165 The Nature of Gods and The Death of the Imperium Part 2

My Part 1 on the Death of the Imperium sparked some interesting debate so I have expanded my thinking into the Nature of the Gods and how that reflects on the wider Imperium.

What are Gods in the universe of Warhammer 40K? Now there is a question! We don’t all agree today what are or who are Gods or God in our own universe so this could be quite a discussion.

I don’t expect people to agree with my points of view and in some places I will have to generalise wildly and in others I will have to massively simplify the discussion points so please feel free to add to the discussion with your own thoughts.

I will probably have to split this up into a number of parts as it could rapidly grow into a wall of text so we will have to see how we go.

We have various beings referred to as Gods, others referred to as the living Avatar of a God, the devotees of a God, shards of a God ad nausea. But does that mean there are or they are, Gods?

Let’s look at the distinct groups of Gods we see referred to and see if we can find similarities

The Chaos Gods; these are probably the biggies, the ones we hear most about (with a notable exception perhaps) but are they Gods?

Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh. It’s this last one that is perhaps most interesting to our debate as he/she is the one we already have some specific information on as to how they came to be. But lets come to that later.

These four Gods form the main pantheon of the Chaos Worshipping mortals of the universe. Its hinted at that there have been others of the millennia, some smaller, others similar and vying for supremacy but in general these four are now more or less constant and battling between themselves and with much of the mortal realm.

The Chaos Gods and Chaos Daemons for that matter exist because of the emotions, fears and desires of the mortal races. The effect of the minds of mortals moves and influences the Immaterium and feeds the Chaos Daemons and Chaos Gods. The more powerful those mortal minds and emotions the more powerful the creatures of the immaterium.

Have violent bloody thoughts and angry murderous emotions and you feed Khorne the Blood God. Embroil yourself in Machiavellian schemes and have twisted deceiving ad conniving thoughts and you boost Tzeentch the Changer of Ways.

So are they Gods? I think I am unsure on that point. I think its possible that they are infact simply immensely powerful creatures from a plane of existence where normal laws of physics don’t really apply. That they are fed and grow and are shaped by the emotions of mortals from our plane of existence but not that they are Gods. That the Chaos Daemons are simply lesser versions of them yet to grown and develop.

However in the setting its very clear that in the right circles they are very much believed to be Gods and they have very God like powers and are widely Worshipped as Gods.

Now lets go back to our earlier point about Slaanesh and how she/he came into being. Now first off we must remember that what we “know” is based on racial memory and myth so we must take a pinch of salt with it but again its widely taken in setting as fact.

We are told the excesses of the ancient Eldar created the Chaos God Slaanesh. That’s pretty straight forward and simple isn’t it? An entire (ok not quite but near enough) race of highly psychic, highly advanced mortals lived their lives to excess, indulging their every whim and desire no matter how outrageous or unseemly and in truth the more perverse and debauched the better. The impact of that life style, of its raw and extreme passion and emotion from so many psychic beings twisted and turned the Immaterium and ultimately gave birth to the God Slaanesh who proceeded to suck the souls out of as many of the Eldar as he/she could get hold of.

Or at the least gave form to that raw passion and emotion and formed a sentience that lives on feeding on those emotions.

I don’t think it unfair to assume that the other major Chaos Gods were formed in a similar way, whether over a shorter or longer period but in the same general process.

So are the Chaos Gods, Gods? I don’t think it unreasonable in setting to think that if belief and raw emotion on large enough scale can create those beings then it’s not unreasonable for the greatest of them to be in fact Gods. Maybe J

So if we take the leap of faith (pun intended) that the Chaos Gods are Gods then what about the rest? Lets look at the Gods of the Eldar……

164 Can you tell what it is yet?

Quick and nasty WIP shot of my latest piece for the Legion of Undead. Very fiddly!

163 Thoughts on Guilliman and the death of the Imperium Part 1

Forgeworld Guilliman

I dont yet have the latest of the Triumvirate books but I have already read quite a bit of the fluff and pondered the implications quite extensively and to be brutally honest.... The Imperium is doomed.

There I said it. 40k and the Imperium as we know it has had its day. The galaxy will be changed for ever and we didnt even notice.

Why so dramatic? Well partly because being dramatic and using an extreme stand point is fun! But otherwise the reality may well match what I am saying.

Guilliman walked with the Emperor, he KNOWS he is not a God. He knows the Emperor would be opposed to everything the Imperium has become.

And that is a big issue for the Imperium. The Adeptus Terra, the whole power structure of the Imperium, all its influence and power is based on a Holy Mandate from God (The Emperor) and now a man (kind of) who was physically there has turned up and it can only go one of two ways.

Guilliman will declare all of the religious structure of the Imperium false and corrupt and start a civil war OR the religious structure of the Imperium will declare Guilliman false and corrupt and a blasphemy against the Holy Emperor and start a civil war. Or both.

