Many centuries ago, when the Gnarlwood had not yet expanded to its current size, there were ancient kingdoms that endured upon its thresholds, keeping the gnarloaks at bay with fire and sword. One such people dwelt within the proud fortress-city of Sentarion, under the wise leadership of King Morlak Velmorn. For many years King Velmorn guided his people in prosperity and peace, but this was not to last. The Age of Chaos dawned, and tribes of reaving Chaos-worshippers swept across Thondia, burning and despoiling. Against the advances of the Gnarlwood, Sentarion could endure, but this new menace proved too much for the proud kingdom. In desperation, King Velmorn sought a means of preserving his bloodline, for his dynasty seemed doomed to oblivion. Velmorn ventured forth in search of the fabled Tyrant's Crown, an artefact that lay within the haunted spire known as Dreadfang's Tower, and it was said to grant the wearer powers over life and death.
Velmorn claimed his prize, but it was not what he believed. The Tyrant's Crown was a creation of vile death-mages, and though its domination power of the living was indeed formidable, it was terribly cursed. As soon as Velmorn placed it atop his head, the life was blasted from his body, and he was transformed into a Wight King. His sons were also slain by that rush of necromantic magic, only to rise again as undead knights. The dynasty of Velmorn would indeed endure for eternity, though its legacy was sealed in the darkest manner imaginable.
Filled with resolve even in death, King Velmorn still wages a bitter war to defend his shattered domain, not only against the continued intrusions of the Gnarlwood, but against any living being that dares trespass upon his lands. Those with the audacity to do so find their minds overwhelmed by the Wight King's cursed crown, and soon turn their blades against allies and comrades. Filled with bitterness and regret, Velmorn's sons are nonetheless impelled to fight at their father's side; Faulk, Helmar, Thain and the towering Sir Jedran Falseborn, the former illegitimate heir of Velmorn, now share the same tragic fate as his true-blooded kin.
I've yet to use the warband on the tabletop, but they purport to have a 'flex' play style and I think they could work reasonably well for this as they have numbers as well as a considerably tough and bashy fighter in Jedran and the capacity to resurrect some fighters as well - it'll be interesting to try them out now that they're painted up.
When the Gnarlwood set was previewed, I was quite excited about the design of both the warbands it was introducing to the Underworlds of the Age of Sigmar, but for some reason I was particularly keen to paint up the Wight King Velmorn and his sons. I've mentioned on the blog before that I haven't always been the biggest fan of undead factions in gaming before but in a similar fashion to the Ulfenwatch, these new sculpts were much more appealing. Like most Underworlds warbands, the Sons of Velmorn are completely new designs that draw upon both new and existing Age of Sigmar archetypes to create unique and very characterful miniatures. I'm also a sucker for a tragic tale too, so the hubris of a King damning his family while getting exactly what he wanted was also a big draw to them as well.
Like the Crimson Court, Wurmspat and Farstriders I painted the bases of this warband separately so that it would be easier to get consistent results on the flagstones and detritus of the fallen kingdom of Sentarion. On reflection though, they probably could have been painted with the miniatures on them and that would certainly have lessened the tension of trying to put them together after painting without worrying about snapping any of the fragile bones or weapons! The stones themselves were painted in a fairly simple grey to lend a suitably 'courtly' tone to them, while the coins and debris were picked out in various metallic colours. To add some subtle visual interest, I painted a few of the copper coins with verdigris to suggest that they've been scattered and useless for quite a while.
The bases also afforded me the opportunity to try out a paint I've not used before as there's a wee scrap of cloth or parchment at Thain 'Fourth-and-last's feet which I picked out with Barak-Nar Burgundy - a lovely plum tone of purple that's distinct from the blue tones of the robes that the Sons of Velmorn are wearing. I shaded the cloth with a mix of thinned Barak-Nar Burgundy and Abaddon Black before highlighting it with Pink Horror and then Slaanesh Grey. I was really pleased with the results on this and it was a handy tester for the Jade Obelisk colour scheme as well - I definitely plan to try and use this again in future.
One other thing to note was that while I loved the design of the miniatures overall, I wasn't enamoured of the sculpted details on Jedran and Faulk's shields - I can see why they were included, the shields would be a big empty space without them after all, but winged skulls just weren't doing it for me so I decided to carefully remove the crests from the shields. What I should have done was borrowed a rotary tool to do this, but what I actually did was just carefully carve them away with a sharp scalpel and then file and sand the surfaces of the shields flat. This was a little bit nerve-wracking as I didn't want to scrape away any other details, but thankfully nothing came off the shields that wasn't intended to in the end.
With the sculpted details removed, I moved on to thinking about some suitable heraldry for a former kingdom at the heart of the Realm of Beasts, which led to doing a bit of research to refresh my memory on heraldic principles - now, to be fair, the Mortal Realms exist in a different reality to ours, so this probably wasn't important, but it was quite good fun and very interesting.
