Thursday, October 28, 2010

Chaos Eye for the Imperial Guy I: Turning Space Wolves to Word Bearers HQ

This is the first part on a series outlining my Word Bearer armies fluff and details on how I'm using the Space Wolves codex to represent my Host. Today we start with the HQ slot:

Logan Grimnar: Taking the Great Wolf's place will be a fella named Black Cardinal Vual lord of my entire force. Why? Because a Dark Apostle just isn't good enough! After Word Bearers I plan on doing a traitor Guard army and it will also be a part of my Host. For one thing it will give me one cool looking Apocalypse force! So with such a prestigious force at his command it just felt like a Dark Apostle wouldn't cut it. During my Word Bearer research I came across Kor Phaeron's title: "Black Cardinal" and couldn't resist making my own. Furthermore the name Vual comes from Christian mythology. He was a demon who was: "a mighty Great Duke of Hell, commanding thirty-seven legions of demons." sounded like my man.

Najl Stormcaller: See Rune Priest

Ragnar Blackmane: The Word Bearers "view those who limit their worship to a single Chaos God with contempt" Which I plan on illustrating both with my army selection, construction and fluff behind it. However taking a look at Ragnar Blackmane and his abilities you can't help but think this guy could make Khorne very happy. So I thought it would be cool to have a Dark Apostle who is secretly a heretic to the Word and a closet Khorne worshiper. Don't have a name for this guy yet, nor am I sure I'm ever going to use him but I thought it would be a fun concept, considering my fluff ideas for Wolf Priests & Lone Wolves

Ulrik the Slayer: See Wolf Priest

Canis Wolfborn: The stat line is perfect for a demon prince (sans the Monstrous Creature of course) One of the things about using the SW codex that really bummed me out was that I wouldn't be able to dig my claws into the new Demon Prince model. Then a glance at the stat line and that problem was solved!

Bjorn the Fell-Handed: A few years back I saw a conversion of the Throne of Judgment into a Word Bearers walking alter nick-named the: "Throne of Chaos". Ever since seeing it I always wanted to do my own version of it and when picking the SW codex this was the first conversion I thought of. I wish I knew the name of who did it so I could give him credit but I don't... I'm sure someone will but here is what I'm going for thought I doubt I will hardly be able to do it justice.
Wolf Lords:
Dark Apostles or Demon Princes if mounted on a Thunderwolf much like Canis Wolfborn.

Rune Priests:
Chaos Sorcerers.... hey you can't expect these to be ALL original ideas now can you?!

Wolf Priest: My original fluff idea for Wolf Guard was that they would belong to a special branch of the Host called Confessors. The Confessors would act as a sort of a secret police within the Word Bearers making sure that all members are following the Word to the absolute letter and to root out the threat of any cult worship of one god. I thought it would be cool to show the difference between a squad and the attached Pack Leader. I still plan on doing that with one of two Pack Leaders but not all as I originally planed. The Wolf Priests themselves will represent higher ranked Confessors and Ulrik the Slayer the Arch-Confessor.

Wargear: I'm sure most of this is self explanatory... basically name switches like: Frost Blade to Warp Blade and stuff like that but I wanted to highlight Ferensian Wolves bought with characters. For them I'm going to make them demon bodyguards and I'm wicked excited about modeling some!

I think I'm going to start a special fluff/rouges gallery page form my Host as I add more but for now that is it for the HQfor now. I'll talk more about the elite selections next.

3 comments:

  1. Black Cardinal Vual sounds great!

    Check out my blog and tell me if you need a pic of the 2HW I didn't use for my chosen. ;D

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  2. I really like your plans for all the HQ elements, it's awesome the way you're merging the Word Bearers background with the Space Wolves codex. This is going to be such a characterful army, thanks for letting us see it develop. Great stuff!

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  3. Thanks you guys. Glad you enjoyed.

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