Its the Horus Heresy version 2.0. Will we know it as the Guilliman Heresy? The Roboute Rebellion?

Now the save all catch... Guilliman is smart. He knows that it will be apocalyptic to start a new Imperium wide civil war. So will he put aside his moral code and jump on the religious band wagon to save the Imperium? Becoming a Living Saint himself? Only time will tell.

162 Hoarding the Horde

I cannot express how happy I am with these models. They have been such a pleasure to paint, nice detail, easy style and great opportunity to go to the max if you so desire.

Spearmen and Black Knights mobbing together.They gel together really well, liking my standard "scab red" theme! :-)

You can really picture these guys charging across the field shrouded in mist and screaming ghosts and spectral horrors!

Still some work to do on the banner but I will come back to it I think.

The only issue with all of these is that they are quite fragile. Quite a few times I have had to stick arms or shields or legs back on!

161 Of Blackest Night (Black Knights)

Bases and some small detailing to go and these knights are done. Another nice and simple paint scheme on some lovely models.

As with their spearman brothers I found these quite spindly and will have to be careful with them to avoid breakages.

I went with a spectral helm for the leader to give me some link to the Spectral Nighthaunts I hope to do soon.

Something negative I need to put out there is that where these models are made to give you two options from the one kit I do think it means the fit on both types is a little iffy.

Some in progress shots showing how easy the skeleton horses are to get done and look effective. The same as with the spearmen, just a white undercoat and a good coat of Seraphim Sepia.

160 AOS28, INQ28 and Blanchitsu Movement

Welcome fair reader to the darker, grittier side of our merry tale. 

It has long been known that for every dastardly villain there is glittering hero. You will have been told how every action of a ne'erdowell sees our glittering heroes stand ready with acts of valour and honour.

Everything you have been told is a lie.

There has long been a style of art within the traditional Gamesworkshop culture that is more gritty, more manic and more mindbogglingly insane than the mainstream of clean, ordered and manicured art.

Many have influenced this style and many have contributed to it, some even being drawn fully into its family, but there can only really be one father to it and that father is John Blanche.

The early years of Gamesworkshop were moulded by some great artists, great sculptors and great writers. John Blanche is one of those great artists and his influence has been felt greatly down the years with some of the most mind altering art you will have seen. Now as much as his art and his style have influenced the Grim Darkness the mainstream culture of GW has always been more clean.

When the Inquisitor skirmish game popped into existence it started a spark in some key people in the genre and even when Inquisitor and its 54mm scale faded with so many of GWs Specialist Games it hung on grimly in Inq28.

Inq28 embodies the gritty realism of the Grim Dark of the Far Future. Ever hero is a dark troubled soul. Ever villain a complex character of startling complexity. There is no black and white merely shades of insanity.

Many of you will have seen the now regular Blanchitsu article in White Dwarf where the amazing art of John Blanche has transferred into the 3D forms of some amazing models. Not just from John himself back many others.

You may also have been lucky enough to have seen the tale of Pilgrym unfold in the pages of WD or see the amazing Diorama in Warhammer World.

That little tale brought together some of the great story tellers and model makers of the genre in one great narrative of the deepest darkest corners of the Imperium and Inq28.

Coming right upto to date now with the changes from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which had its own darker side in the for of Mordheim, into Age of Sigmar and its High Fantasy style. The new style of AoS is again much brighter, cleaner and of a more ostentatious style quite out of place with the grittier setting that those of the Inq28 and Mordheim mould felt comfortable with and so now we have the first movements in a new style; AOS28.

AOS28 takes the dark, grim insanity of Inq28 and fits it straight into the worlds of AOS and wow! Already there are some amazing things happening in it!

If you have instgram a quick #AOS28 will show you some amazing models and art. I will be joining this journey in my own way and while a somewhat less impressive way than the amazing things you will see there hopefully I can add something to it even in a small way.

159 In Support of Cadia Part 2

Thoughts on the moves in 40k right now with what seems to be some "End Times" like events are a little worrisome.

Is 40k going the war of WHFB in AoS? 

The Kasrkin are the next up, which is only fair as they are all fighting hard on the line in Cadia. These guys were a real change in the model style for the guard. Heavily geared and detailed. Mine are fully metal and a little limited in pose because of it but brilliant all the same.

The grizzled veteran look is great and I love them! You can see these guys charging in against Chaos without flinching. Which they do in the Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett.

158 In Support of Cadia Part 1

All of 40k is trembling to the sound of War at the Cadian Gate with Abaddon the Despoiler leading his 13th Crusade  (Again) out against the Imperium.

I thought it only fair I pull the Old Guard out of retirement (the loft) and get them stuck into the fray.

 Part 1 is all about the men in black.

These were the very first Storm Troopers or Scions as they would become. A really cool style even with the push fit position of the main group.

