Cèsar de Quart
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Posts posted by Cèsar de Quart
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12 minutes ago, CDM said:
You've come to the wrong site and the wrong company. It's ok you were looking for mantic games and the 9th age... you're welcome
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"?
11 minutes ago, Beliman said:Hey!! Most of your points are just positive ones that "really worked" for me. To each their own.
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.
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1 hour ago, Hollow said:
I really like them. The fact they are new and bringing something different to the table is cool. There has literally been 30+ years of generic fantasy skeletons released and dozens of versions from different providors. Some people seem to be stuck in a never ending cycle of re;ease, tweak, update, repeat.
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.
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32 minutes ago, Lord marcus said:
I dislike the rictus grin
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.
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27 minutes ago, zilberfrid said:
It's what irks me most about the remaining Freeguild General.
He is not leading, he is not strategizing, not inspiring his troops, not communicating with other armies, not inspecting his troops...
Not doing anything I'd want a general to do, he's attacking, with a weapon meant to be used in close combat, where he does not have a view of the battlefield, and not a very defensive one either.
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.
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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:
If you swap the heads with Tomb Guard, it can look neat.
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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.
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Just now, KriticalKhan said:
They look..... interesting
Pretty disappointed that those little guys are (presumably) stuck on the Mortarch's base, they look like they'd make pretty neat individual heroes.
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.
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21 minutes ago, Beliman said:
First of all, I completely agree with you (wings, and the landing form the morghasts have in the pictures). I studied art too and still working on the same discipline.
But I find it funy that they have "uninspired and wow-like design" because for me, they are the best designs that GA: Death have.
I must say that I don't have to much problems with the oversized proportions of Sam(wise) Diddier or the Stormboys concepts btw.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?
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Just now, Uvatha said:
While I do not share the conclusion I thank you for the detailed and justified explanation. It shows that you have already invested a decent time into looking at these models
If you wish to spend more, and to give a try at building one of them, then I would just say that the joints for gluing these legs you don't like are actually flexible for allowing you to adjust their pose. You do not have to glue them in a pose where they look like landing: you can just glue the legs more like sliding to the rear. And same for the heads: you can orient them the way you want (e.g. if you want to make them look like a Velociraptor trying to capt sounds 
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For the wings I agree with you: the conversion from Rob Hawkins is great, especially with the mausoleum pieces he produces ! 👍
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!
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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.
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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...
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On 8/18/2019 at 10:40 PM, Greyshadow said:
This came out this morning in The Tithe Part 2. You can see the light of Hysh about to be eclipsed by Ulgu.
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.
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14 hours ago, xking said:
The realms are dimensions on to themselves with their own Suns and moons. (confirmed by the gloomspite battletome, was that there are multiple celestial bodies,stars, suns,moons etc in the realms).
Realm of light and the realm of Shadows, do not literally represent a sun and moon. But metaphysically effect the Suns and Stars of the realms.
Really? So Phil Kelly's explanation has been retconned?
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10 hours ago, xking said:
I hope SIgmar finds a way to fix it, I don't find the memory loss to be interesting at all. I hate it,
I prefer the "they have human minds, but are becoming more supernatural" and how they deal with that aspect.
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.
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5 minutes ago, amysrevenge said:
You and I know. And some Sacrosanct dudes know. Does Joe Liberator, fifth from the back in his platoon, know why his brain don't work so good no more? Did he know going in that this would happen?
I'm not saying Sigmar == Khorne, I'm just saying tht the difference between a Chaos Warrior and a Liberator is not as big as was presented.
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.
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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.
On 8/12/2019 at 11:57 PM, 18121812 said:This is some of the stuff that's really keeping me from truly enjoying AoS and the Realms. It just doesn't feel like an actual, functional universe inhabited by people to me.
My thoughts exactly.
5 hours ago, michu said:IIRC there are constellations that are visible in every realm so that would be a starting point for establishing cardinal directions.
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.
4 hours ago, xking said:You all are over thinking this.
Sigendil, the High Star of Azyr and the brightest of all stars, It never moves from it's place in the sky like other stars do and can be seen from every realm.
examples of it's importance are (from the short story Pantheon )
1) "Sailors use it to chart safe courses across stormy seas", 2)"Mothers tell their children it is the holy light of Sigmar that protects them in their sleep"
So I guess they use Sigendil to define the cardinal directions. North , East , South , West
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.
3 hours ago, CommissarRotke said:I was pretty excited to read this thread by the title alone but this bit is ungodly intriguing...where is the source for these so I can read them?
These videos:
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7 hours ago, Wraith01 said:
I assume people just use the same systems we did in medieval times or renaissance, maybe even cave men times depending on the realm.
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.
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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!
