting concepts, when it comes to writing "official front page" lore and codex canon, they're very uninspired and predictable. Maybe the suits in the room do focus testing and give specific instructions, I don't know.