Have you spent hours modeling and painting your fantasy army trying to make it stand out from the crowd ? Well, you can always go that one step further...
Elazar The Glorified (one of the Battle Reporter forum members with the popular and inspiring painting blog:-
Elazar's Glorious Works) has brought his army to life by not only naming his characters, as I guess many of us do, but by creating a background for his army with Chaos Gods, tribes and accompanying stories for his very own custom special characters.
This kind of approach has many benefits if you think about it. It adds an extra dimension to your army which, of course, you can use to spice up battles by "getting into character". Also, it provides motivation for your modeling, painting and will inspire you onwards. After all, it's much more fun to be painting Grizball Strongarm Goblin Nutcracker than, say, an Empire Captain.
The most satisfying aspect I suspect is creating an army with it's very own unique character, agenda and prejudices (let's face it, nearly all armies seem to hate another one somewhere in the Warhammer World). Or, if you're Dark Elves your army probably hates everyone else - I don't believe they reserve the honor for High Elves alone ;)
If you create your own army's background you can of course really mix things up. What about an Orcs and Goblins host that does some paid contract work for Dwarfs or vice-versa !?!
Anyway, here's some of Elazar's ideas and pics that he posted on the Battle Reporter Forum...
The Devotees of Elazar
Elazar The Glorified is a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, worshipped as a proxy for his patron by the Diatchi Tribes. The Diatchi are of Kurgan stock and a number of small tribes make up this people. The Tribes live in a state of conflict with one another and each answer to competing Zars. However, their duty to their immortal idol supercedes all other matters and the Diatchi warhost is an intimidating sight indeed when unified in purpose and marching under the watchful gaze of Elazar himself.
Some of Elazar's notes:-
The Devotees of Elazar are a Slaaneshi Warriors of Chaos force. I wanted to create a host dedicated to Slaanesh that didn't focus on the lust aspect of this particular god but instead on the vanity and pride aspects more. I also wanted to avoid the common pink/purple colour schemes used by Games Workshop and do something a little more original. I had always wanted to try a chaos army with a bone coloured armour as I thought this would give it a very unique look instead of the traditional cult colours or undivided black that Games Workshop use.
Hellcannon Aral'vakran
Such is the vanity of Elazar that trophies are taken from all his victories, no matter their size or manner.
Aral'vakran was a rival Daemon Prince of Slaanesh who competed with Elazar for their god's favour. The Daemons' respective followers waged war upon one another and once the Devotees of Elazar had establish the upper hand the two immortal beings clashed in combat. Elazar bested Aral'vakran and bound the Daemon within a small trinket box.
Decades passed by and Elazar, courting the Dwarven Daemonsmith Vogner Ungart, gave the bound Daemon Prince as a gift in exchange for the dwarf's servitude.
Once more Aral'vakran marches at the head of armies but now, instead, as a bound slave. Deep inside the cannon bearing his name lies the same trinket box striving to contain its prisoners rage within the warmachine, all the while Elazar watches in amusement.
Vela The Performer (pictured with the hell cannon above)
Once a great performer in the Altdorf theatre, his true name since forgotten. He possessed some magical talent that charmed the minds of his audience in a harmless way, indeed he knew not of this gift of his. Like all performers he had many patrons in the nobility, it was the way of the rich to try and enhance their standing by supporting the arts. This one performer though had a patron of a different nature altogether.
One night after a grandiose performance of a play entitled ‘The Merchant of Marienburg’ the performer returned to his quarters to find all the usual lavish gifts left for him by his supporters. Amongst them was a curious glass case within which stood a scarecrow marionette. Intrigued the performer reached into the case and picked out the strange puppet.
The next day he did not show up for the play and when the angry theatre owner went to his quarters to rebuke the performer he found a scene of devastation. Untouched in the destruction of the quarters was a glass case and next to it a card signed ‘Elazar’.
