Return of the Magnificent Sven

[phreedh]

Icelandic is quite a long way from Swedish, Danish and Norwegian (the three are more or less the same). Icelandic is completely different. Nouns can sometimes be recognized though... Bollur for instance... stands to reason it's the same as the Swedish word "boll", which is the same as the English "ball". Never used to describe the dangly duo though. =D I had to google it and got "balls break", which would've been my guess too.

So your faux norse is spot on. =) It's just us mainland europeans having a bit of a problem understanding you island folk.

 

[Zhu Bajie]

I'd have guessed "Battle Axes", but ball-breakers is funny too.

Really liking the conan-camo, it's a great way to break-up the bare skin-tones. Nice jungle cat theme too, maybe Khat Slay-Ter and Paw-lyn Falla might join them in due course...

It's pathetic that in 1/2nd the amazons were a proud civilization, inheritors of an ancient legacy, able to keep their independence and stand alongside the Old Ones and by 5th they become outcasts with anti-aging cream, who only turn to battle because the men aren't around. Nerd-rage!

Anyway, be interesting to see what you have planned. I could imagine the Amazons might adopt them as a lesser sisterhood and initiate them into the mysterious ways of progenation, or perhaps see their degenerate male-slave keeping ways as being blasphemous (althour didn't Rigg take a Sea-Elf husband, so maybe not).

 

[Thantsants]

Haha sorry Phreedh, forgot to add in the apology for lumping all you Nordic folk together when there were bound to be differences

Well done on your lexical detective work and your tolerance of us odd Islanders

Cheers Zhu, I'll be nabbing those two names for sure. Brownie points to you for deciphering my terrible puns - nearly went for some kind of Norse variation of Battle-axes for their name before settling on Ball-breakers.

Definitely behind you on the nerd rage front! The whole rewriting of Amazon history made me change their original name of Valkyries - other than to relegate them to insignificance so they didn't have to support them with a miniatures range, I can't understand why the story would have been rewritten in such an annoying way.

And another thing... ... since when were the Slann the leaders of an advanced temple building Lizardmen civilisation? Didn't they go about either enslaving them or exterminating them because they deemed them an evolutionary dead end?

I quite like your ideas about them interacting with the real Amazons, although I fear the Sisterhood would be likely to regard these barbarous interlopers as heretics. They seem a fairly exclusive bunch.

Mind you you're right about Rigg, although wasn't it Amex, the Sea Elf God of Wealth? Perhaps there are different standards for divinities?

At the moment I have a kind of rough overarching story line that involves Sven and his Norsemen making their slow and painful way to Rigg's Shrine, intent on plundering it.

Tracking them is Gurgyll Greenwake and the remnants of his bandit army, along with any Lizardmen slaves he has rounded up, intent on having his revenge.

Karnac's Lizardmen raiders and the Kremlo and his "brothers" will pop up somewhere too.

The Bollrbrjótr may come into it as they spring an ambush on Sven's party, intent on procuring male slaves for a bit of Snu Snu.

I need to think more on an interesting angle on how to bring the Amazons into all this before the final showdown at Rigg's shrine - perhaps a bunch of Tribeswomen scouts trying to escape back to the shrine with the news of Sven's approach?

Basically the whole thing will boil down to the various factions all meeting head on at the Shrine of Rigg. Picture the scene - Sven and his men emerge from the shrine with their ill-gotten goods to be confronted with an angry mob of Amazons and Gurgyll Greenwake's band between them and their improvised rafts, left ready for an escape across Lake Lokka. Of course the Amazons won't be too happy to see the hated Slann primitives on their consecrated ground so all chaos should ensue...

I may also bring in another faction of clueless Old Worlder Conquistador types to add firther confusion if I get around to it.

Actually having Sven's mob ransack the temple would be fun too if I ever get round to building a model of it...

 

[Zhu Bajie]

Definitely behind you on the nerd rage front! The whole rewriting of Amazon history made me change their original name of Valkyries - other than to relegate them to insignificance so they didn't have to support them with a miniatures range, I can't understand why the story would have been rewritten in such an annoying way.

It could almost seem like a purposeful defacement of the radical feminist politic embeded in the original concept of the Amazons.

While I'm here and nerd-raging:

http://www.collecting-citadel-minia...php/Dark_Elf_(Concept_Art)_-_Collectors_Guide

Just look what they did to the Witch Elf, she goes from equal-to-male warrioress in calf-length chainmail with big 80s hair, to swimsuit clad dominatrix with big 80s hair.