Cadia may fall but the Guard still stands!

I painted these way back when hence the "Goblin Green" bases. Really need to decide if I should strip them off and redo them or simply pop them on Ebay.

157 The Restless Dead

A full ten Skeleton Spearmen completed now. So simple to do! Knocked about five in a couple of ours, from sprue to painted.

I didnt try and do anything too special as I want them quite plain to let the Characters and other "creatures" stand out all the better.

I need to decide on the bases but a little experiment I did with Stirland Mud was less than inspiring.

And now the Black knights are rising up to join the Horde. This is a little wip of me trying to figure out how to make the colours work. Again going for all Bronze and trying to avoid any steel or iron looking metals.

I really want this guys to look like Knight of Old dragged from their barrows to fight again.

156 Bone Test (Skeleton Test Model)

Just a quick and dirty post today, I have been testing out a couple of ideas for my skeletons and while the photos dont do it a great deal of justice I think it works.

My bronze I am very happy with, it looks lovely and old!

The bones are white base coat washed with seraphim sepia with a touch of ushabti bone in places on top which I think works well.

155 Skeleton Horde!

Christmas brought me something good so I will be expanding my legion of the Undead somewhat this year! I have not decided yet quite how I will make this set up, Arkan possibly I think but we will see.

Plans for the type of bone is well underway, and I am currently errring towards a more traditional GW style of agrax over the top of a corax white but I have seen a lot of good things from zandri dust bases and others so I will probably do some tests first.

154 2016 into 2017 and a Revelation!

2017.... My goodness another year has passed and I am looking forward into 2017 and wondering what on earth is going on!

But before that lets look back at what happened last year, 2016. It started with health worries that saw me start to get out more, to eat better and look after myself after years of... well not. Turned out I didn't have to worry quite as much as I thought (which was a relief!) but I did at least take on some of the improvements.

I get out and about more; I have found a real enjoyment for being outside and breathing fresh air and while I don't think I will ever run a marathon I can see me being a fair weather runner as well.

The return to painting has been great and I am really happy with the level of painting I have achieved and its really nice to look back at older models and see how much I have improved. More importantly I have really enjoyed it and the time I spend painting has really helped me relax. I still get distracted and don't manage to do as much as I would like but I can see it improving.

I started clay pigeon shooting (OK it was at the very very end of the year before but meh) and while I don't think I will ever win any trophies its another hobby that I enjoy, gets me out in the air and lets me completely switch off from everything else.

Work has seen my move from one corner of the country to the other meaning I am still lodging away in the week which cramps my painting a little. Perhaps one of the things for this year will be to come up with a mobile painting kit? Who knows.

Beyond me the things that influence me have been changing dramatically. Games Workshop! Oh my goodness but they have pulled it out of the bag. I had thought that ending the Old World and the start of the Age of Sigmar was the biggest mistake they could make. I loved the fluff, the stories, the history of the Old World and I saw GW as a mad man burning all that down. Now? Well I have had a little revelation.

The Old World is alive and well. Its still there. Its not gone. No more than any point in time is "gone". We (and I am generalising for the audience I think you are here) don't have any problem with the thought of gaming, painting, modelling and experiencing the American Civil War (ACW) period, the Napoleonic War, The Crusades, The English Civil War (ECW) even though they are long gone. Writers don't have any trouble setting their fiction in these periods and we love to read it. So why should the Old World be any different?

And that was all it needed in my head. The Old World is still that place of passion and joy I had known and because of that, The Age of Sigmar and the Mortal Realms could become something other than "the thing that killed my dreams". Dramatic huh?

I am still waiting on AOS providing me some of the things that show me how me a normal mortal fits into the world, culture, civilisation, trade, commerce and corruption. The farmers and builders need to be shown a bit more to give me a sense of conenction but apart from that I can already feel a draw to AOS and getting into it more than I perhaps did in WHFB the game and hopefully then the fluff as well.

I am going to leave 2016 there but to close I think its been a good year and I can feel 2017 going forward from it too.

153 Kill Team Cassius Complete!

152 Fists of Fury! (Imperial Fist)

The Imperial Fist and his frag cannon all done!Quite a simple on this guy, only the fist symbol its self that you really have to think about.

Not 100% happy with it so may revisit the edges a little. You'll notice I changed the white and yellow around  and I think it works ok. (yes! I got it the wrong way round and didnt realise! lol)

This guy is the last of the Deathwatch Marines from the Overkill box and while I am posting this in 2017 he and all his marine brothers were completed in 2016 which I am very happy with!

I have managed quite a lot this year given its really only just now that I have picked up the painting pass and I had quite a quiet middle to the year.

My painting standard has improved although i have noticed that the last few marines were a little rushed which I can see in some of the detailing.

I'll post up some of my plans for 2017 shortly, more as a reminder for me than anything else!

Happy New Year to you all!