Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

[Voikirium]

As far as Druchii go:

Aside from the Headcanons I already posted, I am starting to lean a bit more on the sadly-neglected Spartan militarism angle of their character in that there is considerable emphasis on not playing fuck-fuck games during actual battles no matter how high or low your rank is. Like, you could get away with a certain amount of treachery during a raid on some random podunk village but an actual all out battle, we've-landed-on-Ulthuan-and-are-facing-an-Asur-host kind of brawl, the Dwarfs have landed, Valten has shown up? At that point no screwing around, no games, just fight or die, as the True King commands.

 

[Simon_Jester]

As far as Druchii go:

Aside from the Headcanons I already posted, I am starting to lean a bit more on the sadly-neglected Spartan militarism angle of their character in that there is considerable emphasis on not playing fuck-fuck games during actual battles no matter how high or low your rank is. Like, you could get away with a certain amount of treachery during a raid on some random podunk village but an actual all out battle, we've-landed-on-Ulthuan-and-are-facing-an-Asur-host kind of brawl, the Dwarfs have landed, Valten has showed up? At that point no screwing around, no games, just fight or die, as the True King commands.

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Yeah. When supremacism is one of the cornerstones of your culture, you may backstab and manipulate your peers when convenient, but to backstab your peers in the presence of Untermenschen is to undermine your people's supremacy, and is thus classically a no-no.

Which doesn't mean it isn't done anyway, but does mean that it tends to be the privilege of those whose position in society is otherwise secure. That is to say, the king can pull a David-and-Uriah gambit and get away with it as long as his reputation is solid, but when a low-ranking warrior pushes another low-ranking warrior off the city wall into a milling mass of orks for similar reasons, Warrior #1's head is likely to roll.

 

[Codex]

Unless you're a Witch Aelf. Witch Aelves literally have a rule on the tabletop that if you're a hero who tries to join them and you're not of a specific type (AKA used to it, like an Assassin or Hag Queen), the Witch Aelves have a chance to turn on the Hero on their unit and attack them. The exact chance is if you roll a 3 or less on a D6, with 4+ having nothing happen. The result is an automatic D6 Strength 3 hits on the Hero. In WHF, if you go near a group of Witch Elves in the throe of battle after they've imbibed Witchbrew meant to make them go on a berserk frenzy, then it's on you if you get stabbed.

They don't have that rule in AoS. Morathi has a far more controlling and iron grip over the Daughters of Khaine than Malekith had over the Druchii. IMO DoK have better worldbuilding than Dark Elves, but that's a low bar and I may be biased. Only issue I have is that they went with the Drow angle so male Elves in Dark Elf society are Leathanem, or slaves.

EDIT: Correction, not Dark Elf society, Morathi controlled Daughters of Khaine society. Malektih (Malerion) has his own society of monstrous Aelves, but he's been stalling for the last seven years. No one knows when his army (rumored to be named the Umbraneth) might come out.

 

[dptullos]

Given the exceptionally long lives of elves, their system would reward people who were very careful about taking risks.

Unlike human societies, where your Count will be dead in seventy or eighty years no matter what he does, the most successful leaders of the druchii can live for centuries. This leads to a much greater degree of continuity among the nobility, and Malekith is the Eternal God-King, so you don't have wars of succession at the national scale. The people who take grand risks will eventually get unlucky, while the people who avoid dangerous gambles are more likely to survive and keep their positions.

Everyone has a place in the patronage system, and an attack on a client is an indirect attack on their patron. This most definitely does not produce a nice society, but natural selection removes druchii who are careless in their brutality, while those who are cautious and deliberate continue to survive.

 

[Jyn Ryvia]

Unless you're a Witch Aelf. Witch Aelves literally have a rule on the tabletop that if you're a hero who tries to join them and you're not of a specific type (AKA used to it, like an Assassin or Hag Queen), the Witch Aelves have a chance to turn on the Hero on their unit and attack them. The exact chance is if you roll a 3 or less on a D6, with 4+ having nothing happen. The result is an automatic D6 Strength 3 hits on the Hero. In WHF, if you go near a group of Witch Elves in the throe of battle after they've imbibed Witchbrew meant to make them go on a berserk frenzy, then it's on you if you get stabbed.

They don't have that rule in AoS. Morathi has a far more controlling and iron grip over the Daughters of Khaine than Malekith had over the Druchii. IMO DoK have better worldbuilding than Dark Elves, but that's a low bar and I may be biased. Only issue I have is that they went with the Drow angle so male Elves in Dark Elf society are Leathanem, or slaves.

EDIT: Correction, not Dark Elf society, Morathi controlled Daughters of Khaine society. Malektih (Malerion) has his own society of monstrous Aelves, but he's been stalling for the last seven years. No one knows when his army (rumored to be named the Umbraneth) might come out.