The blazon for the kingdom of Sentarion that I settled on in the end is composed of azure per pale argent, a griffin rampant or - a golden griffin rearing up on a field blue and white. The griffin, commonly associated with watchfulness and courage seemed fitting for the house of Velmorn, while the blue (which symbolises loyalty and truth) and white (which symbolises peace and sincerity) seemed to be equally fitting. In addition they are complementary to the colours of the warband's clothing as well as contrasting with the gold quite nicely. As an added bonus, blue, white and gold elements combined in this fashion are permitted by what is known in heraldic vexillology as the rule of tincture.
There are five heraldic colours - gules (red), azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple), and two metals - or (gold) and argent (silver). As a rule, colours should not be placed upon colours, and metals should not be placed upon metals as they don't stand out from one another very well - this is known as the rule of tincture. There are certain circumstances however, where this rule does not apply and one of these is when the field (or background) of the blazon consists of a colour and metal side by side.
When it came to fitting the blazon onto Helmar's shield, because I had left the vertical band of metal in place (mostly because I didn't think about removing it until it was far too late to do so) I placed a smaller griffin upon the blue half of the shield as this looked most aesthetically pleasing.
As an illegitimate son, Sir Jedran's shield is also unique in that it is azure per pale argent, a bend sinister sable, a griffin rampant or - which is to say that his shield beards a black diagonal line across the face of it. This is pure artistic license on my part as all of the research I did indicated that the use of a black diagonal bar as a marking of bastardy in heraldry is an entirely fictional construct, but given that it is widely enough recognised as such and the Mortal Realms are inhabit a fictional setting, I felt comfortable enough going with it in the end.
Creating the heraldry itself was fairly easy once I had it all figured out, with painting the field and blazon of the shields was made much easier by the use of masking tape to get consistent straight lines, while the griffon charges came from a decal sheet made by The Mighty Brush.
King Morlak Velmorn
Marshal Faulk Velmorn
Sir Jedran Velmorn, 'Falseborn'
Helmar Velmorn, 'The Hewer'
Thain Velmorn, 'Fourth-and-last'
When figuring out how to paint up the warband, I knew I wanted to stick reasonably close to the boxart in overall tone, but factor in my own preferences as well.
The bones and armour are a good case in point here as I went in specific directions based on both preference and the narrative cues I wanted to evoke . I've come to prefer the slightly yellowed final result that Morghast Bone delivers and it seemed perfect for the Sons of Velmorn as they moulder among the faded glory of their once great domain.
The armour plays into the 'faded glory' element as well, with the plates pitted and blackened with the patina of countless years of use without care or maintenance. The blackened look was quite quick and easy to achieve using a basecoat of Iron Warriors which was shaded first with Nuln Oil and then shaded again with Agrax Earthshade before being highlighted and scuffed with Ironbreaker.
I added a little corrosion in some places as well using Nihilakh Oxide, but in keeping with my general feeling that 'less is more' when it comes to weathering minis, I've kept it fairly light and focused on areas where moisture and water would naturally accumulate on the armour. As I was working on ageing the armour plate, I figured I should dirty up the shields a bit as well - after all, it would look a bit odd to have grimy, battered armour and pristine but damaged shields!
I added subtle scratches and scuffing to the blue and white areas of the field while highlighting them to start with. Then, once the decals were in place I used combination of streaks of thinned weathering washes and Nihilakh Oxide to finish things off.
One other detail to call out is the furs worn by Morlak and Jedran. He may be an illegitimate son, but I think he enjoys no little of his father's favour and the furs are a hint towards this. To this end, I painted them in the same fashion, beginning with a basecoat of Rakarth Flesh which I shaded with Agrax Earthshade. I then spent a couple of evenings layering the strands up with Rakarth Flesh before highlighting them with Pallid Wych Flesh and then White Scar. This took quote a while, but it gave a much more precise result than drybrushing would have. To help dull the furs down and tie them in with the rest of the pallete, I used a thin brown wash to dirty them up - this was painted over the whole area and then wicked away where it had pooled too heavily so it didn't overwhelm the white too much.
I actually started painting this warband back in February, and while they've taken far longer than I'd originally anticipated - I thought they'd be 'quick and easy' as they don't have many colours - but I think taking the time to work them they way I have around other projects was definitely worthwhile as it meant I wasn't grinding through painting them when I didn't feel like it and I've got a better finish as a result.
I'm not sure which warband I'll be working on next as I'm a bit spoiled for choice. The Looncourt are strong contenders, as are Hexbane's Hunters, but Wyrdhollow isn't far off now as well!
Either way, I'm sure I'll be back exploring the Underworlds soon. Until next time though, thanks for reading and happy hobbying.
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