Mardumesh Painweaver Undercoated

Well after a lot of work Mardumesh Painweaver is built and undercoated.

The big disappointment in all this is that he's going to the big ebay in the sky. Such is my fickle attitude towards army choices that I want to instead go ahead with an army project that was vying for my attention when I decided initially to go with the Daemons. I'm keen to see somebody do something with Mardumesh so he's up for auction. Happy bidding anybody that is interested! I'm confident he'd make a great centrepiece mini in pretty much any chaos army. Whether he's a Keeper of Secrets in a Fantasy or 40k Daemon army or a Generinc Greater Daemon for Chaos Space Marines or even a Daemon Prince in any of the Chaos Marines, Warriors of Chaos or Daemons armies. All the details can be found here.
I also have a few bits and pieces listed at 99p so please check them out too as there might be a few bargains to be had!

There'll be more on the new army soon!

Corrupting Kaelor - A Blu-Tack Mock-Up Of Mardumesh Painweaver

An abomination of plastic and blu-tack...

Very WIP pics of Mardumesh. The sword arm isn't staying but I didn't want to photograph him missing an arm so he was given an arm, any arm. The rear legs will be raised once I sort his base out and the rest of the legs will raise him up slightly higher too to adjust the pose but they can't carry the weight when held together by blu-tack alone. Got a LOT of work to do, lots of bits to add, lots of greenstuff to fill gaps and add details with and then there's putting him together properly and painting him. The last picture I took just to show off some of the lovely detail on the mini. Really is an amazing sculpt the Arachnarok!

Corrupting Kaelor - Eldar Introduction.

Image by Kunkka - Deviant Art

Kaelor. It had been a place of beauty once. No longer.
During the Craftwars the Farseers had been overcome with visions of its demise, of it burning and twisting in space, corrupted and screaming as it was given over as offering to Slaanesh. It was then that the house of Angsar was discovered to be giving praise to the ruinous powers, dedicating itself to the pursuit of pleasure. When one fully devotes onself to the delights of the flesh, one cannot escape the notice of the dark prince forever.
The seers of Saim-Hann had wished to destroy the craftworld then and there, best to save it and its people from the terror than to allow the dark prince his prize. The Farseer Fay'Elle had stepped forward to stop the madness of brothers killing brothers and had ended the life of the Angsar family head. He Allowed the sons of the family to live, seeing them as not beyond redemption, and not wishing anymore souls of Eldar kin to go to Slaanesh. This had enraged the leaders of Saim-Hann and the following conflict between them saw Kaelor almost destroyed. Fay'Elle was wise, and saw the best course of action he must take. He would have Kaelor make a warp jump to the edge of the galaxy, shrouding it with his power and taking it away from the immediate danger of Saim-Hann, and also taking it away from populated areas of the universe to protect millions from the oncoming incursion. The seers of Kaelor that had been cursed with the visions of its destruction, also had been given the sight of where the Daemonic incursion would come from, and sealed part of the webway shut against it.
 The Eldar would fight thier battle, and they would do so alone.