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Out of all the WF to AOS races, the Dark Aelves got the most depth added.

Largely because the lore behind the cities of Sigmar required them to learn to not be raging assholes if they didn't want to get kicked out of the Islands of order and farmable land by everyone else.

Their still mostly assholes, but they either mostly have ways to acceptable vent their impulses ( corsairs are now mostly monster hunters unless they live in one of the pirate cities, but then everyone is a pirate in those, and the assassins work for Sigmar and seem… mostly loyal?), keep it in house and on the down low (sorceress), and even the DOK, who are strong enough as a faction to get away with a lot of things, still keep it in their pants more then the hag witch cults ever did.

 

[Codex]

Out of all the WF to AOS races, the Dark Aelves got the most depth added.

Largely because the lore behind the cities of Sigmar required them to learn to not be raging assholes if they didn't want to get kicked out of the Islands of order and farmable land by everyone else.

Their still mostly assholes, but they either mostly have ways to acceptable vent their impulses ( corsairs are now mostly monster hunters unless they live in one of the pirate cities, but then everyone is a pirate in those, and the assassins work for Sigmar and seem… mostly loyal?), keep it in house and on the down low (sorceress), and even the DOK, who are strong enough as a faction to get away with a lot of things, still keep it in their pants more then the hag witch cults ever did.

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The setting actually makes it somewhat plausible that DoK can be a part of Order, which I thought was positively outrageous before I started on AoS. Order being about maintaining civilisation instead of destroying it makes it an interesting faction, as opposed to the other faction's schtick.

The DoK have ways to release their urges to murder in acceptable spaces in the Free Cities. Gladiatorial arenas with monsters brought over by the Scourge Privateers mainly, and when they want to get people into their secret murder cult they execute acceptable targets like Chaos cultists and soldiers in front of a pre-selected group of people who are interested in their blood rites. Sigmar doesn't like their presence, but he accepts it because they're useful and know when to hold back.

Except that one time Morathi just decided to take over Anvilgard. She didn't even have much of a reason, she just wanted a laugh (flex her new godly powers). Her saving grace is that Grungni is very level headed and she helped out against Kragnos.

 

[Jyn Ryvia]

Except that one time Morathi just decided to take over Anvilgard. She didn't even have much of a reason, she just wanted a laugh (flex her new godly powers). Her saving grace is that Grungni is very level headed and she helped out against Kragnos.

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But even then, it says a lot of the differences between the dark elves and dark aelves that there is a sizeable portion of the Anvilgard dark elves who are rebelling.

Especially some of the Blackscale Coil who basically went 'oh, shit. The hell? This is not what we wanted, ya they are humans and dwarfs, but they are Anvilgand humans and dwarfs! What's wrong with you!'.

 

[veekie]

Yeah. When supremacism is one of the cornerstones of your culture, you may backstab and manipulate your peers when convenient, but to backstab your peers in the presence of Untermenschen is to undermine your people's supremacy, and is thus classically a no-no.

Which doesn't mean it isn't done anyway, but does mean that it tends to be the privilege of those whose position in society is otherwise secure. That is to say, the king can pull a David-and-Uriah gambit and get away with it as long as his reputation is solid, but when a low-ranking warrior pushes another low-ranking warrior off the city wall into a milling mass of orks for similar reasons, Warrior #1's head is likely to roll.

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Now doing it to random slaves or mercenaries is just fine and dandy by that reasoning...fits their rep

 

[K von Carstein]

there is considerable emphasis on not playing fuck-fuck games during actual battles no matter how high or low your rank is.

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That's exactly how the Dark Eldars are portrayed in canon 40k. They will backstab like there's no tomorrow when in Commoragh, but when on a raid in real space everyone follows orders and stops scheming. It's because slaves are critical for the survival of all Deldars, so by sabotaging a raid you're directly lessening your own chances of survival, and your superiors'.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Now doing it to random slaves or mercenaries is just fine and dandy by that reasoning...fits their rep

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Even then, I'd think, druuchi would tend to do that outside actual combat, or in a way where imposing a sacrifice play on their 'lessers' is itself part of the battle plan.

Because, again, that's the kind of society that can actually survive for five thousand years or whatever.

 

[Nurgle]

Now I kind of want to infiltrate Naggoroth just to explore how Boney would do dark elf culture.

 

[StormySky]

I mean, there's the Elfcation, but that seems to be more about Dark Elf raiders in Nagarythe than their home base.

 

[Codex]

I went out to Dark Sphere again for some shopping because I have a problem. I'm saving what I've bought for a showcase once I'm done assembling everything, but there is one thing I'm ready to show because I'd appreciate ideas.

I mentioned before the possibility of kitbashing a model into Mathilde. I think I found the perfect combination. This is what Galen and Doralia Ven Denst are supposed to look like:

Spoiler

Unfortunately I'm going to have to sacrifice them for the kitbash.

