Monday, June 17, 2013

Looking Beyond the Fimir - Poll Results

Well now, that was interesting.

Some serious food for thought with the poll results so far. I was a little surprised at the amount of enthusiasm shown for the Cult, but then, it is pretty loved as a niche army. The other thing was the total lack of love shown for the renegades. I guess you don't see many renegade/raider forces, it's all chaos space marines. To my mind the old metal marines look like they've spent 10,000 years slowly mutating and going insane, thought the very latest chaos marines models are definitely moving in the right direction. Space marines with spiky helmets though, no thanks.

The other thing that came to the fore was how much I was rooting for the fimir. Obviously my heart still lies with the swamp dwellers, and in any case it was never going to be a case of abandoning them once I got to two thousand points. They came in a strong second, so my decision, she is thus:

I'm going to keep on with the fimir until I get to a respectable two thousand four hundred points. At that stage I'm going to introduce a second project and work on them both, I just have too many things I want to add to the fimir army even beyond two thousand four hundred. But, it looks like I'll be looking for a lot of new conversion pieces in the tyranid range for project number two. There will be a third project beginning in January 2014, that one will have a lot of heat rays and howitzers involved...


Here, then, is the first bit of background for the Cult of the Dawn.

"It is M40.999 by Imperial reckoning, and world of Thelema in the Segmentum Obscurus is at war. After fifty years of conflict there is no respite to the fighting, and there is no end in sight. Both sides fight with righteous fury over the devastated remains of once mighty Imperial cities.

The Order of the Dawn had grown strong and powerful before the war, secretly expanding their power base over more than a century. They had moved into human society like the choking fronds of a creeping vine, patient and inexorable. The sons and daughters of the order had grown strong, reaching the highest position of authority by the middle the M40. It is around this time though, that the order began to diverge from the usual sequence of events when a powerful genestealer cult reached this level of infiltration.

The great patriarch of the order, known as father Calogero, is a truly ancient genestealer. Ferried across the void in stasis by the hive fleet, Calogero was secreted into the space hulk the Age of Dreams along with many of his brothers. The hulk had been vomited forth from the warp before the fleet as it made the journey across the empty space between the galaxies. There it hung for a time before again being drawn back into warpspace. How long it remained there, none can say, as time has no meaning in the realm of the Gods.

In the beginning of M38 the Age of Dreams again appeared in real-space near the world of Draconith. It drifted for decades before eventually being marked by an explorator vessel for future investigation. The world of Thelema was tasked with mapping the hulk and recovering any items or artefacts of worth due to the presence of the mechanicus forge temples on the planet. The Theleman team sent returned with the soon-to-be new head of their Order, the genestealer Calogero, who was christened by the leader of the explorator expedition. So the new cult was born.

The combination of the knowledge and mysterious nature of the ordo mechanicus and the single-minded ambition of the cult made for a powerful combination. By M40.508 the order was in control of many of the most influential institutions. But the cult had suffered it's own schisms in recent years. Many of the brethren felt something was wrong with the way plans were proceeding. This, in itself was troubling, as dissent in a genestealer coven is virtually unheard of. 

Calogero was most pleased with his growing power, but he did not feel the pull of the hive mind as it drew close to devour Thelema. The whispers in his head were not those of the great beast. They came from another place entirely. 

Far beyond Thelema, in the depths of space, lie the dead husks of the hive fleet that bore Calogero across the stars. Caught in a violent and sudden warpstorm soon after the Age of Dreams vanished back into the ether, the entire fleet was either pulled into the warp or destroyed. Not a single tyranid creature survived. As if this weren't enough to sever the link between Calogero and the hive mind, the creature that emerged from the warp was no longer a creature of instinct, but independent, cunning, and hungry for power.

Power that it's new patrons were more than happy to supply. For a price."

There you have it. Chaos worshipping hybrid ordo mechanicus, anyone? Time to begin the great bits hunt.

13 comments:

  1. I'm happy your still doing your Fimir, they have after all inspired me too start mine. I like your idea of a the Cult, Chaos and Genestealers have always gelled in my mind since WD 117. I think there was no love for the Renegades because all the choices were amazing so something had to give

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  2. I definitely agree with CDS on the reason for the lack of renegade votes. As a big RT fan I felt pulled towards the cult really badly but in the end I gave the Cult/Chaos combo a vote.

    There is a good line from TV's 'Boardwalk Empire' about tossing a coin to make a hard decision. When it lands you know what you wanted most all along. So the poll was a great idea but don't feel your hands are tied by the results!

    I really love the background writing. That sort of contribution to the online Oldhammer community is to be applauded, well done and thanks.

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    1. 'When it lands you know what you wanted most all along.'

      I think you've hit the nail on the head there Paul. Thanks for the insight.

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  3. It's a Chico/Saturday swap! We should get the Fimir together at some point and have a war of the clans... the gathering at Khulaine eh? :) Makes me want to pick up my 'Stealer cult, but they just went in the dip and my metal hybrid found a better home with Chico. I'll have to make do with a thorough Space Hulk repaint! Awesome fluff, I look forward to your retro painting.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Fimm. Still looking for a good base model for the brood brothers/hybrids. I think of want the bald head thing for the brothers. I'm thinking of basing the colour scheme on guys from Dune, maybe the Harkonnens.

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    2. Not sure this is exactly what you're after, but they have the old school guard look of the guy in the artwork above:

      http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/TROOPERS.html

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    3. Oddly, I have a lot of those very minis. I'm thinking more along the lines of these lads though:

      http://boingboing.net/filesroot/dune2ndStageGuildNavigator.jpg

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    4. Like any of these guys?

      http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_9_33&products_id=36

      http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/product/bald-gas-mask-heads

      http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/product/penal-guard-10-man-resin-squad

      https://www.reapermini.com/ShowcaseGallery/alex%20glocka/latest/14024

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    5. Thanks Fimm, pretty good links there. The Victoria miniatures stuff are pretty much bang on. Even the Cthood heads might make decent hybrid heads. Nice one!

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  4. This sounds rather tasty - one of my favourite Golden Demon Entries was the small Slanneshi Genestealer Cult - forget which year or who the painter was but it featured Beastmen and plastic guardsman and a rather fine banner depicting a Genestealer with the head of a Keeper of Secrets.

    Good to hear the Fimir are still recruiting and you know my views on Heat Rays!

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    1. Heat rays ftw.

      Yeah, the chaos thing gives me license to convert genestealer purestrains into individuals. A mutation there, a chaos runesword here...

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  5. I've managed to acquire three Bog Raiders from BloodMoon minis, and I'm plannig on copying the heads with instantmold and milliput and or greenstuff to put on my 5 savage orc bodies. Idea stolen, yes :P
    As an added bonus, I also got the two orc booty thieves by BloodMoon, and I'm gonna share this with you: these will also be converted into fimir. They have a reputation of stealing women, right? I thought it would fit perfectly!
    Might be a nice addon for your fimir army too (even as fillers) ;)
    Can't wait to see more fimir painted!

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    1. Steal away! One thing I'd say is get yourself some reference for neck musculature, as you'll be sculpting a lot of neck muscles. The bog raider heads are a tad smaller than the heads I did up for the orcs. That head is bases on Jes Goodwin's limited edition fimir. They should be fine, but something to watch!

      Yeah, the fimir have a poor reputation with the whole kidnap thing. I don't tend to emphasise it in my force, preferring to concentrate on the whole Celtic myth aspect, but it's an inescapable part of the background.

      More fimir soon, possibly riding giant worms...

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