Much time passed and the Eldar of Kaelor began to feel more secure. The stories passed down to the younger Eldar of the great spider who waits became just that - stories. Fay'Elle would walk the halls and myriad corridors of the craftworld staying ever vigilant for the events he had forseen, and yet they never came. He even began to doubt his own power at times, wondering if the visions he had seen were sent from some dark force to torture him with their lies.
One night, whilst meditating, Fay'Elle became aware of a power, slight but true. The power felt familiar, strong yet subtle. He reached out with his mind and then the sickening horror struck him. It was his power, the same power that he had shrouded the craftworld away with, twisted to someones own end.
Fay'Elle ran from his room, communicating psychically with the Warlocks leading squads of Guardians on routine patrols, readying them. He traced his power to the place where one of the sons of Angsar himself dwelt, Isentieth. Smashing through the wards around the dwelling with his mind he realised what he had done. He had been given visions of this day, and he had gifted the Angsars his own power to shroud their cult, he had taken the craftworld away from help, locked down the webway, there was no escape.....
The reports almost instantly flooded in. Fay'Elle felt a sickening lurch in reality as something truly evil came into being. He felt Eldar dying, Angsar would have to wait. It was to late now, somehow the fool had opened the webway. Fay'elle felt the spirits of Eldar being consumed by the warp, something the spirit stones on each Eldars armour should prevent.
With a though he readied the craftworlds Autarchs and Exarchs so they may gather up their warriors. Guardians were dying, he felt their screams as they were torn apart, but the Guardians were only militia, the craftworlds real warriors would not fall so easily. The dark princes warriors wanted war on Eldar ground? They would have it.
A hardened look set about Fay'Elles features. He reached out with his mind and sought the one that called itself Mardumesh, he showed it the infinity circuit and the current of spirits it trafficked around Kaelor. He felt the Daemons lust rise, knowing this would make the Daemon more powerful, and yet more inclined to make mistakes. He shuddered as he felt, more than heard the whispering in the warp: "A fine gift indeed...."

-*-



As the Eldar player I'll be doing the same as Elazar. Beginning with 1500 points as a target. The project will be joint and we'll work on roughly one thing each at a time. One of the exciting parts (if you're as nerdy as us) is the way we'll be doing this from a fluff perspective.

The idea is this: As we work on units/characters etc. we will roll off against each other with dice. Each unit will have fluff of it fighting the other unit in the overall battle and the dice roll will dictate which unit wins in the fluff.

Example:
I paint some dark reapers.
Elazar paints some Daemonettes.
Elazar rolls higher than me.
In the fluff the daemonettes will kill the reapers, and we both write from both perspectives.
At the end of the project the side with the most roll wins, will win the actual war in the fluff. This is particularly cool because neither of us know which way the fluff will end, or what will happen next.

James.

Images used without permission and are property of their respective owners, all rights reserved.

Corrupting Kaelor - Daemonic Introduction

This is going to be a fluff-driven, joint project log detailing the invasion of Kaelor, and the forces embroiled in the conflict there. As the log progresses so will the invasion until the fate of Kaelor is decided. Below is the introductory background of the Daemonic forces assaulting the Eldar craftworld.

~*~

Mardumesh and a tide of Daemon Spiderlings burst from the portal as it opened and flooded onto the wraithbone walkway. After what had seemed like an eternity of waiting, the spider’s trap was finally sprung. The panic that washed over the Kaelor caftworld as the alarm went up hit Mardumesh like a wave of pure ecstasy. He could taste their collective fear and it invigorated him.
In those first instances, where the emotions of the Eldar went unchecked, they provided all the energy needed to widen the portal into a full warp rift and Mardumesh’s legions, finally released from their long wait, entered the material universe intent on the demise of a craftworld.

Once given the chance to lead vast Daemonic armies and the honour of being able to approach Slaanesh’s throne, the Daemon known to mortals as Mardumesh Painweaver had been favoured over many of his fellow Keepers of Secrets, a fact that Mardumesh had revelled in. However, Slaanesh is more capricious than even his brother chaos gods and his eye turned to others in his thrall. For a being like Mardumesh this rejection was maddening. Looking for a way to draw his creator’s gaze back to him the Keeper of Secrets had vowed to capture the Eldar craftworld of Kaelor and make a gift of all the souls that dwelt upon it to Slaanesh.
Such is the fractured state of the Eldar Webway that Mardumesh found a way in from the Realm of Chaos. He led his army towards the craftworld, he and his servants eager to savour the beautiful sights, the wondrous sensations, and the raw emotions that would accompany the doom of all the bright souls that dwelled there. But the Seers of Kaelor were ever-vigilant and sealed that particular portal into their world.
Mardumesh could not face defeat and further embarrassment so, in an uncanny show of patience for one of his kind he waited in the webway. Such was the nature of Mardumesh and his followers that the promise of the ecstasy their dance of death across a craft world would bring them slowly drove them insane with anticipation.

