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Koshindou — Valour of Ages
#endtimes #khaine #warhammer #warhammerf #armour #battle #champion #darkelves #elf #fighter #highelves #sword #ulthuan
Published: 2014-11-25 20:13:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 1545; Favourites: 19; Downloads: 5
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Description
As someone with a bit of an interest in the storylines of Warhammer Fantasy (despite never putting so much as paint on a single miniature) I've been eagerly following the recent scuttlebutt concerning the coming end of the elven civil war in Warhammer: Khaine (I may even pick up a copy, if I can find one while I'm back in Ohio). The elven civil war is one of those plotlines that I'm both sad to see go (since it is so iconic for the setting) and interested to see how it is finally concluded. As someone who really enjoyed fighting the Dark Elves back in my Warhammer Online days (I still have nightmares about stealthed Witch Elves...) I'm hoping that it will be a conclusion that makes as many people as possible happy. I know that's a difficult thing to do with so many interested parties, and I do not envy the writers in the least.As long as they don't kill off all of the Swordmasters of Hoeth, I should be all right.
It should be mentioned that this is my first attempt at drawing anything related to Warhammer Fantasy in a long time. If the mood strikes me, and I feel the need to torment myself with complex elven battle armor again, there may be more in the future. I may even sit down and try to figure out what part my own characters play in the last battles between Druchii and Asur, and under whose banner they fight.
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Comments: 19
Nice artwork! Good action movement and some nice details.
Also, just in case of Warhammer-esque interest: www.the-ninth-age.com/index.ph…
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Thanks for the kind words, and for the link. I will have to ponder joining in, since I have enjoyed the Ninth Age stuff so far.
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Nice! They've recently put out a short Liber Chaotica-style thing with art and fluff, in case of interest: www.the-ninth-age.com/filebase…
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Little late, I know, but what did you think of the End Times, once it was all over (but the crying)?
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That is a complex question.
I think I liked the idea of the End Times more than I liked the actual results. I applaud the idea of a grand finale, especially after the story spent so much time stagnant, but many of the story plots weren't much to my liking (Malekith being the true Phoenix King all along was my personal torment, but also the small mention of Brettonia's fall, the complete rolling of the Dwarfs, or the general lack of stuff for the Orks are other examples). Much of it felt like it was rushed, which was a letdown considering the weight of the stories that the End Times was tasked with, well, ending, but that's the nature of business - you rarely get all the time you need for a major writing effort. Plus it's a given that such a large project couldn't please everyone. On the plus side, the Elven Civil War gave me plenty of inspirations, and some of the details included in the End Times were very nice little touches, both story-wise and mechanics-wise.
I hope that's enough detail for you. How did you feel about the End Times?
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Well, for me it's complicated, because I didn't really get into Fantasy until after they'd been and gone (figures, right?) but once I *had*, and learned all I could about the what had been plus how the End Times went down, I was very unhappy. You have most of the problems down already, but one of the things that got in my grill the most was how cruddy the storytelling got in parts.
Clumsy retcons like what they did with the Dark Elves so they weren't a load of chaos-worshippers anymore, or how Morathi had gone from the scheming woman behind the throne to Malekith to being his doddery old mother who has the hots for Tyrion because she thinks he's Anaerion. Another was where the writers started blatantly ignoring parts of the fluff or making things up on the spot so they could drive the plot along, like how a lot of the problems in the early fluff is caused by daemons swarming everything, even though the great vortex's entire purpose is to stop daemons from being able to manifest. Or how the *entire* Lizardmen faction got curb-stomped by the Skaven (who also curb-stomp everyone else off-screen whilst they're at it) despite the fact that they were one of the most powerful factions in the setting and had their own special god on their side (who was implied to have something in common with Sigmar, which never got resolved) who had already thrashed the Skaven once, and yet was mysteriously absent for the End Times.
Another thing that I only noticed after picking up a few of the books to read myself (morbid curiosity, you know) was that it felt like all the characters had already been told that they were all going to die at the end of the series when they were handed their scripts and couldn't really muster up the energy to act like they thought they might avert it. Stuff like how Teclis does more damage to his own side than the forces of chaos via, y'know, arranging for his niece to be sacrificed to bring Nagash back, which drives Tyrion insane and causes him to draw the Widowmaker, then unbinding the vortex, which goes catastrophically wrong and sinks Ulthuan, killing thousands, to say nothing of how he then inadvertently allows the WoC to get their hands on the doomsday device which eventually destroys the world.
