#noirfluff

[noir-raven]

Paracelsus

Paracelsus was found by the Pilgrimage at a crossroads, standing near a destroyed carriage and the bodies of a crusader, highwayman, and a holy woman. She seemed to be the only survivor of an attack by a group of heretics.

She explained that they had been traveling, and something had gone wrong - they found themselves off course after passing through a thick fog bank, and were accosted by the heretics. She opted to join in as a medic with the Pilgrimage. She is largely atheist, and almost seems disdainful towards the pilgrimage. But she has opted to stay with them as she "has nothing better to do."

Despite her abrasive personality she is highly regarded in the Pilgrimage. Her skill as a medic and Physician is unmatched, and she has taken to making tinctures and "potions" as she calls them, which have proved incredibly vital, particularly when the Pilgrimage comes across those of The Black Grail.

Paracelsus seems fascinated by the European front. She seems especially interested by the legions of hell, and any daemonic beings. The Prophet of Joan has allowed her the unprecedented privilege of dissecting enemies of the legions of heaven, to better understand and defeat them.

for now, Paracelsus is traveling with the Pilgrimage of Saint Joan - The last survivor of her original party. Perhaps she will stay, or perhaps she will move on.

[noir-raven]

I've been away a while, but regular posts should be happening soon.

And so begins my Trench crusade!

The McMillan Brothers

Arden and Maxwell McMillian come from the farmlands in the midlands of England, far away from the frontlines in New Antioch. They joined the Pilgrimage of Saint Joan, in an effort to atone for their sins.

Arden, the older brother of the two, was known in the small community as a incessant liar. Nothing he said could be trusted. He was always looking for the words to gain something on the others.

The younger Maxwell was quick, alert and stealthy. He never stole much, but oftentimes he would steal something from the general store or a pie from the neighbors window sill. While he never set out to cause harm, or stole anything of high value, he was eventually caught.

Maxwell was taken to the preacher, who told him of the war in Europe. New Antioch and the legions of hell. Many knew of the war, but with how far they were it seldom touched their lives. The preacher informed them of The Pilgrimage of Saint Joan, and Maxwell convinced Arden to join the pilgrimage as his repentance.

Arden's status as a liar has led to him taking a vow of silence, which he shows by gagging himself before battle. Not even Maxwell has heard him speak since they crossed the boundary of their home.

Maxwell, for his part, has taken a scouting role. As the pilgrimage moves through the war soaked lands, he stays in front, using his talents to look out for ambushes.

Perhaps once they reach New Antioch, their self-penitence will be done.

[noir-raven]

Stane, The Disgrace

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As with my other Inquisition models so far - Stane is rather old, and built by me and painted by a friend

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Stane began his youth as a ganger in the Apis Alvius underhive. While working for the gang, he posed as a PDF officer and snuck into the upper hive. In a twist of fate, he ended up being drafted into the Apis 15th guardsman regiment.

Stane was quite successful in the regiment - never quite making the command company, but he was well respected overall. He had taken the drafting as an opportunity to turn his life around.

He never quite lost his old habits - during one campaign, he found himself receiving Amasec rations for the officers and comissars. He snuck out a bottle for himself. It would have gone fine, except for one of the men he shared the stole alcohol with confessed. The commander wanted death for Stane, but he fled during the night, escaping offworld on a farmer's delivery.

Back in the underhive, he was given an advance in rank in his gang and took on trainer duties for the new Juvies. During an operation, the gang found an archeodome, and broke in while the Officials around the dome were performing their shift change. Stane was the only member who found anything - a silk lined box containing a pair of ancient bolt pistols. He knew how to use them, thanks to his training.

Their leader had other ideas - Stane was forced to sell the pistols to a black market trader, making the gang rich but making him extremely angry. Stane broke into the trader, stole the Pistols back, and fled.

News of the sale and break in spread rapidly in the underhive - it wasnt every day paired archeotech was sold and then went missing. Borislav, one of Orion's acolytes, went hunting for these pistols during the Inquisitor's operations on Apis Alvius. Borislav eventually found Stane, and over some alcohol, convinced the now old ganger to join up with Orion's inquisition.

Stane welcomed the change - seeing it as a chance of reliving his glory days in the guard. He is skilled at the nature of orks in particular, and often is near on hand to Orion during operations against them.