Here are the plastic sprues:

Spoiler

As one can see, Doralia is a good base to work with. She's got a good build to work with, she's a high quality female human single hero model (which is a rarity), and she wears robes, albeit Witch Hunter-y ones, that can pass as Magisterial. I could probably pass off her chest armor and pauldrons as Mathilde's Drake scales that she wove into her robe with some painting. Doralia also comes with a cool Witch Hunter hat option, and I don't think I need to elaborate on that. Her hair is also long, but it's tucked into her robe for practical reasons.

But I'm also going to be cannibalising Galen. The reason for this is that his Torch works very well as a base for Mathilde's staff, much better than Doralia's Crossbow. I can paint the flames of the torch to look like smoke/mist instead of the flames that it's supposed to look like. The downside is that the torch is small, but I have a workaround. If I take the Crossbow stock (No.15) and clip the extraneous bits, I can glue it onto the Torch's base to extend its length into a proper staff. Galen also has a pistol arm, which I will be using for Doralia's other hand. I can also add a sword scabbard to the back, because I don't think there is any way to indicate Mathilde's sword since it's in another dimension.

I'm open to any suggestions to improve on the concept. I'm not starting right now after all, and I still have to think of how to make Mathilde's belt.

 

[Nerdasaurus Rex]

The downside is that the torch is small, but I have a workaround. If I take the Crossbow stock (No.15) and clip the extraneous bits, I can glue it onto the Torch's base to extend its length into a proper staff. Galen also has a pistol arm, which I will be using for Doralia's other hand

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Speaking from personal experience, trying to extend a staff by gluing a thin spindly thing to another thin spindly thing is really hard. The one time I tried it, it ended up being really fragile and snapped shortly afterwards.

Ideally, you'd probably want to trim the torch base down to the bottom of his hand, drill a hole into it, insert a rod (a clipping from a paperclip or something), and then drill a matching hole in the crossbow frame (i'd probably clip off the triangle bit on the front as it looks wider that end) and then attach it to the rod.

However, you've mentioned that you would have difficulty accessing a hobby drill where you currently are, so I'm not sure if that's viable, and I'd still be concerned about the fragility of it all.

An alternative might be to make your own extension with a paperclip and some green stuff (do they still make and sell green stuff? I don't know). Use the green stuff as a sleeve over both the existing handle and the paperclip rod, with the paperclip adding both length and stability. I'd still be concerned about fragility, and the weight of the paperclip might distort the green stuff as it sets.

 

[Jyn Ryvia]

I went out to Dark Sphere again for some shopping because I have a problem. I'm saving what I've bought for a showcase once I'm done assembling everything, but there is one thing I'm ready to show because I'd appreciate ideas.

I mentioned before the possibility of kitbashing a model into Mathilde. I think I found the perfect combination. This is what Galen and Doralia Ven Denst are supposed to look like:

Spoiler

Unfortunately I'm going to have to sacrifice them for the kitbash.

Here are the plastic sprues:

Spoiler

As one can see, Doralia is a good base to work with. She's got a good build to work with, she's a high quality female human single hero model (which is a rarity), and she wears robes, albeit Witch Hunter-y ones, that can pass as Magisterial. I could probably pass off her chest armor and pauldrons as Mathilde's Drake scales that she wove into her robe with some painting. Doralia also comes with a cool Witch Hunter hat option, and I don't think I need to elaborate on that. Her hair is also long, but it's tucked into her robe for practical reasons.

But I'm also going to be cannibalising Galen. The reason for this is that his Torch works very well as a base for Mathilde's staff, much better than Doralia's Crossbow. I can paint the flames of the torch to look like smoke/mist instead of the flames that it's supposed to look like. The downside is that the torch is small, but I have a workaround. If I take the Crossbow stock (No.15) and clip the extraneous bits, I can glue it onto the Torch's base to extend its length into a proper staff. Galen also has a pistol arm, which I will be using for Doralia's other hand. I can also add a sword scabbard to the back, because I don't think there is any way to indicate Mathilde's sword since it's in another dimension.

I'm open to any suggestions to improve on the concept. I'm not starting right now after all, and I still have to think of how to make Mathilde's belt.

Click to shrink...

just make sure you have liquid greenstuff, there will be gaps when you kitbash.

tho you could rip off the arm of a grail damsel for a good staff hand.

if you can find solid green stuff (army painter stands sometimes have them) the runes of the belt won't be that hard to make (comparatively for green stuff makes) pencil out the design until you're used to it, roll up the green stuff and then flatten it, carve the runes shapes with a tooth pick, then cut them out.

Leave until dry and hard, then glue them onto the belt buckler, then paint with leadbulter/steel and then fill the groves with something shiny of your liking.

