Naturally some dynasties have risen to particular prominence of course and no doubt you have heard their names in the threats of parents as they seek to corral unruly children or the whispered prayers for deliverance intoned by folk nightly as the light grows weak and the shadows loom large.
The endless politicking and parlour games of the dynastic courts wearied me long ago though. Let others spend eternity feigning nobility in the petty pursuit of courtly intrigues and morsels of power. For I ask you, what use is immortality, if one doesn't use it to live a little...?
"There is much in these realms that mortals should fear, but I put it to you that rather than cower at the thought of any of the nebulous horrors at the edge of your sight, you would be better served by focusing on the wolves at your door. Their hunger grows strong and I see precious little that would turn their jaws from your bared throat.
What price would you pay to hold back the darkness I wonder? Would you see others sacrificed in your stead perhaps...? No, such fury burns within you that I think you would not, but the courage of mortals is so delightfully unpredictable that rumination on that question never grows old.
Hush now little one, hush now. I mean you no insult. I merely wished you to have the comfort of knowing that such defiance is as rare as it is cherished in this realm.
As strong as your convictions are though, they shall not be your salvation, for there is none to be found in company such as ours. It is not personal though you understand? We are as damned by the blood in our veins as you are doomed by the life that flows in yours.
You look upon me in disgust, but in another lifetime, in another place we might have been friends. Comrades. Lovers... Forgive me. The hunt can make me sentimental and loquacious and neither is becoming when the Crimson Feast is called..."
Lady Derelei Muirmæl
The second season of Warcry is upon us and inspired in no small part by John French's fantastic tales of The Hollow King Cado Ezeciar, I've decided to create a Soulblight Gravelords warband to venture into the Gnarlwood.
A small confession to begin with - in the past I didn't much like the undead factions of Warhammer. I think this was a combination of them seeming to be incredibly derivative and not very 'Warhammer', the chunkiness of early sculpts of Skeletons and Zombies and abject horror at the thought of the requirement they seemed to have of hordes and hordes of miniatures. Don't get me wrong, I understand the 'tide of shambling undead' concept, but it just wasn't for me.
The refresh of the miniature range over the last couple of years as well as the more in depth exploration that the splitting out of the various factions within the Grand Alliance of Death that has accompanied it had me looking at the Soulblight Gravelords in a new light though and their inclusion in skirmish games thus meaning that bucketfuls of models aren't required makes them much more appealing now than they ever have been before.
In a happy coincidence, I recently won a Games Workshop voucher in a prize draw on Instagram, so I popped into my local store and picked up a Vampire Lord to get things started. I love the look of this mini, though I wasn't entirely enamoured with the bat-filled hair. A quick rake through my bits box yielded an alternative from the plastic Battle Sisters Squad kit that I felt was more fitting for the look I was going for with Lady Muirmæl.
Unlike The Hollow King who leads a nomadic existence seeking vengeance for the death of the kingdom he hoped he would never inherit, Lady Muirmæl is more concerned with 'living' for herself. Growing weary of the stagnation and petty scheming that has come to preoccupy the hegemony of her bloodline, she cut herself free of the webs of decadence and politicking in favour of forging her own destiny.
With Lady Muirmæl now complete, I began to think about her followers. There's quite a lot of freedom of choice in what you can take in Soulblight warband, so if the shambling horde of Deathrattle and Deadwalkers lead by a Necromancer is what you're after then you can head down that route, but you could equally build a more 'elite' warband.
The latter option was what I had in mind and I wanted to make use of some of the incredibly characterful minis from Cursed City so after a quick consultation of the Bringers of Death booklet, I planned out the composition of the rest of the warband - it's probably not an 'optimum' Soulblight warband, but I'm much more interested in narrative play than either of the other ways that Warcry can be played.
While I don't think you can add Thralls to the warband at inception, I wanted to include a pair of Direwolves to act as Muirmæl's hunting hounds. She may have left the comforts of court behind her in pursuit of fortune and glory in Ghur, but some of the trappings of the nobility are too practical to abandon entirely. The miniatures themselves are incredibly imposing and the new sculpts are packed with detail.
Next up were some minions in the form of five Deathrattle Skeleton Warriors. I built these straight off the sprue for the most part, though I couldn't resist doing a wee conversion to transplant the Champion's blade and helm onto the sword wielding skeleton so he looked a little less out of place among his spear-wielding brethren. Between the archaic armour, lurching poses and the tattered rags of their uniforms billowing on some unholy breeze, I love the look of these newer skeleton warriors and I think the designers really knocked it out of the park in creating them.
A trio of Vyrkos Bloodborn were the final addition to the warband partly because the miniatures look so cool but their mobility will probably be pretty handy in games as well as the Deathrattle are not particularly quick on their feet! While Muirmæl doesn't hail from the Vyrkos dynasty herself, I don't imagine that she would have had much difficulty in recruiting the triplets to her cause as those descended from the curse of Hrunspuul need little excuse to indulge in the hunt for prey.
I'm hoping to get the chance to begin charting the journey of The Court of Lady Muirmæl into the Heart of Ghur with some games soon, so will aim to have some updates on her quest as well as some paint splashed on the minis in future posts.
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