Stane still carries his two pistols with him at all times - Even sleeping with them in his bunk. For some reason, he has become obsessed with them, going as far as to name them "Herald" and "Crier."

[noir-raven]

Dragon Lord Carter

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Carter was built by me, but his Sabertooth Leopard is an old Heroclix. Both were painted by the same friend who painted Orion. Carter is going to simply be a deathworld veteran. His beastie, i'm not sure.

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Carter is a Catachan veteran who grew up taking a great interest in the beasts and monsters of his homeworld. He spent many years trying to understand and tame the monsters. He holds a deep reverence to animals and wild beasts.

For most of his life, he had the moniker of "The Beastmaster" for his tendency to have a small crew of tamed local beasts following him into battle. On a hive world during one of his deployments, Carter adopted a large hound, and the hound went with him everywhere from then on. During a night on guard duty, the hound helped itself to some officers rations, and the commissar executed it. In a fury, Carter went AWOL and abandoned his regiment, becoming a mercenary who would travel with anyone, as long as they paid and left his pets alone.

Carter found his niche in capturing and taming animals for various menageries belonging to Rogue Traders and planetary governers. Some jobs were simple, hunting down problematic beasts on agri-worlds, or other jobs were procuring some rare animal for a menagerie.

Carter has a deep love for animals and beasts, and as such never takes kindly to a beast with bionics - the only time he is willing to tolerate it is if the bionic is essential for the animals survival. He would rather the beast survive on it's own merits.

He earned the name "The Dragon Lord" whilst working as a mercenary for a Rogue Trader against a group of Eldar Exodites. Their coterie had captured one of the fierce lizards that the Eldar had used as mounts, and over the weeks of the campaign, Carter was able to bring the massive lizard to heel. Carter personally rode it into battle against the Eldar in the final battles of the campaign, and left the monstrous lizard with the Trader on his departure.

Most recently, Carter has fallen in with an Inquisitor named Orion, and has agreed to follow him. He has his sights set on Taming one of the massive Ice "Bears" that inhabit one of the icy moons of Tsardoma, Orion's home system.

[noir-raven]

Inquisitor Orion - The Farmer's Son

With the release of the Imperial Agents codex, i figured it was time to post my old Inquisition team from the old fan game Inquisimunda. Here's hoping the have a new life with the new codex! I'll be posting them over the next couple days.

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Orion was built and converted by me, but painted by a friend who i sadly no longer am in contact with - I'll put a similar disclaimer on models I own but did not paint.

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Orion is a young, puritan Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, specializing in the Tau. Born on an Agri World in the Ultima sector, he made a name for himself as a guardsman, and managed to work his way up into the regimental command squad of the Tzardoma 9th regiment.

During a joint operation with Inquisitor Sigrid, she selected him personally to join her retinue, and after serving with her for a few decades, she promoted him to be an interrogator. Eventually, once Sigrid was granted the name of Lord Inquisitor, he was elevated to an inquisitor himself.

He a master when it comes to the Tau, and while they are not considered the greatest of threats to the Imperium, he prides himself on his libraries of knowledge on the various races that the Tau have allied themselves with.

As an Inquisitor, Orion takes a very personal, respectful stance towards his agents. He is known to join them for their dinners, or share bottles of his Amasec with them. Spending their time exchanging stories of their battles and lives before he recruited them.

He disregards the Schola Progenium largely - as much as they produce fine recruits for an inquisitorial group, He finds true veterancy to be prefered. His recruits stretch from noble born men like a pair of brothers known as The Twins, to underhive gangers who lived lives of crime and violence, such as the disgraced Stane.

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So that's Orion. To be honest, I may remake his model. I'm not happy with how he's clearly a space marine (rather than a human in power armour.) I am already considering converting up an older, more radical Inquisitor Orion. Particularly aiming to have him be less space-marine-y.

[noir-raven]

Here we go - Mavet the second, leader of my original World Eaters army.

Mavet Hollowheart, Chaos lord of Mavet's Sons

After the battle of Skalathrax, A large group banded together in a nameless group of marauders. These brothers saw themselves as Gladiators, with their own twisted ideas of honour. Unusually, this band seldom took the Butchers Nails, though they remain dedicated to Khorne.