At some point I think some high ranking Nottinghamshire Inquisitor decided they had to start promoting conservative values. Space Nazis became the heroes, and women became fetish objects and monsters. Rant rant rant! On the other hand I haven't a clue what the Sisters of Battle are all about, so maybe they're ok...

And another thing... ... since when were the Slann the leaders of an advanced temple building Lizardmen civilisation? Didn't they go about either enslaving them or exterminating them because they deemed them an evolutionary dead end?

Yeah! The Lizardmen were the worlds indigenous people before the Slann came, and they live underground, not in jungles

 

[Thantsants]

Actually I'm probably stretching things a bit bringing Karnac's Raiders into it as they're more accustomed to raiding Dwarf Holds in the Old World

It could almost seem like a purposeful defacement of the radical feminist politic embeded in the original concept of the Amazons.

Ah now we see the repression inherent in the system, to misquote Python! Seriously though, they do seem to have gone from a pretty enlightened attitude to pretty much the end of the spectrum.

Those witch Elves are a bit of a caricature now

I seem to remember from the letters pages of pre-issue 90 WD's I've read that there was a fairly hotly debated issue of how women were represented in RPG's - a prevalent attitude that caused some disagreement was that female roles should be relegated to the domestic sphere, much as they supposedly were in medieval society.

What few female figures GW now produces do seem to be very fetishy or dominatrix-y. I'm sure the Sisters of Battle fit somewhere in that spectrum - they don't strike me as empowered women in charge of their own destinies to me. Unless that destiny is to purge heretics and die for the Emperor...

Mind you its not all bad - didn't GW de-boobify Slaanesh?

 

[Chico]

What few female figures GW now produces do seem to be very fetishy or dominatrix-y. I'm sure the Sisters of Battle fit somewhere in that spectrum

Yep, Nuns with Guns.. sound very fetishy to me... in fact i just need to um... go. to the um.. toilet.

 

[Thantsants]

Leave the bishop alone mind...

A small update on the jaguar pelts -

A bit more Miaow-y now I think!

Cheers for the suggestion on the ears Ti - they look a lot better now

 

[phreedh]

Those are great Thants! I'm really impressed with your patterns there!

 

[Chico]

Nice kitty-lizard-things i mean cold ones ... still need to convice my wife to let me start a Slann army though... lol

 

[Thantsants]

Cheers Phreedh - painting them was quite nerve-wracking as I was convinced each time that I'd just plastered them with random blobs but they came out alright it seems

need to convice my wife to let me start a Slann army

Ah that's where I've been going wrong - never knew we were supposed to consult the management first.

 

[Thantsants]

Hi all - finally got these fellows finished - Unfortunately work has rather dominated things recently and sapped all energy and motivation - 11 hour days haven't exactly been conducive for spending a few happy hours of quiet concentration in the evening, but I'm done now 

... apart from some jungly bits to add to the bases at some point in the future...

As you may have noticed I've added a few Aztec bits and bobs to this glorious remnant of the flower of the Imperial Slann Armies of Mazdamundi. Many thanks go to Lead Asbestos and Mason for supplying various feathers and other accoutrements. Extra special thanks must also go to Lead Asbestos for flogging me loads of Aztec minis who will eventually become a subjugated tribe in thrall to the Gurgyll Greenwake's private army.

I went with the classic green skin for these Imperial Bull Slann - no multi-coloured Venom tribe peasants here! A small(ish) selection of blues, reds, yellows and whites were used to pick out the large amounts of detail and decoration on these minis - almost as fiddly as the Perry Samurai I painted a couple of years ago!

On to the characters that make up this little unit, which I think deserves a little Regiments of Renown style narrative.

Huit-Thabotyl sat up and blinked his large jet-black eyes, which felt as though they were bulging slightly more than usual. With a world weary croak, the Bull Slann heaved himself to his feet and stumbled over to the great mound of scale and muscle that was his slumbering riding beast. Ignoring the shooting pains that stabbed at his temples and the backs of his eyes, the Slann fumbled for one of the flasks that hung about his saddle. The stopper resisted momentarily, but soon enough the soothing warmth of Takilya, a particularly potent brew made from the sap of the finest Spine trees, was coursing down Huit-Thabotyl's voluminous throat.