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On 8/4/2019 at 9:33 AM, Turin Turambar said:
there was already a law suite that Marvel filded with GW, and lost. it turned out that both appeared at the same time in the respective universes (or so I was told), apparently Malekith was changed for name recognition.
if you google Malekith you'll largely get Marvel stuff, if you google the horus heresy or horus lupercal you get 40k stuff
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?
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On 7/29/2019 at 6:39 PM, Ashendant said:
My speculation about the name was that he fused with Anath, the other elven hunting god.
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.
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23 hours ago, Lior'Lec said:
Oh, well guess I’ll be reporting with the commissar lol.
Death = Nagash is just boring lore wise. Even the forces of “order” are fractured and splintered, it part of what makes them interesting. I was looking at building a small death force until I started reading up on some of the lore, other than FEC I find them all boring.
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.
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On 7/23/2019 at 6:48 PM, gedrekt said:
With them coming out with warbands from every realm for WarCry do you think they might do something similar for non-Chaos humans in the future? Maybe a re-imagined Mordheim with treasure hunters from every realm that could be used as Freeguild in regular AoS?
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.
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1 hour ago, AHexInScarletRed said:
Do you per chance remember where you've seen the picture?
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.
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On 7/20/2019 at 1:17 PM, Juicy said:
In the end times ulric spark got destroyed by teclis. Ulric got a part of him free and fuses into a human soldier (forgot his name but can look this up) to enchant his power with a spark of ulrics godlike strengt. The other part of ulric his spark enchanted the amberwizard from the end times while he was losing a duel against some chaos sorcerer. Ulric talks to this wizard and even attacks archaon. Ulrics mistrust for elves and bad temper are nicely written.
Yes, but it's been established many times over that warp entities are begotten by belief. If enough people believe in a divine concept, it becomes real. It may have many shapes depending on who looks, kinda like the shape of the Vorlon in Babylon 5. The Chaos gods function in this way.
The problem here is that we have the Incarnates, who don't seem to be dependant on this, and then a myriad of other beings. Are they also like Sigmar and Alarielle, people from a bygone era? Or are they manifestations of people's belief in them?
We know Sigmar and Nagash and the rest, while they may not be the same beings they had been before, retain the memories and consciousness of their old selfs (selves?). But what about Morghur, whose soul may have survived and become a being of power, a minor god? If so, then what about Kurnoth, who should be dead? Is he a manifestation in the Warp?
This dychotomy makes it difficult to speculate about this.
My take is that the Incarnates are different because of their condition as embodiements of a specific wind of magic. So much warp energy was wrapped in their insides that they simply became massive warp hurricanes of their own. When the world ended, they remained as Warp entities, maybe manifest in the void, maybe not.
So, someone like Sigmar has many different faces depending on who worships him (Nagash is stated to be exactly so, which makes it difficult to treat him as a character, but very interesting to have as a worldbuilding device). Sigmar can be seen and known as the old Sigmar we know of, the Heldenhammer, the God-King, the god of statecraft and war, of thunder and big hammers, essentially the god of ordered, hyerarchical civilization, or as, I don't know, Asir the Victorious to the Aesjing, Asimir Hammerhand to the Semnones, Bellon the Great in the Evercity of Mirmas, all war gods; Father Or among the Red Head Tribes of Var-Ghur, Mighty Thyl in the old Lantic Empire and Romal the Everking to the peoples of Rhodania, gods of rulership and sources political legitimacy, maybe seen as glorious ancestors, kinda like the Anglosaxon heptarchic dynasties saw Wotan as their ultimate ancestor; as The Thunder of Glory and the Praised Lightning in the lands of Ös, as Tunans the Roaring in the Tarsennic Realms, as Sagamar the Sky Father among the Mereyt, gods of the storm, lightning and violence, or father gods in the vein of Zeus and Odin, or maybe he is seen as Tien-Li within the Golden Walls of Da-Yin-Jing in the Ghurlands, and Yan-Mir the Golden Dragon among the subjects of the Jade Tiger Throne, protector gods of civilization as opposed to the wilderness and savage outside, that scary world of pure Nature (and there is a lot of pure deadly nature in Ghur and Ghyran)
I made all this up, but you get my point: The Age of Sigmar setting, so far, lacks consistent rules for magic and divine entities, so Gods, for now, will be whatever the writers will want them to be. Sometimes they need worship, sometimes not, sometimes they have multiple facets, sometimes they are definite characters with quirks and agendas, and sometimes the writers will bring back a crowd favourite from the Old World and make him into a minor god or major player (Morathi, for instance. Settra will not be far behind).
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The Tithe - Speculation.
in Age of Sigmar Discussions
Posted · Edited by Cèsar de Quart
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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.
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Doesn't this apply to the recasting of miniatures for personal use?