Sunday Morning Grimdark Lore

Intro

So I missed my Saturday post... Again. I have a good excuse though as I was spending some time with my family at Wimpole  Hall in Cambridgeshire exploring the grounds, manor house and a working sustainable farm! If you're in that area it's really nice place to spend some time, the grounds are lovely the volunteers are all extremely knowledgeable and willing to talk to you about the history of the place.

So it's Sunday I'm sitting here trying to decide what to write and I think I'm going to be phoning it in again. I have four warbands which I want to write lore for however with the time I have this morning I don't feel like I can give any one warband the justice they deserve so I will use the post as an introduction for each providing some very loose lore and acting as a jump of point for when explore each of them further! 

As I'm writing this I'm listening to Astro Tough by Audiobooks - I especially love the single The Doll from this album.

Eight Legged Kiss

The first warband or college I want to talk about this morning is the eight legged kiss. This warband was built for the amazing setting which is Aetherpunk28 by the talented narcoleptic_wizard. It was recently added to the 28-mag games section so you know it must be good! Aetherpunk 28 Discord

Aetherpunk28 is a post apocalyptic wizard skirmish game based on warring factions of wizards who are all vying for power.

When I built this warband I wanted it to have a very low model count and reading through the different options I landed on the Necromancers as this college's unique spell "raise the dead" would allow me to bolster my warbands low model count with zombies spawning from the ground (how fucking cool!). So for the load out I put a ton of my shillings into my Wizard and then went with two dragoon units. The idea is for the wizard to get up close and personal while my dragoon units scoot around the board taking long shots.

So my loose lore for this warband and wizard is that the wizard is a former druid. Druids are enraptured with all things natural but this particular wizard became very focused on our eight legged friends. As he explored the arachnid world, he travelled far wide documenting his findings. On one such journey into a deathly land he discovered a large queen spider, the queen using her own magic seduced our druid and lay with him, corrupting his powers and sapping his soul. She introduced him to the ways of necromancy and from their nights together spawned offspring (what the dragoon units of riding).

Livsläkare

The second warband or gathering I would like to talk about this morning is the one I created for owlshield game Necropolis 28. Necropolis is a 2 player skirmish game about the clashes of rival undead in a world without life. It is described as diorama based game using a 16"x16" board and is narratively driven. It has a really vibrant scene with events occurring fairly frequently so make sure you check out the discord Necropolis 28 Discord.

The motivation to create this warband came through two things, an event had occurred recently and the images on IG really captured my imagination and left me feeling super impressed with the level of modelling and I had received a model from brass0_0monkey which seemed to only belong within this setting. 

After reading through the rules and deciding on how I wanted to load out my gathering I placed them within the covenant of the embalmed hands. I really wanted to lean into this aspect of a gathering searching for flesh and blood.

My loose lore for this gathering is that a dark magician and his following where on the age old quest to become immortal. Through texts and rumours they found a shrine which allowed them to summon an otherworldly entity. This entity required of them to perform unspeakable acts of desecration to flesh and soul and then it would share it's secret to never ending life. Unfortunately for our gathering the entity was lying and upon sharing the secret the three where transported to the endless city where they would be immortal but with the never ending hunger to continue the acts they had performed in the material world. The entity transpired to be a dweller of the endless city and accompanies them, feeding on the essence which is derived from the acts they perform.

I need to come up with something for the sword lol

Sinnets Gifts

This warband started with one model. Sinnets Gift was created for the eyetoadchallenge being ran by enter_the_weald. I spoke about the weald and it's community on a recent post so I won't go into huge detail here other than to say check it out! The Weald Discord

So after creating Sinnets Gift I decided that I wanted to flesh the model out with it's own warband. Sinnets gift is quite large so I opted for it to be a hulk and then created four thralls to accompany it. 

My loose lore for Sinnets Gifts is that Sinnets Gift is an embodiment and reflection of the local populaces worship of false idols. It is realization of their collective fears and demons. It prays on it's victims one at a time, using it's psychic abilities to twist and deform their minds convincing them that their imaginations are reality. The thralls in the warband are thus deformed, poisoned and corrupted victims of Sinnets Gift, they are Sinnets Gifts to the world.

I have a plan to write an origin story for Sinnets Gift and then four very short stories that interwoven for each of it's thralls. I want to try and write a bit of horror.

Rosts Brodraskap

The final warband or DOOM Company I will talk about today is Rosts Brodraskap. This warband was created for the game 1490doom which is a skirmish game where small warbands engage in battle to escape the creeping death by climbing your terrain. Vertical spaces play a large part in the game design and this alongside the grim dark nature of the setting really captured my imagination. Definitely check out the discord 1490 Doom Discord.

The loose lore for this DOOM Company is that they are a group of desparado's who have been wandering around their corrupted and tainted land. Fighting for resources and escaping the creeping death when needed. They are the remains of a disbanded battalion who after returning to their home village and finding it desecrated have taken up the search for their captains missing child. Time has warped and they now have no idea when they started looking or how long they have been on the road, their helmets have rusted shut and can no longer be removed and so eating has become somewhat challenging.

I didn't actually get a good group photo so these guys are inadvertently getting some extra focus here. 

Outro - Threnodyssey

So all of the above is mainly for my use to act as a jumping off point for when I find the time to commit to expanding each warbands lore further. Each setting is so interesting and demands their own levels of detail. 

Through setting out these bits of lore I already feel the inspiration to carry on writing.

I also wanted to mention that as I've got to the end of this post I've realized that I've absolutely omitted what is probably my favourite setting I've explored this year. It's a setting that prompted me to build two warbands right off the bat and really push myself with my modelling ability and I very much need to do these models some justice and create some lore for what they are all about.

Threnoddyssey is a fast-paced miniatures skirmish game set in an eldritch, cyberpunk future. Players take on the role of hi-tech necromancers under corporate employ, that send their minions to battle over the remaining resources on a dying Earth. The design aesthetics and lore that superclaymation has created is absolutely outstanding. Absolutely make sure you check out the Threnodyssey Discord!