The Eldar knew of Mardumesh’s presence in the webway and left the portal sealed shut against him. Centuries passed and Mardumesh became a part of the lore of Kaelor The Eldar likened him to a spider awaiting its prey on a web. Such is the nature of beings of the warp that Mardumesh and his minions began to take on a form in keeping with the tales the Eldar told.
In their sleep many of the Eldar on the craftworld heard whispering voices and siren songs. Promises were made of endless pleasure to any that would open the way. Those that did hear the voices knew better than to heed their dark call. But not all were so noble and pure of heart. A pleasure cult had grown on Kaelor, born from the ashes of the last that had been put down in the House Wars. Isentieth of the House of Ansgar was a prominent member of the cult and he heard the whispered promises. They spoke to a dark longing inside of him, that he had all his life tried to bury in vain. Sensing this weakness, and a heart full of sinister urges the whispered voices grew ever more persistent and the promises made were both grander and more depraved. All was possible if only he opened the way the voices pleaded. So it was that Isentieth set an evil loose upon his kin. As fickle as his creator, Mardumesh paid little attention to Isentieth as his minions spilt his entrails on the ground in intricate patterns of blood and gore. Too busy was he with the feast of souls on offer.

A squad of Eldar Guardians, amongst the first to try and combat the Daemonic incursion, pelted Mardumesh with Shuriken Catapult fire. The stinging tears in his flesh reminded him of the unadulterated pleasure that battle offered up. He was unharmed but a number of the Daemonic Spiderlings that scuttled about his abdomen were slain. Such was the hermaphroditic duplicity of Slaanesh’s servants that whilst Mardumesh’s torso was seemingly male, he birthed hundreds of children from his spider-like abdomen. The spiderlings were minor-daemons weak in their own right but their weight of numbers made up for any deficiencies that may have had. As did their parent. Mardumesh howled with glee as his eight legs quickly bore him the distance to the Guardians. With a joyous cruelty he removed their limbs one by one, ignoring the brave but ineffectual fight they put up. Once each was rendered immobile by his cruelties he threw their still living bodies to his children. The Spiderlings swarmed, desperate to feed on the brilliant souls of the Eldar. The Eldar screamed in blind terror as they were slowly consumed. Only the last was spared this particular fate. Mardumesh slit the guardian’s throat and held him aloft in one hand so that he could watch as his blood spilled onto the walkway below. As the Eldar died Mardumesh pried the spiritstone from his chest and swallowed it whole. The screams of the other guardians had ceased but their fear and pain, and the soul of their comrade had empowered Mardumesh and already he longed to inflict new cruelties on this ancient race that had too long defied his creator.

It was then that Mardumesh became keenly aware of the Infinity Circuit and the current of spirits it trafficked around Kaelor. A cruel smile stretched his monstrous features. A banquet of bright souls for Slaanesh to glut himself on. A fine gift indeed.

~*~

As the Daemon player, I'm going to be initially building a 1500pt army (although it may well expand beyond that as I have a few extra ideas and no room for them at this points level). Theme wise the army will be mono-slaanesh but rules-wise to fit the army to the background there will be a liberal application of Nurglings to represent the Daemonic-Spiderlings that accompany Mardumesh. The first port of call is Mardumesh Painfeaster himself. To create the Keeper of Secrets I'm going to combine the plastic Daemon Prince and Arachnarok kits (plus a few bits and pieces besides most likely).

There will be some WIP pics shortly and further background from the Eldar perspective etc.

Images used without permission and are property of their respective owners, all rights reserved.

The Soulless Life - Desolation Engine, Hollow Waifs, Finished Crew!

Haven't updated on this in a little bit despite painting a couple of minis. I've finished painting Leveticus' crew now. There will be more to add at a later date but this gives me a good 35SS crew with the Desolation Engine and co. to summon into the game.

The Desolation Engine:

Hollow Waifs (will not photograph well):

A Family Portrait:

Next, work begins on a Warhammer 40k project...