After a time, a lowly regarded marine, Mavet, challenged the warband's leader to a duel. The duel barely lasted a minute, and the then-unknown Mavet ascended to lead the warband. He renamed it after himself, and over time became regarded as an almost messianic figure amongst the warband. Overtime their ranks swelled, and it now has several different minor cults within it that all follow their own idea of Khorne's worship.

A short list of the most notable cults -

The Keepers of the Old Ways - Led by a marine who does not follow Khorne, and teaches drilled bolter skills and ranged combat, and are considered extremely stubborn.

The Barrage Cult - A group obsessed with the most destructive weapons possible and a tendency to fire on anything, regardless of it's allegiance, led by whoever Mavet thinks can control them the most.

The Forsaken - A notable trait of Mavet's Sons is a universal hatred for bionic implants. Should a marine be given a bionic, he is most likely forced into the Forsaken, having the Butcher's nails implanted within them against their will, and unleashed as fodder to kill as many as possible before their own death. There is a dark rumour that Mavet orders unnecessary bionic installations, keeping The Forsaken's ranks swollen with suicidal, ostracized maniacs.

The Bloodied Hand - Led by a marine with a bionic powerfist, dubbed "Shavur", The Bloodied Hand are secretive. Despite being outcast, Shavur somehow was able to amass a following of marines. He preached to them how relying on power armour and technology, they were weakening themselves and disrespecting Khorne. The marines who follow Shavur often go into battle with only the barest essentials - perhaps a bolt pistol and the essentials of power armour, leaving their arms and head unarmored. They frequently use old gladiatorial weapons, such as basic axes and swords with no inherent technology. Notably, any who join Shavur's group change over time - their skin turning a stony, sickly grey, but their secretive nature means the exact circumstances behind this are unknown.

[noir-raven]

Aria Lanier

My first character model for Alien Zoology! I made about 3 different Zoology teams in Heroforge to get as STLs. And here is the expedition leader for the first team, Aria Lanier.

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Aria Lanier comes from old money - her grandfather made his fortune as a incredibly renowned Skip-gate scout during the Sixth Sphere of Expansion. He traveled deployed skip gates in nearly 150 systems by the time he retired in his old age. He left his fortune to his granddaughter Aria, who he always claimed that she was the only family member who had his spirit.

Now, in Aria's Middle age, the Seventh Sphere of Expansion has begun - and she has spent a large degree of her fortune on one of the bleeding edge Skip-ships, the first ships that do not require a skip gate to travel, and has set about making her own fortune by finding new alien species to fill the menageries of those people in the galaxy richer than herself.

For herself, she has laid claim to a planet in one of the currently-fringe systems. She has dedicated it to being a menagerie planet - something vastly superior to the simple continents owned by her clients.

She has filled her crew with those family members she trusts - her youngest grandchild and assistant, her son - a ranger with a love for animals, and her brother, an old world hunter.

Aria Lanier has no interest in finding new worlds like her grandfather did - like her son, she finds the myriad of alien species and animals on those rare, earth-like planets, to be endlessly fascinating, and has dedicated this second half on her life to finding as many as she can.

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If you read this, and the Quillhound post, i encourage you to take a look at Alien Zoology.

Alien Zoology is a game about hunting Alien creatures you make by toybashing, and is available here.

Alien Zoology (english Open Beta) - Titus Painting | Wargame Vault

Alien Zoology (english Open Beta) - ALIEN ZOOLOGY is here! I'm super happy to announce that the english Open Beta of my 28mm indie (mainly)

[noir-raven]

Victor, Witchburner General

Witchburner general Victor has been at war for a very long time. His orders holy vestments reduced to rags and scrap adorning his frame. Those of the Pilgrimage of Saint Joan don't know how long he has been on the front lines, but he's joined them and leads them in battle now.

His noble, dignified office remains, however. He refuses to speak of his past, but with his knowledge of battle and unflappable nature in battle, his experience is obvious. He leads from the front, though he walks the battle slow and steady, facing threats as they come. His staff of office is long gone, along with many of his vestments, replaced by a heretics trench club with an integrated shock-prod.

The only thing on his person that hasn't seen decades of war is the golden mask he wears - Those of importance in Saint Joan's pilgrimages wear helmets that mimic the faces of the saints. Victor was granted one for his assistance, and still wears it to this day.

The only thing that Victor truly speaks of is that he will replace vestments when his duty is done. He was granted them when he started the war, and he will bear new vestments when the last heretic on the European front falls to his club.