 

[Jyn Ryvia]

Speaking from personal experience, trying to extend a staff by gluing a thin spindly thing to another thin spindly thing is really hard. The one time I tried it, it ended up being really fragile and snapped shortly afterwards.

Ideally, you'd probably want to trim the torch base down to the bottom of his hand, drill a hole into it, insert a rod (a clipping from a paperclip or something), and then drill a matching hole in the crossbow frame (i'd probably clip off the triangle bit on the front as it looks wider that end) and then attach it to the rod.

However, you've mentioned that you would have difficulty accessing a hobby drill where you currently are, so I'm not sure if that's viable, and I'd still be concerned about the fragility of it all.

An alternative might be to make your own extension with a paperclip and some green stuff (do they still make and sell green stuff? I don't know). Use the green stuff as a sleeve over both the existing handle and the paperclip rod, with the paperclip adding both length and stability. I'd still be concerned about fragility, and the weight of the paperclip might distort the green stuff as it sets.

Click to shrink...

the trick here is coffee sticks (the hard brown ones Starbucks use.) and Liquid green stuff.

Those coffee sticks are as hard as nails, little hole in the bottom of the bit you want extended, stuff one in it, then just paint the green stuff in layers until even with the original.

Takes awhile, but solded.

 

[Aura]

Pretty interesting if utterly unintentional that there are no worldroots to Cathay

 

[16 characters]

I mean, there's the Elfcation, but that seems to be more about Dark Elf raiders in Nagarythe than their home base.

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Eh, Naggarythe was Malekiths *Former* home base for quite some time and was valued to the point that during his many invasions he'd set up Dark Elf cities in the region that lasted for years, IDK if any of those bases made it a full century though. I'm sure there would be plenty to see if we knew where to look.

The contrast with the natives who didn't go quite as bonkers(or at least not in the same way) as his supporters ilk would be fascinating too.

 

[veekie]

Even then, I'd think, druuchi would tend to do that outside actual combat, or in a way where imposing a sacrifice play on their 'lessers' is itself part of the battle plan.

Because, again, that's the kind of society that can actually survive for five thousand years or whatever.

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I think its more a demonstration of strength if you can get away with it, or at worst you're wasting your own resources(which is its own risk). Malekith gets away with it because he's just that insanely strong and wealthy, and everything is justified from that basis, but lesser beings have to eyeball if they can afford it.

 

[Nurgle]

@Boney so when are you going to roll for the dawi treasures found or if there is dawi treasures found?

 

[Boney]

@Boney so when are you going to roll for the dawi treasures found or if there is dawi treasures found?

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It'll be part of the final wrapup.

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[Codex]

I've been trying since yesterday to create a custom warscroll for Mathilde for Age of Sigmar, and there's a lot of cool mechanics I can lift for practically every aspect of her kit and character. The issue I found, however, is that Mathilde has way too much going on.

I can think of a way to implement every single aspect of her character in mechanical form, but not even Archaon or Nagash have that many rules. At least not in the current edition. Modern AoS has cleared a lot of things up, which includes rules bloat.

I'm sorry Mathilde, but you have too much stuff. I'll probably have to do some pruning.

 

[NSMS]

the trick here is coffee sticks (the hard brown ones Starbucks use.) and Liquid green stuff.

Those coffee sticks are as hard as nails, little hole in the bottom of the bit you want extended, stuff one in it, then just paint the green stuff in layers until even with the original.

Takes awhile, but solded.

Click to shrink...

Cocktail sticks are pretty good for making staffs or similar, once you clip the ends off. They're rounded, straight, decently long, and cheap to get a hold of.

 

[consequences]

I've been trying since yesterday to create a custom warscroll for Mathilde for Age of Sigmar, and there's a lot of cool mechanics I can lift for practically every aspect of her kit and character. The issue I found, however, is that Mathilde has way too much going on.

I can think of a way to implement every single aspect of her character in mechanical form, but not even Archaon or Nagash have that many rules. At least not in the current edition. Modern AoS has cleared a lot of things up, which includes rules bloat.

I'm sorry Mathilde, but you have too much stuff. I'll probably have to do some pruning.

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Rule that she invents shadow clones at some point, but they have to divide the bling between them. Split her into three or four characters.

 

[Codex]

Rule that she invents shadow clones at some point, but they have to divide the bling between them. Split her into three or four characters.

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You joke, but that's how Morathi works. She counts as two separate characters each with their own model and stats. They have to be in the battlefield at the same time, and any wounds allocated to Morathi-Khaine (Little Morathi) can be shuffled to The Shadow Queen (Big Morathi, who has 12 wounds). Their special mechanic is that Big Morathi can only ever suffer 3 wounds per turn max, any instakill abilities only inflict 3 wounds, and that she can't be healed.

Not what I'm looking for, but Age of Sigmar rules can be pretty cool.