As the pain receded and his mind was freed from the fog of sobriety, Huit-Thabotyl reflected on the events of the past week. Loud and long had been the fanfares that accompanied the equally long and colourful column of soldiery that had left the Imperial capital of Cotec, with Mazdamuni, himself's blessings. Such had been the multitude of hues and colours, and so great had been the gaiety of the crowds that thronged the Imperial highway, that Ziiii-Thuap, the irredescent Mosquito God would have looked on with envious eyes.

Off they had marched, Spawn Band and Totem Warrior alike, to see off the pathetic incursions of the Dryskins. All had gone well until they had reached the first village that had been plundered by the invaders. The temple shrines had been desecrated and this along with the lack of any survivors shook many of the Spawn Bands to the core. Discipline became a concern within the ranks. Then the invaders struck - not with sword but with a terrible wasting sickness that spread like wild fire through the Slann encampment.

The few survivors of the plague were hastily formed into scouting parties and sent to track down the Humans who had wrought such destruction on the Emperor's finest - many did not return. Those who did spoke of wild apes who were capable of great violence and although a number of skirmishes were won, the Slann ranks were becoming even more dangerously depleted.

The final straw came when the sickness reached the high command. With General Gotta-lotta Bottyl incapacitated the command structure of the Imperial army crumbled. The remnants of the spawn bands melted away into the jungles while the various castes of totem warriors threw their lives away in desperate attacks on the enemy, as honour dictated.

Others, however, went renegade. Huit-Thabotyl had never been one to shirk his duty or walk away from a fight. Nor was he one to squander his life for the abstract notion of honour. Thus it came to be that he and his unit of Cold One Riders did not return to camp as normal after their patrol had been completed. Thus it came to be that Huit-Thabotyl's services were enlisted by the renegade captain, Gurgyll Greenwake. Thus it came to be that a cohort of Imperial cavalry became man-hunters...

Huit-Thabotyl - Leader of 'Botyl's Throttlers (A very rough Norse translation of the Slann - Riders of the Great Beasts, Closers and Openers of throats and keepers of the Golden Hibiscus)

I picked a rather fetching Death's Head motif for his shield design from some of the copious painting guides for historical Aztec forces - you'll see it repeated on the standard and standard bearer's shield too -

Nuathen-Petyl - a strange character from Northern Lustria, chosen to be Standard Bearer for his fortitude and bloody-mindedness. Although the rest of the unit don't often understand his "quaint" Northern dialect, he is well respected for his martial abilities.

Pican-Mixtli - a trooper with a sweet tooth...

Popoca-Fez - terrible singer, dancer and gambler. Quite good at lancing humans though...

And finally - Getmicoatl - the unit's "joker"... and sole possessor of a coat - obviously a South Lustrian and not used to subtropical temperatures.

So what's next?

Well I'm really keen to tackle some of the many lizardmen I've acquired for this project - particularly Karnac's Lizardmen Raiders. However, I'm still missing the champion - 

Also I have now received the minis my fellow LAF'er,TheBinman, has sent me by way of a small painting commission (doesn't that sound grand!). These chaps, including a couple of Elves, a Gnome and a Snotling,  will be my priority for the next week or two - more on which later, including the rather nice couple of minis I've received in payment...

 

[Just John]

They are brilliant, excellent and superb. The additional bits really give them that aztec feel and seeing them in their full glory makes you wonder why they disappeared from Warhammer all those years ago. Now i'm off to resit the urge to type Slann into ebay

 

[Chico]

Wonderful as always

 

[Thantsants]

Thanks chaps - they are indeed a sadly neglected race.

Mind you the price tag they often come with might go some way in explaining that...

 

[Blue in VT]

They look fantastic dude! such great colors....

Cheers,

Blue

 

[DaImp]

I second what everyone else has said. Magnificent indeed!

 

[Thantsants]

Thank you kindly!

Hope the blues are up to your high standards Blue

 

[Chico]

Thanks chaps - they are indeed a sadly neglected race.

Mind you the price tag they often come with might go some way in explaining that...

Yeah no doubt, everytime i think about starting them i look at there price and sigh.. then my wife smacks me across the head just to re-enforce the fact that we can't afford them heh.

 

[Ti Pouchon]

Very nice indeed! I like the dark eyes, simple yet striking.
Also, the shield designs are pretty amazing.

 

[Thantsants]

I don't tell my wife about my secret Slann habit...

Thanks Ti - the Champion and Standard Bearer's shield designs are pinched straight out of Aztec history - its a Tozmiquizyo or Death's Head.