I could go on, seriously, I could write an essay of all the things I hate about it. Though I will grant you there were certain elements that I found peculiarly fascinating, like Tyrion building his own faction out of High and Dark Elves after drawing the Widowmaker, the Aestyrion. Wouldn't mind if you drew anything of them in future, just a suggestion. I guess it was because, whilst reading ET: Khaine, I found myself hoping they'd win, because all of elvenkind eventually turning into murderzombies was vastly preferable to Malekith getting what he wanted. I also kind of liked how they brought back all the characters they'd ever made, even the ones who haven't been featured in ages, but the fact that they all ended up being used as cannon-fodder for the big-name characters pissed me off all over again.
The thing that sticks in my head the most, though, was that in the end it wasn't even the forces of chaos who destroyed the world. It was one goddamn stupid, bald vampire who couldn't stand not being the one in charge. That's when it all fell apart completely, because it wasn't about Good and Evil anymore, or even Order vs Chaos, it was just about Mannfred.
Phew. Told you I could go on. We should do this again sometime.
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That was quite a message.
I do agree with most of your thoughts, especially concerning the issues with Teclis and Tyrion. Teclis made decisions that left me with no other idea than that he had gone totally off the rails, and no one seemed to call him on his many atrocities. I did like the idea of the Aestyrion (and they had a really cool name) and it was irritating that they got cast as "wholly evil" against Malekith, of all people. I remember thinking that someone should point out that Tyrion could slaughter elves for a thousand years and still not be anywhere close to the crimes of the Witch King...and yet somehow we are supposed to view him as the villain in the piece... And yes, the Mannfred thing...ugh. I had repressed that. 👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Actually, thinking about it, there was someone who called Teclis on all the shit he was doing, and that was Tyrion. Another reason why I found myself rooting for the Aestyrion, Tyrion felt like the only character who seemed to be reacting to the insanity that had infected his world and everyone in it in a way that felt in-character.
I wish we'd seen more of them, and that they hadn't gone from nought to 100 on the puppy-kicking scale straight away, it was an actually interesting idea to have High Elves who didn't want to join up with Malekith (like any sane person wouldn't) and Dark Elves who thought that Tyrion knew his stuff better than Malekith. Plus Tyrion with the Widowmaker had a really cool aesthetic to him.
But no, instead we get two armies of lunatics tearing each other up, except we're supposed to be rooting for the one with the evil dude in charge and the one with the hero in charge is evil because the plot says so.
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I agree. I would have liked Tyrion to have been a bit more nuanced...and if he had gotten a worthy miniature for his Avatar of Khaine version. I think they did a better job of handling him in Total War: Warhammer 2 - it had the option of making him The Destroyer without turning him into the Evil One.
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Yup, and even better you can have him pick up the Widowmaker in that now too. No in-game model for it though, which is a shame. I actually really liked its look, so much so that I MSpainted some of the pics with him using it out of the rulebook.
Though, something I've seen is a matter of some debate as to if he actually looks any different as the Avatar or if it's just his regular look but with the Widowmaker instead of Sunfang. You're the artist here, I merely write, what do you think he should look like?
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Well, if it had been up to me, then I would have done a new pose for him, but not changed too much (as you pointed out, he's still wearing the Dragon Armor and riding his trusty steed). I would definitely have made separate hands for Sunfang and the Widowmaker, so that you could model him as either Tyrion or the Avatar of Khaine, and maybe had a different cloak for him with elven runes of murder, or something similar. Maybe a base with a broken symbol of Asuryan and some Druchii emblems, symbolizing his defiance to the last 'Phoenix King'.
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I like the sound of it already. If only one of us had a well-used deviantart page and some considerable drawing skill of their own...
All I've got is a couple of images that could be used for reference, if any were needed.
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You flatter me - but you need an artist with more free-time, methinks.
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Ah, okay. If you find one, let me know.
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Thanks - glad to hear you approve.
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The diagonal slash (top left to bottom right) formed by the three heads of the figures makes for a really strong composition. Also, all that armor detail!
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...I'm pretty sure the placement of the heads was a total accident.
As for the armor detail, I remember when I was sketching it out thinking "This is going to be a pain to ink". And I was right, literally, my hand was killing me by the end of the second sweep, when I added the shading. I like the results, but I'm definitely going to be frowning if I do more of this design. And what's worse, the gorgeous designs in the Warhammer art book I have suggest that, really, her armor should be even more ornate...
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