The performer next turned up deep in the northern wastes where he’d wandered aimlessly until he was picked up by a Diatchi raiding party who took him captive. As is the way of the Diatchi and most of the other Kurgan races they made some of their captives fight to the death. Those they deemed blessed by the gods were spared and given a new life amongst the tribes. So it would be for this man as Elazar had developed a great love of his star performer and would see no harm come to him. He slaughtered a number of stronger slaves, showing a startling sorcerous ability that earned him the fear and respect of the tribesmen. They spared his life and he took the name Vela. It soon became clear that he was inseparable from the strange marionette that he carried with him. He spoke to the puppet and often fought with it. Worse for the tribesmen he often embarked upon strange performances for their ‘enjoyment’ sharing the lead roles with the being of wood and string that accompanied him. However, when at war he proved to be an invaluable ally. The puppet seemingly a focus for his power and his sorcery. Capable of controlling the minds of his enemies and making them do his bidding; his brand of warfare has proven invaluable in the wastes. An insane megalomaniac and egoist, Vela is now a favoured servant of Elazar and his presence can be found alongside the champions that his daemonic patron favours at that time.
Vela The Performer - 195pts (left click & roll your mouse over him to spin him round !)
Equipment: Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour
Special Rules
Eye of the Gods
Sorcerer of Elazar: Vela is a Level 2 Sorcerer who chooses his spells as normal from the Lore of Slaanesh. His Mark makes him Immune to Psychology.
Daemonic Patron: Elazar still watches over Vela, taking great interest in his career and keeping him from harm. Vela is immune to Killing Blow and Poisoned Attacks.
Insane Puppeteer: The Northmen respect Vela's power and know that he is truly loved by Elazar but an insane southman with a puppet doesn't inspire their confidence. Friendly models can never take advantage of Vela's leadership even if he is the army general.
Magic Items
The Marionette: This scarecrow marionette was given to Vela as a gift by his patron Elazar. The marionette is a focus for Vela's sorcerous power and a tool for his power of manipulation. The marionette has its own cruel intentions though and longs to break free of its controller. Indeed, at times the puppets will wrestles with Vela's, trying to reverse their roles and trap Vela within the confines of wood and strings. The puppet allows Vela to add D3 to his casting roll once per turn. This cannot cause a miscast or irresistible force. However the malevolent spirit of the marionette attempts to assume control and Vela must test for stupidity in his next turn whilst puppet and master battle wits.
The puppet also allows Vela to modify any rolls on the miscast table made by any wizard on the battlefield. Vela can modify the result up or down by up to the result of D3. This doesn't cause Vela to have to test for stupidity in his next turn.
A ball of fire flew past Amador and impacted the ground a few metres behind him. It burned itself out in an instant and dust and ash were strewn everywhere by the force of its landing. Amador turned to see where Vela was. He’d mounted a rocky outcrop and to the bemusement of the tribesmen around him was reciting lines from a play. The marionette he carried was ‘acting’ along too.
Amador didn’t dare even mutter a curse under his breath. He knew the Performer was a favourite of his daemonic patron, privileged over even himself in that respect.
The wizard ally of the southmen hurled another fireball across the battlefield, this time it whooshed clean over the Mad Puppeteer’s head. Vela’s attention was snapped from his recital for a moment and he glared across the battlefield with contempt for the weakling wizard. He concentrated his gaze for just a few moments as the wizard summoned the raw energies for another spell. Suddenly the focus of power back lashed on the southman and he exploded in a sphere of bright light, the energy of which seared the skin of the men who’d been acting as his bodyguards.
Vela switched his attention then to a large group of heavily armoured cavalrymen charging towards Amador’s silently marching Warriors. With a violent jerk of the marionette the legs of the steeds became tangled and they fell sending their riders hurtling to the ground with jarring force. Another movement of the scarecrow marionette and the Knights leapt upon each other, blades drawn. They slaughtered one another in a screaming orgy of violence.
Then Vela was locked in a bitter argument with the silent marionette and paid no further heed to the enveloping battle around him.
Amador made a silent promise to his patron that the souls he reaped today would be in his honour. With that he ordered the charge…
Check out some of Elazar's modeling and painting projects in his Battle Reporter forum thread.
It would be rude of me not to mention that Elazar is offering his painting services to anyone interested (for a reasonable fee). If you'd like him to paint some of your minis, you can see the quality of his work in more detail in the slideshow below and contact him through his blog (see top of this post).
Beastmen Foe Render & Dark Emissary - expertly painted
PS. Not all posts will be as long as this, I guess I was just feeling in the posting mood tonight ;)
